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Mendocino County Today: Monday, Jan. 15, 2018

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SOME WET AND COOL ON THE WAY, according to the National Weather Service, "Dry through this morning. Rain will move into the area this afternoon. A brief dry break Tuesday through Wednesday morning, then wet weather will return and continue through rest of the week. It will also be turning much cooler for the second half of the week."

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DEBRIS REMOVAL WORK that had been suspended in the middle of last week in the wake of a contract dispute filed by an Army Corps of Engineers contractor from Florida was resumed on Friday after California state Emergency Services officials stepped in to fill the contract gap. In an impressively creative move not typical of state agencies, California’s Office of Emergency Services authorized a new agreement Friday with the Burlingame-based company ECC to advance the debris removal program in the affected counties without delay. As we suggested last week when the suspension was announced, the award was made under the broad emergency/disaster declaration for the four counties, Sonoma, Napa, Lake and Mendocino. With the resumption of work, the removal effort is now expected to be finished in late February or early March. State officials stepped in on the presumption that the feds will eventually reimburse them after the contract dispute is resolved. No details about the basis for the dispute have been made available so far.

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FROM TOMMY WAYNE KRAMER’S must-read column in the Sunday Ukiah Daily Journal:

“A $500 reward should be offered to anyone who thinks Mendocino County supervisors deserve the $24,000 raise they just voted themselves. The supes themselves know they didn’t earn the money. Following the trend of government employees enriching themselves at public expense, they simply stole a raise from taxpayers who had no say. Shameful? Yes. Surprising? I wish. It would have been unthinkable 40 years ago, when county employees thought of themselves as public servants. Today government work is an easy path to getting rich.

“A friend of mine occasionally visits the home of a county supervisor. My friend says this: “It’s usually in the middle of the day and (the supervisor) is always sitting around watching TV in a bathrobe. Working? I don’t think so.” This is the dedicated effort that nets a supervisor $86,000 a year plus lifetime benefits? Don’t forget: You pay county pensions, but can’t afford one for yourself.

“Remember: Shop Local: At the annual Christmas party the City of Ukiah held for itself, the caterer hired was from… Sonoma County. When they toasted one another with French Champagne I wonder if anyone voiced thanks to Mendocino County taxpayers.”

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SPEAKING OF SCAMS, it couldn’t be more obvious that Warren Galletti conspired — sorry, no other word to describe it — with his pals on the Point Arena school board to install Galletti in PA’s superintendent’s position without advertising the job, without even the fig leaf of a public process. The deed was done in private session but clearly pre-arranged. The board emerged from closed session and announced that Galletti was the man. His job in his home town of Point Arena secure, Galletti then announced he was resigning from his job as Superintendent of County schools, a job with no job description because it’s a job without work. One brave fog belt soul voted against the deal.

POINT ARENA will pay Galletti $145,000 a year plus perks and regular annual salary increments. At the County Office in Ukiah he made $132,000 annually plus a free car and gas to ease his commute from PA to his non-job in Ukiah.

EVEN by Mendo’s sleazy standards of unaccountable public employment, the Galletti affair stinks. The public’s business is supposed to be conducted in public. It’s the law, even in Mendocino County. Both the DA and the Grand Jury ought to have a look at it.

FORTY-FOUR (44) PEOPLE at the County Office of Education make more than $70,000 a year (as of 2016). The County School Board gets paid to attend meetings and gets free medical care, too. This way their loyalty to whomever happens to occupy the top job is assured. Heck, it’s for the kids.

SOME OF OUR favorite MCOE job titles (with base pay as of 2016):

  • Debra Courtney, Director I-Internal Business, $109,924.02
  • Denise Keller, Behavior Specialist, $105,450.00
  • Antonio Lopez, Administrator On Special Assignment-IRPA, $106,397.52
  • Lech Slocinski, Teacher-CTE Commercial Photography, $72,145.50
  • Maryjean Makela, Teacher-CTE Food Service/Career Pathways Coach, $71,909.05
  • Stephen Hahm, School Climate & Transformation Coach, $68,553.27

COME ON, HAHM. Pick up your game. Responsibility for climate and transformation is worth at least 70k.

