Mendocino County Today: Friday, Oct 28, 2016

• Gleaning Postponed
• FB Change
• Willits Bypass
• Phone Swindle
• Navarro Sandbar
• Elk Antler
• Pomo Heritage
• Legalization Pains
• California Rain
• College Scam
• Yesterday's Catch
• Hayden's Regret
• Little Dog
• Voter Info
• Kafka
• Cinderella Opens
• Bill Inc.
• Dipshit Nation
• Healthcare Hikes
• PA Managers

GLEANING AT BLUE MEADOW FARM postponed until November 5.
It'’s just too wet!

CHANGE & TRANSPARENCY

It’s no secret that things at Fort Bragg City Council meetings have been less than pleasant over the last two years. In my opinion, enough is enough. I am fed up with City Council’s blatant disregard for their duties to us as taxpayers. It’s time for taxpayers to speak out.

* * *

Dear Mayor Turner and some Council Members,

Thank you for your service to the City of Fort Bragg. These last two years have been entertaining but it is time to bring this circus to a close. I believe it would be correct to say, each one of you ran on platforms that included making Fort Bragg a better place, and some of you have broken that promise to the electorate. Your own personal agendas and desires to fuel animosity and infighting have clouded your vision. Two years ago, the electorate voted you into office to be our representatives, to be the voice of the taxpayer and to serve with our best interests in mind. You are not fulfilling the duties you were elected to.

I would like to see two members of our community elected to the two vacant Council seats and be leaders for all and not just for special interest groups. In my opinion your decorum inside City Council has been deplorable and as a result, Fort Bragg has been reduced to being the ‘laughing-stock of Mendocino County’. The childish political games have made waves across the media, both in the papers and on social media and clearly show that there are no leaders among you (well there may be 2 leaders out of the five of you).

There has been little effort to improve the financial situation of the working class, little effort to bring new industry or meaningful jobs to our City. Instead, we have received half-truths, at best. We have seen self-serving ‘well-timed’ politics, aimed solely for individual political standing and a clear disrespect for the seats you were elected to be in. The seats you sit in are seats that should be shown respect. They are not seats to be sat in by those who wish to abuse the power that the electorate has bestowed upon you.

Trails and WiFi are good things but do little to help the working poor or elderly in this community.

Lack of affordable housing is a huge issue. What has been done to help those working and living from pay check to pay check? What has been done to help young families barely making ends meet? What about the elderly who are on a waiting list for years before getting an affordable place to live? Instead it seems your goal is to hand over what available housing there is to your special interest group.

The announcement on the City website of how “thrilled” Hospitality Center is to announce yet another grant is a slap in the face to the working poor of our community and to the elderly who could use a break in high rents. You may deny knowing anything about this latest grant but who knows for sure what that truth is? Perhaps another case of lack of transparency?

Fort Bragg has had the misfortune of seeing an out of control Mayor who yells at members of the community for expressing their thoughts, childish schoolyard tactics, and a clear violation of public trust. We all watched two years ago as a new Council was formed and with that always comes some rocky times. The fact remains that the issues you had on your inaugural day have not improved, instead the situation in Fort Bragg continues to decline, to the detriment of the residents. While I recognize and acknowledge that each of you have made contributions to the City, collectively the divisiveness of Council has been and will continue to be a detriment to our community.

This Council clearly has irreconcilable differences and this leaves the residents of Fort Bragg in limbo. If the next 4 years are left unchanged, I fear that the City and its residents will suffer. Mayor Turner has made it publicly known who he supports to fill one of the vacant seats but because of Political Ethics other members of council only support candidates in private. Why is this? Could it be the fear of losing control over this community has clouded his sense of ethics? Could it be his voting according to his values and not listening to the community as a whole will be brought onto the council if his choice should fill one of those seats?

It seems to me sitting on the City Council should have everyone working together for the betterment of Fort Bragg instead of being a play for power. We need a Council that work together to bring this community back together.

It is time for a change and transparency on the City Council and the way to get that done is to VOTE FOR WILL LEE AND BERNIE NORVELL

Sincerely,

Judy Valadao

COLLAPSING CULVERT and all, Caltrans says the $300 million Willits Bypass will open next Thursday (November 3) at 11am with the 1.1 mile viaduct section of Bypass dedicated to Jesse Pittman, a Navy SEAL from Willits who died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

ACCORDING to Big Orange spokesman Phil Frisbie, the 5’x6’ concrete box culvert at the north end of the Bypass on Highway 101, was "originally built in 1917 and was extended 67 years later in 1984 to allow the addition of shoulders to the two-lane highway." He says it's been shored up for the grand opening.

THERE WERE MONTHS of protests aimed at eternally delaying and even preventing the Bypass, all complaining of destructive aspects of the project. Critics also pointed out that for all its convenience in helping north and southbound travelers elude Willits itself, internal exiles headed to and from Fort Bragg must still drive half way through the redwood-free "Gateway to the Redwood Empire" to achieve Highway 20 to (and from) the Coast.

