Mendocino County Today: Monday, Dec. 18, 2017

• Southland Burning
• River Breaching
• Marilyn Appreciation
• County Spending
• KZYX Application
• Witch Hunting
• Little Dog
• Mendosa Scam
• Charitable Thoughts
• Ed Notes
• Bureaucrats Failing
• Tax Winners
• Yesterday's Catch
• Tavis Too
• Needy Greedy
• Weinstein Experience
• UFO
• Gaggle
• Ugly Men
• Beardog
• Christmas Fires
• Inland Democrats
• Richest Pols
• Heroes & Patriots
• Piano Concerts

TWO-WEEK-OLD SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FIRES NOW THREATEN 18,000 HOMES

Thousands of firefighters tried Sunday to shield coastal communities from one of the biggest wildfires in California history while a funeral procession rolled past burn-scarred hillsides in honor of one of their colleagues who was killed battling the flames.

pressdemocrat.com/news/7777127-181/flames-threaten-california-coastal-communities

MSP ON THE NAVARRO SANDBAR

What They Do On The Russian River With Sandbars

The new "reality" for Highway 128 is the sandbar refusing to breach at the mouth - and water subsequently "backing up" and flooding the SR-128 roadway just east of the Highway 1 bridge when the river level approaches 4.0' at the upstream USGS river gauge.

It happened last year in mid-November (for 6 days!) when Highway 128 was closed by CalTrans, in a twist of irony, for 128 hours. This year the closure was for only 36 hours (November 20 - 22nd) before the sandbar breached and the river drained.

The mouth of the Russian River has the same problem as the Navarro - when the sandbar won't breach, the town of Jenner floods.

Unlike the "brains" we have in Mendocino County, the Sonoma County Water Agency worked out a deal back in 2010 with the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies (including the National Marine Fisheries Service) whereby they "breach" their sandbar to prevent upstream flooding. Duh. They used to do it to the Navaro River sandbar all the time "back in the day."

Sometimes they breach the Russian River in a unique way designed to prevent flooding while creating a fresh-water lagoon to benefit young steelhead and salmon. Juvenile steelhead and chinook salmon, which are on the federal threatened species list, and coho, which are endangered, stay briefly in the lagoon at Jenner before swimming out into the ocean to feed.

Of course, MSP has proposed a "simple" solution that would also work. CalTrans needs to simply "create" their own sandbar in the "pullout" east of the bridge. If they "capped" the drainage culverts on the north side of the road, then piled sand in the turnout on the south side for about 150 yards, the backed up water would flood farther east - where there is a broad marshland and the roadway is higher than the "dip" where it floods just east of the bridge.

PHOTOS--Taken from the breaching of the Russian River back on October 22, 2014.

WAY TO GO, MARILYN

I just wanted to inform the above reporter that I think she did an excellent job on that article. I was having coffee at the Cove Coffee at Point Arena Harbor and happened to see your newspaper and the article attracted my attention. Anyway, I think she was spot on. Please pass on the compliment. I know it's a tough problem as pointed out in the article but she explained it well.

Ken F. Manchester

COUNTY SPENDING, SOME COMMENTS:

(1) re: THE GREAT MENDO SPENDING SPREE!

This is unbelievable and without common sense or care about the future of this county. Just because other counties can afford to pay their employees more than we pay ours is no reason to keep raising salaries for those at the top here in Mendocino County. Why are two standards used when wages are discussed? Does the CEO say that it’s “imperative” to pay all county workers at rates competitive with more highly populated, wealthier areas? No, she does not. This is a relatively poor county and we can’t afford to “keep up with the Jonses” while actual service levels for residents have been declining for years. And these pay raises will increase unfunded pensions liabilities. Why does the Board of Supervisors continue us down this path? How bad will it get before this train is stopped or derailed? No sound financial person would recommend conducting governmental business in the manner in which our local governments have been run in recent years, yet the powers-that-be squander our tax money while taxes and fees are raised, services decline and county roads crumble.

(2) RE: MEASURE B: HERE WE GO AGAIN

“not even a big man with a gun can stop us” — Anne Molgaard

“MOLGAARD HAS CONSISTENTLY called for cuts to the Sheriff’s budget to free up more money for social services, i.e., less money for the Blue Meanies, more money for people like her. That stance led to a heated exchange last year in the hallway outside the Supes chambers with Molgaard claiming that Sheriff Allman, “a big man with a gun” had threatened her.” Look for this allegation to resurface.

(3) “We told the Sheriff that history clearly shows that Mendo will go through all these motions and spend all this money and there will be no visible improvement in services rendered. And no attempt to measure the improvement other than money was spent.” … “The Sheriff conceded that that will be a challenge.”

