Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016

• Mendo Vote
• Preliminary Results
• Counting Ballots
• Zombie Alert
• Electrified Pole
• Shelter Manager
• Little Dog
• Stabber Lookout
• Yesterday's Catch
• DAPL Event
• Propane Leak
• Planning Agenda
• ERRP Meeting
• Examining Depression
• Canadian Border
• Why Wikileaks
• The End
• Orange Linings
• Shopping Maul
• Alleged Elite
• Teen Leadership
• FB Election

LOCAL UPDATE: FINAL ELECTION-NIGHT REPORT

Just before 2am Wednesday, the final preliminary results (23.58%) for Mendocino County were posted:

http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/acr/current.htm

PRELIMINARY ELECTION RESULTS/NOTES

IN NOVEMBER OF 2012 Mendocino County’s preliminary election night results were based on about 51% of about 36,400 votes cast.

IN JUNE OF 2016 the preliminary election night results were based on about 41% of about 37,800 votes cast.

SO FAR the preliminary election night votes are based on less than 14% of about 51,000 registered voters and maybe 18% of ballots cast. (The elections office has not provided the total number of votes cast on November 8, 2016, but prior general elections in presidential years have been in the 35,000 to 40,000 range.)

* * *

MENDO VOTE SUMMARY (Preliminary results, as of Midnight Tuesday, November 8, 2016. 9302 votes counted (18.23% of votes cast) out of 51,035 registered voters; perhaps 25% of estimated ballots cast).

Numbers in Bold represent current/preliminary leaders.

* * *

EARLY HIGHLIGHTS:

MEASURES AG/AH (the Sheriff’s Mental Health Facilities half-cent sales tax measure and accompanying enacting measure) is supported by over 60%, but still have a ways to go to meet the two-thirds vote requirement. (Note: the accompanying “enacting measure,” Measure AH, has a significantly lower level of support (61.13%) than Measure AG. So the question might become, What if AG somehow makes the two-thirds vote, but AH does not?

* * *

MEASURE AF, the pot growers own initiative is going down to defeat by a wide margin.

* * *

CONSERVATIVE REFORMERS Will Lee and Bernie Norvell have big leads in the Fort Bragg City Council race.

* * *

COAST HOSPITAL BOARD CHAIR Tom Birdsell is running behind three non-incumbents.

* * *

THERE COULD BE A SQUEAKER for the Willits City Council third seat with incumbents Madge Strong and Bruce Burton plus Saprina Rodriguez who are all within 10 votes for the third seat behind the very popular former Willits Sheriff Gerry Gonzalez and newcomer Bill Barksdale.

* * *

Local Measures

AF, Pot Regulation/Heritage Act: Yes 3026/ No 5711

AG/AH, Mental Health Facility (requires 2/3 vote):

AG: Yes 5562 (63.18%) / No 3241 (36.82%)

AH: Yes 5304 (61.13%) / No 3372 (38.87%)

AI/AJ, County Pot Taxation:

AI: Yes 5585 (64.85%) / No 3027 (35.15%)

AJ: Yes 5963 (69.99%) / No 2557 (30.01%)

* * *

Fort Bragg City Council (2 seats):

Bernie Norvell 465

Scott Menzies 265

Will Lee 467

Curtis Bruchler 82

Rex Gressett 68

* * *

Point Arena City Council (3 full term seats)

*Richard Wasserman 60

*Scott Ignacio 71

Jane Jarlsberg 51

Sheryl "Lian" Smith 10

Jonathan Torrez 42

(2 Short Term Seats)

Anna Dobbins 44

Jim Koogle 38

Barbara Burkey 75

* * *

Willits City Council (3 full term seats)

*Bruce Burton 225

*Madge Strong 234

Bill Barksdale 269

Saprina Rodriguez 235

Gerardo "Gerry" Gonzalez 378

* * *

Coast Hospital (2 Full Term)

*Thomas Birdsell 547

Steven Lund 694

Kaye Handley 602

Dr. Lucas W. Campos 690

(1 Short Term)

Tanya Smart 349

Dr. Kevin B. Miller 713

Patricia Jauregui-Darland 477

* = Incumbent

* * *

President (Mendo numbers):

Clinton: 59.36%

Trump: 31.28%

Johnson: 3.13%

Stein: 3.33%

State Propositions (early Mendo preferences in bold)

Prop 51, School Bonds: Yes/No

Prop 52, Hospital Fee: Yes/No

Prop 53, Two Thirds Vote for Revenue Bonds: Yes/No

Prop 54, Pre-Publication Pending Bills: Yes/No

Prop 55, Tax on Big Incomes: Yes/No

Prop 56, Cig Tax: Yes/No

Prop 57, Early Release, Non-Violent Prisoners: Yes/No

Prop 58, Language Immersion: Yes/No

Prop 59, Overturns Citizens United: Yes/No

Prop 60, Condoms for Degenerates: Yes/No

Prop 61, Drug Prices: Yes/No (State going NO so far)

Prop 62, Repeals Death Penalty: Yes/No (but barely) (State going NO so far)

Prop 63, Background Checks for Ammo Sales: Yes/No

Prop 64, Marijuana Legalization: Yes/No

Prop 65, Fee for Carryout Bags: Yes/No

Prop 66, Speeds Up Death Penalty: Yes/No(State going YES so far)

Prop 67, Ban on Plastic Bags: Yes/No

* * *

STATEWIDE PROPOSITION RESULTS as of 11pm Tuesday night.

COUNTY CLERK’S OFFICE BUSY DOWN TO THE WIRE

by KC Meadows

Tuesday was Election Day. As Mendocino County voters head to their polls - some of them with mail-in ballot in hand - the county Clerk’s office will be busy getting ready for the tens of thousands of ballots that will start arriving when the polls close at 8 p.m. County Clerk Sue Ranochak says she’ll be “ecstatic” if all the ballots from the coast arrive by midnight.

Election Eve Activity

On Monday morning two more teams of “balloteers” as I call them, had been put to work on incoming mail ballots for the Tuesday election, and about 5,000 votes had been counted over the weekend.

