Mendocino County Today: Tue, Mar 18, 2014

• Enriquez Update
• Home Burial
• Apeshit Culture
• Ax Man
• Hare Creek Incident
• Gardner Croons
• Baseball Canto
• Willing Executioner
• Trail Along 128
• Zozobra Burning
• Rain Storage
• Gaga Imperialism
• Pacifica Drama
• Rancid Hope
• Troll Flame
• Police Report

KZYX, OBAMACARE, INDIANS

Editor,

KZYX. I was a member of the MCPB Board of Directors from 2006-2008. I was also a volunteer programmer with the station for about a decade, off and on. The recent spate of public back and forth is undignified and regrettable. I actually had a good experience on the Board. We took our roles seriously and, to my recollection, worked very diligently for the good of the membership. I haven't been involved with the station since I left Mendocino County (in 2008) and, so, cannot vouch for anybody's efforts or perspective. I do find it somewhat disheartening that the Ukiah studio remains elusive. The need to drive to Philo in order to volunteer was always the worst part of the deal. Honestly, I don't listen to radio anymore. I prefer curating an assortment of podcasts and listening at my leisure.

Affordable Care Act implementation.

For the past six years, I have been employed at the Sacramento Native American Health Center. I have been a key staff member on all phases of our journey through ACA implementation. In a sense, my experience has been a parallel to the national implementation. I was originally hired as the Director of Funding & Development. That lasted a few years, until we realized that the national economy had sent everybody back to the trough and that increasing productivity and decreasing waste were more relevant pursuits. So, I was made the Director of Operations, a new position for us. It was during this period that we implemented Electronic Health Records, which has been an incredible improvement over paper charting. During the past year, I have obtained certification as a Medical Auditor and my title is now Compliance Officer (CO). This is, again, a new position for our organization. During that time, we have gone from 28 employees to nearly 80. Last year, we received accreditation from the AAAHC as a Patient-Centered Health Home. The Billing and Patient/Member Services departments are under the CO. Two of our Care Coordinators have recently become Certified Enrollment Counselors for the Covered California initiative. Theoretically, we will soon be able to bill for their enrollment activities.

Unfortunately, Covered CA is struggling quite a bit in 2014. As you have likely heard, the infrastructure is inadequate for the epic nature of the challenge. Additionally, the constant re-jiggering of the same basic insurance company options over the past year has been a real bear with which to struggle. In Sacramento, we have multiple versions of the “Blues” as well as a few different contractual variants of Molina's network. While it is a headache to manage from a billing perspective, it is downright heartbreaking to watch many patients struggle with the changes. We try to educate them as much as possible, and many of them have very sophisticated perspectives on public insurance by now, but it is very easy to find yourself stuck in a month-long coverage gap with all of your referrals and provider relationships broken. It seems like it is going pretty well, conceptually, and will likely be fine if given the time to settle out, but these are, indeed, hairy times in the safety net.

A Decade of Disenrollment.

Last year, we un-celebrated the ten-year anniversary of our elimination from the rolls of what used to be called the Pinoleville Indian Community. As we suspected, we were just among the first of many. Across Indian Country, the scourge persists, although it pains me to say it, the recent increase in embarrassing media coverage of tribes is good news for us. The tribes are shameless, of course, having wallowed in depravity lo these many years. It is, however, amazing what the election cycle will do to revivify the “conscience” of those serving in Congress. From the multinational chicanery represented on the excellent Netflix series “House of Cards” to the wacky misadventures of the Grim Reaper of Cedarville Rancheria, Cherie Rhoades, the veil is being lifted on the darkness in which these tribal leaders have been operating since the dawn of tribal economic development. It really couldn't have gone any other way upon the introduction of a mass of relatively low-functioning to normal tribal leaders to a bunch of seedy attorneys, politicians and gaming investors.

New Dawn for Unaffiliated Ukiah Valley Pomo?

Last week, a US Federal Court Judge apparently re-directed a request from multiple Pomo Indians living in Ukiah to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The notorious white/black hat-wearing Ukiah attorney Lester Marston crafted the novel request several years back and the BIA is stumbling in its efforts to obfuscate the issue. One has to hope that Marston repairs the defects in the request identified by Judge William Alsup, who parsed the docs submitted to his court down to the finer points of the meaning of “the Indians” and “close to all” of a set of Indians. It seems that a stronger evidentiary presentation of “facts” wouldn't hurt either. Of course, at the Bureau, nobody really cares about facts, language or justice. It's “anything goes” in a world where Federal Officials do favors for the promise of golden parachute deals into positions as Tribal Gaming Commissioners.

Are you listening, Ronald Jaeger?

Until next time, Eric Enriquez

North Oak Park, Sacramento

ADVERTISEMENT OF THE WEEK

Why Is This Ad Funny?

FROM MONDAY'S CHRON: “Three Asian American state senators — including San Francisco's own Leland Yee — are asking fellow lawmakers to shelve a measure aimed at allowing California's public universities to once again consider race in admissions. The idea behind the proposed constitutional amendment is to make more room for Latinos and African Americans, who have been falling behind in admissions in recent years…”

HMMM. Why do Asian students do so well out of all proportion to their numbers in our crumbling society? Is it because they are innately smarter than the rest of us? Or is it because the public schools in places like San Francisco are under-funded, under-staffed and over-studented in an ethnically balkanized society whose popular culture amounts to a kind of cultural cancer designed specifically to murder young people? Call me whatever, but if you know any Asians well enough that they'll speak frankly with you, especially Chinese immigrants, they will tell you that they know our society is totally apeshit and that they spend their lives inoculating their young against it, specifically by isolating, insofar as it's possible, their children from it.