That tells all you need to know. To be repetitive, the Sheriff has his $26 mil for the new jailhouse mental addition. He knew he had it in June, yet the story was not known publicly or widely reported until just before the Measure B election. Then we hear about consultants, studies and political fake speech on how the money will be, won’t be, funneled in, funneled out of the County… This whole thing SUCKS…in the end the taxpayers get to pay for some firm with no vested interest in anything but themselves, tell the county’s supposed experts how to exploit the mental health issues to the voting public. The usual suspects will get greased by the swamp water carriers that claim to represent the votes and the victims of the mental health crisis… Meanwhile the Gushing Groupies who voted for this thing have crawled back under the rocks that spawned them… awaiting another feel gooder issue to crow about.

(4) Measure B money is our money. It is not money from afar that belongs to no one, that no one cares about how it is wasted. if the hogs at the public trough take over, change it, or vote the whole thing out.

(5) Mr. Anderson, the planned Crisis Center facility on Orchard is going to be a psych unit. Why would we want to triplicate services? Can we afford another psych unit after providing staffing and operational funds to Schraeder and Allman for two very expensive facilities. We’re going to have problems staffing the mental health jail alone, not to mention Camille’s facility. They’re both going to want Measure B money. I know you would love to renovate the old Howard Memorial in Willits, but I don’t think we’re going to have enough clientèle let alone appropriate staffing for such a venture unless we import clients from other counties and states, they would love to get rid of them at no cost.

“The crisis stabilization unit will be able to hold clients for up to 72 hours to evaluate their needs, while the residential facility will provide up to 30 days of intensive trauma-informed wraparound services for patients who suffer from significant mental health barriers, preventing them from living safely in the community.”

What is a “5150” or “72-Hour Hold”? 5150 is the number of the section of the Welfare and Institutions Code, which allows a person with a mental illness to be involuntarily detained for a 72-hour psychiatric hospitalization.

(6) We’ve already cut the amount of homeless in Ukiah by 500 people in the last year. That only leaves about a 110 possible clients roaming our streets. If half of them are mentally ill, that would leave only 50 homeless mentally ill. The 40 bed apartment complex on Gobbi, the 10 bed crisis facility, and the 60 bed mental health jail, should be enough solve our problems. If half of them, as reported, are from out of County, should the Measure B supporters be stuck with the bill? Or should we give Mr. Marbut’s recommendations some consideration? When is enough mentally ill clients enough and what do we do when we run out of them?

(7) Lazarus — There’s a case to be made that Sheriff Allman is the most powerful politician in this county, perhaps even this part of the state, defiantly one of the most popular, rock star stuff, all you need to do is look to his army of groupies.His retirement deal is no different then most of the upper echelon people, maybe even the rank and file.

I’ve heard guys about to retire from county jobs brag about making more in retirement then while actually working…great system, for them…as long as it last. In my opinion it’s totally unsustainable, but that’s another topic.

(8) Bill Pilgrim — RE: MEASURE B. It ought to be a moot point that the Sheriff’s Dept, as first responders in nearly all mental health crises, would have a clear picture of what the “needs” are. Why not task someone in that dept. to compile & write the recommendations?

(9) ED NOTE: As a gushing groupie who voted for B, I still think, all-in-all, our own psych unit will be a step forward for our in-County mental cases and their families. I do agree, though, that the usual suspects, with the Supes functioning as their usual enabling selves, have quickly moved to corrupt B. And now watch the “advisory” appointments go to five of our County’s endless supply of rubber stamps. If it all gets to be too obvious a theft of public money I look for Sheriff Allman to go directly to the public to complain that this isn’t what he had in mind. Allman’s popularity can roll past Darth Molgaard baffle-gabbers.

TRUTH & RECONCILIATION!

Application for KZYX/Z Board of Directors Election — 2018
Mendocino County Public Broadcasting

Member Name: Bruce Anderson

Address: 13920 Highway 128, Boonville

Telephone: 707 895-3016

email: ava@pacific.net

Board seat applied for: at-large_as the Truth and Reconciliation candidate

Ballot Statement: Please explain in no more than 400 (four-hundred) words why the members of KZYX&Z should vote for you as a Board Member. Please use a separate sheet if needed, or email your ballot statement. Your ballot statement will be mailed to our members. We would appreciate it if you would include answers to the following five (optional) questions:

Member off and on, more on than off, since the station's dubious origins as a project of a transient grifter called Sean Donovan. I saw Mendo Public Radio immediately become the private audio club it remains today, complete with an ongoing enemies' list and any number of banned or otherwise non-personed Mendo persons, from former 5th District supervisor, Norman de Vall to KC Meadows of the Ukiah Daily Journal, to the marvelously talented Marco McClean. I expect to win the votes of the self-respecting sectors of the membership, that portion of KZYXers who understand that as a tax-subsidzed entity Mendo Public Radio belongs to all the people of Mendocino County, even people outside the lib-pwog echo chamber dominated these many years by the cringing, censorious claque whose descendants rule it today. I also think a certain percentage of KZYX’s present paid membership would appreciate a trustee independent of the self-interested persons who dominate it. 

Why are you interested in becoming a Board Member?

To agitate for fiscal transparency; term limits for programmers; a daily local news program professionally rendered; to see KZYX/Z at last become a truly public radio station.

