Mendocino County Today: Sunday, Dec. 10, 2017

• Flashbacks Review
• Chief Answers
• Navarro High
• Laser Focused
• Holiday Bazaar
• Little Dog
• Pot Industry
• Candidate Haschak
• Ed Notes
• Yesterday's Catch
• Money Matters
• Dissing Korea
• Trumping Along
• Monument Decision
• Walter's Well
• Garbage Dump
• Unknown Soldiers
• Exception
• Library Events
• Marco Radio
• Travel Tip

"FLASHBACKS: A MEMOIR"

Review by Louis Rohlicek, Willits Weekly contributor

Every so often one of us Willits people writes a book. This can be very good news.

While most people in Willits already live colorful lives similar to the lives of people in the “Game of Thrones” and “Sex and the City,” a few of us suffer from a suspicion that we don’t. This can lead to feelings of inadequacy and a sense of life wasted. Needless to say, we need help in overcoming this anxiety.

Help has arrived with Jim Gibbons’ newly published book, “Flashbacks: A Memoir.”

The book is a collection of articles written by Jim about his life on the Sausalito houseboats in the ’70s and his living in Willits in the ’80s and beyond. The articles have appeared over the years in the Willits News, the New Settler, and the Anderson Valley Advertiser.

Even if you never lived on a Sausalito houseboat, you’ll recognize the world Jim describes. We all know some of the characters in his book. A few we’ve read about. Others we know personally. The book is full of adventures we can relate to.

In March 1969 Jim left behind his budding career as a poet, his marriage, his student life in Milwaukee, the joys of Wisconsin winters, and boarded a Greyhound bus to head west. As he says, he was not looking for a vacation. He wanted to escape. He needed a new life. He had some acquaintances living in San Francisco. He set off for the Promised Land with a hundred dollars. He hoped it would work out.

Here’s how his new life started:

“To sum up my first week in California: I delivered drugs to an Oakland neighborhood in a black Cadillac; I walked over the Golden Gate Bridge without jumping off; I was seduced by astrology and put to sleep by a woman with, I found out later, a jealous, belligerent old man; I sailed out on the Bay for the first time; and stole a toilet from a famous musician. And that was just for starters.”

Later he moved to Willits, built a cabin, met Yvonne, raised two sons, became a track coach, a teacher, a writer, and a long distance runner.

But, really, you need to read all of this for yourselves. And do your friends a favor and give them a copy of the book for Christmas.

You can get “Flashbacks: A Memoir” at The Book Juggler.

There will also be a reading by Jim at the Willits Library on Saturday, December 16 at 2 pm. Check it out.

WE RECENTLY ASKED Boonville Fire Chief, Andres Avila, the following questions:

1. Is Narcan (the opiod blocker) part of EMT or ambulance gear in Mendo County?

Avila: Soon. AVFD is hosting one of many "new EMT skills" trainings at the Philo Grange in mid February. Once all Sonoma and Mendocino County EMTs have received the opportunity to obtain the required training, CVEMSA (Coastal Valley Emergency Services Agency) will release a date for our EMTs to start carrying and using Narcan, Epinephrine, glucose meters and CPAP (positive air pressure machines). We are excited to see these new skill sets being approved and hope they will help our EMTS deliver a better service.

2. Is a winter fire possible now in the county or the Valley, dry as it is?

Avila: When judging fire potential, fire growth will be dependent on several contributing factors. Temperatures, humidity, wind, topography, location, type of fuels, size of fuels, fuel moisture, etc. A fire is always possible. Extreme fire potential is low, but the light flashy fuels have not yet decayed and could easily support an escaped burn or campfire. We typically see several escapes during the Spring and Fall periods because of the assumption that fire will not escape. This is proven wrong time and time again and can sometimes get into adjacent structures or unintended locations. Fire escape should always be considered.

3. What's the current fire danger/alert and burn permit status?

Avila: Winter burning season is open. Anyone with a burn permit can burn on a burn day. Air quality determines burn status for each day. The burn status determinants have little to do with fire potential but are primarily determined by the quality of the air. Our recent high pressure has created a steady night and morning inversion layer that holds smoke down in the valleys. This is why we are seeing the recent no-burn days. We have had to enforce several illegal burns within the last week.