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Harris

LAURIE HARRIS, the Willits School Trustee who was arrested in October on pot cultivation charges was sentenced last week to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor pot possession charge. Reporting in last week’s Willits Weekly, reporter Dan McKee said that Harris’s original arrest followed a raid at her East Hill Road home in which deputies seized 37 pot plants, three pounds of processed pot, some concentrated pot and a digital scale. Harris said the pot was for medical purposes, but the raid team insisted it was commercial. Under the probation terms Harris waived her search warrant rights, and agreed to pay “full restitution” to the Sheriff’s office for the cost of the raid and plant eradication, plus she agreed to not smoke pot recreationally, only medicinally under a doctor’s order. McKee concluded, “Harris resigned from the WUSD board of trustees on December 6 after reading a prepared statement critical of both Superintendent of [Willits] Schools Mark Westerburg and her colleagues on the board."

WHAT REALLY seems to have happened in the Harris case is this: For whatever reason the Willits school board and admin wanted Harris off the school board. On the school board with Mrs. Harris was Mrs. Croskey, whose husband is a cop with the Mendo Sheriff's Department. Of course the subsequent raid on Mrs. Harris could have been the devil weed commandos simply doing their jobs…

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SO FAR, FIVE PEOPLE have filed candidacy papers to replace outgoing Third District Supervisor Georgeanne Croskey. In addition to the three we were already aware of — Former Third District Supervisor John Pinches, elementary school Spanish teacher John Haschak, and recreational political candidate Pamela Elizondo, we now have Round Valley School Board member and “emergency support staffer" for Redwood Community Services Tony Tucker has filed and Willits blacksmith Brian Kunka.

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LITTLE DOG SAYS, "Nothing against Eskimos, but does an igloo make sense in Boonville?"

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MTA DROPS BALL AGAIN

To the Editor:

I believe the MTA bus service must be the worst bus service in California. A few weeks ago my husband was taken from the nursing home to a doctor’s office on Hospital Drive. We were left off on the north side of the building close to the doctor’s office. After we were done our aide called the MTA to be picked up. We were told it would be 45 minutes. So we waited by the bus pick up place and no one came. I called the MTA and was told they had been there and no one was there and it would be another 45 minutes or I could call the senior bus. I called the senior bus and he was there in five minutes.

I told the man what had happened and he said that he checks the other entrance if that happens to him. Guess the MTA drivers don’t think to do that.

Now on Saturday I had called to have my husband picked up at noon to be brought to the house. We again waited almost an hour for the bus and were told when I called to see what was happening that they only had one bus running.

The plan was for the bus to pick him up at the house at four to return him to the nursing home. Guess what! That didn’t happen either. I called and was told they were running behind and at ten to five I called and got the answering machine. The bus stops running at five.

So my family had to get their dad into a car and put the wheelchair in the trunk to get him back to the nursing home. Not very convenient.

MTA has a number of huge buses that seem to have few riders. Why can’t they instead have four smaller buses and for heaven’s sake have more than one to run on weekends and holidays. The bus service in Ukiah is pretty lame. The senior bus does not run on Wednesday or weekends. MTA is not dependable and on weekends only runs on Saturday til five and not on Sunday. I guess the message is stay well and drive your own car.

Donna Van Wyke, Ukiah

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CATCH OF THE DAY, January 14, 2018

Camp, Duncan, Hensley

DANIEL CAMP, Camarillo//Caspar. DUI.

LILIANA DUNCAN, Willits. DUI.

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

Koski, Lee, Marek

AARON KOSKI, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

JAMES LEE JR., Ukiah. Domestic abuse, assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

ROBERT MAREK JR., Ukiah. Concealed weapon, loaded firearm in public, altering firearm ID, probation revocation.

Martin, McCarthy, Paniagua-Hernandez, Pepper

NATHEN MARTIN, Willits. Under influence, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

BRIAN MCCARTHY, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

MIGUEL PANIAGUA-HERNANDEZ, Ukiah. DUI, suspended license for DUI.

ANTHONY PEPPER, San Francisco/Ukiah. Community Supervision violation.

Perez, Sims, Tellez-Morales, Torres

JOSE PEREZ, Willits. DUI.

NATHANIEL SIMS, Ukiah. DUI.

CARLOS TELLEZ-MORALES, Ukiah. Domestic battery, no license.

