Mendocino County Today: Nov. 9, 2017

• Uncounted Ballots
• Logo Hearing
• Keegan Maneuvers
• Medical MJ
• Press Conference
• Antonio Wanted
• Ed Notes
• Little Dog
• Quiz Night
• Fire Aftermath
• Ash Cleanup
• Yesterday's Catch
• Indiscretion
• Context
• Mass Killings
• Tiny LSD
• Smissen Comics
• Legal Bribery
• Impeaching Trump
• Uncle Sad
• Garbanzo Greetings

ALMOST 4,000 BALLOTS LEFT TO BE COUNTED

But the outcome is not likely to change.

November 7, 2017 Consolidated Districts Election

Mendocino County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder Susan M. Ranochak announced that as with every other election, there are ballots left to be processed as part of the official canvass.  Mendocino County has 3,911 Vote By Mail ballots to process, and 231 Provisional ballots to review and process.

Of the outstanding ballots left to count, Millview Water District has 179 and Ukiah Valley Sanitation District has 636.

Per State law, we have 28 days to complete the canvass. The Statement of Vote, which breaks down results by precinct, will be available at that time.

If you have any additional questions, please call our office at (707) 234-6819

(County Clerk Press Release)

ED NOTE: So far 13,991 votes have been counted County-wide for Measure B. Of those 11,609 are Yes, and 2,382 are No. If we add the 3,911 outstanding votes to the 13,991 already counted we get 17,902. Measure B would need two-thirds of that number plus 1, or 11,935. So Measure B needs only only 326 of the remaining 3911 votes to pass. In other words, Measure B has passed for all intents and purposes.

SIMILARLY, the outcome of the Ukiah Valley Sanitation District Board election is unlikely to change meaning all three incumbents have been ousted and three new Board members will take their seats in January: Ukiah contractor Ernie Wipf, Julie Bawcom and Andrea Reed. Lots of voters expect them to make a good faith effort to resolve the multi-million dollar dispute between the District and the City of Ukiah with a minimum of additional legal fees. We shall see.

SANTA ROSA JUNIOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACH LOGO TEVASEU CHARGED WITH MURDER IN SUSPECTED DUI CRASH

by Paul Payne

A Santa Rosa Junior College football coach is charged with murder in an alleged drunken-driving crash that killed a 21-year-old Sonoma State University student.

Logo Tevaseu, 35, faces a life prison sentence if convicted of killing Paulette Quiba Sunday night on Lakeville Highway near Petaluma. The junior from Oakley was returning to Rohnert Park from a family visit when authorities said Tevaseu crossed the double yellow lines in his Dodge Ram pickup and slammed head-on into her Toyota Corolla. Prosecutors on Tuesday filed a five-count complaint including murder because Tevaseu was convicted of drunken driving in Sonoma County in 2012. The defensive line coach for the Bear Cubs since 2015 is being denied bail and remains in custody. He appeared in court briefly Wednesday before Judge Robert LaForge but said nothing and postponed entering a plea. His next court date is Tuesday. Friends and family, including head coach Lenny Wagner, attended the hearing. Wagner said “I love him like a son,” but that he was forbidden by the college from commenting further. Family members including his brother, fellow SRJC coach Martin Tevaseu, also declined to comment.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

* * *

ED NOTE: I've known Logo for a long time, back to when he was a kid at Anderson Valley High School. For me, and for everyone who knows him, to see him in this situation is almost unimaginable. He is a good person, a very good person. I find it hard to believe he'd be this careless and, knowing him, a big part of him has been killed, too. Logo is married to an Anderson Valley girl with whom he has two small daughters. He's blessed in having a strong family, and he has a strong community in Santa Rosa standing with him, too. If the facts are as reported, he will need every bit of support his family and friends can muster.

