Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, May 31, 2017

• Salmon Disaster
• Job Opening
• Baseball Game
• Housing Shortage
• Little Dog
• Human Behavior
• Disaster Relief
• Memorial Day
• Police Reports
• Ukiah Priorities
• Comptche BBQ
• Art Quilts
• Eleftherion Book
• Yesterday's Catch
• Words Matter
• Pelican Bay
• American Way
• Husbands
• Kushner's Future
• The Fatigue
• Fire Season
• Frank DeFord
• Mary Peace
• Spiritual Monkeywrenching
• Wine Event

CALIFORNIA & OREGON GOVERNORS REQUEST SALMON FISHERY DISASTER DECLARATION

by Dan Bacher

A day after scientists and leaders of commercial fishing groups, Tribes and recreational angling organizations and scientists testified at a Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture Salmon Hearing at the State Capitol in Sacramento, California Governor Jerry Brown and Oregon Governor Kate Brown sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross requesting declaration of a catastrophic regional fishery disaster and commercial fishery failure for salmon in their states.

The May 24th declaration begins the process for requesting federal aid to assist commercial salmon trollers and salmon-dependent businesses that continue to suffer from collapsing salmon populations, spurred by a combination of poor ocean conditions, water diversions and questionable state and federal water management during the historic drought

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) reported, “Last month, the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s projections for salmon in these states were dire. In the 2017 season, many miles of coastline will be closed to commercial salmon fishing and allowable catch will be greatly reduced, compounding the already significantly lower economic returns seen in 2016.”

Commercial fishermen praised the request by the two governors.

“Commercial salmon fishermen in California and Oregon applaud this critical step in the federal fishery disaster relief process," said Noah Oppenheim, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA). “Salmon season restrictions and closures have been simply devastating to hard working fishing families coast-wide.”

“Boats have been scrapped, livelihoods have been ruined, and one of the oldest ways of life on the West Coast teeters on the brink. Now is the time for the Federal government and Congress to step up and do their part to assist working fishing families by providing federal fisheries disaster assistance,” stated Oppenheim.

John McManus, Executive Director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA), noted that that there is some salmon fishing available this year, mostly from southern Mendocino County to southern San Mateo County. He said this is thanks to the extra trucking of Sacramento River hatchery fall Chinook salmon that GGSA pressured the state and federal governors to do in 2014 and 2015 during the drought.

“Without that, we'd all be off the water now,” he stated. “But there's no doubt our overall salmon stocks are badly hurt and some of this could have been avoided but for bad decisions against salmon fishermen made by water managers at the height of the drought.”

McManus warned, “This type of catastrophic regional fishery disaster and commercial fishery failure will happen again unless we decide we're going to allot a little more water to salmon, salmon fishing families and coastal communities when drought strikes.”

The commercial non-tribal salmon fishery in the Klamath Management Zone (KMZ), a 200 mile stretch of coast from Humbug Mountain in Oregon to Horse Mountain in California, is completely closed this year, since the lowest return of Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon on record is forecasted this season.

There will be a limited commercial fishery — up to 3,000 fish, with a limit of 60 fish per week per boat — in the Fort Bragg area in September. The area surrounding San Francisco will open for a limited time in August, September, and parts of October.

The commercial salmon fishery has been open in May and will be open in June only in areas south of Pigeon Point. Fishing has been poor for commercial fishermen to date.

State Senator MIke McGuire, who convened the salmon hearing, and Assemblymember Jim Wood had called on Governor Brown to request a federal fishery disaster, resulting in the letter send to the Trump administration by the California and Oregon governors.

“The 2017 salmon season is anticipated to be one of the worst on record including predictions of the lowest return of Klamath River salmon in history,” said McGuire. “This collapse has had disastrous impacts on our fisheries, our commercial and recreational fishing industries and on tribes, whose commercial fisheries will be closed and subsistence and ceremonial fishing severely curtailed.”

The Klamath River and Trinity River will be closed to recreational fishing for fall Chinook salmon, including catch and release, although both rivers will remain open for steelhead fishing.

The Yurok Tribe’s commercial fishery will be closed and subsistence and ceremonial fishing by the Yurok, Hoopa Valley and Karuk Tribe will be reduced dramatically. This will result in less than a fish per every 10 Yurok Tribal members, potentially triggering a health crisis, according to McGuire.

“How will the salmon closure and restrictions impact us as a Tribe?” said Thomas O’Rourke, Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. “One word — devastating. It will be devastating spiritually, economically, culturally and socially.”

“There will be just 650 fish this year available for Yurok Tribe members,” he said. “All tribal and community businesses depend on tourism. A very big part of this tourism is based on the fishery. When people can’t fish for salmon, they don't come to the Klamath.”

“What do young people do (when they’re idle)?” O’Rourke noted. “They get in trouble. There will be social aspects of this fishery closure across the board that many people don’t understand.”

As fishermen and Tribal members suffer from the impacts of decades of poor water management by the state and federal governments, Governor Jerry Brown continues to forge ahead with his legacy project, the Delta Tunnels/California Water Fix fiasco. This project will not only hasten the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt and green sturgeon, but it further harm the already imperiled salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.

