Mendocino County Today: Sunday, Aug 28, 2016

• Flugelhorn Mystery
• Hinckle Service
• Haul Road
• Culture Recommendations
• County Jobs
• Pension Math
• Boonville Park
• Fiscal Responsibility
• Yesterday's Catch
• Silent Inequity
• Quick Cash
• Women's Retreat
• Psychic Proposal
• Trump Amnesty
• Reno Schmooze
• No Fire
• Field Unplayable
• Kaepernick Protest
• Bookshop Events
• Rexroth Essays
• Spain Memories
• Art Game
• Hardhearted Hannah
• Election Racketeering

Subject: STOLEN FLUGELHORN CASE
To: AVA@pacific.net

Hi, I am wondering about fate of Steven Hunter--apparently perpetrator of horn theft from big band.

–Bob Ayres

* * *

WHERE'S THE FLUGLEHORN?

Dear Bob Ayers,

Mr. Stephen Hunter was sentenced on Thursday as we were waiting for Bronwen Hanes to cut a deal with the DA. Hunter got six years in prison for his part in the head-on collision near Indian Creek bridge outside of Philo over a year ago when he got drunk and pilfered your flugelhorn at the Grange; he got six years for DUI resulting in great bodily injury but Judge Ann Moorman suspended execution of the sentence and put Hunter on probation for five years with a hint that if he stayed sober he could get off probation in 48 months. No mention of the flugelhorn was made, but a big fuss was made over Hunter’s pastor, who was allowed to come in the courtroom in shorts. Hunter has a wife and baby in Japan, and his mother-in-law was with him.

I seemed to be the only one worried about the horn. I asked Detective Espinoza, but he didn’t know. My experience has been that these things disappear at the towing garages when the vehicle owner ends up in the hospital and unable to retrieve his personal property from a wrecked car. Hunter probably wouldn’t have claimed the instrument, anyhow, since it was stolen.

My understanding was that it was an antique and worth a lot of money. The only possibility for recovery would be if it was taken as evidence, since it was stolen, and maybe it lays moldering in an evidence locker somewhere.

— Bruce McEwen

HINCKLE SERVICE

Warren Hinckle's funeral will be held on Tuesday August 30th at 10:30 A.M. at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, located across from Washington Square Park in San Francisco at 666 Filbert Street.  The public is invited.

— Craig Stehr

A VISITOR LAMENTED that he thought somebody in Fort Bragg should take up the cause of improving the north and south ends of the Haul Road before they completely deteriorate and fall into the ocean and then cost a lot more to fix. He said he was out there in his wheelchair a couple months ago and the north and south ends need some serious work. Apparently it was at night and our friend hit some pot holes and did a few faceplants. He said people can still walk it even with the potholes, but it's getting worse by the year.

THE MIGHTY PACIFIC will have its way. It's not bad until MacKerricher. That's where the ocean is winning.

CULTURE RECOMMENDATIONS:

THE INFAMOUS Rolling Stones concert at Altamont was said to be "the end of the '60s." Prior to the '69 debacle, you see, it had all been pot, peace and nice tunes by nice people, as the rest of America "lost its innocence" on an annual basis. Altamont, the venue, was a semi-abandoned, amenities-free racetrack so far east of San Francisco it was damn near to Tracy. Flower children and freelance lemmings appeared in droves, parking wherever they could, pulling up ranch fencing to make bonfires.

THE ROLLING STONES had come along with fantasy songs about street fighting and sympathies for Beelzebub and, golly, was that a welcome switch from all that Donovan mewling about tripping down the cobblestones and feeling groovy.

OF COURSE it's one thing to sing about violence while you're prancing around a show biz stage with a boa feather with your get-away helicopter out back, but when real street fighters of the sociopathic type start beating on hippies with pool cues and stabbing to death a punk who pulled a gun, well, golly, maybe we shoulda stuck with the Beatles.

JOEL SELVIN'S book about this depressing event, an event thrown together by dope heads at the last minute when two other venues and skilled organizers like Bill Graham were nixed, is called "Let It Bleed — The Rolling Stones, Altamont, and The End of the Sixties." It's a fascinating, carefully researched account of the disaster and the people primarily responsible for the disaster. This is a rare case of the book being better than the famous documentary about Altamont called "Gimme Shelter."

ALTAMONT was supposed to be the "Woodstock of the West," but Mick Jagger green-lighted the Altamont site although its few and fetid bathrooms were wholly adequate to the mob demand. And there was no water, no food, lots of bad dope, and no security other than the Hells Angels. Jagger left these tedious logistics to a bunch of stoners and one guy who disappeared immediately after the event. It's a minor miracle that more people weren't killed and injured than were, and plenty were. Selvin rightly says about his most interesting book: "We pieced together a portrait of a disaster that spun out of control almost as soon as the idea entered the ether."