THE FOLLOWING observation may apply here: As a rule, home-schooled young people, at least in my experience, are much more together, much less neurotic, certainly more pleasant during their keen teen years, and much better academically prepared than most of their publicly-schooled peers. Why? Because their parents, like Asian parents, know the popular culture is a killer. We've all known some unusually strong young people who've somehow emerged whole from nutso families and terrible schools, but they're the exception.

DON'T AX ME THAT AGAIN!

ON MARCH 14, 2014 at approximately 2:12pm Mendocino Sheriff’s Deputies received a call for service regarding an assault with a deadly weapon that occurred at a residence in the 20000 block of Lyta Way in Fort Bragg. Deputies contacted the victim and learned that she and her cohabitating partner, Ross Mehtala, 24, of Fort Bragg, became involved in a verbal argument about an hour earlier. During that argument, Mehtala obtained an axe from the yard, held it over his head and approached the victim threateningly, while she stood in the exterior doorway of the residence. The victim closed the door just before Mehtala swung the axe, which resulted in the axe striking the door. Deputies observed that the door had sustained moderate damage consistent with being struck with an axe, and located an axe nearby. Mehtala was not at the location upon the Deputies arrival. On March 15, 2014 at approximately 11:04am, Deputies returned to the residence on Lyta Way and made contact with Mehtala, who was arrested without incident. Mehtala was transported to the Mendocino County Jail where he was booked for Assault W/Deadly Weapon Other Than Firearm and Assault-Domestic Violence/Inflicting Corporal Injury / Spouse Or Cohabitant Abuse with bail set at $30,000. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

ON MARCH 14, 2014 at approximately 2:43am, Fort Bragg Police Officers requested the presence of Mendocino County Sheriff Deputies for an investigation into a domestic related physical assault that occurred within the Sheriff’s jurisdiction. Deputies responded to the intersection of South Street and Franklin Street where contact was made with Fort Bragg Police Officers and the female victim. Deputies spoke to the victim and learned that on 03/13/2014 at approximately 9:48 P.M., the victim's ex-boyfriend, Dylan Swartout, 42, of Fort Bragg, became enraged with the victim and punched her in the head, while both where consuming alcohol beneath the Hare Creek Bridge (18000 block of North Highway 1, Fort Bragg). The victim had visible injury to the side of her face that was consistent with an assault. At approximately 5:30 A.M., Deputies located and contacted Swartout beneath the Hare Creek Bridge and placed him under arrest and took him into custody without incident. Swartout was ultimately transported to the Mendocino County Jail and booked for Corporal Injury to Domestic Partner with bail set at $25,000. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL ARTIFACTS: Hot off the Garageband… Written c. 1970 as a promotion for Country Club malt liquor, but I never got around to submitting it to their ad agency. It was when all the lefties were saying “Free Huey,” and FJ was saying, “Free Louie and Dewey, too.” Out of the woods and into the night Robin Hood did ride. Sure looked like somethin' with those mustangs jumpin' and the usual lumpen by his side...

http://fredgardner.bandcamp.com/track/robin-hood

BASEBALL CANTO

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Watching baseball, sitting in the sun, eating popcorn,

reading Ezra Pound,

and wishing that Juan Marichal

would hit a hole right through the

Anglo-Saxon tradition in the first Canto

and demolish the barbarian invaders.

When the San Francisco Giants take the field

and everybody stands up for the National Anthem,

with some Irish tenor's voice piped over the loudspeakers,

with all the players struck dead in their places

and the white umpires like Irish cops

in their black suits and little

black caps pressed over their hearts,

Standing straight and still

like at some funeral of a blarney bartender,

and all facing east,

as if expecting some Great White Hope

or the Founding Fathers to

appear on the horizon like 1066 or 1776.

But Willie Mays appears instead,

in the bottom of the first,

and a roar goes up as he clouts the first one

into the sun and takes 
off,

like a footrunner from Thebes.

The ball is lost in the sun

and maidens wail after him

as he keeps running

through the Anglo-Saxon epic.

And Tito Fuentes comes up looking like a bullfighter

in his tight pants and small pointy shoes.

And the right field bleechers go mad

with Chicanos and blacks 
and Brooklyn beer-drinkers,

"Tito! Sock it to him, sweet Tito!"

And sweet Tito puts his foot in the bucket

and smacks one that don't come back at all,

and flees around the bases

like he's escaping from the United Fruit Company.

As the gringo dollar beats out the pound.

And sweet Tito beats it out

like he's beating out usury,

not to mention fascism and anti-semitism.

And Juan Marichal comes up,

and the Chicano bleechers go loco again,

as Juan belts the first ball out of sight,

and rounds first and keeps going

and rounds second and rounds third,

and keeps going and hits paydirt

to the roars of the grungy populace.

As some nut presses the backstage panic button

for the tape-recorded National Anthem again,

to save the situation.

But it don't stop nobody this time,

in their revolution round the loaded white bases,

in this last of the great Anglo-Saxon epics,

in the territorio libre of Baseball.

