Mendocino County Today: Thursday, Aug 25, 2016

• Chuck Savage
• Hansen/Hendrix
• Bank Closure
• Local Mysteries
• Yorkville Social
• Civic Leaders
• 27 Years
• Arylis Parole
• Council Raise
• V Uncertainty
• Shelter Situation
• Dog Day
• Recycling Glass
• Sprinkler Problem
• KZYX Questions
• Yesterday's Catch
• Clinton Greasing
• Granddaughter
• Coming Collapse
• The Deal
• Log-rolling Contest
• Slowpokes
• Church Fears
• Grim Leader
• Young Jumpers
• Cliff House
• MLPA Masterplan
• Single Payer
• Rio Olympics
• Journalists

CHUCK SAVAGE

On Aug 13, Chuck Savage aka Lee Stophlet took the checkered flag on the boogaloo express. Loving father to Dan (wife Kim), Denise (Bret) & Catherine (Michael). Four loving grandchildren, Mandi, Shelbi, Blake and Boobie, aka Taylor. Also two great-grandkids, Austin & Mollie. He had many, many great friends, too many to mention (you know who you are). He's now dancing in his blue suede shoes with Elvis. Happy trails. Please join us in a potluck celebration of life at Todd Grove Park on Sept. 3 from 11-2. Please bring a story and a dish to share. Special thank you to Bill & Sandy MacNab and to Susie Schrock.

THE SAVINGS BANK of Mendocino County is closing its branch in the Pear Tree Shopping Center. More people are going electronic, the Bank says. But Boonville, in the heart of thriving Anderson Valley, home to several dozen multi-millionaires and probably the wealthiest population in the County, has no bank. Haven't had one since about 1980 when WestAmerica took over the small but lucrative 1st National of Cloverdale and promptly closed the Boonville branch. And closed it not because it hadn't always made money, but closed it because it didn't make enough money. We still have the building and the walk-in vault that served Boonville for many years.

BIG CHUCK MANNON, president of the Savings Bank begun by his family in the late 19th century, has never struck me as the most imaginative guy around — cf his architecturally dull bunker bank in central Ukiah.

But then bankers, at least the old school ones, were prudent, plodding individuals who did business only with people likely to pay their loans off. Bankers these days are about as prudent as a sailor on a three-day drunk. So, listen up, Chuck! You can make money in Anderson Valley. We pay our bills! Come on over. The old vault awaits.

A READER WRITES:

"ANY NEWS on the why or what for happened with Burkey and Smith in Point Arena? Everyone local is curious and no word has gotten out. ‘Grand theft’? What in Point Arena is worth stealing?"

WE'VE put the call in to the DA's office to find out. We're also trying to track down what happened on the Turner family camping trip a few weeks ago. Turner, mayor of Fort Bragg, referred us to a facebook page maintained by his political foes, suggesting, we suppose, his foes made it up. We don't think so. We think Turner drove off some intruders, perhaps at gunpoint. And good for him if that's what happened.

26TH ANNUAL YORKVILLE ICE CREAM SOCIAL

It’s that wonderful time of year again. Kids go back to school and it’s Yorkville Ice Cream Social time! Let’s celebrate a great summer, sip an ice cold root beer float, devour a delicious ice cream cone while dancing around the Cake Walk, dive into a great grilled hamburger all while socializing with your friends. And don’t forget all the other awesome stuff, cookies, cakes, pies, homemade salads and there is always the famous BarBQ oysters. The truly awesome pulled pork sandwiches will be flying out the door, be sure to get there early to catch one.

Early birds will get the first crack at the book sale. Hundreds of books for only $1 an inch! You can’t beat that. This year’s arrivals are exciting this year, bestsellers, blockbusters, fiction and non-fiction alike. You can pick up some great CDs and books on tape too.

One of the highlights of the Social is the Cake Walk. Imagine musical chairs without chairs. You stroll around a numbered circle to great music, when the music stops, if you’re on the right numbered spot, you Win A Cake! An entire cake!

Get you tickets early for our HUGE raffle! You can take home some wonderful prizes from all over the Anderson Valley - wine, gift certificates for local restaurants and services and t-shirts. The Silent Auction will be even better than last year’s, local art, wine, olive oils and unique stuff that you’ll just have to come see to believe.

Come socialize, catch up on the happenings, and just have fun. The kids always have a good time too, they can cool off in shower of cool water from the fire hose, eat hot dogs and stuff themselves on ice cream.

All the proceeds from the Ice Cream Social benefit the Yorkville Volunteer Fire Station and the YCBA Scholarship Fund. If you’d like to donate something or your time, give us a call 707-391-4928.

Date: Monday Sept. 5st

Time: 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Location: The Yorkville Post Office and Fire Station

25400 Highway 128, Yorkville, CA 95494

THE WAY IT WAS

REMEMBER Cupertino Solano? Of Yorkville? He’s the hard-working family man who shot and killed his two young brothers-in-law in 1989 after repeatedly warning them to stay away from his teenage step-daughter. Cupertino had resorted to an old world solution to a new world problem. He ran for the border where he was arrested before he could get to the sanctuary of his old country. Cupertino has been found suitable for parole, and he undoubtedly is suitable, being a non-criminal guy. He was sentenced to 23-to-life, and most recently has been confined to Folsom Prison.

