Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Nov 17, 2015

• Jamai Injured
• Try Keegan
• Lawyer Fined
• Cockamamie County
• Bigger Doosh
• Toy Drive
• Grange Drama
• Crisis Point
• Nugent Blame
• Postal Banking
• 7,000 Logs
• Intoxicated Female
• Project Santa
• Anonymous Threat
• True Believers
• Yesterday's Catch
• Obsequious Headline
• ISIS Supporters
• Library Events

A LOUCHE CHARACTER calling himself Jamai Gayle was badly injured when, westbound, he piled into a redwood tree off Highway 128 near Navarro Saturday night. Gayle's dog was killed on impact. Gayle, a resident of Albion, was airlifted to Santa Rosa where he was arrested in the hospital for driving under the influence. The mysterious disappearance of Gayle's girlfriend — last seen at the Rollerville Cafe near Point Arena — is under investigation by the Sheriff's Department.

THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY of the murder of Susan Keegan by her husband, Dr. Peter Keegan, has come and gone. But how can you say Keegan is the killer? Because Susan Keegan's death certificate says her cause of death was homicide and the doctor was the only person in the Keegan home when the homicide occurred. And the doctor did not offer the police any explanation for his wife's death beyond she was drinking and fell and hit her head in the bathroom. Which I also don't believe because Mrs. Keegan was not the kind of person who would come at 10pm and commence drinking herself into a stupor.

DA EYSTER inherited the Keegan case. His predecessor, the feckless Meredith Lintott, did not press an investigation of the Keegan murder. Eyster went after it, and it is no exaggeration to say that everyone in his office, all his investigators, are convinced Dr. Keegan murdered his wife of thirty years.

WHY NO PROSECUTION? Because the Sheriff's Department's first responders did not treat Mrs. Keegan's death as a possible crime scene. They simply took the doctor's word for what happened and went away. The case for homicide was developed after Eyster took office, but by then the case had gone so cold it could not be plausibly revived to take to a jury, which is what the DA says. But Susan's many friends, and yours truly, think the doctor should be tried based on the known facts. Many people have been tried for murder on much flimsier evidence than exists here. (cf Tate Laiwa)

SUSAN'S stalwart friends write on the Justice For Susan website: "Five years ago today, Susan Keegan died in her home after spending the day visiting friends, attending an art class, and planning her post-divorce future. As is well-known to the many readers of this blog [and the ava], her husband had been filled with rage about her legal rights to half the family assets; gone “ballistic” in a divorce mediator’s office [Norman Rosen] the day before she died; and hired a defense attorney [Keith Faulder] one day afterwards. Susan’s death was declared a homicide in 2012 and Dr. Keegan remains the only suspect in the case.

"IN MENDOCINO COUNTY and beyond, hundreds of people who knew Susan, and thousands who did not, still don’t understand why charges have not been filed. The DA has never made a public statement about the case, except to say, year in and year out, that it remains under investigation. When a case is open, the DA is allowed to keep the evidence out of sight – no autopsy report, no photographs, no investigatory notes, no interview records, no toxicology report can be released. The search warrants in the case – at least two visits were made to the Keegan home in the years after Susan’s death – are sealed. Freedom of Information Act requests will be denied.

"WHAT EVIDENCE led law enforcement authorities to officially call Susan’s death a homicide, and why have they failed to act on what they know? Why won’t the DA’s office convene a grand jury to consider the strength of the evidence, and allow the legal system to work as intended? Why won’t the DA talk to the community he is elected to protect, and explain the inaction of the past five years?

“WITHOUT ANSWERS to these most basic questions, rumors fill the gap. A healthy civil society needs institutions that work. A credible system of law enforcement functions without fear or favor to protect the innocent, give suspects their day in court, and punish guilty parties. Susan, offbeat though she was, believed in those principles. Five years on, the pain of her loss has not diminished for her family and friends. But what it has done to the community at large may be even more damaging: the passage of so much time without a prosecution has created a platform for cynics."

