Mendocino County Today: Thursday, June 22, 2017

• Housely Acquitted
• Policing Transients
• Road Crew
• Inspector Departs
• Code Enforcement
• Crazy Watch
• Help Caleb
• Matthew McCoy
• Farm Report
• Sonoma Besieged
• Bats Good
• Little Dog
• Shelter Report
• Quiz Night
• McKinleyville Mule
• Service Dogs
• Hare Creek
• Yesterday's Catch
• Solitary Life
• Legalized Extortion
• Insane Policy
• Cafe Job
• Hospital Stories
• Exposing Jones
• Market Opening
• Summer Poem
• Cannabis Faire
• Pampas Pull
• Healthcare
• Paid Propaganda
• Global Warming
• Nazi Demogogy
• Saving Salmon

HOUSELY ACQUITTED

A Ukiah jury just came back with a Not Guilty verdict in William "Willy" Housley’s DUI trial on Wednesday. Congrats to Jay Pitchford of the Public Defender’s Office for whipping Deputy DA Brian Moramuni for a second time. And, please, DA Eyster, don't construe that as a sign Mr. Moramuni is incompetent; far from it!

The trial of the popular Boonville man began last Monday in an overheated Ukiah courtroom. “It smelled to me like an enclosed swimming pool in a budget motel in the off-season,” one bystander told this reporter. I would have described it more like a sauna. Details to follow in print edition next week.

— Bruce McEwen

UKIAH POLICE CAPTAIN Justin Wyatt told the Supervisors Tuesday that about 40 percent of the people the police deal with are transients, aka "the homeless."

HOWARD DASHIELL, Mendo’s long-serving Transportation Director, the man responsible for the Sysiphean task of keeping the County's roads in reasonably passable condition under difficult conditions said his department suffers twenty unfilled positions, much of it due to the low pay his people get comparied to the wages Caltrans and city street crews make. He also noted that his department has 40 fewer people than it had 20 years ago. Considering his manpower, Dashiell and his crews do a remarkable job.

AND THE RECENTLY APPOINTED Chief Building Inspector at the Mendocino Building Department, Michael Lockett, has departed for a better-paying position after less than a year on the job. Michael Oliphant out of the P&B's Fort Bragg office is serving as acting Chief Inspector.

CORRECT US if we didn't hear this correctly, but is there presently one (count 'em) code enforcement officer for the entire County (not counting the seven now on board for pot code enforcement)?

COMMUNITY, definition of: A crazy guy turned up at Anderson Valley Market this morning. He was unnaturally animated, hopping up and down and babbling incoherently in front of the store. He wore half a bicyclist's outfit, his lower torso covered only by underwear. A Boonville guy said he was waiting around to make sure the crazy guy didn't enter the store "and bother the ladies."

THE PHILO MAN who piled into an AT&T truck Monday a little before 9am was driving a 1981 Volkswagon pick-up and traveling at a high rate of speed on 128 about at Indian Creek when he rear-ended an AT&T truck which had slowed for a fresh accident in front of him. The Philo man was airlifted outtahere by medi-chopper.

JUST IN. The 128 vic is Caleb Mileham. A gofundme page started for Mr. Mileham.

On Monday, June 19th, Caleb was in a car accident on Highway 128 just two miles from his home. He was airlifted to Santa Rosa and is in the hospital.

https://www.gofundme.com/caleb-milehams-emergency-fund

THE 19-YEAR-OLD kid who died near Westport last Thursday when he slipped and fell climbing to the beach down a cliff face, has been identified as Matthew Ian McCoy of Clarksburg, West Virginia.

PETIT TETON is about six miles south of Boonville. It's a multi-faceted family farm and a heckuvan interesting little enterprise offering a wide variety of organic items produced on-site. Highly recommended, especially for families with little kids.

* * *

Petit Teton Monthly Farm Report - May 2017

A lot's been happening...most of it good if one keeps narrow focus on the farm. We just sold Aniyak, our two year old female yak, to a Buddhist nonprofit farm down the coast from us near Stewart's Point, and her transfer went smoothly thanks to Juan's thoughtful expertise. She will have a good life munching grass alongside a gelded male they own. Our newest yak baby, now 6 months old, is soon to be transferred in with her sister, Sisa, her gelded brother, Oppai, and our dinner cow, Vaca, to graze a 5 acre swath alongside Hwy 128. They are herd animals and get along well once they establish a "pecking order" (a "grunting order"?). People like to stop and take photos of the "horned hippy cows".

Our squab is a hit with people who know it and it sells very quickly. King pigeons mate for life and live to breed. We have raised 10 pair and may do more in the future. They are large, pure white and lovely with red rimmed eyes. While the females sit on the nest, the males spend their days courting, cooing, and parading in front of the mirror we put in their quarters. They do switch roles on occasion ;>) Their cage is large and double wired top to ground to keep out critters and sparrows who were getting in to eat the very pricey seed the pigeons require. It is harder to keep out snakes; we once found a gopher snake gorging on a baby on the floor of the coop. Most of the time there are one or two babies in each nest. Since they are processed at 4 weeks of age that means the adults are always busy laying more eggs. A lot of eggs are abandoned for unknown reasons and it often looks as though they've been playing kick ball with them!

On other bird fronts, we were amazed to learn, by counting (duh) that we have, not 100 chickens, but 160! So our oldest are being sold for the stew pot. They're tough birds as a result of all their years of running around up and down hills, but they make the best soup stock. The meat is very flavorful, and if pulled off the bones once it's been boiled for a few hours it makes great salads, tostadas, fried rice, cassaroles, and etc. It is nothing like the mushy stuff you buy in most grocery stores.

