Mendocino County Today: Friday, Feb 12, 2016

• Dem Debate
• Vday
• Fairground Rejection
• Stoen's Faux
• Teacher Dealer
• Grotesque Co-opt
• Baeeball, Please
• Social Security
• Finne Winery
• Primary Voting
• Ukiah
• Audubon Meeting
• Musselwhite Show
• County Salaries
• Kidnap Suspect
• Privatization Push
• Jazz Jam
• Dollar Hil
• Females Talking
• Repubs Bad
• FERC Valentines
• Bookings Unavailable

MUCH OF THURSDAY NIGHT’S PBS/CNN DEBATE addressed pretty tame wonkish differences between Clinton and Sanders with Clinton claiming over and over that she blandly agreed with this or that Sanders position but would be more effective in implementing it. But Sanders became irked when Clinton claimed to like Obama more than Sanders does.

Clinton accused Sanders of not standing with Obama because Sanders endorsed a book by Bill Press mildly critical of the president. Clinton said by endorsing the book Sanders was calling Obama "weak" and a "disappointment" in the past and she warned "the kind of criticism that we heard from Sen. Sanders about our president, I expect from Republicans. I do not expect it from someone running for the Democratic nomination to succeed President Obama."

Sanders grumbled: "Madam Secretary, that is a low blow." Sanders insisted Obama was his friend, but that did not mean that a senator had to agree with the president on everything. "One of us ran against President Obama," Sanders reminded Clinton, referring to Clinton's 2008 showdown against the then-Illinois senator. "I was not that candidate." Disturbingly, however, Sanders added that he agreed with Obama on “virtually every issue” which is true and which kind of undermines Sanders’ populist/“socialist” rhetoric.

Clinton wants to make the contest about race and gender and “electability,” and government experience, not economics or inequality or her own big corporate donors or her militaristic foreign policy record because she knows a large percentage of the upcoming Democratic primary voters are women and blacks. It’s a pretty cheap campaign strategy.

In a particularly ridiculous moment, after Sanders said he would not take advice from Henry Kissinger on anything, Hillary said she thinks Kissinger would be a “useful” foreign policy advisor, especially on China.

Next up: South Carolina. In South Carolina, Republicans vote on Saturday, Feb. 20, and Democrats will choose their candidate the following Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016.

THE SILLIEST DAY of the year is upon us, Valentine's Day, a creation of the candy, flower and greeting card industries, with a big boost from restaurants who run major media ads of couples gazing at each other over wine glasses. At the Dragon's Lair, Ukiah, corner of Main and Perkins, I resisted an impulse to veer onto the sidewalk to run over a sign that reads, "Don't forget to love yourself." I gave myself a hug and managed to get through the rest of my day.

A READER WRITES:

A buddy of mine went to the Fair Board meeting Monday night. Chad Rea has been trying to promote a Spring event at the Fairgrounds called the Mendo Grow Show. I have the specs for the event. Short story long is it was slated to be a 21-and-over weekend cannabis education event. Classes, workshops, roundtables, entertainment, professional paid staff, no skeezy volunteers, 2,000 person maximum. Gates closing at 8pm with maybe one band to close the day. Chad is a straight up guy, Boonville resident, has a life and an actual job. The co-producer is Nigel James, Bill Graham's number two guy who now produces the Loc'n festival - here's the link:

http://www.locknfestival.com

Nigel knows his shit. When he heard Chad was doing this he jumped in. He immediately saw the opening for a reputable and replicable event that wasn't four days of Molly and DMT, a way to showcase the county's place in cannabis via education, not stoners. Chad already had a short list of the best speakers, activists, business people, product producers etc. lined up to show up at this thing. And he had sponsors.

Chad went to the fair board Monday night to get approval for the event. He had spoken extensively with fair manager Jim Brown who was all for it. The Board unanimously voted to table ALL cannabis events until legalization. The Sheriff was aware of this event. He had heard about it and Chad and his attorney had a Wednesday meeting scheduled. Allman had no problem with the event. However he had heard that some people in Boonville did.

Isn't the Boonville fairgrounds kind of hurting financially? Tell me I'm wrong, but isn't Sierra Nevada a hot drug-fueled mess? Isn't the Beer Festival a beer-soaked slog? And don't they do some big wine events every year? Wow.