"HELL OR HIGH WATER" is a heckuva entertaining movie, but then when hasn't Jeff Bridges been entertaining, and how often do you get a big budget film where banks are half the villains, just like they are in real life? I hadn't read a thing about this movie other than Bridges was in it and, sure 'nuff, it was a bargain at the geezer rate of $7.50.

ALSO RECOMMENDED: "Wild West — Plains to the Pacific," paintings and prints and some miscellaneous historical items currently on display at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, the only museum in the city for people who really like art. A bonus, for you rubes from up here in the sticks, is the radically improved stretch of ocean trail that runs out to the Cliff House. Easy walk to and from the Legion, and the Legion's permanent art is also always wonderful no matter how many times you've seen it.

MENDO RECRUITS NEW EMPLOYEES

Passion! Diversity! Small! Growth Potential! Fun! Weekends Off! Holidays! A Great Place! Wine! Ocean! Rebuilding! Career Paths! Succession Planning! Leadership Initiative! Service! Engagement! Variety! Portfolio! (But no mention of pay rates.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbu30rr0NRM

PENSION MATH: The Sky’s Not Falling?

by James Wilbanks, Mendocino County Pension System Administrator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOO4n1yqcuc

BOONVILLE COMMUNITY PARK

REPUBLICAN PARTY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY isn't paying its fines:

The attached fine itemization statement and letters show fines assessed by the Secretary of State for the late filing of your report(s) or statement(s) and any outstanding balances.  (See “Current Balance” column.)  The balance due as of this date is $2,090.00.

A single payment covering the total amount for all current balances due should be made to the Secretary of State at 1500 11th Street, Room 495, Sacramento, CA  95814 or you can call (916) 653-6224 and make a credit card (Visa or MasterCard)   payment.  Please enclose a copy of the fine itemization statement with your payment.

If a fine was assessed by and paid to the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) for the late filing of a document for which a Secretary of State fine is still owed, please provide us documentation associated with your payment.

If you believe the outstanding balance information on the fine itemization statement is in error or if you have any questions, please contact me.

I look forward to hearing from you soon in order to work on a resolution.

Kind regards,

Wendy Brown
Political Reform Division
Office of the Secretary of State
1500 11th Street, Room 495
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 695-1542
wendy.brown@sos.ca.gov

CATCH OF THE DAY: August 27, 2016

BLUE ABREU, Willits. Under influence, probation revocation.

SERGIO CARDENAS, Redwood Valley. Drunk in public, probation revocation.

FRANCISCO DELGADO-ESCARENO, Covelo/Ukiah. Assault, failure to appear.

ASHLEY ESPINOSA, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JESUS GARCIA-RUIZ, Ukiah. DUI, suspended license, child endangerment.

DAVID MCCARTY, Ukiah. DUI.

DERRIAN MITCHELL, Richfield, Minnesota/Mendocino. Drunk in public, fugitive from justice.

MARK RAY, Redwood Valley. Suspended license, interlock override, probation revocation.

MARK WRIGHT, San Francisco/Fort Bragg. Under influence.

WHITNEY WYATT, Garberville/Ukiah. Drunk in public.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Have any of you ever needed quick cash, I mean needed cash tonite, right now? Well, that’s the position a gang of ‘Youths’ found themselves in about 9:30 last nite in Waterbury, CT. Here’s how it goes down, and pay attention for further reference. First you find an abandoned house in a nearby neighborhood. Then you call a Chinese restaurant and place a large order, directing delivery to the abandoned address. You lay in wait. When the delivery driver pulls up you drag him from the car, take his wallet, cellphone and watch, then beat him nearly to death. But he’s a diehard, still alive. Meanwhile, as for his wife in the passenger seat, you shoot her thru the throat killing her instantly. You take her pocket book, an unexpected bonus! On top of all that good fortune these urban entrepreneurs have a pile of free Chinese food to eat. Not believing their good fortune they fail to notice the delivery driver is not dead, in fact has contacted police, who come and arrest everybody, ending the party. Six ‘Youts’ are charged with murder and a whole bunch of other things.

A WEEKEND AWAY FROM THE PHALLOCRATS

Only 5 Days Left to Register

Judy Vidaver

That’s just 5, 5 days before registration closes for the 8th Annual Mendocino Women’s Retreat held September 16-18 at beautiful and peaceful River’s Bend Retreat Center in Philo. Our theme this year, “Wild Moon Magic” will help us re-kindle  that sense of magic, wonder and delight we had as children. Some activities include: morning yoga, free-form music, singing, drumming and dance, magic wand making, journeying, co-creation of a nature-art piece, circles of sharing, a silent auction, and 6 delicious, catered organic meals. Come out and play with old friends and meet new ones. You can register on-line at: www.mendowomensretreat.com or call 734-0461 For more info call 964-2742

HITLER REACTS TO TRUMP’S LATEST STANCE ON IMMIGRATION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=545aq1V1upM

THRILLED TO BE IN RENO and other insincerities…

Thank you. Thank you so much. I am so thrilled to be back in Reno. Thank you. I have to say, though, I know when I’m here in Reno I’m the other Hillary. And I am more than OK with that because I think your mayor is doing a terrific job. And the fact that she herself is a small businesswoman and committed to really lifting up Reno and giving everybody in this great city, the biggest little city with a big heart, a chance to get ahead and stay ahead. I could not be more honored than to have her support and endorsement in this race. So thank you so much, Mayor Schieve. And let me also thank Dr. Karen Hilgersom and everybody here at Truckee Meadows Community College. I love community colleges, and I know something about what this college is doing to give people of all ages — not just young people — a real chance to get the skills and opportunities that everybody in America deserves. So thank you.