ARYLIS PETERS is also coming up for parole consideration. Arylis kicked off the famous Bear Lincoln events when he shot and killed Gene Britton in the parking lot of Round Valley (Covelo) High School in April of 1995. In the ensuing full-press police search for Peters, his brother, Leonard, was shot and killed as he and Bear Lincoln walked up hill from the Lincoln homestead west of Covelo. In a second round of gunfire a few minutes later Mendocino County Deputy Sheriff Bob Davis was shot and killed. Bear Lincoln was tried for the murder of Deputy Davis and acquitted. Arylis Peters was subsequently arrested without incident and soon convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life.

HEFTY RAISE FOR CLOVERDALE CITY COUNCIL

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/6011146-181/cloverdale-city-council-votes-itself

STILL UNCERTAINTY ON MEASURE V

http://www.willitsnews.com/general-news/20160823/still-uncertainty-on-measure-v

THE CANINE PAPERS

Editor,

Ukiah Animal Shelter II

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my letter!

It seems to me you are trying to make this about personality and personal issues again. I have noticed previously that you appear to have strong opinions about the Mountanos family. My impression of the daughter Mariah is that she is a very mature 25 year old woman, who deeply loves and cares for animals. During her summer break she has more then once gotten a troubled dog out of the shelter, fostered, provided medical care as needed and found loving forever homes for the dogs. I don't know what Mariah's plans are once she is a veterinarian, but I know she will dedicated her life to the welfare of animals.

I am amazed by your apparent fondness of Mary Jane Montana and Carmel Angelo. I wonder if Ms Angelo has been to the shelter and how long ago that might have been? Reading your newspaper off and on over the past 15 plus years, I had the impression that you distrust in general all county, city, state and federal employees and elected officials. A distrust I share to a large degree.

The shelter doesn't need to be the Boonville Hotel, could we settle for a doggy Motel 6?

I was scared of pit bulls myself, having read and heard so many horror stories in the media. The Ukiah animal shelter houses a large number of pit bull and pit bull mixes. I learned they come in all sizes, different colors and different personalities. I am no longer afraid of pit bulls and have yet to meet an aggressive or dangerous one. I am not saying they don't exist, but they do not constitute the majority of the breed. I am currently fostering a pit bull who is a 65 pound lapdog and a vigorous kisser! If you go in for that sort of thing!

The pit bulls in your neighborhood running around lose and unsupervised could cause an accident, if they run into traffic. My recommendation is to talk to your neighbors about your concerns and if that is not possible, that you notify Animal Control to look into this before the dogs and/or people get hurt.

My goal is not to MAKE people adopt an animal. My goal is to increase awareness and visibility of the Ukiah animal shelter in the community. I have spoken with Mendocino county and Ukiah residents who are completely unaware of the Ukiah animal shelter and the services it offers to the community. Many people do not know that volunteers are welcome and that qualified county residents can foster a dog or cat for an afternoon, a day, an overnight, a weekend or for longer periods of time. By increasing the shelter's visibility in the community more residents will take an interest in the welfare of the homeless animals and find out about low-cost or free spay and neuter options. In the current matrix, or list marketing isn't mentioned once and there is no budget created for advertising, marketing and public education about the shelter. Nobody involved with the shelter wants it to go back to the Sheriff's office. We want our shelter to go FORWARD not backwards.

I know from your writings that you frequently travel between Boonville and San Francisco. I encourage you to make time to stop and visit Sonoma county animal services and yes, visit the Petaluma animal shelter and then compare that to our shelter.

Lastly, recently a nation wide empty the shelters event was very successful and according to people who track such things, over 45,000 animals were adopted on that one weekend. An incredible number! It made me happy, until I read that this just about equals the number of animals killed nation wide in animal shelters every week! It is estimated that over 2 million homeless and unwanted animals are killed every year in the USA.

Somebody much smarter then me said: "You can measure a society of how it treats its animals". If that is true and I believe it is, we are not looking good, not looking good at all.

Sincerely,

Monika Fuchs, Boonville

* * *

ED REPLY: I think the quote is from Dickens after a tour of some of our human prisons, if you'll excuse the pedantry. As it happens I just visited the Shelter yesterday (Tuesday) so I'd have a clearer idea of what the controversy is all about. I have to tell you, Monika, I was impressed by what I saw.

The place is packed, certainly, but it's remarkably clean and orderly. Nobody was malingering. Everyone was working. If any animals were or are being mistreated or neglected they weren't evident. You may agree that the surplus of pit bulls is caused by the psycho-sectors of the Mendo dope business. But I take your point. I remember when Dobermans and German Shepherds were notorious before pit bulls became popular with the wrong people. But as pit bull defenders say, it's not the dog, it's the people who raise them to be vicious, and a high percentage of those people have themselves been raised viciously in a country on a serious downward social spiral. As for Miss Montanos, I merely thought she was waaaaay outtaline when she teed off on Ms. Angelo and Ms. Montana, vilifying them as liars and incompetents with zero supporting evidence. (I don't know either lady on a personal basis.) Finally, I agree with you about the general lack of awareness about what the Shelter can offer, but given the daily info-deluge that people have to sift through their every waking moment, it's tough to get any specific information about any subject through to people who might benefit from having it. I saw two dogs Tuesday I liked the look of — old guy dogs past their hyper years. If I could accommodate one of them, I would. There are lots of attractive, adoptable dogs and cats on offer at the Shelter. I, too, wish people would consider adoption of an existing dog before they go out and get a puppy somewhere. But to sum up, I think the Shelter is doing a very good job in the impossible context of too many dogs and cats foisted off on them.