BRIAN TORRES, Calpella. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

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KELLEY HOUSE MUSEUM: MEDICINE ON THE MENDO COAST

Medicine on the Mendocino Coast: Say "Ahh..." opens today at the Kelley House! New exhibit will run through March 12th, 2018. Museum hours: Fri, Sat, Sun and Mon 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pictured here, on the right, Dr. Homer Wolfe, employed as doctor for the Albion Lumber Company. Thank you to all members who attended last night's preview reception!

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MEXICO’S INDIGENOUS POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE ROCKS SACRAMENTO ON JANUARY 15!

The Zapatista Solidarity Coalition is honored to host the West Coast tour of the Indigenous Governing Council of the National Indigenous Congress. Their campaign to elect an indigenous woman to be President of Mexico is shaking up the Mexican political landscape! Come learn how grassroots organization from below is threatening to upset a brutal, corrupt political system that condemns half of all Mexicans to a life of hardship and poverty. The event will be held on January 15, 2018, 2:30 pm at the Sol Collective, 2574 21st St., Sacramento.

For more information: zapa@zsc.org or 916 224-4400

CIG flier for 1-15-18

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ICE TRUMP TOWER

Editor:

Wow, raids on 98 7-Eleven stores in 17 states netted 21 arrests (“ICE targets county 7-Elevens,” Thursday, Santa Rosa Press Democrat). That’s a pretty poor use of resources.

My suggestion to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency: Target all of Donald Trump’s US hotels, country clubs and golf course properties. That would be a much lower number of targets and is likely to result in a bonanza of undocumented workers who are mowing lawns, washing dishes, making beds and scrubbing toilets at less than minimum wage.

Why am I not holding my breath?

Astrod Harper

Santa Rosa

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WELFARE RANCHERS

The fact that Arches and Canyonlands national monuments would later become national parks was of little comfort to Abbey, who in Desert Solitaire bemoans what he termed the “industrial tourism” that revolves around the automobile.

Compared to Abbey’s fierce opposition to modern capitalism, Bernie Sanders comes off as comparatively milquetoast. Above all, Abbey was an opponent of “that cloud on my horizon” he defined as progress. This wasn’t Luddism so much as a deep need to preserve a small portion of America as wilderness, kept forever free from development, beginning with precisely those areas of southern Utah attacked by Trump and Zinke.

Desert Solitaire was published four years after the Wilderness Act was signed into law. Even as the United States’ economy boomed, in 1964 Congress sanctified areas where “the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Abbey fought to preserve such land for the rest of his life.

“Wilderness complements and completes civilization,” he wrote in the 1980s. “I might say that the existence of wilderness is a compliment to civilization. Any society that feels itself too poor to afford the preservation of wilderness is not worthy of the name of civilization.”

As Trump and Zinke reclaim for extractive industry much of the land that had been protected through the Antiquities Act by Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Abbey’s spirit infuses the opposition. More than a few dog-eared and well-thumbed paperback copies of his book were probably in the backpacks of the thousands protesting Trump on Dec. 4, when he arrived in Salt Lake City to announce his land grab.

But Abbey, who died in 1989, wouldn’t be surprised by Trump and Zinke’s attitudes. He’d instantly spot them as more of the know-nothing exploiters he’d always railed against. It also wouldn’t surprise him that drilling in the Alaska National Wilderness Refuge was the price the GOP paid to secure Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s vote for tax reform. Having called the cattlemen whose herds graze on public land “welfare queens,” he’d appreciate being vindicated by Cliven Bundy, recently on trial in Nevada for crimes that began with his refusal to pay his federal grazing fees.

He’d probably also say, “What else did you expect?” after learning that so many tourists in cars are entering Arches, Grand Teton, Bryce and Zion national parks that buses and reservation systems have begun or are in the works. And I think he’d be saddened that, 50 years after the publication of Desert Solitaire, the assault on public lands — our lands — remains such a fact of American life.

(High Country News)

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

It’s tiresome to keep saying it but the fundamental problem is simply far far too many people on the planet. This hugely exacerbates all of the global dilemmas, climate change, wars, immigration, etc. Can’t be mentioned though it’s now racist, exclusionary and in bad taste. We are well beyond earth’s carrying capacity and growing, the bill is coming due with exponentially increasing velocity and we fuss and fret about nonsense. If the US among others had spent an infinitesimal fraction on carpet bombing with contraceptives rather than our endless foreign wars, oh well we are about to find out the impossibility of sustained ignorance.