(Hillary in Reno the other day as reported by the NYT.)

A RECENT HEADLINE FROM THE PRESS DEMOCRAT:

Windsor’s 7-Year-Old, $2 Million Crumbling Football Field Deemed 'Unplayable'

Bummer - Opening Game Friday Had To Be Moved

And begs the question. One more time: What is the purpose of public education in this country?

EMERGENCY PODCAST: Talking to NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith about the anthem protest of Colin Kaepernick

https://soundcloud.com/edgeofsports/kap

San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick decided to sit during the national anthem because he is "not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color." In a special edition of the podcast, we have DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association who speaks on what the union can, and cannot do, to protect Kaepernick, and why the NFLPA - and not the NFL - is his "family" at this moment in time.

SEPTEMBER EVENTS - GALLERY BOOKSHOP

Hello There,

This is Rachel Sparks over at Gallery Book Shop in Mendocino. Sending a list of upcoming events at the book shop for the month of September. Let me know if you need any more information. If you have any questions please email me or call me at the shop. Thank you so much!

* * *

Saturday September 3 Author Meet & Greet with Katherine Smith Stop by and chat with Katherine Smith, author and illustrator of Otter Twin Magic: a children's picture book with a great story and information about many Northern California animals! 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm Free & open to the public More information at 707.937.2665 or gallerybookshop.com

Saturday September 17 Benefit Shopping Night for MUSE Shop for good! All proceeds from sales this evening will go to Mendocino Unified Schools Enrichment, supporting programs like music, art, and robotics in Mendocino's public schools. 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm Free and open to the public More information at 707.937.2665 or gallerybookshop.com

Friday September 23 Author Talk and Book Signing with Sherry Glaser Author and performer Sherry Glaser will talk about and read from her new book, The First Practical Handbook for Crazy People. 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm Free & open to the public More information at 707.937.2665 or gallerybookshop.com

Friday September 30 Author Talk and Book Signing with Gregory W. Randall and Abe Louise Young Authors Gregory W. Randall and Abe Louise Young will read their poetry selections from their book, Heaven to Me. 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Free & open to the public More information at 707.937.2665 or gallerybookshop.com

Rachel Sparks
Event Coordinator
Gallery Bookshop
Mendocino, California

SAN FRANCISCO IN THE SIXTIES

Kenneth Rexroth's complete columns for the San Francisco Examiner http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/sfe/

In January 1960 the San Francisco Examiner offered Kenneth Rexroth a job writing a weekly column. He accepted. The column proved popular enough that he was soon asked to do two and eventually three per week.

All told, Rexroth wrote more than 760 columns for the Examiner until he was fired in July 1967 (apparently due to a controversial article he wrote about the American police). During the last seven years I’ve been posting all of these columns, 50 years after their original appearance. They’re now all online at my website.

Needless to say, they vary widely in topic and interest. Some offer incisive commentary that remains astonishingly relevant on all sorts of general issues -- social, political, cultural, ecological. Others are more dated, such as reviews of particular musical or theatrical performances. I think you will find, however, that his remarks about even the most ephemeral topics are full of amusing observations and perceptive insights, and that the ensemble constitutes a unique and fascinating chronicle of those eventful years. Here are just a few of the hundreds of different topics he treats:

• Beckett and Ionesco
• Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg, and the Modern Jazz Quartet
• In praise of amateur Shakespeare
• The Civil Rights movement
• The execution of Caryl Chessman
• The HUAC riot
• Merits and faults of the San Francisco Ballet
• Kabuki theater
• Chinese opera
• The Tao of fishing
• Japanese art
• Aida and Ornette Coleman
• Mathematical elegance and classic fiction
• An appeal for Kenneth Patchen
• Radio KPFA
• The Peace Corps
• The death of Hemingway
• Rigoletto and Coltrane
• Henry Miller
• Pablo Casals at the White House
• The San Francisco Mime Troupe
• Golden Gate Park
• Camping in the Sierras
• Igor Stravinsky
• The death of Marilyn Monroe
• The Cuban missile crisis
• Why not abolish Market Street?
• Brecht’s philosophy
• The film Elektra
• Victor Serge’s Memoirs of a Revolutionary
• Diebenkorn at the De Young
• The Kennedy assassination
• H.L. Mencken
• The Coit Tower murals
• Tom Jones and The Ginger Man
• Ideas for replanning the city
• Charles Mingus
• Homosexuality
• Greeks and Buddhists in Afghanistan
• The Harlem riots
• Mysticism, ethical and chemical
• Wagnerian Tartuffery
• The fall of Khrushchev
• The Vatican Council
• The Mafia invasion of North Beach
• Proposals for Chinatown
• The assassination of Malcolm X
• Bob Dylan
• Cowboy diplomacy
• The strategy of peace
• Wine – French versus Californian
• The Watts riot
• The FSM
• Harassment in Haight-Ashbury
• Urban alienation renewal
• Marijuana
• LSD
• Marxism and the persistence of alienation
• The international cultural revolution
• Camouflaging the rape of the environment
• What I will miss in San Francisco [as he starts off on a nine-month trip around the world]
• The crises in Germany
• Wandering the streets of London
• The Amsterdam Provos
• Bolshevism as state capitalism
• The arts of Finland
• Sexual liberation in Denmark
• Wandering the streets of Paris
• The architecture of Gaudi
• The undergrounds in Spain
• Power struggle in Italy
• Tintoretto and the Painters of Venice
• The Italian Communist Party
• Ruins of ancient Greece
• Istanbul
• Iran’s “two culture” peril
• Afghanistan
• India’s political demoralization
• Buddhism and Hinduism in India
• Thai Buddhism

I plan to continue by posting all of Rexroth’s articles and columns for the San Francisco Bay Guardian (1967-1972) and San Francisco magazine (1967-1975). But meanwhile, you can now peruse the entire Examiner series here: http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/sfe

(Ken Knabb)

SPAIN & MEMORIES

by Harry Fisher (1996)

The Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade have given out new figures on the number of Brigadistas, family member and friends who went to Spain at the invitation of the Spanish people and government on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and the birth of the International Brigades in 1995. Over 450 Brigadistas, including 72 Americans, and over 1,200 others went to Spain. There are approximately 700 Brigadistas left in the world out of more than 40,000 who volunteered.

My family and I did not come with the main group of Americans. I was told that when that group landed in Madrid on the morning of November 5, thousands of young people greeted them with cheers and helped them to their buses, carrying their luggage and assisting in all kinds of ways. It was heart-warming to realize that the youth of Spain knew about us.

I arrived in Madrid on November 6 and spent the day greeting American vets from more than 20 states, with the largest group from the West Coast. I met comrades I haven’t seen in 50 years or more. It pained me to see how old some of them looked, some in wheelchairs, and others able to walk only with the aid of family members and friends. But it was a thrill to see them all again.

Small groups of Internationals were sent on day trips to different towns, because so many communities wanted us to visit them; still we couldn’t satisfy all of them. In one town, only one American, Saul Wellman, who came to Spain from a nursing home in Michigan, visited. There were banners there that said, “Welcome to Saul Wellman.” The people were glad to receive even one veteran.

On November 7, about 30 Americans, including six or seven Brigadistas, boarded a bus to visit a town called Alcorcon. This was my first chance to see if the Spanish people remember us. Our bus entered a schoolyard to the delight of some young children. We were escorted to the gymnasium, and there given a meal fit for royalty.

I sat at a table with my family and three Spaniards, none of them able to speak English, and me having forgotten all the Spanish I once knew. Fortunately, my daughter-in-law Dena was able to translate a bit, so somehow we managed to communicate. One of the three was a communist, the assistant mayor; another was a socialist, in charge of the town’s cultural affairs, and the third was a republican, a representative of a liberal political party. At the beginning of the luncheon, the mayor of the town, also a socialist, approached me with some gifts, hugged and kissed me on both cheeks, and said again and again, “Gracias, gracias.” I told the communist official that I was thrilled that they remembered us 60 years later. His reply, in Spanish, was that they will remember us 60 hundred years from now.

During the luncheon, my two granddaughters, 5 and 13 years old, were invited to visit a classroom. The teacher and students were thrilled to have the grandchildren of an American Brigadista visit them. The teacher hugged the two girls and the children communicated in English and Spanish.

After the luncheon, a large group of high school students joined us in the gym. The student leader read greeting to us in Spanish, and then one after another they came to me, hugged me, kissed me on both cheeks, and once again, “Gracias, gracias, gracias,” may times with tears in their eyes. Now these are youngsters whose grandparents were only young kids during the war, and still they knew of us. Just then my son John, whose hobby is singing folk songs, was handed a guitar and asked to sing Spanish Civil War songs. This delighted the older generations. Then one of the teenagers requested Beatles songs, and this delighted the teenagers even more. Several teenage girls took turns hugging and cheering us even more. Several teenage kissed my little granddaughter Rachel. My 13-year-old granddaughter, Emi, made friends with the students and she now had four new pen-pals.