I KNOW a lot about the Keegan case I'm not supposed to know, and I'm here to tell you that any jury of fair minded people, and thank the goddess for the jury system because juries are fair minded (it's the g.d. lawyers and judges you gotta watch out for) would do the right thing and convict Dr. Keegan of murder. Come on, we've got a death certificate that reads “homicide” with one suspect but no prosecution? As Susan's friends keep saying, take the facts to a grand jury. If it says there's not enough evidence for a prosecution, Dr. Keegan gets away with murder. What's to lose for DA Eyster? The doctor has already gotten away with it for five years now, and this case is not going away until it is resolved. I'm hardly the only person outraged at Susan Keegan's murder. She was a good person, and even if she were a bad person it isn't right to let her killer off the hook.

ALDERPOINT POT LAWYER, excuse the redundancy, Ed Denson, was fined $500 in Judge John Behnke’s court Monday morning for what the judge called “gamesmanship” and what District Attorney David Eyster called “sandbagging” in the case of Brian Woodson. Denson was in court last Thursday for pretrial motions (Motions in Limine) and asked for more time because his star witnesses, Dr. William Courtney, and self-certified pot expert Chris Conrad were not available. The no shows should have been taken care of long before, and there were other signs the lawyer had been hitting the bong to the point he was couch-ridden during working hours. The DA objected that he hadn’t even been given notice that these witnesses were going to be called — the law requires reciprocal discovery in reference to witnesses and a timely notification to the other side by both parties, at least 30 days before trial. This hadn’t been done by Denson. Then as the trial was supposed to be getting under way Monday morning, the DA said that more last-minute discovery from defense had been faxed to his office over the weekend. This was so out of line that the judge had half a mind to go ahead with the trial and refuse to allow any of the defense’s witnesses. He said he’d done this before and the appeals court had upheld his ruling but in this case, his honor felt it would be punishing the defendant who was not responsible for Denson's laxity in following the rules, so he asked for other suggestions. The DA suggested Denson pay a $1000 fine. Judge Behnke liked this idea but only imposed half of the suggested amount. “Was there any defense discovery provided to the DA?” Behnke asked. “Only some pictures of some cows,” Eyster responded. After viewing the cow photos the judge said it was the only part of the whole mess he’d enjoyed. It used to be assumed that things put off indefinitely were like waiting for the cows to come home, meaning that unless somebody went and got them, they probably never would …come home. (— Bruce McEwen)

DENSON is an old crackpot become an attorney at a late age. I think he ran some kind of half-assed music business with uber crook Darryl Cherney before he passed the bar, and given the guy's natural intelligence the test has clearly been dumbed wayyyyyy down. I tangled with him over the Bari Bombing case years ago. Naturally, Denson took the Bari Cult position, a position which obtains to this day at Humboldt County's stoner venues, notably KMUD Radio where dissenting opinions were never allowed on the matter while hours were devoted to grand conspiracies involving (of course) the FBI, corporate timber (natch), men resentful of "strong" women (o yea), religious nuts (never forget to drag them in) and so on. In other words, everybody except the ex-husband, the person who actually did the bombing. I always wanted to get a one on one or a one on all with Denson-think but these people don't do debate. They know the truth about all things. Clearly Denson is an incompetent attorney, as his latest dereliction establishes beyond all doubt. But in Southern Humboldt the guy's regarded as Supreme Court material.

AS SOME locals are aware, the ava collective has bought the empty lot next door to the Redwood Drive-In. We are "developing" it, and making note of every staggering step in the unreasonably cumbersome process as we go. Coupla quick examples: Just this week the county's Department of Planning and Building rep failed to appear in Boonville for a two-minute check-off. Planning and Building had the nerve to blame us for the no-show while tacitly acknowledging we'd made the appointment electronically, as the Department asks people to do. The contractor had driven from Lake County only to stand around for four hours waiting for Planning and Building to appear. Which they finally did, but wouldn't have if we hadn't called to ask where they were.

EXAMPLE DOS: The deal was no sooner done than we received a property tax bill for $2,247.04 addressed, natch, to a street address that was off a digit. The previous owners had not paid the tax. We feared we were paying their bill because the bill we received frequently mentioned "lien" in its garbled text.