And ironically, Chad is doing video promotion for the winegrowers association for the Fairgrounds—gratis.

At the moment, he's looking at other venues.

* * *

MENDOCINO COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS SUSPENDS ALL CANNABIS EVENTS UNTIL LEGALIZATION

Chad Rea, (707) 841-7720

chad@mendogrowshow.com

February 8, 2016

On February 8, the Board of Directors of the Mendocino County Fairgrounds voted to table all cannabis events at the fairgrounds until full, federal legalization of cannabis is enacted.

This is according to Chad Rea, producer of the Mendo Grow Show. Rea, a Boonville resident approached the board to garner approval for his event after numerous conversations with fair manager Jim Brown.

The show, according to Rea, was scheduled for the weekend of May 14. Discussion of the event was tabled by the board during their previous meeting. “This was to be a 21-and-over event,” says Rea. The event was to provide a location for numerous workshops covering community education, safety and hazard mitigation, networking, legal roundtables, political discourse and gardening tips. “Mendocino County is in the heart of the Emerald Triangle. We believe that it is important for the county to be a leader in providing education about cannabis. There are no events like this anywhere in the region, and I believe this show had the potential to bring a lot of revenue to the Anderson Valley area,” says Rea.

The event was to be co-produced with Rea’s colleague Nigel James, who is recognized for directing the signature Lock’n Festival in Arlington, Virginia. “We were looking at a top-level team using paid staff, adults only, with local music, vending, camping and food. The Fairgrounds gates would close by 8:00 pm,” Rea continues.

Rea is puzzled by the strong, negative reaction by the Board. “The mission statement of the Fair states that their goal is to furnish a facility promoting agricultural programs having cultural, social and economic benefits to the public. I believe this event hit every one of those marks,” he continues.

It is unclear whether the Board is including the highly attended Sierra Nevada Music Festival in their suspension. “I’m sure that cannabis is smoked at Sierra Nevada,” smiles Rea. “Our event was not about recreational cannabis. We are trying to provide a forum for information, discussion, networking and patient support. It’s unclear to me how the beer festival, the wine festivals and the Sierra Nevada music festivals are any less about the fair’s mission than this event,” he notes. “Sierra Nevada is advertised on literally every cannabis event calendar.” Rea is currently looking at other venues for the event. “We believe that Anderson Valley is the perfect location for this event, and as a Boonville resident I’m sorry that the Board doesn’t see it this way.”

TIM STOEN, infamously, functioned as Jim Jones' legal fixit man at the late Peoples Temple, the only church in Christian history murdered, right down to its infants, by its pastor. Stoen, post-Jones, and returning to the scene of the crime where he's now written an entirely faux atonement, has worked as a prosecutor in Mendocino County where he's assigned to Ten Mile Court in Fort Bragg. Stoen's book tells us he's always been drawn to the prosecution; most "socialists" gravitate to the public defender's office. But this guy is all slip slidin' away from his obviously major role in the Jonestown catastrophe.

STOEN makes no sense, either as a personality or in his just-released book called, un-ironically, "Marked for Death — My War with Jim Jones, the Devil of Jonestown." Stoen's war with Jones didn't begin until the beast was cornered and bleeding in his Guyana bunker. If Stoen were on trial, if there'd been a kind of Nuremburg for all the Mendo and San Francisco big shots who helped Jones on his maniacal way, Stoen's book would hang all of them, with Stoen being first up on the gallows. Stoen was awfully late to act on his self-alleged estrangement from Mendocino County's most spectacular tweeker, albeit a pharmaceutical one.

"MY WAR" begins with a Peoples Temple-like forward by Giselle Fernandez, "a five-time Emmy award-winning journalist." It concludes, "When I think of Tim, I think of that beautiful song, 'Starry Night' by Don McClean, about painter Vincent Van Gogh. There's that line at the end that speaks of such purity it breaks your heart. McClean sings, 'I could have told you, Vincent, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you." Stoen proceeds to recount his life with the People’s Temple as if he had no idea that Jones was a maniac. Many people drop out of the "church" when, as Stoen tells us, they come to understand they're in Cult Land. Many others attend one service and flee. Stoen should have listened to his mother. She warned him the Temple was not a wholesome enterprise, that Jones was muy malo. And mom had only seen Jones at Stoen's wedding where, presumably, Jones would have appeared more or less normal.

