Mendocino County Today: Friday, Nov. 10, 2017

• Remembrance Day
• Navarro Sandbar
• First Rains
• Care-a-Van Willits
• Fire Presentation
• Little Dog
• Keegan Documents
• Fog
• Quick Housing
• Library Closures
• Fire Funding
• Vista
• B Prediction
• Yesterday's Catch
• Nation Facing
• Half Mast
• Poor War
• Thomas Interview
• Another Creep
• Seltzer Concert
• Power Sex
• Reader Distractions
• Outage Survey
• Hurricane Smith
• Humanist Huffman
• Slavery
• Green Facade

VETERANS DAY, 2017

Dear Friends,

On Saturday, 11th November, 2017, at 10.30am prompt, the American Legion’s Kirk Wilder and myself will be presenting a special Veterans Day service alongside the Remembrance Wall at the Evergreen Cemetery on Anderson Valley Way just north of Boonville.

I have been involved with such an event for much of my adult life, both in the UK and San Francisco, and initiated the local event in the Valley eight years ago, before taking a break for a couple of years ago as others organized the ceremony. A month or so ago, Kirk approached me about working on this again and we have done so together and will hopefully present a meaningful Remembrance Day gathering next weekend.

Valley folks like yourselves are encouraged to attend. It should be emphasized that this is not an overtly political or religious event. It is simply an opportunity for the community of Anderson Valley to show its support and gratitude for both the men and women who have given their lives or were wounded in the service of their country, and also those who have served or continue to serve, so that we may have the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy today. We hope to see you there.

Cheers, Steve Sparks

NAVARRO RIVER SANDBAR still in place as of Thursday afternoon as reported by Paul McCarthy on MendocinoSportsPlus.

ABOUT TWO-THIRDS OF AN INCH of in Boonville on Thursday. Nearly three inches so far this year.

THE FIRST REAL RAIN used to bring out the little frogs newly evolved from their brief lives as tadpoles. They'd cover the backroads in such numbers you'd want to turn around rather than crush them. Chemical run-off from vineyards and up-country pot grows has pretty much finished off Anderson Valley's frog population. The only ones left are in the areas far from the possibility of poisons. This morning, Thursday, I counted exactly two baby frogs on Anderson Valley Way, Boonville, and both of them were dead, run over. There was, however, a noticeable spike in Con Creek's flow, and it's encouraging that last winter's rains were sufficient to keep Con Creek flowing all summer as this season's rains commence.

SHERIFF ALLMAN gave an hour long slide presentation recapping the first 12 hours of the Redwood/Potter Valley fires Thursday morning. The on-line video presentation followed a series of flow charts along an hour by hour timeline starting at a little after 11:30 on Sunday night, October 8, into the following Monday morning. The flow charts were color coded to indicate the Potter Valley side and the Redwood Valley side. (They eventually merged into the Redwood Potter Complex fire.) Reportedly, the slide presentation will be posted on the County’s website in the next few days.

THERE WASN’T MUCH in the presentation that would be new to anyone who followed the fires at the time, although there were quite a few additional details about the initial response. The Sheriff played a dashcam video of a Deputy driving through the Tomki Road area of Redwood Valley using the deputy’s patrol car’s loudspeaker announcing the mandatory evacation early Monday morning as burning embers blew by. It’s hard to know how many people may have heard these warnings. Allman noted that his deputies had no intention of dragging anyone out of the fire zone because people must still exercise good judgment and anything like that would just take time away from more important tasks.

THE SHERIFF made the point that the fires and their terrible effects were the result of an unusually dangerous combination of very dry conditions, lots of dry “fuel” (i.e., grass and brush), high winds, timing, geography, remote location, and the fact that mutual aid resources were hard to come by because most of the neighboring firefighters in Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties were already called away to work on fires in those counties.

AFTER THE PRESENTATION, an audience member asked about warning sirens. Allman said that decades ago the County had air raid sirens but they had been removed due to noise complaints from neighbors. Potter Valley fire chief Bill Pauli added that Potter Valley has an “antiquated” manually operated siren but he made the conscious decision not to use it because it would not have been clear what it meant, adding that roads were obstructed and people reacting without knowing what the siren meant might make travel even more difficult than it already was. A commenter who was watching the video on line said that the Redwood Valley Fire Department had made the same decision. Allman said he’s had some preliminary discussions with District Attorney David Eyster about how a more modern warning siren/system could be funded, but that ultimately it will be up to the Board of Supervisors. Meanwhile Allman urged residents to sign up for the County’s reverse 911 system.

https://member.everbridge.net/index/892807736722865#/signup

TOWARD THE END of the presentation Allman made the ominous observation that “I know some people are watching this video for purposes of possible litigation.” Allman said there are certainly “lessons learned” such as figuring out a way to have patrol sergeants (especially on night shifts) to initialize the “reverse 911” notification system in an emergency, but he didn’t want to criticize other departments nor itemize any other specific shortfalls. There will always be Monday morning quarterbacks (in this case literally on Monday morning, October 9), but we are not aware of any significant actions or omissions on the part of local authorities during those first critical hours of the response that would rise to anywhere near genuine liability. In fact, given the circumstances and limitations, we think everyone involved responded commendably.