NATIONAL DOG DAY THIS FRIDAY!

Celebrate National Dog Day at the Gardens!

August 26, 2016 during normal Gardens hours 9AM to 5PM

Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens is always dog-friendly, boasting 47-acres and tons of trails for your pup to explore... On Friday, August 26, 2016, we celebrate National Dog Day with a bit of extra love for our canine visitors. The first 50 sets of paws through the door will receive a complimentary tin of treats at The Garden Store! Treat your pup and yourself to a nice long walk amongst the dahlias, roses, and perennials. Also, the Mendocino Coast Humane Society Mobile Adoption Van will be at the Gardens from 12:00pm to 2:00pm with a bunch of adorable adoptable animals! Be sure to share photos of your furry friends enjoying National Dog Day at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. #MendoCoastBotanicalGardens

See you Friday!

— Roxanne Golnar

NOT GUILTY!

by Capt. Cass Forrington, Sea Glass Museum

On July 29th, one of the first people ticketed for taking sea glass from our beaches, the woman mentioned in my first ad, was exonerated by 10 Mile Court.

The city’s ILLEGAL and deceptive actions are not working, except for the ?Easy? sign at the end of the path that is directing most people to the State Park area, which is already badly depleted.

On July 20th, Mendocinotv.com live streamed an interview with CDD Marie Jones and head park ranger Loren Rex. It can be viewed here: http://mendocinotv.com/2016/07/19/coastal-access-issues-on-naturally-mendocino/.

During the interview, Loren states that the glass is protected because it is “archaeological,” being more than 50 years old.

This is a false statement. 50 years makes an object “antique.” The legal definition our laws refer to is 100 years for “archaeological.” Google it.

It is completely legal for people to take the glass as there are no state laws against it.

The city stopped ticketing in May, either because of public outrage over it, or because it just became impossible for the police to enforce it.

Is an officer to ticket everyone on the beach every time he goes down there? Nearly everyone is taking it.

The glass is disappearing at an alarming rate. People are still taking bags and buckets.

The illegal approach is totally unenforceable and the tickets are thrown out of court.

Cities everywhere are now trying to find a way to recycle their glass instead of trucking it to landfills, which is very expensive, both economically and environmentally. Glass is heavy, a cup and half weighs a pound. It takes a lot of fossil fuels to truck it to the landfill in Sparks, Nevada, like we do.

A visitor at the museum told me of a town where they were locally recycling by just tumbling the glass and then giving it away. It has a multitude of uses.

I Googled it and didn’t find the town he mentioned, but found that Austin, Texas, now separates the glass, tumbles it, and gives it away for free as it is much cheaper, both economically and environmentally.

Our community has been recycling its glass through its beaches since the beaches were dumps. Site 3, “Glass Beach,” next to the state park area, used to be 7 feet thick. 95% of that glass was locally recycled. It is in the walkway to the Guest House Museum. Locals used it in fish tanks, flower pots, gardens (mulch is a current popular use), mosaics, stepping stones, gardens, patios, paths, birdbaths, and in a multitude of art forms, etc?

It seems obvious to me that the logical course of action here is to simply resume recycling our glass through our beaches. People will just take it away, just as they have been doing since the beach was an active dumpsite.

This will keep the tourists coming forever and will sustain our extraordinarily rich marine environment the glass and terracottas have created.

I want to stress that terracottas from pottery to fine china should also be recycled through our beaches, as they are considered prized finds.

Although most of the glass and terracotta shards will disappear long before they become gemstone quality, the odds guarantee that some pieces will make it that far and our beaches will always offer a treasure hunt.

We can become the town that responsibly resumed recycling its glass through its beaches to actually nourish the marine environment.

An educational program regarding the beneficial environmental benefits of the glass and terracottas should be part of this program and the community should be economically promoted as the most beautiful place on the north coast to dive and snorkel.

City Hall has many excuses why this cannot be done. They are all false. This can be done.

The Coastal Commission told me the council is the local Coastal Act authority and can just do it if they want to.

The Water Quality Control Board already did a study at Glass Beach and considers the glass benign and has no objections.

The current council, Linda Ruffing and Marie Jones just don’t want to do it. Probably because they can’t differentiate between “dumping” and “responsible recycling.”

Please demand a stop to their illegal actions and that they undertake a proactive, educational, approach to this crisis. We are running out of recycled glass on our beaches!