At about 9 a.m. as I drove up to the county administration building on Low Gap Road, a crowd of people was standing around outside. I first thought, hmmm, Protest? Demonstration? But as I looked around I saw Supervisor Carre Brown chatting with Ukiah Daily Journal reporter Erick O’Donnell, Supervisor Dan Hamburg standing with his ever-present Chihuahua on its leash, some department heads I knew, and many others. I called over to ask what was going on and Brown told me a fire alarm had gone off and the whole building had been evacuated.

I parked my car and went back to find County Clerk Sue Ranochak standing among the employees, a perfect time to get her to catch me up on what had been accomplished over the weekend. (The fire engines arrived about 10 minutes into this conversation and five minutes later the all-clear was given and everyone went back to work.)

Ranochak said she had gotten 12 boxes full of opened and inspected ballots through the voting machines by the end of the day Saturday. Four more boxes of ballots were run through the machines on Monday afternoon. At about 400-500 ballots per box that’s approximately 6,400 to 8,000 votes counted out of the 20,152 mail-in ballots already on hand. She said there was “not much left” to be opened among the mail-in ballots although she knew the county would get a more today and conceivably for three days to come as long as they are postmarked by Nov. 8. I saw the guy bringing Monday’s bins of mail-in ballots into the office, there were a lot. Monday evening Ranochak said they got five bins in the mail Monday with some 2,000 new mail-in ballots in them, with the ballots dropped off at the Clerk’s office and the drive-through ballot box, she estimated a total of 2,500 more ballots came in Monday.

So far, Ranochak said, they’ve had somewhere in the 600-700 range in ballots needing “remakes” — ballots that are damaged or marked poorly that the voting machines will spit out. Those ballots have to be reconstructed by hand. If my math is correct and Ranochak’s numbers are correct, that means about 4 percent of ballots have to be remade. All the teams of balloteers were on remake duty on Monday.

I asked Ranochak how many ballots the machines have rejected of the 5,000 or so she’d run through so far. Not many, she said. The balloteers inspect the ballots ahead of time to try to set aside those that the machines can’t read. But some get through. “It’s hard to see that white-out,” Ranochak noted, citing one common error people make on their ballots when they change their minds while voting. While I watched ballots being sent through the machines Monday afternoon, several were rejected and had to be remade on the spot.

Ranochak said she is expecting a good voter turnout not only because it is a presidential election, but also because there are three marijuana measures on the ballot, one statewide, and two local.

There are 51,000 registered voters and 41,566 mail-in ballots sent out. That leaves around 9,000 voters who go to the polls. Ranochak said she hopes for at least a 70 percent turnout.

Expecting Lots Of Bernie Write-Ins

Ranochak said she assigned an additional four clerk’s office employees to ballot duty today, making six teams of two, the highest number she’s ever had, I think.

One of the things that also needs to be done as ballots are going through machines is to look for write-in votes. The California Secretary of State has issued a list of qualified write-in candidates and Ranochak believes that (and she’s probably right) they’re going to see Bernie Sanders’ name written in on a lot of Mendocino County ballots. The only other qualified presidential write-in candidate in California is Evan McMullin, an independent candidate with a conservative bent. The office keeps a running tab of write-ins as ballots are sent through the machines. I saw at least one Bernie write-in as I watched ballots being sent through the machines Monday afternoon.

Polling Places Ready

Where actual polling places still exist in Mendocino County (and I’ve made it very clear over the years I think there should be more of them), Ranochak said she delivered the touch-screen voting machines, for voters who need them, to those polls (one each) last Thursday and Friday. Touch screen machines print out a ballot that is then placed among the “remakes” needed to be created as the print-out can’t go through the voting machine and the touch screen machine cannot be hooked into any other — no wireless, internet or other digital method of voting or counting votes is allowed for fear of hacking.

Polls generally set up Monday afternoon to be ready to open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

ODD STORY OUT OF FORT BRAGG, as relayed by MendocinoSportsPlus

MSP received the following message Tuesday @ 11:20 am:

"I had a weird, scary thing happen in the 16000 block of Mitchell Creek Dr in Fort Bragg last night. It was 7:20, I was home with both my kids, in the middle of dinner. Suddenly my son said, what's that noise, mom?

I look outside, there's someone with a flashlight in my driveway, yelling for help. So I open the door and ask him to identify himself. He does, and immediately asks me if I'm a zombie, too. I say no, and start to go back inside.

He says prove that you're not a zombie by killing some of these zombies, there's zombies all over out here.

I tell him to leave before I call the cops, he refuses. I lock the door. The cops are called.

He hits the window in my door with his flashlight. I take the kids into their room, we stay there with the door locked for about 8 minutes, while I chat on Messenger with a friend, she lives around the corner and needed to know what was going on, plus it helped keep me calm. Sort of.

Sheriff's deputies arrive after about ten minutes. They know the guy, and try to get him to put his hands behind his back, he declines, saying no, you can't touch me, you're zombies.

He proceeds to swing a rock at the deputies. The two of them tackle him, get him handcuffed, and pat him down.

After all that, the deputies tell me that he lives in my neighborhood. I've never seen him before. He was just arrested a few days ago.

I just wonder, are there some extra bad drugs going around, or what? Everyone in the Mitchell Creek/Simpson Lane area needs to keep an eye out for this creep, and keep doors and windows locked."

* * *

Background:

John Elmer Strauss III, 50, of Fort Bragg, the unnamed person in the above account was booked into the Mendocino County jail on a charge of “Perjury” on November 6, 2016. According to our booking records Strauss’s prior bookings were all in 2008 when he was arrested three times for felony domestic assault, twice in July and once in November. We have no record of his arrest since that time until the November 6, 2016 perjury arrest.

According to the Fort Bragg City Council meeting minutes, March 24, 2014: “… 3. John Strauss stated that he has taken advantage of many programs that are provided by the Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center and read a statement supporting the Wellness Center. He stated that the staff of MCHC does a tremendous job and that by having a larger and more centralized facility they can use the space in a better way to provide essential services.”