What can you contribute to the Board and to Mendocino County Public Broadcasting?

An historical understanding of the enterprise and, perhaps, my newspaper as a means of promotion.

What are your interests and experience?

Interests catholic, experience vast.

What are your affiliations with non-profit organizations, professional societies, etc.?

None.

What do you consider a board member’s fundraising responsibilities and what is your fundraising experience?

A trustee ought to beat the drums for KZYX with the County's numerous service clubs. It's presently invisible (inaudible) to the large majority of Mendocino County residents. My fundraising experience? I've kept my family solvent for many years.

For any questions, please contact the Election Coordinator Ed Keller.

Please send this application to the Elections Coordinator at Email: bod@kzyx.org

Phone: 707.895.2324 Fax: 707.895.2451

Mail: KZYX&Z Board Elections, PO Box 1, Philo, CA, 95466

We must receive your application by 5PM on Tuesday, January 30, 2018!

BEFORE WE LINKED THEM ALL…

by Marilyn Davin

I can write this because I am a woman. A man would be afraid to touch it…

More than 400 years ago, nearly 100 years before ratification of the US Constitution, mass hysteria took hold throughout the Massachusetts Bay Colony, most famously in Salem Village, outside of Boston. Almost 70 years ago the same fever gripped the roughly decade-long McCarthyism era. Today it’s the growing chorus of women accusing men of alleged sexual assault. These three events share many characteristics: mostly unfounded and unproven allegations, no consequences for accusers making untrue claims, and, essentially, no recourse for men accused of alleged sexual “crimes.”

Men today who are accused of some ill-defined sexual impropriety that in many cases allegedly occurred one, two, three, even four decades ago, are assumed to be guilty simply because a woman said so (and let’s be candid: nearly all accusers are women and the accused, men). These men have been effectively deprived of rights enshrined in the US Constitution, including the presumption of innocence. They are often publicly tarred and feathered before an accuser’s accusation has even had time to land at the top of that day’s newscast.

We are taught today that the vigilantism characterizing the Salem witch trials and the McCarthyism era were fueled by hysteria, prejudice, and lawlessness. So how exactly are many of today’s accusers any different from accusers during those chaotic and shameful times? And who in our enlightened era is speaking up for the rights of those men accused, many of whom have been effectively buried by an avalanche of unsubstantiated allegations splashed across the evening news?

Nobody.

Frighteningly, the silence is deafening from journalists, our supposed first responders to separate an allegation from a fact. Equally disturbing, to me at least, is that our nation’s so-called progressive and liberal women, instead of calling out this travesty of justice and standing up for the rights of their brothers, are instead cheering on the accusers at the head of the finger-pointing line. It’s a free-for-all world where anyone can accuse anyone of anything, with no fear of being called to account if proven wrong.

Sex sells, and sells very well indeed. Our culture today is saturated with it: married sex (or lack thereof), living-together sex, geriatric sex, gay sex, bisexual sex, transgender sex, self-sex (did I miss anything?). And whether we admit it or not (ratings provide actual data), as a culture we sit salaciously in front of our idiot boxes hanging on the words spoken by earnest-looking anchors eager to be the first to spill the beans on who did what to whom, where they did it and, if possible, in what position. I rarely even hear the word “allegedly” anymore; this critical word, protector of the truth, seems to have disappeared from the English language, just when it’s needed the most.

To be clear: rape is a violent felony and should be treated as such in the eyes of the law. Accusations by some accusers may eventually be proven to be such felonies. A comedian mugging more than forty years ago in front of a camera, pretending to grope a woman fast asleep, fully clothed and wearing a flak jacket to boot, is not. Poor taste, yes. A crime, no. A reason to force a respected liberal US Senator to step down from his seat in the US Senate: no. In these rancorous, partisan times Al Franken’s vote was precious to Democrats. You don’t see Republicans dethroning representatives committed to advancing their political agenda because of a bunch of decades-old allegations. It’s just us liberals, shooting ourselves in our collective foot yet again. The old adage “cutting off your nose to spite your face” comes to mind.

I’m frequently told that this sexual harassment hysteria should be exempted from protections in the law because it’s impossible to determine the truth in a “he said/she said” situation. I beg to differ. Divorce and family custody courts somehow manage to navigate through the noise to reach equitable conclusions under similar circumstances. To say it’s impossible is to take another step down the road to mass hysteria and the absence of reason. And, as history has shown us, it’s so easy to go there, all it takes is enough of us to turn away and focus on something else.

So the upshot is that the lives of the men so accused have been ruined in this firestorm of vigilantism, apparently to the delight of progressive women cheering them on. But who are the losers?

Young men and women, for one. Have you noticed that, aside from the pop singer Taylor Swift, the great majority of accusers are old women like we are? An allegation 30 or 40 years old effectively seals that deal. Their stated reasons are varied, of course, almost certainly including some rooted in self interest: the role not won, the surge of personal power from bringing down a powerful man (in this environment accusers, assuming a martyr’s stance, have little to lose and everything to gain), the chance to grab the brass ring for their Warholian 15 minutes of fame.