GRANMA SWINDLERS: Federal officials announced on Thursday that they uncovered a large-scale “transnational criminal ring” in which individuals from call centers originating in India extorted money primarily from immigrants and the elderly. According to Justice Department officials, the individuals impersonated US federal, state and local officials and demanded payments to avoid arrest and deportation or recover unpaid taxes. In total, they stole hundreds of millions of dollars, including tens of thousands of dollars from some of the most vulnerable people. The caller ID allegedly displayed the US government or the Internal Revenue Service. In total, 20 people have been arrested in connection with the fraud ring after nine search warrants were executed in eight states. Charges were brought in the southern district of Texas, which covers the Houston area. Officials made clear at a press conference on Thursday morning that the US government “does not operate in that manner” — that is, make calls demanding payments to avoid deportation or arrest.

NOBODY monitors the mouth of the Navarro more closely than Paul McCarthy of MendocinoSportsPlus. Paul says, "Just drove by it on the way to Mendo — 4pm — still standing like a stone wall. Last year, for the first time in the 22 years I've been here — Highway 128 was closed in December due to ocean "slop over" — plus rain. That proves the sandbar height has increased.”

CHRIS SKYHAWK OF ALBION WONDERS:

Elk antler on Navarro Beach

On Tuesday I was walking with my wife Samantha at Navarro Beach. We were approached by a fellow Albion resident who told us that he found an Elk antler. I was certain that what he was waving in the air was really a piece of driftwood with an unusual shape to it, but as he handed it to me it was obvious that what he said was true. Its base was intact and it was broken 2 points up. It was washed very smooth and was very heavy. I would be fascinated to hear any speculation about how such a specimen arrived at Navarro Beach, many miles and several watershed from any Elk populations.

CELEBRATING POMO HERITAGE ON THE NORTH COAST

Explore the history of the North Coast's earliest residents through their traditions, dress and handiwork.

by Janet Balicki

The first people on the North Coast were Pomo. Linked by location, language, and cultural expression; they lived in small groups or bands, linked by geography, lineage and marriage. Traditionally they relied upon fishing, hunting and gathering for their food.

The Pomo were actually seven separate groups with differing dialects.

For years, since the area of settlement by Mexicans and Europeans they have undergone many hardships including disease, slavery, kidnapping, and resettlement.

Despite this, the cultural influence of the Pomo tribes remain strong in our area, from their woven baskets to dance we see flickers of Pomo culture throughout the North Coast.

Pomo Indian dancers and other members of the Dry Creek tribe in a photo taken in the 1920s.

Kate and Charley Wright in an 1895 photo. They belonged to the Little River Band of Pomo Indians on the Mendocino Coast.

Full Story and Pictures:

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/lifestyle/6225843-181/celebrating-pomo-heritage-on-the

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

POT FARMERS WORRY LEGALIZATION COULD END THEIR WAY OF LIFE

by Paul Elias

Laura Costa’s son and husband moved quickly with pruning shears as they harvested the family’s fall marijuana crop, racing along with several workers to cut the plants and drop them in plastic bins ahead of an impending storm.

The farm, hidden along a winding mountain road in a remote redwood forest, is just one of many illegal “grows” that make up Northern California’s famous Emerald Triangle, a marijuana-producing mecca at the intersection of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties.

California voters will decide Nov. 8 whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use — an issue that has sown deep division here among longtime growers. The Costas and many fellow pot farmers have yearned for the legitimacy and respectability that could be bestowed by legalization. But they also fear Proposition 64 will bring costly regulations and taxes and could put them out of business if corporate interests and big farms take over.

“It will end traditional marijuana farming like this,” said Laura Costa, sitting in the middle of one of four 40-plant gardens, puffing on a glass pipe. “It will end our way of life.”

That way of life is visible throughout the region. Four-wheel-drive vehicles hauling propane for farm generators roll up and down the dirt roads, dropping off workers and supplies. In Eureka, the largest nearby city, indoor growing operations abound in warehouses and garages.

Young people from around the world flock here for work, many arriving without job offers. They come with camping gear and cardboard signs announcing their desire to help harvest.

Police complain there are more people than jobs, exacerbating a homeless problem. Eureka Police Chief Andy Mills also worries about the danger of drugged drivers.

To Mendocino County grower Tim Blake, Proposition 64 is the next big step for an industry emerging from the shadows. When California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, he said, it ushered in a less restrictive era in which businesses could start to operate in the open and even attract deep-pocketed investors.

He endorses the provision that wipes clean many criminal convictions and stops the prosecution of many other marijuana-related crimes.

“It’s time to end criminalization,” Blake said. “There is a lot of fear among farmers, small farmers in general” about losing their livelihood and “the way things have been. But they’ve already lost that aspect.”

If the proposition fails, Blake argues, the state in general and Northern California in particular would be in danger of losing its position as the nation’s top-producing marijuana region. Four other states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational pot, and four more states have questions on the November ballot.

“We can’t afford to fall further behind,” he said while giving a tour of his farm.

Farmers are so divided that the California Growers Association, which represents 450 farmers and 350 supporting businesses, voted to remain neutral.