MSP TELLS US the Navarro is poised to flood 128 again.

If it hits 4.0’, roadway floods

THE NORTHCOAST’S TWO BRILLIANT SOLONS, Assemblyman Jim Wood and Senator Mike McGuire, added their keen insight and policy expertise to the aftermath of the October Fire Catastrophe last week.

McGuire: “It’s clear there are shortcomings in our emergency alert system, and residents deserve timely notifications and up-to-date information. Lives depend on the Legislature and Governor taking swift action to ensure statewide emergency alert standards are adopted, training is implemented and funding is secured to ensure communities big and small have reliable alert systems deployed.”

This statement of the painfully obvious apparently came as news to Mr. McGuire. As a result of McGuire’s newfound awareness that the alert system is — duh — flawed, he suggests that the state “require every county in California to adopt the up-to-date Wireless Emergency Alert system with trained operators  who can implement an evacuation order using the alert system.”

Mendo had a version of this system in place before the Great Fires and we all know how that turned out. Even Senator McGuire.

McGuire’s legislation would also “set out standards for when counties should use the system and the legislation will mandate that alerts have to be sent out via landline telephones, mobile phone devices, and other mediums as well as guidelines and protocols for when and how the alerts should be sent.”

Guideline 1: Your house is on fire. Guideline 2: Your neighbor’s house is on fire. Guideline 3: 911 calls are coming in. Guideline 4: People are screaming in the street. Guideline 5: Sirens are blaring in the street. …

As Sheriff Allman pointed out after the fires, the trouble with the notification system is that you either have to have a landline with a geographical exchange and you have to know which exchanges to alert, or you have a cellphone which the alert system only knows about if you register it. And then the cellphone tower has to have not burned down. Nothing about this from Senator McGuire.

McGuire’s compadre Assemblyman Jim Wood added, “The recent devastating fires in Northern California have put laser focus on our need to fix our emergency notification system. As we now see with the fires in Southern California, the time is now to protect our residents with a system that works for everyone, both urban and rural.”

Neither of them mentioned anything about sirens or PG&E shutdown protocols during high fire danger or anything else.

Actually, the time is now for doing a lot more than just fixing our emergency notification system.

The only thing the time is now for is McGuire and Wood making empty political statements. As far as actually doing something about emergency notification, if we have to depend on McGuire and Wood, the time is then.

THE UNITY CLUB’S BIG HOLIDAY BAZAAR at the Boonville Fairgrounds was jam-packed with smiling happy locals Saturday afternoon, enjoying the Christmas spirit, entering the raffle, donating, gift-shopping, eating, kids making seasonal crafts and playing with toys. Allegedly Santa was there for photos with local kids. The Major had intended to stay longer, but when one of the organizers seemed to have seriously suggested that he sit on Santa’s lap for a photo, he took off before trying to figure out who had assumed the Santa costume as their alter-ego for the day.

LITTLE DOG SAYS “Are you feelin' it, Skrag? ‘Feeling what?’ Skrag says. Christmas! I say. ‘What's in it for me?’ the freeloader answers and strolls off.”

A READER WRITES:

RE the collapse of the pot industry, Humboldt County has to make some major changes before anyone wants to voluntarily come here for much of anything. Born and raised here, and this place has turned into a real mess — homeless, tweakers/heroin addiction at unprecedented per capita levels, rural landscape being destroyed by greedy growers, no competent people working in legitimate jobs, a county culture that suffocates any chance for real sustainable growth, and county officials who orchestrated the entire thing with no intention of meaningful change.

CANDIDATE HASCHAK, a Willit's reader writes: I think John Haschak should get some experience – and a record – as an elected official on a local elected board first, before the taxpayers start paying him $68,000 a year plus all the extras to represent us at the county level. I’d feel that way about almost any candidate.  I agree the Haschak PR was fluffy and puffy, certainly. I’m not sure there is a “for sure” second candidate' yet. I hope we get several.

ED NOTES

GOVERNOR BROWN, speaking Saturday from Ventura: “We’re facing a new reality in this state, where fires threatened people’s lives, their properties, their neighborhoods and billions and billions of dollars. So we have to have the resources to combat the fires. It's a horror and a terrible tragedy for so many people. This is the new normal, and this could be something that happens every year or every few years. We’re about to have a firefighting Christmas.”