A Mendocino Beacon of Nov 11, 1939, indicates that Strauss probably comes from an old-time North Coast family.

”John Strauss, well known resident of this place [Mendocino] and the Comptche section, was found dead in his garage on the southwest corner of Ukiah and Howard [in Mendocino] streets shortly before the noon hour Tuesday, as a result of a gunshot wound in the head. Death was instantaneous. His son's theory is that he had picked up the gun and brought it in to cut away the stock so that he could shoot it from his left shoulder because of poor vision in his right eye, and in drawing it toward him, the gun, which he frequently left loaded was discharged. After investigating, Deputy Coroner Ward Reis, pronounced it accidental death, as did Dr. Barcklow. His son Elmer Strauss was called home on Tuesday from Ten Mile Woods on receipt of the news of the death of his father. He will remain here over the weekend.”

THE LATE SHIFT

Hot power pole in Philo — For a couple of weeks my daughter's family had been hearing off and on a buzz - possibly coming from the high tension electric lines going between Ray's Rd. and Blattner Rd., Philo. Late Monday afternoon my grandson saw sparks coming from a guy wire cable running through branches from high on the power pole to an anchor in the ground. His mom called PG&E. It was dark when PG&E showed up to find that the "whole pole" was electrified. First they shut down power to 65 residents allowing the pole to be climbed and disconnected. Then they turned power back on to most of the houses while they worked until 4:00 am fixing the problem and restoring power to the remaining handful. Being somewhat hard of hearing was a blessing for me, I heard nothing, but am told that motors running, chainsaws roaring and banging and clanking accompanied the efforts. But we are all grateful and appreciative of the quick response and immediate attention to a dangerous situation. (David Severn, Philo)

COUNTY ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF RICHARD MOLINARI AS ANIMAL SHELTER MANAGER

Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Carmel J. Angelo, has announced the appointment of Richard Molinari as the County’s new Animal Shelter Manager. Mr. Molinari most recently served in the animal shelter and control industry as manager of the Animal Protection Unit with the City and County of Denver, Colorado. Previous to that time, he served as a supervisor with the City of Las Vegas Animal Control Unit and as Animal Services Shelter Director of the Eagle County Animal Shelter & Animal Control Units in Eagle, Colorado. Mr. Molinari has over 24 years of experience in the law enforcement and public health sectors with federal, county, and city agencies. He started his career as a police officer in the United States Air Force, stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada, and volunteered for assignments in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Ms. Angelo stated, “I am extremely pleased to have someone with Mr. Molinari’s experience and expertise joining the County team as Animal Shelter Manager. We have a strong team at our Animal Shelter and Mr. Molinari’s leadership and credible experience in both animal control services as well as shelter operations, positions us well for the future.” Mr. Molinari is accredited as an Animal Control Officer through the National Animal Control Association & Code 3 Associates. During his career he has worked over 25,000 calls for service, impounded over 10,000 animals, conducted over 4,000 cruelty investigations, and instructed hundreds of officers on report writing and control techniques. “I enjoy working in public service and look forward to working with the Shelter Team to provide exceptional customer service for the citizens and animals of Mendocino County.” stated Mr. Molinari. Mr. Molinari will start work with the County on November 21, 2016. For more information, please contact the Mendocino County Executive Office at (707) 463-4441

Carmel J. Angelo, Chief Executive Officer

LITTLE DOG SAYS, "I'm a country dog, and pretty much out of the contempo-canine loop. So a city friend sends a link to an article called, Fake Testicles For Dogs: Are They Ever A Good Idea? Like, who you gonna fool? A fire hydrant?

http://www.dogster.com/the-scoop/fake-testicles-for-dogs-are-they-ever-a-good-idea

SANTA ROSA STABBING SUSPECT MAY BE IN MENDOCINO COUNTY

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/6280870-181/santa-rosa-stabbing-suspect-may

CATCH OF THE DAY, November 8, 2016

AARON ALARCON, Covelo. Under influence.

SAMANTHA BYRON, Carlsbad/Ukiah. Pot cultivation, possession for sale.

JAMES CROSS, Woodland Hills/Ukiah. Pot possession, sales.

RAYMOND ELLIS, Ukiah. Domestic battery, first degree robbery.

ROBERT FACKRELL II, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

BOYD GOODRICH, Ukiah. Parole violation.

JOHN HENNING III, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

JEDIDIAH JONES, Willits. DUI, probation revocation.

JONAHTAN MAMMON, Orange/Ukiah. Pot possession for sale, sales.

TYLER MOLINA, Fort Bragg. DUI.

TASHINA TILLMAN, Willits. Under influence, suspended license.

DUSTIN WOOD, Ukiah. Controlled substance, failure to appear.

STANDING ROCK BENEFIT DRAWS HUNDREDS TO SEBASTOPOL GRANGE

by Shepherd Bliss

(Sebastopol, California) — An inspiring Standing Rock benefit to support Native Americans and others seeking to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) happened Nov. 6 from early in the afternoon to past 10 p.m. at the Sebastopol Grange in Northern California. A steady stream of animated folks of all ages coming and going was estimated to be around 600 people. The event raised thousands of dollars through donations, food and drink sales.

The 1,172-mile-long pipeline currently is scheduled to cross both the Missouri and Mississippi rivers to carry oil that was obtained by fracking and would be an environmental disaster. It also crosses Native American sacred ground. In the last seven months, over 50,000 people have participated in actions at the site and encamped at the nearby Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Around 10,000 are currently on site.

Police, National Guard, and security guards from throughout North Dakota and beyond have terrorized the peaceful water protectors, including using attack dogs and riders on horses. They have arrested hundreds, yet the encampment continues to grow, despite such brutality.

It has been a classic David vs. Goliath struggle with members of around 100 tribes and their allies on site. Amy Goodman of the radio/TV program “Democracy Now” was among hundreds arrested. Eventually released, her reports can be heard on her program and at her website.