For more information about declared West Coast disasters, please see The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration list here:www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/management/disaster/determinations/wcro.html

READ FULL REQUEST LETTER

Oregon Governor Kate Brown’s news release

PART TIME DISHWASHER/JANITOR NEEDED at the Anderson Valley Senior Center. Must be available on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Call 707-895-3609 or stop by the Senior Center for an application and job description.

LIFELONG BASEBALL LOVER GOES TO FIRST LIVE GIANTS GAME AT ATT PARK

by Pebbles Trippet

I went to my first SF Giants baseball game live at ATT Park last week and dug it. Knowing I'm into the game of baseball, some friends teamed up to buy me a ticket for the 3rd game of the Giants-Braves match-up.

Giants management has a winning formula — a user friendly baseball stadium with something going on visually at all times...in addition to the game on the field. The crowd is engaged with sectional arm waves—anyone can set one off—with fans happy to oblige the group action; dozens of special t-shirts thrown into the seats by personnel for catch-and-keep; couples kissing, one after another, on big screen videos when their photo op arrives; ticker tape messages of "Make some noise!" flashed at appropriate moments; every player at bat getting a screen shot with how they batted at their previous at bats; and a general feel good vibe of everyday people engaged in a pleasurable experience.

In the courtyard before entering the stadium, you encounter a magnificent towering bronze statue of former Giants pitcher Juan Marichal kicking his leg high about to throw a pitch; etched into the stone base are heartfelt messages of praise of his character and skill, showing how much he meant to the team.

The great Willie Mays has his own giant sculpture a block away, honoring the man and all around player, who is often present at Giants affairs, beloved by virtually everyone, seen around the clubhouse sharing stories with the players and meeting with fans. KNBR broadcasts Giants games from Willie Mays Plaza.

After inspecting the artwork, my friend and I entered the teeming arena by the bay at McCovey Cove (in honor of Willie McCovey) where home run balls go to be scooped up by canoes and other sea faring boats floating along the bay, quite a picturesque recreational scene. We walked along the promenade by McCovey Cove where dozens of birds fly overhead and the water below moves in waves of wind. The Ferry Boat from Oakland arrives carrying dozens of eager fans dropped at the stadium's front door for $7.50 each (compared to $7.50/hour to park your car).

My first most pressing need was to get a radio and headphones to tune in to Kruk and Kuip broadcasting the game live. We found the 2nd floor section where they provide this radio loan service. I asked for the broadcast program equipment they had. A very friendly woman offered something with the announcer Vernell. I responded that my desire was to hear Kruk & Kuip broadcast the game, as I'd learned from them and John Miller and Dave for years. She provided a tiny Radio Shack radio with headphones and covered the batteries with scotch tape to keep them from falling out. I provided my name, seat#, phone#.

I told them it was my first trip to ATT Park though I've been a Giants aficionado for a decade. They went and typed my name on a plaque-like paper certificate welcoming me into the fold and followed up with a black and orange team cap and flag. I thanked them profusely for their kindness with a promise to return the radio for the next person. I intend to follow up with a note of appreciation for their loan policy based on the word of honor of fans.

Buoyed, we found our seats as high as you can go to the top, a covered bleachers sort of thing, the $20 special. It was a perfect view of all the action on the field minus the coca-cola sign wall. I also had another friend whose seat by Levi's Landing was offered to me as well, so I tried it out for a few innings — so close to the action, where the grass is bright green and the soil a rich dark brown, so different than the aerial view.

The Giants won easily but it wouldn't have mattered. The fans love the atmosphere, the sense of personal freedom and the team they've come to believe in, win or lose. They are playing poorly right now, in next to last place in the National League West slightly ahead of San Diego.

The main deficiency seems to be timely hitting. Only Posey is batting over .300. There are no replacements for Barry Bonds, making 'small ball' of greater value. Not that Bonds is missed with his conspicuous giant leather locker chair in the clubhouse to show off exceptional status. There is now a greater sense of egalitarianism; players stand out based on merit, not material affects — Johnny Cueto's shimmy; Hunter Pence's vegan diet and scooter transportation; Brandon Crawford's superior play at shortstop with his long hair in the tradition of Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgardner, their two stand-out pitchers, aka hippies who learned how to play baseball really well.

There are 6 or 7 floors to the stadium with vendors from top to bottom, including an organic restaurant as well as individual vendors pushing organic food only. This advance is rooted in the 60s when the health food movement began to take hold; finally it has reached the mainstream and the Giants are embracing it. No surprise really, considering the quality of life in San Francisco as a health and freedom conscious city and the former third base coach as a musician with roots in the Dead Heads, back when healthy food and drugs were an important part of the life style.

San Francisco birthed the marijuana freedom movement in the '70s with Peron, Moscone and Milk at the helm. San Francisco passed Prop W(eed) at the ballot and the California Legislature passed the Moscone Right to Privacy Bill (1976), a major reform reducing under an ounce from a felony to a misdemeanor. Unity of marijuana and sexual freedom led to a rogue cop's assassination of Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978 in retaliation.

The marijuana movement then went to sleep for a generation under the relief provided by possession of an ounce as a misdemeanor, no longer a felony. The movement surfaced from its slumber in 1996 with Prop 215, a major win for medical marijuana at the CA ballot, spearheaded by Dennis Peron and the gay community in response to the AIDS epidemic. This voter approved mandate of marijuana for medical purposes was the greatest breakthrough out of prohibition since it began in 1936.