I'M ALREADY very unhappy with the Press Democrat's coverage of the Logo Teveseu matter, and I wonder if I'm the only long-time reader to note the paper's suspicious interest in crimes committed by ethnic minorities, especially celebrities. And Logo is a celebrity of sorts in NorCal from his memorable years on the old gridiron. And there's the PD's historical hostility for Santa Rosa JC's highly successful football program. The paper simply ignores it although every year Coach Wagner sends several athletes on to Division One schools, many of whom, if it weren't for Wagner, would have had no chance at a college education. The lack of coverage from the hometown paper is doubly odd because the quality of play is very, very good against equivalently strong football teams. Anderson Valley High School and Coach Kuny sent both Logo and his brother Martin to SRJC where they both starred, Logo going on to TCU, Martin on to the big, big time with the Philadelphia Eagles. We have another local boy, Will Lemons, starting at SRJC this year, another Kuny product to successfully make the jump from tiny Boonville to highly competitive college football.

A SHELL GAME attended the motion to continue the Dr. Peter Keegan murder trial on Wednesday and Dr. Keegan, if he was present as most murder defendants are required to be at this early a stage in the proceedings, he was not visible, nor on time, at 9:00 in Department B, Her Honor Ann Moorman's court; nor was his case ever called, even though his name was plainly listed on the docket.  As the morning wore on, Keegan's lawyer, Chris Andrian finally showed up, but he never came to the courtroom where the case was calendared to take place.  He was seen in the foyer, and was summoned to a group of the doctor's advocates who were gathered upstairs instead, and after a private discussion, the party vanished from the courthouse (or to some secret chamber within it).  The prosecutor, Deputy DA Tim Stoen, was in a murder trial for Caleb Silver, and thus tied up all morning.  When I was finally able to speak with him during lunch recess, he said he was no longer on the case, and that he thought maybe his underling, Kevin Davenport had taken charge.  Deputy DA Davenport was as invisible as Dr. Keegan if he was indeed on the premises at all, and I learned from the always accommodating District Attorney that Judge Ann Moorman had been disqualified.  DA Eyster did not yet know the circumstances, he said, but should know at the end of the day, after a briefing by his staff.  Your trusty courthouse hack hopes to have more particulars tomorrow. (Bruce McEwen)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA

by Peter Keegan

August, 1996 — The ballot proposition calling for the legalization of marijuana for medical use should call all voters to the polls in November. Every day I see people in my medical practice who could clearly benefit from a prescription for this safe and useful drug, and every day I am forced by peculiar prescribing laws to send them away with less effective, more expensive substitutes. This angers me as a physician and as a caring individual.

In November, we can vote to allow people with clear medical needs to use and grow marijuana. Prop 215, “The Compassionate Use Act of l996” aims “To ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes where the medical use is deemed appropriate and has been recommended by a physician who has determined that the person's health would benefit from the use of marijuana in the treatment of cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.” I've enclosed a copy of the entire initiative, which is short and clear, which I hope the AVA will publish. It's important to accept this small opening of the door. Everyone must vote and encourage their friends to do likewise.

Currently, marijuana is a Schedule 1 (as opposed to 2, 3, 4, or 5) drug, which means the federal government has it in the most restricted category. It can not be used or prescribed under any circumstances. Schedule 1 drugs are defined as drugs which both lack any therapeutic use and are highly dangerous.

This could not be further from the truth! Marijuana has a variety of effects, both physical and psychological, that can be extremely therapeutic. It is also remarkably safe. A lethal drug overdose from marijuana has never been reported anywhere in the medical literature. Even when a young child was inadvertently given a giant overdose, it was not fatal, and recovery was quick and complete. Not many drugs have that safety record. And it is because marijuana is both so useful and so completely safe that we can no longer afford to make this drug unavailable to people whose suffering it could relieve.

Marijuana has been used medically for thousands of years and pharmacopoeias throughout the world, both ancient and modern, describe this plant's ability to help us physically and mentally. Marijuana is a powerful drug and, interestingly, the human brain has chemical receptors which are specifically designed for marijuana molecules. That's the way God made us.