STATEMENT OF THE DAY:

Obama represents everything these people [liberals] profess to hate – war, drone attacks, Gitmo, austerity, Wall Street (no prosecutions), indefinite detention, executive privilege (to assassinate) etc – and yet they still put the man on a pedestal. Which is why we think that Obama is the greatest public relations invention of all-time; a beaming, exuberant, galvanic paragon who embodies all the laudatory characteristics of leadership and who – at the same time – is able to carry out the most despicable, inhuman acts without the slightest hesitation or remorse. He is man who feels nothing towards his fellow human beings, neither empathy, compassion, or mercy. What matters to Obama is that he faithfully follow the script that’s been written for him by his miscreant handlers, that odious amalgam of cutthroat corporatists, bank mandarins and loafing ivy league silver-spooners who make up America’s iniquitous Kleptocracy. The best description of Obama I’ve ever read was in the comments section of a foreign policy blogsite called Moon of Alabama by a blogger named “bevin”. Here’s what he said:

“I think that Obama is completely empty of scruples…just a willing executioner. From the ruling class’s point of view he is the perfect figurehead because his mere appearance confuses and disarms so many. He seems to have spent his whole life trying to get chosen to play Judas. And that is all there is in his resume…

They present him as negligent, never responsible, never intentionally connected to an evil act, never drawn into the acts of duplicity by a conscious intent. This is the false image, the disinformation projected about who he is…

It strikes me that Obama is all those things. And that this is the core of the evil in him - that he is without conscience or principle, just an ordinary butcher going about his business, fulfilling the terms of his employment, doing what he was asked to do…

You see him as focused and intentional.

I see him as someone who will sign a stack of death warrants without reading them, or thinking about them again. Remember just after November 2008, waiting to take office, how the Israelis attacked Gaza, obviously to show him who is boss? Didn’t you sense that even they were surprised at the insouciance with which he watched those extraordinary massacres pass before his eyes?

He didn’t care. And he was, at last, relieved of the chore of pretending that he did care about such things.

That’s really what he likes about being President: he can relax while the killing goes on, he doesn’t need to pretend it bothers him, he doesn’t need to pass any kind of moral judgment.

Remember when he asked his step-father 'Have you ever killed men?'

The reply he got was 'Only men who were weak.'

He has adhered to that moral standard ever since.”

(Mike Whitney)

THE FINAL COMMUNITY WORKSHOP for the State Route 128 Corridor Valley Trail Feasibility Study will be held Thursday, March 27, 5-7pm at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds Dining Hall in Boonville. The corridor extends from the Sonoma/Mendocino County line to the State Route 128/1 junction in Mendocino County, a distance of approximately 51 miles. Building on previous community efforts, the local non-profit Valley Trail Coalition worked with the Mendocino Council of Governments (MCOG) to secure grant funding for the feasibility study to advance the planning, design, and ultimately construction of a non-motorized valley trail. For more information visit:

www.mendocinocog.org/reports_projects-SR128Trail.htm or www.valleytrail.org.

ZOZOBRA

Santa Fe's burning man

by Bill Harper

Wrap up all your troubles and woes and give them to Zozobra to be carried away.

Zozobra is a 40-foot tall marionette that has been torched by a dancer for the last ninety years in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Part Burning Man part Magic Company; Zozobra is also called EL Rey del Diablos and Old Man Gloom. Zozobra is anxiety in Spanish.

The original event was the parading of la Conquistadora, the statue of the Virgin after a special mass. De la Vargas brought the effigy to Santa Fe when he reconquered the pueblos in 1683. Dates of the original parade vary, apparently continuously since 1712, there has been a procession.

In 1912, the towns' Anglo boosters added their own events to the Hispanic traditions, revived in 1916, then firmly established in 1919. Under the Chamber of Commerce there were staged reenactments of de la Vargas return and other historical events. In 1920 they encircled the plaza and other areas with a palisade and charged admission. The very people who started the tradition were priced out. Hispanics had stopped the promenade tradition of wearing the old mantles and other finery and were reduced to watching the staged pageants through cracks in the fence.

Artist Will Shuster had a studio near the plaza in the twenties, recollecting in 1950 in The New Mexican:

"Around the outside of the stockade peering through the cracks between the aspen poles were the less fortunate children and gente of the town watching THEIR FEISTA. The gaiety was all inside. I made a satirical sketch of that subject.

I can recall the feeling of resentment that surged up through me over that Fiesta. It set off a chain reaction which has made stubbornly and consistently fight it. This is the reason Zozobra has always been a free show. No paid admission, no peeking through cracks, a free show for the whole town."

Shuster's feeling of resentment led to small backyard parties in 1924 and 1925, with small effigies being burnt, and launched Pasatiempo in 1926. Oliver LaFarge writes:

"Once again the art colony rebelled and in 1926, on short notice, organized and put on an open celebration for all comers, following the "closed" fiesta, which they called El Pasatiempo. The Hysterical Pageant mentioned in the accounts below was conceived, obviously, as a parody of the Historical ditto but grew far beyond that. The burning of Zozobra, nowadays (1959) not twenty, but forty, feet high has become an event famous enough to claim an international reputation. This was Shuster's concept, but Shuster says that Bauman gets credit, which he has not received, for making the first head.

The New Mexican, on Friday September 3, 1926, plugged the event: PASATIEMPO NOW HERE

"El Pasatiempo is here. After the burning of Zozobra at 8.00 P.M., the town will be dedicated to jolly fun. Any Santa Fean who is suspected of harboring dull care after that hour, or even thinking a serious thought, will be liable to a fine, not to exceed five hundred dollars, same to be paid to the Pasatiempo committee.

If you can't wear a rose in your hair, and you haven't got a lace mantilla you can get out your white duck trousers and tie red cheese cloth around your middle. If Paddy's pig were here he'd be more Spanish than Irish tonight. Then of course there is considerable latitude. If you would rather be a Maya noble, see Doc Morley and learn how to turn egg beaters into earrings and pie tins into armor. If you want to be a bad man get the fourty-four from under the mattress, find a neck cloth and a big hat and join the forces of Billy, the Kid.

Speaking of Billy the Kid, the public ought to know that nothing but a miracle, will prevent the hanging of one of our most promising young citizens on La Fonda roof tomorrow night. It is hoped to avert all tragedies but it's hard to tell what will happen when leading citizens turn desperado, and genteel creatures like Margaret, Cissie and Jane become dancehall sirens.