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IF MENDO'S BACK-TO-THE-LANDERS HAD HAD IT TOGETHER…

Somewhere, Away From It All

nytimes.com/2018/01/13/style/washington-olympic-peninsula-queer-intentional-community.html

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A UKIAH HISTORY PHOTO:

This A.O. Carpenter photo of Ukiah’s fish hatchery was made into postcards during the fish hatchery’s heyday about the turn of the 20th century. The image shows some damage to the glass plate negative’s edges. According to a Daily Journal article from 2001, the fish hatchery was built by Northwestern Pacific Railroad on land owned by the city of Ukiah at Gibson Creek as an excursion destination for train travelers. It was completed in May 1897. The hatchery was torn down in the 1930s. For many years, the site where the fish hatchery once stood was a favorite hiking spot for local residents, and was accessible from the west end of Standley Street, but in 1987 the property surrounding the city’s hatchery site was sold, and is now privately owned.

(Photo courtesy of Robert J. Lee Collection)

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JANUARY 20, 1968: More than 60 anti-war demonstrators were in jail today after battling riot police outside the Fairmont Hotel where Secretary of State Dean Rusk spoke last night. Hundreds of demonstrators hurled stones, bottles and blood-filled balloons during the two-hour demonstration outside the elegant hotel in the city’s exclusive Nob Hill area. The balloons, filled with animal blood, spattered police, guests and reporters. A number of persons — including seven policemen — were injured in scuffles. Following a pre-arranged plan, 50 specially trained police closed in with clubs and the demonstrators retreated along the sidewalk and lawn of the nearby Pacific Union Club. After the demonstrators regrouped, police again drove forward and swept the crowd down the sharply sloping streets. Several protesters found refuge in the nearby Grace Cathedral.

(SF Chronicle)

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"ICE FISHING HOLE -- a Minimalist's Dream Come True"

(Click to enlarge)

(Photo by Harvey Reading)

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FAWN RESCUE Needs Help

All of you who donated to Woodlands Wildlife were notified that 15% of your donation went to help rebuild the Fawn Rescue pens and shelters located in Sonoma County. Both facilities who work with Woodlands Wildlife burned to the ground in the recent fires. We do not have the special licenses required to rescue and rehab fawns, and we do not get enough fawns to raise them in a herd as is necessary if they are to be released back to the wild afraid of dogs and people. Fawn Rescue is trying to get up and running by the April fawn season (when all this year's fawns will be born) and need help with the funding. They have raised 60% of the $8400 necessary to build one of the shelters and the 8' fencing required to keep the fawns safe until they are released. If anyone in List Serve Land would like to support their efforts directly, I encourage you to send a check to: Fire Relief Fund-Fawn Workgroup, at Fawn Rescue, PO Box 1622, Sonoma, CA 95476 (or go to their website to use PayPal). I can personally vouch for their excellent work in rescuing fawns and economic honesty.

Ronnie James, Woodlands Wildlife.

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CRAIG DIDN'T PANIC

Saturday morning’s alert, in regard to a possible incoming missile attack aimed at Honolulu, was the most extreme example of postmodern absurdity possible. I awoke around 9 a.m. and logged onto the Washington Post online, to discover that the alert had already been declared to be an error. It was reported to me by The Plumeria Alternative Hostel management team, that I had just missed witnessing the local residents of Honolulu behaving like lunatics. People in a panic, stocking up on essentials like island rum and spam, racing around to find a gas station, or else heading for emergency shelters on foot if they couldn’t get out of the central area. And then forty minutes later, the announcement was made that it was all an error.

I calmly went over to the Safeway on Beretania Street, and purchased a whole lot of quality items for our rockin’ good Saturday night BBQ. We socialized with abandon, glad not to have been vaporized.

~Mahalo~

Craig Stehr

Hawaii

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GI COFFEEHOUSES RECALLED

by Fred Gardner

The New York Times has published an op-ed piece by historian David Parsons about the coffeehouses started near US bases during the War in Vietnam. Parsons had interviewed me and I must have been the source of the details he got wrong. (He got the big picture right.) His piece is indented below, with my comments...

beyondthc.com/gi-coffeehouses-recalled/

 

26 Comments

  1. John Sakowicz January 15, 2018

    Thanks for posting, THE SHORT ATTENTION SPAN GUIDE TO MICHAEL WOLFF’S ‘FIRE AND FURY’ by Matt Taibbi.