Welcome to summer - another "hottest on record" perhaps. Record or not, we do know it will be hot, and according to some it's all a figment of your imagination...or is it god's retribution? It couldn't be our lack of self control could it? We do know it's not going to be pretty and will probably get uglier so take care of yourselves and your piece of this earth.

— Nikki Auschnitt & Steve Kreig

ACTUALLY, like Healdsburg, Sonoma has been overwhelmed by human wave attacks of tourists. It's absolutely hellish most days of the week in the good weather.

http://www.sonomamag.com/best-small-town-in-us-sonoma/

I MENTIONED to the redoubtable Ronnie James, Mendocino County's go-to wildlife authority that a friend of mine was trying to remove bats from the outside eaves of a cabin. Ms. James replied, "There is no reason to try to disturb these bats at any time, you do not need to get them out of the bird house, just leave them alone. They will not harm you, and it's good to have bats make homes around your house. You are lucky they are there to eat all the mosquitoes and they are very good for the environment. If you find dead bats, just wear rubber gloves or a plastic bag on your hand and pick them up and toss them into the forest or brush. Do not handle them with your bare hands."

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “We think the Weather Underground is most accurate. They said it was 98 in Boonville today. The Boss invited me into his "cooling station" but I told him I'd stay outside and on duty. I told him, "It's called discipline. Try it some time."

FIVE THUMBS UP from the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday after reviewing the recent UC Davis Capacity of Care Report on the County Animal Shelter in Ukiah. The Davis crew made a series of minor improvement recommendations, some of which are already being implemented. But overall the UC Davis report said things were pretty good at the Shelter and Manager Rich Molinari is doing a good job.

SUPERVISOR (and veterinarian) Georgeanne Croskey complimented Molinari on the good job he’s been doing. Board Chair McCowen noted that it was "a very good sign that no one from the public had anything thing to say," since in the past shelter critics had turned out in some numbers to complain about various shelter-related problems. The presentation and the entire report are attached here for those interested.

Capacity For Care Presentation

Capacity for Care Report Mendocino County_FINAL

QUIZ THURSDAY (TODAY)

Cool down in the air-coditioned surroundings of Lauren’s Restaurant while exercising your brains as you sip cold beers and refreshing wines…

Yes, its the fourth Thursday and that means a return of the General Knowledge and Trivia Quiz tomorrow evening at 7pm.

Hope to see yo there,

Steve Sparks / The Quiz Master

MULE OF THE WEEK

On Wednesday, June 21, 2017 at about 0007 hours, a Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Deputy was on routine patrol in the area of School Road and Central Avenue, McKinleyville. The Deputy observed a vehicle with an unreadable rear license plate and attempted a traffic stop. The vehicle initially failed to yield to the Deputy’s lights and sirens. The vehicle eventually pulled to the side of the road after the Deputy followed it for about one mile.

As the Deputy approached the vehicle, driver Sharon Patrice Erickson, age 47 of McKinleyville was contacted. A strong smell of marijuana was detected coming from inside the vehicle. It was determined Erickson was on formal probation and was driving on a suspended license. A search of Erickson’s vehicle was conducted per her probation terms. 108 pounds of marijuana and a hand held scale was located.

Erickson was later booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility (HCCF) for obstructing or delaying a peace officer, possession of marijuana, driving on a suspended license, failure to provide proof of insurance, failure to have required lighting equipment and violation of probation. Erickson is being held without bail.

Anyone with information for the Sheriff’s Office regarding this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Sheriff’s Office at 707-445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at 707-268-2539.

SERVICE DOGS

Editor,

As with most things, the few ruin it for the rest of us. There are valid service dogs, and then there are spoiled, obnoxious, greedy types who think, as my mother always opined, the world owes them a favor. People who have a dog and don't want to leave it at home when they venture out, and instead pretend they have a service dog, DO ruin the concept for those who truly need help. The mystery and wonderment of a canine bond...a dog who can help with day to day mundane necessities or psychological scars is so amazing. Bringing your dog with you because you want to, and pretending its a service dog, is another example of the entitlement mind. I started service dog classes with my big dog, odie. If i was serious, he would have made an excellent service dog. He was turning room lights on and off, pulling my socks off my feet, etc etc. In real life, a whole lotta work goes into training a service dog. In the world of self-entitled cry babies, buying a red dog vest or just saying the dog is a service dog suffices. BS!

KS

Ukiah

HARE CREEK

Hare Creek Center Project

Dear community,

The community is still waiting for the Draft Environment Impact Report (EIR) for the Hare Creek Center Project. Many concerned community members sent letters, comments, and documentation in response to the Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) and during the EIR Public Scoping Session comment period. These materials can be viewed at the Fort Bragg Library. You need to go to the front desk and ask for the Hare Creek Center binder. You will be asked to provide some form of ID to leave at the front desk and one of the librarians will go to the back room to retrieve the binder for you to view. It is important that the community peruse this binder and focus on information that pertains to issues that are of special interest to them.

The community asked for and got an (EIR) for the Hare Creek Center Project: The Draft EIR will be published soon (date to be determined). There will be a 45-day public comment period after publication of the Draft EIR. A public meeting on the Draft EIR will be held near the end of the public comment period (to allow time for people to review the document). After reviewing and responding to the public comments, City Staff will present a report for the Fort Bragg Planning Commission to approve or deny the EIR and the Hare Creek Center Project. Citizens for Appropriate Coastal Land Use (CACLU) encourages everyone to be informed and provide input about this Draft EIR for the Hare Creek Project.

