Mendocino County Today: Sunday, June 25, 2017

• CalCannabis Labyrinth
• Lacking Focus
• Grower Ambivalence
• Little Dog
• Hospitality Comments
• Wine Libel
• 50 Decibels
• Missing Person
• Pets!
• Yesterday's Catch
• Vineyard Labor
• NY 1960
• Tree Frog
• Medical Costs
• Hedy Lamarr
• Healthcare Grift
• Greening Antarctica
• Marco Radio
• Library Events
• Cloverdale Sculptures
• Derby Night
• Croyle Retires
• Like Mike

POT GROWS LOCAL & STATE GOVERNMENT

by Mark Scaramella

We happened on an April presentation by a young State Water Board staffer named Jeff Parks in Willits. Parks was rapping, one might say in the lingo of the Summer of Love, to a rapt group of potential commericial pot growers. When the subject of permit application fees came up Parks said, "I know people are very concerned about the fees for all these programs. I know there are fees on top of fees on top of fees. There will be additional fees associated with this program (the “CalCannabis” section of the Water Board staff). We don’t know what they are yet. They will be subject to public review when they do come up.”

Here’s just a small sample of what the Water Board requires of a would be legal pot grower:

If you are planning to obtain a California Department of Food and Agriculture Cannabis Cultivation (CalCannabis) License beginning on January 1, 2018, you must provide documentation of your water supply source with your cultivation license application. Certain water diversion types require completion and submittal of special forms to the State Water Resource Control Board (State Water Board) by June 30, 2017. Some water right types, including Small Irrigation Use Registrations and existing Water Right Permits and Licenses do not require addition.

In accordance with the Business and Professions Code Section 19332.2 (b), CalCannabis requires cultivators to provide documentation to the State Water Board - Division of Water Rights by June 30, 2017 for the following situations:

If water is already being diverted under a riparian water right claim. An Initial Statement of Diversion and Use must be on file with the Division of Water Rights.

Pending application to appropriate water.

Water is planned to be diverted and used under a riparian right and no diversion occurred in any calendar year between January 1, 2010 and January 1, 2017; Form 19332.2 (b)(5).

The water diversion is from a spring that does NOT flow off the property on which it is located. The aggregate diversions from this person do not exceed 25 acre-feet in any year; Form 19332.2 (b)(4).

A notice is on file with the State Water Board for the recordation of groundwater extractions and diversion of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura Counties; Form 19332.2 (b)(4).

A diversion is regulated by a Watermaster appointed by the Department of Water Resources and included in annual reports filed with a court or the State Water Board by a Watermaster, which reports identify the persons who divert water and describe the general purposes and the place, the use, and the quantity of water that has been diverted from each source; Form 19332.2 (b)(4).

A diversion is included in annual reports filed with the court or State Water Board by a Watermaster appointed by a court or filed pursuant to statute to administer a final judgment determining rights to water, for which reports identify the persons who have diverted water and give the general place of use and the quantity that has been diverted from each source. Form 19332.2 (b)(4).

If you are unsure which category your water source belongs, or need further assistance, please visit our Cannabis webpage or contact Division of Water Rights staff at WB-DWR-CannabisReg@waterboards.ca.gov or 916-341-5300.

HERE is the water rights application form: SWRCBapplication (Note that the application must be accompanied by checks to cover all applicable fees.)

HERE is the fee schedule: SWRCBfees

ADIOS Mom and Pop Grower. The big boys of cannabis will pay someone to negotiate this preposterous bureaucratic labyrinth, Mom and Pop won't be able to.

THE WATER BOARD presentation was just a small segement of the two hour workshop in Willits, which also included bureaucrats and staffers from Fish & Wildlife (who covered such things as “armored culverts” and engineering requirements for pond construction), the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (whose rep was an attractive young blonde with the requisite upflect speaking style of contempo young women).

The Food & Ag babe (whose name was unintelligible due to the poor audio quality) described the “collaborative effort” of all the involved state agencies. In addition to the two water boards, Fish & Wildlife, and Food & Ag, other state agencies you can expect to see at your door include: Pesticide regulation, The Department of Justice, Cal-OSHA, the “Department of Technology,” the state Treasurer, Board of Equalization, the Medical Board of California, the Governor’s Office, plus county rules, city rules, plus physicians, patients, caregivers, and perhaps, if you're lucky, the Ghost of Janis Joplin.

OH, and did we mention this is a “competitive” market?

THE FOOD & AG "presenter" also told the group that they needed to familiarize themselves with their new “Compliance Handbook” which will “detail how to complete each application requirement,” and “will address additional laws that apply to licensed cultivators.”

THERE WAS NO MENTION of the feds. Most of the presenters appeared to be in their 20s and 30s.

UNBELIEVABLY, each presenter got a round of applause after each presentation as if they were doing the pot growers a favor by telling them how burdensome their particular agency’s rules are.

CLEARLY, legalized pot has created a new growth industry in state bureaucrats, many of them recent college grads who couldn't possibly be unfamiliar with the joys of the miracle drug. Among the collateral damage of this growth industry is that pot regulation expansion has created a demand for trained, regulatory bureaucrats from a somewhat limited pool of candidates; so a bidding war has begun, which not only raises the costs to staff all of this regulation, but creates high staff turnover, confusion, inexperienced but overpaid young people in positions they are new to.

AND THIS doesn’t even include the third-party site evaluators, water consultants, engineers, private planning outfits, etc. who also draw from the same young candidate pool.

THIS LITTLE-NOTICED problem, in just one recent example, is a major factor in creating the staffing problem in Mendo’s Planning and Building Department ,which the Mendo Grand Jury pointed out in yesterday’s report. County staff is leaving for better jobs in the booming regulation market.