“Nobody, not even the supporters, think this is a home run,” association president Hezekiah Allen said. “A lot of people think California can do better.”

Allen helped craft the 62-page measure and said the association is responsible for the prohibition against marijuana farms larger than an acre during the first five years of legalization. He said “that should be enough time” for small farmers to come out of the shadows, get licensed and get on making a living legally.

There is no evidence that Wall Street corporations are eyeing California if Proposition 64 takes effect on Jan. 1, 2018. The two biggest U.S. tobacco companies — Altria and R.J. Reynolds — say they have no plans to jump into the marijuana market.

Nonetheless, Costa and others said, it’s only a matter of time before other brands such as those named for singer Willie Nelson and comedians Cheech and Chong move in, upending a tight-knit community accustomed to doing business on its own terms.

Christine Miller is concerned about the impact on her 250-plant farm in Benbow. “It’s going to cost me way more to operate,” she said. “I can’t afford it.”

For the first time, Miller said, she has retained a lawyer and an accountant to help wade through the potential regulatory issues and taxes.

At harvest time, most farms follow the same general routine: Workers cut bud-bearing branches from plants that can reach as high as 16 feet. Most are 6 to 8 feet.

The branches are then hung in a dark shed or barn for about a week until the buds are dried. That’s when trimmers are called in to separate the valuable buds from the rest of the plant and make them ready for market.

A conservative, back-of-the-envelope estimate is that each marijuana plant yields 1 pound of bud. But skilled farmers can usually coax three times that and sometimes more. One pound of Northern California marijuana fetches anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 pound at wholesale. Many farmers use a middleman to transport and distribute the drug to retailers, whether licensed medical dispensaries or corner dealers.

The drug often changes hands several times, getting marked up repeatedly, before it’s consumed. What’s more, alternative ways of getting high are becoming increasingly popular. Users are buying more marijuana-laced baked goods and candy and highly concentrated forms of cannabis called “dab.”

Proposition 64 aims to regulate — and tax — that entire supply chain. Legalizing recreational use will legitimize the drug, leading to even more use and consumption, proponents argue.

“You’re going to see cannabis grow at levels people can’t even fathom,” Blake said.

(Associated Press)

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA IS SEEING TWO OR THREE TIMES MORE RAIN THAN NORMAL

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-91779098/

COLLEGE MUST CHANGE ITS WAYS

To the Editor:

What’s happening with the football program at Mendocino College is not a new story. In fact, it’s been going on year, after year, after year. Because there are not enough local players to field a team the college recruits and entices young men from around the nation to come to Ukiah.

This is done primarily for one reason...money. Out of state players pay tuition plus fees and buy books. The state of California pays the college thousands of dollars for each in state player. The actual student out of pocket cost (tuition, fees, etc...) are but a fraction of the monies the college then receives from the state. If the college’s denial about money not being a factor in its decision to have football why would the college have a program costing as much as football with such miniscule in district student or fan participation? There is virtually no local support for a college football team. The recent home game with Los Medanos proves this beyond question. The fans from Los Medanos completely dominated both in numbers and enthusiasm despite having to travel hours to and from Ukiah.

The college maximizes the money it receives by minimizing the in house costs of the team to a thread-bare minimum. All of team’s coaches are poorly paid part-time employees without benefits such as health insurance or retirement. This saves the college big bucks. It also leads to high turn over, a lack of continuity and limits the amount of support necessary for young men forced to live in flop house motels or on a friend’s couch or floor.

The college president (the highest paid public official in either Lake or Mendocino County) claims it would be breaking the rules to give players the opportunity to succeed on their field of dreams or in the classroom. Apparently he feels no moral or ethical obligation beyond expressing his concern for these 18 and 19 year old youths who have come to Mendocino College, traveling thousands of miles at their own expense, believing it would be a positive experience. These young men from a half dozen different states didn’t all arrive in Ukiah by accident. There are dozens of California Community colleges that play football. Although a number of the smaller schools have given up football when confronted with their hypocrisy. What were you thinking? Thirty college football players under one roof in a residential neighborhood without on-site adult supervision? Ever noticed the long-term residents of the motel these kids lived in? How about the drug paraphernalia scattered about the parking lot? Would you want your son living there paying five hundred dollars a month for a mattress?

The College’s choice seems fairly clear. Offer a football program that gives young men the opportunity to succeed. Hire full-time responsible coaches, have a full-time employee helping all students find decent housing. Create a student loan program that delivers money at the beginning of the semester so that they can actually have books the first day of class rather than receive that loan six or seven weeks later. Organize a community orientation program for all out of district students. Involve support groups, service clubs, the College Foundation. Or, step aside and allow these young men the opportunity to attend a college that cares about them as people.

Larry MacLeitch, Former College Trustee, Ukiah

CATCH OF THE DAY, October 27, 2016

HANNAH ALCORN, Potter Valley. DUI.

ZACHARY BROWN, Willits. Pot cultivation, possession for sale, probation revocation.