“The tremendous outpouring of support for the Standing Rock Water Protectors was inspiring,” commented Sonoma State University Professor Debora Hammond. “I was particularly moved by the drumming, and the comments by Adam, the drum leader, about the enormous significance of this movement and the coming together of people from all corners of the earth to challenge the militarized assault on the indigenous peoples, their water and their sovereignty, and to hold the vision of a different kind of future in which the earth and all of her children are cared for.”

“It was heartening to see that massive turnout. I think people are feeling so alienated by this ugly election process that it was really great timing to be able to act positively and hopefully make a difference. The overflowing donation jars were certainly inspiring,” said Anna Ransom of Friends of Atascadero Wetlands.

At 150 years old, the Grange is the oldest agricultural-based organization in the United States. It manages hundreds of Grange Halls, some of which have become community centers for cultural events. This event was a dog-friendly family happening, with children and adults holding signs like “Water is Sacred,” “Love Your Mother,” and “Water is Life.”

Outside the Grange Hall, two tents were set up, with tables for supporting groups, such as Vote Yes on Measure M, against GMOs, and the Peace and Justice Center. Most people gathered outside in and around the tents, surrounded by rural, pastoral beauty.

A fire circle outside started the evening. Then indigenous people lead a prayer circle inside, after which people returned outside for lively Aztec dancing. Food from around the world, including Puerto Rico, was sold. A water blessing, music, dance, and art were offered.

Information on direct actions to support the Standing Rock protectors were circulated. For example, people were encouraged to boycott DAPL funders, which include Wells Fargo Bank, Citibank, and Bank of America. Energy Transformation Partners, a Texas-based company, is building the pipeline and contends that it will create thousands of jobs.

The day after the Grange event, journalist Thomm Hartman reported that the military/police were destroying medicine supplies, slashing tents, and illegally jamming cell devices,” according to Janus Matthes of Wine and Water Watch (www.winewaterwatch.org.)

“They targeted older women, who were strip searched. Their medicines were taken away, and they were housed on cement floors. Some had to be transported to medical facilities after being left for days without help. This is a combination of police from several states, National Guard, and private police contractors doing this to citizens,” Matthes added.

“An SSU Student’s Journey to Standing Rock” banner headlines a long front-page Nov. 1 issue of the weekly Sonoma State Star here in Sonoma County. “There is an ancient Native American prophecy that speaks of a great black snake that will one day run through all the valleys and rivers, desecrating life in its path,” Noah Treanor writes. “From east to west, tribal elders have warned for generations this monster was coming. And today it seems it is finally upon us.”

“We could see men, women and elders being grabbed and body slammed to the floor,” reports Treanor. “Everyone was locked in arms and still in prayer.”

“A wonderful event!” Angela Ford said of the Grange gathering. “Lovely energy, so many young people and elders.”

(Dr. Shepherd Bliss {3sb@comcast.net} is a Granger and Adjunct Associate Professor of English at Dominican University. He has contributed to 24 books and farmed for the last two decades.)

PROPANE LEAK AT MENDO ARTS CENTER

Editor,

There's a propane leak at the Mendocino Art Center. It's big enough to level 'Victorian Row,' but Art Center officials have been ignoring it for over a year. You can read the complete story here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxf2TM2uxGxFQnRlM0RlS0R0cmc/view?usp=sharing

Please forgive my fragmentary composition.

Sincerely,

Scott M. Peterson

Mendocino

THE PLANNING COMMISSION AGENDA and information is now available on the departments website at:

http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/planning/meetings.htm

REPORT ON THE STATE OF EEL RIVER

Organizing for Sustainability in Willits

The Eel River Recovery Project (ERRP) is hosting a meeting at the Willits Environmental Center on Tuesday evening, November 15 from 6-8 PM to report on the state of the Eel River based on five years of data collection and to have a community discussion on building a sustainable culture compatible with maintaining aquatic ecosystem function. ERRP Managing Director Pat Higgins will present and then lead discussions.

ERRP has been working with citizens to support volunteer monitoring and data collection throughout the Eel River watershed since 2012 to help assess the health of the river and its tributaries. Collecting data with watershed residents helps each better understand the condition of their creek or river reach, but it also gives them data they and their neighbors can trust about flow and water quality trends. ERRP does not get involved in advocacy and avoids assigning blame, if scientific results suggest ecological deterioration. Instead ERRP has been working to get more information to rural residential land owners, including cannabis farmers, about how to conserve water and to prevent water pollution by creating a farm plan and implementing sustainable agricultural practices.

The State of the Eel River talk will include a discussion of fall Chinook salmon population trends, pikeminnow abundance and distribution, water temperature patterns based on hundreds of probes deployed, and the extent of toxic cyanobacteria proliferation in the Eel River. Although cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, have always been present in the Eel River, it wasn’t until around the year 2000 that it began to develop toxic blooms that have proved fatal to dogs. The University of California Berkeley has assisted ERRP since 2013 in studying cyanotoxins and study results suggest that problems are most acute in middle reaches of the South Fork Eel River.

After collecting data for several years, ERRP concluded that work was needed within the community to conserve water and prevent water pollution. The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) funded an Eel River citizen monitoring and educational outreach project beginning in May of 2015 that not only provided support for citizen monitoring, but also for substantial outreach to the cannabis culture to promote agricultural best practices. Pat Higgins will report on the success of this project where 70 cannabis farms were visited and experts rendered technical advice on improving practices to help increase stream flows and to prevent pollution, including erosion. Data from each farm is confidential but the summary data show that there is additional need to help cannabis farmers increase water conservation efforts. Also, roads to rural farms were consistently shown to be sources of erosion and potential triggers for mass wasting, if not improved.

ERRP is working with the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board to secure a Phase II SWRCB grant that would allow more work with cannabis farmers in the Eel River. Project components envisioned include providing technical assistance to another 100 cannabis farmers, holding several model farm tours to demonstrate best practices, working with watershed groups to do basin-wide water conservation and erosion control plans, and creating best practices “drop-in” centers at three locations. The Willits Environmental Center would be one of the drop-in centers along with locations in Laytonville and Garberville. Farmers could obtain maps at these centers of their parcels that show landslide risk, sensitive riparian zones and other essential information for sustainable farm planning. Those in attendance will be asked about the desirability of such services being rendered and whether the WEC is an appropriate location. Upper Outlet Creek tributaries flow through Willits still have runs of Chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead and healthy upper reaches above town. Ways to lessen urban stream impacts and the benefits of supplying best practices information to urban gardeners will also be discussed during the evening.

