Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, June 17, 2015

• Igoudala MVP
• Water Decision
• Wildlife Management
• Drug Court
• Agroktima Fresko
• PA Nunchukers
• Yesterday's Catch
• Secret Cup
• Recall Reasons
• Consider Woelfel
• Oonville Oon
• Ab Dumping
• Noyo Checkpoint
• Many Rivers
• P.S. 30
• Repub Nation
• After Bernie
• System Collapse
• Marilyn's Death
• Presidential Hopefuls
• Ukraine Nutshell
• Quilt Show
• Sheriff Move
• Algae Bloom

“THAT WAS A BRILLIANT DECISION by Coach Kerr to put me back in the starting line-up for the finals!,” joked NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala after the Warriors broke a 40-year championship drought Tuesday night by holding off the tenacious Cleveland Cavaliers to win the 2015 NBA Championship to win game six 105-97. Major Scaramella was happy, of course, but said it was bittersweet because his brother Hugh, a lifelong dedicated Warriors fan, died last summer and never got to see his favorite team — which had disappointed its fans season after season for so long — win the big one. “I know it’s just a basketball game,” said the Major, “but somehow these things become part of who you are — they certainly were part of my brother’s existence for the last half of his life. But not being able to enjoy a winning season with him makes the Warriors long-overdue success just one season too late.”

* * *

THE DYNAMIC of the 2015 NBA Finals changed when Warriors coach Steve Kerr inserted Andre Iguodala into the starting lineup. Iguodala made such an impact in helping Golden State win the NBA title that he took home NBA Finals MVP honors. Stephen Curry may lead the way offensively for the Warriors, but Iguodala played a massive role at both ends of the court for the new NBA champions.

Iguodala hadn't started a game all season until he joined the starting five for Game 3. The Warriors didn't lose again. He spent the series serving as the primary defender on LeBron James, and while James put up huge numbers, Iguodala did an impressive job defending and came up with several huge defensive plays in key moments against James. His defensive effort was valuable enough, but Iguodala also found his outside shot during the series and became a major offensive contributor.

Iguodala beat James by a 7-4 vote to win Finals MVP honors.

While Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and even Curry struggled at times during the series, Iguodala scored 14 or more points in five of the six games. He scored 22 in a huge Game 4 performance. He was arguably the best Warrior on the floor in the clinching Game 6, scoring 25 points while several other Warriors struggled to get going offensively. He didn't become the third Splash Brother during the series, but he did rediscover his outside shot some and hit some timely three-pointers.

During the season, Kerr used Iguodala as a calming influence off the bench to settle the action when things went awry on the floor. He served that same role against Cleveland, but did so while playing defense against the best player in the world and while logging huge minutes. He was Golden State's best two-way player all series and was rewarded for his effort.

Iguodala claims Finals MVP honors over Curry who was excellent in his own right. The much higher profile regular season MVP struggled at times — including in Game 2 — but could have easily added Finals MVP to his trophy case. He was at his best during the fourth quarters, twice scoring 17 in the final quarter while also heating up on Tuesday to put the game out of reach.

— Mark Sandritter, SBNation.com

WILL PARRISH WRITES: Is the Water Board cutting off water for residences but not for industry (chiefly, wine) in the four Russian River sub-watersheds they've deemed critical for coho survival? Could be… Check out the underlined language on the second page.

We'll find out more tomorrow.

THE MENDOCINO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS voted Tuesday to continue its wildlife management program with the US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services. Details to come.

I WANT TO THANK JUDGE NELSON, the Family Dependency Drug Court (FDDC) staff, and former participants for their presentation before the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors on June 16, 2015. I have always been a huge supporter of Drug Courts in any capacity, they really work. In 1998 I became the first drug and alcohol counselor/case manager for the Mendocino County Juvenile Drug Court. I worked alongside of the late honorable Judge Brown, Judge Mayfield, and many community partners during the early development of that program. I was so impressed with drug courts that I chose to write my master’s thesis on Lake County’s Adult Drug Court in 2001. I can’t say enough about these programs and the positive effect that they have on communities. Unfortunately, when I returned to Mendocino County in 2007 I was saddened to discover that Mendocino County Juvenile Drug Court no longer existed. For some reason, and I don’t know exactly why, the program was terminated. My guess is that because it was only funded by a juvenile justice grant for 5 years, that when the grant money went away so did the interest in maintaining that program.

With that said, I hope that the Mendocino County administrators and the Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) will do everything possible to assure that the Family Dependency Drug Court (FDDC) is properly funded and able to carry on the good work that this program accomplishes and the benefits it brings to our community. In my opinion it should be expanded to serve more families and not be down sized to just 24 families as we were informed of during today’s presentation. The downside to this program is that it only serves families after their children have been removed. It does not help families with their drug issues before children are detained and placed in foster care. When I was still employed by CPS it was almost impossible to get a parent substance abuse and/or mental health treatment unless they were in a reunification plan. AOD and mental health staffing were reduced to almost nothing and therefore were only able to provide services for state mandated programs, or programs that had dedicated funding such as in the form of grants. Citizens could not walk in from the streets and get help unless they were first made a client of one the drug courts, on probation, or had their children already removed.

The County needs more preventative services and some good “upstream” social work. Helping families prior to becoming part of the court system would save millions of dollars in foster care and court costs. Most importantly, it saves the “family.” I think we spend way too much time and money “after the fact” instead of rolling up our sleeves and getting the job done right. I can’t tell you how many families I had to break up as a CPS social worker because of the lack of resources and services. Mendocino County for years has been doing things backwards in my opinion. I attribute it to a system that primarily focuses on foster care. During the years I was employed at Mendocino County CPS, now known as FCS, I was able to do what any good social worker would do and that was to examine the system I was tasked to work in. It’s my training in the system’s theory I guess. What I noticed was that most of the upper management and staff came from foster care agencies or group home backgrounds and knew very little about upstream social work. They had spent years working with children after they were removed and placed in care. In fact, a good portion of them came from the Trinity group home before and after it closed its doors, including the current Assistant Director of Health and Human Services, Bryan Lowery. Most his prior training before his employment at FCS came from Trinity Group Home and his personal experience as a foster parent, not from an actual school of social work. I also noticed that a lot of the Agency’s most powerful stakeholders came from Trinity as well, including Camille Schrader who administers Redwood Children’s Services and Redwood Quality Services (Children’s Mental Health). Most of the services they provide are primarily targeted to address the needs of children while in foster care and not so much towards preserving the family unit. Subsequently this has become one big happy corroboration, keep those Title IV-E and MediCal dollars rolling in. The more messed up kids we have, the more money for everyone.

My early experience in working with children and families came from the Mendocino County Youth Project. It was there I decided to eventually become a social worker. My first job there was as an after hour’s crisis worker. I worked with youth and their families to keep them out of the system by providing up front services. During those days the Youth Project was really doing the hard work. We were in almost all the schools throughout the County and provided a myriad of services to hundreds if not thousands of children at risk. We had respite homes for children whose families were in turmoil and counseling services for the entire family. Most of the funding came through grants and the Mendocino Department of Education. I am proud of the work we did at the Youth Project then, and the hard work they are doing now.