Developers are proposing to remove the east side of Hare Creek Hill to build a strip mall (29.500 sq. ft. of retail space) consisting of three buildings with a Grocery Outlet Bargain Market as an anchor store. The development also includes an access road, a 99 space parking lot, loading zones, pedestrian walkways and storage tanks. It is planned for an area of approximately 4 acres (see story poles). If built, visitors and residents at the junction of Hwy 20 and Hwy 1 would see parking lots and the backside of stores, instead of ocean views and open space. If you have any questions, e-mail Scott Perkins, Associate Planner for City of Fort Bragg <SPerkins@fortbragg.com> or call 707-961-2827 ext. 113.

Stay informed — follow us on Facebook for updates and information: https://www.facebook.com/citizensforappropriatecoastallanduse

Citizens For Appropriate Coastal Land Use

Fort Bragg

CATCH OF THE DAY, June 21, 2017

RICHARD BIERNACKI, Kihei, Hawaii/Ukiah. DUI. (Photo not available.)

ROGER CARRIER, Taylorsville, North Carolina/Ukiah. DUI-drugs, sales of controlled substance, providing controlled substance to minor.

DEBORAH LAWRENCE, Ukiah. Under influence.

CODY MARTIN, Ukiah. DUI, probation revocation.

DANNY MOORE, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

TROY MORGAN, Smith River/Willits. DUI - drugs & alcohol.

CURTIS MULLER, Talmage. Unspecified offense.

NOW THE WORLD is full of distractions — lovely women, music, French movies, bowling alleys and bars — but Coverly lacked the vitality or the imagination to distract himself. He went to work in the morning. He came home at dark, bringing a frozen dinner which he thawed and ate out of the pot. His reality seemed assailed or contested; his gifts for hopefulness seemed damaged or destroyed. There is a parochialism to some kinds of misery — a geographical remoteness like the life led by a grade-crossing tender — a point where life is lived or endured at a minimum of energy and perception and where most of the world appears to pass swiftly by like passengers on the gorgeous trains of the Santa Fe. Such a life has its compensations — solitaire and star-wishing — but it is a life stripped of friendship, association, love and even the practicable hope of escape.

— John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle

NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN BETWEEN US & NORTH KOREA: Will U.S. Attack Threats Force North Korea to "Use It or Lose It"?

Editor,

When US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson threatened a preemptive military strike against North Korea unless it abandoned its nuclear weapons program, the world entered a dangerous new phase of escalating nuclear confrontation. We will all be much safer if the US changes its nuclear posture from one of escalating threat of preemptive strike to a strategy of deterrence only.

As everyone knows, avoiding nuclear war is the only sane strategic goal. The U.S is the only nuclear-armed nation which constantly threatens preemptive strike, and deploys first-strike weapons such as the Thadd missiles in North Korea in a relentlessly escalating encirclement of Russia, China and North Korea.

This strategy forces North Korea, Russia and China to develop counter-measures. The U.S. military is far superior to all other armed forces on most fields of battle. Nuclear weapons are the great equalizer: even one nuclear weapon could cause devastating damage to the U.S. homeland.

North Korea is responding to U.S. threats and sanctions by countering with a pre-emptive strike threat against the U.S., and a series of missile tests, ten so far this year. This is their long-standing strategy of maximum nuclear threat to deter attack by the U.S., which is still formally at war with North Korea.

There is a well-known feature of nuclear weapons threat confrontation which might be called the "use it or lose it" moment. In an escalating nuclear confrontation, especially a showdown involving two leaders, Kim Jong-un of North Korea and U.S. President Donald Trump, both of whom might be just crazy enough to actually order a nuclear attack. There may come a time when the weaker contestant believes the stronger is about to launch a devastating attack which would destroy its entire nuclear arsenal, unless they strike first.

I believe that one of the greatest threats to U.S. and world survival is the insane policy of escalating pre-emptive strike threats, which may force North Korea to launch a "use it or lose it" attack which would devastate both Koreas, and possibly much more. Please consider joining me in demanding that the U.S. abandon its nuclear weapons posture of escalating pre-emptive strike threat, and adopt a posture of deterrence only, posing no threat.

John Lewallen

Philo

RHODY'S GARDEN CAFE NOW HIRING!

Seeking part-time / seasonal Cafe Staff

Rhody's Garden Cafe at Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens has a tradition of serving housemade sandwiches, soups, and salads using locally sourced, organic produce and meats when possible—including produce from our own organic Vegetable Garden. Drinks include hot, iced, and blended coffee, smoothies, housemade strawberry lemonade. Desserts are delicious and vary weekly. Grilled sandwich specials that are innovative and delicious! Come be part of a fun team working in beautiful surroundings. Questions can be directed to Cafe Manager Marie Head at mendomarie@comast.net. Please review the full job description and apply in person at Rhody's Garden Cafe (Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun, Tues) located inside the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens.