OK, OK. Nobody's perfect (sic). Any person who's party to horror on the scale of Jonestown would have to reconcile himself to it to go on living, but Stoen's book absolves himself of all responsibility, basically telling us that his heart was pure but this doggone Jones guy was simply too crafty for the Stanford lawyer, too beguiling, and even if the reverend did shady stuff all the way back to Redwood Valley he did a lot of good, too. Stoen portrays himself as merely one more victim of the malevolent speed freak.

(AL KUBANIS, a Trumpian Ukiah lawyer, provides Stoen with some excellent post mortem advice, advising Stoen when Stoen reappears in Ukiah a couple of years after the Temple's jungle immolation, that he should change his name, disappear and try to make a new life for himself somewhere else. I thought it was very brave of Stoen to resume life in Mendocino County and several times defended the guy when I thought he'd been unfairly attacked; after all he did lose his son to Jones and of course he had to go on living with his role in these ghastly events. But if I'd read this false book, I have to say I would have joined Kubanis in wishing the guy would simply disappear.)

"MARKED FOR DEATH," a title that implies the entire sad show was Stoen's personal trial, is replete with "brilliant" attorneys, "famous" political figures, "gutsy" judges, "stunning women," and so on to where you ask yourself, Are we still in Mendocino County, Toto? (The Temple women I knew were Madam Defarge types — utterly devoid of all irony, haggard, merciless.)

IT WAS LOVE at first sight with Stoen when Stoen meets Jones in the County Courthouse: "Although he did not propose policies, he faithfully attended the meetings. He was warm-hearted. He listened to others. He showed concern for poor people. He did not put on airs. He could tell a joke."

IN 1972, JONES rented the Ukiah Theater for a special showing of "Marjoe," the fake faith healer: "Jones' recommendation of that movie fortified my belief that his (Jones') healings were genuine."

FOR THE UNLETTERED black people that Jones and his all-white inner circle exploited unto their mass death, it's one thing to be hoodwinked by faith healings, but a lawyer supposedly trained in skepticism?

A UKIAH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER has been arrested and charged with selling oxycodone, the increasingly prevalent soporific. Jared Wade Candelaria, 30, was arrested at his home in Cloverdale on a presumption that he was not only pill-peddling, the third grade teacher also possessed enough marijuana to convince the Cloverdale police he was selling pot, too, presumably not to 8-year-olds. (Candelaria was booked in Sonoma County which does not post on-line booking photos.)

HALF-TIME

I confess, I am a culturally alienated, old, disconnected 1960s and ‘70s radical trying to live and struggle for revolutionary change in a world that might have passed me by, because I cannot for the life of me understand how Beyonce’s commodified caricature of black opposition was in any way progressive. Instead what I saw was the cultural power of neoliberal capitalism to co-opt opposition, monetize it and provide some mindless entertainment all at the same time. I didn’t see opposition; I saw the imagery and symbols of authentic black radicalism grotesquely transformed into a de-politicized spectacle by gyrating, light-skinned booty-short-clad sisters.

— Ajamu Baraka

BASEBALL, PLEASE

Editor:

Hundreds of thousands of people show up for a Giants World Series parade in San Francisco and there are no security checkpoints. Ten thousand people show up for Super Bowl City, and there are multiple security checkpoints and an overkill of police and police agencies. Two things become clear: The NFL is paranoid and far less attractive than they think, and baseball is far and away a much more civilized sport.

— Richard De Wilde, San Francisco

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Social Security. The part that really galls me is that they refer to Social Security as an “entitlement” in a derogatory way (like Truthers, as opposed to what, Liars?) while insinuating that those of us that expect to collect it are somehow taking charity! Those bastards took over $200k from me against my will because they claimed that I could not be trusted with the money. Now it somehow gets stolen by scumbag politicians and gets re-labelled as a “handout”? Seriously you DC clowns, if you really think that robbing us of what we have trusted you to hold for us is somehow either our fault or something that we are just going to allow you to rape us out of you had better think twice. One of us is going to hang by the neck until dead for such a crime, and while odds are that it will be us, you had better think long and hard before you drop your drawers and come looking to hose us.