    • David Gurney January 16, 2018

      Never mind that “Pellet Gun” probably forgot to pay for the article, or get permission. Scumbag rip-off!

  2. Harvey Reading January 15, 2018

    Re: LITTLE DOG SAYS

    Aw, come on, boy, your igloo is soooo cool. I never saw one with an offset entrance like yours. Plus it has a really nice cushion on its floor Poor old Diamond just has a plastic truck box under a folding table in the dining room near the back door, with a folded-up electric blanket almost as old as me on its floor. And he loves it. Especially when he can dig the wires out of the blanket!

    • Jeff Costello January 15, 2018

      I’m sure he’s glad to have a house, although he might not think abut it much.

      Harvey, having been through Wyoming, I can say you can’t do much better if you wish to avoid the crowds. You better hope they don’t legalize pot there. Here in Colorado the overpopulation is booming and marijuana has something to do with it. Not everyone comes to ski or climb rocks. This state is no John Denver song in any way. When I lived in Wisconsin I saw guys ice fishing, sitting on a five gallon bucket and drinking cold beer. No comprendo.

      • james marmon January 15, 2018

        They weren’t guys, they were real men.

        • Jeff Costello January 15, 2018

          Like you, right?

  3. Harvey Reading January 15, 2018

    Re: “Today government work is an easy path to getting rich.”

    Utter BS. The author should be more clear about whom he is addressing. I suspect he meant exactly what he wrote, though.

    Most government employees get paid less than workers doing similar work in the private sector. Supervisors and other elected officials, as well as political appointee positions, and contracted consultants are an entirely different matter. They have always been hogs at the public trough, and are generally despised by the rank-and-file workers.

  4. LouisBedrock January 15, 2018

    Thank you, Fred Gardner—for the article and your work with dissenting GIs.

    I, along with several friends, was a beneficiary of the system of support for dissenting soldiers when I was stationed at Fort Gordon, Georgia in 1968. I remember the Atlanta Workshop In Non-Violence being a primary player and I remember meeting supporters and fellow dissenters at various sites—cafes, meeting halls, and people’s houses.

    I don’t know if any of the people that supported me and my friends were connected to Fred and his chain of cafes, but I’m glad the American Friends and other groups reached out to help us. And I’m glad people like Fred had the vision to reach out to soldiers who opposed the terrible colonial wars in southeast Asia—or at least harbored doubts about whether these wars were worth risking their lives.

    • Bill Pilgrim January 15, 2018

      …And where is the anti-war movement today?
      Where are the cafes to educate soldiers the economy has deliberately been rigged to force so many into having to choose being cannon fodder over living in demeaning poverty?

      • LouisBedrock January 15, 2018

        It vanished with the draft.

          • LouisBedrock January 15, 2018

            I’ve seen movie versions of Antigone,

            http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055375/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

            Oedipus Rex,

            http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063376/?ref_=nv_sr_4

            and Eugene O’Neil’s version of Electra from Aeschylus’s Oresteia

            http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039636/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

            Have read, studied, and thought about all of the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

            Couldn’t agree with you or the author of the very interesting article more strongly.

            Banal anecdote: Gloria Ruben played a nurse named Jeanie on the TV series ER. I was in love with the character and with Ms. Rubin. Would love to see her on stage doing Greek tragedy.

            There’s so much one could talk about. For me, the observations of the chorus at the end of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, has always haunted me:

            “Therefore, while our eyes wait to see the final destined day, we must call no one happy who is of the mortal race, until he has crossed life’s border free from pain.”

            • Harvey Reading January 15, 2018

              Pot’s not legal here yet, but they use it as much as anywhere else. Along with all the other drugs.

              Your description of ice fishing fits here as well. I only tried it once, on New Years Eve of 2010, with a neighbor who lived next door. It was an experience that maybe I’ll repeat some day. It was cold, and we caught (hauled in by hand) just one rainbow trout and one perch, among two fishermen and, as I recall, about a dozen pop-ups or flip-ups, whatever they’re called. I guess they’re doing much better this year, from the free online “daily” we now have in the local area.