LOCAL planning and code compliance backlogs are only going to get worse. And enforcement? Where are all those people going to come from?

THIS UNUSUALLY HARSH, judgmental and totally non-objective headline somehow found its way past the editorial desk at the ordinarily scrupulous Independent Coast Observer. We are reeling here in Boonville at the shocking bias on exhibit here. (Children, please leave the room): “Stornetta Lands Scoping Meeting Lacks Focus.”

CLONES

by Paul Modic

I really wasn't sure I wanted to grow this year, the stress of selling it was overwhelming, the price always going down, and all the packaging and repackaging, all the handling was finally getting to me. Nonetheless I spent all winter using a lot of quality time (ie, buzzed on morning coffee) making lists and surveying the options: Seeds? Clones? Greenhouse? Lights? If I was going to do it I wanted to really do it.

When the clones arrived and we started transplanting the little OG babies from cubes to 4 by 4's I told my helper, “I don't really want to be doing this.”

I had gotten the grow lights out of the attic and hooked them up, those 1000 watt lights fascinated me, I visited many times during the day. When the plants got powdery mildew I obediently researched and purchased the organic herbicide and sprayed once a week. A couple months later I had a bunch of beautiful three foot plants in three gallon containers, the nicest I'd had in May in years.

I still wasn't sure I wanted to grow them but was assured that I could sell them if not. I diligently staked them for their debut out on the windy deck under full sun and built a temporary shade house for the first week out, then I realized I hadn't completely thought this through: I had to haul them 60 feet up the mountain from the grow room, two at a time, about 50 trips and it took about a week.

A few nights a week I would get high at night and think, “I really don't want to do this anymore, I want to be free from the whole growing thing, maybe do something else in life?” But each morning I thought, “No, I can do this thing.” Finally, even when I was sober I thought,” I really don't want to do this.” I called a friend and she came over and said she'd buy them from me. I did break even on supplies, including the 1000$ electric bill, but my labor just turned out to be exercise. That's okay, when you're indecisive, confused and fuck up somehow I think you do have to pay the price. Yes, I guess I'm still a fool, once again, but I'm hoping for redemption.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Skrag the cat is fitting in. I don't have to deal with him, although I see him creeping around at night. Like most cats, he only shows up to eat. Us dogs are sooooooo superior. We're your friends, not just a meal ticket.”

COMMENTS about the problems at Hospitality House in Fort Bragg on MendocinoSportsPlus Saturday afternoon:

Ken Spiker — “I would say that residents of Fort Bragg have no duty to provide services for individuals from throughout the state (or nation) who can't, or won't, provide for themselves. We shouldn't have to be a dumping ground for problems that our state government can't, or won't, address. The needs and desires of people who live in Fort Bragg and surrouding areas should come first. Nobody should have to step over clumps of human excrement on the sidewalks of his own town.”

Carrie Hull: “The hospitality house is a mess. Thought they had to be sober to get help there but I've seen many people there who are definitely not sober, and they will straight up lie to hide the truth of what happens there so they don't look bad. Someone needs to change whoever is supposed to be in charge.”

Franny Maca: It is all about greed on the city managers part. This whole planet has gone koo koo. So sad the needy are being forced to sleep in their cars. In this world,that is a danger in itself.

Alice Chouiteau: There are so many great points made on this topic today. It would be most effective if everyone shared their experiences and opinions with the City Council. If you cannot attend council meetings, the mayor holds an informal meeting Mondays at 11am.

Carol Barker: Everyone should know that non-profits are just a cover for large administrative wages for those in charge. That's where most the money goes.

Jennifer Smith Bauer: Yep, seen it in little towns several times. Like mega churches.

Kathy Clayton: alot of the homelles are not from here,and think thay can just rome the streets,alot of the homelles will not look for jobs,and yes there are jobs here in fort bragg,

Maggie Gillespie: I had to stop shopping down town and even taking my kids down town because we were harassed and over heard talk not suitable for children's ears. I ran skate night and could not allow kids to get fresh air because the homeless population made it a dang mess.

Joe Wagner: you are right on maggie... and carol too...

Kim Taylor: There is more housing and jobs in Ukiah. The HHC should move their operation over the hill. Why the City of Fort Bragg thought having a HUGE 1/2 block "hospitality" center in town was good idea is WAY beyond me. Locals aren't getting help, and it is only attracting transients (and criminals) to come here from all over the country. What a mess!

Joe Wagner: because her lap dog scott menzies needs that coffeeshop job!!! remember the organizer of the "no on measure u" group?? whole gig is a gross joke and i sure wish the council can take the property back... Yeah the sandwich guy blocked the admin so he's not here anymore... btw i to look for names in black every few months... not really a block or ban and they are welcome to join the page again... just seems reasonable... so for what reason would somebody be anna's "buddy"... sorry i don't get it...lol

Marc Monreal: Time to recall the City Manger. Get the petitions going!!! Tourism is all that Ft Bragg has left. You loose your Tourism and ... You might as well stick your head between your legs and kiss your Ass good by.

Carol Barker: The city likes all the grant money. That's why they actually want a large homeless population. The larger the population the more grant money they get.

Ann Meadlin: Reminds me of our local hospital. Trying to get financial information from anyone especially the CFO.

Brenda Jacomella-Sallinen: Fort Bragg is not a safe place anymore. I am sure the down town business has dropped. But what is sad is that the people of Fort Bragg are not safe anymore. Trust me i have had to put in a electric gate at my home so that i am safe just getting out of my driveway.

Clint Van Adrichem: What did you think would happen ????? When you turn your area into liberal environmental employment dead zone

Jennifer Smith Bauer: Sounds like a new city manager is in order. Who hired Her? Who can fire her?