ERRP’s fall Chinook monitoring of the 2016-2017 run is currently on-going, and a report on early run signs will be covered during the evening presentation. Tracking the run in Mendocino County is funded by a grant from the Salmon Restoration Association in Fort Bragg. Anyone seeing spawning or migrating Chinook salmon is encouraged to bring information to the meeting or to call 223-7200.

The meeting will begin at 6 PM at the WEC at 630 South Main Street in Willits. There is no charge for admission and some food and refreshments will be served. ERRP has recently been recognized as its own 501c3 non-profit corporation and is requesting that people join as members. See www.eelriverrecovery.org to sign up or send $25 for an individual or $35 for a family to ERRP, P.O. Box 214, Loleta, CA 95551.

Fall Chinook salmon coordinator Eric Stockwell photo documents Chinook salmon in the lower Eel River in early October.

DEPRESSION NEEDS TO BE RE-THOUGHT

Letter to the Editor

Dr. Betty Lacy, a psychiatrist from Willits, in her letter to the AVA in the Nov. 2 issue asserts that "mental illness are brain disorders." That is certainly the dominant belief about depression today in America. In my three decades long experience of living under the pathological label of "depression", I've come to the conclusion that the medical model of depression is false.

I've known since age 25 when I started attending Adult Children of Alcoholics meetings that my depression was originally primarily caused by being seriously emotionally wounded by my upbringing in an alcoholic family. Unfortunately, however, there was more ugly reality to endure after that for me, which is the reality of living in a culture that despises what "depression" represents.

Looking back to my early 20's when I was diagnosed with depression, it is clear to me now that there was a political element to my diagnosis. Coming from an affluent background and having left two colleges by age 21 and eventually dropping out of college for good at age 23 because I did not ascribe to the values of the white collar professional class, I was clearly a target for being pathologized by psychiatrists and psychologists -- white collar professionals!!

I wonder what would have been the result if in my early 20's I had been urged to seek help from blue collar professionals or perhaps artistic types. I'm sure they would have had a different view of me and my situation, much like the 61 year old gardener I've been working with for the last year and a half who has assured me "There's nothing wrong with you."

Reducing depression to a brain disorder lets bad parents and a harsh, exploitative culture-at-large off the hook, not to mention creating a hell of a lot of business for the mental health and pharmaceutical industries.

Keith Bramstedt, San Anselmo

WHY WIKILEAKS LEAKED CLINTON EMAILS

by Julian Assange

In recent months, WikiLeaks and I personally have come under enormous pressure to stop publishing what the Clinton campaign says about itself to itself. That pressure has come from the campaign’s allies, including the Obama administration, and from liberals who are anxious about who will be elected US President.

On the eve of the election, it is important to restate why we have published what we have.

The right to receive and impart true information is the guiding principle of WikiLeaks – an organization that has a staff and organizational mission far beyond myself. Our organization defends the public’s right to be informed.

This is why, irrespective of the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential election, the real victor is the US public which is better informed as a result of our work.

The US public has thoroughly engaged with WikiLeaks’ election related publications which number more than one hundred thousand documents. Millions of Americans have pored over the leaks and passed on their citations to each other and to us. It is an open model of journalism that gatekeepers are uncomfortable with, but which is perfectly harmonious with the First Amendment.

We publish material given to us if it is of political, diplomatic, historical or ethical importance and which has not been published elsewhere. When we have material that fulfills this criteria, we publish. We had information that fit our editorial criteria which related to the Sanders and Clinton campaign (DNC Leaks) and the Clinton political campaign and Foundation (Podesta Emails). No-one disputes the public importance of these publications. It would be unconscionable for WikiLeaks to withhold such an archive from the public during an election.

At the same time, we cannot publish what we do not have. To date, we have not received information on Donald Trump’s campaign, or Jill Stein’s campaign, or Gary Johnson’s campaign or any of the other candidates that fufills our stated editorial criteria. As a result of publishing Clinton’s cables and indexing her emails we are seen as domain experts on Clinton archives. So it is natural that Clinton sources come to us.

We publish as fast as our resources will allow and as fast as the public can absorb it.

That is our commitment to ourselves, to our sources, and to the public.

This is not due to a personal desire to influence the outcome of the election. The Democratic and Republican candidates have both expressed hostility towards whistleblowers. I spoke at the launch of the campaign for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, because her platform addresses the need to protect them. This is an issue that is close to my heart because of the Obama administration’s inhuman and degrading treatment of one of our alleged sources, Chelsea Manning. But WikiLeaks publications are not an attempt to get Jill Stein elected or to take revenge over Ms Manning’s treatment either.

Publishing is what we do. To withhold the publication of such information until after the election would have been to favour one of the candidates above the public’s right to know.

This is after all what happened when the New York Times withheld evidence of illegal mass surveillance of the US population for a year until after the 2004 election, denying the public a critical understanding of the incumbent president George W Bush, which probably secured his reelection. The current editor of the New York Times has distanced himself from that decision and rightly so.

The US public defends free speech more passionately, but the First Amendment only truly lives through its repeated exercise. The First Amendment explicitly prevents the executive from attempting to restrict anyone’s ability to speak and publish freely. The First Amendment does not privilege old media, with its corporate advertisers and dependencies on incumbent power factions, over WikiLeaks’ model of scientific journalism or an individual’s decision to inform their friends on social media. The First Amendment unapologetically nurtures the democratization of knowledge. With the Internet, it has reached its full potential.