But assuming that most accusers believe this travesty of justice is for the greater good, exactly how is it a good thing? It’s shown our young people, the country’s literal future, that protections in our constitution might sound good on paper but don’t apply and can be easily cast aside if enough people are accused of a hot-button, high-profile “crime,” whether true or not.

As for young people in today’s workplace, let’s not pretend that unfounded allegations against men (and the lack of options for countering them) are somehow promoting equality and collegiality between men and women at work.

I was discussing this with a close friend’s son-in-law, a corporate director. He told me he’s minimizing his contact with the women he works with. He says he’s afraid he could lose his job, his source of livelihood for his family, if even one of them charges him with some version of assault, inappropriate touching, “uncomfortable” feelings (whatever that means), even when he’s done absolutely nothing wrong. He understands, practically but sadly, that it doesn’t matter whether an accusation is true or not. A former communications director and friend of mine took this a step farther, predicting that men will be less likely to hire women in the first place, that the risk is too great that they could destroy their careers with retaliatory allegations or innuendo. (Bad performance review?)

But perhaps worst of all it tragically diminishes the plights of women who are actually raped and brutalized. They’ve been tossed into the same bucket as a woman who didn’t even know until 40 years later that a comedian had shot a gag photo of her while she was sleeping and covered head-to-toe and wearing a flak jacket.

“LITTLE DOG SAYS, Bruno and I knocked down a few, enjoying ourselves until Bruno started going all inappropriate, yelling stuff like, ‘Another martini for Mother Cabrini,’ then he fell asleep. I had to put the bottle away before I got a real good buzz going.”

MENDOSA COUNTY

Bob wrote: Got a phone call this morning from a person, presumably male, with a Southern accent. He informed me that he was from the Sheriff's Department, and that I had not shown up for a jury summons, and that they were going to lock me up. I asked what Sheriff's department and he replied "Mendosa County, 951 Low Gap Road". Hmm. I told him that I had not received a jury summons, and what did he want? He said "I don't want anything I just want to tell you that you missed a jury summons." I said "OK." He said "Well I guess we will just have to lock you up." I said "OK.", then hung up then called the Sheriff's department, they said it was a scam. Just a heads up.

HANDOUTS DON’T HELP

The Ukiah Police Department recently issued an eye-catching notice on their website about local pan-handlers. It tells us that police who have talked to panhandlers are told that these con artists can make as much a $100 an hour standing around appealing for money with a variety of scams.

They’ll claim to be homeless. They’ll claim to be veterans down on their luck. They’ll claim to be recently unemployed.

Here’s what Ukiah Police Chief Chris Dewey had to say:

“Unfortunately, giving money to transients does not help our community. Transients use our generosity to buy drugs and alcohol; and once they are under the influence, they commit crimes that put a strain on our community’s resources.

“Based on what most Ukiahans tell me, I’d say that just about every single person in Ukiah is tired of seeing homeless people loitering in our parks, sleeping in business doorways, littering in our creeks and waterways, panhandling, and shoplifting. Most importantly, people are really tired of the thefts, public intoxication and violence that transients seem to be involved in regularly.

“Here’s the dilemma: kind-hearted people who think they are helping by giving handouts to transients are, in reality, contributing to our community’s problems.”

The UPD says – and we heartily agree – that we should ignore these appeals. Giving these folks money does not help them pull their lives together.

We know that it makes us feel charitable to try to help someone needier than we are, but there are a ton of ways to help others during this holiday season (and all year ‘round for that matter).

You can give to the UDJ Holiday Food Bank Fund Drive, which is on right now at the Ukiah Daily Journal office at 617 S. State Street in Ukiah.

You can give to the Ukiah Valley Christmas Effort, which is also collecting toys and presents right now in barrels placed all over town and to which you can donate funds at P.O. Box 801, Ukiah, CA 95482.

You can give to Plowshares, which feeds low income families regular hot meals throughout the holidays and all year at 1346 South State Street in Ukiah.

And, you can point “homeless” pan handlers to our winter shelter at 1045 South State Street.

We love that Ukiahans are so generous (and we are delighted to see the outpouring thus far that is bringing our Food Bank Drive closer and closer to our goal), but when you see someone in a parking lot or on a corner asking for cash, remember that your hard earned dollars would be better spent giving to a cause that helps our local needy, not these out of towners who just prey on your good heart.

(Ukiah Daily Journal editorial)

ED NOTES

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THE POST-MORTEMS for Ed Lee, the late San Francisco mayor, don't mention that he was an ineffectual mayor. Nice man from all accounts, but if being nice is the political standard why not Grandma Smuckers, or a giant talking huggy bear? But then, as our proud (?) land continues it's inexorable slide into what's shaping up as unpredictable forms of collapse, maybe at this point cities are ungovernable. But Frisco became comprehensively worse under Lee; the thousands of damaged people living on the streets became a lot more prevalent, and began pitching tent city drug bazaars near downtown and even in downtown. Although The City spends $310 million annually on what The City claims is fewer than ten thousand thanatoids, the true rub is that the beneficiaries of most of this money are the helping pros, machine Democrats every one of them, people who resist any reform that imperils their funding and their cush no-questions-asked jobs. Same-same here in Mendocino County, of course.