AMBASSA HAMILTON, Willits. Firearm alteration, ex-felon with firearm.

DANIELLA HOGAN, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear.

LISA LOPEZ-FUGATE, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

DENA MORRIS, Redwood Valley. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

MOHAMMED NIKNAHAD, Davis/Willits. Under influence.

WILLIAM PARKER, Marisville, Washington/Ukiah. Honey oil extraction, offenses while on bail, probation revocation.

JUSTIN PHILLIPS, Willits. Domestic assault.

VINCENT RAMON, Fort Bragg. Protective order violation.

EVAN SMITH, Garberville. DUI.

CHAD TURLEY, Ukiah. Burglary from motor vehicle.

RYLEE VIGIL, Willits. Witness intimidation.

TOM HAYDEN’S HAUNTING

by Jim Kavanagh

As an old SDS-er, I found it hard to see Tom Hayden go. However meandering his path, he was at the heart of radical history in the 60s, an erstwhile companion, if not always a comrade, on the route of every boomer lefty.

One of his finer moments for me, which I’ve never seen mentioned (including among this week’s encomia) since he wrote it, was his 2006 article, published on CounterPunch with an introduction by Alexander Cockburn, in which he apologized for a “descent into moral ambiguity and realpolitick that still haunts me today.” It would be respectful of Hayden’s admirers and critics, on the occasion of his passing, to remember which of his actions “haunted” him the most.

The title of the article says it clearly: “I Was Israel’s Dupe.” In the essay, Hayden apologizes for his support of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which was for him that “descent into moral ambiguity” More importantly, he explains why he did it, in a detailed narrative that everyone should read.

Hayden sold out, as he tells it, because, in order to run as a Democratic candidate for the California State Assembly, he had get the approval of the influential Democratic congressman Howard Berman. Berman is a guy who, when he became Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was proud to tell the Forward that he took the job because of his “interest in the Jewish state” and that: “Even before I was a Democrat, I was a Zionist.”

Hayden had to meet with Howard’s brother Michael, who, acting as “the gatekeeper protecting Los Angeles’ Westside for Israel’s political interests,” told Hayden: “I represent the Israeli Defense Forces”—a sentence that could serve as the motto of most American congress critters today. The “Berman-Waxman machine,” Hayden was told, would deign to “rent” him the Assembly seat on the “one condition: that I always be a ‘good friend of Israel’.”

But American congressmen were not the only “gatekeepers” through whose hands Hayden had to pass before being allowed to run for Congress. Other “certifiers” included “the elites, beginning with rabbis and heads of the multiple mainstream Jewish organizations… the American-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC), …[and].. Israeli ambassadors, counsels general and other officials.“

In fact, Hayden had to, in his words, be “declared ‘kosher’ by the ultimate source, the region’s representative of the state of Israel,” Benjamin Navon, Israel’s Counsul-general in Los Angeles.

In other words, in this article Hayden was describing, in an unusually concrete way, how the state of Israel, through its state officials and their compliant American partners, was effectively managing—exercising veto power over Democratic Party candidates, at the very least—American elections down to the level of State Assembly. In any constituency “attuned to the question of Israel, even in local and state elections,” Hayden knew he “had to be certified ‘kosher,’ not once but over and over again.”

This experience prompted Hayden to express a “fear …that the ‘Israeli lobby’ is working overtime to influence American public opinion on behalf of Israel’s military effort to ‘roll back the clock’ and ‘change the map’ of the region.” Hayden warned of the “trepidation and confusion among rank-and-file voters and activists, and the paralysis of politicians, especially Democrats,” over support of Israel. He vowed to “not make the same mistake again,” and said: “Most important, Americans must not be timid in speaking up, as I was 25 years ago.”

Whatever else he did—and he was never particularly radical about Palestine—this article was a genuinely honest and unusual intervention, and it deserves a lot more notice—as a moment in Tom Hayden’s history and that of the American left—than it has got. Looking back and regretfully acknowledging that one had been duped and morally compromised by what seemed the least troublesome path 25 years earlier, saying “I woulda, shoulda, coulda done the right thing,” is a haunting moment for anyone. Doing it in a way that exposes in detail how a foreign country constantly manipulates American elections over decades is worthy of everyone’s notice.

I doubt Hillary and her Democratic supporters will have anything to say about this “interference “in American elections, even local and state. But I do hope many of those who are touched by the loss of Tom Hayden heed these words from him, and don’t wait another 25 years to overcome their “fear and confusion” about saying and doing the right thing regarding the crimes of Israel, troublesome as that might be.

(Jim Kavanagh edits The Polemicist. Courtesy, CounterPunch.org)

LITTLE DOG SAYS, 'EMBRACE ME, MY SWEET EMBRACEABLE YOU.'