In closing, I like to talk about HHSA’s recent decision to take money from their budget and pay off an old debt that occurred when Mental Health operated under the County’s General Fund Budget. Prior to realignment and during the years between 2007 and 2010 the County was overpaid 3.9 million dollars in which they used to operate the County’s business. None of that money was used by HHSA and therefore in my opinion, should not be considered to be a HHSA debt. At today’s budget discussions I was sickened by how much money the County General Budget has in its reserves and they still want to rob from the HHSA reserves. Why should they want to do this? Wouldn’t the money be better spent by HHSA for preventative programs and upfront services? Wouldn’t it be better to use that money to restore wages and hire new employees in HHSA? I personally think it would, but I’m just a social worker, and in Mendocino County, master level social workers are not entitled to an opinion, professional or otherwise.

Thank you

James Marmon, MSW.

AGROKTIMA FRESKO is a farm-to-table celebration of Anderson valley food and wine, Greek style. Enjoy 5 courses of culinary delights including local lamb, pork, and produce all to benefit the Boonville farmers market food stamp match fund. Help strengthen the local food economy while sipping fine wines from Roederer Estate And Goldeneye Vineyards. Champagne reception starts at 6 at Roederer estate in philo, dinner at 7 on Saturday June 27th. Tickets are $100, all proceeds go to the Food Stamp Match Fund. Call 707-318-6166 for tickets, or email valerie.h.kim@gmail.com.

The Food Stamp Match Fund allows shoppers using food stamps to double their purchasing power at the farmers' market, while also increasing revenue to local farmers and thereby strengthening the local food economy. Shoppers can spend $15 of their food stamps, which is doubled by the Match Fund such that they actually have $30 to spend at market.

FOG BELT NUNCHUKS

ON JUNE 15, 2015, at approximately 11:30 AM, Mendocino County Deputy Sheriffs were called to the Point Arena City Park, located to the west of the 200 block of Main Street in Point Arena, California regarding a subject camping in the park in a makeshift lean-to. Deputies contacted Rosamond "Lopie" Owston and Mitchell Orrick concealing themselves under a sheet in the makeshift camp site on the stage in the park, near the children's play area. During the contact Deputies found Owston in possession of a Nunchaku, a felony violation of 22010 PC, and learned that Orrick was wanted for an outstanding arrest warrant for Burglary, with a $20,000 bail. Owston and Orrick were arrested and taken into custody without incident. Orrick was found to be in possession of approximately one gram of methamphetamine, and both Orrick and Owston were found to be in possession of pipes for smoking methamphetamine. Owston was lodged at the Mendocino County Jail for the listed charges with a $15,000 bail. Orrick was also lodged at the Mendocino County Jail, for the warrant and listed charges, where bail was to be set at $20,000 for the warrant and an additional $10,000 for the new violations. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

CATCH OF THE DAY, June 16, 2015

BRIAN ARMSTRONG, El Cajon/Willits. Pot cultivation, processing, possession for sale.

MICHAEL DONAHE SR., Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

WAYLON DRAGNESS, Willits. Possession of controlled substance.

RAUL ESTEVA, Willits. Pot cultivation, processing, possession for sale.

RICARDO GARCIA, Ukiah. Contempt of court.

DOUGLAS GOODWIN, Rancho Cucamonga/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

FLORENDA GUTIERREZ, Redwood Valley. Burglary, harboring a wanted felon, conspiracy, resisting.

JOSEPH HIPES, Ukiah. Grand theft, receiving stolen property, no license.

WILLIAM MARSHALL, Willits. Court order violation, suspended license.

CHRISTINA MCGREW, Ukiah. Domestic assault, resisting arrest.

MITCHELL ORRICK, Point Arena. Petty theft, possession of controlled substance and paraphernalia.

DANIEL ROTTNER, Glastonbury, Connecticut/Mendocino. Pot sales/transport/furnish.

YUTA SAKANE, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

A LAZY DAY AT THE SECRET CUP

Where Dabs Were Allegedly the Main Attraction

by Emily Hobelmann

A few days ago, my colleague Andrew Goff asked me, “What does it mean to dab?”

He was feeling excited for this very “dankified special report” on the Northern California Secret Cup Campout, a “710 community event” featuring “three days of music, camping, glass blowing and more.” The campout was this weekend — it started on Friday and it continued through Sunday at the Ocean Grove Lodge in Trinidad.

I told Goff that the Secret Cup would be Humboldt Dab Central this weekend. And I told him that to fully understand dabbing, one must dab — one must be the dab. And that’s what’s up — if you are into dabbing, you rock the full-on dabbed out lifestyle.

As an occasional recreational dabber, I will never become the dab. (I don’t even own a dab rig.) But hey, I’m down with dabs enough to hit up the Secret Cup. And I recruited my local comedian super-friend Matt Redbeard to check it out with me on Saturday.

The Secret Cup is a traveling roadshow hash competition, where the competitors judge each other. In other words, everyone who enters the competition is a judge. This year Secret Cup events have already happened in Barcelona and Santa Cruz. Beyond the campout this weekend in Trinidad, the Secret Cup will have a presence at the Chalice Festival, a massive “music, glass, hash and art festival” in San Bernardino in July; then there’s the Rhode Island Beast Coast Secret Cup in August; Michigan and Colorado Secret Cup events happen in September; it’s Vegas in November; and then the top three competitors from each Secret Cup face off at the Secret Cup Finals in LA in December.

What’s the big secret? I don’t think there is one, although the location of the Secret Cup Campout was disclosed to ticket holders only a few days prior to the event. It’s at Ocean Grove, which means this year’s Secret Cup Campout is easy to find, as long as you know it’s happening.

General admission day passes cost $30. Camping and RV passes cost more, more, more.

Redbeard and I had ourselves a couple of day passes. We parked down the road near the Chevron Station. When we walked up to Ocean Grove, we were directed to enter the Secret Cup through the bar, a dark, dank space that is famous for Rude Lion Sound’s Dancehall Mondays.

We got our wristbands right where you step off the bar’s back patio. The event — including vendors, exhibitors and a stage — was set up in the woods to our left. Campers’ tents were scattered about toward the north end of the property, to the right.

Redbeard and I headed left into a clearing where we found a couple of vendors, some tables with glass, a stage and a larger tent with a glass-blowing demo area set up inside. We kept walking further south and we found some more vendors, including a few cannabis booths, but not many. We kept walking, trying to find more action. But it was a small event.

We asked a couple people how it was going. “Slow.” We heard Friday was slow too. This guy from Sac that films at all the cool-kid weed events told me he thinks the campout is “lightweight.” Yikes. Redbeard made the obvious joke, “Maybe they shouldn’t have made it a secret.”