I CALLED the tax collector's office. I imagined a languid hand reluctantly reaching for the phone. I didn't have to imagine the hauteur, bordering on insolent, in the voice of the woman explaining that the bill had to be paid prior to the new year. "You dare to ask me a question?" That was the attitude. I won't bore you with the details, but if I weren't an anarchist already, I'd become one.

SINCE I'm represented by Dan Hamburg I'm clearly being taxed without representation, but it is what it is, as the young people say. And what it is is a process designed to milk the sap who buys land in this benighted, cockamamie county out of every conceivable penny to support, well, I'd have to take my apoplexy pills to even begin discussing that.

"HARD to tell from this who the bigger doosh is likely to be," a remark overheard at Mosswood Cafe in response to a Press Democrat story headlined, "Tesla driver suspected of striking Hwy. 1 cyclist in road-rage incident."

NOVEMBER MIRACLE

by Greg Krouse

Last Thursday November 12th, the National convention of Grangers turned around a nasty National-State fracas that has been disrupting the state of California since 2009. Then National Master (President) Ed Luttrel initiated trump up bylaw infringements against popular California State Master Bob McFarland. This initial challenge was implemented with an order from Master Luttrel for McFarland not to reveal that he was temporarily not in charge at California’s annual state convention. Ironically there was a high turnout of delegates, who reelected McFarland for their leader and replaced a few Executive board members of which they are five. It is disconcerting to know that this National Master disregarded the delegate’s democratic capacity with secrecy, but further to discover he spun his directive to say later that McFarland chose not to disclose his punishment.

McFarland is a very popular charismatic leader. He readily talks to old timers and newbies, finding middle ground for them in a ritualistic order that often newbies fail to understand. McFarland had been using his membership drive skills to turn around a bad trend in Granges of losing membership and halls being sold. It is ironic that one of the bylaw infringements had to do with a dying Grange, McFarland resurrected and is now over 100 members strong. He was and has been growing granges, reopening halls and finding way to stimulate interest in a fraternal rural order that was created in 1867 to help farmers and rural folks socialize and solve rural problems. In the founding, Grangers used their secret fraternal process to fight fiscally oppressive railroad barons. The winning of this lobbying campaign and incredible growth of Grange throughout the US created the Populist movement. Grangers continued their lobbying to bring power, phones, insurance and other key needs to rural people and create farming cooperatives. The Grange AKA Patrons of Husbandry, waned as years passed and the order became conservative and less progressive and farmers left for the Farmer’s Bureaus and continued representation. It is the populist history and the focus on farming that the current localization movements have discovered Granging and its halls fit well. It is thought that the new populist leaning with very liberal views of California, focusing on GMO labelling, Glyphosate (Round up) danger and other campaigns has stimulated a backlash from National’s more conservative leadership. However, the National Master Luttrel has attacked State Grange of Wyoming and destroyed it prior to his attack on California.

The executive board of the California State Grange (CSG) is an elected body, and it decided in 2009 that the bylaw infringements did not merit the action directed by Master Luttrel and support Master McFarland’s decision to stay in office and demand a fair review. National’s response was threats of revocation of charter, revocation of the charter, demands that the CSG not meet at its 2011 convention, a superior court law suit against the CSG and its officers, and the creation of a new charter of a State Grange in California. The CSG has met every year, voted in officers, reelected McFarland, and new resolutions to pursue at the state level. At a convention in 2012, the State delegates rewrote their bylaws per the decision of National to revoke its relationship, to deal with inappropriate details resulting from its lack of relationship with National. In this convention delegates unanimously decided that they wanted to reconcile and rejoin National as soon as possible. Master Luttrel interpreted this action as a stepping away and claimed that CSG had willfully left National, even though he had revoked California’s charter. He used this misinterpretation to win election two years ago by one vote.

Recent court actions have resulted in millions of membership money being spent to attack the state grange resulting in a temporarily judgement of loss of name (Grange) on the state level and possible loss of offices and funds secured from state membership to give to the new Chapter. Granges were threatened to lose their granges if they did not shift to the new chapter. At the recent CSG convention 165 of the original 185 individual grange, decided to stand together with their democratically elected officers to what would be called the November Miracle and the appeal case. An insidious process of minor fracturing was occurring as some granges were considering moving to the other chapter out of fear. The tension on a crisp November 12 was very high.