IF THERE’S ANY REAL LESSON to be learned, we’d say that this terrible incident should prove conclusively that the County and the Board of Supervisors have to stop nickel-nosing the County’s widespread fire and emergency responders about how much of the “public safety” sales tax revenues from Proposition 172 should go to local fire departments. All of Mendo’s rural fire departments operate efficiently and on a shoestring with heavy volunteer and donated bake-sale size contributions. And it’s clear, given climate change, drought and development patterns, that more fire emergencies are inevitable, so Mendo should join with rest of California counties and make a permanent substantial allocation of the approximately $8 million annual Prop 172 dollars to local fire departments.

IN A RELATED DEVELOPMENT, we’ve heard from some local fire district officials that the Prop 172 allocation has become so muddled and bureaucratic they’ve nearly given up on trying to make any headway on what should be a no-brainer of an issue. (At present all of Mendo’s Prop 172 money goes to law enforcement even though the proposition was sold as a “public safety” tax and included firefighters in the promotional materials.) So now there’s some early interest in promoting a ballot measure that would bump the Bed Tax (Transient Occupancy Tax) up from 10% to 12% and have the additional funds earmarked for fire departments. We’ve also heard that there’s confusion about whether the last two years of Advance Life Support supplemental ambulance funding will be forthcoming in light of the ongoing delays in implementing the inland Exclusive (Ambulance) Operating Area (EOA).

WHICHEVER WAY these funding ideas go, it’s long past time for the Supervisors to get their priorities straight and spend a little less time on the minutiae of pot regulation and figure out a reliable way to make sure local fire departments are fairly and adequately funded — particularly now in the aftermath of the October fires and the likelihood of more to come. (ms)

* * *

MENDOCINO SHERIFF: LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM REDWOOD VALLEY FIRE

A month after the Redwood Valley fire took nine lives and destroyed 313 homes in Mendocino County, Sheriff Tom Allman identified several actions Thursday to improve the county’s ability to warn residents of future fires.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Got my hands full lately, what with the pits from next door raiding us every day and the wild creatures coming up out of the wilderness to feast on Skrag's leftovers. Skrag? He thinks it's all funny.”

FROM JUSTICE4SUSANKEEGAN:

As the seven-year anniversary of Susan Keegan's death approaches, Dr. Peter Keegan faces a trial on second-degree murder charges.

The Grand Jury testimony that led to his indictment and arrest is now publicly available. Learn more at these links:

Latest blog:  Grand Jury Testimony Released to the Public

Grand jury testimony: Excerpts from the Keegan Grand Jury Testimony

— Justice4Susan Committee

Follow ongoing developments as the criminal case against Peter Keegan, indicted for second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Susan Keegan, moves forward.

Visit our web site: Justice4Susan.com

Send email to: Justice4SusanKeegan@gmail.com

SMALL IS QUICK

To the Editor:

With just a short time for reassurance and understanding from Tom, a now semi-retired contractor in the burn area, and daily news about the now homeless, getting shelter for the approaching winter has to be both urgent and seemingly mystifying.

Having worked in museums for some 42 years, I am frequently surprised at the ingenuity of those we seem to forget because they aren’t with us anymore. I collect old postcards that are little windows into the past. Images of the little 1906 “Earthquake cottages” thrown together remind me that the need for emergency shelter is always with us. My friend Tom said he’s been deluged and flattered by so many people he has helped, but like all building trades people at this time, there isn’t enough of him — or them — to go around to meet the need. The wheel was invented, so no need to reinvent it!

My folks had a “manufactured house” put on their Redwood Valley place in 1974. It cost a fraction of a “stick built” house, and took a lot less time to get livable than a conventional house. Getting utilities installed took the usual amount of time.

Our neighbors who lost their homes have utilities in place that can be reconnected easier than bringing them to a new job site.

Like the 1906 “Earthquake cottages,” small houses can be obtained through manufactured house companies, a small one — even a garage that can be used as an out building — can bridge the gap to get families back in their neighborhoods. Even “Tuff-sheds,” for the advantage of advertising their product, can get a 200 or 300 square foot structure designed, built and delivered onsite.

And, the insurance companies would save money on short-term housing needs. Short-term buildings could be incorporated in a later, permanent house, or as an out-building. The County, with a sense of compassionate duty to those taxpayers in need, could give provisional permission for construction and use/occupancy permits. Builders can do more with manufactured housing quicker than building housing one at a time from scratch.