THE FINNE WINERY

by Bob Dempel

The Finne Winery was built in the 1880’s and was probably the oldest winery at that time in Mendocino County. Louis and Margarette Finne came to Redwood Valley in the 1870’s from Europe. Margarette came from the area of Alsace France. I cannot find where Louis came from. They purchased some property in Redwood Valley and Louis built a winery. The marriage produced two sons, Fred and Will. Fred Finne stayed on the ranch helping raise grapes, fruit and hay. Will moved to the East Coast.

Fred Finne and his wife Mary had a son Hilmar and a daughter Blanche. Blanch who was born in 1910 and recalls helping her Grandfather Louis Finne pick the grapes. They would be picked in 50# wooden boxes. Blanche was paid 5 cents per box for picking. Blanch would then help her grandfather move the grapes to the winery where they would be crushed.. The grapes would be put in a large vat and people would put on rubber boots and climb into the vat to stomp on them. The resulting wine would be put into oak barrels and loaded onto a wagon and hauled down to the railroad station at Calpella. Transportation of the trailer was provided by a horse named Chub. At Capella the barrels were loaded into freight cars headed to San Francisco.

In 1921 or 1922 the winery burned down, Blanch was at school and as she was walking out of the school house she saw black smoke coming up towards her ranch. A neighbor had decided to burn a pile of brush. Along came a whirlwind and moved some of the hot embers from the brush pile to the top of the wooden roofed winery and landed on some leaves which promptly caught fire. The entire winery burned down.

Blanche lived to be 100 years old and died just a few days short of her 101^st birthday. The memorial service was held at the Ukiah cometary on her 101^st birthday.

Fortunately Blanch participated in an oral history in 1999 conducted by the Mendocino County Museum. The interview includes 5 pictures of the Finne house, ranch and winery. I have been given a copy of the oral history by Blanches’s daughter Yvonne Richey Westberg.

The winery is long gone but the descendants of the Finne family are still present in and around Redwood Valley.

PRIMARY VOTING 101

Editor,

Voters planning to vote in the primary election June 7 should be aware of the following information.

If you registered as a Decline-to-State voter and wish to vote for the Republican candidate in the presidential primary in June, you must re-register as a Republican before May 23rd. The Republican Party does not allow for cross over voting. If, as a Decline-to-State voter, you wish to vote for the American Independent Party candidate, the Libertarian Party candidate or the Democratic Party candidate, you may just ask for that ballot when you go to the polls. Only Decline-to-State voters may cross over but only to one of these 3 parties, however. You will receive a postcard from the Registrar of Voters reminding you of this information if you are a Vote-by-Mail voter.

If you have registered as a member of any political party and wish to cross over and vote for a candidate from another party, you must re-register as a member of that party by May 23.

If you are eligible to vote but have not registered, you can pick up a paper voter registration form at the county library, DMV office, or U.S. Post Office. The form must be postmarked by May 23 for the June 7 election. It is also possible to register online at http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voter-registration/.

For more information go to http://www.vote411.org.

Carol Czadek
President, League of Women Voters of Mendocino County
Ukiah

UKIAH dresses up

MENDOCINO COAST AUDUBON SOCIETY MEETING on Monday, February 15th, 7PM, Caspar Community Center

The Mendocino Coast Audubon Society invites you to join them this Monday, February 15th, 7PM, at the Caspar Community Center. Mario Abreu will give us a heads up for spring with a presentation on Landscaping for Birds and Wildlife.

Mario Abreu is the Staff Naturalist at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. He serves on the board of the Dorothy King Young Chapter of the California Native Plant Society and is a naturalist and horticulturist, who has grown many of the native plants available through the local Native Plant Society.

CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE on Life, Spirituality & Harmonica Love

Sonoma County resident Charlie Musselwhite plays close to home at the Uptown Theatre in Napa on Feb. 19.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/entertainment/5114780-181/bluesman-charlie-musselwhite-bringing-his

SEE FOR YOURSELF

To the Editor:

Ah, at long last, now I know the reason why our streets never get paved and why they probably never will. On a whim, since I am computer illiterate and my wife is a computer whiz, I had her look up the website T.W.K. mentioned in his Sunday column, and had her look up salaries for the City of Ukiah, and boy, what an eye opener. The latest year available was 2014, and all I counted were the salaries of city staff i.e. Dept. Heads, etc. (unbelievably seven people in all) and I came up with the staggering amount of $1,509,733.82. Mind you, these are 2014 salaries and I’m sure they have risen substantially since that time. Also this $1,509,773.82 includes no Police or Fire salaries, and no worker bee salaries, only the Big Deals in the City of Ukiah. So, I have come to the conclusion that as long as the city staff is receiving these bloated amounts we are never going to get our streets repaired, and, if you have good blood pressure medicine you can see these figures for yourself at www.transparentcalifornia.com or search transparentcalifornia.

David Anderson, Ukiah

CHOMO SUSPECT

On January 20th at about 8 am, it was reported to UPD’s School Resource Officer Vince Morse that on January 19th at about 4:45 pm, a 10 year old Accelerated Achievement Academy student was grabbed a hold of by an unidentified male subject, in what appeared to be an attempted kidnapping. UPD Detectives have been actively investigating this incident, as well as other similar incidents in Ukiah, and arranged for the victim to meet with a Certified Police Sketch Artist. The below sketch is a sketch of the suspect from this incident and further descriptions are also listed below.

If anybody has any information regarding the above incident or the possible identity of the above-depicted suspect, please contact UPD Detective Tyler Schapmire at 707-467-5770. If Detective Schapmire is unavailable, you can contact UPD Dispatch (707-463-6262) and ask to speak with another member of the UPD Detective Division.

The sketch is done in grayscale and the victim described the suspect as having black hair and being a dark-complexioned Hispanic male. 
The victim described the suspect as being in his 30’s or 40’s. 
The victim did not observe any scars, marks, or tattoos on the suspect’s forearms, hands, or face
. The victim described the suspect as having an average height and a thin build. 
The suspect was not associated with any vehicles
. The victim last saw the suspect on January 19th while fleeing from the area of Scott Street and North State Street. There is no information at this time that this suspect is associated with any of the other recent similar incidents in Ukiah.

Detective T. Schapmire

THE SHELTER, SOME OBSERVATIONS

Beast —

In reference to recent articles and letters in our county's media — some observations:

What's going on now, after the Supervisor's Standing Committee Meeting on the future of the Ukiah Shelter on Feb. 8, is an ongoing attempt by a group of folks to undermine the shelter in any way possible. What they fail to understand, or choose not to accept, is that the County CEO has rejected the Petaluma Animal Services contract proposal. I don't profess to know about the inner workings or policies of the goverment, but I would imagine that the county, after half a year studying Petaluma's proposal, has a pretty good reason for ending the process.

The repercussions of the group's behavior and current campaign is not only pointless, but detrimental to the very institution they profess to care so much about, as the shelter has been left short staffed, and thus unable to attend to the important task of canine behavior/temperament testing, creating a backlog of dogs unable to be walked or cared for by the volunteers.

If these folks would stop their drum-beating for 5 minutes and reflect on the consequences of their conduct, they might be able to get over their disappointment, and return to helping the shelter's animals. In fact, their obvious passion and energy could be used now more than ever to help the shelter, and their ideas of good sheltering can be put in play without the need for outsourcing. That this scenario has been completely rejected in favor of only accepting Petaluma's management is an indication of an unwillingness to compromise, especially after the county's Health and Human Services Agency put forth several options regarding the shelter's future for consideration.

Unless they plan on upending the county and state RFP process, there doesn't seem to be any benefit in continuing this very unpleasant diversion of time and energy; the correct organization to question about the contract rejection is perhaps Petaluma Animal Services. The county has completed its end of the bargain. Please, get over it and let everyone move on.

Kathy Shearn, Ukiah

PS. From today's UDJ

Escalated tensions involving volunteers and employees at the Mendocino County Animal Shelter have seemingly overshadowed what is really at stake ­— the animals.

As part of Monday’s Health and Human Services Agency standing committee meeting, county staff elaborated on recent animal care issues, including the possibility of contracting out, as they updated committee members, county supervisors Tom Woodhouse and John McCowen.

County staff conceded this week that the discussion of contracting out animal care and shelter management has been lengthy, dating back to last year when request for proposals were first offered.