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KC MEADOWS' excellent editorial in Sunday's Ukiah Daily Journal contained lengthy quotes from Ukiah's sensible police chief, Chris Dewey, buttressing her opinion that Ukiah's quality of life is not helped by succumbing to spare change artists. The Chief pointed out that these guys accumulate alms that they spend on dope and booze, quickly transmogrifying themselves into public nuisances the cops must spend much of their duty time suppressing. I think the very best place to give money is the Food Bank at 880 N. State. (The Fort Bragg Food Bank is at 910 N. Franklin) That's where you find the many inland people who are trying to keep body and soul together on fixed incomes or not enough income to make ends meet, ends drifting farther apart by the day.

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ECCENTRIC spellings of given names present occasional probs for us in the news biz. The other day a young woman named Koty popped up in the Sheriff's Log. "Gotta be Katy," I shouted down to the engine room. "Change the o to a. And that's an order!" The engine room came right back with, "Looked her up. That's her name. K-O-T-Y." Why a parent would want to do that to a kid…

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A LOT of New Yorker fiction, seems to me, is written by neurotics for other neurotics. Proust was a neurotic but he was an interesting neurotic. The New Yorker neurotics… Anyway, I read some place, maybe even in The New Yorker, that the recent story called "Cat Person" by Kristen Roupenian was the venerable mag's most read story ever, and has since prompted a whole critical literature about it. It certainly held my enfeebled attentions. I can't recall anything as vivid about the sexual experience as, in this case, mostly suffered by a young woman. I also think even the dullest high school student could grasp it, and I would hope the more alert English teachers of the young would assign it for discussion, especially at this time as the phallocracy is under full-on, and long overdue, attack.

newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/11/cat-person

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AS IT HAPPENS, I'm reading a big bio of Shirley Jackson, most famous for her short story "The Lottery," called "A Rather Haunted Life," which I recommend for lots of reasons from Jackson herself to the picture her life paints of American intellectual life in the fifties and sixties. "The Lottery" created a huge controversy when it appeared in The New Yorker in 1948 similar, kind of, to the excitement "Cat Person" has ignited.

FROM THE NEW YORKER: Jackson was born in San Francisco in 1916 and brought up, with a younger brother, in one of the city’s affluent suburbs. Her parents were conservative country-club people, who regarded their high-strung child with some perplexity. Jackson identified herself early on as an outsider and as a writer. “When i first used to write stories and hide them away in my desk,” she later wrote in an unpublished essay, “i used to think that no one had ever been so lonely as i was and i used to write about people all alone… i thought i was insane and i would write about how the only sane people are the ones who are condemned as mad and how the whole world is cruel and foolish and afraid of people who are different.”

LOCAL BUREAUCRATS FAIL

Dear AVA,

Yesterday morning I submitted the comments appended below, in response to the ever-illuminating Scaramella piece titled “Measure B: Here We Go Again.”

I have spent the past year (several hours a month in public hearings, many hours a month in reading of published materials, a few each month in correspondence with the state agency representatives and affiliated “association” members) attempting to clarify what our responsibilities are, and to identify the nearly invisible management system for Lake County’s mental health programs. (My next communication will be directly to the Lake County Grand Jury’s Health & Human Services Committee.)

Given that the brunt of my “reader comments" are more directly related to Lake County than Mendocino, perhaps this pontification is deemed irrelevant or disconnected from your situation. I can completely understand that, but because the local (Lake County) mental health situation is not dissimilar to yours, and because the County governments’ mystification and razzle dazzle reporting (non) prevents us all from developing any kind of accountability for the facts (required reporting to state agencies) — I offered these thoughts in consolation to the unrelenting AVA staff with infinite appreciation for your clarity and perseverance.

Arigato gozaimasu,

Betsy Cawn

Upper Lake, CA

QUOTES & COMMENTS:

“You mean all these people we pay top dollar for in the “Mental Health” department don't know things like how many beds we need and what the trends are? They don't know how much they’re spending? They don't know what they’re spending it on? They don't know how many clients they serve and what kind of service they provide? They don’t have that information on hand already? What does that say about our County Health and Human Services staff?”

Welfare & Institutions Code Section 5604 describes the responsibilities of the Board of Supervisors' appointed "Mental Health Advisory Board," whose general understanding of community "needs" requires the acquisition of such knowledge — based on reports that the Mental/Behavioral Health Department is supposed to provide to the state Department of Health Care Services (for Medi-Cal reimbursement of costs) and to the Board of Supervisors for budget management and contract oversight.