Our first official pitstop was at the Sun Kissed Cannabis Collective/CSI Humboldt booth. A giant jar of weed sat out on the table. “Help yourself,” they told us. It was sun-grown Obama Kush from Willow Creek. We grabbed some nugs. Their hash selection included Three Kings and Master Kush.

We talked with those folks for a few, but we didn’t know what to do next. So we walked around the property for a bit. We observed Secret Cuppers hanging out at picnic tables in front of Ocean Grove cabins. We sat in the sun by a big rock. We tried to check out the area where people were camping, but security stopped us.

So we wound up back at the beginning, by the glass folks and the stage. It was like 4:30 in the afternoon and the DJ was playing some dark and scary, glitchy electronic music. There were little circles of bros everywhere — brocles. Most of the guys were sporting pin-laden flat-brimmed hats and elaborate art glass pendants. Redbeard and I both thought the event was kind of grim and awkward, but well-intentioned, nonetheless.

Everything got better when we found ourselves chatting with some of the local glass artists — Tristan Hodges (@tristanhodgesglass on Instagram), Brian Robleto (@donrob_glass) and Bluegrass Ari (@bluegrassglass). These guys are all very friendly and they are all super into the local high end functional art glass scene. Hello… Emerald Glass Gallery and https://www.facebook.com/LostCoastGallery. And looking forward to the next Humboldt Harvest Glass Gathering in October…

Hanging out with these guys was the best part of our day. Hodges told us about his skateboard pipe and how it took about 100 hours to make. Hodges made the camera too. Robleto told us that he spends about 50 hours per week blowing glass and that this is his career. He showed us some of his functional UV active glass lava lamp pipes — collaborations with Bluegrass Ari. We even got to smoke out of one of the lava lamps. You can use them for dabs or for flower.

Robleto let me and Redbeard back over to glass-blowing demo area, and at that point, there were actually a couple of guys doing glass art. That was awesome forever. We put on the special glasses so we could look directly at the glass as it was being heated and manipulated in the flame.

After we watched the demo for a bit, we decided to do one more loop around the event. We wound up at the rosin press table, where they were charging $10 for Rosin dabs. They were making the rosin dabs right there, pressing buds in parchment paper between hot metal plates to squash out the oil, then scraping that oil up into little dab servings. The rosin dabs qualify as solventless hash. People are way into the rosin thing.

We watched that process for a while. Then we decided it was time to hit the beach. On our way out, asked the sound guy at the stage area about the genre of music that the DJ was playing. It was like this dancehall-EDM fusion music. The sound guy called it “Bashment style” and “Selassie praise” music.

And Kid Rock was playing on the jukebox as we exited through the Ocean Grove bar. Yup. It was like that. In the parking lot, we overheard some guy talking about the event, saying, “The dab is the main attraction…”

Yes. Follow the Secret Cup. Become the dab.

FALSE ADVERTISING

Editor,

The Turner No Recall group has presented five main reasons to oppose our recall efforts--all of them debatable.

1. "Turner was just elected in November."

Turner actually came in third, with Peters and Cimolino each garnering more votes. In truth, Turner has served an unprecedented 14 consecutive years as Mayor. The very telling question is included in the minutes from a special closed council meeting of March 30, "Why has economic development not happened?" Obviously, Turner's policies have been unsuccessful.

Relying on revenues from chain stores and fast food outlets, plus 7% of grants obtained, often for projects opposed by the public, have not reversed this downward spiral. Chain businesses only offer minimum wage, no benefits jobs, while negatively impacting smaller, locally owned businesses. For example, Turner supported a Discount Grocery for the proposed Hare Creek Mall, a national chain that is reputed to take 86% of profits away from our city, while undermining locally owned groceries.

His focus on developing a new town on the mill site has neglected the city that exists, to its detriment.

2. "A single issue is not cause for a recall."

Turner misrepresents the recall effort, but we all know better. The fact that he lagged behind both Peters and Cimolino in last November's election, before the public knew anything about the Old Coast hotel as a homeless center, indicates otherwise. This was a vote of No Confidence by city residents who were tired of Turner's constant focus on developing mill site property the city doesn't own, at the expense of revitalizing our town, as well as his reliance on well paid, unelected staff working behind closed doors, on projects involving public funds. Public input is ignored entirely, unless it supports his 'vision.' Turner operates like a corporate CEO, not as an elected official, using his "strong moral compass" to justify questionable policies.

3. The recall "will cost Fort Bragg time and money."

The Main Street Merge project, now relegated to the back burner after strong and vocal public opposition, is typical, costing the City approximately $300,000. We have paid for uncounted tax dollars for reports that are never objective, written by loyal, well-paid staff biased to support projects like the Hare Creek Mall. More money will be spent for murals on coastal trail bathrooms than for a recall election.

4. " We need to pull together, not be divisive."

Translated, this means Turner does not want to listen to other points of view, from the public, or from council members, who were chastised in the SWOT analysis for disagreement with his,policies and projects. This analysis, by a paid business consultant, states that "a divided council is an unproductive council. If the council 'settles down' the community will settle down." Here reference is to newly elected Peters and Cimolino, who each garnered more votes in the last election than Turner, in an obvious vote of No Confidence in Turner's 'vision' and policies. Sadly, they have submitted to this autocratic version of city governance. Dissent and debate are integral part of the democratic process, but Turner prefers a council that rubber stamps his positions. We also suffer from a Planning Commission that is appointed by the council, not elected, to bolster Turner's outmoded version of urban planning.

5. "Turner is an honest and effective leader for Fort Bragg."

Obviously, this is his opinion; last November voters strongly disagreed. One example of his dishonesty is the statement on his No Recall page, regarding the Main Street Merge Project: " as mayor, Turner invited affected business owners to a round table discussion. The council subsequently cancelled the project." In fact, in the Failures sections of the SWOT analysis, he plans to try to convince the public to support this project, so it's not cancelled, just postponed.

The No Recall page also falsely states that "since elected in 2002, Dave has always listened to the people of Fort Bragg." Yet the SWOT analysis, compiled from interviews with council members, the public who dared to disagree are accused of 'thuggery', and labelled 'bitter and hateful...offensive." It goes on to whine that "Our mayor has done such wonderful things for our community and he is being treated like a jerk." And. "There are smart people running the city but the community doesn't always see that."

At the CC meeting Jan. 26 Turner stated that "he was elected to consider the facts and vote for what he thinks is best", not to be swayed by public opinion. The $240/hour San Francisco lawyer that 'knocked his socks off' stated that "no public hearing was required" to discuss the use of a $1.2 Million CDB Grant for, purchase of the old Coast Hotel for homeless services.

I urge the public to take the time to read over the SWOT analysis--after all, you paid for it.

Alice Chouteau, Fort Bragg

ED NOTE: Many of the people whose names are on the ad in support of the mayor are not residents of Fort Bragg. If the recall petition qualifies, it will be a close election.

WE NEED BOB WOELFEL

by Marco McClean

Another in a series of proposals for KZYX: Bob Woelfel for manager, program director and business coordinator.