One student, a young fellow of about 16, asked me what had made me come from such a rich country to help people fight a war. I explained that in the 1930s most Americans were also very poor, jobless, and miserable. I tried to explain that while we had rich people in America, the great majority in the 1930s were poor and strongly anti-fascist. I also explained to him how proud we were of the Spanish people for being the first to stand up against the fascists.

Finally, after several hours at the school, we all walked to the Hall of Culture. The minister of culture had become very friendly with my family and asked if we would like to go on a tour of the building. We gladly accepted. Fist he took us to his large office and presented gifts to the children. Then, as we stood on the catwalks, we listened to The Russian National Opera rehearse La Traviata. After that he showed us galleries with artwork, sculpture, paintings, and photographs. It was very interesting. He tried to get us to eat more food and have some drinks, but we couldn’t take any more! Finally, after more hugs, kisses, and “graciases,” we boarded the bus. The minister of culture kept squeezing my hand and said, “We will never forget the fighters who came to our country at a very bad time to help us. We will never forget you.”

I fell asleep on the bus and was awakened by my son-in-law Geoffrey telling me to “look out the window.” Our bus had been given a police escort as we entered another part of the town. In a few minutes, the bus stopped at the area’s music conservatory, and dozens of people greeted our bus with cheers. As we got off, they gave each of us — even the children — flowers. Then they escorted us into an auditorium filled with hundreds of people, all clapping and cheering. Many were in tears. Everyone tried to get near the aisles to get a better look at us.

As we moved slowly down the crowded aisles, they reached out, trying to touch us, to grab our arms. They were all ages, small children, even babies, teenagers, the middle-aged and the elderly. Some people had smiles on their faces, but most of them had tears in their eyes. They were very moved, and so were we.

The mayor got on stage and asked the volunteers to stand up. Six or seven of us stood up and the audience cheered wildly, as though we had won the war for them. But of course we had lost the war, and the fascists had won. Still, the people cheered as if we were the victors.

Then we were entertained with two high school musical groups, one a symphony orchestra and the other a brass band. They were wonderful. At one point, Milt Wolff, the last commander of the Lincoln Battalion, danced in front of the audience with a partner, and brought the house down with loud applause and warm laughter.

Milt spoke for the vets, in both English and Spanish. He reminded the audience that the Spanish people were the biggest heroes of this war, as they were the first to rise up against the fascists. He thanked them for their fight and for giving us volunteers the chance to take up arms against our common enemy, the fascists.

After the meeting, we stayed for another hour or so, with people gathering around us, always thanking us for what we did. So many more graciases and kisses. And so much more food!

At one time, I saw the only non-American vet in a wheelchair in an aisle, surrounded by young people. I went over and introduced myself to him. His tag showed that he was from Switzerland. I put my hand out to shake his, and laboriously he put his hand in mine. I noticed that three fingers were missing. I looked into his eyes. All he said was, “Teruel” and I understood immediately. The Lincolns and other Internationals had arrived at Teruel on New Year’s Eve 1937 when the temperature was 20 below zero. Many comrades lost fingers and toes to frostbite during that period.

We didn’t get back to our hotel till quite late. I fell asleep from exhaustion. And this was only the beginning.

* * *

The next day I was supposed to go with a large group to Southern Spain by train to Seville. I was not anxious to go there as I wanted to go to so many places that I had been in 60 years ago and show them to my family. I also wanted to see if the people of these places remembered us or if I could remember any of them. So I asked my kids if we could go to Albacete, which had been the headquarters for the International Brigades, and which had been surrounded by the towns in which we had trained. I also told the family that I would like to stop on the way and visit Madrigueras, the little town about half an hour off the highway, where I spent three or four weeks training in early 1937. I wanted very badly to see Madrigueras, because so many things happened there, some of which had been on my mind for 60 years.

I won’t retell my experiences in Madrigueras since I described it in separate story (“Madrigueras, They Remembered,” AVA, 12/4). I will say, though, that I was surprised and delighted that the people of Madrigueras remembered us. In fact, they passed a proclamation making all Brigadistas “adopted children of Madrigueras.” I will never forget the love we got in this town.

Our next stop was Albacete, not far from Madrigueras. Even though I had spent about a month there almost 60 years ago, I could not recognize the town. It was much bigger now, a large city. There were many different Internationals at various hotels, but we couldn’t find the Americans. We did find, however, a special exhibition on the International Brigades, that included photos stamps of the time, and many other mementos of the civil war. The man running the museum took me and my family on a tour of the place, explaining everything to us. When we were finished, he hugged me, and once again came the graciases.

By this time it was late, and we all got back in the cars to return to our hotel. As we drove, memories of Albacete started coming back to me. I remembered Bob Colodny, a student at the University of Illinois before volunteering for Spain who was very badly wounded in the Brunete offensive. Having been shot in the head, he was taken for dead until a first-aid man noticed a very faint heartbeat. He was rushed to a hospital, and though no one really expected him to live, he proved to be tougher than they thought. After six weeks in a coma he finally came around.