At 10 AM Midwestern time the first round of votes for National Master left Ed Luttrel out of the running. There was hope for a popular Washington State President/Master. In the second round a very important change happened. Past Executive Committee member Betsy Huber was elected the first woman Master of the National Grange. Why is it so important? The Grange has always been open to woman and men in offices since the founding committee had a pivotal woman on it and yet had never elected a woman to lead. Now Master Huber had challenged then leader Luttrel for attacking California and wanted him to stop spending money to fight it. She was removed from her office at that time.

A clear message was being made at the National convention: no more of the unfraternal attacks of unseated National Master, Ed Luttrel and the clear support of one who wants to solve the problem. It was a November Miracle for Grangers.

The Grangers of California do not know how to resolve the mess created by Ed Luttrel. They will need directives of the new Master Huber to do this, but an incredible amount of tension has been released.

The Granges of California have grown together in this fight and they have scrutinized their rules and will change things and lobby for changes in their National order. There is still a bit of dissonance amongst granges, but I think the healing principles of a strong fraternal order will guide grangers to tolerate and respect one another. The main precepts of the order are Faith, Hope, Charity and Fidelity. Through this difficult history of California Granging, it is clear Grangers have had to hold close to those precepts and as a result have persevered.

THERE ARE NO SAFE PLACES

by James Kunstler

I’m not persuaded that world opinion will ever “make sense” of the Paris attacks. The non-linear rules the day. So-called Fourth Generation Warfare works because there are so many small arms loose in the world and any band of maniacs with a few machine guns and a pound of Semtex plastic explosive can create the equivalent of a war zone in a given locality.

As for the French military, the obvious first move was to bomb the ISIS “stronghold” of Raqqa. But haven’t the US and Russian air forces been doing exactly that for some time now? Either they’ve already bombed the place and everything in it to gravel, or air power is not what it’s cracked up to be — and we have plenty of reason to believe the latter after a decade of selectively pounding jihadists from Afgahnistan to Libya with nothing to show for it except a refugee crisis.

One thing seems assured: hard-line governments are coming soon. Politically, the West had boundary problems that go way beyond the question of national borders to the core psychology of modern liberalism. When is enough of anything enough? And then, what are you really willing to do about it? The answer lately among the Western societies is to do little and do it slowly.

The behavior of college administrators and faculties in the USA these days is emblematic of this cowardly dithering. Intellectual despotism reigns on campus and the university presidents roll over like possums. They don’t have the moral strength to defend free speech as the campus witch-hunts ramp up. The result will be first the intellectual death of their institutions (brain death), and then the actual death of college per se as a plausible route to personal socioeconomic development. The financial racketeering that has infected higher education — the engineering of the gargantuan college loan scam in tandem with the multiplication of “diversity” deanships and tuition inflation — pretty much guarantees an implosion of that system.

The cowardice in the college executive suites is mirrored in our national politics, where no persons of real standing will dare step forward to oppose the juggernaut of Hillary-the-Grifter, or take on the clowning Donald Trump on the grounds of his sheer mental unfittedness to lead a government. In case you haven’t noticed, the center not only isn’t holding, it gave way some time ago. The long emergency is showing signs of morphing into something like civil war. The Maoists on campus apparently want to turn it into race war, too.

So many forces are in motion now and they are all tending toward criticality. The European Union may not survive the reestablishment of boundaries, since it was largely based on the elimination of them. Spain and Portugal are back to breaking down politically again. The Paris bloodbath has discredited Angela Merkel’s plea for “tolerance” — of what is proving to be an intolerable alien invasion. The only political figure on the scene who doesn’t appear to be talking out of his ass is Vlad Putin, who correctly stated at the UN that undermining basic institutions around the world was not a good idea.