So, borrowing the line from a book salesman, “Excuses be gone!” We can do it! Let’s work together to make this happen.

David W. Dippel

Redwood Valley

FIREFIGHTERS DESERVE THEIR FAIR SHARE

Editor:

Arthur Horner, who ranted against people questioning over-generous public employee pensions as disrespecting firefighters in a recent Santa Rosa Press Democrat, clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The majority of firefighters working the fire lines during this historic and devastating tragedy were either seasonal contract workers from multiple states or volunteers from surrounding fire districts paid an hourly stipend through the state Office of Emergency Services. These firefighters don’t have pension benefits and aren’t the same as the city of Santa Rosa’s unionized firefighters making $100,000 a year, plus benefits.

What Horner doesn’t understand about the pension crisis, which was created by elected representatives who colluded with organized labor to rip-off taxpayers, is that money for services once provided from tax dollars now goes to public employees who can retire at age 50 with lifetime benefits. Shameful.

Volunteer fire districts are under extreme financial strain, and the volunteer model itself is collapsing. Public safety tax dollars, derived from Proposition 172, all go to law enforcement or district attorneys, which isn’t what voters wanted when this tax was passed back in 1993. Pension costs and organized labor’s political influence have taken all of this funding.

So if you want to help firefighters, tell your elected officials to fund volunteer fire departments, not more pension debt.

David Roderick

Hopland

HWY 20, JUST BEFORE WILLITS

JAMES MARMON MEASURE B PREDICTION:

Here’s another piece to the Schraeder/Handley Measure B Puzzle. Don’t tell me that the fix isn’t already in, we know who the real beneficiaries of taxpayers dollars are going to be.

• RCS Kentucky Derby Fundraiser
• Seabiscuit Level Sponsor
• Ukiah Valley Medical Center
• Special Community Friends
• Mendocino Forest Products
• David Mathias & First Tech Credit Union of Santa Rosa
• Wipf Construction
• Frank Howard Memorial Foundation
• Frank Howard Memorial Hospital
• Anne Molgaard
• Tim & Jacqueline Cooper, Praedium
• First 5 Mendocino
• Redwood Quality Management Company
• Camille Schraeder
• Pamela Lucas
• Donna Moschetti, Eversole Mortuary
• http://rcs4kids.org/derby/

By the way, Seabiscuit never ran the Kentucky Derby.

CATCH OF THE DAY, November 9, 2017

RONALD BLOYD, Navarro. Possession of controlled substance while armed.

BRIANNA BUTLER, Boise, Idaho/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

DAVID CALLAHAN, Sayre, Oklahoma/Willits. Fugitive from justice.

SOUPHARAK DOUANGAPHAY, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Failure to appear. (Race according to the Booking Log: “LOATION,” i.e., Laotian.)

JAMES GALLAGHER, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Taking vehicle without owner’s consent.

JOSE GONZALEZ-BARRAGAN, Gualala. Domestic abuse.

JOSEPH HILLEJAMES, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

BRIAN MCCARTHY, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

TRUMAN MILLER, San Francisco/Mendocino. DUI.

JUSTIN RINNE, Fort Bragg. Lewd-lascivious upon child under 14, sexual penetration with foreign object on victim incapable of consent, inflicting corporal punishment on child, rape of unconscious or asleep victim.

ERNIE SALO, Fort Bragg. Receiving stolen property, resisting.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #1

I was watching one of those political gabfests today — I think it was Face the Nation — the one hosted by Chuck Todd — Eugene Robinson and Peggy Noonan were guests, smug sonabitches wreaking of condescension; it’s pretty clear they think they’ve got Trump on the run and will be getting rid of him soon via Mueller’s investigation. They could hardly contain the glee they felt, not a word about misconduct by H Clinton or any Democrats. We’ll never get rid of these Swamp Creatures as they’re too deeply entrenched.

It looks like the big revolution to upend the country and topple President Trump on Nov 4 fizzled out. What a bunch of wusses these modern day leftist revolutionaries turn out to be, not a two fisted Joe Hill, Big Bill Haywood or Jack London amongst the lot of them. (But there might be a Leon Czolgosz in that rabble)

What did ee cummings call western red toadies in Moscow in the 30s, running flak for the commies?: Unmen, unpeople.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2

One factor contributing to mental illness that is overlooked: We're a quarter-century into one hell of a war on the poor. It's pretty basic: The US began shutting down/shipping out jobs in the 1980s, ended actual welfare aid in the 1990s — lost over five million manufacturing jobs alone since 2000. Today, millions of Americans are teetering on a tightrope with no safety net below, potentially one job loss from losing everything, with no way for any back up. In our daily lives, we're surrounded by people who could replace us on our jobs, pushing us right off that tightrope. Will my job get shipped out? Every day that you punch in at work, you wonder if you'll get an "indefinite layoff" notice before the end of the day. Then what? There simply aren't jobs for all. Yes, these pressures can (and do) break a person.