Yet, some weeks ago, in a tactic reminiscent of Senator McCarthy and the red scare, Wikileaks, Green Party candidate Stein, Glenn Greenwald and Clinton’s main opponent were painted with a broad, red brush. The Clinton campaign, when they were not spreading obvious untruths, pointed to unnamed sources or to speculative and vague statements from the intelligence community to suggest a nefarious allegiance with Russia. The campaign was unable to invoke evidence about our publications—because none exists.

In the end, those who have attempted to malign our groundbreaking work over the past four months seek to inhibit public understanding perhaps because it is embarrassing to them – a reason for censorship the First Amendment cannot tolerate. Only unsuccessfully do they try to claim that our publications are inaccurate.

WikiLeaks’ decade-long pristine record for authentication remains. Our key publications this round have even been proven through the cryptographic signatures of the companies they passed through, such as Google. It is not every day you can mathematically prove that your publications are perfect but this day is one of them.

We have endured intense criticism, primarily from Clinton supporters, for our publications. Many long-term supporters have been frustrated because we have not addressed this criticism in a systematic way or responded to a number of false narratives about Wikileaks’ motivation or sources. Ultimately, however, if WL reacted to every false claim, we would have to divert resources from our primary work.

WikiLeaks, like all publishers, is ultimately accountable to its funders. Those funders are you. Our resources are entirely made up of contributions from the public and our book sales. This allows us to be principled, independent and free in a way no other influential media organization is. But it also means that we do not have the resources of CNN, MSNBC or the Clinton campaign to constantly rebuff criticism.

Yet if the press obeys considerations above informing the public, we are no longer talking about a free press, and we are no longer talking about an informed public.

Wikileaks remains committed to publishing information that informs the public, even if many, especially those in power, would prefer not to see it. WikiLeaks must publish. It must publish and be damned.

(Julian Assange is the founder of Wikileaks. His most recent book is The Wikileaks Files (Verso).)

THE DOORS COMMENT ON THE ELECTION

The End of the Night

This is the end, beautiful friend

This is the end, my only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end

Of everything that stands, the end

No safety or surprise, the end

I'll never look into your eyes, again

Can you picture what will be, so limitless and free

Desperately in need, of some, stranger's hand

In a, desperate land

Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain

And all the children are insane, all the children are insane

Waiting for the summer rain, yeah

There's danger on the edge of town

Ride the King's highway, baby

Weird scenes inside the gold mine

Ride the highway west, baby

Ride the snake, ride the snake

To the lake, the ancient lake, baby

The snake is long, seven miles

Ride the snake, he's old, and his skin is cold

The west is the best, the west is the best

Get here, and we'll do the rest

The blue bus is callin' us, the blue bus is callin' us

Driver, where you taken us

The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on

He took a face from the ancient gallery

And he walked on down the hall

He went into the room where his sister lived, and, then he

Paid a visit to his brother, and then he

He walked on down the hall, and

And he came to a door, and he looked inside

Father, yes son, I want to kill you

Mother, I want to, fuck you

C'mon baby, take a chance with us

C'mon baby, take a chance with us

C'mon baby, take a chance with us

And meet me at the back of the blue bus

Doin' a blue rock, on a blue bus

Doin' a blue rock, c'mon, yeah

Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill

This is the end, beautiful friend

This is the end, my only friend, the end

It hurts to set you free

But you'll never follow me

The end of laughter and soft lies

The end of nights we tried to die

This is the end

–Bruce W. Franklin, Eric Wagner, Rick J. Wartell

THE SILVER LININGS OF SILVER-TONGUED DONALD

by Ralph Nader

Are there any silver linings to the tumultuous, degrading, sordid presidential campaign of Donald Trump — a failed gambling czar, corporate welfare king, and supreme hypocrite to his own accusations about others?

Yes. Here are seven:

1. “New York Times” star columnist James B. Stewart, may be right when he writes that bipartisan outrage over Donald Trump’s not paying income tax for several decades may lead to stronger support for “a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s loophole-riddled revenue gathering system.” The brazen Trumpeteer may be just the jolt that Congress needs. Maybe.
2. By raising the trade agreements issue (NAFTA, TPP, etc.), Trump startled many complacent Republicans into an awareness long dimmed by the empirically-starved, obsolete, 19th century “win-win” “free-trade” dogmas. Unknowingly, of course, Trump missed the deeper insidiousness beneath these corporate-managed trade agreements that are driving American industries to Asia and Mexico. I’m referring to the loss of our freedom to improve consumer, worker, and environmental protections in our country in favor of the self-imposed imperatives of corporate commercial international trade (see citizen.org/trade). In any event, when President Obama tries to push through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) giveaway in next month’s lame duck session of Congress, Trump’s blasts may add to the prospect of defeating the TPP.
3. On November 4th, the “New York Times” ran the headline: “Veterans, Feeling Abandoned, Stand by Donald Trump.” This is a spreading disdain for both major Parties by veterans about more than how they have been neglected regarding consumer protection, jobs and health care. It is directed toward failed foreign policy initiatives which spur perpetual wars that grind on and on, and the representatives who lack any willingness to ask the questions veterans want asked about the futility of our soldiers being in these countries where the local people do not want us and insurgencies keep spreading.
4. Trump inadvertently has further revealed the consequences of our educational system’s deliberate neglect of exposing students to critical thinking about power in all its forms. To those millions of fed-up Americans who, while disliking Trump’s behavior and foul mouth, nevertheless support him because, “he tells it like it is”: please pause for a moment to consider the facts. How does, “telling it like it is” equate to, “being willing and able to do something about it” and just what is “it”? Trump is inordinately vague here.

These same Americans, so knowledgeable about their own daily occupations and their complex hobbies, somehow forsake any responsibility to face the facts by doing some political homework and demanding that they be participants in the electoral process, not mere spectators of an electoral circus and its chief carnival barker.