None of this is good, either, for a global economy constructed around long, hyper-complex, and fragile chains of obligation, the most critical being global finance and global energy lines. You think the Paris attacks were bad? Just wait until a few maniacs lob some explosives at the giant Ras Tanura oil refinery and shipping terminal on Saudi Arabia’s Persian Gulf coast. Imagine if that happens in the middle of winter, when Europe is freezing. Do you suppose the Big Brains in the Pentagon think about that? The West itself, including America, is a circus of soft targets. The softest ones are between our ears.

(James Kunstler’s third World Made By Hand novel is available! (The Fourth and final is finished and on the way — June 2016)

FOR AMERICA’S UNBANKED:

Re-establishing the Postal Savings Bank

by Ralph Nader

Fact: Tens of millions of Americans do not have a bank account. As a result, many of these Americans spend a reported $89 billion annually in interest and fees by using predatory services such as payday loan and check cashing services. It’s a perpetuating cycle of poverty in which the poor get poorer just by accessing their own money. Fortunately, there is an ideal solution staring us in the face. An important voice driving the conversation is Professor Mehrsa Baradaran of the University of Georgia Law School. Her excellent new book, How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation and the Threat to Democracy describes how, for decades, big banks have shed their social contract with the American public and transformed themselves into modern monstrosities which serve corporations and the wealthy and exploit or avoid the less affluent members of our society. Setting the stage with this historical context, Professor Baradaran makes a compelling case for a postal banking system which would greatly benefit millions of struggling “unbanked” Americans.

Predatory payday loan companies and check cashing services soared like hawks in the 1980’s to take advantage of communities where community banks and credit unions were displaced by the creep of large banking institutions. The payday lending industry now has more storefronts than McDonald’s and Starbucks combined. These alternative “fringe banks” charge outrageous interest rates and fees — millions of Americans turn to fringe banks each year, which allows them to bring in $40 billion a year in high-interest loans.

Where are the so-called large conventional banks? They are increasingly closing up shop in low-income areas. According to Bloomberg, from 2008 to 2013: “Banks have shut 1,826 branches…. and 93 percent of closings were in postal codes where the household income is below the national median.” If you are living in a low-income neighborhood, just finding a bank is difficult. In 1993, we released a detailed report offering strong evidence that 49 major mortgage lenders had engaged in racial redlining in violation of federal Fair Lending laws in 16 major U.S. cities. Redlining occurs when banks and other mortgage lenders either exclude minority neighborhoods from their “effective lending territories,” or substantially under-serve such neighborhoods.

The unbanked now pay up to 10 percent of their income just to use the money they have already earned. To put it into real world terms, an American family without a bank account, earning $25,000 a year spends about $2,400 of that income on interest and fees. To put it even more bluntly — that’s more than they spend on food! (This statistic includes the chance of unpredictable financial emergencies in which those in need turn to payday lenders to bail them out at huge interest rates — 50% of Americans need to borrow money for emergencies costing over $400.)

In her book, Professor Baradaran gives some real life examples: Tanya Burke, a single mother of two, racked up more than $2,000 of debt in fees and interest by taking out $600 from a payday lender to cover rent and unexpected medical costs for her son. Thelma Fleming, a mother and grandmother, took out a $300 loan to cover costs after losing one of her jobs. Forced to take out other loans to buy herself time, she ended up paying $2,500 over the course of ten months to pay back that initial $300 loan. These stories are far too common in America.

Until the 1970’s and 80’s, usury laws used to be in place to protect consumers by capping the maximum amount of interest that could be levied. Due to financial industry lobbying efforts, many states now have no usury caps (or there are ways around them.) This deregulation gave way to the enormous growth of the payday loan industry.

Another telling example from Professor Baradaran deals with a high wage earner who experiences a different borrowing outcome. “Steven” made some bad investments and could no longer afford his daily expenses. Luckily, he found a “miracle lender” who gave him very generous loans with low interest rates, saving him from financial ruin. “Steven” is, of course, America’s big banks. When the reckless banking industry was in financial duress, it received a sweetheart deal when the American taxpayers bailed it out. Millions of struggling Americans, like Tanya Burke and Thelma Fleming, are not afforded that same luxury — and the banks have not repaid the goodwill forward by respecting their needs.

This brings us to postal banking, which could help break the cycle of madness that keeps millions of Americans in financial quicksand.