Again, if KZYX must have a manager, please put forth Bob Woelfel's name. He can do all the management paperwork tasks, and the program director tasks, and the ad sales (business underwriting) tasks, and the intelligently-conciliating-disgruntled-members-and/or-airpeople stuff, and do it all with good cheer; he's been doing it all his life since he got home from military service, and he knows Mendocino County's business and social and political scene like the back of his hand, and I don't know anyone who doesn't like him.

I have seen people in the office screaming at each other and the world, and he walked in, glanced at them, continued on into the kitchen, ate a pickled egg, then put up his hand and said a few simple calm things and they all shut up and went to do their jobs and have their lives, and they were all satisfied that they'd been heard, by each other and by him, and they were amused at how they'd been carrying on. It was magical.

I can't count the times something about KMFB --a single piece of equipment or a complicated system-- was seriously messed up and Bob called me in to fix it, and I said something like, "That's too hard. We need a whole new [fill in blank]," and he said something that put it in a new light and made it easier, and I fixed it. There were times he had a special project for me and I couldn't figure out how to do it, and he said, "How about if we..." and it became clear, and I did it. He knew that what he wanted could be done, and that made it so I did too. And when it was something I wasn't qualified to touch, he knew that, and he'd call one of half a dozen radio engineers he's friends with, and they'd jump to help him.

He saw that all of us were paid. He set up a system where we were responsible for bringing in advertising money for our own shows, and we were paid by the hour /and/ we got a generous cut of the money we contracted. This would work with noncommercial KZYX with business underwriting as well as it worked for commercial KMFB, which had the same broadcast range as KZYX and cost a fourth the money to operate, even after paying all the airpeople and engineers.

He loves to practically live in the radio station, leisurely accomplishing things and enjoying himself in the background and leaving the independent airpeople alone to do their thing, and when he's required by the more dependent airpeople he appears and helps them.

He attracts real radio people and lets them do their work in their own way, and when someone goes entirely off the rails he waits until their show is done and then tells them his concerns and they correct themselves. In all the years I've known him, I'm sure he had his own politics and his own opinions and /I don't know what they are/; think about that for a moment, really. He gives everyone a chance to shine, no matter what they believe in or are for or against.

That's the sort of person who should run KZYX. And once we were in the printer room talking about the general subject of appropriate language and he said to me, "I don't mind shit or goddammit, but if you can, Marco, please hold the motherfuckers and cocksuckers until after midnight." (That was the only time I ever heard him say any of those words.) In all the years that Bob Woelfel oversaw KMFB there was not a single audience complaint to the FCC on any subject, and KMFB was way more free than KZYX has ever been, and there was no electronic profanity delay nor any need for one.

Some people are too much. Sister Yasmin drove Bob crazy with her drama and anguish and so on, yet he kept her on for nearly ever anyway, and even when he was pushed beyond any administrator's endurance he didn't fire her -- look at what he did: he had me build a special studio just for her out at the transmitter site, so she could keep doing her show and he wouldn't have the aggravation of her being all in his face at the office, until she could control herself and things could be normal again. See this? He didn't fire her; he made a way for her to solve the problem herself, and trusted her to do it, and of course she did. That's his way.

Some of the best people at KZYX and KOZT and probably four or five other stations around here started at KMFB.

He helped homeless people. He brought the animal-rescue people in to talk about their work, and when they were having trouble homing abandoned exotic dragon-creatures he set up habitats and kept them in the office and did a show about them at random with the rescue people until they had homes. When an airperson couldn't afford a doctor, he took him to the doctor and paid for it and let him convalesce in his own apartment. He helps with local events like the Film Festival... I could go on for miles, here, and not run out of reasons why Bob Woelfel should run KZYX. All by himself he can handily replace John Coate, Mary Aigner, David Steffen, et al., and the station will save a ton of money and will improve and not continue to stagnate. He is a saint, a fricking saint.

There is no-one else with Bob's Woelfel's skills and qualifications. I admire Bob Young, who runs KNYO, and Ed Nieves, who runs KMEC, but they're needed at KNYO and KMEC, and that's the only reason I'm not recommending them too.

HUMAN WASTE & ABALONE COLLECTING

Dear Supporter of a Safe and Healthy Mendocino Coast:

People flock to the North Coast each year during abalone season. They are taking home abalone, urchin, rockfish and kelp, but some are also leaving behind human waste in the form of used toilet paper and feces.

As part of the Mendocino Abalone Watch, I patrol parking lots and coves where abalone divers and rock pickers enter and exit the water. This season I have found widespread evidence of human waste in bushes and trees just beyond the fringes of parking lots.

This disgusting practice must stop.

Obviously, this is a health problem and something needs to be done about it. I suggest initiating the following education and abatement program:

Begin educating the public about where restrooms can be found by posting signs at all popular dive and rock picking spots directing people to the available public restrooms;

During abalone season (April through June and August through November) portable restrooms need to be placed on State Parks properties in the Mendocino area at Caspar South Headlands, Road 500D, Jack Peters Creek, Mendocino Headlands Arch Rock, and Gordon Lane;

Have County deputies, CFW and Parks personnel cite people who are caught contributing to this problem;

With the issue of next year’s abalone report card, publish a notice that this practice will not be tolerated and there will be a fine if a person is caught doing so.

Red abalone is a tremendously important resource for the North Coast.

Unfortunately, the popularity of this recreational sport does come with a price tag. Please, let’s do what we can to eliminate this unacceptable bycatch of this ever-increasingly popular sport.

Respectfully,

William Lemos, PH. D.

Mendocino Abalone Watch

FROM THE FORT BRAGG POLICE DEPARTMENT

All persons intending to go onto the Noyo Beach area will go through a checkpoint at the entry to the parking lot. Persons with fireworks and/or alcohol in their possession will be given the opportunity to discard the items, to return the items to their vehicles, or to be denied entry to Noyo Beach. Persons carrying backpacks and coolers or other containers will be asked to have them inspected for alcohol and fireworks. Refusal to have these items checked will only result in denial of access to the Noyo Beach area. These measures are being instituted because the public consumption of alcohol and the illegal discharge of fireworks on Noyo Beach during the Independence Day fireworks display presents risks to the safety of the general public. The security checkpoint(s) at Noyo Beach are intended for the immediate purpose of preventing the public safety hazards posed by drunken behavior and the illegal discharge of fireworks. A publicity campaign as well as signage will be utilized to get the word out to the public regarding the security checkpoints at Noyo Beach and the strict enforcement of existing laws prohibiting public consumption of alcohol and the discharge of fireworks. Please enjoy the Independence Day Holiday safely and responsibly.

MANY RIVERS TO CROSS

Many rivers to cross

But I can't seem to find my way over

Wandering I am lost

As I travel along the white cliffs of Dover

 

Many rivers to cross

And it's only my will that keeps me alive

I've been licked, washed up for years

And I merely survive because of my pride

 

And this loneliness won't leave me alone

It's such a drag to be on your own

My woman left me and she didn't say why

Well I guess, I have to try

 

Many rivers to cross

But just where to begin, I'm playing for time

There are times I find myself thinking

Of committing some dreadful crime

 

I've got many rivers to cross

But I can't seem to find my way over

Wandering I am lost

As I travel along the white cliffs of Dover

— Jimmy Cliff

P.S.30 CHRONICLES

by Louis Bedrock

P.S. 30 was an elementary school in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx. It included grades Pre-K to 5.