The Mental Health Advisory Board is further required to conduct "site assessments" for all points of service delivery, and to conduct regular public meetings where the Mental Health Services Act plans and updates are reviewed and "approved" for action to be taken by the Board of Supervisors (in line with additional budget management and contract oversight responsibilities for the local department), to comply with MHSA (Prop. 63, 2004) guidelines for development of locally-tailored "prevention and intervention" services — theoretically designed to reduce the levels of crisis response costs and serve the needs of patients whose diagnoses are anything less than "severely mentally ill."

In Lake County, County Administration oversees the spending of budgeted funds allocated to the Mental/Behavioral Health Department, for "severely mentally ill" (W&IC Section 5150/5152) and "severely emotionally disturbed" youth — for services reimbursed by the state — and spending of MHSA funds, which are additionally accountable to the Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission and the state-formed Mental Health Planning Council.

However, the Lake County Mental Health Advisory Board cannot itself account for the absence of W&IC-required annual reports to the Board of Supervisors, or the absence of any work products required under the state code sections. The public (family members of mental health services "consumers," consumers themselves, and concerned citizens) cannot access previous records of the local MHAB that were not maintained by the MHAB members, local department, or Board of Supervisors' administrative staff.

The "data" is all there, somewhere — but neither the local department nor the MHAB can provide records, or appraisals and analyses of services needed, services provided, and key performance indicators of expenditures. The Lake County Grand Jury's excellent report on "staffing issues" for the Lake County Behavioral Health Department" (2016-2017) examines several aspects of its handicaps, for which internal changes in both County administration and department operations are rumored but as yet unseen. (Lake County rarely issues an organization chart, and seldom explains how a "new and improved" system has been created.

A very proactive program led by the Adventist Hospital (Clearlake) — emulating the "Camden Coalition" (https://www.camdenhealth.org/) — is focusing on the top three areas of need in Lake County, for mental health services, housing, and transportation (determined by consensus at a May conference of all agencies and organizations). The local department of Behavioral Health and Adventist Health's "Project Restoration" are collaborating to address the "worst case" service demands on law enforcement, hospitals, and fire protection districts — for individuals dependent on these "first responders" — within the boundaries of the City of Clearlake.

But the absence of a functioning Mental Health Advisory Board leaves the rest of the community unrepresented in opportunities for advocacy and program development that are statutorily mandated by the State of California. Unfortunately, the Lake County Board of Supervisors has taken no action (in over 10 years) to ensure that its appointed Mental Health Advisory Board meets state requirements.

Mr. Marmon, I look forward to your comments and insights on this topic.

WINERIES AND BREWERIES BENEFIT UNDER THE TAX BILL

Local wineries, breweries and distilleries are big winners in the GOP tax package, which would slash their tax bills following a concerted lobbying effort by the alcohol beverage industry to reduce the federal excise tax on its products.

pressdemocrat.com/business/7770100-181/north-coast-wineries-breweries-distilleries

CATCH OF THE DAY, December 17, 2017

ANTHONY BILLY, Hopland. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JESSICA EVANS, Redwood Valley. Bad check.

THOMAS GALINDO, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ANGELICA GONZALEZ, Redwood Valley. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

DAKOTA HENNIGAN, Willits. Zip-gun, failure to appear.

CHARLES HENSLEY, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

ELIZABETH HULL, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

OSCAR JIMENEZ, Ukiah. DUI, saps/similar.

ERIC LINCOLN, Covelo. Failure to appear.

RACHEL PIERCE, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

CODY RINGLER, Laytonville. Under influence, paraphernalia, court order, probation revocation.

FELIPE RUIZ, Covelo. Controlled substance while armed, loaded firearm in public, receiving stolen property, Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

MELINA SALAZAR, Fort Bragg. Taking vehicle without owner’s consent, failure to appear.

LEE SORENSEN, DUI, probation revocation.

DOUGLAS TUBBS, Fort Bragg. Elder abuse, embezzlement.

FRED WILLIAMS JR., Ukiah. Protective order violation, probation revocation.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Damn, Tavis too! Say it isn’t so!

PBS is “indefinitely” suspending distribution of the late-night talk show “Tavis Smiley” after multiple misconduct allegations emerged against the show’s 53-year-old host, PBS announced Wednesday.

While a statement from a PBS spokeswoman did not say what sort of misconduct was alleged, “PBS News Hour,” on its website, said the allegations involved “sexual misconduct.”

The irony is that all the targets with ruined careers who may as well just put a gun to their heads and end it all now, are all anti-Trump. With the exception of Moore who is a caricature of the hated southern good old boy. Going after that septuagenarian chunk of beef jerky requires no explanation. However perhaps the sophomoric motivations behind the national witch hunt break down if the intended target is not sufficiently anti-Trump in the general case.

It is at times like these one can realize that a world run by blue haired women and men who do not know they are men would not be any better than what we have now.

TAKING CARE OF THE TRULY NEEDY

Editor:

Say what you want about the tax bill now in conference, you have to agree that Congress is taking care of America’s most truly needy group, the heirs of the really, really rich.