5. More openly, Trump has shown us how the mass media can degrade election coverage so long as the prospect of greater profits outshine the impetus to offer varied and well-informed reporting — especially for mass TV and radio. Indeed, Trump’s ability to attract the media’s greed for profits continues to pull the mass media closer to the gutter. We can thank the president of CBS, Leslie Moonves, for confirming this observation when he told a business audience that Trump’s campaign, “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”

In addition, so addicted was the media to scouring speeches and Twitter feeds for the latest Trumpisms and provocations that it slammed the door on any participation by those civic groups that actually have been improving our country, know what they’re talking about, and are able to inject broader topics into candidates’ campaigns — topics that are closer to the peoples’ concerns, such as looted pensions, corporate crimes against consumers and workers, crony taxpayer bailouts, and bureaucratic waste.

6. Further, Trump has cast some doubt on the invincibility of entrenched plutocracy and oligarchy over popular sovereignty. Consider this improbable dynamic hurtling toward November 8th. Supporting Hillary Clinton are those on Wall Street, the bulk of the military-industrial complex, Silicon Valley and, of course, the Democratic Party machinery. She is seen, after all, as predictable and not a wild card prone to displays of ignorance, inexperience and a lashing, bruisable ego.

Trump, by contrast, has largely been abandoned by his party’s elite. He has a fifth of Hillary’s television advertising budget, has little get-out-the-vote ground game to speak of and is being blasted by the mass media day after day. He has also raised far less money than his corporate cash-rich opponent.

Yet, In spite of all of this, he has made this a close race because enough voters are sweeping all these conventional variables aside in their fury. Go figure. We better do just that right after election day.

7. Lastly, Trump has raised the peril of what South Americans have called “the politics of personalismo.” By making his ego, his persona, his personal boasts, his personal insults, his personal business the core of this year’s campaign, he has forced the media to reap what they have sown with their cynical mantra for the local evening news: “if it bleeds, it leads,” meaning not only street crime but other disasters that are graphic, violent or in otherwise poor taste. Trump’s campaign is the embodiment of such misguided priorities.

Some 60 years ago, in an impoverished state in northeast Brazil, a gubernatorial candidate ran on the slogan “to my enemies the law, to my friends — facilities.” He won the election.

Beware the “politics of personalismo” and its deadly attraction to fateful impulses.

(Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Already the perfumados marked a class of people as “deplorables.” Tattooed, dressed like clowns, lazy, ignorant, racist, obese, drug-abusing. What earthly good are they? They have no legitimate gripe, their values are beyond the pale for any modern high-minded progressive, their lamentable state one of their own making. Repression? Why not?

Of course, given the errant blunderings of the American foreign policy establishment, or the howling misapprehensions of Deep State intelligence (again, a contradiction in terms), such interventions have a way of blowing up shortly after lift-off.

We see it over and over. Bomb, invade, occupy, arrest, bust heads, lose multitudes of dead and maimed, blow trillions, withdraw with ass in pail, vow to never do again, leave thousands with revenge on their minds, rinse, repeat, do it here. Do it here? Sure, why not?

I don’t know about you but IMO the intelligence of the alleged elite, whether we’re talking about the overly-wealthed Plutocrats or the Plutocrats’ preening bureaucratic clerisy, is highly mis-overestimated. As you say, when chaos steps over into uncontrollable upheaval they think that they can deploy golden parachutes (Yes, I certainly do remember them). And they actually think the soldier boys will defend THEM. Such wishful thinking absurdity. Makes me laugh.

TEEN LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

Saturday, November 12th 3-4 pm

Teens are invited to join the library’s Teen Leadership Council (TLC). Teen leaders can volunteer & apply for credit toward community service hours while building their résumés. Teens will have a chance to be heard & make a difference in the community. District Teens Leaders will gain valued skills & experience:
· Collaborating to design our new teen space
· Planning & organizing events
· Recommending books & other materials for library purchase
· Developing leadership & conflict-resolution skills
· Contributing to the Ukiah community by expanding teen resources

Come and find out if this is the group for you! Pizza will be provided. For more information please contact Melissa at the Ukiah Library: 467-6434

Melissa Eleftherion Carr
Teen & Adult Services Librarian
Ukiah Branch Library

THE FORT BRAGG CITY COUNCIL ELECTION

by Rex Gressett

The silent election in Fort Bragg has slunk to election day with barely a word spoken. It was distinguished in fact by the depth and complexity of the various silences of which it was composed.

First, there was the annoying non-candidacy of two of the four candidates running in opposition. Rex Gressett (in the interests of fair disclosure I must admit that is me) first announced that having gone to the trouble of running he (I) did not want to run after all and asked everyone to vote for Lee and Norvell, but insisted with an unruffled dignity that being on the ballot I (he) should get to participate in the public discussion such as it was.

Curtis Bruckner also showed a greater sensitivity in his timing, (he does not fail to impress me in his good judgment), and also endorsed Lee and Norvell rather later in the election.

This was the first silence. Whatever Curtis and I said we were saying it was in anticipation of not being on the council.

Then in a surrealistic gesture, the government television station edited me out of the forum that they had with no inconsiderable hoopla invented. A brief explanation. Once Fort Bragg had a volunteer television station which was very good and much beloved. It was taken over by the city and killed. (Dan Gjerde was the crucial instrument of deceit and agent of death on behalf of the local machine in that one) .

The City of Fort Bragg now owned what once was the people’s television station and so got to keep the money that Comcast had by ancient agreement paid to permit public access TV in Fort Bragg.

The City hired out the digitalization and upgrading of the station to a front man who then operated, and continues to operate, as the venal functionary of the city manager. On the side they promote not the public station but their own site. Of course they wanted to have the main event in the election of the city council on their site (it was mandatory) however, they did not want me in their forum. Why, I cannot guess.

I insisted on appearing and eventually they allowed it. During the forum discussion was brisk, and I was not embarrassed, or silent but subsequently to my enormous amusement it transpired that when the forum was aired on Terry’s site I was edited out.

Much discussion of this bizarre event occurred, but really it was only another (admittedly amusing) example of the fundamental ineptitude of the cabal that runs Fort Bragg.

Not only are they sold out they aren't even good. Paul McCarthy at mendocinosportsplus has more in fun and gets out thousands of times more information than they will ever in their wildest dreams. Everybody knows it. Government tv has an overriding commitment to not telling the story. Another silence.