Mott Haven was one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Bronx. Rates of Tuberculosis, AIDS, Hepatitis, and Asthma were among the highest in the nation.

Author Jonathan Kozol visited P.S. 30 frequently and wrote about it in several of his books.

I taught there for more than 18 years.

…

I had a set of mailboxes-- for me and each student in my classroom. This encouraged written communication. Most of the missives from students were banal. Occasionally, they were funny:

—Mr. Bedrock. You speak Spanish good; but why do you say “Thierra la puerta” instead of “Sierra la puerta”?

—Can we take a class trip to Disneyland?

—You a good teacher but you scream two much.

Sometimes, they were not so funny:

—Mr. Bedrock, my mother, baby sister, and I are homeless. We sleep on the trains at night. Sometime I’m very tired in the morning and get to school late. So please don’t yell at me when I’m late, OK?

—Mr. Bedrock. Can you tell Angela something? She smells like garbage and it makes me sick when I’m behind her in line or have to sit by her.

—(Picture of a stick figure labeled “Mr. Bedrock” dangling from a scaffold.) I hat you Mr. Bedrock. I wish you were die. You embarrass me Mr. Bedrock. I hat you.

The last letter was from Eduardo. There had been a last minute fire drill; Eduardo refused to line up. We had had a real fire in the school less than a year ago, so although I can normally negotiate with Eduardo when he gets stubborn, I felt I had to get my class out of the building pronto; so I gave Eduardo an ultimatum:

—You have five seconds to get on line. Then, I carry you out.

He refused to move. I threw him over my shoulder and carried him out.

I called his mother and explained what happened. She was not pleased, but didn’t file a complaint with the district. Eduardo expressed his displeasure in the letter.

I walked behind Angela and found that she did smell like garbage. I confided with Carmen, our guidance counselor, who spoke with Angela and her inept mother about hygiene. The situation improved somewhat. We require people to get a license to drive a car. We should require them to get a license to bear children into this world.

…

On I-80W, about two hours from the southeast Bronx, there used to be an attraction called “Waterloo Village”.

Waterloo Village featured reconstructed 19^th Century houses and stores, a functioning water mill powered by the Musconetcong River, a gunsmith, a large park and picnic area beside the river, and a replica of a Lenape Village as designed by my friend Harry Kraft and his son John, both anthropologists associated with Seton Hall University in South Orange NJ. The Lenape Village included a trail with rocks marked with pictographs, a sweat lodge, long houses, and cooking, tanning, and washing areas. The kids loved going there. The picnic lunch, the lectures by the Krafts in one of the longhouses, and the Lenape Museum and Gift Shop were highlights. The museum had the actual skull of a Lenape Indian, which revealed a cavity that went through a tooth and into the cheekbone. I had nightmares about this.

The Krafts had collaborated on a textbook designed for fourth and fifth graders filled with wonderful drawings, charts, and photographs. I built my Indigenous People study section of the social studies curriculum around the book.

Maria S. was in the neighboring classroom. When she saw the finished products, K-W-L reports my children had done, she praised the work and the project, but observed that I had failed to incorporate art projects, which would have deepened the children’s understanding of the Lenape culture. The following year, we collaborated.

Maria taught the two classes to design, cut, and sew Lenape clothing in miniature. The children built long houses with dowels and popsicle sticks. She convinced our wonderful resident artist, Elise, to spend a couple of weeks showing us how to make clay plates, pots, cups, and jars using the coiling method employed by the Lenape.

Maria’s teaching assistant was an attractive twenty-something year old mother of one of her students. Her name was Sonny. She was smart and tough. I was a bit afraid of her, but fortunately her kids liked me a lot and she did too.

NYC school busses do not cross the George Washington Bridge to visit locations in New Jersey. I had raised some money to charter buses by holding bake sales. The balance came out of my pocket. This changed when Sonny took over the bake sale.

Sonny told me my prices were absurd and doubled them. She increased parent participation through her charisma and powers of intimidation. Sonny amassed more than enough to cover the two busses we chartered. Everyone in the school bought baked goods.

The first two trips to Waterloo with Maria saw an April snowstorm one year and torrential rains the next year. Maria and Sonny decided I was a jinx and kicked me off the trip the following year. My kids adored Maria who called me “Grandpa Bedrock” and asked my kids if “Grandpa” was being nice, and requested that they tell her if I wasn’t.

My hurt feelings were not assuaged by the perfect weather that Maria, Sonny, the other parents, and the kids enjoyed that day.

The following year, high stakes testing was instituted and there was no time for trips to places like Waterloo Village.

…

Our Principal, Ms. R., hired me at a party at the home of my friend Stefan, who was one of her A.P.s. She was impressed that I spoke Spanish well and had taught ESL in Spain.

She did not regret hiring me. Most of my first two years, I was a per diem. I had no fixed assignment and would do whatever administrative, classroom, or manual labor chore she requested without complaining. I translated documents, carried records to other schools, moved furniture, covered classes with little time to prepare—I learned to have an expansive array of lesson plans with me at all times. I did more lunch duty than any other two teachers. Since I was usually the first to arrive, I was often sent for coffee for R and her staff as soon as I came through the door.

For her part, R kept me on the payroll, made me full-time as soon as she could, obliged me to observe the best teachers in the school one period a day, sent me all over the five boroughs for training, and encouraged me to take courses during the summer to enhance my skills and earn the educational credits I needed.

The only tension between us concerned religion. Ms. R was an evangelist and minister. She would often say to me, “I love you Bedrock, but you need Jesus in your life. I would reply, “Perhaps you’re right, but “K” is keeping busy for the time being.” Or “I don’t believe in God because I don’t believe in Mother Goose.”

During the first faculty meeting of the year, one September, Ms. R regaled the staff with tales of her trip to Israel that summer. She spoke at length about walking in places where her Savior had trodden.

—I understand exactly what you mean, Ms. R. —I interrupted—. I was in Disneyland this summer and felt the same awe walking in the footsteps of Mickey, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy.

My colleagues burst into laughter. Even Ms. R laughed at first. But then, she became angry and said,

—You’ve offended me, Bedrock. Don’t talk to me ever again.

The following day at 6:30 a.m., when I punched my timecard in the main office, Ms. R emerged from her adjacent office.

—Bedrock, go over to the bodega and get three Spanish coffees for Sandra, Eileen, and me. And three toasted buttered rolls. I’ll pay you later.

…

One year, Debra M. and I taught fifth grade classes in adjacent rooms. We decided to collaborate on a project about slavery for Black History Month.