From 1911 until 1967, the Postal Savings System offered simple savings accounts to Americans who preferred an alternative to a private bank. It was a successful system until the bank lobby forced its cessation. (In many foreign countries post offices still offer simple savings accounts with no fees and reasonable minimum balance requirements.)

The United States Postal Service (USPS), which unlike the banks has an obligation to serve all communities, has more than enough retail locations to serve all of these under-served consumers. Last year, the office of the USPS inspector general released a report detailing the ways in which postal banking would be beneficial to both the public and the USPS itself, which has been made to endure an unprecedented advanced payment of $103.7 billion by 2016 to cover future health benefits of postal retirees for the next 75 years. No other government or private corporation is required to meet this unreasonable prepayment burden.

While the USPS already offers some financial services such as money orders and international fund transfers, it could expand to include paycheck cashing, pre-paid debit cards, bill payments, ATMs, savings accounts and small dollar loans. The introduction of these services would offer millions of Americans a local, reliable and affordable alternative to managing their finances. With over 30,000 locations, Post Office branches are everywhere in America.

A notable supporter of postal banking is Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who has been a leading advocate on this issue. Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders also supports it, recently stating in an interview that “…the postal service, in fact, can play an important role in providing modest types of banking service to folks who need it.”

The time is ripe to implement postal banking. What is needed is a rising rumble from the people focused on Postmaster General Megan Brennan — who has the authority to act now on implementing surcharge free ATMS, payroll check cashing, bill-paying services and electronic money transfers — and on Congress to allow loans and other new services. For more on the issue and to find out how easy it is to get active and involved, visit The Campaign for Postal Banking.

To listen to Ralph’s in-depth conversation with Professor Mehrsa Baradaran go to ralphnaderradiohour.com.

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!

FROM THE KELLEY HOUSE MUSEUM - ON THIS DAY 115 YEARS AGO

On this day in 1900 logs were stacked on the banks of Big River waiting for high water in the river to float the logs down to the boom, where they could then be floated over to the mill. The mill had been closed for some time due to a lack of logs.

Finally, four days later, a high tide combined with storm waters from a heavy rain brought down 7,000 logs. These would provide for a lengthy sawing period.

The undated image shows logs stacked on the banks. Two loggers stand next to them for a sense of scale. The man in the front holds a baby in his arms.

(Courtesy, MendocinoSportsPlus)

ANOTHER CANDIDATE FOR MISS KATE’S FINISHING SCHOOL

On November 9th at about 5:00 pm, UPD officers were dispatched to Mendocino Ale House on Airport Park Blvd., for a report of an intoxicated female causing a disturbance. Upon arrival an officer immediately observed a female subject yelling at the bar tender. The female subject was identified as Keana Lintow age 20 of Ukiah. Lintow displayed the extreme signs of alcohol intoxication and was found to be too intoxicated to care for her safety or that of others. Lintow was placed under arrest for drunk in public and booked into county jail.

EDITOR:

If you would puleeze be a Good Guy and put this in your paper, it would be A Blessing! I need the support, please.

You do not have to believe in Santa, The Hanukah Fairy, The Indomitable Snowman, or Father Xmas or anything except LOVE. I am doing this for LOVE and I need your help to support this event!! I have not had a gig for many, many months, and this might be my last gig of the year. I want it to be A GOOD ONE. It is for a Very Good Cause. These folks (Project Santa) help so many around here! I need to have a Great Turnout!

Thanks for your support. Happy Holidays!! Love, Sister Y

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HOLIDAY DANCE PARTY

A BENEFIT FOR PROJECT SANTA

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015 - 7:00PM

AT BONES ROADHOUSE IN GUALALA

Celebrate the Holiday Season for a worthy cause - PROJECT SANTA. Your donation of fresh, non- perishable canned and dry food items to share with families in our area, will get you in the door.

Cash and checks made out to "Project Santa" are also very much welcomed.

Dance to the best Holiday tunes, plus all kinds of groovin' and rockin' music for head bobbing and body shaking, expertly mixed by DJ Sister Yasmin. Shake Your Groove Thang!