The Giants abandoned Candlestick Park for ATT Park where MLBaseball in San Francisco has flourished ever since. Having rebuilt the team, post steroids era, with "talented misfits" and excellent coaching, all the hard work came to fruition in 2010. The Giants won it all behind Tim Lincecum, dubbed "the freak" by his odd delivery and long hair (the pun), and a team of lovables, such as Sergio Romo, relief pitcher, who wore a bold t-shirt saying "I only look illegal!", referring to his Mexican lineage.

So there's a little story about my trip to see the SF Giants live and in person. I'll probably never have the occasion to go again but I enjoy being an official member of the Giants Family...come what may.

WILLITS WEEKLY REPORTER Mike A’Dair picked up an interesting tidbit from the May 16 Board of Supervisors meeting which helps to explain Mendo’s housing shortage, particularly rentals.

A’DAIR reported that the Supervisors discussed a proposed ordinance that would limit so-called “short-term” rentals (less than 30 days) by restricting new business licenses for short term commercial rentals to only one per parcel unless they also include two residential rentals in their application. This, somehow is supposed to encourage more second units.

IN THE DISCUSSION OF “inclusionary housing” (where developers either “include” a few “affordable” units in new construction or pay into a fee which would somehow lead to affordable housing) County staff told the Board that since the “inclusionary housing ordinance” went into effect in 2009 (eight years ago) there has been a little over $100k deposited into the fund (and not spent on anything) and exactly ZERO “inclusionary units” erected.

SUPERVISOR DAN GJERDE volunteered to consider the problem and come back to the board with some ideas for creating some honest to god affordable housing via county ordinance tweaking. In the mean time, and it’s getting meaner and meaner out there, don’t expect any improvement in available rental housing at reasonable prices any time soon.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “I see all these cars sailing by with dogs hanging out the windows. Me? I hardly ever get to go for a ride. They always say, ‘We need you here to guard the home front’."

THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE WORLD REDUX

by Jeff Costello

"The man who has millions will want everything he can lay his hands on and then raise his voice against the poor devil who wants ten cents more a day." — Samuel Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor...

The logic of the rich? - want more, get more. But there's never enough. Towers all over the world with your name emblazoned in big gold letters, proclaiming, extolling celebrating...ME. If billions of dollars and a constant torrent of publicity and attention don't satisfy, what is left? Power - what else? Whenever it was that the president of the United States started being called the Most Powerful Man in the World, as a kid who had grown up reading Superman comics, I knew, felt strongly, that something wasn't right about this. POTUS had become a comic strip character. Somewhere I had read that the desire for a position of authority and power ought to be the primary disqualification for the job.

So now we have the perfect example of rich guy with only power left to want, as the most powerful man in the world. Is it surprising what a fuck-up he is or how utterly out of his depth he is, or the shocking disability of his supporters to notice this? Do they imagine whatever they think he has is contagious? That it will trickle down? Do we get the leaders we deserve? Really?

My facebook feed is loaded down with stinko stories and horrible publicity about the orange monster. Does he have a full time staff member to shield him from the torrent, or is it that any publicity is good publicity... With all the video examples of his horrible behavior, one might wonder how he can live with himself, and the fact that he can indeed live with himself in spite of it all, may be the very worst of it. An astounding capacity for self-deception.

There are a couple of people I keep in touch with back east, from school days in Connecticut. One of them, Bill, is a social democrat who spent a career as a machinist at Pratt and Whitney aircraft - ironically, helping build engines for military aircraft - as an active and aggressive union representative. Another is Jill, a woman who as a high school kid sort of followed my little rock and roll band with a few other girls. She is a liberal democrat who follows the rules but argues with right wingers, some of whom are friends of hers from school days. The third, with whom I am not in touch except through his dialog with Jill on facebook, lived down the street from me, and who I pegged as nut case early on. His name is Richard. One day he blurted out to me his version of a Pepsodent toothpaste commercial: "You'll wonder where your head went when you brush your teeth with dynamite." (We early baby boomers are the first generation raised on television). I asked Bill about him recently and was told, "He's a fascist." Richard is a diehard republican Fox news believer, think liberals are all liars and speaks reverently of "our president." A crackpot. Hated Obama but stops short of calling him "nigger." Many of them do but many also come right out with it, and not only in the south As Trump voters go, Richard is relatively mild, but only relatively in that he doesn't march with swastikas. The difference is puzzling, and as a devoted observer of human behavior, I still can only wonder how people become what they are.

VALLEY FIRE DISASTER RELIEF

Long Shot, Gotta Try, Please Help if Possible?

After nearly 18 months of attempting to distribute nationally donated American Red Cross (ARC) disaster relief cash awards (up to $1K per household) for validated 2015 Valley Fire (Lake County) displaced survivors, the cash award program is coming to an end with only two more days to go for unidentified eligible recipients to apply.

If you lost your home in Lake County’s 2015 Valley Fire, and you have not received any disaster relief funding from the American Red Cross's long-term recovery program, then please get in touch with the Seigler Springs Community Redevelopment Association (SSCRA) at 707-809-5505 <tel:(707)%20809-5505 (leave a message after regular hours), or email sscra.valleyfirehelp@gmail.com

SSCRA is a Loch Lomond based (Cobb Area Council and Team Lake County member) long-term recovery agency with American Red Cross funding for locally-specific Disaster Case Management services to complete the current phase of ARC’s disaster recovery program in Northern California.