* * *

AN OLD FRIEND is presently confined to a nursing home at Terra Linda while his San Francisco-based Kaiser doctor decides whether or not to cut off his left leg to the knee. Whenever his medical lordship comes to Kaiser in Marin, less than two miles from his nursing home, my friend has to be carried by ambulance to Kaiser. The doctor makes all his patients, no matter their condition, come to him. The nursing home at Terra Linda is packed, the staff a mix of immigrant Filipinos and Mexicans. My friend has nothing but praise for them. "They work very hard," he says. "If Trump sent them all back where they came from, everyone in here would be on their own."

* * *

JEAN. When my sister was found dead two weeks ago in her house at Cypress Village, Fort Bragg, she was nude, face down on her living room floor. She had suffered a final evacuative bathroom disaster, a last indignity after a life of indignities. Jean had previously lived at Duncan Place whose cavernous, lonely halls open on spacious apartments that mercifully open to the outdoors. Her small house at Cypress Village is a model of its kind — efficient, solarized, a neighborhood of amiable older people. The federal government could easily build Cypress Villages everywhere, but housing citizens hasn't been a national priority since Roosevelt. It isn't an exaggeration to say that it was Fort Bragg's emergency services and the medical staff just up the street at Coast Hospital who kept Jean alive all her years in Fort Bragg. These people saw her more than her own family. In my isolated opinion, Jean should not have been in Fort Bragg in the first place given her true dependence on other people for her daily care. But she insisted on her independence from her family with whom she'd lived for years prior to her self-exile in Fort Bragg. On her semi-own, Fort Bragg's sorely put upon medical establishment became Jean's family, but only after she had suffered another in a disastrous string of disasters over twenty years, several times having been discovered unconscious and near death in the chaotic squalor of her home. My sister and my wife made regular house cleaning forays to Fort Bragg to clean Jean's place. I was typically stopped at her door as an intruding "busybody," although we enjoyed regular telephone calls. When Jean lived with us in Boonville we could monitor her on a daily basis and, most importantly in her case, keep her weight down, keep her on a regular bathing schedule, keep her in the family bosom however oppressive she may have found us. The Regional Center reinforced Jean's "independence." They made it clear that they sue families on behalf of "disabled" people to preserve the "independence" of their clients, and Jean was a client. The Regional Center provided in-home care workers, a series of kindly women whose hours Jean restricted to a couple of hours a week and often fired for no reason at all. Jean's disability was severe. On her own, her days were a medical roulette. She suffered a fundamentally uncontrolled epilepsy whose chemical formulas aimed at controlling them was forever being juggled, and always juggled post-crisis. Jean's seizures were so severe that several times over the years she had to be placed in month-long, induced comas to stabilize her for the next round of heavy meds, so heavy a couple of the pills would kill an ordinary person. The pills often left Jean in a barely functioning fog. She slept 14-16 hours a day and was responsible for her own medication regimen which, of course, she was unable to efficiently manage. I'm not a fan of the Regional Center. Objectively, Jean should have lived with family. Or she should have been placed permanently in a care home. She did spend several interludes at Sherwood Oaks where she was a difficult patient always anxious to get back to her own space where, in her mind, she was free. As it turned out, Jean died free at age 67.

redwoodcoastrc.org/services/rights-advocacy-appeals

CATCH OF THE DAY, December 9, 2017

DAVID CALVO, Ukiah. Appropiation of another’s property without trying to return it, probation revocation.

JAMES CRISS SR., Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, vandalism, addict driving a vehicle, conspiracy.

LILLIAN EVIND, Redwood Valley. DUI alcohol-drugs.

KEVIN GEORGE, Failure to appear.

BLAKE HAMMOND, Willits. Failure to appear.

GUNNAR HOLLINGER, Boonville. DUI.

GEORGE LAFORCE, Ukiah. Controlled substance, failure to appear.

DEBORAH LAWRENCE, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

CHARLES MAXFIELD, Ukiah. Receiving stolen property.

JESSE RODGERS, Ukiah. Parole violation.

GABRIEL ROJAS, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

SHANE ROORK, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

MITCHELL RUSTIN, El Dorado/Ukiah. Shoplifting.

BROOKE STEVENSON, Copperopolis/Fort Bragg. Domestic battery, battery on peace officer, resisting.