VOTE BY MAIL BALLOT AVAILABILITY & VBM PROCESSING

Vote By Mail (absentee) Ballots and our Sample Ballots were mailed out to voters on October 11, 2016 and are available in the County Clerk's Office, for the Presidential General Election to be conducted on NOVEMBER 8, 2016, according to Susan M. Ranochak, Assessor- County Clerk-Recorder. The County Clerk's Office is located in Room 1020 of the County Administration Building located at 501 Low Gap Road, Ukiah. If voters who normally vote by mail have not received their vote by mail ballot they should call our office to arrange to receive a replacement ballot, the last day to request a mail in ballot is Tuesday, November 1, 2016. Ballots will be available to pick up in our office until 8 p.m. on Election Day, November 8, 2016. To check and see if your voted ballot has been received by our office, please go to: http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/acr/vbm.htm; fill in the information requested, in the format listed on the right side of the page. We would like to remind voters that we have a drop box located outside our office in our circular drive-way. Voters do not need to get out of their vehicles to drop off their ballots. The drop box is open 24/7 until 8 p.m. on Election Day! Susan Ranochak would like to remind voters to vote early and mail your ballot, or drop it off at our office so it can be processed and be among the first results we post on Election Night. For additional information please contact the Election’s Office by calling 707 234-6819.

FRANZ KAFKA: THE FREEDOM OF A BEETLE

by Manuel Vicent.

(Translated by Louis S. Bedrock)

The marionette always moves through the impulse of a being that is behind the curtains. The sinister smile and articulated extremities of these dolls are perhaps the expression of that other self that everyone carries inside.

Prague is the country of the "robot", a word that means slave in Czech. One cannot understand Kafka without Prague, that labyrinth where the disturbing memory lingers of astrologers, robots, porcelain dolls, palm readers, and hibernating vampires; of the Golem--the android of clay with hidden powers, created by Rabbi Löw in the Middle Ages, who sleeps in the timbers of the old synagogue of Pinkas: a conjunction of dark forces in search of the philosophical gold tortured by alchemists. The spiritual subsoil of Prague nourished all the terrors and curses of which we were unaware until Kafka gave them a name. This charged atmosphere can crush you until you change into a beetle.

The Prague ghetto was demolished at the end of the 19th century and although Kafka didn't live in it, its human stench penetrated his subconscious. Kafka expressed it like this:

—Inside us still live the dark corners, the mysterious passageways, the boarded up windows, the filthy courtyards, the raucous taverns, and the locked up boarding houses. We walk along the wide streets of the new city, but our steps and gazes are unsteady. The old, unhealthy Jewish city that is inside of us is much more real than the new hygienic city that surrounds us. We pass through a dream while wide-awake: we are but ghosts from the past.

In the old Jewish cemetery of Josefov, the will-o'-the-wisp is a rook that takes flight between the moldy trails toward the stunted cattails of The Church of Our Lady of Tyn in the plaza of the town hall. Kafka's life revolved around this plaza. The house where he was born is nearby; his father's gift shop used to be on a corner; at the foot of the column of the Virgin he used to meet his friend Max Brod. Kafka's family changed their residence at least twenty times during the life of the writer always within a restricted circle around the Old Plaza. All has disappeared. It's futile to look for a trace of him.

Franz Kafka had been born in 1883, the oldest son of shopkeeper Hermann Kafka and Julie Löwy. His father descended from a Jewish butcher, poor but feared, from Osek; his mother came from a German-Jewish family in Podebrady, respectable and well to do, manufacturer of clothes and beer, and in which there were also students of the Talmud, doctors, scholars, converts, and unwed eccentrics. Kafka was Jewish, but didn't practice his religion; he was Czech, but didn't speak the national language. He was educated in the dominant German language and culture--those of the internal enemy. It was a way of not belonging to anybody, a foreigner in his own country. On Celetná Street was the institute where he attended high school. Later, he earned a law degree at Clementinum, without enthusiasm, being obliged to do so by his father, in whose ominous shadow he discovered the enigma of tyrants.

In this period, Kafka was secretly writing diaries and short stories with the same obsession with which he destroyed them. He was a tall, skinny kid with a short trunk and long legs, prone to falling in love, habitué of taverns and bordellos. Although he had the design of a rook with pointy bones, a slightly sinister look, his spirit stretched out toward pleasure, which his father and tuberculosis repressed early in his life.

He loved sports and would swim in the Vtlava River at The Civil School of Natation. He rowed in his own boat baptized with the name "Drinker of Souls". He would often take the streetcar to the last stop and lose himself in the woods. He would spend long summer vacations in the villages where his parents were born, in naturalistic health clinics, seaside resorts, and cities of the Empire: Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Budapest, and later in Paris, Lake Garda, and the Danish coast. He made numerous excursions accompanied only by his friend Max Brod and every place they went he would find a girl friend, a lover addicted to his tortured inner self who would help him shake off the burden of Prague with its charred stones. Kafka did not love his city and so he penetrated it with his literary works as if it were a whore.

The student Hedvig Weiler was his first summer love in Trest with whom he corresponded for some time. With the Berliner Felice Bauer, he established a convulsive courtship filled with letters, doubts, breakups, and reunions. After that, Gerti Wasner entered his life; she appears in his diaries only as her initials. In January of 1919 he met Julie Wohryzek in the pension Stüdle and he got engaged to her a few months later. Milena, who was married to Ernest Pollack, occupied his mind at this time and it was with her that Kafka began vomiting blood. The actress Dora Diamant then arrived on the scene and he lived the last months of his life with her. With none of his lovers was Kafka able to transcend the neurosis of love, which had also afflicted his father: anxiety, and broken promises at the last moment, barriers he was never able to get over.