Glaucoma is a good example of a disease where marijuana can be an effective therapy. Marijuana lowers pressure inside the eyeball, countering the effects of glaucoma, a common and potentially blinding disease. It is not against the law for a doctor to treat glaucoma with an incredible variety of drugs, chemicals, medications, pharmaceuticals, whatever you chose to call biologically active molecules. But it is against the law to prescribe marijuana.

Marijuana is an excellent appetite stimulant, the best there is. If you go to most doctors and ask for something to improve your appetite, you'd soon discover that there are no effective legal remedies. It is not only that the medication is expensive, or has troublesome side-effects, but that there is nothing currently available that works well to stimulate appetite. This is a case where, when people say marijuana does not need to be legalized because there are other drugs that can be used, it is simply not true.

Marijuana is also a miracle drug for nausea. A single smoked inhalation of dried marijuana flower can, within seconds, settle down nausea and subsequently stimulate hunger. Many chronic debilitating illnesses, including AIDS and the side effects of chemotherapy, are accompanied by loss of appetite that results in nutritional compromise and hastens our demise. If good nutrition can be maintained during an illness, the prognosis is really much better. As a doctor in today's world, however, I am forced to watch my clients waste away, because a simple, safe, and effective medication has been decreed illegal.

Marinol pills, a derivative of marijuana, are available from your doctor; they're Schedule 2, and you can get those with a triplicate prescription. Some people feel this offers an alternative solution to the natural plant material of marijuana. However, Marinol, a feeble synthetic substitute, doesn't work nearly as well as the natural stuff. Inhalation of marijuana is quick and effective; when you're vomiting, it's hard to get Marinol pills to stay down. Marinol is also expensive; the pills can cost over six bucks each in Ukiah, and you'd be hard pressed to get a bottle of 25, which might last a week, for under $150. God gives it free, but not Roxane Laboratories Inc..

Marijuana is especially missed by pregnant women. Some women definitely experience distressingly severe nausea which can interfere with adequate nourishment and hydration. This is another example where there are NOT good alternative chemicals available for medical treatment. Ask most of your obstetricians if there is a an effective and safe medication they like to prescribe for ”morning sickness,” and there isn't really one available. Yet thousands of women have used this plant in pregnancy with good results.

Is marijuana truly a safe drug in pregnancy? If the criminality of marijuana were removed, we could answer that question with certainty. A retrospective study from the past 30 years could be relatively easily be done collecting data from the women who have already used this herb and know the outcome of their pregnancy. Under the current climate of total illegality, not many women or medical professionals would care to divulge their experiences. If marijuana were a legal drug, prescribable by doctors, we would be able to keep records, collect the data, reach conclusions about its safety and effectiveness, just as we do with many other chemicals.

Instead, we have created a climate where to recommend the use of marijuana in pregnancy is cultural heresy. In the current war on drugs, pregnant women are the most intensely targeted. And while it is true that alcohol, amphetamines, cocaine, tobacco, and many currently used prescription drugs are dangerous to the fetus, that is NOT known for marijuana.

If marijuana is safe pharmacologically and therapeutically useful, why did the government make it illegal? It happened in l937 and it was mostly motivated by folks in law enforcement. When prohibition ran out — who were the coppers going after with their tommy guns blazing? The Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement was created in l930 and as a federal enforcement agency (like the FBI, ATF of CIA), it sought as big a turf as it could get. They launched a campaign of misinformation and exaggeration about “the killer drug marihuana, a powerful narcotic in which lurks Murder! Insanity! Death!” They created a drug hysteria of sorts, and low and behold, their dirty tricks worked and plague us to this day.

I'm proud to say that the AMA, in one of its finer moments, resisted this phony propaganda and gave the following testimony to Congress in 1937: “There is positively no evidence to indicate the abuse of cannabis as a medicinal agent or to show that its medicinal use is leading to the development of cannabis addiction and it would seem worthwhile to maintain its status as a medicinal agent for such purposes as it now has.”