JAMIE STOVER, Ukiah. Conspiracy.

STRANGER THINGS

by James Kunstler

The hidden agenda in the so-called tax reform bill is to act as stop-gap quantitative easing to plug the “liquidity” hole that is opening up as the Federal Reserve (America’s central bank) makes a few gestures to winding down its balance sheet and “normalizing” interest rates. Thus, the aim of the tax bill is to prop up capital markets, and the apprehension of this lately is what keeps stocks making daily record highs. Okay, sorry, a lot to unpack there.

Primer: quantitative easing (QE) is a the Federal Reserve’s weasel phrase for its practice of just creating “money” out of thin air, which it uses to buy US Treasury bonds (and other stuff). The Fed buys this stuff through intermediary Too Big To Fail banks which allows them to cream off a cut and, theoretically, pump the “money” into the economy. This “money” is the “liquidity.” As it happens, most of that money ends up in the capital markets. Stocks go up and up and bond yields stay ultra low with bond prices ultra high. What remains on the balance sheets are a shit-load of IOUs.

The third round of QE was officially halted in 2014 in the USA. However, the world’s other main central banks acted in rotation — passing the baton of QE, like in a relay race — so that when the US slacked off, Japan, Britain, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of China, took over money-printing duties. And because money flies easily around the world via digital banking, a lot of that foreign money ended up in “sure-thing” US capital markets (as well as their own). Mega-tons of “money” were created out of thin air around the world since the near-collapse of the system in 2008.

And magically, with no negative consequences! Yet. Now, Europe and Japan are making noises about dropping their batons. China’s banking system is so opaque and perverse — because it is unaccountable except to the ruling party with its own agenda — that it’s quite impossible to tell what they are really doing, though the signs of mal-investment are obvious and startling. And the UK’s finances are tied up in its messy divorce proceedings with the EU (with the British standard of living dropping markedly meanwhile). In short, the torrent of global “liquidity” looks to be slowing to a trickle.

The expectation is that this would make stock markets go down and bond interest rates to go up (fewer buyers), perhaps a lot. The dirty open secret here is that these central bank interventions are the only means for keeping the capital markets up, and that the markets are just a Potemkin false front for Western economies that are drying up and blowing away. That is certainly the experience here in the USA, where banking hocus-pocus now accounts for about 30 percent of GDP, and most of that activity is either out-and-out fraud or swindling, or collecting rents and dividends on past frauds and swindles.

Dem/Prog America in its Silicon Valley gourmet employee bistros and Hamptons lawn parties thinks that the flyover Trumpist Red State world of meth, joblessness, and anomie is some kind of a Netflix hallucination. But no, it’s for real. The center of the ole US of A is hollowed out. The bad news is that it probably has enough juice left in its disaffected youth, and certainly enough weaponry, to start a very serious insurrection if it continues to get dissed.

Enter the joker in the deck: Bitcoin. Though it pulled back a couple of thou overnight, this strange investment vehicle blasted through $18,000-per-Bitcoin in the past 24 hours, roughly tripling from $6000 in one month. It even endured the hacking of one of its exchanges, NiceHash, where $70 million was looted without so much as a stutter in the upward thrust of the chart. Whatever else Bitcoin is — and I would suggest a “Ponzie,” a “mania,” a “con” — this thing is a message. The message is that financial circulatory system of the global economy is in some kind of distress. Another take-away is that the rush into Bitcoin represents a loss of faith in matrix of rackets that world banking has become, and a flight to perceived safety in a putative financial instrument beyond the clutches and the lying propaganda of nervous, self-interested governments.

For the moment, Bitcoin is doing the job that gold used to do: indexing the loss of value in paper currencies and the things that affect to represent them. Except that Bitcoin has no material reality. It is a figment of mathematics. The vaunted blockchain “technology” is just a formula for packaging information and assigning it to live in various places. It appears to have some worth as a ledger system, for keeping track of accumulated value in an allegedly transparent and honest mode. But the thing it is toting up and sending chits around the world for — Bitcoin — has no value in and of itself.