JUST IN FROM FORT BRAGG

by Rex Gressett

The Fort Bragg planning and development committee met Wednesday for a discussion of the water sprinkler law in Fort Bragg. By this rare event I got to know one of the oldest and most venerable skeletons in the city closet. They don't trot him out very often. He is a biggie. But this time they did. And there followed a whale of a discussion.

But how this meeting itself came to be is itself a story.

The planning and development committee, which reports on planning and development to the city council is composed of two councilmen Scott Dietz, and Cueball (Cimolino). Theirs is the responsibility to direct the development director in the formation of development policy.

Now, this last four years was Mr Dietz’s first term in office. He set a high standard for personal graciousness even with me, and I relentlessly went after him. My complaint was that he was good natured and cooperative, which surely he thought that he had to be. The problem was that being cooperative by nature he became compliant by degrees and ended up being used by a city administration with very low ethical standards and zero respect for transparency or for the laws of the State of California. These important laws lean strongly toward openness as an ideal. Our local machine would feel the pressure of that state bias but there is no one to enforce the law, so in Fort Bragg they simply ignore it. Scott helped them ignore it. Elected to protect the people from government deception he worked instead for the city manager against the people and torpedoed every suggestion for disclosure.

It pissed me off.

Mr Dietz did not worry about that. He confidently expected that the pork would fall. In our little town it does fall at least as reliably as rain, perhaps less abundantly. At every committee meeting that I went to Deitz followed with rapt attention the extravaganza of promises made to him and to the people of the city about Bainbridge Park. Fences, gazebos, teeter totters, no more homeless people; it was all on the drawing board. Scott waited for it to happen for the last two of his four year term. Bainbridge Park was his deal; it was what he was going to have to show the people when he ran again. They promised it to him.

Before the election. Hello.

Marie Jones, our development director, who I say is the exact opposite of everything a public servant should be, promised it to Dietz in my presence, repeatedly. In the end it was just too convenient that he leave. The park got two picnic tables and one bench. No fence. No gazebo. Scott threw up his hands and announced his intention not to continue his abasement.

But as an authentic lame duck, he was on the planning and development committee with Cueball (Mike Cimolino) — hands down most competent city councilman we have had for a long time. Mike worked for 29 years on our city infrastructure. Cimolino understands the physical city and the stuff that makes it work, the pipes and the costs of them. And he understands the law that underlies it all. The sewers and the streets and alleys are his lifelong vocation. He is practical and imaginative. He is one of those people that you meet from time to time who by sheer force of intelligence would have risen, in an entirely courteous and reasonable way, to the top of whatever pile he was in. His service to the city council has already been notable, extraordinary and mostly behind the scenes.

Cueball and Dietz communed with their souls and Scott decided, What the heck. Being a lame duck might carry with it a certain diminishment of councillor dignity but it left one with certain liberties. And so with Cueball backing the technical play they decided that they would together make a stab at relieving the log jam of burdensome regulation, crazy paradox in government regulation and sheer ineptitude at the city management level that was sinking our local ship.

They decided that since there were nine projects at least that were trying to get done, these projects could not be done because of the requirements of the city that any new remodel or any new construction have fire sprinklers. Our councilmen, in a brainstorm of innovation, decided that a simple moratorium on putting in sprinklers would be a boost where no boost exists for new business; only large city disincentives and hookup fees and hurdles and obstacles generally.

As the discussion deepened, it turns out that the sprinkler ordinance is this monster business stopper which has been strangling Fort Bragg enterprise since 1995 and that the empty town syndrome where the loss of business fuels the loss of more business.

Cueball pointed out the kind of businesses that do come here to suck our money and deliver it to parts unknown, such as Starbucks and Safeway and Taco Bell etc and noted that these big dogs are all ok with putting in a sprinkler. We the locals are likely struggling for survival and are often effectively stopped by the 12 to 14 dollar a foot sprinkler costs in addition to costs already jacked by the city. In at least nine developments, all local in origin, that the city knows of, sprinkler costs are enough to stop them cold, and nine developments undone is enough to truly effect the local economy.

But the Fire Marshal and the official plumbing contractor and their buddies sat in the big comfortable council chairs and doled out fear — sprinklers save lives.

They said, Look at how bad it really is. We all looked. Out the window across Highway One they gestured expansively… all those damn buildings are cheek and jowl sharing walls and built of wood nigh on a hundred years ago, often the electrical is questionable, if it catches fire the whole damn block might well go.

The problem is that they are stuck. Keeping the business-stopping monster sprinkler ordinance does not itself put in sprinklers. It only stops development.

So they did what they could, they declared another meeting.

The reformers never got to first base and we will have to see if the game of intelligent re-regulation that is so needed and that only lame duck Dietz has even tried to do has therefore been permanently called.

Will Dietz continue to try, now that they have intercepted his pass and kicked his ball back into his own end zone? No question Cue Ball is thinking.