I remember a nurse trying to hold on to him as he was learning to walk again in Albacete. He insisted that she let him walk by himself, struggling with each small step, but doing it alone. The nurse stayed with him, ready to catch him if he fell. He had a particularly difficult time getting up and down the sidewalk curbs when he crossed streets, but he did it. He had a lot of courage.

Later Colodny became a professor of history at the University of Pittsburg. During the McCarthy days, the university officials tried to do the “patriotic” thing and fire him from his job. But he was a fighter. He battled the university, with the students supporting him, and he won, keeping his job until he retired on his own as an elderly man.

Colodny also wrote a book, The Struggle for Madrid, that critics called the best book on the battle for Madrid. What impressed me was that he mentioned the Lincolns only once or twice, even though he was almost killed in one of he battles of Madrid. I realized that as much as the Lincolns had done at Jarama and Brunete, it was a drop in the bucket compared to what the Germans, French and Italians and the Spaniards themselves did in these battles. I admired him for his objectivity.

* * *

Back to the present. The next day, Saturday, we spent all day driving over mountainous roads on our way to Barcelona. For a hundred miles at a time, there were no straight roads, only narrow and dangerous ones. A good part of the time we could only go at speeds of 10 or 20mph. Fortunately, there were very few other cars on the road, but once in a while, a car would come the other way and would pass us with only inches to spare. It was quite harrowing, and I’m glad my son and son-in-law had nerves of steel! I remembered stories told by my friend Ralph Fasanella about these dangerous roads, especially during the winter months when they were very slippery, and when the Brigadistas had to travel lat night to avoid the fascist shellings en the Brigadistas had to travel and bombings. Fasanella saw many trucks go over the cliffs with the drivers killed.

At last we stopped in Teruel for a meal. During the war, I was in the mountains outside of Teruel. This city was in fascist hands for the entire war, except for two months. Now, we did see anti-fascist slogans on the walls, but quite a few anti-communist ones as well. We noticed in the telephone book that there were quite a few offices of the Socialist Party, and of the right-wing party, but no Communist Party offices.

I remember spending the last day of 1937 in a town outside Teruel. I had recently returned from the American office in Albacete loaded down with goodies — mostly cigarettes and chocolate bars, compliments of my friend John Murra, who was being transferred from Albacete to Barcelona and wanted to get all these goodies to the fronts and to hospitals. My group shared the treats while waiting to eat a real delicacy — roast pig that had been dangling for hours over an open fire. But the part was abandoned when we received an urgent call telling us to get to Teruel in a hurry. The Loyalists had recently taken Teruel, and now the fascists were starting an offensive to try to retake it.

I remember the weather that New Year’s Eve very clearly. There was a blizzard, strong winds, and the temperature was 20° below. It was the coldest weather I had experienced in my life. Many of our comrades lost fingers and toes to frostbite. We had a fire in a large tin barrel in the center of our open truck, but we couldn’t get warm. Our trucks had to stop every ten or trucks had to stop every 10 or 15 miles minutes so we could run in the icy snow to keep our blood circulating. When we got near Teruel, we got off the trucks to take defensive positions. Neither we nor the fascists could use artillery or planes because everything was frozen. My transmissions outfit was able to take shelter in barn during the night, and we considered ourselves lucky, even though the mice and rats kept scurrying over us.

After a few days, when the weather was still cold but bearable, we were treated to a new piece of warfare that the fascists were experimenting with. These were artillery shells that exploded at treetop level, sending thousands of pieces of shrapnel in all directions. Many our comrades were killed or wounded thanks to this new technology.

I remember our commander at this time was a man by the name of Phil Detro, a Texan and a Democrat, who was a great admirer of Roosevelt. Some of the fellows would tease him because of his liberal politics, but Phil was well liked and admired by the men. He was wounded at Teruel and died a few days later.

(Harry Fisher, 92, soldier, pacifist, writer, and lifelong activist, was born in March of 1911 and died Saturday, March 22, 2003 after participating in an antiwar demonstration in New York City.)

THE FINE ART WORLD and the commercial art industry are both all about money. It's hard to say which is more contemptible: the fine art world with its doubletalk and pretensions to the cultural high ground, or the world of commercial art trying to sell to the largest mass market it can reach. A serious artist really shouldn't be too deeply involved in either of these worlds. It's best to be on the fringe of them.

In general, if you want to be a success and make the big money you have to play it the game. It's no different in the fine art world, it's just a slightly different game. Essentially, you are marketing an illusion. It's much easier to lie to humans and trick them than to tell them the truth. They would much rather be bamboozled than be told the truth because the way to trick them is to flatter them and tell them what they want to hear, to reinforce their existing delusions. They don't want to know the truth. Truth is a bring down, a bummer, or it's just too complicated, too much mental work to grasp.

