Mendocino County Today: Sunday, Dec 13, 2015

• Navarro Open
• Job Growth
• Budget Translation
• Cultivator Permits
• Outside Lawyers
• Sequiera Praised
• Lyme Layoffs
• Yesterday's Catch
• Best Buds
• Ochs 75
• MAC Records
• Police Theater
• Concussion Kerfuffle
• Climate Deal
• Gun Safe
• Unhinged Politics
• Defiant Donald
• HRC Wishes
• Full Moon
• Gabbs
• Marco Radio

HIGHWAY 128 IS OPEN to the coast. So is the River mouth.

The problem had been that the sand bar was so high that with the little bit of rain we got the water couldn't get out fast enough and it backed up to flood the road just upstream from the bridge.

Caltrans said that there was two feet of water on the Highway. I took the above picture of the now open mouth Saturday morning. (—David Severn)

MENDO JOB GROWTH for 2015. Out of the 550 jobs added to the county’s jobs in 2015 470 (more than 85%) of them were in government (including schools), according to the County’s latest Second Quarter budget summary. The budget summary makes no comment on this depressing number, nor on the extremely distorted picture it paints. So if you had any lingering doubt about what Official Mendo’s priorities are, you can be assured that in spite of the occasional blather about the importance of bringing business to the County, the numbers show that Official Mendo’s top priority is itself — and its generous perks and pensions for the upper echelons thereof.

HERE’S AN ANNOTATED SUMMARY of Mendocino County’s Mental Health Second Quarter Budget Summary (which actually covers only the first quarter, July-September 2015).”

“Budget Unit 4050 — Mental Health: Department is reporting that the first quarter revenue is below budget due to the delay in billing to the State. This delay was caused by the conversion of the Avatar system from the ICD 9 to the ICD 10 federal billing and an update to the CalPM Database as it relates to episodes [sic]. The ICD 10 conversion has been completed and tested with the State and the Department is currently processing October Administrative Services Organizations (ASO’s) billings. The Department is on schedule to update the database the week of 12/14 which, for the first time, will allow the possibility [sic] of electronic file upload of ASO billing information into Avatar and reduce manual entry issues.”

TRANSLATION: Techno BS to mask the real reasons for delayed (over)billing by providing an pseudo-explanation so loaded with meaningless jargon that nobody will dare ask what it means or why it happened. In fact, conversion of software should have been anticipated and the earlier billing system should not have been abandoned until the new one was working. You don’t just stop billing while you’re trying to change software systems. In fact, billing problems in Mental Health are an ongoing issue and have been for years. One of the main alleged reasons for privatizing mental health was to improve billing. They can’t admit that it did no such thing, so they’re blaming it all on a mysterious computer glitch. Right, sure. PS. Watch for next quarter when they’ll have to blame the newly implemented system’s quirks for continued billing delays.

“ADDITIONALLY, audit exceptions have caused the state to intercept $2.3 million of revenue to date. Department noted that the FY 2015-16 Budget includes a $2.3 million settlement owed to the Department from a FY 2006-07 Short Doyle/MediCal (SD/MC) Audit; when received the Department will be on track with their revenue as budgeted.”

HOW CONVENIENT. The state has taken away (“intercepted,” whatever that means) $2.3 million, but the settlement from 2006-7 (nine years ago!) just happens to be the same amount! So everything’s “on track.”

“THE DEPARTMENT anticipates a clearer picture at the end of second quarter.”

OH YES, always next quarter. (Note: We are now already less than two weeks short of the end of the second quarter.)

“THE BOARD will be presented with an update on the program review being done by Kemper Consulting Group in January, 2016.”

“AN UPDATE”? Isn’t it supposed to be over by now? What? It’s now being “done … in January 2016,” not when last month as they previously announced? So now the “program review” is taking so long they need an “update”? There’s a good chance the “update” will conclude that the program review — aka whitewash — will cost more than the $50k they initially budgeted. But that’s OK because the Mental Health budget is “on track”!

AND IF YOU WERE WONDERING how things are going with the new extremely burdensome planning for the state and the County’s implementation of the new pot permits (remember there are 17 different types of permits alone and all of them cost thousands of dollars to even file for them with no guarantee of not being arrested), here’s Mendo’s schedule of activities.