COLORFUL BEHIND-THE-SCENES COAST HOSPITAL STORIES (was Re: MCDH Finance & Budget meetings on Mendocino TV)

On 6/20/2017 10:11 PM, MCN listserve Editor wrote:

...There is a critical MCDH Board Meeting at Fort Bragg Town Hall on Thursday, June 22 at 6:00 to decide whether to slash or commit to the Obstetrics/OB program. http://mendocinotv.com/2017/06/20/mcdh-finance-committtee-june-20-2017/http://mendocinotv.com/2017/06/15/special-mcdh-board-meeting-to-approve-the-2017-2018-capital-and-operating-budget/

Another resource for coast hospital-related information is a collection of Scott Peterson's investigations into local nonprofitcorporations. Here are just the stories he wrote since March of this year about people behind the financial situation at the coast hospital: Big Plans.

The Fort Bragg Hospital’s Secret Documents, 6/17/17

"DR. CHRISTIAN R. SCHLICHT was a phenomenally successful surgeon at the Gerald Champion Regional MedicalCenter in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

https://tinyurl.com/ybokxx7y

Over the Moons.

Profiting from Mendocino’s Unfortunate, 4/16/17

"BLANCA CONTRERAS had it made. In 2010, the former fruit picker and eighth grade graduate had clawed her way to the top.

https://tinyurl.com/y6uj6wnb

Mavericks.

High Rolling Babes in Mendocino, 4/13/17

"THE O’CONNOR family was really something. “Kid Jerome’ the manof the house —was a boxer.

https://tinyurl.com/y9vhm5et

Flying Monkeys.

Nurse Ratched Comes to Fort Bragg, 4/10/17

"THE NAME on her HIPAA certification is Precious Deshield. She was a registered nurse down in Houston, Texas, y’all.

https://tinyurl.com/ybpnt9bj

Devil's House.

One Hell of a Hospital, 4/7/17

"IT WAS CALLED “The Wall of Sound” and it was. Even on AM radio, Phil Spector’s songs roared.

https://tinyurl.com/yblupzsq

Nebbish.

Fort Bragg’s Pitiful President, 4/3/17

"YIDDISH is a great language. Where words actually sound like what they mean. Like the word klutz. You can just feel it.

https://tinyurl.com/y9jkwdgz

Off the Charts.

A Hospital CFO Faces the Music, 4/1/17

"WILLIAM PLAYFAIR is a man you’ve probably never heard of — but his inventions are everywhere today. https://tinyurl.com/y7w28v87

Jackpot!

Justice for Nonprofit Embezzlement, 3/16/17

"ANACORTES is a sleepy little seaside town nestled among the San Juan Islands. Way up in Puget Sound.

https://tinyurl.com/ycj8xchr

–Marco McClean

MEGYN KELLY VIVISECTS BLOATED CONSPIRACY HOG ALEX JONES

One of America's greatest goofs ODs on his own self-importance on national TV

by Matt Taibbi

Last year around election time, I sent a clip of Infowars lunatic Alex Jones to a friend. It was one of the ultimate Jones set pieces: his classic "gay bomb" rant, where the balloon-faced TV host turns baboon-ass red working himself up into a rage about Pentagon-designed hormonal weaponry that supposedly can "turn the frickin' frogs gay!"

"What do you think tap water is?" he croaks, in the broadcast. "It's a gay bomb, baby!"

My friend wrote back. "Who the hell is that?" he said.

Why, I responded, that's Alex Jones, one of the most influential people in the United States.

My friend didn't believe it. "Come on, this is a gag or something," he said. His actual quote was that the Jones show was like a Nazi version of Tommy Boy, which to him was too funny of an idea to have been generated unironically.

This isn't an uncommon reaction. Most sane people can't process Jones. Nor can they deal with the fact that he drew 83 million page views during election month last November, or that Infowars had 5.3 million unique visitors in May of last year.

Jones also has one very specific audience member: Donald Trump. The New York Times reported in February that Jones "is apparently taking on a new role as occasional information source and validator for the president."

Jones, who once insisted the Sandy Hook massacre was a "fake," has the kind of mind with which Trump connects. On November 14th, his Infowarssite re-reported a claim that "three million votes in the U.S. presidential election were cast by illegal immigrants." Two weeks later, Trump clearly parroted the report, saying he won the popular vote "if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."

That influence is why it was so beneficial to see NBC's Megyn Kelly tear Jones to pieces on this past weekend's Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly. 

There was a controversy about the show. Some of the parents of Sandy Hook victims were understandably upset that Jones was being given airtime on "legitimate" TV, and protested the interview.

But other groups objected to the report on the more general – and disturbingly prevalent – view that covering a noxious figure somehow equates to empowering that person. Incredibly, even other media organizations contributed to this chorus, with Huffington Post going so far as to denounce Kelly for giving Jones a "platform."

This new media version of the campus "no-platforming" movement believes that news organizations automatically help insidious figures by allowing them to speak extemporaneously, or even to be seen onscreen. In fact, groups like Media Matters went so far as to say that the best part about Kelly's report was that it showed Jones as little as possible:

"The segment benefited from devoting very little time to Kelly's interview with Jones, minimizing his opportunity to appeal to her audience. Instead, through strong voiceover, clips from Jones' program featuring the host spouting conspiracies, and interviews with a conservative commentator who opposes Jones' influence and the father of a child who died at Sandy Hook, Kelly explained how Jones operates, the harassment his targets experience, and his close ties to President Donald Trump."

This is a crazy conception of how media is supposed to work. Judging a report by how tightly it keeps control over whatever you think the desired message is supposed to be is pretty much the opposite of what we're taught to do as journalists. We're describers, not politicians, and the best way to convey the essence of Jones is to let him betray it himself.