And, dear Anderson Valley Advertiser readers, thanks for all the great help we’ve gotten from our coastal brothers and sisters in this sorrowful long and hard “recovery” — 72 people in this year’s homeless count “identified” themselves as homeless because of the fires, and Lake County’s official "Recovery Task Force” (Supervisor Rob Brown, Chief Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson, and enslaved staff members) hasn’t met since November 3, 2017. As far as the County Board of Supervisors is concerned, there are no people impacted by the 2015 disaster that “haven’t been helped.”*

Please pass the word to your friends that there are people here who still care about the far flung, still unsettled, and out of our reach displaced fire survivors from the 3rd worst wildfire in the State of California (2015). If you have any news at all to help us, please call in to the Sunday afternoon radio programs on KPFZ, 88.1 fm, streaming live at kpfz.org, dedicated to the issues and needs of our communities in this very high risk environment, Lake County (2-4 pm, 707-275-9376 - Team Lake County Hour and What’s Next?).

Betsy Cawn The Essential Public Information Center

Upper Lake

Potter Valley Memorial Day Services

A BAD ONE IN POTTER VALLEY

On May 27, 2017 at about 7:40 PM Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a reported domestic violence incident in the 11000 block of East Road in Potter Valley, California. Upon arrival Deputies learned Jessie Slotte, 31, of Lakeport, and an adult female had previously been married and had children in common.

Both Slotte and the 31-year old adult female were in a vehicle together with a three year old male child and a five month old female infant child. The adult female was driving the vehicle down the road when she and Slotte became engaged in an argument. The argument escalated and Slotte reached down and pushed on the vehicle's accelerator pedal while one of his hands grabbed the steering wheel. This caused the adult female to lose temporary control of the vehicle. Slotte brandished a pocket knife and held it at the adult female’s neck and threatened to kill her. The adult female stopped the vehicle and attempted to get the children out of the vehicle when Slotte attacked her by pushing her to the ground and kicking her once on the left side of her torso. The adult female got up and was attempting to retrieve the children when Slotte started driving away in the vehicle while the adult female was partially in the vehicle. This caused the adult female's feet to be dragged on the ground several feet while striking some roadside mailboxes before Slotte stopped the vehicle. The adult female managed to get one of the children out of the vehicle before Slotte drove off at a high rate of speed. Deputies observed visible injuries on the adult female’s legs.

At 9:11 PM Slotte was located in the City of Lakeport by Lake County Sheriff’s Deputies and was subsequently arrested for Assault with Deadly Weapon, Felony Domestic Violence Battery, Child Endangerment. Slotte was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held in lieu of $30,000 bail.

ED NOTE: Jessie Slotte was badly wounded in Iraq, so badly wounded that doctors were taking bets that it was unlikely he would survive. It sounds as if the demons still pursue him. We hope his wife recovers and that there's no re-occurrence.

* * *

ANOTHER ONE

On 05-28-2017 at about 10:19 PM Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office responded to a reported domestic violence incident in the 6100 block of North State Street in Calpella, California. Deputies contacted an adult female and Joel Gama, 38, of Calpella, in a vehicle parked at the location.

Deputies determined Gama and the 51-year old adult female were in a dating relationship. Gama had consumed alcohol earlier in the evening and was intoxicated. They were both sitting in the vehicle at the location when an argument erupted between the couple. The argument escalated and Gama grabbed the adult female's left forearm and bit her upper right arm. Deputies observed visible injuries on the adult female's upper right arm from the assault. Gama was arrested for felony domestic violence battery and was booked into the Mendocino County jail where he was to be held in lieu of $25,000 bail.

* * *

QUATRO GAVACHOS

On May 29, 2017 Deputies were dispatched to the 53000 block of North Highway 101 (Laytonville) regarding a theft. Upon arrival Deputies contacted the occupant of the property at which time they learned that unknown person(s) had entered a shed on the property and took approximately 20 pounds of manicured bud marijuana. The property owner then followed what he believed to be human tracks, at which time he could see FOUR (4) Hispanic males walking through a meadow on the property. The property owner, from a distance, noted that one of the subjects was carrying what he believed to be an assault type rifle. Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office (including a Canine team and elements of the Sheriff's Office SWAT team) and personnel from the California Highway Patrol conducted an extensive search of the area in an effort to locate the suspects in this case. No suspects were located nor was there any evidence located which would lead to the identity of the suspects in this case. The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office is requesting that any member of the public that may have information regarding this incident please contact us. Persons with information regarding this crime, or any other crime, who wish to remain anonymous may report information by calling 707-234-2100 or my e-mail at crimetip@mendocinosheriff.com

MORE FOR MANAGERS, LESS MANAGING

To the Editor:

Is it me or is it just a coincidence? Just after the city started collecting their Measure Y Sales Tax Revenue (to be used for roads and only roads ... wink wink... at least that is what the argument in the voter information booklet said), the City Manager has decided that there must be enough ‘other money’ available to create a Deputy City Manager position for our small city.