Bobby Taylor: Pack them all up on a bus and ship them to east coast be bum free for a few days

Michelle Glowacki: In late 2015 Airport Road organized and formed a Neighborhood Watch. It started with a bang and our Sheriff Tom Allman called it the largest Neighborhood Watch program to date. We communicated, called the agencies County Code Enforce...See More

Sage Fae Wolf: I can't even read this. It's so full of misinformation and stigma and bias. I fully support the Hospitality Center. This kind of article is so harmful and heartbreaking.

Debbie Jones: Sage, facts, please. Because the misdeeds of the 'Hospitality' House are factual. The problems with the people in and around it are REAL.

Jennifer Smith Bauer: You live in Ukiah...you aren't witnessing what is going on day after day. Hospitality House was a good resource in Fort Bragg for years and a valuable community neighbor. Something happened around 2010, a new director and board took over. Now it's a shit show. Not stigma and bias at all.

Julie McHenry: Sage Fae Wolf, maybe if you actually lived in Fort Bragg you would know the facts. You live in Ukiah you formerly worked for Redwood Children's services. Maybe your information is coming directly from your friends at the Hospitality Center. Your opinion here means nothing !

Jim Britt: The Hospitality Center got a grant under the Housing First program. I would wager that most, if not all was used to house individuals in their own facilities. If this is the case, it is a rip off of the taxpayers and was being used to transfer their residents into this special program to the disadvantage of many others. There is also the rumor that this organization is bringing in mental health patients from Ortner's facility in the Yuba City area, but Lynelle Johnson remains silent on this issue. If true, how is this helping locally.

BRUCE McEWEN WRITES: It’s been going on so long that the winegrowers have come to believe their flatterers, which is to say their own propaganda, to the point that even the slightest criticism comes off as — well, let’s face it, and call it what these holier-than-thou mortals call, not blasphemy, for that would suggest religion, but the modern equivalent: Libel.

WIND FANS: THE SOUND OF 50 DECIBELS

http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20170622/disturbance-at-wednesday-ferndale-city-council-meeting

MARK SCARAMELLA NOTES: 50 Decibels? That’s nothing. Doesn’t even exceed Mendo’s standard residential daytime noise limits. The wine industry’s frost protection noise machines are 80db at their lowest and that’s at least 300 times louder than 50db because the decibel scale is logarithmic.

MISSING PERSON PAUL J GLOWACKI (Penn Valley, Ca.) http://www.zeebok.com/modesto/a,11,14717,--MISSING-PERSON-PAUL-J-GLOWACKI--Penn-Valley-Ca---.htm

Paul Glowacki 56, missing 12/7/12, 5'10", 190-200 lbs., BLN hair, BLU eyes. Last contact with law enforcement @ Airport Road, Fort Bragg, 4/10/13. Missing has a 40 year substance and alcohol abuse, and in 2012 started to exhibit abnormally violent behavior. After a brutal attack emailed 4/23/13, "I have been Suicidal since with guilt and anxiety until only I got some medicine recently so I can help myself." There has been NO contact since and my brother and I fear he may have harmed himself. We would like to find out if he is ALIVE. He may be homeless, do not approach! Pls reply with any info (805) 431-4663 or on craigslist. Thank You and God Bless Location: Penn Valley, CA.

PETS O’ THE WEEK

Dixie is quite the talker, and if you come down to meet her, be prepared to hear some stories, via kitty language. Dixie is a 1 year old spayed, female, tabby and white cat. She has decided her ideal home is one without other cats so her new owners can be all hers. Dixie can be playful when the mood strikes and really enjoys belly rubs.

Star has been very patient, waiting for her new family to come find and adopt her. She is a 1 year old mixed breed, spayed female who currently weighs 56 pounds. She's a beauty, with big, brown, soulful eyes. Star enjoys belly rubs, and she responds joyfully when you whisper sweet nothings in her ear. We think Star is housetrained; we know she is affectionate and friendly. She knows sit, and loves treats. Star is an agile and playful dog.

The Ukiah Animal Shelter is located at 298 Plant Road in Ukiah; adoption hours are Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm and Wednesday from 10 am to 6:30 pm. To view photos and bios of more of the shelter's wonderful adoptable animals, please visit online at : www.mendoanimalshelter.com or visit us. Please join us the 2nd Saturday of every month for our "Empty the Shelter" pack walk and help us get every dog out for some exercise! For more information about adoptions please call 707-467-6453.

CATCH OF THE DAY, June 24, 2017

JEFFREY ASHLINE, Ukiah. Petty theft, conspiracy, probation revocation.

CHRISTOPHER BAUER, Potter Valley. Shoplifting, burglary tools.

TIMMY COOPER, Ukiah. Vandalism.

LAUREL COPLEY, Garberville. DUI.

JONI DEARING, Fort Bragg. Under influence, disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent Flyer)

TIMOTHY ELLIOTT, Ukiah. Parole violation.

ESTEBAN FLORES-RODRIGUEZ, Covelo. Concealed weapon, pot transportation for sale.

TAWANA HENRY, Ukiah. Receiving stolen property, conspiracy, no license, probation revocation.

TEYA HERNANDEZ, Hopland. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

BENJAMIN HOFF, Ukiah. County parole violation.

ERICA MARMON, Ukiah. Protective order violation, probation revocation.

CHARLENE MARTINEZ, Ukiah. Probation revocation, failure to appear.

LAURIANA MENDOZA, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

BERTRAM MOSIER, Redwood Valley. DUI.

GENEVIEVE NEARY, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

JAMES QUILTER, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

DANA SCHMIDT, Willits. Pot possession for sale, transportation for sale, “prevent or obstruct justice or due admin of laws injurious to public health/morals.”

ASHTON VIZCARRA, Fort Bragg. Battery, resisting.