Trying to "minimize his opportunity to appeal" to audiences also totally misunderstands how people consume media. If you bend over backwards to keep an interview subject from talking, and stack the deck in your report with negative takes and loads of derisive voice-over, what viewers will perceive – 100 percent of the time – is that you're afraid of your subject.

Kelly graphically demonstrated the benefits of not running from your interview subject. She challenged Jones over and over about Sandy Hook statements like, "The whole thing is a giant hoax."

Jones offered a stream of nonsensical answers to these queries, to which Kelly asked brutal and correct follow-ups, like: What happened to the children, if they weren't killed?

To which Jones squirmed and fidgeted and said ridiculous things like, "Listeners and other people are covering this, I didn't create that story."

After four or five exchanges of this sort, Jones in an offhand way suggested that maybe he was just playing "devil's advocate" when he said what he said.

Kelly pounced. "Was that devil's advocate?" She reread his direct quotes, repeating, "The whole thing is a giant hoax. The whole thing was fake."

Jones paused for about five seconds before he answered. You could tell he was trying to a) remember what he'd said then, and b) think of what exactly he could get away with saying now. He was cornered.

"Yes," he finally answered, and quickly rifled through the drawers of his mind to shake loose something like a plausible explanation for that "yes":

"Because I remember, even that day, to go back from memory, then saying, 'But then, some of it looks like it's real..."

Jones couldn't defend his work in a legitimate setting. He wasn't able to argue, as he once did in a child custody hearing, that he is just a "performance artist." Forced to come up with a non-ridiculous explanation for his rants, he was completely exposed.

It's ironic, given that she worked for so long at Fox, but Kelly's report on Jones pulled the lid back on the easiest and most profitable con in our business: winding up angry middle-aged white guys. Jones is just the latest model in a long line of bloviating conservative media hucksters whose job it is to stoke middle-class paranoia for fun and profit.

The original offerings in this product line, like Bob Grant and Barry Farber, were too polished, over-subtle and often too-transparently schticky. Many were former actors, scholars or comedians who took up being shouty drive-time douchebags only as lucrative late-career options.

Until the Fairness Doctrine was eliminated in 1987, remember, anchors and disc jockeys couldn't get hired by just by being vituperative finger-wagging blowhards. A lot of those people had gotten on the air because they had good voices, or the gift of gab, or senses of humor.

Rush Limbaugh, who was a little-known Pittsburgh top-40 DJ working under the name "Jeff Christie," was an early example. (Listen to Rush/Jeff slickly intro-ing Stevie Wonder's classic "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing" on this clip, for a laugh.)

The problem is that whatever sliver of talent or humor or erudition gets these characters on the air in the first place ultimately betrays them in the hate-vendor game.

If there's no real monster underneath, and you're instead just a financially desperate comedian or actor spinning up audiences with wild tales about scissors-bearing feminists or hordes of diseased Mexicans Headed This Way, sooner or later, listeners who want the real thing will be able to tell.

Take Glenn Beck. He made an all-out assault on the angry-dude market by selling breathlessly baroque conspiracy theories miles beyond what the likes of Bill O'Reilly would ever have the brains to invent.

But Beck just wasn't quite mean enough underneath. His insult-and-rage game was weak. Listen to him scream, "Get off my phone you little pinhead!" in this clip.

That's 100 percent a put-on riff by a professional radio guy who's been in the business since he was 15 (I can almost hear him saying, "Hey, did you like my hangup in hour 3 today?"), not a genuine rage addict. Beck was far more likely to fall to pieces and start crying on the air than blow his dome and start punching walls.

Not Alex Jones. He is the inevitable end to these decades of mis-evolution, the Nexus 6 of tantruming conservative spleen merchants.

Unlike Rush, who clearly wanted to be a comedian – Limbaugh's riffs on Louis Farrakhan-style numerology were wannabe Poconos material all the way – Jones has no sense of humor, as in literally none. Sean Hannity is funnier than Jones, which is really saying something.

Jones is not an aspiring linguist like Farber, or an ex-lefty intellectual like Mike Savage, or an actor like Fred Thompson, or a wannabe rock star like Mike Huckabee.

Jones is just angry. There's nothing else to his act. There's no riffing, no jokes, no cleverness: just pure, uncut middle-aged bile for his 78 percent male audience, to whom Jones hilariously hawks masculine supplements.

He's an epic dingbat, but one of tremendous power and influence. People need to understand how acts like his work and why. No effort to consign him to the margins is going to be successful, because he's already burst way beyond those parameters.

I understand the Sandy Hook parents wanting him off the air. But media figures should know that the fastest way to heighten the influence of people like Jones is to boycott them from "polite" company. In exactly the same way even the dullest book becomes a smash hit once it's censored, we make inadequate losers like this look like giants by pretending they don't exist.

Props to Kelly for showing that challenging jackasses works. And God help us if the press ever stops believing that.

‘Infowars’ host Alex Jones claims he recorded pre-interview chat with Megyn Kelly to protect himself from misrepresentation.

THE DAHLIA & SAGE COMMUNITY MARKET will hold their Grand Opening on June 25 from 3-6pm. Family events, free face painting, food booths, bbq and more.