Bones holiday menu and specials will be offered until 10pm.

Ring in the Holiday season with good cheer and share with our community, by helping our local Elves and Angels, the good folks at Project Santa do their magic.

Information: 884-4703; 884-1188

THE "HACKTIVIST" group Anonymous has issued another threat to ISIS following Friday’s deadly attacks in and around Paris. “We are upping our game, you will now be hit by major cyber attacks,” the group said in a video message, per the Daily Mirror “We are furious with the repeated slaughter of innocent citizens in the name of a peaceful religion, you clearly don’t respect your beliefs,” the group also said in an online post. “And you clearly have no respect for human life and evolution. We are coming to get you; we will be hitting you harder than ever.”

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Despite my rep as a Campus Maoist (which would only be fun if one were actually Chairman Mao) I took a group of these morons on during the terrible events of 9/11/01. We watched the Trade Center collapse in stunned silence in a break room here.

I said, into that silence, “Al Qaeda just signed its death warrant. We’re going to war.”

The reaction was not about my wrongness (Al Qaeda is still with us and would not be defeated by overturning the Taliban government) but that I was leaping to “ethnocentric conclusions.”

I popped a rivet. I told the idiots that in 1989, I’d first read about a guy named Osama bin Laden, a Saudi playboy turned true-believer. He was getting US aid to kill Soviets, and the writer in Atlantic was talking about “blowback” from all that. I told them that our intellectuals were too busy with victim-politics to see that an evil they would not acknowledge was a work in the world: apocalyptic forms of Islam that were the greatest totalitarian threat to civilization since Hitler’s and Stalin’s terrors.

They dithered in response. I asked them who else could have staged simultaneous, well-planned attacks inside the US? And how could we stop more?

These morons are not asking the first of those questions today. But the second one looms pretty damned large.

The West helped to create this beast. Now what are we going to do about it, without becoming police states? We could nuke the Middle East from the Turkish Border to Cairo, from Aleppo to the Tehran, and we’d not touch the problems I saw simmering in the Paris and Marseilles suburbs in the 80s.

We are in for a long, bloody, genocidal war. I suspect that the French will be readier than we Americans to go beyond bombing that only makes the rubble bounce in Assad’s wrecked country.

CATCH OF THE DAY, November 16, 2015

YURIDIA AHUMADA, Fort Bragg. Domestic Assault.

ANTHONY BARLOW, Vallejo/Ukiah. Possession of hashish, suspended license.

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

KYLE MCNAMARA, Ukiah. Under influence, resisting.

MICHAEL PELKEY, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

CORY REBOLLEDO, Agoura Hills/Leggett. Possession of drug transaction proceeds.

ARRON ROBIN, Grass Valley/Ukiah. Domestic assault, child endangerment.

DAVID SCHAERF, Valley Glen/Leggett. Possession of drug transaction proceeds.

TREVOR TRUJILLO, Rohnert Park/Ukiah. DUI.

GUINNESS BOOK AWARD?

"Most obsequious front-page in a metropolitan daily..."

You'd think he was going to keep the team in Oaktown.

WRONG COUNTRY?

LIBRARY EVENTS

Teen Leadership Council / District Teens Space

Saturday, November 21st, 3-4 pm

Teens are invited to join the library’s Teen Leadership Council (TLC). Teen leaders can volunteer & apply for credit toward community service hours while building their résumés.

District Teens Leaders will gain valued skills & experience:

Collaborating to design our new teen space

Planning & organizing events

Recommending books & other materials for library purchase

Developing leadership & conflict-resolution skills

Contributing to the Ukiah community by expanding teen resources

Come and find out if this is the group for you!

Pizza will be provided.

For more information – please contact Melissa at the Ukiah Library: 467-6434 or carrm@co.mendocino.ca.us

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Share the Light

First Friday Art Walk

Friday November 6th, 5:00-7:30pm

Get in the swing of the holiday season with local Bluegrass band Gibson Creek, while creating a votive candle gift and enjoying delicious treats from Schat’s Bakery.

The Friends of the Ukiah Library Book Sale will be open from 4:30- 7:45pm on Friday and from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm on Saturday.