By accidentally being born to wealthy parents, these deserving folks will have their tax-free inheritance increased from $11 million to $22 million (Senate version) or the moon (House version). What a kind holiday gift for poster children Don Jr., Tiffany, Ivanka and Erik.

To make up for the $269 billion in lost revenue from this new provision of the tax code, a few social programs are on the chopping block. First up is the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which has been unfunded since September. Sen. Orrin Hatch said “we don’t have the money anymore” to support children’s health. Hatch thinks there are other children far more deserving of national largess.

What’s next? Speaker Paul Ryan says Congress will be working on entitlement reform, Washingtonspeak for Medicare reductions, to cover the deficit increase of $1.5 trillion caused by all the tax cuts.

Congressional Republicans have given their donors what they wanted, and to pay for it the nation’s health and social programs will be sacrificed.

Mark Mills-Thysen

Sebastopol

I MEAN, was I ever sexually abused by Harvey Weinstein? No. Was Harvey monstrous? Yes. He was the distributor of The Thin Blue Line. And in many ways, I owe Harvey a debt of gratitude, because he was the only person interested in distributing my film. This was in the early years of Miramax. Now, on the other hand, one of the first things he ever said to me after I signed the contract was, “You’re gonna take ten minutes out of this film, and if you don’t, I’ll put it on a fucking shelf, and it will never see the light of day. And if you think I care about you, or your fucking movie, I don’t.” I think it’s an important thing to remember about Harvey: Harvey could be charming, Harvey could be personable, Harvey was not stupid. I’ll leave it open, the question of whether he had good taste or not. But Harvey was really interested—and I think the sex is part of it, I don’t know, but that would be my conclusion—Harvey took enormous pleasure in humiliating people and showing people how he was more powerful than they were. That was part of the Harvey Weinstein experience. And for women, I’m sure it took the form of sex as well as other things, but it was always, “You are deeply insignificant, and I can do with you what I will.”

I hope people will watch Wormwood and not be entirely judgmental about Harvey Weinstein. And I feel guilty, he did distribute The Thin Blue Line, but—I remember I would stay at the Mercer, and Harvey would always be at the Mercer during a certain period of time, and I would always see him going upstairs with hookers of one kind or another, or what I assume were hookers of one kind or another, but I knew nothing about him. And I’m not just one of those men who spent a lot of time around him and saw stuff that somehow I conveniently repressed. He was awful to deal with. He was a thief, a consummate thief. He stole money from people. He never honored distribution contracts, he was a nightmare to deal with. It’s amazing that he was able to do what he did for so long. It’s amazing that Donald Trump has been able to continue what he did for so long.

— Errol Morris

TWO NAVY AIRMEN AND AN OBJECT THAT "ACCELERATED LIKE NOTHING I’VE EVER SEEN"

New focus on UFOs...

nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/unidentified-flying-object-navy.html

GEESE, SLOWLY MAKING THEIR WAY SOUTH ACROSS WYOMING, DEC. 8, 2017

(photo by H. Reading)

ABOUT THOSE CHOPPED-DOWN POTENTATES and lords: many of them, one couldn’t help but notice, were not the most attractive specimens on the block: bulbous, jowly men; fat men who told women they needed to lose weight; ugly men drawn to industries organized around female appearance. Men with weird hair. Is it wrong of me to bring this up? We do, after all, move through the world as embodied creatures. I wondered what it felt like, if you’re such a guy, one who’s managed to accrue some significant portion of power in the world but you’re still you—coercing sex out of underlings. When you look in the mirror, is it a great white hunter you see staring back, with women as your game of choice? Sure you’ve won, you’re on top, but isn’t every win a tiny jab of confirmation about your a priori loathsomeness? If sexual domination assuages something for certain men, is it because somewhere inside lives a puny threatened runt, and extracting sexual compliance is some form of recompense? One woman, who’d fought off the advances of a naked, pleading film producer, recalled that he thereupon broke into tears and said she’d “rejected him because he was fat.”

— Laura Kipnis

IT COULD HAPPEN HERE!

Russian Animal Shelter Slams ‘Irresponsible Breeders’ After Finding A Stray Dog ‘With A Bear Face’ Wandering The Streets.

The odd-looking dog was brought into an animal shelter in Chelyabinsk in south-central Russia's Cheliabinsk Oblast region and has baffled locals who say they have 'never seen anything like it before'. The stray dog, nicknamed Medvebaka from the Russian words for bear and dog, appears to have the body of a canine with a bear-like snout and ears. Nash Dom animal shelter released Images to the public in hopes that the animal's owner comes forward.

CHRISTMAS FIRES

Dragged down by the weight of ornament,

a tree starts sizzling in the arid house

while the family sleeps, each child

holding a new gift tightly to her chest.

Or is it a mutant candle flame wavering

then licking the edge of the votive glass

like an old man searching for gristle

at the back of his mouth?