I keep sounding like a broken record on this folks, but the homeless population seems to be growing and law enforcement can only just keep them moving around. They aren’t going to go away. The city and the county need to be spending money on this issue instead of consultants, boutique hotels, renovations to a decrepit building, or giving staff promotions.

D.E. Johnson

Ukiah

FIRST FRIDAY AT GRACE HUDSON

On Friday, June 2, from 5 to 8 p.m., the Grace Hudson Museum will host an opening reception of an array of art quilts from the 2017 SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) Trunk Show, a limited-time companion exhibit to the Museum's current Wild Fabrications art quilt display, as part of its monthly First Friday Art Walk event. The trunk show will be on view from June 1 through 10.

The Grace Hudson Museum is at 431 S. Main St. in Ukiah. For more information please go to http://www.gracehudsonmuseum.org/ or call 467-2836.

LOCAL AUTHOR BOOK LAUNCH PARTY

for librarian and poet, Melissa Eleftherion Carr

(a special LOBA: Poetry Reading Series)

Saturday, June 3rd 5pm-7pm

Join us for a party to celebrate the official book launch of local librarian & poet Melissa Eleftherion’s first full-length book of poetry, field guide to autobiography, published by H_NGM_N. There’ll be live music and dancing, a book reading & signing, & delicious treats from Marino’s. Copies of field guide to autobiography will be available for purchase. Guests who purchase the book will be entered in a special raffle drawing. For more information please call 463-4490. Melissa Eleftherion was born &raised in Brooklyn. She earned an MFA in Poetry from Mills College and an MLIS from San Jose State University. She is the author of huminsect, prism maps, Pigtail Duty, the leaves the leaves, green glass asterisms, and several other chapbooks. Her first full-length collection, field guide to autobiography, is out now from H_NGM_N. Founder of the Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange, Melissa lives in Mendocino County where she works as a Teen Librarian, teaches creative writing, serves on the Poet Laureate Committee, & curates the LOBA Reading Series at the Ukiah Library. More of her work can be found @ www.apoetlibrarian.wordpress.com.

CATCH OF THE DAY, May 30, 2017

NICHOLAS BURTLESON, Fort Bragg. Battery, Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, failure to appear.

RANDALL CANEPA, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public.

ARMANDO CHERREZMOO, Fort Bragg. Domestic abuse.

DARLENE DAVIS, Willits. DUI, child endangerment, driving on license suspended for DUI, probation revocation.

JOSEPH HARROLD, Ukiah. DUI, parole violation, failure to appear.

PETE KAVANAUGH, Hopland. Community Supervision violation.

ADAM KESTER, Willits. Battery, criminal threats, paraphernalia, unlawful display of vehicle registration, resisting.

ANTHONY KOCHIE, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

RICHARD ORTIZ, Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation.

JOSE RIOS, Dinuba/Ukiah. Unspecified misdemeanor.

JUSTIN THORNHILL, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

EVEN GRAMMAR BLEEDS

by Clancy Sigal

“Extremism”?

George Orwell and my fifth grade teacher said words count. But I’m having trouble with extreme, extremist and extremism.

So vague and slippery, What is an extremist? A Montana neo-Nazi, or attorney general Jeff Sessions, or illegal West Bank (often American) settlers on Palestinian land eager to violently pull down the Israeli state, or Salman Abedi the Manchester bomber a Sunni Muslim jihadi holy warrior, or the various Chicago policemen charged with murdering blacks and Latinos, or the current president of the Phillipines who brags about personally shooting dopers and encouraging his soldiers to rape?

Help me out here.

Is there a more useful word or set of brief words that will bring to mind, actually help us see, what we’re talking about?

For Holocaust let’s say murder camps.

For “human rights violations” let’s say beheadings, castration, strangulation or impaling.

For “leaning left” let’s say….er, um, what exactly?

“Divisive”, “polarizing”, “bipartisan”, “discourse”, “interrogate”, “hegemony” (a left fave), and the best of all “intersectionality”. I defy any of us to say exactly what it really means as compared to this tweet to Trump, “Take your wall and shove it up your ass.”

“Radicalization”? It used to be us.

“Acting within policy” – reason police chiefs give refusing to fire killer cops.

Alt: “he reached into his waistband and I feared for my life.”

“Militant” used to mean angry Temperance (anti whiskey) ax-wielding women smashing up taverns.

Then labor rebels like Mother Jones, John Reed and Joe Hill. Then marching Roe vs. Wade feminists.

Then Irish Republican gunmen. Now, Sunni Muslim bombers. Pity we can’t reclaim militant for us.

And what about “abuse”. Yelling insults at? What does it mean exactly? If sexual, is it rape, or Bill O’reilly calling an African American employee “hot choclate”, or unwanted flirtation, or grabbing ass and breast (the Schwartzenegger model), or a teacher drugging a student into bed, or what precisely? If physical abuse, is it with fists, Gianforte style body slamming, a leather strap or a baseball bat?

Psychological “abuse” can be a killer – a vulnerable English boy just hanged himself because his Audi garage mechanic coworkers got on his case without mercy. It’s harder to prove therefore important to nail down.

So let’s start with extremism. What’s it mean and is there a better word?

Anyone please help me and George Orwell and my fifth grade teacher?

(Clancy Sigal is a screenwriter and novelist. His latest book is Black Sunset.)