As a doctor I can prescribe a bottle of pills knowing that if the client takes all 30 they will most certainly die. For that matter, any adult can go in any liquor store and buy a lethal dose in a single bottle. We have seen deaths from alcohol overdoses in every city and town in the US. Schedule 2 drugs, things like narcotics, amphetamines, and barbiturates, which have lethal overdose potential and high potentials for addiction, are available for prescription by medical doctors. Schedule 2 drugs, dangerous and addictive as they are, we acknowledge to have some usefulness in medical treatments, and thus they can be prescribed. If you overdose on marijuana you can feel anxious, paranoid and hallucinate, but you won't die, and it won't turn you into a violent homicidal maniac or make you an instant crazed addict. Yet it is more strictly guarded than these other, far more lethal drugs.

In 1988, a federal judge, Francis Young, conducted a comprehensive review of marijuana, found that it did have medical uses, and ordered the Bureau of Narcotics to reclassify marijuana to be available by prescription. He was totally ignored.

The California State Legislature has repeatedly passed medical marijuana initiatives, only to have them vetoed by Governor Wilson.. The reason for this ballot initiative now is to get past this one person roadblock.

Better living through chemistry has been around for a long time. People do use and doctors do prescribe chemicals to change the way our bodies work, including our thinking. That's what prozac and elavil and many other drugs which are widely used are all about. It is not necessarily bad to change the way we think and feel, or to get a little chemical help along the way, especially when we are suffering. In fact, I dare say it's in the doctors job description to do precisely that.

Every day I prescribe medications for my clients. They ask and expect that I will give them the most effective treatment available. Their suffering makes a moral demand on me as a physician, to do my utmost to keep them comfortable and safe. Current marijuana laws stand between their needs and my compassion. The government has locked up one of my best tools, and is refusing to act despite overwhelming evidence regarding marijuana's safety and therapeutic effectiveness.

As a society, we must help our government to a newer, and more scientifically based policy. The paranoia, fear and misinformation which surround marijuana must not prevail. Can we act with compassion for those who are suffering? Search your heart, consider the logic, and vote Yes on 215.

(Peter Keegan is an MD who has been a family practice physician in Ukiah for 15 years.)

CRITIQUING THE APOCALYPSE

On Thursday, November 9, 2017 at 10:00 AM, Mendocino County Sheriff Thomas D. Allman will hold a press conference highlighting the events of the first 12 hours of the Mendocino Lake Complex Fire which impacted Potter Valley and Redwood Valley beginning on October 8, 2017.  The press conference will be held at the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors chambers located at 501 Low Gap Road in Ukiah.  The press conference will be open to the public and will also be live-streamed on the County of Mendocino Facebook page: facebook.com/mendocinocounty

WARRANT WEDNESDAY

Antonio Cervantes is WANTED

*PC 209(B)(1) KIDNAP FOR ROBBERY

*PC 211/212.5/213a1B FIRST DEGREE ROBBERY

*PC 12022.53(D) SA USE OF FIREARM

*PC 12022.7(A) SA GREAT BODILY INJURY 70 YEARS PLUS

*PC 1320(B) FAILURE TO APPEAR

$1,000,000 BAIL

Age: 34 years old

Height: 5' 8"

Weight: 165 lbs

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Brown

Last Known City/Town: Santa Rosa, CA

If you recognize this individual or have information which could lead to their arrest, please contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office at (707) 463-4086

ED NOTES

A WILLITS READER WRITES: "Well…It seems the Sheriff’s mentals tax has passed. His tireless efforts have paid a huge dividend for him, or so it seems, thanks to his army of gushing groupies. As for an acknowledged NO voter, I will watch with interest how a county who can’t even manage a museum, let alone its satellite phones, deals with the complex issues of mental health."

WE SHARE some of the above reader's concerns. Mendocino County's mental health efforts have never inspired any confidence whatsoever. Millions of public dollars have simply disappeared into the gaping maw of unverified services rendered, but still we think Measure B will be a step forward, less expensive and more humane than shipping the mentally troubled to distant for-profit facilities.