115 E. 2nd Street, in downtown Cloverdale.

A SUMMER OF LOVE POEM

Janus-Faced Summer of Love

The Janus-faced summer of love

that Newsweek called

“The Summer of Discontent,”

the summer the riots started

in Detroit at a bar known as the “Blind Pig,”

just North of 12th Street & Clairmont Avenue,

the summer LBJ sent troops and

Governor Romney dispatched the all-white

Michigan National Guard to Detroit where

43 people were killed,

1,189 people were injured,

over 7,200 people arrested and

more than 2,000 buildings were destroyed,

the summer African-American H. Rap Brown

began to call himself “nigger,”

the summer Aretha sang “Respect”

like she wanted it for everyone,

the summer whitey got scared,

the summer Mohammed Ali was

sentenced to five years in prison

the summer the Doors set the world aglow

with “Light my Fire” and

arsonists set fire to cities from

Newark to Minneapolis,

the summer the Beatles released

“All Your Need is Love,”

the summer 37 prisoners died in

a blaze in Jay, Florida,

the summer the Rolling Stones

rocked us with “We Love You,”

the summer the U. S. tested

nuclear weapons in Nevada.

Yes, yes, all, all, all in the

name of the Summer of Love.

— Jonah Raskin

AND FREE HUGS FROM YAZ! THIS SATURDAY!

High Tides Compassionate Cannabis Care Patient Appreciation Faire

June 24, 2017 12 Noon - 4:20 PM (and later) 38520 South Highway One, Gualala, CA 95445

Music! Food! Vendor Sampling! Prizes! FUN! All are welcome. High Tides Compassionate Cannabis Care in Gualala presents their 2nd Annual Patient Appreciation Faire on Saturday, June 24 from 12 noon to 4:20pm, and later. There will be complimentary Bar Bar-B-Que and munchies, and/or you may bring a picnic lunch, plus prizes, entertainment and Vendor Samplings. Only registered 215 patients can access the samples. Please bring chairs if desired. Great entertainment will be provided by Singer Songwriters Archie Cabezut and Cole Thomason, and DJ Sister Yasmin, as well as other Special Guests to be announced soon. Everyone is welcome and there is Free Admission. Information: High Tides 707-884-1882

IT'S GOTTA GO

Help remove invasive pampas grass in Albion's Salmon Creek Forest July 6th

The Conservation Fund invites you to join us on the Salmon Creek Forest in Albion to help with the hand removal of invasive pampas grass and French broom. Removing invasive plants, especially before they go to seed, is an important component of forest management and promotes native plant diversity which benefits wildlife. The Fund has made a commitment to focus on the hand removal of these invasive plants, rather than use herbicide on the Salmon Creek Forest. The Salmon Creek Project Team has been a dedicated partner with this restoration project since 2006.

Date: Thursday, July 6

Time: 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Location: meeting location will be shared upon receipt of RSVP.

Please bring a shovel, gloves and water. We suggest you wear a hat, longsleeves and sturdy shoes. Many hands make fast work and more enjoyable for all! Please share this invitation with anyone who may be interested in helping. And let me know if you plan to attend.

Holly Newberger, North Coast Program Coordinator, <hnewberger@conservationfund.org>, (707) 962-0712

MEDICARE FOR ALL (MCN Listserve)

John Redding wrote: Hi, An anecdote but one that I think is being writ large on the national scene. A good friend who lives in this community wants to retire. If he retires, his wife who is a few years away from the age of Medicare will no longer be covered by his company and therefore will need to purchase insurance. The cost of insurance through the ObamaCare exchange would cost her $1,100 a month with a $7,500 deductible. Does this sound like the government has solved the problem? As bad is it way, the old way was better than this.

Marco McClean: Okay, here's an anecdote with actual names attached. I was reading it literally the second before I switched on email and read your post: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/6/20/1673474/-Obamacare-gave-us-a-chance-to-reconnect

Redding: The solution is to the rewrite the regulations to foster new ways of doing business...insurance and actual health care... and let them compete for your business.

Marco McClean: The real solution is to recognize health care, as well as education, as rights for all people, whether they can pay protection money or not, and so point up the competition for business and fortune in those areas as the turf wars between wealthy gangsters that it is.

Redding: This approach is an anathema to those who want government run national health care. Why, I don't know because the government can't run much of anything well.

Marco McClean: You've somehow excluded from your memory the other places in the world where people depend on and stoutly defend government run health care. Also this is a failure of your ability to imagine a world where everything government provided you very well in your life never happened.

Redding: For example, where has all the tax money raised to fix the potholes and roads gone

Marco McClean: To fix the potholes and roads, that's where. When's the last time you got in your car and tried to go somewhere and found you couldn't because the roads didn't reach there anymore or were too fucked up to drive on? Because that hasn't happened to me, ever. Sometimes a storm blows trees down or a hillside washes out, and I go around on another road while they come along and fix it with the speed of magic, out of gas tax that doesn't make our gas cost anywhere near what it costs in other developed countries.

RIGHT-WING PROPAGANDA ON PBS

Diane Ravitch on Huffington Post:

...This month the Public Broadcasting System is broadcasting a “documentary” that tells a one-sided story, the story that Betsy DeVos herself would tell, based on the work of free-market advocate Andrew Coulson. Author of “Market Education,” Coulson narrates “School, Inc.,” a three-hour program, which airs this month nationwide in three weekly broadcasts on PBS.

Uninformed viewers who see this slickly produced program will learn about the glories of unregulated schooling, for-profit schools, teachers selling their lessons to students on the Internet. They will learn about the “success” of the free market in schooling in Chile, Sweden, and New Orleans. They will hear about the miraculous charter schools across America, and how public school officials selfishly refuse to encourage the transfer of public funds to private institutions. They will see a glowing portrait of South Korea, where students compete to get the highest possible scores on a college entry test that will define the rest of their lives and where families gladly pay for after-school tutoring programs and online lessons to boost test scores. They will hear that the free market is more innovative than public schools.