CALIFORNIA’S WINE INDUSTRY WAS BUILT ON SLAVE LABOR

During the 1850s gold rush, vineyard owners used an army of enslaved Native American workers.

by Frances Dinkelspiel

http://www.thedailybeast.com/californias-wine-industry-was-built-on-slave-labor-10

NEW YORK, N.Y., APRIL 1, 1960

With Jack Kerouac at midnight we stumble down East 2nd Street, and suddenly out from a broken tenement front rushes a whole living room upside down with dark Puerto Ricans carrying sofas tables and armchairs on their heads upside down, growling at us as they run past and around the corner.

And what am I doing with him here anyway, sometime in eternity? Yeah, well, it’s a long story, as everything is. I am not my brother’s keeper but I do feel a kind of older brother empathy with him… . Well, Jack has nothing to do with Beat or beatnik except in the minds of thousands who read On the Road thinking he’s some sort of crazy wild rebel whereas really he’s just a “home boy” from little ol’ Lowell and certainly no rebel. And I keep telling him to stop wandering around the planet and go back home to Lowell Mass. and stay there, even though it would probably not work out, with him staggering around bars and not finding any “home” … and old friends all changed, etc… . All the while remembering Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel, one of our favorite books.

Spent night with him, ending up at his girl’s house in the West Seventies. Woke at ten a.m. Sunny and warm. I leave with ms. of Kerouac’s Book of Dreams for City Lights to publish, and that alone worth the trip … a clutch of wild beautiful dreams uncensored and not for Freudians to dissect… .

— Lawrence Ferlinghetti

TREE FROG

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

One foreign woman I know, told me that in her home country, you walk into a doctor’s office, you see the posted prices, and if you don’t like the price at one, you go to another.

The industry in this country was starting to correct itself just slightly, as in New York City the walk-in doctor’s offices were beating the pants of the patient-unfriendly medical “groups”.

Obamacare to the rescue, making it illegal not to have insurance, and no one forced to buy insurance is going to pay out of pocket, so that problem was fixed.

We can’t have the patient in the driver’s seat like that.

HEDY LAMARR: ECSTASY AND THE NEEDLE

by Manuel Vicent (translated by Louis S. Bedrock)

In her time, Hedvig Eva Maria Kiesler, known as Hedy Lamarr, was believed to be the most beautiful woman in the world. She has gone down in history as the first actress to be shown completely nude on screen and the first actress to feign an orgasm with her facial expression in a close up.

The movie was called Ecstasy. It was filmed in Prague by the director Gustav Machaty in 1932. Hedwig was 16 years old.

Ecstasy and I is also the title of Hedy Lamarr’s erotic memoirs. It is a book written from the intelligent and amoral perspective of a fascinating woman, beyond the realm of good or evil, in which she recounts, one by one, the number of male bodies—splendid, drunk, idiotic, that encroached upon her soul over the course of her lifetime.

Hedy Lamarr was born in Vienna in November of 1914. Her father was a banker and her mother was a pianist. Both were Jews. She was an extremely gifted child who studied engineering but was lured away by her fascination for the theater. At the age of 16, she abandoned the sciences and went to Berlin to work with the famous director Max Reinhardt.

Very early in her life her extraordinary beauty began to cause her more problems than advantages. When the child left her house to go to school, every morning there was a different exhibitionist waiting for her with his cloak open. As an adolescent, she suffered several rape attempts. Some of these attempts were successful: for example, the attempt by the boyfriend of one of her friends that her friend herself had incited so she could contemplate the rape while smoking an Egyptian cigarette.

She had a hyper-sexual soul according to her own confession: pleasure didn’t cause her any guilt. However, she never understood why she stirred such urgent carnal desire in men yet inspired no admiration for her talent which seemed to exceed her physical beauty. Although she hated him until her death, Hedy Lamarr always remembered that Hitler was the only one to kiss her delicately on the tips of her fingers in the corridors through which this unsettling Jewish girl passed in the 1930s.

The filming of the movie Ecstasy includes a ten minute sequence in which the heroine passes through the verdant grove of a forest completely nude until immersing herself in a lake. The director had promised that the cameras would photograph her from a distance—from the top of a hill, with a blurred image. After some hesitation, Hedwig Kessler acquiesced. However, her body was captured with a telephoto lens and appears to be a mere few meters away from the screen.

Afterwards, she had to simulate an orgasm while the actor Aribert was on top of her kissing her. In this scene, the director was only able to achieve an acceptable outcome by sticking a needle into the girl’s buttocks so that the pain caused her to emit a scream and suffer a facial spasm that the spectator mistook for an orgasm. This orgasm made her world famous.

Magnate Fritz Mandl was one of the richest men in the world. He was the owner of Hirtenberger Patronenfabrik Industries—an ironworks which manufactured war munitions, comparable to Krupp. He was captivated by the beauty of Hedwig and asked her father for permission to court her. Actually, he bought her with an erotic spending spree on jewels and solid gold.

A short time later, Ecstasy made an appearance at the Vienna Festival. Mussolini demanded to see it in a private showing because of the morbid fascination that surrounded it. Preceded by scandal, it later debuted in Vienna before an audience filled with celebrities. In orchestra seats were the parents of the star and Fritz Mandl, her brand new husband. When the screening began, none of them could believe what they saw with their own eyes.

Surrounded by friends from the upper stratosphere of Austrian society, Lamarr’s parents beheld their adored child running naked through a forest toward a lake into which she dived and then began swimming on her back exposing her breasts through the surface of the water.

Her husband, whose arrogance was as toxic as his pretensions, attended the performance encircled by associates from his business with the heroine of the movie seated next to him. All of them were able to see his young, beautiful wife performing the role of a 17 year old girl named Eve who had married an older man who had not been able to consummate the marriage on their wedding night.