A three ring circus won't have anything on the plaza shows tomorrow night. Singing and dancing, plays and stunts, burlesque and drama and trovadores contest. There will be new groups and single stars. See your program and pick your places."

The program included a big Spanish baile, a county fair, a gallo race, a burro race, a wood-loading contest , the Hysterical Pageant and a Bull Fight. Everyone was encouraged to write down their troubles or "glooms" and place them in "Old Man Gloom" for destruction.

A revue in Saturday's edition of "The New Mexican" the previous nights' festivities:

"Following Vespers at the Cathedral, a long procession headed by the Conquistadores' Band marched to the vacant space behind city hall, where Zozobra, a hideous effigy 20 feet high, produced by the magic wand of Will Shuster, stood in ghastly silence illuminated by green fires. While the band played a funeral march, a group of Kiwanians in black robes and hoods stole around the figure, with four others seated before the green fires. When City Attorney Jack Kennedy on behalf of the absent mayor, solemnly uttered the death sentence of Zozobra, with Isidoro Armijo as interpreter, and fired several revolver shots at the monster, the green fires changed to red, the surrounding ring of bonfires was ignited, red fired blazed at the foot of the figure and shortly a match was applied to its base and leaped into a column of many-colored flames. As it burned the encircling fires blazed brighter, there was a staccato of exploding fireworks from the figure and round about, and throwing off their black robes, the specters emerged in gala costume, joining as invading army of bright-hued harlequins with torches in a dance around the fires, as the band struck up "La Cucaracha". Following which the crowd marched back between the bonfires lining the streets to the armory and the big baile was on. It brought out the biggest crowd of native merrymakers seen here for years."

And in a boosterish summary:

"It seems to us this impromptu carnival, done with only two weeks preparation, proved more strikingly than before the pricelessness of the treasure of Spanish culture here. The rare, quaint, old costumes of the grandmothers; the graceful old dances, the beautiful mantillas and shawls, the haunting old melodies, the happy children in their bright-hued finery, the white haired women in black shawls watching with shining eyes the merry-making of the young people; candles burning on the rooftops, gay banners in the sunshine, children shrieking at the burro race, heirloom silver bridles clanking on prancing steeds, grotesque and fun-the picture that lingers, and to draw and keep the community together, nothing else has such magic influence as merry making together.

Santa Feans know and understand each other better as a result of El Pasatiempo. All Santa Fe is happier for the two weeks of work and the two days of play, and we have found out a whole lot about the value of other folks. We believe El Pasatiempo de la Gente was a complete expression of the genius of Santa Fe, and the exemplification of those things that make life so rich and well worth living here."

Obviously it was a good time and a good thing but the newspaper's bragging at getting on so well is quite a contrast to the vilifications liberally usually in the paper regarding things with the nation of Mexico at that time.

The same newspaper also asked Texans to refrain from bringing their colored help with them on vacation.

Shuster built a scale model of Zozobra at one inch per foot. It was used to build each Zozobra with rolling eyes, flapping jaw, swiveling head and flailing arms added through the years. That model is retired but Zozobra's framework is still cut the same every year using a new scale model.

Zozobra was set to the torch by dancer Jacques Cartier for over 30 years. His original hat is in a museum but is copied faithfully every year.

In 1950 Will Shuster built a Zozobra float for the Tournament of Roses parade and won the First National Prize for the State of New Mexico.

Today in Santa Fe more than 50,000 people go to watch Zozobra, who stands fifty feet tall. His burning marks the start of three days of celebration that includes traditional mass at St. Francis Cathedral; a reenactment of the Entrada, when Don Diego de Vargas returned to the city; a Children's Pet Parade; and the Historical/Hysterical Parade. The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe builds Zozobra and burns the effigy at Fort Marcy Park. The Zozobra that was burned in 2007, was certified by Guinness World Records as the largest marionette in the world, measuring 49 ft. in height. The Admission price is now $10 and folks are still putting their "glooms" inside him.

Here is a link to youtube of 2012 Zozobra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTE2CYpzE8c. In 2014 Zozobra will be on Sept 4.

JUST IN FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE:

As the unprecedented drought continues in California, a number of the state’s coastal rivers and streams are in danger of reaching critically low stages later this summer, threatening rural drinking water supplies. But plans are now in place to assist landowners that store water for use later in the season through a state program.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) announced today that they will expedite approval for the installation of storage tanks by landowners who currently divert water from these important rivers and streams. The action comes under the State Water Board’s Small Domestic Use (SDU) registration program.

Installing tanks to divert and store water when flows are higher will help improve rural water supply reliability and fire safety while also relieving pressure for in-stream diversions during the drier months when fish need it most.

The State Water Board has an existing statewide registration program for domestic use of water, allowing home water uses such as drinking and fire protection. These small domestic registrations must comply with general conditions from the State Water Board and typically receive project specific conditions from CDFW.

Landowners eligible for the SDU program currently can request approval to divert to storage. However, this can be a lengthy process requiring site-specific evaluations that address in-stream and habitat needs.

With today’s action, CDFW has essentially “pre-approved” the installation of storage tanks that meet the general criteria. The State Water Board has agreed to incorporate these criteria as conditions of approval, and to expedite the issuance of the registrations. This action will result in the collection of water during any upcoming precipitation events, taking advantage of higher flows, and using the stored water later in the season when there may be little to no water available.

Some of these water tanks can provide months of storage to meet domestic water supply needs.

“We have been working in these coastal communities for many years, and have good reason to believe that these emergency changes are going to be welcomed,” said Charlton H. Bonham, Director of CDFW. “Many landowners who have wanted to take these steps can do so now more quickly with greater regulatory certainty from our department.”