What they will not see or hear is the other side of the story. They will not hear scholars discuss the high levels of social segregation in Chile, nor will they learn that the students protesting the free-market schools in the streets are not all “Communists,” as Coulson suggests. They will not hear from scholars who blame Sweden’s choice system for the collapse of its international test scores. They will not see any reference to Finland, which far outperforms any other European nation on international tests yet has neither vouchers nor charter schools. They may not notice the absence of any students in wheelchairs or any other evidence of students with disabilities in the highly regarded KIPP charter schools.

They will not learn that the acclaimed American Indian Model Charter Schools in Oakland does not enroll any American Indians, but has a student body that is 60 percent Asian American in a city where that group is 12.8 percent of the student population. Nor will they see any evidence of greater innovation in voucher schools or charter schools than in properly funded public schools...

I watched the documentary twice, preparing to be interviewed by Channel 13, and was repelled by the partisan nature of the presentation. I googled the funders and discovered that the lead funder is the Rose Mary and Jack Anderson Foundation, a very conservative foundation that is a major contributor to the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, which advocates for vouchers.

The Anderson Foundation is allied with Donors Trust, whose donors make contributions that cannot be traced to them. Mother Jones referred to this foundation as part of “the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement.”

Other contributors to Donors Trust include the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity and the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation.

The second major funder is the Prometheus Foundation. Its public filings with the IRS show that its largest grant ($2.5 million) went to the Ayn Rand Institute. The third listed funder of “School Inc.” is the Steve and Lana Hardy Foundation, which contributes to free-market libertarian think tanks.

In other words, this program is paid propaganda...

–The Diane Ravitch blog.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Global Warming: There is now only the continuous thrum of ominous, terrifying new data, study after study and measurement after statistic rushing forth, proving it’s all happening faster than the models predicted, with ominous cracks appearing in once-permanent ice sheets, massive coral reefs bleaching and dying, oceans turning more acidic, et al; not only should the world get used to lots more lethal, Phoenix-style heat (and extreme weather of all kinds, from freezes to hurricanes to extreme droughts), by the time 2100 rolls around, without an immediate, extreme reduction in CO2 emissions, upwards of 75 percent of the human population could be facing temperatures so sweltering as to be unsustainable, unlivable, doomed. But, you know, big deal, right? Nothing to be done about it. Might as well shrug, sigh and buy a better air conditioner at Costco, because Trump has proven he’s an anti-intellectual, anti-scientific imbecile of the highest order, doesn’t care a whit for health, nature or convulsing ecosystems, thinks coal is neat and the Paris Climate Accord is bad for the pesticide industry.

NAZI DEMOGOGY

Germans From England — "Ja" On A Special Trip Out To Sea

On April 10, some 2,000 Germans and Austrians living in England were taken by the Nazis 50 miles to sea and permitted to vote in the German plebiscite on Hitler's annexation of Austria. The ship was the new 24,000-ton Wilhelm Gustloff, named for an assassinated Swiss Nazi. Of England's 34,000 Germans and Austrians, mostly house servants, the first 2,000 non-Jewish applicants were accepted. They turned in a 99.4% Ja as compared with Greater Germany's 99.08% Ja the same day.

These amazing percentages, largely honest despite proved examples of false returns, show the real effectiveness of Nazi demagogy. Many a sociologist believes that since it gulls the argumentative Germans, it may gull anybody. Its secret is to deal with the people not as individuals but as crowds. The message to the crowd is a series of simple, basic, memorable words — nation, people, blood, family, comrade, friend, home, soil, bread, work, strength, hope, life, fight, victory, birth, death, honor, beauty. The Party is set up as having a monopoly on giving the people these virtues and good things. To a people whose immediate past has been hard, muddled and apparently irremediable, simple emotional words have an immense, reverberating authority. But most of all the little man who is lost and friendless in a complex, lonely modern society is treated as important, if only in the mass.

— Life (May 2, 1938)

REQUEST TO THE CALIFORNIA FISH & GAME COMMISSION for decisive action to halt the slide toward extinction of Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook Salmon

June 22, 2017

Background

Before the coming of the Europeans, Klamath-Trinity River Basin Spring Chinook Salmon were the largest and culturally the most important run of salmon in the Klamath-Trinity River Basin. During the first part of the 20^th Century, however, mining, cannery targeting of Spring Chinook and dams building decimated the run. According to the CDFW:

UKTR spring-run Chinook populations once likely totaled greater than 100,000 fish (Snyder 1931, Moyle 2002). The spring-run was thought to be the main run of Chinook salmon in the Klamath River, but the stocks had been depleted by the early 20 th century as the result of irrigation, overfishing, mining, and other causes (Snyder 1931). Historic run sizes were estimated by CDFW to be at least 5,000 in each of the following Klamath tributaries: Sprague River (Oregon), Williamson River (Oregon), Shasta River and Scott River (CDFG 1990). The runs in the Sprague, Wood, and Williamson rivers were extirpated after the construction of Copco 1 Dam in 1918. Approximately 500 fish returned to Iron Gate Hatchery each year during the 1970s (Hiser 1985), but the hatchery was not able to maintain this run without a source of cold summer water. The last spring-run Chinook returned to the hatchery in 1978. The run in the Shasta River, probably the largest in the middle Klamath drainage, disappeared in the early 1930s as the result of habitat degradation and blockage of access toupstream spawning areas by Dwinnell Dam, which was erected in 1926. The smaller Scott Riverrun was extirpated in the early 1970s from a variety of anthropogenic causes that depleted flowsand altered habitats (Moyle 2002). In the middle reaches of the Klamath, spring-run Chinookhave been extirpated from their historic habitats except the Salmon River and one of itstributaries, Wooley Creek (NRC 2004). Less than 10 spring-run Chinook are annually observedin Elk, Indian, and Clear creeks (Campbell and Moyle 1991).