One morning, a young engineer named Adam spots Eve while she is swimming in the lake. Eve had left her clothes on the saddle of a mare standing next to another horse. Suddenly a thunderstorm breaks out and the two animals run away. Adam tries to help Eve and both take refuge in a cabin. They make love and in the middle of orgasm she symbolically breaks her pearl necklace, smoke from a cigarette traces a spiral around her neck, and she feigns a shriek of pleasure because at that moment the director was sticking a safety pin into her buttocks.

Her parents left their orchestra seats. From that moment on, her husband locked Hedwig up in the house and the maid kept the key. He only allowed her to swim when he was present. When he wasn’t taking her to parties or social gatherings where he exhibited her like a hunting trophy, he left her tied to the foot of the bed like a dog.

During the two years that this abduction lasted, Hedwig Eva Maria had time to resume her engineering studies and since she assisted her husband at meetings, dinners, and business trips dealing with new technologies for weapon systems, she developed, on her own, a formula — the so called “frequency hopping” system — a technique for switching frequencies that would later be used for protecting the control of missiles.

This invention by Hedy Lamarr was patented in 1940 and is still used today. It made possible for the first time the transmission of secret signals without interference and was utilized in Vietnam and during the Cuban missile crisis.

To escape her imprisonment, Hedwig had to seduce and sleep with the maid, who helped her escape from the palace one evening while the self-important Mr. Fritz Mandl was traveling.

She got to Paris by automobile with only one dress and her pockets filled with jewels. She was pursued by the bodyguards of her husband. She managed to slip away and hide out in London and set sail for New York aboard the ocean liner Normandie. During the crossing, she met and seduced the Hollywood producer Louis B. Mayer, from Metro Studios, and made a deal with him concerning her future. He protected her, baptized her with a new name, Hedy Lamarr, and made her into a star.

Many remember her for the movie Samson and Delilah, the only movie that gave her fame. She had bad luck. She rejected the role of the heroine in the movies Gaslight and Casablanca. She was on the verge of appearing in Gone With The Wind.

Although she always appeared onscreen wrapped in silks, she was the first woman that movie goers always saw nude.

She married three times. She had three children. She passed through countless male and female bodies of husbands and lovers, leading men and producers. One lover fired shots over her earrings with a revolver while he was drunk; another forged an inflatable doll in her image and used it when she refused to gratify him; another went to bed with the maid while Hedy slept in the same bed.

She was always more intelligent than the man who accompanied her and always more beautiful than the wife of his friend. She was the richest and most beautiful woman of Vienna and became the most desired creature of Hollywood. But she was not the best actress due to the burden of her beauty.

Her kleptomania landed her in jail several times. She had all the millionaires of the world at her feet but she could not resist stealing a toothbrush in a department store.

To this day, missiles are fired off day bearing her name. She’s the girl who cut off Samson’s hair.

(Drawing by Fernando Vicente)

RAIN DANCE

by James Kunstler

Think of the ObamaCare reform debate now playing in the US Senate as the final gurglings of polity that knows it is whirling around the drain. They’re pretending to attempt to fix a racket that comprises 8% of the American economy. Yikes! How did that happen? At the beginning of the 20th century it was one-quarter of one percent (.25 percent) of the economy.

The standard explanation is that, first, Medicare jacked up overall healthcare activity in the 1960s, hauling in a customer-base of old folks who previously received no special treatment and were, generally, less well than non-old folk. Secondarily, technological innovation opened up so many new methods of disease control for everybody, young and old, that we’re able to treat more sickness in more complicated ways — and that drove costs up way further.

The greater part of the story remains neatly concealed within the matrix of rackets erected around the money-flows since the big cost bump-up in the 1960s, and these involve insurance companies, Big Pharma, corporatized doctors’ practices, hospital monopolies, and, of course, politicians on-the-take dividing amongst each other a colossal pool of grift that exists mainly for one simple reason: the cost of everything is hidden from public view.

Nobody has any idea what anything costs. Certainly not the patients, sometimes called “customers” or “consumers” — but really hostages. If you go into the hospital for a stent in the left descending coronary artery, nobody will tell you what it costs, starting with the doctors who have performed the procedure a thousand times. They can’t even estimate the cost (or won’t), though they could probably give you a pretty good ballpark number for the cost-and-installation of a new fuel pump on their BMW-28i.

Charges for medical care are never discussed with the patient. Doctors especially pretend to regard such a proposition as beneath the dignity of their profession, rather like British aristocrats regarded all questions pertaining to money in the Downton Abby scheme of things — a filthy business better left to the servants, like disposing of the table-scraps. Of course the “servants” in the hospital scheme of things are a fantastic hierarchy of dangerously overfed clerks overwhelmed by the anomie of spending countless hours typing fictitious numbers into their work stations. A more pointless life can hardly be conceived. If you ask the ones who “interface” with you at the check-out counter how your bill was toted up exactly, you will receive nothing more than a pitiless stare of contempt — which is actually aimed inward at their own existential quandaries, a pathological dynamic that perhaps deserves attention from the research funding troughs.

The cost of everything medical is worked out in a private rain-dance between the aforementioned manifold concerned parties on the basis of what they think they can get away with in any particular case. In hospitals, this is enabled by the notorious ChargeMaster system which, to put it as simply as possible, allows hospitals to just make shit up.

Any bill in congress that affects to reform the gross financial malfeasance in healthcare ought to start with the absolute requirement to publicly post the cost of everything that doctors and hospitals do, and enable the “service providers” to get paid only those publicly posted costs — obviating the lucrative rain-dance for dividing up the ransoms paid by hostage-patients who come to the “providers,” after all, in extremis. Notice that this crucial feature of the crisis is missing not only from the political debate but also from the supposedly public-interest-minded pages of The New York Times and other organs of the news media. Perhaps this facet of the problem never entered the editors’ minds — in which case you really have to ask: how dumb are they?