For secret bohemian writers like Kafka, the night was a frontier. The artistic soirées in the home of Bertha Fanta, which Einstein used to attend when he passed through the city, and the literary cafés had become lecture halls full of explosive thought where one advocated revolution or drowned in one's own personal angst. Kafka had synthesized in his spirit all the contradictions of the expressionistic currents of the interwar period that burst out during the nocturnal hours of Prague. In the Café Louvre he had a reserved seat among his friends. There they talked about philosophy--especially Kant and Hegel, about quantitative physics, about psychoanalysis, about nothing.

When the gathering ended, Kafka would go home very late at night, with his bowler hat and black suit, treading the moist cobblestones of the Old Plaza; or he would descend from the castle over the snow through the dark Alley of Gold from which there was no exit; it started at The Tower of the Alchemists, above the Moat of the Deer, from which the enigmatic emperor, Rudolph II, would hurl his enemies.

In the summer of 1916, after a vacation with his fiancé Felice in Marienbad, Kafka found a small studio at a building numbered 22 along that alley. It was here he would retreat to write in the evenings after his day job as a lawyer for an insurance company. He would write until early morning.

—Perhaps there are other ways to write, but I'm familiar with only one: writing at night, when anxiety will not let me sleep.

Later, he'd return to the city down the ancient steps of the palace.

At the end of everything we know about the biography of Kafka, one wonders what the word "Kafka" means. It means that the only way to escape is to morph into a beetle in order to slip through the crevice under the door before your father comes to squash you; it means assuming that you're an individual whose last name is "K" and who was born solely to be judged, accepting your sentence beforehand, and throwing yourself in the Vtlava River to drown your guilt; it means working in the office of an insurance company and dreaming of far off Muslim countries; converting all the beauty of Prague into a curse; vomiting blood and transforming your terror into an alarming form of humor, burning and destroying all your written papers, but having a loyal friend like Max Brod willing to publish your notebooks after your death, the contents of which which will serve as an internal pasture for psychoanalysts.

He died in the Hoffman Sanatorium in Kierling, near Vienna, on June 3, 1924. He was 41 years old. Dora Diamant closed his eyes. When he was near the end of his illness, he reminded his friend Doctor Klopstock of the promise he had made to give him a fatal injection of morphine. When the doctor hesitated at the last moment, Kafka told him:

—Kill me. Otherwise you will be a murderer.

CINDERELLA OPENS TOMORROW!

Gloriana Musical Theatre presents “Cinderella,” the classic musical with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II. Directed by Erin and Kevin Green. The show runs at Eagles Hall Theatre from October 28 to November 13 with performances at 7:30 p.m on Fridays and Saturdays and Sunday matinees beginning at 3 p.m. The story concerns a young woman forced into a life of servitude by her cruel stepmother and self-centered stepsisters, who dreams of a better life. With the help of her Fairy Godmother, Cinderella is transformed into a Princess and finds her Prince. With great warmth and more than a touch of hilarity, the hearts of children and adults alike still soar when the slipper fits. Admission is $18 for the general public, $15 for Seniors and $8 for youth (17 and under). Tickets may be purchased online at gloriana.org, at Harvest Market in Fort Bragg or at the door of Eagles Hall Theatre prior to each performance. Be sure to join us for our Gala performance! On Sunday, October 30th following the performance celebrate with the cast and crew and enjoy wonderful delights, a toast and treats! Tickets are $20 for general, $17 for Seniors and $10 for youth (17 and under). For more information, visit Gloriana.org or call 707-964-SHOW.

INSIDE BILL INC:

Aide lays out how the former president raked in tens of millions of dollars through a series of deals while Hillary was Secretary of State in a memo unearthed by Wikileaks

by Khaleda Rahman

The latest hacked email released by WikiLeaks details how one of Bill Clinton’s closest aides helped rake in tens of millions for the former president while his wife was serving as Secretary of State.

The 12-page memo was sent by Clinton's former aide Doug Band in 2011 to him, his daughter Chelsea, several board members of the Clinton Foundation and its lawyers as well as its then special advisor John Podesta.

Published on Wednesday by Wikileaks, after a hack of thousands of emails from Podesta’s account, it details how Band helped run what he called ‘Bill Clinton Inc.’

Band and another aide helped secure $66million from ventures, including speaking fees, according to the memo.

He wrote that, using his role as the president of his own consulting firm Teneo, Band worked to raise funds for the Foundation and Clinton personally.

Band also wrote that he helped obtain ‘in-kind services for the President and his family – for personal, travel, hospital, vacation and the like.’

‘Throughout the past almost 11 years since President Clinton left office, I have sought to leverage my activities, including my partner role at Teneo to support and raise funds for the Foundation,’ Band wrote.