PELICAN BAY STATE PRISON, located in Del Norte County, is comprised of two maximum-security facilities, two security housing unit facilities, a minimum-support facility and a short-term restricted housing unit. The prison provides treatment for mentally ill inmates and provides work, academic, career technical education, self-help and other rehabilitative programs. PBSP also has a firehouse with eight fulltime inmate firefighters. PBSP opened in 1989, currently houses approximately 2,000 inmates and employs approximately 1,300 people.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

And no mention of the gang activity which promotes the distribution of Opioids either.

The large extended family I married into eons ago lost its family heroin addict last year. He will not be missed. He was taken from the homeless shelter he was living in to a hospital because he was not feeling good. Returned to the shelter a few hours later he had a heart attack and died.

Over the years he had ripped off virtually everybody in the family to pay for his habit, stealing guns, power tools, cash and anything he could get his hands on. He burned all his bridges and as it turned out Eleanor Rigby had more people going to her funeral. I don’t think he even had a funeral.

Twenty years ago I had been given legal guardianship of the then young man along with Mrs. Dog when he was out on bail. That lasted three days before he skipped out and disappeared.

His life was an unbroken string of failed treatment attempts and petty crime and in that he was no different in that from the many other heroin addicts who grace Seattle with their presence.

I get that heroin is highly addictive and I agree that having no life prospects kills any desire to get the monkey off one’s back but my own feeling about long term heroin addicts is that they are selfish self-centered people who care not about the pain they inflict on others in their endless shenanigans of trying to get their next hit.

This is not the first time America’s Opioid Epidemic has been in the news nor will it be the last. Perhaps this time the brouhaha is meant to distract from Fox News scandals, I do not know and I really do not care. Nothing will come of it.

Nothing will come of the opioid epidemic attention this time around and little effort will be invested to understand what’s behind the choices people make to live pointless meaningless lives.

The reason is that the American heroin addict actually embraces some very deep American core values which will not be discussed because they are sacred axioms on which we center our lives.

Selfishness and self-centeredness is the American way.

JARED KUSHNER'S CHARMED LIFE Is About to Come to a Screeching Halt

by Walter Shapiro

Now that he is ensnared in an FBI investigation, his life in the coming months and maybe years will be a study in misery

Perhaps Jared Kushner really believed that his New York real-estate skills set him up to bring peace to the Middle East, solve the opioid crisis, run a government SWAT team of business experts and protect his father-in-law from disloyal White House advisers. And that he could do it all while observing the Jewish Sabbath and reserving enough time for family ski vacations with Ivanka and their three children.

Or maybe Kushner just calculated that all the hype surrounding his White House role was a not-to-be-missed family branding opportunity. After all, the Washington Post recently watched as his sister, Nicole Kushner Meyer, hawked American visas in Beijing to would-be Chinese investors in a troubled Kushner New Jersey real-estate development.

But in all his fantasies about conquering Washington at Donald Trump¹s side, Kushner undoubtedly never imagined being ensnared in an FBI investigation.

All that changed, of course, when news broke late last week that Kushner had discussed opening up a secret back channel to Moscow last December in a Trump Tower meeting with the ubiquitous Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Let's put the most charitable interpretation possible on the facts that have emerged about Kushner:

The bizarre suggestion to use the Russian communications system to secretly link the Trump transition team and the Kremlin could have came from Michael Flynn, the star-crossed national security adviser who was also at the meeting.

Kushner, in his naiveté about government, may also not have remembered that Barack Obama was still president and in charge of all negotiations with Russia. And it was an innocent oversight that Kushner failed to mention his talk with Kislyak on his government security clearance form.

Even under the benign theory that Kushner thought that a secret back channel was like a small boy's tin-can telephone, his life in the coming months and maybe years will be a study in misery. He will probably spend more time with his personal lawyer, Clinton Justice Department veteran Jamie Gorelick, than with Ivanka or his children. Whether it is an appearance under oath on Capitol Hill or the inevitable FBI interview, every sentence Kushner utters will bring with it possible legal jeopardy.

Kushner may have once thought that he established his tough-guy credentials when he stared down angry creditors and impatient bankers over his ill-timed 2007 purchase of a $1.8bn Fifth Avenue office building. But the worst thing that can happen to an over-leveraged real-estate investor (as Trump himself knows well) is bankruptcy. When the FBI and special prosecutor Robert Mueller get involved, the penalties can theoretically involve steel bars locking behind you.

That ominous sound is familiar to Kushner from his weekly visits more than a decade ago to his real-estate mogul father, Charles, in federal prison in Alabama. US Attorney Chris Christie (the ironies of Trump World abound) successfully prosecuted Charles Kushner in 2005 for tax evasion, witness tampering and unlawful campaign contributions. The Jared Kushner coming of age story pivots around a loyal son taking over the New Jersey-based real-estate firm when his father was a guest of the government.

Now the presidential son-in-law may be worrying in his late night moments that family history may be repeating itself. He may put on a brave front in public and encourage the current rumors that he and Ivanka are tiring of Washington, but for Kushner the high adventure of a senior White House post ended abruptly during last week's European grand tour.