This action is designed to capture water when it is raining and right after rain events. It is not designed to expand any applicant’s existing water right or amount of diversion. Capturing rain when it falls from the sky and storing it for use later can also help reduce the impacts to fish and wildlife from diverting water from streams during the driest times of the summer.

Today’s action was the direct result of suggestions made by local communities and fish conservation organizations such as Trout Unlimited, Mattole River Sanctuary Forest and the Salmonid Restoration Federation.

“The drought is going to be really hard for fish and wildlife as well as agriculture and people,” said State Water Board Executive Officer Tom Howard. “CDFW and the State Water Board are open to any solution from any corner of the state on how to make it through these tough times together.”

Expedited permitting is available to applicants that meet all of the criteria set forth in the program. SDU program eligibility can be found [here.]

Eligible parties are those that are already diverting from a stream under a riparian basis of right in CDFW Regions 1 or 3. The party should be diverting for domestic and fire protection use only, and has or will install a rigid style water storage tank. The storage tank should be big enough in size to store at least 60 days of water supply for the house.

Parties who are eligible will need to accept the general CDFW conditions, most importantly that they will use the stored water as a substitute for withdrawing additional water during the summer when flows are lowest. The State Water Board will expedite processing of registration forms where the party meets the CDFW eligibility criteria.

This will help protect fish during periods of low stream flow, especially this year with the drought conditions.

With California facing one of the most severe droughts on record, Governor Brown declared a drought State of Emergency and directed state officials to take all necessary actions to prepare for water shortages. The Governor signed legislation to immediately help communities deal with the devastating dry conditions affecting our state and to provide funding to increase local water supplies after it was passed with bipartisan support in the legislature.

Governor Brown met with President Obama about crucial federal support during the ongoing drought, and the state continues to work with federal partners to ensure coordinated drought monitoring and response. Governor Brown and the administration have also expressed support for federal legislation introduced by Senators Feinstein and Boxer and Representatives Jim Costa, Tony Cárdenas and Sam Farr.

Across state government, action is being taken. The Department of General Services is leading water conservation efforts at state facilities, and the California State Architect has asked California school districts and Community Colleges to act on the Governor’s call to reduce water usage.

The Department of Transportation is cutting water usage along California’s roadways by 50 percent. Caltrans has also launched a public awareness campaign, putting a water conservation message on their more than 700 electronic highway signs.

In January, the state took action to conserve water in numerous Northern California reservoirs to meet minimum needs for operations impacting the environment and the economy, and recently the Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced they would seek the authority to make water exchanges to deliver water to those who need it most. The State Water Resources Control Board announced it would work with hydropower generators and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to preserve water in California reservoirs, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the California Fish and Game Commission restricted fishing on some waterways due to low water flows worsened by the drought.

The state is working to protect local communities from the dangers of extreme drought. The California Department of Public Health identified and offered assistance to communities at risk of severe drinking water shortages and is working with other state and local agencies to develop solutions for vulnerable communities. CAL FIRE hired additional firefighters and is continuously adjusting staffing throughout the state to help address the increased fire threat due to drought conditions. The California Department of Food and Agriculture launched a drought website to help farmers, ranchers and farmworkers find resources and assistance programs that may be available to them during the drought.

Even as the state deals with the immediate impacts of the drought, it’s also planning for the future. In 2013, the California Natural Resources Agency, the California Environmental Protection Agency and CDFA released the California Water Action Plan, which will guide state efforts to enhance water supply reliability, restore damaged and destroyed ecosystems and improve the resilience of our infrastructure.

Governor Brown has called on all Californians to voluntarily reduce their water usage by 20 percent, and the Save Our Water campaign launched four public service announcements encouraging residents to conserve and has resources available in Spanish. Last December, the Governor formed a Drought Task Force to review expected water allocations and California’s preparedness for water scarcity. In May 2013, Governor Brown issued an Executive Order to direct state water officials to expedite the review and processing of voluntary transfers of water.

COMMENT OF THE DAY

Ahh, Lady Gaga is just an art school chick who has struck it lucky. If you put her in the proper context as a performance artist/professional weird art school chick, she’s actually pretty smart. The young girls and gay men who like her stuff are pretty smart too; they see that the “land of opportunity” isn’t offering said opportunity to them, so they might as well act weird in the meantime. At least they’re friendly and kind to one another.

As for the Crimea melodrama, I see it as a continuation in the 50 years (and running) of the Kissinger/Brzezinski domination of US foreign policy. Very consistent. Surround Russia and China with a ring of blood and fire. Put off-limits great deposits of strategic resources and trans-shipment routes. Use bloody chaos to make any productive efforts impossible, creating “failed states” where the best-armed can do whatever they want, knowing we’re the best-armed and have the least compunction about dealing with murderers. Look at an atlas. The countries in which the US has created violent chaos form a chain around the two nations considered rivals to the declining Empire, at least in the minds of the very specific types recruited by the Anne Rice Vampire types like Kissinger and Brzezinski.

Who are these people, these Victoria Nudelman/Nuland/Kagan, Samantha Powers, Susan Rice people? They’re all sociopaths, and what I call “passive authoritarians,” looking for the most dominant authoritarian to submit to. They’re very smart, well-educated, and come from extremely privileged backgrounds. They’re carefully taught that they are not like other people, and they must not indulge in quaint whimsies like reluctance to cause death to those beneath them. Power is the only thing they care about, and they’d be willing to destroy the world if that were the only way they could claim to have seized ultimate power.