PAT THOMAS: THE ODD MAN OUT OF THE SIXTIES

by Jonah Raskin

Call Pat Thomas the “Odd Man Out of the Sixties.” Born in 1964 and only six when calendars read January 1970, he was not physically present for much of the decade, but he has absorbed the essential spirit of the era. Indeed, he inhabited it to write his two books, Listen Whitey!: The Sounds of Black Power, 1965-1975 and From Do It to Did It: The Jerry Rubin Story. He even talks as though he lived through the era, and learned first hand much of its lingo and jingo.

Perhaps because he didn’t actually join protesters and try to Levitate the Pentagon, riot in the streets of Chicago in 1968, or attend any of the legendary events of the era, such as Woodstock, he knows that the Sixties is a state of mind as much as a decade that unfolded chronologically, and that it didn’t screech to an apocalyptic ending in December 1969, but rather rolled over and kept going into the 1970s.

Thomas also knows that the Sixties belongs to women and African Americans as well as to white guys, like Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies, and that the era had its roots in the Fifties, when Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and the Beats carved out a counterculture of their own.

Thomas has a unique perspective that might be illuminating not only to Sixties people but to members of his own generation.

Q: You were six in 1970 and probably escaped the worst of the machismo of the Sixties. Do you think feminism or feminist thinking influenced you?

A: Oh yeah, definitely. I imbibed feminism in part from my mother who was and still is fairly conservative, and yet she joined the National Organization of Women in 1975. She’s a card-carrying member to this day. With just a high school degree, she went on to be a successful businesswoman and make more money than my Dad with his master’s degree. I’m still eager to get a woman in the White House.

Q: Is it possible to say what Sixties people have in common with one another? If so what might that be?

A: Well, the convergence of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll coupled with the political climate and the war in Vietnam – lots of commonalities there.

Q: How does that generation differ from 1980s people?

A: The 1980s people were less inspired, more coddled, less interesting.

Q: Robin Williams famously said if you can remember the Sixties you weren’t there. A lot of people seem to have false memories, or fictional memories of the era. Did you encounter that in your research?

A: No two people can agree on even the simplest events of the 1960s. “It was raining.” “It was hot and sunny.” “It happened in the Fall.” “It was definitely the summer.” “So and so wasn’t there.” “I remember clearly that so and so was there.” And so on!

Q: If you could have dinner with six Sixties people who would they be?

A: I wouldn’t mind a dinner with the entire Chicago 8: lots of diverse personalities and ideologies there.

Q: The Sixties was an era of great African American orators: MLK, Jr., Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver, and H. Rap Brown. All of them were either murdered, destroyed or imprisoned. The Black community lost its voices. If you think back to that time, what Black voices resonate with you now?

A: I’ve always been blown away by watching footage of Chicago Black Panther, Fred Hampton. My god, what a dynamic and moving public speaker. Had he lived, imagine what he may have accomplished? In my book, Did It! Jerry Rubin: An American Revolutionary, I dig into the relationship Fred had with the Yippies and his participation in the Chicago 8 Trial.

Q: What are your favorite rock ‘n’ roll bands from that era?

A: Some of the usual suspects, because they were amazing: The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, The Beatles & The Stones, and perhaps my all time favorite: The Velvet Underground.

Q: I remember the way the Motown sound swept over much of my generation and the generation that came after mine. Why was that? Was it marketing? Sheer talent?

A: I’d say Motown was not just a combination of good marketing and wonderful talent. It was also the songs with a soulful beat. Pure genius. Earlier R&B and the blues were more primal, less melodic, and equally cool, but not destined for mass appeal.

Q: What do you think is the single biggest misconception of the Sixties by people alive today?

A: That it was all fun and games. It wasn’t. Many died, many got their heads smashed in. There was lots of turmoil and unrest coupled with sex, drugs and rock‘n’roll.

Q: Do you blame Sixties people for having illusions, including the illusion that they could change the world?

A: Are you kidding?? I love them for that! Jerry & Abbie and countless others, including the Panthers, felt they could change the world. In my book, I write about how Rubin & Hoffman spent quite a bit of time together in the 1980, reminiscing. They both looked back on the 1960’s fondly. Jerry’s wife, Mimi, told me the same thing: that Jerry always referred to his Yippie years fondly, despite the fact that he wanted to be known for “something else” later in life.

Q: Did the country change? Was there a cultural revolution and where might you see it?

A: We saw it at Woodstock and how Madison Avenue embraced the hippie culture soon afterward. I saw my parents let their hair grow a tad longer during the early 1970s. We saw the birth and explosion of Punk Rock in the late 1970s. All good shit! However, in 2017, all I see is a Trump inspired wasteland.