Although only one proposal was submitted, likely from Petaluma Animal Services Foundation, the county Executive Office has since said it didn’t have enough information to make a solid recommendation for further board approval. Since Monday, the process has been closed, as the future of the shelter is back to square one while county supervisors consider what’s next.

Additionally, staffing has been shaken-up in the past several weeks as shelter supervisor Sage Mountainfire was put on administrative leave.

Mary Jane Montana, who recently served as the executive director of the now-defunct Society for Prevention of Cruelty of Animals branch in Clear Lake, began Wednesday as the shelter’s interim manager, not to replace Mountainfire but to oversee the shelter a few days per week, according to county staff.

Volunteers have been increasingly verbal with their opinions in how the shelter should be managed and directed.

Aaron Burton, field representative for county union SEIU 1021, said Wednesday that some volunteers haven’t been following policies and procedures, and have waged a privatization campaign while discrediting the staff at the shelter as opposed to just volunteering their time.

“The problem has been that some volunteers have actually interfered with the work of staff and have created an uncomfortable situation for staff members,” Burton said. “We’re not against the volunteers as long as they are not carrying out the work of our members.”

HHSA Director Stacey Cryer acknowledged that tensions at the shelter have escalated during the lengthy request for proposals evaluation process. The submission deadline was August 2015.

After Mountainfire was put on leave, Cryer submitted a letter to all shelter volunteers reminding them of the county code of conduct, which applies to anybody working at the shelter regardless if they are paid or not.

At least three shelter volunteers have also had their privileges suspended, according to Cryer.

“That was done because we needed to stabilize the situation and begin to investigate, pursue, figure out, what’s going on,” Cryer said Monday.

Cryer said she didn’t ban the volunteers from the shelter, just suspended their privileges at the facility – meaning those volunteers who provide foster homes for some of the animals can continue to do so and can come on the shelter property. They just can’t physically volunteer.

Each suspended volunteer has since been met with, according to Cryer. However, specific personnel matters from the county’s perspective can’t be elaborated on.

Shanna Phillips, one of the shelter volunteers suspended, has said her privileges, along with other volunteers, were suspended for no reason, and asked the Board of Supervisors Tuesday for a decision on her reinstatement.

Phillips has advocated for contracting out animal care services, specifically for the Petaluma Animal Services Foundation to assume control of the shelter.

“A government funded entity should not be in charge of our county’s homeless animals,” Phillips said on KMEC radio Tuesday. “They deserve better than that.”

Phillips said on the radio that when animals come to the Mendocino County shelter, they don’t receive medical care or a bath and claimed they are immediately put into kennels while waiting for as long as 30 days before being evaluated.

She said these alleged issues could be rectified if an organization like Petaluma Animal Services Foundation were to come in.

Much like Burton, Cryer said Monday she values the efforts of the volunteers, but they can’t and shouldn’t be doing the work of paid, county unionized employees, which she said could be as simple as feeding and watering the animals. Volunteers have to have specific duties, like walking dogs, and must abide by the rules.

“Some allegations were quite concerning, while some were absolutely false, I know that for a fact,” Cryer said following public expression Monday during the standing committee meeting. “I have to take those (allegations) seriously, and I have to look into what’s causing those allegations, where the truth is and where the truth isn’t.”

JAZZ JAM THIS SUNDAY

Sunday Feb. 14 Second Sunday Jazz Jam at Headlands Coffeehouse

Dorian May Trio and Friends, 2-5pm

120 E Laurel St, Fort Bragg, (707) 964-1987,

http://www.headlandscoffeehouse.com/

NEVER! PLEASE GO AWAY!

Friend — 

In the 24 hours after our first loss of this campaign, this team stepped up. Hundreds of thousands of people are giving to support this historic campaign. Can you join them and chip in $1 right now?

 The press and our opponent will continue to mischaracterize and disparage our team, but we know the truth. We have over 700,000 grassroots donors and millions more who are energized by our candidate, our message, and our historic campaign.

But we can’t control the narrative, so we need to put our heads down and focus on the things we can control: how strong our team is and how many people we’re able to reach.

Before Hillary takes the debate stage tonight, she needs to know that you're in this with her. Tell her you're ready to fight and win — chip in $1 right now.