This policy is not failing, and it isn’t weak. The whole POINT is to create violent, bloody chaos. Look whom we befriend in every country in which we meddle. The very worst, most ruthless, most impervious to reason and compromise. Then we train them, arm them, egg them on to commit the most heinous of crimes. Why? It’s the very definition of terrorism. To commit violence against innocents for political reasons, to incite an asymmetric over-reaction from the established power, to eliminate and discredit any “esteemed interlocutors” who might facilitate compromise. Then when the local powers over-react, alienate more and more of the undecideds, so eventually there is no middle ground whatsoever. Then continue the violence until anyone reasonable simply gives up, then take power. Why else would we create Al-Quaeda? Why else cozy up to the Svoboda heirs to Bandera in Ukraine? I’m sure we’re egging on the Uighurs in China, too. Not to mention the demons we’ve unleashed in Libya, Algeria, Mali, Chad, Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, etc. Note where the strategic resources are, and where they have to travel for someone else to use them.

It would be great if these people were crazy and their behavior were due to the accelerating decline of the American Empire. But unfortunately, they’re not. The American Empire is indeed in decline, but these people and their policies are devious and evil, not stupid, crazy or weak. They say a dying animal is the most dangerous and lashes out with the most ferocity.

STANDOFF IN BERKELEY: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TRIES TO RETURN TO WORK

Berkeley — This morning, the padlock on the door of 1925 Berkeley Way, the home of the national progressive radio network, Pacifica, was removed so that locked out workers could return to work. Executive Director Summer Reese, who was offered and signed a three year employment contract in January of 2014, returned to her duties this morning despite a highly-contested board vote to fire her for no provided reason at a secretive late-night board meeting.

As events unfold, it appears a confrontation is building at the 60-year old radio network as Reese reports disputed chair of the board Margy Wilkinson who grasped control of the chairmanship via a mis-marked ballot) and less than a month afterwards proclaimed herself the new executive director, has brought her husband to the network's headquarters and is confroting Reese and the network's national staff as they try to resume network operations.

About a dozen people are present.

Reese is reported to have said that listener-sponsored station KPFA next door, has refused to release their books which are in a state of disarray, unreconciled since October of 2012 and with tens of thousands of dollars in event income unaccounted for.

One of the bones of contention between Reese and the board has been a chief financial officer hired by the board, who Reese believed to be concealing information, and who was "rehired" by the rogue board after his dismissal on January 2.

Another bone of contention is the stated desire of several board members associated with the coup to sell the license of New York station WBAI. There are unconfirmed rumors of unofficial negotiations between the officers of the new board and a corporate media outlet, although the full board has not been informed.

Former board vice-chair Bill Crosier (and current chair of Houston Peace and Justice Center) commented: "My biggest question is: With the mad rush to ignore the Pacifica Bylaws and California law, and to terminate the ED with no notice and no reasons given, and with talk from some Directors about sacrificing WBAI to keep from having to sell the buildings and other property of Pacifica stations and to allow deficit spending at those other stations, what's next? It's pretty scary to think about"

Reese sent the following memorandum this morning from her embattled office:

Memorandum — Please distribute to staff lists immediately

To: Pacifica station managers, staffers and programmers

From: Summer Reese, Executive Director, Pacifica Foundation Radio

Subject: Rumors

I want to thank all of you for the work that you do everyday to keep Pacifica running.

Recently, we have experienced internal conflict between the board of directors and the executive director. I know that when these conflicts are expressed publicly, it creates a lot of organizational stress and makes it hard to concentrate on your work.

I want to assure you that I am in possession of a signed and valid contract for three years of employment from the Board of Directors and that I fully intend to complete that contract and work with all of you to make Pacifica bright and strong again.

The illegitimate actions of board members have, over the years, created a great deal of turmoil and financial stress on all of our stations and workplaces. It is time for that to come to an end.

The charges that I am going to seek hundreds of thousands dollars are ridiculous. What I am going to do is go back to work immediately and you will join me in doing so.

I deeply regret that the infighting on the board was not kept in the boardroom where it belongs.

I look forward to getting back to operating five precious and much-loved community radio stations. Thank you.  —  Summer Reese Executive Director Pacifica Foundation Radio 1925 Martin Luther King Jr Way Berkeley, CA 94704 Ph:(510) 849-2590 ext 208 Cell: (510) 333-1965 summer@pacifica.org www.pacifica.org

March 17, 2014

Contact: Summer Reese Email: pacificainexile@mail.com Phone: (510) 333-1965

WHEN HOPE TURNS RANCID: LBJ & OBAMA

by Norman Solomon

Both presidents betrayed initial popular optimism; only public protest can reverse the corrosive effects.

Hope makes history.

So does betrayal of hope.

Early in his presidency, Lyndon Johnson inspired enormous hope. But the promise for a Great Society imploded — and disappointment jolted many former supporters, with trust and optimism turning into alienation and bitterness. The negative ripple effects lasted for decades.

Fifty years after Johnson entered the White House, the corrosive aspects of his legacy are easy to discern. A political base for progressive social change eroded as he escalated the Vietnam War and bought time with shameless deceit. For many people, distrust of leaders became the essence of realism.

Initiating a disastrous mix of rhetoric and carnage, Johnson told the nation on Aug. 4, 1964, “We still seek no wider war.” On the same day, he ordered bombing of North Vietnam in tandem with bogus claims that its navy had attacked U.S. ships in the Tonkin Gulf.

Throughout his full term after a landslide victory in the November 1964 election, LBJ continued to claim benign intent in Vietnam. “I do not genuinely believe that there’s any single person anywhere in the world that wants peace as much as I want it,” Johnson said on May 17, 1966. In mid-January 1968, he insisted that “our goal is peace — and peace at the earliest possible moment.”

For many citizens, the president’s willingness to lie while pursuing indefensible policies caused massive — and perhaps irreversible — distrust and even enmity toward the U.S. government. As a consequence, millions came to see history and current events in a starkly clearer light. By the time Jimi Hendrix performed the national anthem at Woodstock five years after Johnson’s Gulf of Tonkin speech, an unprecedented number of Americans heard the musical bombs bursting in air as horrific instead of noble.