QUESTIONS FOR KZYX

My Questions:

1. Mendocino County Public Broadcasting (MCPB) hasn't posted its previously filed IRS Form 990s on its website for over two years. This is a violation. Who's responsible? When will they be posted?
2. Are MCPB's Form 990s accurate and complete?
3. The Savings Bank of Mendocino issued a $75,000 line of credit to MCPB. How much is available today? And what collateral or what cosigner is securing the $75,000 line of credit?
4. MCPB hasn't posted meeting minutes on its website for the last eight months. Who's responsible? When will they be posted?
5. Redwood Community Radio's board of directors spend eight hours a week on KMUD business (according to RCR Form 990s). MCPB's board of directors doesn't spend any time on KZYX business (according to MCPB Form 990s). Is that why MCPB doesn't post Form 990s on its website?

My Conclusions:

It's been clear that former GM John Coate cooked the books, and I've heard from lots of knowledgeable people anecdotally that there are major fiscal problems looming ahead for MCPB. Both the FCC and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are only now beginning to learn of the full scope of MCPB's problems. Once they learn the whole truth, expect the station's licenses to be yanked and the station's federal subsidy to be yanked.

Two years ago, I was just a canary in the mine that sounded the first warnings. I was vilified. I lost my show. Now, many people are realizing our public radio station is in a death spiral. Our biggest problem? Memberships decline as expenses rise.

With the appointment of Interim GM, Diane Hering, an old hippie with her own drug issues, but not a mean old hippie like Mary Aigner, the station's broadcast equipment will continue to fail and office premises will continue to be unkempt. Station finances will continue to fail. Memberships will continue to decline. No real work will get done, and we learn we'll have have this opiate-addicted slob, Rich Culbertson, returning to the station after quitting in a hissy fit, running around barefoot trying to milk the place for what he can. The station should be closed, and moved to Ukiah, and it should be or absorbed by KMEC.

Relevant IRS Regulation -- Public Inspection and Disclosure of Form 990-T

Section 501(c)(3) organizations (charities) must make available for public inspection Forms 990-T,Exempt Organization Business Income Tax Return. IRS guidance provides as follows:

Guidelines in Treas. Reg. § 301.6104(d)-1 and Notice 2007-45, for making annual returns available for inspection and copying generally continue to apply, except that a return covered by the guidelines includes an exact copy of a Form 990-T filed by a charity after August 17, 2006. The return also includes any schedules, attachments, and supporting documents that relate to the imposition of tax on the unrelated business income of the charity. Schedules, attachments and supporting documents that do not relate to the imposition of the unrelated business income tax do not have to be made available for inspection and copying.

For more information about which attachments to Form 990-T are subject to disclosure, see Public Inspection of Attachments to a 501(c)(3) Organization's Form 990-T

A charity must make Form 990-T available only for the three years beginning on the last day (including extensions) for filing the return.

The IRS must make Forms 990-T filed by charities publicly available; use Form 4506-A to request copies. Copies of Forms 990-T on DVD may be purchased from the IRS. See Copies of Scanned Exempt Organization Returns Available.

John Sakowicz, Ukiah

CATCH OF THE DAY, August 24, 2016

KELISHA ALVAREZ, Ukiah. Domestic battery, probation revocation. (Frequent Flyer)

RICHARD AULT, Leggett. Drunk in public.

CHRISTOPHER BROCKWAY, Fort Bragg. Community supervision violation.

ERNEST CHOATE, Eureka/Ukiah. Drunk in public.

ROMAN GARCIA, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance, injection/smoking device, conspiracy, and an additional unspecified charge.

FARAND HOAGLIN, Ukiah. Fugitive from justice, parole revocation.

LUIS NAVARRATE, Oakland/Redwood Valley. Large capacity magazine, receiving stolen property, two additional unspecified charges.

JAMES ROBBINS, Clarkston, Washington/Ukiah. Fugitive from justice.

JOSHUA STUTSMAN, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

CHRISTOPHER TURNER, Lower Lake/Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia.

DONALD WILLETT JR., Willits. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS is reporting that more than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money — either personally or through companies or groups — to the Clinton Foundation. At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to her family charity or pledged commitments to its international programs, according to a review of State Department calendars released so far to The Associated Press. Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million. At least 40 donated more than $100,000 each.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

It seems it is once again a bit of an argument of fast collapse vs. slow collapse. I suppose it could go either way, or be a hybrid. Is a debt crisis, banking failures, derivatives explosion, currency collapse (via deflation, hyperinflation, or one followed by the other likely. It appears so. And the longer the rackets are propped up, the more likely it becomes. The taller the giant as they say…

Having said that, people (whether at federal, state or local govt) will do everything possible to staunch the bleeding. After Pearl Harbor, it only took Congress 4 days to ban the domestic production of cars and turn Detroit to making war material.

Expect a similar massive response to arrest the collapse.

Of course it will be arrested at a much lower standard of living. This gives credence to the Brown Tech response posited by Holmgren and the stair step Long Descent of JMG.

Now having said that, a debt/currency crisis will feel like The End. In fact, it will be The End for a great many people. Especially suburbia. Transportation is the key to understanding this. No affordable gas for car, no job, no $, no gas. And most cars are owned by the banksters anyway.

Public transit is a disaster, especially in the burbs, but also small cities and villages. Grocery stores, doctors offices, workplaces are miles and miles from home.