Notice that in spite of all the arrows pointing optimistically to the right, there’s no actual information or progress at all. Also notice that in March of 2016 they plan “upon adoption” (a very wishful iffy proposition in itself) that they will “prepare” to launch the pilot program including “outreach to cultivators.” See? Grape growers are “farmers,” and pot growers are “cultivators.”

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS $250,000 PROPOSAL?

(HINT: The County already has six full-time lawyers in the County Counsel’s office: Katharine L. Elliott, Rebecca L. Chenoweth, 
Matthew T. Kiedrowski
, Brina A. Latkin
, Doug V. Parker, 
George R. Valenzuela. And they all have middle initials!)

Agenda Item 4(e), Board of Supervisors meeting, December 15, 2015.

Agenda Title: Approval of Agreement with Thomas Law Group in the Amount of $250,000 for Legal Representation in SCUK-CVPT-15-66119, titled Animal Legal Defense Fund et. al. v. Mendocino County for Fiscal Year 2015-16

Previous Board/Board Committee Actions: On January 1, 2015 a fee/retainer agreement was entered into with [Sacramento-based] Thomas Law Group [http://thomaslaw.com/] for legal evaluation of Superior Court Case SCUK-CVPT-14-64916, titled Animal Legal Defense Fund et al v. Mendocino County.

(Tina Thomas, founder of Thomas Law Group, “practices law the same way she lives life outside her firm: with relentless drive, unshakable commitment, and intrepidity.” Apparently, despite the $1.4 million Mendo spends on the County Counsel’s office each year these days, Mendo lacks lawyers with intrepidity.)

Summary Of Request: On July 27, 2015, Petitioners Animal Legal Defense Fund et al. (ALDF) filed a Petition and Complaint for Writ of Mandate, Declaratory Relief, Injunctive Relief and Specific Performance. Thomas Law Group was initially retained for legal evaluation on a related case, which was subsequently settled. This new lawsuit contains similar allegations to the previous lawsuit, and utilizing Thomas Law Group would allow for uninterrupted legal services on this particular Superior Court case.

* * *

THIS IS THE LAWSUIT, in case you forgot, which suggested that the County use less lethal means of dealing with “predator” animals by discontinuing the controversial federal trapping service and replacing it with a locally controlled and managemd approach. Obviously, the ALDF didn’t think Mendo’s refusal to deal with the issue at the behest of a few remnant ranchers in the County was the end of the story. (PS. Several other NorCal counties have dropped the federal trapping service and adopted improved protocols and have not been sued. Not Mendo: We’re different, expensively so. Now, money that could have gone to developing and implementing improved methods will go to outside lawyers.)

http://aldf.org/press-room/press-releases/lawsuit-filed-against-mendocino-county-over-contract-with-rogue-federal-predator-control-program/

HIGH PRAISE FROM THE NORTH

Humboldt County borrowed Mendo prosecutor Paul Sequiera to put away a mad dog killer named Warren. A story in the Lost Coast Observer describes the reactions of family left behind by Warren's rampage.

".... worried that the defense attorneys might resort to manipulating or distorting the facts in the case and were relieved when that didn’t happen. A man named Seemann, whose wife was run over and killed by Warren, said he thought public defender Glenn Brown was honorable "and he offered even higher praise for Sequeira, a Mendocino County deputy district attorney who was brought in specifically to argue this case by Humboldt County’s current DA, Maggie Fleming. ‘It was great to see how systematic and organized he was,’ Seemann said. ‘Clearly a veteran, clearly he had a strategy. He adapted on the fly as testimony came out, and he was just able to wrap it all together.’ With help from DA investigators, and the behind-the-scenes leadership of Fleming, the office’s commitment to the case was clear, Seemann said."

IT'S NOT HARD from his picture to imagine Warren's origins in the usual squalid American nexus of poverty and parental dereliction that formed him. He was probably dangerous as an 8-year-old. There are armies of guys like this out there, with quite a few right here in cool-o, "progressive" Mendo. As children, the Warrens of America are gold mines for an army even larger than the damaged children that provides so many helping professionals with their handsome livings and who resist even the slightest, most obvious reform that might steer the Warrens of the world in a more wholesome direction.