Forty years later, the new presidency of Barack Obama was awash in a strong tide of good will, comparable, in its own way, to the wave of public sentiment that lifted Johnson as the new president after the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of John F. Kennedy. Obama had run and won on hope, and his victory — while not of Johnson’s landslide proportions — provided major momentum.

Obama pursued policies that largely undercut his lofty oratorical appeals to his base. Deference to corporate power, the military-industrial complex and the national-security surveillance state — coupled with scant action on the vastly important matter of climate change — turned him into another president eager to cater to the intersection of Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Like Bill Clinton before him, Obama took care of himself and let others shoulder the political consequences. After Clinton and Obama stocked their administrations with corporate heavyweights, their rebuffs to progressive populism went over big with corporate media outlets. But the policy choices dispirited and demobilized the Democratic base, ushering in GOP takeovers of the House in 1994 and 2010.

Taking care of No. 1, Clinton and Obama won second terms, but on paths strewn with wreckage.

Such betrayals have grim effects. The damage to the body politic is akin to the results of backroom rubber hoses, inflicting internal injuries without leaving visible marks.

The best way to not become disillusioned is to not have illusions in the first place, but such axioms may seem like facile hindsight. Rather than turn cynical and fatalistic, prior supporters should quickly and directly challenge leaders who have disappointed them. Such challenges were sparse during the first years of the Obama administration, and they are still inadequate.

Living in a mass culture that encourages political passivity, all too many of Obama’s ex-enthusiasts have drifted into quiet disengagement instead of creative enragement. While recent years have seen an upsurge of activism on issues that range from climate change and economic justice to civil liberties and war, the magnitude and intensity of such efforts must increase.

On civil liberties, for example, the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocates have condemned the Obama administration as the worst in memory. But Obama remains obstinate. In response to chilling revelations by National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden, the president has circled the surveillance wagons. He insists on repeating falsehoods along the lines of his claims on national television last August that “we don’t have a domestic spying program” and “there is no spying on Americans.”

No more credible than Johnson’s claims of peaceful intent, such assertions from Obama have accelerated the estrangement among many of his most fervent past supporters — particularly young adults whose active enthusiasm and votes carried him into the White House. When I attended the Stop Watching Us rally near the Capitol in Washington in October, the crowd was younger than I had seen at any other demonstration in recent years.

In many ways, of course, the political milieu of five decades ago is a far cry from today. But the fundamental betrayal of popular optimism by the president is eerily similar, as may be its consequences. Smoldering anger and festering disaffection may be hard to gauge, but the resulting corrosion has cumulative effects. Dreams make history; so do disappointment and despair. The poison of a leader’s betrayal can course deep. The antidotes must include idealism and determination.

Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and founding director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His books include “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.”

JOHN REYNOLDS passes along a positively bracing message of pure counter-abuse:

The greatest flame of an internet troll I've ever seen

This was taken from "The Atlantic" magazine web site, where apparently an especially berserk Tea Party bonehead would post long quoted material from the Fox News site, then respond to everyone's individual posts by demanding to know why they were National Socialists, what was the difference between them and Karl Marx and Adolph Hitler, etc. etc. As you can see, somebody finally decided they'd heard enough…

I thought you might be interested in this almost sublime concatenation of scathing insults, possibly the greatest single assemblage of opprobrium I've ever read. It's simply inspired; a few millennia ago this fellow's writings would probably have become another book of the Bible. I certainly felt a glow, by the time I was done reading it!

* * *

You swine. You vulgar little maggot. Don't you know that you are pathetic? You worthless bag of filth. As we say in Texas, I'll bet you couldn't pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel. You are a canker. A sore that won't go away. I would rather kiss a lawyer than be seen with you.

You are a fiend, and a coward, and you have bad breath. You are degenerate, noxious and depraved. I feel debased just for knowing you exist. I despise everything about you. You are a bloody nardless newbie twit protohominid chromosomally aberrant caricature of a coprophagic cloacal parasitic pond scum and I wish you would go away.

You're a putrescence mass, a walking vomit. You are a spineless little worm deserving nothing but the profoundest contempt. You are a jerk, a cad, a weasel. Your life is a monument to stupidity. You are a stench, a revulsion, a big suck on a sour lemon.

You are a bleating fool, a curdled staggering mutant dwarf smeared richly with the effluvia and offal accompanying your alleged birth into this world. An insensate, blinking calf, meaningful to nobody, abandoned by the puke-drooling, giggling beasts who sired you and then killed themselves in recognition of what they had done.

I will never get over the embarrassment of belonging to the same species as you. You are a monster, an ogre, a malformity. I barf at the very thought of you. You have all the appeal of a paper cut. Lepers avoid you. You are vile, worthless, less than nothing. You are a weed, a fungus, the dregs of this earth. And did I mention you smell?

If you aren't an idiot, you made a world-class effort at simulating one. Try to edit your writing of unnecessary material before attempting to impress us with your insight. The evidence that you are a nincompoop will still be available to readers, but they will be able to access it more rapidly.

You snail-skulled little rabbit. Would that a hawk pick you up, drive its beak into your brain, and upon finding it rancid set you loose to fly briefly before spattering the ocean rocks with the frothy pink shame of your ignoble blood. May you choke on the queasy, convulsing nausea of your own trite, foolish beliefs.

You are weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. You are grimy, squalid, nasty and profane. You are foul and disgusting. You're a fool, an ignoramus. Monkeys look down on you. Even sheep won't have sex with you. You are unreservedly pathetic, starved for attention, and lost in a land that reality forgot.