The fire engine hauling Santa through

the neighborhoods last week (balanced

illicitly on a ladder, four beers into it)

now cuts through the night’s

space-time continuum: before and after.

And everyone in new bedroom slippers

picking their way across iced-over pavement

toward an ugly epiphany: bodies in blankets

not their own rolled out of the smoke

on silver wheels that wobble

across crusts of blackened snow.

I knew a woman who smoked in bed

and died of such burns after much suffering —

she, the solitary who used to watch us

recite our prayers on Christmas Eve and then

retire to her drafty room, her movie magazines,

the smoldering cigarette, its tip aglow

like the first star of evening.

saying all this to remind myself of the great

loneliness we share, of hooves stamping

the barn floor — a random sound, without cadence,

even if, on the quiet road, one stops to listen.

— Susan Gubernat

NEXT MEETING OF THE INLAND MENDOCINO DEMOCRATIC CLUB

The Inland Mendocino Democratic Club will hold our next meeting Thursday, January 11 at 5:30pm in the meeting room at the Yokayo Bowl & Lounge, 1401 North State St., Ukiah. Let’s all join together to make our county an oasis of Justice and Peace. Together, in coalition, we can take progressive action and participate in the governance of our own county. Come lend a hand. All are welcome.

RICHEST POLS BY STATE

Every one will get a huge tax break if this thing passes. As if they need it.

zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-16/map-shows-you-richest-politician-every-state

HEROES AND PATRIOTS KMEC RADIO

Hello, All,

Despite not having but one mike, no headsets, no archive and call drops for our December 11th program with Stewart M Patrick, Council on Foreign Relations, I have cobbled together 51 minutes of our show for Facebook. John and I want to have Dr. Patrick return when we can assure him and other guests, KMEC will be on top of its technical issues.

Joel, I deeply appreciate your visit to the studio. The gods conspired against us, but we managed.

Happy Holidays.

Mary Massey and John Sakowicz
heroesandpatriots@gmail.com

Stewart M Patrick, Heroes and Patriots, December 22, 2017 Program

https://www.facebook.com/Heroes-and-Patriots-KMEC-Radio-Mendocino-Environmental-Center-1554754391263726/

Heroes and Patriots is a program about national security, intelligence and foreign policy. The show is streamed live each Monday, 1 p.m., P.S.T. on Like us on Facebook and YouTube at Heroes and Patriots, KMEC Radio, Mendocino Environmental Center.

Follow on: Facebook, YouTube and Twitter @heroesandpatri2

26TH ANNUAL PROFESSIONAL PIANIST CONCERT JANUARY 5-7

On January 5 - 7, 2018, the 26^th Annual Professional Pianist Concert will commence at Mendocino College’s Center Theatre in Ukiah with three concerts featuring 10 different pianists. Performers this year are Spencer Brewer, Elena Casanova, Wendy deWitt, Frankie J, Tom Ganoung, Chris James, Elizabeth MacDougall, Ed Reinhart, Charlie Seltzer and Sam Ocampo. The music ranges from classical to jazz, boogie-woogie to Cuban, Broadway to ragtime.....each performance will be different!

The series features seven pianists on stage each evening in a living room environment throughout the event trading stories and songs with two pianos on stage to accommodate impromptu collaborations. This popular event is an annual sellout because of the diversity, quality of a multitude of styles of music and humor that takes place throughout the evening. A special art show benefitting Redwood Complex fire survivors by Spencer Brewer and Esther Siegel will also be on display at the Mendocino College Art Gallery throughout the weekend…not to be missed!

Friday, January 5th at 7:00pm will feature Spencer Brewer, Elena Casanova, Wendy DeWitt, Chris James, Elizabeth MacDougall, Ed Reinhart and Charlie Seltzer. Saturday, January 6^th’s 7:00pm performance will feature Spencer Brewer, Elena Casanova, Wendy DeWitt, Tom Ganoung, Chris James, Elizabeth MacDougall and Sam Ocampo. Sunday afternoon’s 2:00pm performance will feature Spencer Brewer, Elena Casanova, Tom Ganoung, Frankie J, Elizabeth MacDougall, Ed Reinhart and Charlie Seltzer. No two concerts will be the same, so if you love piano and piano music, enjoy more than one performance.

Tickets are available at UkiahConcerts.org, Mendocino Book Co. and dig Music! in Ukiah, Mazahar in Willits and Watershed Books in Lakeport. Tickets are $15 general admission and $25 "I ‘Wanna’ See the Hands" limited seating. For more information call 707-472-7640.

The concert benefits the Mendocino College Recording Arts & Technology Program, Allegro Scholarship Program, Mendocino County Youth Project and Ukiah Community Concerts. Sponsors are Sparetime Supply, Ken Fowler Auto, Savings Bank of Mendocino, Mendocino College Recording Arts, Willits Furniture Center, Waterman Plants, K-WINE/MAX, KOZT-The Coast and KZYX/Z. There will be autographed CD's by the artists for sale in lobby. Refreshments will be provided by Ukiah Community Concert Association.