A READER says that The Lyme Group did indeed purchase the Hawthorne timberlands (formerly Hawthorne Campbell, lately “Campbell Global, LLC, on behalf of Hawthorne Timber Company LLC”) and immediately laid off eight employees this week. Yikes, not a good start for our community.

CATCH OF THE DAY, December 12, 2015

FERNANDO DURAN, Willits. Possession of meth for sake, controlled substance and paraphernalia.

JOSE DURAN, Willits. Possession of meth for sake, controlled substance.

TYLER FIELDS, Redwood Valley. DUI, evasion.

AIDAN HEGARTY, San Francisco/Fort Bragg. Drunk in public, resisting, battery of peace officer, criminal threats.

ELIZABETH MCALLISTER, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JOSHUA RANO, Westport/Little River. DUI, suspended license, vandalism.

STEVEN SIMPSON, Ukiah. Possession of controlled substance and pot for sale, armed with firearm, ex-felon with firearm, suspended license.

LAURENCE SMITH, Ukiah. DUI.

BEST BUDS: Emerald Cup as reported in the PD

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/entertainment/4896644-181/emerald-cup-in-santa-rosa

* * *

I smoke two joints in the morning

I smoke two joint at night

I smoke two joint in the afternoon

It makes me feel all right

I smoke two joints in time of peace

And two in time of war

I smoke two joints before I smoke two joints,

And then I smoke two more

Daddy he once told me,

"Son, you be hard workin' man"

And momma she once told me,

"Son, you do the best you can"

Then one day I meet a man,

He came to me and said,

"Hard work good and hard work fine,

but first take care of head"

Whoa rock me to the night

Ja say

PHIL OCHS' 75TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Saturday December 19th, 7-9 P.M.

Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists' Hall
1924 Cedar @ Bonita
Telephone (510) 275-4272
Website: http://www.bfuu.org

LET'S HAVE IT

Subject: Press Inquiry
From: "Scott Peterson" <scottmartinpeterson@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, December 12, 2015 1:20 am
To: "MAC Board" <macboard@mcn.org>

Dear Ms. Shields,

I was recently contacted by Anderson Valley Advertiser contributor Malcolm MacDonald alleging certain 'negative' statements I'd made about you. As you may recall, my last inquiry was to obtain the following information: (1) the most recent Mendocino Art Center (MAC) 990 income tax return, (2) the most recent MAC State Registration Renewal Form (RRF), and, (3) the most recent MAC audit. Under IRS Code 501(c)(3), I'm entitled to all of this information. Please refer to the attached 990 tax return, wherein you promised -- under penalty of perjury -- to make this information available to members of the public on request. You never provided me with any of that information. Nor did you give me any explanation as to why it wasn't available. That was over a year ago. Also, please refer to my attached video comic strip titled, "Welcome to Mendocino - We've Got Magic". If you're not the person who's made MAC records disappear, then who is?

Scott M. Peterson, Mendocino

OUR SIDE

Editor,

As a retired cop, I'd like to weigh in on police use of force. Recent police shootings have left the public feeling angry and distrustful, and the police feeling alienated and unsupported. Misunderstanding plays a big part in the disconnect between the police and the public. While the public may not understand the realities of lethal force situations and force options, the police may not understand that the public won't simply accept or excuse every instance of lethal force because it was "legally justified."

They want to know that it was also reasonable and necessary. Let's try this: Have law enforcement and the public arrange meetings at local theaters and put some simulated scenarios on the big screen that portray reenactments of deadly encounter situations, like those that police train with in "shoot / don't shoot" exercises. Show scenes where certain tactics work and where they don't, the availability and prioritization of options, and in real time. Maybe both sides can then get a better understanding of each other's perspectives, and what can be done better in these cases.