Q: What event in the Sixties are you sorry you missed and why?

A: Weirdly, perhaps, Altamont (out of a sense of perversity), and certainly Chicago 1968 and ideally Paris in 1968 as well.

Q: Some say the Sixties didn’t really happen until the 1970s when youth culture and the drug culture spread almost everywhere. What’s your take on that?

A: To me, the Sixties ended around 1972-73, with the birth of glam-rock, David Bowie, Marc Bolan & T-Rex, and as the Vietnam War started to wind down and as Nixon was pushed out.

Q: What’s the best 1960s movie and why?

A: My personal favorite is The Graduate; innocence turns sexual with ennui, frustration and a touch of humor mixed in. Genius.

Q: Did you interview any people you didn’t include in your book?

A: I think everyone I spoke with (about 75 people) actually made it in the book. But I got angry emails asking “Why am I not in the book more?” Some from people who didn’t have much to say!

Q: If you were Jerry Rubin’s psychiatrist what would you say about his personality and his neuroses?

A: Ha, ha, ha, ha. ….. Hmmmm. An annoying yet loveable egocentric with an ability to share if it’s something (or someone) he really cared about.

(Jonah Raskin is the author of For The Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman and American Scream: Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ and the Making of the Beat Generation.)

JOE TOLD OPRAH HE COULDA BEEN PRESIDENT AS THE DEMOCRATS TOUT ANOTHER CORPORATE BAGMAN AND SEX CREEP AS THEIR SECOND COMING

NOV 17 SING-ALONG CONCERT AT THE METHODIST CHURCH.

Charlie Seltzer, pianist and vocalist, will perform some of his favorite songs and lead a community sing-along at the United Methodist Church on Friday, November 17 at 7:00 p.m. The public is invited to join him and these musical friends in celebration of our community’s courage, resilience, and love: Tom Montesanti, Janice Timm, Joyce Paterson, Armand Brint, Karen Gowan, Oni LaGoia, Marilyn Simpson, Jennifer Sookne, Neil DiBernardo. Tickets are $10 at Mendocino Book Company and Mazahar in Willits; $15 at the door. Ticket proceeds benefit the Ukiah Community Concert Association and the Methodist Church "Building Our Future Fund." The event also will offer an opportunity to donate to the recovery fund for artist survivors organized by the Arts Council of Mendocino County.

SEXUAL HARASSERS PILING UP

From Vice:

Today, the New York Times unveiled another investigative story—a little more than a month since its bombshell report on Harvey Weinstein—outlining accusations of sexual misconduct from five women against comedian Louis C.K. Two of the accusers, Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov, told the Times that the comedian took off all his clothes and masturbated in front of them.

“We were paralyzed,” Goodman recalled. Afterward, “He was like, ‘Which one is Dana and which one is Julia?’”

In the last few weeks, the sheer number of sexual harassment and assault allegations in Hollywood and beyond has been dizzying. Earlier this week, two women posted on social media that they’d been sexually assaulted by former Gossip Girl actor Ed Westwick in 2014. A Washington, DC-based woman came forward to share her experience of Entourage star Jeremy Piven allegedly rubbing his genitals on her and ejaculating “all over my white turtleneck.” (She’s the third woman to claim being assaulted by Piven.) A former Boston TV news anchor yesterday accused Kevin Spacey of groping her 18-year-old son in 2016. (At least 14 people have alleged the actor behaved inappropriately toward them.)

Also yesterday, actress Portia de Rossi tweeted her own #metoo story of sexual harassment, alleging that during her last audition for a Steven Segal movie, the actor “sat me down and unzipped his leather pants. I ran out and called my agent. Unfazed, she replied, ‘Well, I didn’t know if he was your type.’”

The outpouring of survivor stories and allegations goes well beyond these high-profile accounts. According to RAINN, the country’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, victims of sexual assault and harassment have been reaching out in record numbers. More than 19,000 people—an increase of 21 percent—contacted RAINN for support in October… (Is This Our Watershed Moment?)

Rob's comment:

I guess for an old man I'm naive. This sort of thing— and how apparently widespread it is — shocks me. Before I posted this, I didn't have a label that fit the topic. I thought about just using "Sex," but much of this behavior is really also about power, not sex. Powerful men did this sort of thing because they could get away with it — until now, that is.

When I was a young man before the Civil Rights era, other white men would say shockingly racist things to me on the apparent assumption that, as a white man, I would naturally agree. When I got a little older and during the Civil Rights movement, this stopped happening. Of course living in liberal San Francisco and Northern California made such encounters less likely. Growing a beard was probably also a deterrent.

When I was in prison in the Sixties for refusing to report for military service, creepy sexual conversation by some inmates was routine. I figured that it was not unexpected coming from those guys, since they were by definition a criminal demographic.