WE'RE PLEASED that Measure B has passed, although it will take our slo-mo elections office some time to officially confirm the good news. That it did pass is due in large part to Sheriff Allman's tireless campaigning for it, and we'll note here that in "progressive" Mendocino County it took a cop to get a humane approach to in-County mental illness funded. Allman was able to convert the widespread public perception that the present approach to local mental health crises is a sad, expensive joke on the mentally ill, whose  psychotropic drugs are presently re-calibrated in Yuba City or wherever and shipped back to Mendo in no better shape than when they left for "treatment." With our own in-County facility, we can monitor its functioning — whether or not it's being properly run, whether or not it's helpful to the afflicted and their families. As is, there is no monitoring, zero accountability.

* * *

OOPS! Dan Kuny has applied for the Potter Valley football coach job. He hasn't been hired. Yet. Assuming he'll be the only applicant for long hours, little to no pay, nagging parents and fans, four hours on a school bus to Covelo and back, Kuny is one guy who knows exactly what he's getting, having done it in Boonville for years. But the kids will learn some discipline and have fun absorbing the lessons.

* * *

NOTE to would-be Mendo politicians: there's no better way to learn about this vast place than via high school sports, from Point Arena to Laytonville, to Mendocino to Covelo, to Boonville. The present superintendent of County Schools, Warren Galletti, parlayed his years as basketball coach at Point Arena into a cush job for himself, one of the highest paid in the County, a job with no discernible duties, a job with a big office and a phone that never rings. All Galletti has to do is go to an occasional free donut meeting and say something like, "I think it's time we interfaced with the new paradigms," and he's nailed it for another four years. At vote time, he not only had County jockdom sewed up, he had name recognition in every community from Gualala to the east end of Spy Rock and all points in between.

* * *

FROM WEDNESDAY'S UDJ: "Spencer Brewer, a Redwood Valley resident and musician, founder of Ukiah’s summer concerts in the park program also attended the fundraiser at The Office Tuesday. He was one of the people who helped organize Saturday’s Mendocino Strong Together fundraiser at the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds. He said he wanted to support Sheriff Allman because he is behind anything the sheriff supports and supporting the community was a big deal."

JEEZ. Easy, Spencer, easy big champion. But the Allman phenomenon is remarkable, as is his singular effort in getting Measure B passed. It was the Sheriff's baby from conception to birth. Mendo hasn't had a public official as popular as Allman in modern times.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, Bruno, the pitbull from next door, has been eating Skrag's food. Skrag said, ‘I thought you were our watchdog, Little Dog.’ I had to laugh. Pitbulls? Not my job, especially protecting that loafer.”

BOONVILLE'S BRAIN GAME

The General Knowledge and Trivia Quiz makes its only appearance of the month tomorrow, on the second Thursday, 9th November. The fun and brain stimulation takes place at Lauren’s Restaurant and begins at 7pm... The 4th Thursday is Thanksgiving so, for reasons that are not entirely clear to me, people will be otherwise engaged and there will not be a Quiz. I suppose I shall just eat and drink all day like I do every year on this 4th Thursday in November (actually by far my favorite U.S. holiday)… Hope to see you tomorrow, Cheers,

Steve Sparks / The Quiz Master

WE STAYED

To the Editor:

I am a 33 year resident of Redwood Valley.

My husband and I stayed home even though we were supposed to evacuate. We knew the fire wasn’t real close because I drove up East Road a couple of times to see. We did pack our vehicles with items from the house; photos, mementos and my Jan Hoyman pottery. We had a plan if we did need to go and what animals would go in what vehicle. We slept in shifts so one of us could keep an eye on the fire. I had my phone and was in constant contact with several people on the outside as well as inside the evacuation area. When a few people that I knew found out I was still at our home, they contacted me to see if I could feed their animals and check on their house. I said “yes, of course.” Luckily their homes weren’t in the fire zone. So at that point I felt I had a responsibility to stay.