(The funniest claim about ObamaCare in today’s New York Times is the statement that 20 million citizens got access to health care under the so-called Affordable Care Act. Really? You mean they got health insurance policies with $8000-deductables, when they don’t even have $500 in savings to pay for car repairs? What planet do The New York Times editorial writers live on?)

The corollary questions about deconstructing the insurance armature of the health care racket, and assigning its “duties” to a “single-payer” government agency is, of course, a higher level of debate. I’m not saying it would work, even if it was modeled on one of the systems currently working elsewhere, say in France. But Americans have acquired an allergy to even thinking about that, or at least they’ve been conditioned to imagine they’re allergic by self-interested politicians. So, the current product of debate in the US Senate is just a scheme for pretending to reapportion the colossal flow of grift among the grifters.

Spare yourself the angst of even worrying about the outcome of the current healthcare debate. It’s not going to get “fixed.” The medical system as we know it is going to blow up, and soon, just like the pension systems across the country, and the treasuries of the fifty states themselves, and the rest of the Potemkin US economy.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/JamesHowardKunstler)

HOUSE FLIES IN THE ANTARCTICA!!

Dear Editor:

The Guardian discussed a report by the British Antarctica Survey how the rise in tourism and warmer climate is bringing in house flies and facilitating the growth of mosses in which they can live. "The common house fly is a perfect example of the problem the Antarctica now faces from invading species. It comes in on ships, where it thrives in kitchens and then at bases on the continent. It now has an increasing chance of surviving in the Antarctica as it warms up, and that is a worry. Insects like the fly carry pathogens that can have a devastating effect on indigenous life forms."

It is anticipated about 43,000 tourists will visit in the 2016/17 season and they may carry seeds and bugs from other regions on their boots and camera equipment. Over the past 3 decades temperatures have risen more than 3C (5.4 Fahrenheit) and glaciers are retreating and exposing more clear land for the mosses to grow much more quickly and thicker than ever before. This process is more noticeable in the Antarctic peninsula. as noted in an article in the "Current Biology 'the rate of moss growth is four to five times higher than it was before 1950. The sensitivity of moss growth to past temperature rises suggests that ecosystems will alter rapidly under warming, leading to major changes in the biology and landscape of the region, in short, we could see Antarctic greening to parallel well-established observations in the Arctic."

As a side bar, I would say what we have here is just part of a large jigsaw on the short term and long term affects of climate change and what it means to our lives. Unfortunately, our Administration is populated by naysayers who do not believe climate change is happening.

Jim Updegraff, Sacramento

POOR PLAYERS

"It isn't like it used to be. They used to have different shows. Like, there was this thing they called a curly-cue show, yeah, Tommy knows, he can tell you, where they'd get up on the stage and the band would play and these expert curly-cue performers would twist themselves in curly-cues and knots and just lie there trying to breathe. All twisted up like that. And they'd have to come and get them unstuck. And it was hilarious. It was great. People loved it. But of course a few kids died trying it at home, and there was that club fire that time, where everybody ran out and forgot and left the girl there, what was her name? Beautiful girl. So they passed laws so you can’t do it in public anymore even if it's only robots or puppets of it, because it still gives you the idea. All the old curly-cue stars are dying or dead of old age without passing on the craft to a new generation. And another wonderful thing has gone out of the world."

The recording of Friday night's (2017-06-23) KNYO Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show is ready to download for free and enjoy at any time of the day or night, via http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

Besides that, also there you'll find a fresh batch of links to material that I waded among while putting the show together that, for being mostly visual or requiring too much explanation, might not work well on radio, but are worthwhile, fascinating, even. Such as:

Death of the firstborn Egyptians. (From Nina Paley, who made Sita Sings the Blues.)

The wonders of free-market health care.

Robot and scarecrow.

Honest illustration of the contradictory nature of people and society, by Sako Asko.

And Joan McCracken imparts wise Native American relationship advice to an entire crowded malt shop in infectious frenetic song and dance.

–Marco McClean

UKIAH LIBRARY EVENTS & ACTIVITIES

July Line-Up Of Sunday Matinee Movies At Ukiah Library

Every Sunday, at 2 pm, Ukiah Library offers free screenings of great films. The series, Sunday Matinees at Your Library includes a rotation of PBS documentaries, Indie films, new releases, and PG rated films for families.

The films for July:

July 2^nd – 4.1 Miles “Daphne Matziaraki follows a day in the life of Kyriakos Papadopoulos, a captain in the Greek coast guard who is caught in the middle of the refugee crisis. Despite limited resources, the captain and his crew attempt to save thousands of migrants from drowning in the Aegean Sea. Nominated, 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject” PBS/POV short film. NR. (28 min)

July 9^th – Hunt for the Wilderpeople--“A national manhunt is ordered for a rebellious kid and his foster uncle who go missing in the wild New Zealand bush.” PG-13 (1 hr, 41 min)

July 16th – A Monster Calls—“12-year-old Conor, dealing with his mother's illness, a less-than-sympathetic grandmother, and bullying classmates, finds a most unlikely ally when a monster appears at his bedroom window.” PG-13 (1 hr, 48 min)

July 23rd – The Lego Batman Movie—for FAMILIES AND KIDS “A cooler-than-ever Bruce Wayne must deal with the usual suspects as they plan to rule Gotham City, while discovering that he has accidentally adopted a teenage orphan who wishes to become his sidekick.” PG (1 hr, 45 min)

July 30^th – A Street Cat Named Bob -- “The true feel good story of how James Bowen, a busker and recovering drug addict, had his life transformed when he met a stray ginger cat.” NR (1 hr, 43 min)

For more information, call 463-4490 or visit Mendolibrary.org

* * *

LARPspedition (A Live Action Role Playing Event) on Saturday, July 1^st from 2-6 pm.