The League of Women voters holds the main pre-election event in Town Hall.

The questions were not softballs and they touched every point of dysfunction of city policy, if only tangentially. The people know what it is that we are not supposed to know. But answers from the candidates were in short supply. Mostly it was a good faith kind of silence. As in, “I will try.”

It was clear that the candidates are untested and unversed in the generalities of local government.

They all looked like amateurs. I know I did. Say this about the old council they had impeccable manners and they dressed nice. They exuded a kind of insider’s reliability that the new council will have to run hard catch up with. Sure, they were the tools of a political machine that rewarded its supporters, casually destroying the most valuable things in our community, but one cannot deny that they looked respectable doing it. The would-be new council on display at Town Hall that night seemed like average people pulled off the street and asked to do a somewhat dangerous thing that was important. I admit Will Lee has a polish that is formidable. But even he seemed cautiously speculative about his intentions and relied principally on assurances that he would give it his best shot.

We all said that.

It was a silence also because the people that filed out of Town Hall all knew there was not gong to be anything else. That was it, the “League of Women Voter’s debate,” the Advocate interview and that’s it.

What can you say? We are, after all, a small town. People have lives and the city council is pretty much understood to be a rubber stamp or has been for many years. A rubber stamp to be sure that many approved of. But Town Hall was packed and that showed an undercurrent of vitality in this election. But during the whole process there weren’t many opportunities for real dialogue.

Things have been civil . There was no unsupervised discussion between the candidates ( heaven forfend ) And we kept it shallow. However good the questions, they could only have been at best a rough prelude to any real discussion. That discussion did not happen. Fort Bragg adhered loyally to its ancient ritual election format invented in prehistory when incumbencies were unshakable, thank you .

Bernie Norvell has been going door to door, networking through a network of people of life long association. Calling upon his life long friendships. Talking to the people that already know him, not making a contrived public statement.

So maybe this campaign of Norvell’s is not silent after all, even if it appears to the media or the media-reading public that it has been. I think it is less silent than indignant. I am voting proudly for him.

These silences were met bravely by Scott Menzies, the city hall machine -sanctioned candidate. Menzies offered a far, far deeper and more cryptic silence. A silence that glared its moral superiority at the rubes like a mad dog barring its teeth, but that offered in explanation not one coherent word. Of course Menzies is always funny, but as his (it must be allowed) rather vast mediocrity makes its relentless way into the place of honor and power where mediocrity is a supreme virtue, it becomes more of a tragic-funny.

Scott Menzies has announced to the world in a thousand yard signs and buttons that he is “Fighting for local solutions.” He has said not one word about what the problems are that he purports to solve by local means.

Ok, I give up, Scott. I will stop asking what problems you perceive and you just tell me the answers. It can be like Jeopardy.

The candidates for the Fort Bragg City Council were, I am sure, aware of their professional shortcomings and humble about their somewhat glaring lack of information compared to any one of the seasoned functionaries of the well-oiled city machine.

Not Menzies. He has explained to us with every public utterance that his is a new approach to local government gained through the practice of meditation in China and Nepal, and that although the uninitiated cannot be, and have never been expected to understand the subtleties of the wisdom of the east, Scott himself will show us how it is done. He has said of us that we are sodomites. But because of his years of intensive inner preparation he will generously accept the rule over us that he has long championed in his unqualified support for the machine agenda. Silence.

The meditating kind.

He is keeping his intentions to himself, and because his qualifications are nil, and because his cryptic and indecipherable statements are devoid of reference to the city, or the city council or any problem or solution pertaining to any of it, we are left to understand that he does not feel that it is his obligation to do more than to assume the control to which his destiny entitles him; he will proceed to rubber stamp the reliable professionals that we have hired to rule us through him, and who it is our duty to trust with our future. Over this happy picture he will reign. He would do it in silence if he could.

But the greatest silence of all comes not from Mr Menzies but is about him. I thought (naively) that his candidacy as it had transpired would be an embarrassment to him, and hopefully to those that had hitherto supported him. They saw him clearly for the buffoon he is but they decided not to notice. However they could not defend him. Neither could they acknowledge or support any platform or plan or proposal that he had made because there were none. Also they could not say, Hey lookee here! Scott has a view on that. There were no views. Just this kind of grade school pretense of meditative superpowers.

But no one jumped ship, he gained support, in silence.

What they tell me when I ask them is always the same thing. He (Scott) is the most progressive of the candidates.

What??

I thought that the progressives were at the turn of the last century the inventors and champions of civic reform. The private ballot the end of the political machines that ran our cities. They stood against corruption, the restraint of bosses. The exact diametric opposite of what Menzies and his leader Linda Ruffing stand for. Progressive?

Whatever Linda and her minions are, they are not progressives. They bang away at the inconveniences of the Brown Act as though it were a whackamole machine. They steer money to their friends and not a little of it. They pave the alleys of the city manager and the mayor and no other alleys in the whole town, and then snub the people that have the audacity to notice it.

In all of that the only public utterances of Scott Menzies has been a barely articulate disdain for anyone rash enough to object. And an unqalified and unthinking support of the city machine. The system that they have constructed in our town is a political machine the likes of which it was the object of the old progressives to dismantle.

But in Fort Bragg Scott Menzies is by all accounts, even his own, the handpicked representative of our local political machine. The Linda Ruffing brigade, with Scott Menzies leading the bystanders, resists elections, hates transparency, have utterly eliminated any public meetings not harshly controlled by themselves, and then they limit the subject matter and format to that of their own choosing.

And so in an election of silences I call that the use of the term progressive to describe Menzies the greatest silence of all.

The silence of the self-declared progressives north of Pine is mostly the silence of having your hand in the public trough up to the elbow; that is a given. But theirs is also a silence that falsely claims a noble tradition, where dissent and free expression and open elections and public transparency were the ideals.

To call the social services agency giveaways and the system of exploitation of the poor which brings in the big bucks to a few families and individuals at the cost of our basic municipal solvency is the most creative abuse of the term that I can imagine. Silence