The description above was written before 2015. In that year scientists estimated that 81% of juvenile salmon migrating down the Klamath River died as a result of a salmon disease epidemic related to warm water and insufficient river flows; in 2016 91% of juvenile salmon are believed to have perished before they could reach the Pacific Ocean. The spawning runs associated with these astronomical rates of disease mortality are yet to occur.

The Trinity-River Restoration program estimated that in 2015 only 1,323 natural origin Spring Chinook returned to the entire Trinity River system. This is the lowest estimated natural escapement of Spring-Chinook since estimates were first made in 1991 (Kier and John Hileman, CDFW, 2016). Only a handful of fish are reported to have returned to the South Fork Trinity.

The “stronghold” for Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook on the Klamath side of the Basin is the Salmon River. The Salmon River stock would be the most likely source if and when Spring Chinook Salmon are restored to the Upper Klamath River Basin once four PacifiCorp dams are removed. 2015 saw the lowest number of Spring Chinook counted in summer dives on the Salmon River since systematic dive methods were implemented in 2006; only 286 adult Spring Chinook were counted in 2015. 2016 was not much better with only 406 total Spring Chinook observed. Five hundred reproducing individuals is believed to be the minimum viable population of Pacific Salmon capable of holding off extinction.

Pursuant to the federal Klamath Restoration Act, harvest allocation of Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook salmon was coordinated among tribes, federal agencies and CDFW from 1980 until 2000. Since the sunset of Klamath Act programs, however, there has been no coordination among entities managing the harvest of Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook Salmon.

Because they ascend higher in the river basins and must over-summer in those headwaters, climate change is believed to pose greater risks to Spring Chinook Salmon as compared to other salmon species and stocks. After all, these fish must spend all summer high in our watersheds before spawning in fall.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act, 16 U.S.C. 1852, states in part:

“Each Council shall, in accordance with the provisions of this Act—

(1) for each fishery under its authority that requires conservation and management,prepare and submit to the Secretary (A) a fishery management plan, and (B) amendments toeach such plan that are necessary from time to time (and promptly whenever changes in conservation and management measures in another fishery substantially affect the fishery for which such plan was developed);”

Under law, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) has an affirmative obligation to prepare and implement a management plan for Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook Salmon. I am told a “placeholder” for such a plan has been in PFMC planning documents for many years. And yet, in spite of the fact that Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook Salmon are the Klamath-Trinity stock at highest and immanent risk for extinction, no management plan has been prepared or implemented for them.

A petition to list Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook under provisions of the federal ESA was turned down in 2012 based on limited genetic differentiation. Since that time new genetic information supporting a finding that Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook are a distinct species has emerged.

The Current Situation

In spite of the dismal return of Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook Salmon to the Basin the past two years, the California Fish & Game Commission has not substantially changed sport fishing regulations to assist these fish. Anyone with a sportfishing license and the proper salmon card can catch and keep two adult Spring Chinook salmon each and every day until August 15th. While possession is limited to two fish, that provision is impossible to effectively enforce. Sport take of Springers is allowed in the Klamath below Weitchpec and in the Trinity above the South Fork. The Yurok Tribe has restricted net fishing on the Yurok Reservation to weekends in order to assist Spring Chinook , but subsistence fishing by hook and line is allowed 7 days per week through August 14^th. The Hoopa Tribe allows subsistence fishing for Spring Chinook on its reservation 7 days per week.

I am told that a new ESA listing petition for Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook is currently being prepared. But I believe what these fish really need is not an ESA listing, which would produce anxiety and conflict among those who love and use Klamath-Trinity Salmon, but rather a management plan based on the Magnusen-Stevens Act's excellent national standards for fishery conservation and management.

The Request

In order to provide for the conservation and wise use of Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook Salmon, and to promote comity among the Indigenous tribes and non-Indian commercial and sports fishing communities, I request that the California Fish & Game Commission formally consider at a Commission Meeting in the near future and no later than January 1, 2018, the following actions:

Letters from the Commission to the PFMC and to the Secretary of Commerce describing the current condition of Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook Salmon and requesting that the long-delayed management plan for that stock pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Act be completed as quickly as possible in order to forestall the current slide toward existence and preclude the need for ESA listing.

Consider changes to sport fishing regulations which may be needed in order to conserve and restore Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook Salmon and to preclude the need for a listing pursuant to the federal and California Endangered Species Acts.

Engage Klamath River tribes, the sport fishing and conservation communities and the people of the Klamath River and Northcoast, utilizing the Commission's tribal and fishing communities committees, in conversation with the Commission and the Department of Fish & Wildlife about what needs to be done to prevent the Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook Salmon's slide toward extinction and to restore the stock to abundance.

The honor of a timely and substantive response is requested.

Felice Pace,

Klamath, California