And what meaning do you expect your delusionally self-important statements of unknowing, inexperienced opinion to have with us? What fantasy do you hold that you would believe that your tiny-fisted tantrums would have more weight than that of a leprous desert rat, spinning rabidly in a circle, waiting for the bite of the snake?

You are a waste of flesh. You have no rhythm. You are ridiculous and obnoxious. You are the moral equivalent of a leech. You are a living emptiness, a meaningless void. You are sour and senile. You are a disease, you puerile one-handed slack-jawed drooling meatslapper.

On a good day you're a half-wit. You remind me of drool. You are deficient in all that lends character. You have the personality of wallpaper. You are dank and filthy. You are asinine and benighted. You are the source of all unpleasantness. You spread misery and sorrow wherever you go.

I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. I mean rock-hard stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid. Stupid so stupid that it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. You are trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Stupid collapsed on itself so far that even the neutrons have collapsed. Stupid gotten so dense that no intellect can escape. Singularity stupid. Blazing hot mid-day sun on Mercury stupid. You emit more stupid in one second than our entire galaxy emits in a year. Quasar stupid. Your writing has to be a troll. Nothing in our universe can really be this stupid. Perhaps this is some primordial fragment from the original big bang of stupid. Some pure essence of a stupid so uncontaminated by anything else as to be beyond the laws of physics that we know. I'm sorry. I can't go on. This is an epiphany of stupid for me. After this, you may not hear from me again for a while. I don't have enough strength left to deride your ignorant questions and half baked comments about unimportant trivia, or any of the rest of this drivel. Duh.

The only thing worse than your logic is your manners. I have snipped away most of what you wrote, because, well... it didn't really say anything. Your attempt at constructing a creative flame was pitiful. I mean, really, stringing together a bunch of insults among a load of babbling was hardly effective... Maybe later in life, after you have learned to read, write, spell, and count, you will have more success. True, these are rudimentary skills that many of us "normal" people take for granted that everyone has an easy time of mastering. But we sometimes forget that there are "challenged" persons in this world who find these things more difficult. If I had known that this was your case then I would have never read your post. It just wouldn't have been "right". Sort of like parking in a handicap space. I wish you the best of luck in the emotional, and social struggles that seem to be placing such a demand on you.

PS: You are hypocritical, greedy, violent, malevolent, vengeful, cowardly, deadly, mendacious, meretricious, loathsome, despicable, belligerent, opportunistic, barratrous, contemptible, criminal, fascistic, bigoted, racist, sexist, avaricious, tasteless, idiotic, brain-damaged, imbecilic, insane, arrogant, deceitful, demented, lame, self-righteous, Byzantine, conspiratorial, satanic, fraudulent, libelous, bilious, splenetic, spastic, ignorant, clueless, illegitimate, harmful, destructive, dumb, evasive, double-talking, devious, revisionist, narrow, manipulative, paternalistic, fundamentalist, dogmatic, idolatrous, unethical, cultic, diseased, suppressive, controlling, restrictive, malignant, deceptive, dim, crazy, weird, dystopic, stifling, uncaring, plantigrade, grim, unsympathetic, jargon-spouting, censorious, secretive, aggressive, mind-numbing, abrasive, poisonous, flagrant, self-destructive, abusive, socially-retarded, puerile, clueless, and generally Not Good.

POLICE CALLS AS OF TUESDAY MORNING

The following were compiled from reports prepared by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office:

RECKLESS EVADING -- Luis J. Oliver, 27, of Covelo, was arrested at 5:53 p.m. Friday on suspicion of reckless driving while evading a peace officer and resisting a peace officer, and booked at the county jail under $35,000 bail. The MCSO arrested him.

MARIJUANA ACTIVITY WITH MINOR -- Jose D. Lievanosramirez, 18, of Boonville, was arrested at 1:26 a.m. Saturday on suspicion of employing a minor for marijuana activity and possessing marijuana hashish, and booked at the county jail under $50,000 bail. The MCSO arrested him.

DUI -- Andrew T. Moen, 22, of Willits, was arrested at 2:40 a.m. Saturday on suspicion of driving under the influence, driving with a blood-alcohol level greater than the legal limit and violating his probation terms, and booked at the county jail. The Willits Police Department arrested him.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE -- Ricky W. Estes, 43, of Willits, was arrested at 9:45 a.m. Saturday on suspicion of domestic assault and booked at the county jail under $25,000 bail. The MCSO arrested him.

DUI -- Miguel A. Hernandez, 20, of Ukiah, was arrested at 3:30 p.m. Saturday on suspicion of driving under the influence and possessing a controlled substance, and booked at the county jail under $15,000 bail. The Ukiah Police Department arrested him.

DUI -- Jeffrey T. Paglinawan, 39, of Antioch, was arrested at 10:52 p.m. Saturday on suspicion of driving under the influence and booked at the county jail under $5,000 bail. The California Highway Patrol arrested him.

DRUG MANUFACTURE -- Greg W. Carmichael, 34, of Vallejo, was arrested at 9:42 a.m. Sunday on suspicion of manufacturing a controlled substance by chemical extraction and booked at the county jail. The MCSO arrested him.

MARIJUANA TRANSPORT -- Mark M. Gabriel, 30, of San Francisco, was arrested at 10:34 a.m. Sunday on suspicion of transporting marijuana for sale, being an ex felon in possession of a firearm, possessing money for drug transactions, driving with a suspended license, failing to pay fines and failing to appear in court, and booked at the county jail under $420,000 bail. The UPD arrested him.

EMBEZZLEMENT -- David A. Anthony, 25, of Fort Bragg, was arrested at 10:11 p.m. Sunday on suspicion of embezzlement and being a fugitive from justice, and booked at the county jail. The Fort Bragg Police Department arrested him.