I was wrong about minimizing that, just like a lot of us were wrong that having a black president showed that racism in the US was becoming a thing of the past. Millions of our fellow Americans voted for a racist candidate, not to mention one that also bragged about assaulting women!

What bothers many Donald Trump supporters about "political correctness" is that they can no longer count on getting away with talking like that, including calling black people "niggers" and gays "queers."

The only consolation we liberals have: Hillary got almost three million more votes than Trump. Only our archaic electoral college system allowed that creep to become president.

But, dudes, we still have along way to go.

(Rob Anderson, District 5 Diary)

YOU CAN READ A BOOK on a Kindle and the story will be the same. Yet the Kindle quickly and tellingly evolved from a dedicated reading device into something much closer to an iPad. Indeed, as if the verb ‘kindle’ was not suggestive enough, Amazon chose to call its newer version of the device the ‘Kindle Fire.’ The real purpose of that device is hammered home by the following review, posted on the technology website c-net:

The Kindle Fire is a 7-inch tablet that links seamlessly with Amazon’s impressive collection of digital music, video, magazine and book services in one easy-to-use package. It boasts a great web browser, and its curated Android app store includes most of the big must-have apps (such as Netflix, Pandora and Hulu).

This, manifestly, is not a device whose primary purpose is reading. The function of the book, in this context, is to confer authority on other media—and to sell Kindles and iPads. While it is still possible to read a novel on these devices, one of the most salient features of the internet is to disrupt linear reading. The networked device interrupts the reader with links that lure them away to other texts, filling the margins with endless detours and distractions, and, ultimately, foreshortens the reader’s horizon of expectation by habitually displaying snippets, previews and other pieces of abbreviated text. This sanitized, administrative process of disarticulation replaces and even, to a certain extent, replicates some of the functions of the theatrical auto-da-fé.

The destruction of physical texts is not an end in itself, but a means of curtailing the possibility of reading—and by extension of thought—that occurs beyond the gaze and outside the worldview of a totalitarian apparatus. Tomecide has, historically, been a central means of this assault. Alongside the more obvious objectives of erasing the historical past and preventing the spread of dangerous ideas, Leo Lowenthal suggests that book burning is aimed at the liquidation of the subject.

— Rebecca Lossin, New Left Review

SMALL SAMPLE SIZE, SO FAR

Broadband Alliance Notes and Survey

Hi everyone,

The notes from our last Alliance meeting on Friday are attached. Also, we could really use everyone's help to spread the word about the telecommunications outage survey. Here's the link -https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/firestorm2017

As of 11:55 today, there are 1,154 responses, and 363 of them are from Mendocino. Some zip codes have no survey respondents.  Here are the areas with either zero or few responses: Zero responses - Boonville, Caspar, Westport, Talmage, Yorkville, Leggett, Piercy; One or two responses only - Branscomb, Calpella, Elk, Dos Rios, Gualala, Hopland, Little River.

I'd like to get at least 1,000 for really good data (and from each zipcode as well).   It takes about 10 minutes, so if you haven't yet taken it please do (even if you didn't lose any services, that info is important too and the survey will go a lot quicker for you as well!)

Thanks, and of course please share the survey with your networks (Lion's club, Rotary Clubs, Granges, work, facebook, etc)

Trish Steel,  www.MendocinoBroadband.org, 707-354-3224

HURRICANE SMITH FINAL WEEKEND!

Gloriana Musical Theatre is pleased to announce its production of Hurricane Smith! Directed by Andrew Atkinson and David Kosonen.

The setting is the stage of a school auditorium where a schlock film Daily, fresh from her creative writing class, with an Indiana Jones-like script under her arm. Trailing behind her are members of the drama club And what a plot! It concerns Hurricane Smith, famous explorer, whose mother was eaten by crocodiles and whose father disappeared in the Amazon. Parentless, Hurricane is raised by a gorilla. Twenty years later a young adventurer sets out accompanied by the feisty, independent photojournalist Linda Zest, to locate the Garden, and he has to survive cannibal Cobra Natives, headhunters, the hilly range, and the Pit of No Return to do so.  The show will be performed at Eagles Hall Theatre from November 3 to November 12 with performances at 7:30 p.m on Fridays and Saturdays and Sunday matinees beginning at 3 p.m.  Admission is $18 for the general public, $16 for Seniors and $8 for youth (17 and under).  Tickets may be purchased online at gloriana.org, at Harvest Market in Fort Bragg or at the door of Eagles Hall Theatre prior to each performance.

For more information, visit Gloriana.org.