Recently, both my cars died. I have been borrowing rides, biking, and hoofing it for 2 weeks. At the end of the month, the car issue should be remedied, but…it drives home the point about community. It is not only what you can produce for neighbors, it is also, who do you know who would help you, for no money?

I am unconvinced the explosion will be 2016. The ability of TPTB to juggle chickens and chainsaws is staggering. My guess, 2030, plus or minus a decade.

At least my millennial daughter is studying to be a mortician. Job security man! Undertakers will always be in demand.

PAUL BUNYAN LOG ROLLING CONTEST AT CV STARR CENTER

Friday, Sept 2nd: Try your hand at Log Rolling in the CV Starr Center Pool! Practice time is 4-5 pm, Contest time is 5-7:30 pm. There are 4 age categories: 9-11 yrs., 12-14 yrs., 15-17 yrs., and Adults. The first 8 people to register (in each category) get to compete. Sign up now at the front desk. Cost is free for members and daily drop-in rate applies for non-members.

UNDERSTANDING ENGINEERS 3

A priest, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, "What's with those guys? We must have been waiting for 15 minutes!" The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such inept golf!" The priest said, "Here comes the greenskeeper. Let's have a word with him." He said, "Hello George: What's wrong with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't they?" The greenskeeper replied, "Oh, yes. That's a group of blind firemen. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime!" The group fell silent for a moment. The priest said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight." The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist colleague and see if there's anything she can do for them." The engineer said, "Why can't they play at night?"

I WAS IN THE FIFTH GRADE when the Sister told our class, "Some of you will fall away from the arms of the Holy Mother Church. Some of you will think you know more than the Church. You will think these beliefs are old-fashioned and you will leave the security of the Mother Church."

I remember thinking, "No! No! Not me! I never will! Why would I ever leave the church and endanger my immortal soul? That's crazy! Why would anyone ever do that?"

And here I am today, excommunicated. I haven't been to confession in — gosh — 45 years. I had my last confession when I was 16 years old. If I went to confession now I might be in there for hours telling all the sins and perversions I've committed. Whoo! "Bless me father for I have sinned. I have drawn pornographic comics and I have foisted my perversions on the unsuspecting public." I would have a really long penance to say — weeks and months of Our Fathers, Hail Marys, rosaries, Acts of Contrition — everything.

I remember being curious about other boys my age. They didn't seem to be as impressionable as I was. They seemed more thick skinned. Other boys didn't seem to be bothered when the nuns told us that if we said bad words we committed a mortal sin, and, if we died we'd go straight to hell. That affected me deeply. I avoided saying bad words for that reason.

–R. Crumb

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE DISTRICT USES TEXTS TO REACH GROWING NUMBER OF YOUNG PEOPLE ATTEMPTING SUICIDE

Those coming to the Golden Gate Bridge to commit suicide are younger than ever. Since 2000, the number of troubled young people under 25 years old showing up at the Bridge considering suicide has increased more than five-fold.

In response to this change, the District is turning to technology. We’re partnering with Crisis Text Line to better reach troubled young people, who frequently use text messaging to communicate. Crisis Text Line is a national not-for-profit that provides free, 24/7 support for people in crisis via text. They also collect and analyze data at crisistrends.org.

Golden Gate Bridge Patrol and Crisis Text Line will work together to dispatch emergency services and bring people to safety, using the keyword GGB. The new text line is in addition to the work of our current Bridge Patrols and phone hotlines.

The media is invited to learn more about the changing demographics, the Crisis Text Line partnership, and other details about our suicide statistics and prevention measures at the Golden Gate Bridge District Board meeting: Friday, August 26^th, 2016, at 10:00 a.m. in the Administration Building near the Toll Plaza on the 2^nd floor.

Following the Board presentations, there will be a Q & A for press at the flagpole near the Bridge Welcome Center at 11:00 a.m. with Board President Dick Grosboll, General Manager Denis Mulligan, Bridge Patrol Captain Lisa Locati, and Crisis Text Line Bay Area Director Libby Craig.

Golden Gate Bridge ironworkers will install new Crisis Text Line signs following the Q & A.

Contact:

Golden Gate Bridge, Highway & Transportation District

Priya Clemens, Public Information Manager
415-317-2222 (please text)
pclemens@goldengate.org

Crisis Text Line

Libby Craig, Bay Area Director
650-804-1925
Libby@crisistextline.org

www.crisistrends.org

PETITION TO ERADICATE STRIPERS & BLACK BASS WITHDRAWN, BUT MLPA MASTER PLAN STILL ON AGENDA

by Dan Bacher

In an apparent victory for fishing groups who were mobilizing for a huge turn out of anglers at the California Fish and Game Commission meeting in Folsom on Thursday, August 25, Stewart Resnick's Coalition for a Sustainable Delta Astroturf group and their water contractor allies have withdrawn their petition to increase bag limits and reduce size limits for striped bass and black bass in the San Francisco Bay-Delta.

According to a notice on the meeting posted on the Commission's website today, "Please note: The petition number 2016-011 (striped and black bass) has been withdrawn by the petitioners. As a result the Commission will not be taking action on this petition."