If “money” can be said to represent a future claim on work, or energy, or things that they produce, then Bitcoin is not money at all because it only represents energy burned in the computer exertions necessary to “mine” the Bitcoins. In other words, it costs a lot of energy to create Bitcoins, and there’s no claim on future energy, or work — it’s already gone. That energy use is catching the world’s attention and is beginning to look pretty profligate. Like, if Bitcoin happened to shoot up over $100,000-per-unit, it would hog an unseemly portion of the worlds electric power.

Anyway, that’s only one interpretation of the Bitcoin rush. In the end, I believe it’s simply telling us that the global financial system is headed for some serious trouble. It is vectoring right smack into the same lane as the gathering political crisis in the US government, as a fight to death between Donald Trump and his adversaries comes darkly into view.

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

PS. Patreon has apparently decided to take a bigger cut of your contributions and some of you are dropping out in protest. This only hurts your blogger, who works diligently to bring you this column twice a week. Your recurring contribution keeps the lights on here. In turn, I need to pay the web manager and the website-hosting server. Please give the equivalent of a cup of coffee each month to keep Clusterfuck Nation going!

THE UNITED STATES waged an indiscriminate bombing campaign against North Korea during the Korean War that completely destroyed 80% of the country. There are people still alive in North Korea who remember that. More bombs were dropped on the Korean Peninsula than throughout the entire Asian Pacific theater in World War II. After the arbitrary division of the Korean Peninsula by a couple of men in the US State Department after the war, Kim Il Sung created one of the most repressive regimes in the world. People say that Kim Jong Il treats his people badly. And he does. But if you mean having the world’s largest prison population by numbers or percentage, mass surveillance of its citizens’ communications, systematic descrimination of groups of people, spending far more on the military than on the welfare of its people… I think we have to look at our own government here in the United States before we get too hard on North Korea.

— Christine Ahn

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I’d worry that if Trump is impeached he and his base will spend the next 10 years trying to get revenge for having their hopes (however deluded) frustrated. And he’ll write books about What I Would Have Achieved If All The Crooked People Hadn’t Stopped Me and make more money on the lecture circuit than he has from building towers bereft of any smidgeon of taste. A large part of me thinks he has to be judged on what he actually achieves in a full term, to avoid endless repercussions. My caveat would be his ability to destabilize the world and lead us anywhere up to and including a third world war, if left to his own devices any longer.

SCIENTISTS’ CALL FOR RESTORING THE ORIGINAL BOUNDARIES AND INTENT OF BEARS EARS NATIONAL MONUMENT 

04 DECEMBER 2017

Dear President Trump and Secretaries Zinke and Perdue:

We, the undersigned scientists, educators, and professional land and resource managers, write to express deep concern and disappointment over your decision to reduce the size and integrity of Bears Ears National Monument. We urge you to reverse this decision, restore the monument to its original boundaries, and work with the Bears Ears Commission of Tribes---which was established by presidential proclamation---and its many partners to develop a scientifically grounded, culturally informed, and effective plan for long-term stewardship.

Among the signatories of this letter are established scientists who have conducted original research in the region, educators who have used Bears Ears as an outdoor classroom to explore the connections between land, water, nature and culture, and professional resource managers who are tasked with protecting this landscape while encouraging sound and sustainable land use.

Others recognize the scientific value of this unique landscape and wish to see its protection restored. Monument status safeguards irreplaceable resources, while providing new and immeasurable opportunities for all Americans to enjoy and participate in the stewardship of their public lands.

Bears Ears National Monument is of immense cultural value to all Americans. The five Tribes working together to protect and defend Bears Ears (Navajo, Hopi, Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, and Zuni) share a commitment to this place, and their offer to share their knowledge to ensure that all Americans can enjoy this heritage is invaluable, generous, and visionary. This landscape is worthy of protection for its scientific value alone, yet it is the dedicated stewardship of the Tribes and Commission that makes this monument truly unique in the National Conservation Lands system.

Bears Ears presents the country with an opportunity to move forward and develop new models for cooperation, respect, and success. Multiple scientific assessments informed the Proclamation of December 28, 2016, and clearly established that this landscape is worthy of permanent protection. Nowhere else are geology, biology, human history, and culture so deeply intertwined, evident, and accessible as in Bears Ears National Monument.

Rather than reducing the size and integrity of the Monument, we believe that the top priority of the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture should be to support the development and implementation of a management plan that will ensure sound stewardship of this landscape and its geological, biological, and cultural resources, in perpetuity. We pledge to assist the Bears Ears Intertribal Commission and the appropriate federal and state agencies in advancing this process.