On Saturday, July 1^st from 2-6 pm, Mendocino County Library, Ukiah Branch is hosting a LARPspedition! Design and make your very own foam LARP sword, join a team for a treasure hunt in the local community and enjoy a celebratory ice cream social after your adventure!

Advanced sign-ups are required and all participants must show up at 2 pm to make their LARP sword. This event is ages 12 and up, and is free to the public. Call 707-463-4490 to register.

This event is sponsored by The Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library, Dig! Music, Sword & Board, The Dragon’s Lair, Mendo Baby, Village Books, Mendocino Book Company, Black Oak Coffee Roasters and Thistle.

* * *

Mind Your Own Bees-Nest!:

a Beekeeping Presentation by Jonathan Hunt

& Craft: Make Your Own Bee House

Friday, June 30^th 2 pm

Here’s the buzz about bees: along with other pollinators like bats, birds, & butterflies - they’re vital to the future of our environment! Learn how to keep bees in your own backyard, attract pollinators to your garden, see a real (inactive) bee hive, & make your own bee house at the Ukiah Library.

This event is open to all ages. Registration is required; please call 463-4490 to sign up! All classes and events are free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library. For more information about the Ukiah Library Summer Reading Program, please contact: Melissa Eleftherion Carr at 707-467-4634 or carrm@co.mendocino.ca.us.

NEW FEATURE ADDED TO “CLOVERDALE SCULPTURE TRAIL” – FREE AUDIO, SELF-GUIDED WALKING TOUR

Take a tour with the "Cloverdale Sculpture Trail" artists! Cloverdale enlisted Otocast to create a narrated, audio, self-guided walking tour for the sculptures in the 2017-2018 Exhibit. And best of all, the audio comes from the actual artists!

All the sculptures will be displayed on an interactive map, with pictures, descriptions, and directions from wherever you are, so you can easily find explore the Trail. To enjoy the audio guide you can download through Otocast, Google Play or the Apple App Store a free Otocast app, which includes the Cloverdale Sculpture Trail.

Otocast is a free mobile app currently being used around North America (and beyond) to let people access over 100 guides for public art, historic landmarks, architecture, monuments and other points of interest.

What is the “Cloverdale Sculpture Trail”? The Sculpture Trail is a year-round exhibit with sculptures changing every 12 months. It is designed to enhance the Cloverdale public environment and promote an understanding and enjoyment of public art. The high quality of sculptures displayed in Cloverdale are being enjoyed and experienced by residents and tourists. And, what better way to enjoy, embrace and interpret sculptures in our daily lives than in public-accessible places, the streets of Cloverdale.

MY ROLLER DERBY DATE

by Paul Modic

After Roller Derby in Eureka, after lots of sushi and sake in Arcata, after she drove home to Trinidad at 11pm I walked around the corner to the Arcata Hotel where I found a No Vacancy sign, oops, I had not really thought this out.

I sat in the car wondering if I was drunk or how drunk I was, I didn't feel very drunk, maybe sake isn't very strong or all that wasabi balanced it out? What to do? Where to go? I called the Roller Derby girl from Mendo Mayhem and she said they were all leaving the hotel in Eureka heading for the titty bar at the edge of town. She invited me to join but I told her I felt somewhat marooned in Arcata on account of the drinking.

"We have a taxi and a designated driver," she said.

I sat in my car pondering the options: I could drive North to one of the motels off Guintoli Lane or maybe try to find a friend who was up? I drove across town to David and Anne's house thinking I'm not sure what? A crash pad? A mat in the back yard? I was very prepared with sleeping foam and bag. The house was dark, I got out and walked the perimeter, it was now past 11:30pm.

I drove on to Eureka passing many motels, I didn't feel inebriated at all. When I got near the Tip Top club I thought, "Really?" I hesitated and missed the turn then doubled back, okay I did want to see what those derby girls were up to there. As I got out of the car four women bounced out of the club jabbering nonstop.

"Carmen?" I said. They were leaving because there was no alcohol served or maybe they were just ready to go on to the bigger after-party at the popular dive bar The Shanty. They were talking about the strippers' tits, their tits, and all the tits that got near them during their lap dances. One went off to pee in the bushes and a couple more were puffing on a pipe in the parking lot.

Carmen invited me on to The Shanty and I thought hmmm, maybe, but I had already had a fun time with the hot chick who had gone to Roller Derby with me and it was time to drive that sometimes long-seeming hour home. Since the antenna had come off in the car wash earlier I listened to Brazilian music and books on CD and was happy, though groggy and bed-heady, to wake up in my bed this morning.

Acting DWR Director Bill Croyle, who led state response to Oroville Dam crisis, retires

by Dan Bacher

Bill Croyle, the controversial California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Acting Director who oversaw the state’s response to the Oroville Dam spillway crisis, on June 23 announced his retirement, effective July 1, 2017, in an official news release from the embattled state agency.
Cindy Messer, the agency's Chief Deputy Director, will serve as Acting Director of the department until a new director is appointed by Governor Jerry Brown.

“I am honored to have served with many talented, dedicated people throughout my career,” stated Croyle. “I am very proud of the work we have accomplished over the years bringing California through drought, flood and most recently, through the Oroville Spillway incident. And now I’m looking forward to picking up my retirement plans where they left off six months ago.”

Not only did Croyle oversee the widely-criticized handling of the Oroville Dam crisis that led to the chaotic evacuation of 188,000 residents of Butte, Yuba and Sutter Counties on one hour’s notice on February 12, but he and Natural Resources Secretary John Laird have served as the primary promoters of Governor Jerry Brown's widely-opposed Delta Tunnels plan.