Curators and gallery people are not oriented toward cartoons, comics, or commercial art. That world is quite alien to them. Through complex circumstances they have decided that I am somebody worth promoting and displaying in galleries and the museums. My work has some value economically, and then too, I've been around a long time. I'm 60 years old. There has been a successful movie made about me. Reputable critics have praised my work, all of which has validated me to some degree to the museum and gallery people.

Otherwise, I'm not sure that they really appreciate what my work is all about. I'm not sure that they really know what they're looking at. I've talked with them about it and we just don't have the same background. They come from an entirely different school. Whatever they see in my work and praise about it comes from this other mentality.

I think for the most part they are buying into my work because of this critical acclaim. They'll turn around and say the very same things about Gerhard Richter or Cy Twombly. Geez, what that guy can do with a few scribbles! I don't understand how they can fit me into the same mental space along with Cy Twombly. It's a mystery to me.

I love the work of Norman Rockwell, Reginald Marsh, Thomas Hart Benton, and Edward Hopper. They all did illustrative work. Hopper, for years, split his week between doing commercial work and personal work. I like the social realists, surrealists, and expressionists of the 1920s and 1930s, but you lose me with post-war abstract expressionism.

The "fine" art after World War II doesn't do it for me. It just seems lifeless, a posture, a pose. Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, on down to pop art, performance art, minimalism… Whatever. I don't get what it's about. You're supposed to express yourself, but you're not supposed to say anything? Or, certainly, nothing that's too obvious? If your statement is too straightforward, easily grasped, then it's not "fine art," or what?

Many people have congratulated me just because my work has appeared on the covers of Art Forum and Art News, and because the various shows I've had were seriously reviewed in them. What are they saying in these art magazines? Beats the hell out of me! You read it, I can't!

— R. Crumb

HARDHEARTED HANNAH

by Milton Ager, Charles Bates, Bob Bigelow, Jack Yellen

 

In old Savannah, I said Savannah

The weather there is nice and warm

The climate's of a Southern brand

But here's what I don't understand

 

They got a gal there a pretty gal there

Who's colder than an arctic storm

Got a heart just like a stone

Even ice men leave her alone

 

They call her hard-hearted Hannah

The Vamp of Savannah, the meanest gal in town

Leather is tough, but Hannah's heart is tougher

She's a gal who loves to see men suffer

 

To tease them and thrill them

To torture and kill them is her delight, they say

I saw her at the seashore with a great big pan

There was Hannah, pouring water on a drowning man

She's hard-hearted Hannah the Vamp of Savannah, GA

 

They call her hard-hearted Hannah

The Vamp of Savannah, the meanest gal in town

Talk of your cold, refrigerating mamas

Brother, she's the polar bear's pajamas

 

To tease them and thrill them

To torture and kill them is her delight, they say

An evening spent with Hannah sitting on your knees

Is like traveling through Alaska in your BVDs

She's hard-hearted Hannah the Vamp of Savannah, GA

 

To tease them and thrill them

To torture and kill them is her delight, they say

She’s so cold you get pneumonia from her breath

She kissed an Eskimo — he almost froze to death.

She's hard-hearted Hannah the Vamp of Savannah, GA

 

Can you imagine a woman as cold as Hannah?

She's got the right name, the Vamp of Savannah

Anytime a woman can take a great big pan

Start pouring water on a drowning man

She's hard-hearted Hannah the Vamp of Savannah, GA

 

Ooh, she's sweet as sour milk

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpg7Bvmwi2g

WATCH: HILLARY WILL FAIL.

Forget Benghazi and the emails, This event is set to destroy Hillary’s presidency.

Corte Madera, CA – A major lawsuit is on the precipice of being filed by the Institute for American Democracy and Election Integrity, the implications of which could dramatically alter the landscape of the 2016 U.S. presidential race.
 The group claims that in about eleven states, there has been noted a significant difference between the exit polls and the electronic vote totals presented on the morning after the primaries. These differences show votes appear to be shifted from Bernie Sanders to Hillary Clinton. The chances of this kind of shift happening are considered to be statistically impossible between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in these eleven states. See the chart below.

“We are going to be filing a racketeering lawsuit under the Ohio Racketeering law, the strongest in the country and we can bring in every state, our RICO statute is coextensive with the federal RICO statute… So they’re nailed,” said Cliff Arnebeck. 
Arnebeck, an election lawyer, got his J.D. from Harvard and is the chair of the Legal Affairs Committee of Common Cause Ohio and a national co-chair and attorney for the Alliance of Democracy. He will be joined by Bob Fitrakis, an election lawyer and political science professor, as co-counsel.

Computer security expert Stephen Spoonamore, who worked with Arnebeck on exposing GOP election fraud in Ohio has noted that when exit poll data varies more than 2% from electronic vote totals, the electronic vote totals are questionable. 
In fact, 2% is the boundary by the US government when determining whether an election in another country has possibly been stolen. Please notice the exit poll differences in the 2016 DNC primaries listed above are significantly more than 2%. These differences point to questionable results for the electronic vote totals and likely electronic vote switching.