Thanks, Dennis

Dennis Cheng
National Finance Director
Hillary for America

TALKIN' GENDER

Femicide statistics finally documented.

On 2/10/2016 4:20 PM, Elaine wrote: "…Women's agony at the hands of men must never be revealed. If women steadfastly and courageously began to tell the truth and would not stop, would not be co-opted, would not become afraid, the truth of our enslavement would be undeniable and the jig would be up."

Elaine, what's your vision for what that would be like? Say all women suddenly and simultaneously tell the world of their horrible enslavement and keep telling and do not stop, what's the result? I mean, I'm imagining it: The jig is up, as you say, and all women are still courageously telling and telling the truth of their enslavement, never stopping, even to eat or sleep. Not even stopping during lovemaking or driving a car or trying on a hat or taking a self-defense class involving improvising a set of Wolverine knuckles out of the car keys...

Juanita works today at her day job and I don't, so I cooked her breakfast this morning (multi-veg omelet with muenster and pesto). I cleaned up the kitchen and fed the pet bird. I'm in and out washing all of our clothes and the bedsheets right now. This is normal for a Wednesday when I'm at her house.

Her friend at work just broke an arm running for the bus, so Juanita's working tonight too, so she got a two-hour lunchtime, so we went to the bookstore and talked all the way there and back, and I peeled oranges for us to eat while she drove.

In short, and I'm sure Juanita would agree (I'll ask her when she gets home), I don't think either of us is in agony or enslaved, and I think we're pretty normal. Compared to us, looked at objectively, Elaine, the way you go on and on, day after day, week after week, year after year, on this subject, you are a screechy, obsessed, crazy person. I get that somebody damaged you, back along there somewhere, and that person probably should be in prison — I hope he is — but everyone's life is not like yours. Every woman isn't miserable because of every man.

With that in mind, who's your favorite woman standup comic? I like Sandra Bernhard. She stole The King of Comedy. The film would have been lame without her.

Marco McClean

memo@mcn.org

http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

REPUBS: BAD

To the Editor:

Haven't we had enough of Ted Cruz and the Tea Party Republican base and their ignorant, xenophobic, racist lies about what is wrong with the country? The country is doing fine and heading into boom times again; people are becoming more understanding and more tolerant of each other no matter what Fox News says. The freedoms we enjoy today haven't changed and we are just as secure as ever. These misfits in the Republican and Tea party are just upset because of the fact that the president is black. They have created some delusional Orwellian fantasy in their heads, that they've ruminated on for so long, that they've actually come to believe it. Get over yourselves and your pseudo patriotism and join the rest of America as it glides into the future.

Ron Lowe, Nevada City

THE FERC VALENTINE PROJECT: Bringing Our Love To The Homes Of FERC Commissioners!

Tell FERC commissioners that pipelines, LNG, compressor stations and fracking are no “Love Story” for front-line communities. This Valentine’s Day, send a message to FERC commissioners at their homes!

We protect what we love, and we expect FERC to do the same.

Grab your paste, markers, fancy doily hearts and construction paper, and pour your hearts out.

Here's what to do in 6 steps.

Create your Valentine Messages for the FERC commissioners. The more personalized, the better. You can make your own, or you can download one already made here.

Take pictures of your Valentine Messages. They can be pictures of the messages alone, or selfies of you holding the messages — whichever you prefer.

Send your messages to the home addresses of the four FERC commissioners. Each commissioner has two addresses — one outside DC, and one inside DC. Send your messages to as many of the addresses as you'd like. The more, the better. These addresses can be found on the instructions flyer above and in the link below.

If you use Twitter, tweet your pictures at the FERC commissioners. More instructions are in the flyer above and the link below.

If you use Facebook, share your pictures there as well. More instructions are in the flyer above and the link below.

Let us know you sent your messages by e-mailing your pictures to Actions@BeyondExtremeEnergy.org. Please include your name and where you're from. Please send only those things which you're comfortable having shared online.

Please click here for all the details, including home addresses and twitter handles.

Much gratitude to the people who worked together to make this project happen!

(ED NOTE: BOOKINGS FOR FEB 11 UNAVAILABLE DUE TO BOOKING WEBSITE MALFUNCTION: “internal errors.”)