Keeping the public in the dark

The issuing of a press release to announce his retirement was apparently the result of the increasing national and international media scrutiny of DWR in light of the agency’s flawed response to the Oroville Dam complex disaster. Prior to this announcement, it was only after internal documents were anonymously leaked to me that I was able to expose in December that the top two DWR officials were leaving,

On December 18, I made public the appointment of Croyle as the Acting Director after obtaining an internal memo from John Laird, the California Secretary for Natural Resource, sent to DWR employees on December 13. .

Croyle replaced Mark Cowin, who retired after 36 years with the agency, including nearly 7 years as DWR Director, on December 31, 2016. Cowin retired at the same time that Carl Torgersen, the DWR Chief Deputy Director at the time, retired from the embattled agency.

After hearing reports from political insiders that the two officials were retiring, in December I confirmed the news of the two officials' retirement when Nancy Vogel, Deputy Secretary for Communications of the California Natural Resources Agency, responded to my email. More information: www.dailykos.com/...

Apparently all of the media attention focus on DWR’s questionable handling of the Oroville Dam spillway crisis spurred the agency to issue an official press release about Croyle's retirement, rather than leaving the public and media in the dark about what was going on, as they so often do.

The DWR press release said Croyle put his original retirement plans on hold in January 2017 when Governor Brown asked him to serve as Acting Director of the department.

Secretary John Laird praises Croyle’s “leadership”

“California is extremely fortunate to have had Bill at the helm of DWR this year, especially during the Oroville emergency,” claimed Secretary John Laird, of the California Natural Resources Agency. “We are all grateful for his commitment and public service.”

Prior to his appointment, Croyle served as Deputy Director for Statewide Emergency Preparedness and Security at the Department. In nearly ten years with DWR, Croyle served as the Drought Emergency Operations Manager, representing the department on Governor Brown’s Interagency Drought Task Force and various other drought task forces, according to DWR.

He also served as the Department Emergency Program Manager and spent more than six years as Chief of Flood Operations. In addition, Croyle worked more than 23 years for the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board in Sacramento, where “he served in a variety of capacities,” said DWR.

New Acting Director Messer coordinated preparation and implementation of invalid Delta Plan

The Governor appointed Cindy Messer, the new Acting Director, as the Department of Water Resources’ Chief Deputy Director in February 2017. Prior to this appointment, Cindy had been DWR’s Assistant Chief Deputy Director, “serving as a subject matter expert and policy advisor to the Director and Chief Deputy Director on a broad range of issues impacting statewide water management,” DWR stated.

Messer served as the Deputy Director of the Planning, Performance and Technology Division at the Delta Stewardship Council from 2012 until her appointment at DWR. As Deputy Director she coordinated the preparation and implementation of the controversial Delta Plan.

On this day one year ago, Judge Michael Kenny of the Sacramento Superior Court ruled that the Delta Plan that Messer worked on was "invalid" after a successful legal challenge by multiple Delta parties who argued that the plan is not protective of the water quality or the fish species that depend on fresh water flows for their survival. More information: www.indybay.org/...

The retirement comes at a critical time for the Department of the Water Resources. Not only has DWR faced widespread criticism and litigation over its handling of the Oroville Dam crisis, but it faces growing opposition to the Delta Tunnels (California WaterFix) project that it is the lead state agency for.

Delta Stewardship Council approves amendments promoting Delta Tunnels

In spite of massive opposition by fishermen, family farmers, environmentalists and Delta residents who packed a room in the Holiday Inn in Sacramento Thursday, the Delta Stewardship Council voted to endorse controversial conveyance and storage amendments to the Delta Plan that project opponents say will hasten the approval of DWR’s Delta Tunnels proposal.

“I am very disappointed that the Council approved a policy that favors big money water exporters over the Delta,” said Mike Brodsky, lawyer for the Save the Delta Alliance (STDA), in response to the decision. “Several Council members seemed not to be fully informed on what they were voting for and had an incomplete understanding of the Delta and its residents as well as inadequate information on how the water export system works and what the WaterFix project will do.”

“We will continue our efforts to educate Council members and seek changes in their one-sided policy as the environmental review process goes forward. Litigation may be required because of some of the mis-steps the Council made on Thursday. Nevertheless, we will continue our educational efforts to make real the stated intent of several Council members to protect the Delta—regardless of any new and the existing ongoing litigation,” he concluded.

More information: www.dailykos.com/...

 

YOU'RE NOT ANYBODY'S FRIEND, YOU'RE NOT WORKING HARD (EXCEPT FOR BILLIONAIRES), AND TRUMP IS ONLY HALF THE PROB — YOU AND THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE OTHER HALF

Subject: More Ways to Keep in Touch

From: "Rep. Mike Thompson" <RepMikeThompsonCA05@mail.house.gov>

Date: Sat, June 24, 2017 3:02 pm

Dear Friend,

With so much happening in Washington and here at home, I’m more committed than ever to making sure you know what’s going on.

I’m working hard on your behalf, and you deserve to see everything I’m doing to solve problems, address your concerns, and fight for our values. Across all my pages, you can tune in to press conferences and town halls, ask questions, read my positions, and get a behind-the-scenes view into what I’m working on.

I’m proud to launch two new initiatives to keep you informed: Meet Mike Mondays and The Weekly Wrap-Up.

Tune in every Monday on Facebook and Twitter where I share more about myself and the issues I’m working on. And on Friday, I’ll tell you what Congress has done throughout the week and how I’ve been fighting for our community.

You deserve to know what’s really going on in Washington, our community, and our country. I’m committed to keeping you in the loop. So please, like my page on Facebook and follow me on Twitter and Instagram to get the latest updates.

Thanks,

Mike Thompson

Member of Congress