We agreed to use the K-W-L format I alluded to earlier. K-W-Ls are student-centered projects. The first two sections of a K-W-L involve preliminary preparation. With both classes in one room, we taped chart paper to the blackboard and asked the students to list what they Knew about slavery. Then, what they Wanted to learn about slavery in the form of questions. We listed their contributions on the chart paper, asked them to copy the Ks and Ws in their notebooks, and encouraged them to add to the lists at home.

L stands for “Learned”. Tools for finding “Learned” inventory included textbooks, library books, museum visits, and guests who were descendants of slaves. We also decided to use the first two episodes of the TV series, “Roots”.

“Roots’ was not designed for an audience of ten and eleven year old children. The first two episodes feature graphic violence and a rape, so we took our idea to the Principal, Ms. R. Ms. R gave us permission to proceed, but suggested we consult the parents and carefully prepare the children.

We called and sent letters to parents offering to excuse their children if they objected to their seeing the strong material in the video. We told the children that they would be seeing adult material that was not designed for people their age. We offered them the option of leaving the room if anything in the presentation upset them.

We received 100% support from the parents. The children’s behavior exceeded our most optimistic expectations. There was no fidgeting, snickering, or even whispering. The children were transfixed. Their questions were spot on.

—How long did the people have to be tied to the bottom of the ships?

—Did a lot of them die during the trip?

—Were a lot of women forced to do what the woman in the story was forced to do?

—How many people were brought to America from Africa in slave ships?

Parents communicated their approval. Visitors from the district praised the K-W-Ls, drawings, essays, and poems on our bulletin boards, and precocious, histrionic Latavia read the poem “Old Lem” on the school intercom.

Their fists stay closed

Their eyes look straight

Our hands stay open

Our eyes must fall

They don't come by ones

They got the manhood

They got the courage

They don't come by twos

We got to slink around

Hangtailed hounds.

They burn us when we dogs

They burn us when we men

They come by tens ...

…

After lunch, I would read to the children for an hour. The Little House books were very popular as were the illustrated tales of Chris Van Allsburg. Desks were pushed against the wall and chairs were arranged in a circle. Some children liked to sit on the floor. Others would lie down on blankets or coats.

The new kid, “Sam”, was an amazingly good reader. She read on a junior high school level. She liked to read aloud and did so in a modulated, dramatic voice that belied her eleven years.

One day, as I read from The Little House in the Big Woods, Sam quietly walked up behind me. When I paused, Sam took over the reading. I didn’t get to read again for the rest of the hour.

After that, the children would often ask me to let Sam read. I tried not to feel too offended. She was really good.

…

I was doing entrance duty because two paras were absent and I was there. As the children filed in, an adorable little girl who looked like a first or second grader ran out of the line to give me a big hug and a “Good morning, Mr. Bedrock!”

—And where do I know you from, young lady?

—When I was in kindergarten, you stopped me to tie my shoe. And you called me “Banana Nose”.

…

My fourth graders were out of control. Perhaps it was the proximity of the Christian winter holidays. Perhaps they were just antsy. At two-thirty, I lost it:

—Silence! It’s two-thirty. It will be time for dismissal in fifteen minutes. Do you want to go home at 2:45 with the other children or do you want to stay here with me for another hour?

—Stay here with you! —the children chirped almost unanimously.

…

One sunny day in May, my fourth graders were in the playground across the street from the school for recess.

While chatting with a few of the children, I was stung in the face by a yellow jacket. It hurt and my face started to swell almost immediately. A crowd of children soon surrounded me, some of them grabbed my arms, and they escorted me toward the school.

—What’s going on? —asked Mr. Z, who was in charge of the playground at the time.

—A bee has stung Mr. Bedrock —explained Haydee—. We’re taking him to the nurse.

…

Oppie was a very grown up fifth grade girl in my bilingual class. She had advanced skills in irony and metacognition.

Sometimes she insisted on staying with me during prep period despite my insistence that she needed gym, computer class, science, or music. Her best friend, Nabriska, would stay with us.

Oppie’s life was seriously turbulent and she felt more comfortable talking to me than with the guidance counselor or the school psychologist.

Her mother had AIDS, her father, a violent streak. Oppie’s academic success, social skills, her very survival, cannot be explained by science.

—I’ve had a bad morning, Mr. B. My father was screaming at us. I locked myself in the bathroom and he beat on the door and cursed at me for like an hour before I was able to sneak out and run to school. I didn’t eat breakfast. Sometimes I ask myself how I deal with all of this. I mean, good grief, I’m only eleven years old!

…

During the 5^th grade science lesson, I gingerly and politically correctly explained human reproduction with the aid of the two models I had bought and had built with the children: The Visible Man and The Visible Woman.

The brilliant Magda raised her hand. I remember thinking, “Oh, no.”

—Mr. Bedrock, when you get twins, is it because there are two sperms and two eggs or can one sperm fertilize two eggs?

—Uh, can I answer that tomorrow?

I called Magda’s equally brilliant and progressive mother and asked permission to show Magda a video clip on the computer that explained and illustrated the difference between fraternal and identical twins. She consented.

However, I found myself incapable of preventing the rest of the class from also viewing the video.

…

Stefanie was proud of being Dominican, the little chauvinist. She was also proud of being the smartest kid in the class and the teacher’s pet, something I heatedly denied although it was true.

What made her my favorite was her ferocity in learning and her unabashed delight when she “got it”.

I had demonstrated equivalent fractions using manipulatives--small plastic disks cut into two parts, three parts, four parts, six parts, or eight parts. Now I was trying to explain how to add or subtract fractions by finding a common denominator.

—Give us one more example —demanded Stefanie.

—OK. Say you want to add one half and one third. What’s the smallest number that can be divided by both two and three?

—Six —said Stefanie almost before I had said “three”.

—So how many sixths are equivalent to one half?

—I got it! —shouted Stefanie— I got it!

She began speaking Spanish like an “ametrelladora”—a machine gun, to the other children in our bilingual class. Pretty soon, everyone was saying, “Comprendo, comprendo.”

—Give us some more problems to solve!

Every class should come with a Stefanie.

AFTER BERNIE

What will Happen to the 'Political Revolution' When Hillary Wins the Nomination?

by Scott McLarty

The question needs to be asked. What will Bernie Sanders’ supporters do when “We need a political revolution” inevitably turns into “We must vote for the lesser evil”?

It seems like bad manners to bring up the likelihood that Mr. Sanders will lose to Hillary Clinton in the primaries, when so many progressive voters are waxing enthusiastic about his decision to run for the Democratic nomination.

The fate of progressive Dem contenders like Jesse Jackson and Dennis Kucinich in previous election years permits us to offer some prognostications.

Here’s what the Sanders campaign will do: Bernie will raise important issues and introduce urgent ideas like the need for income equality and restraints on the power of corporations. He’ll compel Hillary to talk about these things, perhaps leading her to withhold public endorsements for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the tarsands pipelines. He may help reverse the belief that socialism is a dirty word, a legacy of the Cold War and a generation of bipartisan rhetorical disdain for Big Government.