HUFF GOES DEEP

For years I have declined to answer when asked my religious views. While I still think religion has nothing to do with my service in Congress, I've decided to answer the question: I'm a non-religious Humanist, which will come as no surprise to those who know me. You can check out Humanism if it interests you, but I'm not pushing my views on anyone and I'm not judging anyone else's religious choice. I value my working relationships and friendships with people of faith, the interfaith community, spiritual seekers and all sorts of secular, non-religious people. I think we should all work together to make the world a better place. It shouldn't be much of a story in the year 2017 that a member of Congress is openly Humanist, but we'll see. For the closet Humanists, agnostics and atheists out there (including many of my colleagues in Congress -- yes, we talk about these things!), maybe this will show that it's OK to just say what you believe and that there's room in American politics for people with secular, nonreligious views. Thanks (hopefully) for your support and understanding.

SLAVERY IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST BY EDWARD BAPTIST

From ‘The Half That Has Never Been Told’

1. “It has been said that the Civil War was “unnecessary” because slavery was already destined to end, probably within a few decades after the 1860 election. Yet this is mere dogma. The evidence points in the opposite direction. Slavery yielded ever more efficient production, in contrast to the free labor that tried (and failed) to compete with it, and the free labor that succeeded it.”

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2. “Perhaps one unspoken reason why many have been so reluctant to apply the term “torture” to slavery is that even though they denied slavery’s economic dynamism, they knew that slavery on the cotton frontier made a lot of product. No one was willing, in other words, to admit that they lived in an economy whose bottom gear was torture. Yet we should call torture by its name. Historians of torture have defined the term as extreme torment that is part of a judicial or inquisitorial process. The key feature that distinguishes it from mere sadistic behavior is supposedly that torture aims to extract “truth.” But the scale and slate and lash did, in fact, continually extract a truth: the maximum poundage that a man, woman, or child could pick.”

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3. “Enslaved African Americans built the modern United States, and indeed the entire modern world, in ways both obvious and hidden.”

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4. “(Andrew) Jackson signaled four policies that destined to seed more slave camps on the southwestern frontier. …

“…over the next eight years, Jackson’s administration forced all of the Indian tribes across the Mississippi to free up more land for white—and black—settlement. …

“…he believed that with the Louisiana Purchase the United States had also bought most of what eventually became the state of Texas…and wanted to redraw the boundary line that the United States and Spain had negotiated in 1819 to incorporate most of Texas as a new frontier for cotton seed.”

Jackson also attempted to “adjust the tariff levied on foreign manufactured goods…which hurt southern-planter-entrepreneurs by taxing their consumption.”

And “he would soon launch attacks on the (B.U.S.) bank, attacks pitched as a reform program that enhanced the egalitarianism of white manhood citizenship.”

(Submitted by Louis Bedrock)

THE ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE AND DIRTY OIL BEHIND CALIFORNIA'S 'GREEN’ FACADE

by Dan Bacher

During a joint conference of the European Parliament on Tuesday, Governor Jerry Brown urged European leaders to link California’s controversial cap-and-trade program with the European Union emissions trading system and other carbon markets, drawing outrage from consumer and environmental justice advocates.

“The Democratic governor and leader of the world’s sixth-largest economy pitched the prospect of a formalized California-Europe pact as a ‘concrete investment’ that could compel more states and international provinces to tackle the climate challenge at a global level,” the Sacramento Bee reported: www.sacbee.com/...

However, not mentioned in most of the largely fawning media reports of Brown’s whirlwind European climate tour is that the legislation extending California’s cap-and-trade program for another 10 years, AB 398, is based on a Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) and Chevron “wish list.” Over 65 environmental justice, conservation and consumer organizations opposed the bill for the unjust impact it would have on frontline communities and communities of color, including farmworkers in the San Joaquin Valley.

Adam Scow, the California Director of Food and Water Watch, said Brown’s proposal to link California’s cap-and-trade program with the European Union emissions trading system and other carbon markets is “foolish and wrongheaded.”

“Food & Water Watch strongly opposes Governor Brown’s proposal to link California’s cap-and-trade program with other carbon markets, which would allow oil and gas companies to buy and swap credits on international markets while their fossil fuel extraction continues,” said Scow. “Governor Brown’s cap-and-trade program was written in consultation with the oil industry and allows the industry to pay to keep polluting.”

Scow said the European Union Emissions Trading System that was started in 2005 has been “a failure at reducing emissions.”

“Between 2005 and 2011 the EU ETS resulted in $20 billion in carbon fraud and that the program hasn’t achieved decreased carbon emissions reductions. By all measures, the EU ETS has been an abject failure,” Scow stated.

“At a time when the impacts of climate change are becoming more severe, we must remember that the world’s leading climate scientists have warned that nations must stop using fossil fuels and replace them with renewable energy sources. Instead of promoting dangerously inadequate policies like cap-and-trade, Californians and the world need Governor Brown to take real actions to ban fracking and phase out the use of fossil fuels in California,” said Scow.

Report: Three-quarters of CA oil is as dirt as Canadian tars sands crude

Then today a Center for Biological Diversity report released at the United Nations climate change conference in Bonn, Germany revealed that three-quarters of California’s oil is as “climate-damaging” as Canadian tar sands crude, further exposing California’s “green" facade.