Steve Aurilio, San Bruno

THERE IS NO ‘WAR ON FOOTBALL’

The idea that concussion research is a liberal conspiracy is toxic and will hurt kids. It has to stop.

by Dave Zirin

You would not have needed Jimmy the Greek to guess that December would see a cavalcade of pigskin pontificators defending their belief in the virile virtue of tackle football. The movie Concussion hits theaters on Christmas Day and will further expose for new audiences the National Football League’s history of malignant neglect of both brain science and the safety of the people we cheer on the field. The NFL is already gearing up for a massive public-relations response to the film because they are nervous, and they should be. The film is going to shine a light not just on the league but also on the work of the film’s protagonist, Dr. Bennett Omalu, played by Will Smith. Dr. Omalu is not waiting around to take advantage of this Hollywood-provided platform. He penned an op-ed in The New York Times Monday with the pithy title, “Don’t Let Kids Play Football.” He writes:

"If a child who plays football is subjected to advanced radiological and neurocognitive studies during the season and several months after the season, there can be evidence of brain damage at the cellular level of brain functioning, even if there were no documented concussions or reported symptoms. If that child continues to play over many seasons, these cellular injuries accumulate to cause irreversible brain damage, which we know now by the name Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or C.T.E., a disease that I first diagnosed in 2002."

Now the forces defending football are starting to amass. Dr. Julian Bailes, who was Omalu’s mentor responded that he thinks football is safe for kids. He also said, “We don’t know the prevalence of CTE. I have said and I believe that CTE is a risk in a minority of NFL players and hopefully in a group of players who are in a now bygone era, meaning that the reforms in the NFL that began in 2009, as a result of our work and others’ work, has resulted in sweeping changes.”

These debates are productive, and we should have more of them. We should also note the interests different debaters represent. Dr. Bailes is the medical director of Pop Warner football, which is tackle football for kids. In February, Debra Pyka sued Pop Warner on a wrongful death claim, after her son, Joseph Chernach, committed suicide at the age of 25. Chernach, who only played at the youth and high-school levels, was diagnosed with CTE during his autopsy. In a Boston University Study, 21 percent (four of 19) of brain autopsies on people who just played youth and high-school football, were found to have CTE. Dr. Bailes sharply critiqued the study on ESPN’s Outside the Lines, saying, “There’s absolutely no information on the number of concussions that the [study subjects] had in high school or college, or the severity of the concussions. I think what probably happened is lots of them get no concussions in youth, but three in high school, five in college and 10 in the NFL. They’re trying to say it’s the age of first exposure that is the problem, when it’s more likely cumulative exposure.”

Fine. Two scientists disagree. Dr. Bailes seems to have a rather blaring conflict of interest, but again, the more debate and more discussion about this issue, the better.

What is toxic — and what the NFL should pull the reins on right away — is this tweet from former backup quarterback and current ESPN national radio host Danny Kanell; a tweet that went viral and spawned an endless number of side discussions on social media. Kanell slammed the New York Times piece by Dr. Omalu and tweeted, “The war on football is real. Not sure source but concussion alarmists are loving it. Liberal media loves it. Doesn’t matter. It’s real.”

This tweet also launched Kanell into a series of debates with others (including me), where he further expounded on the snarkiness of liberals, the left-wing nature of the media pumping this up, and the “war” on the game he loves. It’s worth noting first off that Kanell is hardly breaking new ground with his view that there is a liberal “war on football.” From Rush Limbaugh to an even deeper depths in the right-wing fever swamps, the idea that their football is under coordinated attack by forces whose goal is “the wussification” of young boys has been a trope for so long that it has morphed into cliché. Think the “War on Christmas” with jock itch. Yet this is the first time, according to my own research, that someone backed by the ESPN brand has actually ascribed a political red state/blue state motivation to this rising tide of scientific data and the ensuing public concern.

Let’s not mince words: There is no war on football. There are individuals who have said the sport should be banned. But their words are drowned by a sport that has colonized our Sundays. It is like drawing the conclusion that there is a War on Christmas because you hear a store clerk say “Happy holidays.” The danger of concussions is real enough that the NFL has upended the protocols of its league so the world knows it has to take it seriously. Announcers now speak in hushed tones when there is a strong hit, like they are in the back pew of a funeral parlor. Players are quitting the game earlier so they can “remember the names” of their kids in 20 years. CTE is real, and the dangers of football are real. If the suicides of players like Dave Duerson, Junior Seau, and others haven’t sufficiently grabbed our attention, the ensuing autopsies and reams of research should. This is not a war on the game; it’s a world adjusting to settled science and trying to figure out how to make a game that will never be safe safer for the people we cheer.