(http://www.fgc.ca.gov/meetings/2016/Aug/08242516agd.pdf)

However, the Commission on Wednesday will be voting on an item of great interest to anglers: Item 10. Master Plan for Marine Protected areas:

"The Commission will (A) Discuss and approve text related to traditional ecological knowledge (B) Adopt proposed final Master Plan for Marine Protected Areas and the Marine Life Protection Program pursuant to the Marine Life Protection Act (Pursuant to Section 2850, et seq., Fish and Game Code)."

This item is very controversial for a number of reasons - and must be challenged by all those who support science, the public trust and openness and transparency in government.

First, the proposal breaks the original promise given to anglers by officials that regional reviews of the alleged "marine protected areas" created under the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative would be conducted every five years. The new plan changes the regional reviews to once every ten years, a move that anglers and public trust advocates strongly oppose.

Second, the plan does nothing to make the faux "marine protected areas" created under the MLPA Initiative into real ones. The alleged "Yosemites of the Sea" created under the privately funded initiative, in an extreme case of greenwashing and bad environmental policy, fail to protect the ocean from fracking, oil spills, offshore oil drilling, pollution, military testing and all human impacts other than sustainable fishing and gatheringe.

Third, the plan accepts as legitimate the tainted "marine protected areas" created under the helm of a Big Oil lobbyist and other corporate operatives with numerous conflicts of interest. Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association and relentless advocate for the expansion of fracking and offshore oil drilling and the evisceration of California's environmental laws, chaired the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the Southern California Coast at the same time that the region's marine waters were being fracked by her industry. She also served on the task forces for the Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast.

(http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/brtf_bios_sc.asp)

Fourth, the proposal fails to challenge the terminally flawed "science" employed to created MPAs under the "leadership" of a convicted embezzler. A federal judge in San Francisco on May 20, 2014 sentenced Ron LeValley of Mad River Biologists, the former co-chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Science Advisory Team for the North Coast, to serve 10 months in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to embezzle over $852,000 in federal funds from the Yurok Tribe.

In spite of numerous complaints, the Fish and Game Commission refused to review the legitimacy of the "science"used to create the "marine protected areas" developed under his helm at the same time that he was engaged in a conspiracy to embezzle money from the Yurok Tribe."

(http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/5/22/1301281/-Former-MLPA-Initiative-Science-Co-Chair-Gets-10-Month-Sentence)

Until these issues are resolved, the Commission must reject the Master Plan.

WHY A SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IS INEVITABLE

by Robert Reich

The best argument for a single-payer health plan is the recent decision by giant health insurer Aetna to bail out next year from 11 of the 15 states where it sells Obamacare plans. Aetna’s decision follows similar moves by UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, and by Humana, another one of the giants.

All claim they’re not making enough money because too many people with serious health problems are using the Obamacare exchanges, and not enough healthy people are signing up.

The problem isn’t Obamacare per se. It lies in the structure of private markets for health insurance ­ which creates powerful incentives to avoid sick people and attract healthy ones. Obamacare is just making this structural problem more obvious.

In a nutshell, the more sick people and the fewer healthy people a private for-profit insurer attracts, the less competitive that insurer becomes relative to other insurers that don’t attract as high a percentage of the sick but a higher percentage of the healthy.

Eventually, insurers that take in too many sick and too few healthy people are driven out of business.

If insurers had no idea who’d be sick and who’d be healthy when they sign up for insurance (and keep them insured at the same price even after they become sick), this wouldn’t be a problem. But they do know and they’re developing more and more sophisticated ways of finding out.

Health insurers spend lots of time, effort, and money trying to attract people who have high odds of staying healthy (the young and the fit) while doing whatever they can to fend off those who have high odds of getting sick (the older, infirm, and the unfit).

As a result we end up with the most bizarre health-insurance system imaginable: One ever better designed to avoid sick people.

If this weren’t enough to convince rational people to do what most other advanced nations have done ­– create a single-payer system that insures everyone, funded by taxpayers ­– consider that America’s giant health insurers are now busily consolidating into ever-larger behemoths.

UnitedHealth is already humongous.

Aetna, meanwhile, is trying to buy Humana in a deal that will create the second-largest health insurer in the nation, with 33 million members. The Justice Department has so far blocked the deal.

Insurers say they’re consolidating in order to reap economies of scale. But there’s little evidence that large size generates cost savings.

In reality, they’re becoming huge to get more bargaining leverage over everyone they do business with — hospitals, doctors, employers, the government, and consumers. That way they make even bigger profits.

But these bigger profits come at the expense of hospitals, doctors, employers, the government, and, ultimately, taxpayers and consumers.

There’s abundant evidence, for example, that when health insurers merge, premiums rise. Researchers found, for example, that after Aetna merged with Prudential HealthCare in 1999, premiums rose 7% higher than had the merger not occurred.

What to do? In the short term, Obamacare can be patched up by enlarging government subsidies for purchasing insurance, and ensuring that healthy Americans buy insurance, as the law requires.

But these are bandaids. The real choice in the future is either a hugely expensive for-profit oligopoly with the market power to charge high prices even to healthy people and stop insuring sick people.

Or else a government-run single payer system ­– such as is in place in almost every other advanced economy ­– dedicated to lower premiums and better care for everyone.