Oil Stain: How Dirty Crude Undercuts California’s Climate Progress found that eight of the state’s 10 largest-producing oil fields produce “very dirty crude with greenhouse gas emissions comparable to tar sands oil,” according to the Center. The report detailed how “the state’s dirty oil problem is compounded by policies that incentivize crude production.”

The analysis comes as Brown, amidst gushing media coverage, prepares to address the U.N. conference. Brown arrives at the conference on Nov. 11 as part of his “climate tour” to link California’s environmentally unjust California carbon trading program with cap-and-trade programs in Europe and elsewhere.

“California is tarnishing its climate leadership by encouraging oil companies to extract millions of barrels a year of some of the planet’s dirtiest crude,” said report author Shaye Wolf, the Center’s climate science director. “Our state’s huge reserve of dirty crude is a loaded gun pointed at our future. We can’t let the oil industry pull the trigger.”

The Center’s analysis, using lifecycle emissions estimates and state oil field data, found that three-quarters of oil produced in California is, barrel for barrel, as carbon-intensive as Canada’s tar sands crude. Nearly two-thirds of remaining reserves in 18 of the largest oilfields in the San Joaquin and Los Angeles Basins is similarly climate-damaging, totaling 6.1 billion barrels of particularly polluting crude, according to Wolf.

Wolf said increasing use of “extreme-extraction” techniques like steam flooding and fracking has worsened the climate harms of the state’s oil production.

He noted that many of the oilfields evaluated in the report operate next to homes and schools, releasing toxic air pollutants that cause cancer, asthma and other health problems. Oil drilling occurs disproportionally in communities of color who already suffer from some of the worst air quality in the nation.

“Despite the climate and public-health harms of its oil extraction, California is currently the third-largest oil-producing state. Tax breaks, weak regulation and minimal oversight encourage aggressive oil development in the state. California regulators issued more than 3,300 drilling permits for oil and gas wells in 2015 alone,” Wolf said.

“Gov. Brown needs to stop pandering to the oil industry. Oil-friendly policies are fueling climate change, endangering Californians and stifling our transition to clean energy. To be a true climate leader, California must phase out oil production within its borders,” Wolf concluded.

In his remarks before the Baden-Wurttemberg State Parliament and nearly three hours of debate and dialogue with members of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, Wednesday, Governor Brown “forged closer ties” with European leaders committed to climate action and blasted the "denialists" who continue to reject the scientific consensus on global warming, according to a news release from the Governor’s Office.

"We have to wake up – wake up Europe, wake up America, wake up the whole world to realize we have a common destiny and we are all human beings on this one planet," said Governor Brown in his address to the state parliament of Baden-Wurttemberg, co-founder of the Under2 Coalition. "This is daunting but it's also an opportunity to pull people together."

Governor Brown may be pulling “people together” and getting people to “wake up,” but not in the way that he intended, as increasing numbers of Californians mobilize against the Governor’s steadfast support of fracking and drilling dirty oil, a Big Oil-written cap-and-trade program and permits to pollute groundwater with oil wastewater in Kern County, as well as his environmentally unjust Delta Tunnels project.

Background: Big oil spends big money to capture California regulators 

As the media portrays Brown and other state officials going to the COP23 as “climate leaders,” Big Oil continues to dump millions of dollars into lobbying and campaign contributions every year. In the 2015-2016 Legislative Session alone, the oil industry spent over $36.1 million lobbying in California. This massive spending spree has continued into 2017.

The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the most powerful corporate lobbying group in Sacramento, spent $2,290,408.89 in the third quarter of the 2017-2018 Legislative Session to promote Big Oil’s agenda in California, topping all over organizations in lobbying expenses. WSPA’s President is Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the former chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative to create faux “marine protected areas” in Southern California.

Chevron dished out the second largest amount of any organization, with $1.1 million spent last quarter.

Big Oil also spent over $10.8 million in lobbying in the second quarter of 2017 to pass AB 398, Governor Brown’s cap-and-trade bill, through the legislature, as well as to lobby against SB 188, legislation to stop new offshore oil drilling off the California.

The San Ramon-based Chevron and subsidiaries topped all other lobbyists in the state in the second quarter with $6,153,952 spent, followed by WSPA with $2,528,751 and the San Antonio-based Tesoro Refining and Marketing Co. LLC with $2,193.489.

“Contamination of our communities needs to stop now,” said Candelaria Vargas of Daily Kos in an action alert. “The oil industry has poured millions of dollars into California politics and has seen results. A statewide scientific study was conducted on the toxicity of fracking near water sources and why this practice should be stopped, but has not had adequate response from our lawmakers. More needs to be done to protect our environment and our public health.”

Please sign this petition to get oil money out of California Politics.