* Those listed below sign as individuals; affiliations are listed for identification purposes only and do not imply institutional support for the positions expressed here.

We offer the following specific suggestions:

• Restore the monument to its original boundaries, agreed to in the proclamation
• Support a scientifically rigorous and culturally informed process to develop a management plan that reflects the goals articulated in the proclamation
• Respect the agreements previously reached with the five tribal governments that establish the central importance of tribal leadership in planning and management
• Create new opportunities for citizens to learn about, appreciate, and enjoy this landscape

We, as representatives of the scientific community, are committed to working with state and federal authorities, and with the Bears Ears Commission of Tribes, to ensure that management of the monument will serve all Americans, while also establishing a new model for collaborative management with Tribes, and an appropriate balance of conservation and sustainable land use.

We urge you to protect scientific values, educational opportunities, and unique natural and cultural resources by restoring Bears Ears National Monument to its original extent, and we urge you to honor tribal leaders by continuing to engage in a new, more inclusive model for public land management.

We stand ready to work with you and with our many colleagues to safeguard this spectacular and irreplaceable part of America's history for the future enjoyment and benefit of all Americans.

Respectfully,

Thomas D. Sisk, PhD, Correspondent
Olajos-Goslow Chair of Environmental Science and Policy
P.O. Box 5694
Northern Arizona University 86011-5694
Thomas.Sisk@nau.edu

(via Outside Magazine)

MILLER’S RECOVERY

Editor,

I find humor in the opinions of the people who read my letters and a little sadness. I get it in their eyes. I will be the bad guy and you don't even have to believe me. I have forgiven Chris Skaggs for his part and I have taken responsibility and hold myself accountable for my part. The truth is you're right, Nicky (AVA Letters November 22, 2017), whoever you are. Chris Skaggs did not alter my path. Sooner or later the outcome would have been the same. I used to blame everyone from my mother to my lawyer.

I've changed my life. I teach a victim awareness class to the other lifers here. Crazy, right? If you are an inmate you know what the group’s about. How our crimes create victims and the ripple effect. I've been doing it for over two years now. I am actively involved in Criminals and Gang Members Anonymous. I write letters to troubled youth. By doing these things I am trying to balance the scales. So I have nothing to prove to Nicky Israel in Stockton.

I wish Sherri (the lady who used to call me son) would write me back so I can make amends for all the hurt I caused her son, her, her family. It's something I need to do in my recovery. If she does not write back I understand, but I will have done my part.

The only part of Nicky’s letter that you are completely wrong about is that no one cares. My family cares, and my children, my new wife, the men in my group and a handful of close friends. So tell yourself no one cares about me. I know better. I have enough people in my life who care. I get packages mailed three or four times a week and birthday and Christmas cards. So much for having no one care. I am well loved. I will never be miserable or alone.

I don't correspond with Sherri and I never claimed to. I just wish she would write me back. We were family at one point and my actions damaged that.

So take care and I'll be okay. I have a Parole Board date in 15 years and I’ll leave here a better man whether it's paroling or dying from cirrhosis which ever comes first. It's God's will, not mine.

Respectfully,

Walter ‘Kris’ Miller

Susanville

PS. I sent several messages to Chris Skaggs at Jamestown and have received messages back. We are fine, you'll always be my brother. Now isn’t that embarrassing? LOL.

CLOACAS

by Manuel Vicent, translated by Louis S. Bedrock

The King of Rome, Tarquinio Prisco, ordered the construction of the Cloaca Maxima in the sixth century BCE in order to channel and spill contaminated marsh waters, along with all the garbage of the city, into the River Tiber.  This monumental work, carried out by Etruscans, is still in service.

Over time, temples, palaces, arcs of triumph, The Imperial Forum, The Coliseum, the Vatican, and the Christian Basilicas were built on top of it.  Though the roots of these sacred marble monuments flowed a putrid current in which floated all kinds of offal.  Law, art, and classical culture, which have nourished us, developed above this filth.