Later, after everything died down and I heard several people stayed to protect their homes and those of their neighbors’ that were in the fire zone, all I could say is “good for them.” I’m sure they knew the risks and I’m sure they would get out if need be. There are some people who think those ‘heroes’ were foolish and should not have put themselves in danger. Unless you were out here you can’t say that. You don’t know unless you were here. You can’t assume that because you wouldn’t stay near harm’s way, that someone else who does is foolish. Our colorful valley is full of all walks of life. The people who stayed behind knew full well what they were dealing with. How could anyone possibly not, we all saw the raging inferno that morning.

At first I didn’t consider myself a fire victim so I just went about my regular routine. I told myself, my house didn’t burn down, I’m fine. But I wasn’t fine, I hurt for all those people who lost loved ones, homes, vehicles and pets. I realized that we are all victims along with everyone that lives in Redwood Valley and friends and family of those that live here, they’re victims also. As a community we all took a collective hit, and as a community we are strong. Not all of us can know the experience of that morning in the thick of it. But we all know our community’s pain. We all feel it, and we all will be even stronger now because of it.

Robin Madsen

Redwood Valley

HARD CHOICES

Editor:

An article in last Wednesday’s Santa Rosa paper quoted officials regarding the urgency for fire clean-up before winter rains commence (“With upcoming rain, fear of contamination”). Property owners are reluctant thus far to allow government to clean up their toxic ash and may be setting the stage for a secondary tragedy: massive polluting of our waterways.

Remaining ash, containing an eviscerated combination of toxic products, may be washed into the water or settle on gardens and farms to do irreparable damage. This stuff is so toxic that men in white suits with masks, gloves and boots have to remove it to a special place where they allow toxic wastes.

It is time-consuming, dirty, expensive and hazardous. And it needs to be done immediately before the heavy rains begin.

Those holding off may find it hard to find qualified people to do the job properly and affordably so they can obtain permits to rebuild. Time is of the essence to get it done. Please sign your right-of-entry form, and let others arrange to do the work free of charge.

It’s a hard choice. We feel sympathy for people having to make it, but the effects could be so dire, it might greatly compound the suffering and loss.

Brenda Adelman

Russian River Watershed Protection Committee

Santa Rosa

CATCH OF THE DAY, November 8, 2017

SHANNON ARNOLD, Goleta/Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

CHARLES BLUNT, Ukiah. Controlled substance, probation revocation.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

BRADLEY GALLAGHER, Fort Bragg. Criminal threats, battery against peace officer, resisting, probation revocation.

ROY JONES JR., San Jose/Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

AARON KOSKI SR., Fort Bragg. Under influence, contempt of court, probation revocation. (Frequent Flyer)

CHARLES KUNTZ, Firestone, Colorado/Ukiah. Under influence.

GAY TALESE on Kevin Spacey: “I feel so sad, and I hate that actor that ruined this guy’s career. So, OK, it happened 10 years ago…Jesus, suck it up once in a while! I would like to ask [Spacey] how it feels to lose a lifetime of success and hard work all because of 10 minutes of indiscretion 10 years or more ago. You know something, all of us in this room at one time or another did something we’re ashamed of. The Dalai Lama has done something he’s ashamed of. The Dalai Lama should confess…put that in your magazine!”

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Partial list of mass shooting causes:

1/ Common Pharma meds and Doctors do not heal but harm and kill

2/ Common mass produced foods do not feed, but starve you of nutrition

3/ Common drinks do not hydrate you but dehydrate you

4/ The common education system teaches you to be ignorant, stupid, and hate learning

5/ The media does not inform, but dis-informs and deliberately distracts

6/ While the city should be the quintessential common space, in actuality it is now designed to isolate and atomize you

7/ Government does not work for, but against you

And on and on.