The worst thing that could happen would be a replica of how the right attacks environmental data and treats its belief in quack science as a bizarre form of identity politics. If this happens to concussion research, we’ll see parents ignoring the risks of youth football because they think that’s just a way “libtards” control the “sheeple.” We’ll see high-school coaches sending players out on the field with preexisting cognitive issues because they are soldiers opposing “wussification,” or maybe their school is in “Trump country.” We need to defend the existing consensus about brain injury, concussions, and their connection to CTE, and we need to continue to push for more scientific data. To make this yet another tired partisan hot-potato does a disservice to everyone whose life has been hampered or destroyed by CTE, and gives undeserved cover to a league that for decades simply did not care, as their retired players suffered in silence.

PARIS CLIMATE DEAL: Nearly 200 nations sign in end of fossil fuel era

Two decades of talks have come to this: an ambitious agreement to hold states to emissions targets — but already low-lying countries are worried

by Suzanne Goldenberg, John Vidal, Lenore Taylor, Adam Vaughan and Fiona Harvey

Governments have signaled an end to the fossil fuel era, committing for the first time to a universal agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to avoid the most dangerous effects of climate change at crunch UN talks in Paris.

After 20 years of fraught meetings, including the past two weeks spent in an exhibition hall on the outskirts of Paris, negotiators from nearly 200 countries signed on to a deal on Saturday evening that set ambitious goals to limit temperature rise and to hold governments to account for reaching those targets.

After an anxious two-hour wait for the final plenary session to begin, Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, who was chairing the meeting, invited delegates to adopt the agreement. After looking up briefly, he brought down the gavel to widespread applause and cheering, signifying the deal had been formally agreed. “It is a small gavel but I think it can do a great job,” he said once the applause had died down.

François Hollande, the French president, appealed to negotiators to approve the 31-page text, and said countries had a rare chance to make history. “We are at a decisive point in time,” he said.

Fabius said: “It is my deep conviction that we have come up with an ambitious and balanced agreement. Today it is a moment of truth.”

The US president, Barack Obama, hailed the historic deal, tweeting:

“This is huge: Almost every country in the world just signed on to the #ParisAgreement on climate change — thanks to American leadership.”

Miguel Arias Cañete, the EU’s climate commissioner, said: “This is a success for the high ambition coalition”, referring to a group of more than 100 developed and developing nations pulled together by the EU and the leaders of some of the small island states, and those most vulnerable to climate change.

“This was the last chance [for the UN process],” he added, “and we have taken it.” He said that, with the agreement in place, the most important work now needed to be done. “Now it is about implementation. We need to have the policies. The EU has policies, and everyone needs to have policies [to put the agreement into practice].”

Al Gore, who was in the hall and appeared visibly moved when the agreement was gavelled in, said the accord would have a powerful effect on the economy.

“This universal and ambitious agreement sends a clear signal to governments, businesses, and investors everywhere: the transformation of our global economy from one fueled by dirty energy to one fueled by sustainable economic growth is now firmly and inevitably underway,” Gore said in a statement.

“No agreement is perfect, and this one must be strengthened over time, but groups across every sector of society will now begin to reduce dangerous carbon pollution through the framework of this agreement.”

Six years after the chaotic collapse of the Copenhagen climate summit, the agreement now known as the Paris Outcome for the first time commits rich countries, rising economies and some of the poorest countries to work together to fight climate change.

Under the deal, adopted by consensus, all countries agreed to reduce emissions. Rich countries agreed to raise $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor countries transform their economies. The overall agreement is legally binding, but some elements – including the pledges to curb emissions by individual countries and the climate finance elements – are not.

Government and business leaders said the agreement, which set a new goal to by the end of the century, sent a powerful signal to business that the fossil fuel era was coming to an end.

The International Investors Group on Climate Change, a network managing $13 trillion of assets, said the decision would help trigger a shift away from fossil fuels and encourage greater investments in renewable energy.

“Investors across Europe will now have the confidence to do much more to address the risks arising from high carbon assets and to seek opportunities linked to the low carbon transition already transforming the world’s energy system and infrastructure,” the group said.