The Cloaca Maxima, originally a great work of engineering, has taken other forms throughout history that are invisible and equally nauseating.  The modern state, and all the crimes committed in its name, sits above a swamp similar to that of Rome.  The lower depths of power are filled with reptiles that walk around with pistols under their armpits; and the politicians shout and gesticulate, the judges pronounce sentences, and the armies march over this cesspool.

The sewer that supports the marble structures of the eternal city, and Pandora’s box, which contained a knot of serpents, the foundations of the modern state, have morphed into that current of hate and frustration that has risen to the surface from anonymity in millions of tweets filled with brays, insults, calumnies, lies, and vindictiveness.

The throne of an invisible King Tarquinio rises above the cloaca of networks with all of their digital power, capable of altering the course of history merely with fingers on a keyboard.  But what kind of temples, palaces, arcs of triumph,…what kind of culture might be erected upon this garbage dump?

DUDE, WHERE'S MY TROOPS?

stripes.com/report-44-000-unknown-military-personnel-stationed-around-the-world-1.501292

UKIAH LIBRARY EVENTS

Photo Snowglobes

On Friday, December 15^th from 2:30-4:30pm, Mendocino County Library, Ukiah Branch is hosting a photo snowglobe-making workshop for kids ages 5 and up. Create a snowy winter scene with trees, animals…and you! Please bring a 4-inch tall or smaller photo of yourself that is okay to cut, laminate, and place inside your winter wonderland. All other materials will be provided. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. This event is free and family-friendly.

* * *

Virtual Reality Day, Dec. 16th - 1pm-4pm

On Saturday, December 16^th from 1-4pm, the Mendocino County Library, Ukiah Branch is hosting a Virtual Reality Day, part of a new ongoing program which will make virtual reality available to the public. A new collaboration between the California State Library and Oculus VR, a division of Facebook Inc., has brought virtual reality technology to patrons in nearly half of the library jurisdictions throughout California, including Mendocino County Library. We invite people ages 13+ to come test out our new Oculus Rift system! Get hands on experience and learn what the virtual reality craze is all about. VR experiences include globe-trotting with Google Earth, becoming an astronaut on the International Space Station, traveling to an alien land, or creating a digital work of art.

The Oculus Rift will be open to Mendocino County Library cardholders on a first come, first served basis for 20 minute increments per person. There will be a sign-up sheet the day of the event, so that people can schedule a time slot for themselves. Only one person can use the VR system at a time, but we will have the Rift connected to a TV monitor that will allow others to see the user’s virtual point of view. All adult participants, or legal guardians of teens ages 13-17, must sign a liability waiver and have a Mendocino County Library card. People are able to wear eyeglasses while using the Oculus Rift, though suggested measurements for eyeglasses are 50mm (2 inches) or less in height and 142mm (5.5 inches) or less in width.

The Virtual Reality Experience Project is managed by Califa, a nonprofit, and is supported in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.

* * *

Glow-in-the-Dark Storytime!

On Thursday, December 21^st at 6:00p.m., Mendocino County Library, Ukiah Branch is hosting a glow-in-the-dark storytime. Celebrate the longest night of the year at the library with stories, crafts, and activities! Wear your brightest clothing and see them glow under the blacklight. This event is free, family-friendly and sponsored by the Ukiah Library and Friends of the Library.

* * *

Holiday Generosi-tree

During the month of December until the 23rd, Mendocino County Library, Ukiah Branch is hosting a holiday gift-wishing tree. Be a secret anonymous gift donor for someone, or come in and write your wish for a book, movie, music cd, or game on a wish ornament and put it on our Generosi-tree! Please only 1 ornament per person, but you may purchase as many items for others as you’d like. Anyone is welcome to be a gift-wisher, donor, or both! Library staff will wrap the item and contact their recipients during the week of December 18^th – 23^rd. You are not obligated to purchase an item for someone else, but it makes this event a lot more fun! This event is family-friendly and open to the public.

* * *

Dare to Self-Care: a STEAM Maker Space Series for Teens (12-18)

Make Bath Bombs: Saturday, December 16^th 2-4 pm

Make Lip Balm: Friday, January 5^th 2-4 pm

Make Hand Salve: Friday, February 16^th 2-4 pm

Make Eye Pillows: Friday, March 30^th 2-4 pm

The Ukiah Branch Library is hosting Dare to Self-Care: a series where teens can make bath bombs, lip balm, hand salve, and eye pillows while learning about science and self-care at the same time! Advance registration is required. Please call 463-4490 to sign up!