‘This memorandum strives to set forth how I have endeavored to support the Clinton Foundation and President Clinton personally.’

Under a section called ‘For-Profit Activity of President Clinton (i.e. Bill Clinton, Inc)’ Brand said he and another aide, Justin Cooper brought Clinton all four of his advisory arrangements at the time.

These yielded more than $30million in personal income – with a further $66million to be paid out over the next nine years should he continue with them.

One of these roles was serving as honorary Chairman of Laureate International Universities, a chain of for-profit colleges, which paid Clinton $3.5million a year from 2010 until 2015, when the contract ended and his wife started her run for president.

Band also mentioned that neither he nor Cooper were compensated for the work.

They were not paid a fee or percentage of the income, but only received their Foundation salaries.

Band also said that Teneo was responsible for negotiating a number of speaking fees for Clinton, including $1.15million from Ericson and $900,000 from UBS.

He said he also used his partner role at the company, established in June 2011, to solicit clients to donate to the Clinton Foundation.

This included $4.33million over six years (from 2004 through 2010) from The Coca-Cola Company and more than $1million from Barclays Capital over four years.

Band's partner at Teneo, Declan Kelly, helped introduce Clinton to several top executives of clients including UBS Global Wealth Management and Dow Chemical. After these meetings, these companies often upped their contributions to the Clinton Foundation.

For example, Kelly introduced Clinton to a top executive at UBS Global Wealth Management in 2009, at a charity dinner.

In the following years, the UBS upped its contributions to the foundation, started paying Clinton for speeches and signed on as a Teneo client.

The company's records show that they paid Clinton $2million for speaking fees between 2011 and 2015 and also paid Hillary $225,000 for one 2013 speech.

Another complicated relationship was between the Clinton Foundation and Dow Chemical.

While Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, she assigned Kelly as an unpaid economic envoy to Northern Ireland (from 2009 until 2011).

During this time, Kelly was the head of a separate consulting firm that had clients including Coke, UBS and Dow.

Hillary then lauded Dow at a State Department event in 2010, for creating jobs in Northern Ireland. She thanked Kelly for his work on the issue as well.

Meanwhile, Kelly arranged for the former president to meet the company's CEO Andrew Liveris in August 2009, over a round of golf.

After this day at the links, the company increased it's support in the foundation. contributing $705,000 in 2010 and 2011.

Dow has tried to brush off these contributions, saying that they had contributed to the foundation as early as 2007 and that the charity was 'aligned to core business and citizenship strategies that have positively leveraged the resources and capabilities of our company'.

At the same time, Dow was signed on as a Teneo client, paying the firm $2.8million for consulting services in 2011, and then increasing that amount to $19.4million in 2012.

Again the company tried to excuse the suspicious jump in fees, saying that the drastic increase reflected an internal decision to consolidate several consulting contracts with one firm.

Those fees nonetheless raised flags for an internal investigator at the company, who wrote that: 'It appears Dow is paying Teneo for connections with Clinton.'

Band’s memo was also sent to lawyers who were conducting a review of the charity.

It came as Chelsea Clinton was taking a bigger role in leading the foundation and after she expressed her concerns about Band’s roles at the charity as well as at Teneo.

Chelsea became extremely concerned when she learned that a member of his staff - who reported to Band - was making calls to British lawmakers 'on behalf of President Clinton' for Teneo clients including Dow Chemical.

She said her dad did not know about the calls and that they would 'horrify' him. She added that she feared Teneo was 'hustling business at CGI'.

After voicing her concerns, the foundations went through changes and Clinton separated from Teneo, returning all but $100,000 of the money he had been paid.

In a statement to the Post, Teneo said ‘as the memo demonstrates, Teneo worked to encourage clients, where appropriate, to support the Clinton Foundation because of the good work it does around the world.

‘It also clearly shows that Teneo never received any financial benefit or benefit of any kind from doing so.’

(Daily Mail On Line)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The people who actually pay attention to what is going on, and who are a minority in this country, regardless of their opinions, are people who are well read. Those who have read The Camp of the Saints or The Fourth Turning (as examples) or similar things, are few and far between. What we are left with is a country which consists of people who have stopped reading since they got out of high school. Your responsibility to keep educating yourself does not stop with your graduation. As an example of their ignorance, I offer the election and the re-election of George W Bush. There was never a president as stupid as “W”, and he was able to get re-elected. This is the country we live in. The people who frequent this blog at least continue their reading and self education, whether I agree with them or not. It’s hard to admit it without feeling like some kind of elitist, but we live in a country where the population consists mostly of dipshits, who are easily misled by the powers that be. I know that it makes me sound like an elitist, but I’m afraid that it’s the picture of the country as I see it. I don’t know if it has been any different in any country at any time in history. People tend to be the same, regardless of the time period. I’m afraid that we are being led by the fools. Gear up everyone.

ED NOTE: Camp of the Saints is a fascist epic published in the early 70's describing an "invasion" of white Europe by Saharan and sub-Saharan people fleeing war and famine. Latter day racialists point to it as a description of today's refugees trying to find asylum in the north, warning that pale civ will be subsumed if asylum is granted.