Jennifer Morgan, of the environmental think tank the World Resources Institute, said the long term goal was “transformational” and “sends signals into the heart of the markets”.

The deal set a high aspirational goal to limit warming below 2C and strive to keep temperatures at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – a far more ambitious target than expected, and a key demand of vulnerable countries.

It incorporates previous commitments from 186 countries to reduce emissions, which on their own would only hold warming to between 2.7C and 3C.

But it sets out procedures for review at regular intervals to deepen emissions cuts, with countries aiming to peak global greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, and then rapidly scale down in the second half of this century.

Critics said the agreement would still condemn hundreds of million of people living in low-lying coastal areas and small islands. But supporters said the negotiations took a significant step forward in getting countries to act together on a global challenge of immense complexity, and in sending a signal to global markets.

Saturday’s agreement was the product of years of preparation, two weeks of intense negotiations, capped off by three sleepless nights, with Barack Obama and Hollande phoning other leaders to bring them on side with the deal.

Accounts from behind the closed doors of negotiating session described tense exchanges between oil-producing countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, and a rapidly constituted US- and Europe-backed High Ambition Coalition, which kept up the pressure for a strong temperature goal and regular reviews of emission-cutting plans.

The French hosts also won praise from negotiators for using a mixture of informal huddles, or indabas, and traditional shuttle diplomacy to bring the deal home.

The text commits countries to peak greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, and to seek a balance between human-caused emissions and removals by carbon sinks.

“This means bringing down greenhouse gas emissions to net zero within a few decades,” said John Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and a climate adviser to the Vatican.

But he added that countries would have to move aggressively, peaking before 2030 and eliminating emissions by 2050 through reforestation and technologies such as carbon capture and storage.

For vulnerable countries, the high ambition of the 1.5C goal was offset by the weakening of the agreement when it came to dealing with irreparable damage of climate change.

Negotiators and campaigners said pressure from the US and European Union stripped the agreement of language that would have opened up new sources of funding for small islands and low-lying states that could experience irreversible damage due to climate change.

“The idea of even discussing loss and damage now or in the future was off limits. The Americans told us it would kill the COP,” said Leisha Beardmore, the chief negotiator for the Seychelles. “They have always been telling us: ‘Don’t even say that’.”

Even so, campaign groups were broadly positive about the outcome. Given intense pressure from oil-producing countries, negotiators managed to craft a text that was far more ambitious than expected.

The universal nature of the agreement was a radical departure from the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 agreement that drew sharp divisions between the obligations of wealthy and developing countries but ultimately failed to lower emissions.

Unlike Kyoto, the agreement reached on Saturday depends on political will, with countries setting their own climate action plans.

Rich countries promised that by 2025 they would set a new goal for climate finance “from a floor of $100bn per year”, the figure first pledged at the Copenhagen climate talks six years ago. However, the commitment was offered as a non-binding decision that accompanied the binding text.

All the countries agreed on demands from the US and European Union for five-year reviews of their emissions reductions – an exercise that had been resisted by China.

* * *

THE NEW YORK TIMES is enthusiastic, meaning COP21 means the end of the Maldives and Bangladesh for starters. "Nearly 200 nations have agreed to an accord that will significantly curb greenhouse gas emissions in the hopes of slowing climate change. The agreement comes at the end of a two-week-long conference, known as COP21, in Paris. The deal, which aims to prevent a 2 degree Celsius (3.6 degree Farenheit) rise in atmospheric temperature, is remarkable because it requires both developed and developing nations to take action. For years environment-related pacts have exempted developing nations from making changes to limit greenhouse gas emissions." Etc.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Trump is absolutely fracturing the GOP as it was once known. Now, traditional GOP politicians such as Chris Christie, Jeb! Bush, Lindsay Graham and John Kasich are using terms such as “unhinged” to describe front runner Trump.

Trump, however, is rolling the dice with his Muslim policy declarations. He is betting on more ISIS inspired attacks or even direct ISIS attacks on American soil. And does anyone doubt that ISIS seeks to do exactly that? In that regard, who really is “unhinged”?