DEBORAH SILVA WRITES:

Mass Killers

Here's a link to a nifty spreadsheet on mass shooters that was compiled by Mother Jones. It covers the years 1982-2017 and includes the latest shooting in Texas.  An overwhelming number of the mass shooters were white but there have been shooters of other races. There's lots of information but the spreadsheet is a little annoying because you need to go to the bottom of the sheet and slide the sheet along to see all the different columns, losing your place on the sheet in the process. One thing that stood out to me was that this year, 2017, there have been more mass shootings than any previous year and this year is not over.

motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data/

HOW AYELET WALDMAN FOUND A CALMER LIFE ON TINY DOSES OF LSD

The polymath writer, known for defying expectation, turned a treatment for her unstable moods into her latest project.

Dealing with depression using micro-doses of acid instead of anti-depressants! Good NPR interview on getting over the hump in depressive mode.

npr.org/tags/126924343/ayelet-waldman

newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/how-ayelet-waldman-found-a-calmer-life-on-tiny-doses-of-lsd

MARCO MCCLEAN WRITES: I need to know the bracket of years Eduardo Smissen colored Star Trek comic books, and what other comic book series he worked on, if any.

Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org

OUTTA THERE BEFORE EGGNOGS

House Dem pledges Trump impeachment vote by Christmas

(TheHill.com)

Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) announced on Wednesday that he will force a vote on the House floor to impeach President Trump before Christmas. “I now announce that before Christmas, there will be a vote on the chief inciter of racism, bigotry, hatred, xenophobia, sexism, ethnocentrism. There will be a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on the impeachment of the president,” Green said in a House floor speech. Green had previously unveiled articles of impeachment last month. But he held off from forcing a vote at the time, citing a desire for the public to have a chance to consider them.

The Texas Democrat did not offer a specific date for when he would force a vote, saying only that it would be before the December holiday. Forcing a vote on impeachment could be more awkward for Democrats than for Republicans.

Virtually all Republicans would presumably vote to reject Green’s effort to impeach Trump. But it would split Democrats, a handful of whom are agitating for Trump’s impeachment.

However,  most of the House Democratic caucus, including its leadership, think voting to impeach Trump at this point would be premature and ultimately backfire. They want to wait for the outcome of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government in 2016 before detonating the political bomb of impeachment.

Twelve Democrats represent districts carried by Trump in 2016, which would put them in a particularly risky position as they seek to avoid angering the president’s supporters.

“And while I have been told that there are political consequences for what I will do, I accept the consequences,” Green said.

Under House rules, under member can force a vote on what is known as a “privileged” resolution within two days after giving notice of their intentions.

Republicans would likely move to table the resolution, resulting in a procedural vote that would serve as the first referendum in Congress on impeaching Trump.

“Whatever others will do is their choice. My conscience dictates that I will vote to impeach. Let others do what they may. History will judge us all,” Green said.

His articles of impeachment do not accuse Trump of committing a crime. Instead, Green’s impeachment articles state that Trump has “undermined the integrity of his office” and “brought disrepute on the presidency” with his equivocating response to the violence stemming from a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Va.; attacks on NFL players kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality; and since-dismissed allegations by Trump that former President Obama ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower.

By contrast, an article of impeachment filed by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) alleges that Trump obstructed justice by firing James Comey as director of the FBI amid the agency's investigation of Russia's role in the 2016 election.

Green’s announcement on an issue that divides Democrats came a day after the party won resounding victories in elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey. In Virginia, Democrats are close to unexpectedly taking control of the GOP-controlled House of Delegates.

NAVARRO OPENS A FORTUNE COOKIE

Editor,

A place for everything and everything in its place. — Ancient piece of wisdom

However, poor flawed creatures what we are, it is a fine show of hubris to confidently believe that we know just exactly what that place must be.

Perhaps if we close our eyes and patiently await inspiration, that place will likely make itself known to you.

First, eliminate all clutter (if you haven’t used something in a year it is probably not necessary for your happiness.)

Empty, clean and dry all surfaces and simply put everything in its place.

Who knows what magic awaits.

Greetings from the Deepend: ‘Garbanzo from Navarro’