If Jared and Ivanka do return to New York either voluntarily or as part of a White House legal strategy their departure will accentuate Trump's fate as the loneliest man in Washington. Trapped in the trappings of a White House that he can't demolish to build something grander, Trump is surrounded by aides like Reince Priebus and HR McMaster whom he neither fully trusts nor feels

All White Houses go through a phase when the familiar faces from the campaign and the Inauguration have disappeared from burnout and a desire to cash in. That is when a president looks around at his senior staff and asks himself: "Who are these guys? Why am I surrounded by strangers?"

Usually that moment comes sometime in a president's second term. For Trump, the exodus may occur before his first summer in the Oval Office is over.

The Kushner news reminds me of the saddest person I ever saw coming out of the White House. It was a Clinton administration official, shuffling along with his downcast eyes focused on the sidewalk, who had been caught up in the exaggerated first-term scandal known as Whitewater.

There in his familial loyalty to Donald Trump goes Jared Kushner, who is learning a hard lesson about Washington, back channels to the Russians and the FBI.

(Guardian of London)

VISTA CANSADA-2

by Ángel González (translated by Louis S. Bedrock)

Don’t fault life

For this disinterest, this indifference

—almost distain—

With which you see what you see.

Life is blameless and tireless.

The fatigue

With which you view life

Is

Not in what the eyes see,

But rather in the eyes that watch.

CALFIRE ANNOUNCES: Due to current dry weather conditions and increased flammability of forest fuels and grasses, Fire Season is declared in Mendocino County as of 12:01 am on Monday, May 29, 2017.

Those areas where the Declaration of Fire Season is initiated by this Declaration are: All State Responsibility Area Lands Within The County Of Mendocino.

FRANK DEFORD’S WICKED GRACE

by Dave Zirin

Frank Deford was a part my family lore years before I was born. My father was a student reporter in 1958 and had a young running buddy from Baltimore named Frank Deford.

The story my dad still loves to tell, perhaps more than any other, was about the time in 1960 when they covered Elvis Presley’s return from the army, and Elvis was aggressively courted in full view of the press by a young starlet named Tina Louise (later Ginger on Gilligan’s Island). My dad—a terrifically detailed storyteller—always brought the Elvis/Tina Louise spectacle to life and would speak Frank Deford’s name with a terrific pride that they were colleagues, a pride the young me didn’t understand. (I barely knew who Elvis was either.)

Then, when I was 12 years old, I understood the gleam in my dad’s eye. I was slumped down in my school library skimming a back issue of Sports Illustrated and found The Rabbit Hunter, an incisive, elegant article by Deford that explored a decidedly inelegant person, Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight. To learn that sports writing could also be storytelling about flawed, three-dimensional people was life-altering.

Soon I read everything by Deford I could find, from his long-form (before it was called long-form) articles in Sports Illustrated to his page-turner paperback novels, to the devastating memoir Alex: The Life of a Child, about his daughter’s struggle with cystic fibrosis and her death at the age of 8.

Deford, to my young wonder, could write about the shattering tragedy of his child’s death, or a boxer’s lament over a lousy fight, or a sudsy, fictional sports epic like Everybody’s All American, and immediately make you feel like you were entering some kind of virtual-reality zone, viewing the story from the inside.

This was my only connection to Frank Deford for 15 years: my dad’s stories and my own insatiable need to read all he put to the page. Then, in 2005, trying slowly to build my own sportswriting career, I wrote a book called What’s My Name, Fool?, with a then-fledgling, now-ubiquitous radical press, Haymarket Books. My publisher asked me to find a blurb that could make some ripples in the sports world. I contacted Deford via e-mail with a great deal of trepidation. He responded to me almost immediately with his phone number and asked me to call. When I did, I punched all of the numbers but the last one about five times before finding the nerve, my hand and ear slick with sweat. When I finally made contact, the first thing he said to me was, “Dave Zirin… Jim Zirin’s son, my goodness… Did you know that your dad and I covered Elvis Presley?” He then told me his version of the story, which was exactly like my dad’s, shaming a son who thought his father maybe had a penchant to gild the lily.

Deford gave me the blurb, and his public endorsement, where he lauded the idea of someone “taking sports to task in a manner we haven’t seen in some time,” opened doors for me I had always assumed would remain closed.

Over the years I was able to get to know Frank. It was a joy. He was a throwback, with his pencil mustache, effortless charm, and easy grace. He did not walk into a room so much as glide, wearing a suit that looked freshly pressed even if he had been caught in the rain. Frank was tall with large shoulders and a narrow waist, so every coat and tie on his frame looked like a zoot suit, making it seem even more like he came from a different era, a time when you could be cool without being an asshole. Put another way, imagine if the Kevin Kline of your dreamy imagination was a sportswriter. That was how Frank Deford projected himself onto the world.

Beyond the superficial, he was always kind, with sharp advice that never came with a hint of condescension. And most importantly, he shared his passion for the written word. It is difficult to find a sportswriter under 50 who wasn’t influenced by his ability to provide nuance and shading to sports heroes who previously lived in a purgatory of one dimension.

This sportswriting legacy wasn’t conscious. As he said to me in a 2013 interview, “I just wanted to write. I wanted to be a writer as soon as I learned how to write. It didn’t have to be sports, but sometimes life takes you by the scruff of the neck and you go with it. And sports had everything to me: the characters, the drama, the settings.… if you can’t write sports, get out of the business.”