“This is not a Republican-Democrat issue, this is not a partisan issue, this is a Democracy issue, if you actually care about a Constitutional democracy in which each person votes, that vote is validated and the people who end up in office are reflected on the basis of the way people voted you care about this issue,” said Spoonamore.

According to the Institute for American Democracy and Election Integrity: 
IMPORTANT NOTE: Although we have taken note of the shift here from Sanders to Clinton, we are NOT in any way stating who has done the shifting. WE DO NOT KNOW WHO HAS DONE THE SHIFTING OF THE ELECTRONIC VOTE TOTALS.

This situation has galvanized three organizations, The Institute for American Democracy and Election Integrity (ADE), the Columbus Institute of Contemporary Journalism, and Democracy Counts to set up our own exit polls and audits to track apparent election results in California.
 Richard Charnin, a mathematician and statistician and author of the book, Matrix of Deceit, has been reporting on the apparent shifting of electronic vote totals and the non-release of raw data from Edison since 2004.

Richard Charnin, well-known for what he calls the “Red Shift” which has been a shift between exit polls and electronic vote total differences of about 4-5% each year. This constitutes a shift to the political right. Although he is unable to analyze the raw data, he has been able to get screen shots of what the exit polls showed minutes before all of the electronic votes have been totaled since 2004.

In 2004, when Edison Research initially got exit poll data that said that Kerry was winning and Bush was losing at 9pm on election night and that the reverse was true shortly after midnight, Edison Research made a choice to “adjust” the raw data after that time so that it would match the electronic voting machine totals. Edison Research definitely wanted to keep being hired by the Media Consortium which proposes to tell viewers the true election results but which also chooses to trust electronic voting machine data. That was the last time that the American public has been able to see raw exit poll data.

Unfortunately this year, substantial exit poll differences have been noted in the US primary. In this year’s primary, the Red Shift appears to have become the “Clinton Shift.”

Arnebeck was the lead attorney, with Fitrakis as his co-counsel in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell case, which exposed electronic vote rigging in Ohio’s 2004 presidential race. During the lawsuit, a very revealing deposition of Michael Connell, head IT guru for the Bush family and Karl Rove, provided insight into how the election fraud conspiracy operated.

According to a report by Truth-out:
 Connell served as the IT guru for the Bush family and Karl Rove. Connell ran the private IT firm GovTech that created the controversial system that transferred Ohio’s vote count late on election night 2004 to a partisan Republican server site in Chattanooga, Tennessee owned by SmarTech. That is when the vote shift happened, not predicted by the exit polls, that led to Bush’s unexpected victory. Connell died a month and a half after giving this deposition in a suspicious small plane crash. 
One can clearly see how deep the rabbit hole goes, as the one person who could implicate the actual individuals responsible for the election fraud conspiracy happens to have an “accident” that kills him. Essentially the investigation could go no further upon the suspicious death of Connell, thus protecting those behind the conspiracy.

Given these facts, it’s apparent that Arnebeck and his team are the real deal, and have experience in bringing a major legal action involving voter fraud and electronic vote rigging/switching.

Initially, the new lawsuit was to be filed on June 6, as stated in the video release announcing the results of their investigation, but the filing was delayed due to ADE wanting to include data from California’s primary, which was held on June 7.
Suspiciously, the Media Consortium and Edison Research, which control election polling, has now decided to cancel the remaining exit polls for the 2016 primaries. Many suspect these exit polls have been canceled because these exit poll differences could be used as an indicator of election fraud when contrasted with electronic voting totals.

“There is no way the Democratic Convention is going to nominate somebody on the basis of obviously stolen votes…the facts are coming out and that’s a fact…We are suing the media as being complicit in the crime. They are acting as accessories after the fact. They are covering up evidence of criminal activity, it’s a crime,” said Arnebeck.

“In my opinion Hillary Clinton has been used for the purpose of scuttling the Bernie Sanders campaign for president, she is being used… But they’ve been caught, it’s obvious, it’s just like Bernie Sanders when he talks about the system is rigged, ah the elections are rigged, the evidence is clear, everybody’s gonna see it and the game is over… Bernie has won in fact.”

The fact that electronic vote rigging is currently taking place, while the mainstream corporate media remains curiously silent, indicates a massive fraud being perpetrated on the American public. Make no mistake, had the vote been closer in the GOP primary the nomination would likely have been stolen from Trump in the same manner. This isn’t a partisan issue, but one that slashes across the political spectrum and should alarm every American.

The time has come to ask ourselves who is behind the stealing of US elections, and maybe more importantly; why does nobody in a position of authority seem interested in finding out?

In the video below Arnebeck breaks down how they prevented the Ohio presidential race from being stolen in 2012 and explains exactly what is taking place in this election cycle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IAJ5fAm3Cs