NEXT YEAR’S HEALTH INSURANCE RATES for individual policyholders are starting to hit mailboxes, and that’s proving to be painful for some California consumers. Covered California, the state’s health insurance marketplace created by the federal health law, warned in July that 2017 premiums would go up an average of 13.2 percent, or more than triple the average 4 percent rate increases that consumers have seen since the exchange started offering coverage in 2014. 1.4 million enrollees get some federal aid to help cover the cost of their premiums. The increases will be felt most acutely by those policyholders who make too much money to qualify for those subsidies. These are self-employed people or those who otherwise don’t get health insurance through their employers.

—Victoria Colliver (SF Chronicle)

WHICH is what happens when the insurance combines write the rules and the government enforces them.

FROM THE TOWN OF A HUNDRED VOTERS, TWO MANAGERS

Point Arena City Council Agenda November 1 2016

REGULAR SESSION – 6:00 P.M.

I CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL

II READING

III APPROVAL OF AGENDA

IV COUNCIL REPORTS / CITY-RELATED TRAVEL REPORTS/ OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

V COUNCIL LIAISON SUBCOMMITTEE / AD HOC COMMITTEE REPORTS

1. PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR (Public Comment Period) This is the time for members of the public who wish to be heard on matters that do not appear on the Agenda. City Council policy is to limit each speaker to three (3) minutes. Such time allotment or portion thereof shall not be transferred to other speakers. The public will be allowed to speak concurrently with the calling of an agenda item following the staff presentation of that item.

Pursuant to the Brown Act Section 54954.3, the City Council may not take action on an item that does not appear on the Agenda.

VII CONSENT CALENDAR Notice to the Public: All matters listed under this category are considered to be routine by the City Council and will be enacted by one motion. If a member of the public would like an item on the Consent Calendar pulled and discussed separately, the request shall be made to a Councilmember prior to the meeting. Unless a specific request is made by a Councilmember, the Consent Calendar will not be read. There will be no separate discussion of these items

1. Approval of Minutes - Approve the Minutes from the Regular City Council Meeting of September 27, 2016

(http://cityofpointarena.us14.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=c164a8c82a2a5af8db4de85b1&id=90cd46b4e6&e=d0e3cdc057)

1. Approval of Minutes - Approve the Minutes from the Adjourned Regular City Council Meeting of October 11, 2106

(http://cityofpointarena.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c164a8c82a2a5af8db4de85b1&id=a4b8d49300&e=d0e3cdc057)

1. Treasurer’s Report – As of August 31, 2016

VIII ORDINANCES & RESOLUTIONS – All items in this Agenda section are for discussion and possible adoption.

1. Resolution Endorsing November 8, 2016 Ballot Measures “AC” & “AD”

(http://cityofpointarena.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c164a8c82a2a5af8db4de85b1&id=625ae29db7&e=d0e3cdc057) Recommendation: Approve Resolution 2016-27

1. Resolution Endorsing November 8, 2016 Ballot Measure "AE

(http://cityofpointarena.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=c164a8c82a2a5af8db4de85b1&id=9ef2ad86f4&e=d0e3cdc057) " Recommendation: Approve Resolution 2016-28

IX REPORTS/ACTION ITEMS – all items in this agenda section are for discussion and possible action.

1. Pier Billing and Financial Procedures

(http://cityofpointarena.us14.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=c164a8c82a2a5af8db4de85b1&id=2d2a8b1d89&e=d0e3cdc057) - report Recommendation: Discuss and accept the report

14. Code Enforcement Contract Approval (http://cityofpointarena.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c164a8c82a2a5af8db4de85b1&id=a277886335&e=d0e3cdc057) – discussion and possible action

Recommendation: Approve contract for code enforcement & consulting services

14. Adopt a “Job Description” for the Appointed Point Arena City Treasurer Position (http://cityofpointarena.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c164a8c82a2a5af8db4de85b1&id=f7ea432e61&e=d0e3cdc057) – discussion and possible action

Recommendation:

1. Discuss the proposed City of Point Arena City Treasurer job description
2. Approve City Treasurer job description incorporating Council comments
3. Appointment Process for the Point Arena City Treasurer Position (http://cityofpointarena.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c164a8c82a2a5af8db4de85b1&id=b44e39bb60&e=d0e3cdc057) – discussion and possible action

Recommendation:

1. Discuss the City Treasurer appointment process
2. Determine if the appointment process should be implemented.
3. Amendment to the Terms and Conditions of the City Manager’s Employment Agreement (http://cityofpointarena.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c164a8c82a2a5af8db4de85b1&id=f7c01c4d2d&e=d0e3cdc057) – discussion and possible action Recommendation: Approve the Amendment to the City Manager’s Employment Agreement.

X CITY MANAGER/CITY ATTORNEY REPORTS

XI CLOSED SESSION City Manager Performance Evaluation- Performance evaluation pursuant to GC §54957, as cited in the Brown Act. (continued)