Here’s what the Sanders campaign won’t do: Bernie won’t win the nomination. He’ll have little or no influence on Hillary or the Democratic Party after he’s out of the race by late spring 2016.

The last thing Democratic Party leadership wants is a political revolution. It will do all it can to insulate itself and Hillary from Bernie’s influence. Ms. Clinton can declare that , but the One Percent have little to worry about from a pol who takes $200,000 speaking fees from Goldman Sachs.

For the Democratic National Committee, the main value of the Sanders campaign is that he’ll keep many progressive voters inside the Dem fold. Bruce Dixon, writing in Black Agenda Report, calls this the “sheepdog” effect.

Will this happen again in 2016? What kind of revolution is possible when its most ardent revolutionaries declare “I supported Bernie in the primaries, but now we have to back Hillary so a Republican doesn’t win”?

The pattern of past progressive Democratic defeats is likely to be replicated in 2016. Revolution will be DOA, at least within the Democratic Party, and progressives will participate in their own marginalization in a party that takes their votes for granted.

The Democratic Party and its leaders compete fiercely with the GOP for corporate campaign checks, while they feel little pressure to satisfy the demands of voters on the left whose support they already believe they can count on.

In an election year with anticipated billion-dollar campaign war chests, Bernie Sanders will not change this dynamic. His supporters can either capitulate to the Clinton juggernaut — or they can find another way to revolt at the electoral level.

Is Another World Possible?

Revolution requires more than a personnel change in higher office. It means changing the whole political landscape. If we want to alter the political landscape of the U.S., we must first address the fact that it’s dominated by two parties of war and Wall Street.

Both parties are sustained by money from corporate PACs and the One Percent. Neither party is capable of solving what we can call the four crises of the 21st century: (1) the unfolding climate catastrophe; (2) the new Robber Baron economy, with a shrinking middle class, shredded safety nets for working people and the poor, privatization of the public sphere, and a corporate oligarchy with sufficient power to make government its subsidiary; (3) the national-security/mass-incarceration state, with for-profit prison-industrial and homeland-security feeding troughs, runaway police and prosecutorial power, and appalling racial disparities in arrests and sentencing; (4) a belligerent foreign policy under which the U.S. may unilaterally attack any nation at will to assert political hegemony and control over resources.

The combination of these crises promises an era of deteriorating quality of life, increasing debt, eroded rights and freedoms, lawless militarism, and (if climate-change forecasts are correct) social breakdown. The danger they pose now can be compared with the rise of totalitarian states and the Cold War’s nuclear menace during the 20th century.

The income inequality that informs today’s Robber Baron economy, accelerating since the Reagan Revolution, recalls the unrestrained plutocracy of the first Robber Baron Era in the late 19th century and the reckless greed of the 1920s that triggered the Great Depression. President Obama’s secretly negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership and similar trade pacts represent giant leaps forward for the current expansion of plutocracy.

Despite obvious differences, the Democratic and Republican party mainstreams are on the wrong side of the four crises. Both parties are driving us in the same direction. The lesser-evil rationale for remaining loyal to the Dems is simply a wager that the GOP will drive us off the cliff a few years earlier.

Progressives like to say “Another world is possible.” Another world won’t happen by investing hopes in Democratic also-rans. Progressives have been pledging to rehabilitate the Democratic Party for decades. They’ve gotten nowhere.

We need a political revolution, but it will have to come from outside of the two-party establishment, as all political revolutions in the U.S. have in the past.

Abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, the eight-hour workday, workers’ rights, workers’ benefits, public schools, unemployment compensation, the minimum wage, child labor laws, direct election of senators, Social Security and Medicare, civil rights for Blacks and other disenfranchised peoples: all of these have something in common. They were introduced by movements and parties independent of the two ruling parties and adopted later by one or both of the latter.

The Populist, Progressive, and Socialist parties led the revolts against the Robber Barons of their time, bringing their ideas to the table that enabled the Progressive Era’s restraints on corporate power and President Roosevelt’s New Deal. FDR knew that failure to take action would have resulted in the defection of millions of Democrats to left parties. In the 1850s, the anti-slavery Republicans replaced one of the major parties.

The near-disappearance of third parties on the left in the latter part of the 20th century is one of the great unmentioned reasons for the triumph of the right wing in both major parties. It explains the disappearance of big progressive ideas in the Democratic Party like the New Deal and President Johnson’s Great Society and War on Poverty. (“Bridge to the 21st Century” and “Change We Can Believe In” are slogans, not programs. Obamacare, based on the individual mandate, a gift to the private insurance industry cribbed from the rightwing Heritage Foundation, can hardly be called progressive.)

Democratic politicians assumed that they’d continue to enjoy progressive support regardless of their retreats and capitulations. Progressives proved them correct.

Declaring Independence

No Democratic candidate, progressive or otherwise, is going to admit that change requires ending exclusive rule by the two corporate-money parties. This is the conundrum of the Sanders campaign. As a socialist elected to the U.S. Senate on an independent ballot line, Mr. Sanders affirms the historical importance of independent politics. He repudiates it by running for the Democratic nomination.

Mr. Sanders could easily use his campaign to challenge the pervasive myth about third-party spoiling and suggest ways to make elections fairer and more open to alternative-party participation. He’d have the authority of his own status as an independent socialist and it would be an important part of the political revolution. He should be challenged to do so.

The only way a presidential candidate can help build a lasting alternative to the Ds and Rs is by running on an alternative party ticket — promoting the party and its down-ticket candidates, advocating the party’s platform and principles, helping the state parties achieve ballot access, uniting various movements under an umbrella where they won’t have to compete with K Street lobbyists for influence.

Eugene Debs and the Socialist Party understood this a hundred years ago. The Green Party understands it now. The Green Party’s nominee will remain in the race long after Mr. Sanders’ defeat in the primaries.

It’s not realistic to believe Mr. Sanders will launch an independent run after he loses in the primaries, as some of his supporters haveproposed. Aside from the fact that he has already rejected competing against the Dem nominee, state ballot-access rules would make it impossible for him to win ballot lines. Furthermore, unless they’re victorious, independent campaigns are dead ends. They leave no legacy beyond the percentage of votes they receive.

There are good reasons to support Bernie Sanders for the Dem nomination. There are also good reasons to favor Hillary Clinton over a GOP nominee who’ll represent a party steeped in irrationalism and extremism.

But voting for the Democratic nominee will ultimately rubber-stamp the two-party status quo and toss the prospect of political revolution into the Dem quicksand into which all progressive ideals disappear.

There’s no hope of reversing the country’s dangerous direction within the confines of the Democratic Party. If his supporters throw their post-primary support to Ms. Clinton, who’s likely to be even more One Percent-friendly than President Obama, Bernie Sanders’ political revolution will be over.

The real political insurgence will continue elsewhere, in movements like 15 Now, Black Lives Matter, new incarnations of Occupy Wall Street, 350.org, anti-pipeline and anti-war protests, single-payer advocacy groups, and those who fight for the rights of the poor, and electorally in alternatives like the Green Party.