If you’re interested in the program or want to find out more about Dare to Self-Care, please contact Melissa at the Ukiah Library: 467-6434 or carrm@co.mendocino.ca.us

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Community Tied-Knot Blanket-Making for Fire Victims

Tuesdays through Saturdays during the month of December, Mendocino County Library, Ukiah Branch is hosting a blanket-making station where anyone can come in and help make tied-knot blankets. Blankets will be pre-cut and ready to tie. Tie one knot as you pass by, or sit down and tie a row of knots with family and make new friends! These no-sew fleece blankets are easy to make and help develop fine motor skills.

Completed blankets will be donated to families affected by the fires. Take part in a community-driven activity that pays it forward to others and only requires your time and simple knot-tying skills.

Do you have extra fleece and are interested in contributing to this project? Please contact Jannah at the Ukiah Library by emailing minnixj@mendocinocounty.org or call (707) 463-4153. This event is sponsored by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library.

THE FRUITCAKE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.

“So there I stood in line at Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility, the  aroma of tuna hotdish permeating the church basement, waiting for Mrs.  Magendanz to finish carefully carving pieces of warm apple pie and place  each one gently on a paper plate, and I found myself staring at the back  of Myrtle Krebsbach's dress, her long dark hair falling gracefully on  her shoulders. I thought back to that time, a few years ago, when we  found ourselves together sharing a cigarette behind the Statue of the  Unknown Norwegian while we waited for the city council meeting to begin,  and as the soft light of autumn sunset disappeared behind the horizon  and the whippoorwills began their crepuscular trills, I reached out and  firmly took hold of her bosom in my hands and said, HONK! ...And then I  said to Mrs. Krebsbach, If you ever tell anyone about this, I will kill  you and throw your body in the lake, and you will never work in radio  again."

Thanks to Hank Sims of Lost Coast Outpost, the recording of last night's  (2017-12-08) KNYO and KMEC Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show is  available with a single click. Here: https://tinyurl.com/MOTA-KNYO-0258

And thanks to the fine folks at KMEC-LP Ukiah, this show ran live there  too, from the beginning, at 9pm, not waiting till midnight to be  included, as had been the way. Thank you, Joel Thompson, Ed Nieves, Sid  Cooperider, Alicia Bales, the Govinda and others at KMEC for this  improvement and opportunity.

It seems to have worked okay. KMEC left about 20 minutes before I signed  off KNYO at about 4:05 a.m. but the very end of the show I'll always be  running an old-time radio play while I clean up my mess and make the  studio presentable for the next person, so if losing KMEC at that point  is the most likely thing to go wrong electrically and it happens again  once in awhile in future shows, and nothing else goes wrong, who could  ask for anything more?

This show is a little more uneven than usual, due to I don't know what,  nervousness, probably, but that's the good thing about your getting the  recording. You can skip right past anything that doesn’t interest you  personally, or that you're embarrassed for me about, or that grates on  your nerves, and find something that does interest you. It won’t hurt my  feelings, and it's so kind of you to even worry about that. You're a  good person to care about others that much in general, or to care about  me in particular at all, after what I said to you, whatever that was.  See, I don’t even remember! You’re that much better than I am, and  good for you. Good for you.

IN OTHER NEWS, as usual at http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find a fresh batch of links to educational activities and amusements, such as:

Labyrinth. Salt art.

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2017/12/07/a-way-through/

Piano-wire spring-reverb memory. OH! AMAZING!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BIx2x-Q2fE

What's the best version of Peter and the Wolf?

https://www.theawl.com/2017/12/whats-the-best-version-of-peter-and-the-wolf/

How much corn could a corn duck horn if a corn duck could horn corn?

https://laughingsquid.com/duck-eats-bowl-of-corn/

And deathbed thoughts.

https://theawesomer.com/thoughts-from-your-deathbed/457108/

– Marco McClean

TRAVEL TIP from Craig

Swami Sivananda's "Tip for Travelers"

"Listen O traveler!  You are a wayfarer here.  The world is not your permanent home.  You have come here only for a brief sojourn."

—  Swami Sivananda (Founder of the Divine Life Society, Muni-ki-Reti, India)