With every attack, Trump at once solidifies himself as “prophet and savior” while Bush, Graham, and Christie, et al only amplify the irrelevant status they hold within the current GOP electorate.

Somewhere in the background another politician is smiling with glee at the brush fire within the GOP and relishing the prospect of facing off against Trump in November 2016. But I also have to wonder, if incendiary nature of the ISIS/Muslim dynamic in the homeland might light her campaign up in flames as well.

As a condescending misogynist might quip, this is a powder keg, Honey, so be careful what you wish for.

ENTER THE DONALD.

His popularity is traceable to the fact that he rejects the moral authority of the media, breaks their commandments, and mocks their condemnations. His contempt for the norms of Political Correctness is daily on display.

And that large slice of America that detests a media whose public approval now rivals that of Congress, relishes this defiance. The last thing these folks want Trump to do is to apologize to the press.

And the media have played right into Trump’s hand.

They constantly denounce him as grossly insensitive for what he has said about women, Mexicans, Muslims, McCain and a reporter with a disability. Such crimes against decency, says the press, disqualify Trump as a candidate for president.

Yet, when they demand he apologize, Trump doubles down. And when they demand that Republicans repudiate him, the GOP base replies:

“Who are you to tell us whom we may nominate? You are not friends. You are not going to vote for us. And the names you call Trump — bigot, racist, xenophobe, sexist — are the names you call us, nothing but cuss words that a corrupt establishment uses on those it most detests.”

What the Trump campaign reveals is that, to populists and Republicans, the political establishment and its media arm are looked upon the way the commons and peasantry of 1789 looked upon the ancien regime and the king’s courtiers at Versailles.

Yet, now that the fourth estate is as discredited as the clergy in 1789, the larger problem is that there is no arbiter of truth, morality and decency left whom we all respect. Like 4th-century Romans, we barely agree on what those terms mean anymore.

— Pat Buchanan

HILLARY CLINTON, STALKER

Friend --

I'm asking you to step up before 2015 comes to a close and give just $1 to show you support this campaign -- when you do, we'll send you your personalized supporter card in the mail.

This isn't about the money. It's about knowing you're with me as we head into an election year -- and it's about giving you something to show for it!

Pitch in $1 before tomorrow to support this campaign, and get your card.

Thank you,

Hillary

* * *

MY BIG DAY?

You don't want to know, Hil.

Friend --

I really value your support -- and I never like to miss the birthday of someone important to me. Just let me know when your birthday is, and I'll make sure to send you a note on your big day!

We're part of a team together. We're going to work hard and have a lot of fun through it all. Part of that is taking some time to celebrate and appreciate each other, and that’s what I’d like to do on your birthday.

Let me know when your big day is:

Thanks so much,

Hillary

FIRST TIME SINCE 1977 FULL MOON ON CHRISTMAS DAY

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10153218653780671&id=58388190670&__tn__=%2As

GO GABBERT! GO GABBARD!

(Submitted by Phil Baldwin)

CHARADES.

"Bad credit? No credit? First time buyer? First time baby? No legs? 8 legs? You a spider? Are you a spider trying to buy a house?" --Audrey Farnsworth

Hi, Marco here. At http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find the recording of last night’s (Friday 2015-12-11) KNYO Memo of the Air:

Good Night Radio show ready to download and keep or just play with one click.

Further, at http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com there are many worthwhile but not necessarily radio-useful items that I found while putting the show together. Here are just a few:

Other people make mistakes. Slow down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvLaTupw-hk

The psychedelic Hebrew alphabet song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6EnyQ0Dy50

Criminy, Rashid, lighten up. The off-duty corrections officer woman only just called you a brainwashed terrorist full of Satan and threw scalding coffee in your face and cracked you across the ear with an umbrella for being Muslim in /her/ public park. Have some perspective.

https://www.facebook.com/rasheedalbeshari/videos/vb.100001507583265/956276454432598/?type=2&theater

Theological thermodynamics.

http://publicdomainreview.org/2015/12/09/worlds-without-end/

And how the Bhutanese scare off demons with giant dick murals.

http://io9.com/5906187/in-bhutan-friendly-phalluses-painted-on-houses-ward-off-evil-spirits-nsfw

— Marco McClean

memo@mcn.org

http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com