Will Bernie Sanders and his supporters remain part of the revolution, or will they succumb to progressive OCD and jump on the Clinton bandwagon in 2016?

(Scott McLarty is media coordinator for the Green Party of the United States. He lives in Washington, D.C. Courtesy, CounterPunch.org)

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The real issues of this election can’t be spoken out loud. Our system of corporate finance capitalism, now metastasized to a global level, is collapsing. This shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone. The past 30 years of US policy has been a series of ad hoc responses to the collapse of this system. The collapse of this system has been clearly visible and anticipated for well over a century, and those who predicted it have been tarred as “Marxists” and dismissed with facile gestures.

Well, yes. Marx remains the economist who has come closest to nailing it when it comes to finance capitalism. Every other theorist has been reacting to Marx’s work, trying to come up with an alternate theory that works. Their theories don’t work, and those theorists resort to objections about State Intervention, Cronyism, and all the various reasons finance capitalism doesn’t work. Marx’s understanding of what our system has become includes all of these easily foreseen factors. Those factors are inevitable consequences of the mounting failure of the finance system; not causes of it.

Too bad Marx was such a horse-bleep political theorist, and had such a rosy view of human nature.

Our system requires infinite growth. It’s based on money lent at interest. Why would anyone take out a loan today that requires paying back more money tomorrow and next year? Only because they think they will have that more money then. Only because they think their own economy will expand. At the largest level, that requires unlimited energy, resources, markets, and money. We live on a finite planet. Of the 4 inputs, only money can be made unlimited, and that only by making it abstract.

So our system has hit its easily-understood limits, and all we’ve been doing for 30+ years is pretending we don’t know this, while stalling and temporizing while the elites do what they can to consolidate their current advantage and protect it into the inevitable transition to whatever our next economic system will turn out to be. The system isn’t collapsing because of the corruption; the corruption, cronyism, market-rigging and everything else are responses to the ongoing collapse; attempts to wring out the last droplets of power and wealth before everyone else catches on and the system openly stops working.

This affects Foreign Policy as well. Unspoken in the MSM are the reasons for US involvement in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and the rest. Short answer: to control the global flow of energy. The US doesn’t have the personnel or inclination to simply occupy all the sources of energy and trade routes that energy has to traverse, but instead is using proxies and intentionally-created violence and chaos to prevent any potential rival from having any control over their sources of energy.

The enemies are Russia, China, and the EU. Look at an atlas. Where is the US fighting the “War on Terror?” Around the perimeters of those identified rivals.

Read Zbigniew Brzezinski’s “The Grand Chessboard.” It was published in 1996 so it’s a little dated. It’s only about 130 pages. It’s written in a fairly turgid, uninspired voice, but it doesn’t keep any secrets. In a paragraph the notion that America shouldn’t aspire to global Empire is disposed of, and the rest of the book is about how the US should proceed to conquer, coerce, co-opt and dominate Eurasia.

That’s the issue facing the USA. How to control global energy and therefore any potential rivals to US global Empire, while maintaining our status as the only country that can exert military force anywhere on the globe at any time without cooperation; and how to do it before and as our economic system implodes.

No wonder Hillary and JEB and the other cretins, demagogues, pimps and sociopaths can’t talk about anything that makes any damned sense. They can’t talk about the one single over-riding issue that faces America today, so nothing else they talk about will be the least bit relevant.

‘THE DEATH OF MARILYN MONROE’

The ambulance men touched her cold

body, lifted it, heavy as iron,

onto the stretcher, tried to close the

mouth, closed the eyes, tied the

arms to the sides, moved a caught

strand of hair, as if it mattered,

saw the shape of her breasts, flattened by

gravity, under the sheet

carried her, as if it were she,

down the steps.

These men were never the same. They went out

afterwards, as they always did,

for a drink or two, but they could not meet

each other's eyes.

Their lives took

a turn--one had nightmares, strange

pains, impotence, depression. One did not

like his work, his wife looked

different, his kids. Even death

seemed different to him--a place where she

would be waiting,

and one found himself standing at night

in the doorway to a room of sleep, listening to a

woman breathing, just an ordinary

woman

breathing.

— Sharon Olds

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I’m surprised no one yet has mentioned that an hour or so ago Donald Trump announced he’s running for president. This man with an unquenchable ego is such an ass. He cannot speak without throwing in a brag line every minute or two. Too bad. It is such a turn off to normal human beings.

But even so, he is a more powerful and charismatic speaker than the weak and fawning Jeb. Yesterday Jeb was preparing to speak before an obviously hand-selected audience. I looked up from my computer monitor to my muted TV and Jeb had just arrived at the podium. The hand-selected crowd was cheering wildly. For a good two or three minutes the crowd cheered. I read Jeb’s lips saying “thank you” several times as he smiled, hunched his shoulders slightly and cocked his head self-deprecatingly to one side. How sickening.

That was all I needed to see to know that I could never vote for this man…just as I knew within one minute of watching Bill Clinton speak back in the ’90s, I could never vote for him. The biting of the lower lip, which I guess was supposed to convey great sincerity, was the killer.

UKRAINE IN A NUTSHELL: Ukraine became a failed state due to a coup d’état engineered by Barack Obama’s state department. US policy wonks did not like the prospect of Ukraine joining Russia’s regional trade group called the Eurasian Customs Union instead of tilting toward NATO and the European Union. So, we paid for and enabled a coalition of crypto-fascists to rout the duly elected president. One of the first acts of the US-backed new regime was to declare punishment of Russian language speakers, and so the predominately Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine revolted. Russia reacted to all this instability by seizing the Crimean peninsula, which had been part of Russia proper both before and through the Soviet chapter of history. The Crimea contained Russia’s only warm water seaports and naval bases. What morons in the US government ever thought Russia would surrender those assets to a newly-failed neighbor state?

— James Kunstler

ART QUILT SHOW

Mendocino County Library, Ukiah Branch presents:

Summer Color SplasH—an Art Quilt Show

Ukiah Library is proud to present “Summer Color SplasH,” the annual art quilt exhibit created by members of the Mendocino Quilt Artists and the Rag Tag Quilters. The quilts will be on display from July 7^th through Septemb er 14^th at Ukiah Branch Library, 105 N Main St, Ukiah.

Library hours are Tuesday through Thursday, 10-8 pm, Friday & Saturday, 10-5 pm, and Sunday from 1-5 pm. The library is closed on Mondays.

WE'VE MOVED!

On June 15, 2015 the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office relocated the Willits Substation to 470 East Valley Street in Willits, California. A dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony, open to public attendance, will take place at the new substation on 06-18-2015 at 2:00 PM with a Sheriff's Office K9 demonstration following thereafter.

HUGE ALGAE BLOOM CLOSES COAST FISHERIES

The current outbreak is the worst toxic algal bloom in more than a decade, stretching from California’s Central Coast to Washington, and possibly to Alaska, officials say.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4071726-181/west-coast-toxic-algae-bloom