In 2012, we shared a stage in Charlottesville at the Virginia Festival of Books. This gave me the opportunity to tell him in front of a couple hundred people, with a catch in my voice, “You are the reason I wanted to be a sportswriter.”

He answered rakishly, without missing a beat, “My apologies.” After the laughter died down, he looked out to the audience and said directly to the crowd, “If you want to know how I know this guy, let’s start by talking about his dad. His dad and Elvis Presley.”

He then spun that yarn of Elvis Presley and Tina Louise into velvet. The crowd loved it. Frank spoke to those 300 people like he had a drink in one hand and they were a circle of five.

After learning that Frank Deford had passed away, I wrote on Twitter that “Frank Deford made me want to write.” A person named Owen Wearing responded, “Frank Deford made me want TO READ.” In 140 characters, that is a better tribute than anything I could give, not to mention the greatest legacy any writer could possibly leave.

Frank showcased the finesse and power of the written word and, yes, he made me want to read. Now that Frank is gone, without his prose to amplify what flashes in front of our eyes, the world is a decidedly duller place. But he would roll his eyes at the idea of us in mourning, with dour looks affixed to our mugs. Instead, he would want us to carry the torch of storytelling, and aspire to the wicked grace that he reached for with every article. The best tribute to Frank Deford, in a world of emojis, would be a commitment by writers to never stop writing, and always make the effort to color the world more brightly by exploring shades of gray.

(Dave Zirin can be reached at edgeofsports@gmail.com.)

FOR MARY PEACE

Then I led her to the river

certain she was still a virgin

though she had a husband.

The fourth Friday in July,

as good as on a promise.

The street lights were vanishing

and the crickets flaring up.

Last bend out of town

I brushed her sleepy breasts.

They blossomed of a sudden

like the tips of hyacinths

and the starch of her petticoat

bustled in my ear like silk

slit by a dozen blades.

The pines, minus their halo

of silver, grew huger

and the horizon of dogs

howled a long way from the river.

 

Past the blackberry bushes,

the rushes and whitethorn,

beneath her thatch of hair,

I made a dip in the sand.

I took off my neckerchief.

She unstrapped her dress.

Me my gun and holster,

she her layers of slips...

Not tuberose, not shell,

has skin as half as smooth

nor does mirror glass

have half the shimmer.

Her hips flitted from me

like a pair of startled tench:

the one full of fire,

the other full of cold.

That night I might

as well have ridden

the pick of the roads

on a mother-of-pearl mare

without bridle or stirrups.

Gentleman that I am,

I won’t say back the scraps

she whispered to me.

It dawned out there

to leave my lip bitten.

Filthy with soil and kisses,

I led her from the river

and the spears of lilies

battled in the air.

 

I behaved only the way

a blackguard like me behaves.

I offered her a big creel

of hay-colored satins.

I had no wish to fall for her.

She has a husband after all,

though she was still a virgin

when I led her to the river.

— Lorca

CRAIG AT THE SAFEWAY DELI

Good morning, Please know that yesterday was initially spent at the Kabuki Spa, followed by a trip to Izumiya restaurant for the seafood modern style Yaki. Headed off to Trouble Coffee at 45th & Judah for a strong cupful called "The Matador", and then walked to Ocean Beach to chant Green Tara's mantram (Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha). Eventually ended up meandering on Haight Street, before making it to the Safeway on Church Street for a last minute chowdown of their ceviche and deli salads; was the last customer to leave the eating area at 9 P.M. Returning to my leased room in San Francisco's lower Nob Hill neighborhood, it was joyfully discovered that the Anderson Valley Advertiser published online my definitive statement in regard to bringing in the spiritual mojo for radical environmental/peace & justice effectiveness. As I requested, both my current residential and email addresses were listed. I am right now inviting others to form a spiritual working group with myself. The obvious purpose is to do something in response to the growing disaster of an American society in chaos, as well as being supportive of a world under ecological assault by some very stupid, greedy individuals and their organizations. Surging forward now is the panacea for civilization meltdown, which you probably do not want to be caught up in. Meanwhile, the Earth First! Roadshow is meandering toward California, due to arrive in mid June, precluding the Earth First! Round River Rendezvous which will be held at an as of yet undisclosed location in northern California. Please feel free to connect the dots, and reply if you are creatively interested. I'd rather be monkeywrenching,

Craig Louis Stehr
San Francisco
Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com

DOMAINE ANDERSON SATURDAY EVENT

Domaine Anderson is hosting a food/wine pairing this Saturday, June 3.

Join us at Domaine Anderson for our Spring Wine Event with a creative and fun wine and food pairing! Local caterer and chef, Cory Morse and her team will have the wood-fired oven hot all day, serving inspired pizzas created to pair with each of our wines. Also, enjoy the very fresh charcuterie from Farmer John! We will welcome you with a glass of Roederer Estate Brut as you arrive. Begin your pairing with a glass of our newly released 2016 Rosé of Pinot Noir. Then visit each table for unique pairings of our Estate and Single Vineyard wines with locally grown salad, charcuterie and handmade wood-fired pizzas. Finish off with a sweet berry pizza created especially by Chef Cory to pair with our Single Vineyard Pinot and Chardonnay. $25 per person! RSVP ASAP so we know to make enough for everyone - Cory needs to start shopping!

TastingRoom@DomaineAnderson.com, 707.895.3626