We're going to have to choose eventually.

NOW THAT THE GAMES ARE OVER, THE REAL OLYMPIC DRAMA BEGINS IN RIO

by Dave Zirin

“I am absolutely convinced that history will talk of the Rio de Janeiro before the Games and the much better Rio de Janeiro after the Olympic Games.” —Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee

Mr. Bach is delusional. But he is correct about one thing: People will talk about Rio as a city “before” and “after” the Olympics. It just won’t be the conversation of his fantasies conjured inside his Olympic-sized bubble. Now the real story starts in Rio. Now that the 2016 Summer Games have been completed, with the most-discussed dramas being empty seats and the lies of an over-privileged swimmer, the real story begins: the story of how badly the Olympics will end up warping the city itself.

For months, Rio has been the subject of international fascination in the Western media: this idea of a magical city on the coast on the precipice of an Olympic-sized catastrophe, with the whole world watching. Journalists looked agape at the 2016 Olympic hosts wrestling with the impeachment/coup of their president, the country’s worst economic crisis in decades, a massive outbreak of the Zika virus, water judged to be loaded with more toxins than a Jersey swamp, and shocking levels of police violence. The media assumed that the narrative would end just this side of Armageddon.

Yet Rio did it. They made it work with the help of the hard, thankless labor of thousands of people building the facilities in hyper-exploitative conditions and directing visitors throughout the city. They pulled off the games without the collapse of a stadium, mass waterborne illnesses, or a widely speculated-upon terror attack. And Brazil even won some gold in the bargain, crowned as best in the world at two of country’s most important sports: men’s soccer and men’s volleyball. The nation’s most visible Olympic hero even hailed from Rio’s own City of God favela: gold medalist judoka Rafaela Silva. It’s almost “Olympic city as Horatio Alger story,” and will no doubt be written as such: Rio may have done it with Scotch tape, smoke and mirrors, but they hosted the damn Olympics.

Yet the story isn’t over. The full story goes beyond medals. It’s a story that is not only about the social cost of these games—the debt, displacement, and militarization that went into staging the spectacle—but the economic cost as well. The second half of Rio’s Olympic story is predicated on a simple question: How are all the bills from 2016 going to be paid without enraging the masses of Rio—and beyond—who spent these Olympics with their faces pressed up against the glass of a global party?

It is not merely that the Olympics were over budget. There has never been an Olympics that could say otherwise. But the Rio Olympics came in 51 percent over budget in the context of the nation’s protracted economic crisis. Thomas Bach, the head of the International Olympic Committee, said that the Rio games used “no public funds,” a manifestly outrageous lie and yet only one in his parade of delusional statements as the games came to a close. The Rio Olympic Committee, which already received a $900 million bailout in June, has applied for more bailout funds. The Paralympics are widely reported to be truncated because the well is dry and the city just devoted an extra $46 million to make sure they can even be staged.

Meanwhile, the Olympics may not only have caused displacement but set the stage for an even wider grab of Rio’s top-end real estate. This wider land grab will play out almost immediately, as the area which housed the Olympic Village is now set to be developed by 92-year-old billionaire real-estate developer Carlos Carvalho, whose political connections and contempt for the poor are legendary. Additionally, a favela called Horto, which has been a community for 200 years and sits on the edge of Rio’s remarkable Botanical Gardens, is about to be displaced, with over 600 families given 90 days to vacate. As pressures on Rio’s favelas increase, the city’s epidemic police violence—one in five homicides in Rio last year were committed by law enforcement—is not going to magically disappear with the Olympics. Most officials with whom I spoke, including the mayor, said that the violence is less related to the Olympics than to the absence of funds for community policing.

Having just returned from Rio, I can write with confidence that the mood in the streets is not anger or compliance. It’s apprehension. It’s apprehension over what is going to happen after the international media leave to chase the next story, and it’s apprehension about a city where real estate has values commensurate with the Bay Area of the United States, yet poverty stalks families who just a few short years ago felt like their future was bright. As one woman, a teacher named Marilla, said to me:

“Brazilians are of two minds. There’s the disapproval of the event, not of the sports. People are supporting the sports, but when you are living here in Rio, things have gotten more expensive. It’s very difficult to be living in the city at the moment and coupled with all of the problems that the city is facing. But Brazilians do have this ability to differentiate between the games and the sport and what’s happening.”

It’s the “what’s happening” that should scare everyone who cares about this city. It’s the “what’s happening” that should be a call to arms for every member of the media who practiced journalism in Rio and then left for home.

This is the rest of the Rio story: It’s a story about the people who hosted the Olympics under impossible conditions, only to find that the games were staged on their backs. The story will be about how Rio continues to buckle, or straightens its spine.

(Dave Zirin is the author of Brazil’s Dance With the Devil You can reach him at edgeofsports@gmail.com)

A JOURNALIST is a guy who writes as quickly as possible about things of which he knows nothing and he does it at night and most of the time he's tired or drunk and lacking the talent to be a writer or the courage to be a cop — he ends up as a joker or a simple confidant.

— Manuel Vicent (Courtesy, Louis Bedrock)