              Wait, I believe they’re called tip-ups, spring-loaded devices that cause an arm with a little flag on its end to, well, tip up when a fish bites.

              Hope I’m dead and gone before the population here increases dramatically.

              • Harvey Reading January 15, 2018

                Oh, boy, I hit a wrong button. My 5:42 pm post was supposed to under Jeff’s January 15, 2018 at 1:08 pm post (why does my keyboard keep trying to say poar? instead of post?) Could it be, me from sitting in a position offset from it?

      • Betsy Cawn January 16, 2018

        FIND THEM on FACEBOOK: Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW/OSS, https://www.facebook.com/groups/168550729877116/about/), Veterans for Peace – Washington, DC Chapter (https://www.facebook.com/groups/850080978358607/about/), Veterans for Peace Savannah – Chapter 170 (https://www.facebook.com/vfpsavannah/), and many active specialized groups, like Veterans for Kaepernick (#VeteransForKaepernick).

        Northern California became a quiet haven for many South East Asian returnees following the 1975 withdrawal, and the little county where I live serves — and is served by — over 8,000 (of population ~64,500, give or take a few) men and women from the combined forces. Our last remaining Pearl Harbor survivor, Bill Slater, who died on New Years Eve, was honored at the annual Pearl Harbor Memorial on January 14, 2018.

        For families, friends, and Veterans of all ages in Lake County, California, this is my favorite local organization: Lake County Vet Connect – Hook Up Hub (https://www.facebook.com/groups/915992548436104/about/). And supporters of the United Veterans Council of Lake County (https://www.facebook.com/UnitedVeteransCouncilOfLakeCounty?fref=ts) tune in every other Friday morning (at 9 a.m.) for KPFZ’s Veterans Hour.

        Now that Viet Nam era survivors (including us lifetime anti-war activists) are becoming the “elders” in the aging population of Veterans, caring for and supporting younger generations of service members as they return to their “normal” lives is the focus of many efforts locally — while the older members of our military families struggle with the injuries and life-long impairments of their tours of duty.

        Whatever opposition there may be here, to American abuse of power at all levels, is less visible in the streets but never absent from our hearts. In real redneck, Civil War recidivist reject country, the tolerance for dissent is fragile — there are families here whose memories of World War II conscientious objectors among their brothers and sisters still color their relationships. Not to mention the number of Native American Veterans whose honorable service remains unacknowledged among the “proud and few” of Lake County’s whitey-tighty upper crust.

        As ever, my deepest appreciation for the Anderson Valley Advertiser, and all of you who comment to keep dissent and positive opposition alive.

  5. james marmon January 15, 2018

    RE: “ICE FISHING HOLE — a Minimalist’s Dream Come True”

    When I lived in Riverton Wyoming, on days that I wasn’t roughnecking on some oil rig, or enjoying a good barroom brawl, I would get drunk and go out to frozen lake and drive my car on it, talk about a blast.

    • Harvey Reading January 15, 2018

      A few people still do that. And at least once or twice a year they pay the price when the vehicle breaks through the ice. The driver or owner is responsible for all costs of removing the vehicle from the water. Same for people who drive their 4WD rigs too close to the shore during the warm months.

      One afternoon, my former neighbor (a driller who was very proud that no one on his rigs had ever been seriously injured and who was 4th Generation Wyoming) and I were catfishing on the right bank at the mouth of Fivemile Creek (I caught a 19-pounder that afternoon). At about dusk, we heard horns honking, as they tend to do after weddings, and the sounds of vehicles approaching the opposite bank at what seemed an inordinately high speed for the terrain.

      We watched in amazement as three 4WD pickups roared right to the end of the beach, looked at each other, and started laughing our fool heads off, as the expected result occurred and all three got completely stuck at the same time. Stuck with a 4×4 is really stuck.

      I still laugh when I think of it. It was almost as stupid as something Trump might try. Fortunately for them, the driver of the fourth pickup, apparently not as drunk, had a tow strap and eventually got them out. Although we had ringside seats, just across from them, we were almost 10 miles distant by land.

      Now, you can believe this or not, but I have never in my life been stuck with either a 4WD or 2WD. I credit it to being chickensh_t, but I think using good sense comes into play somewhere along the way. If I see a two-track road about to pass through a patch of green grass growing in the middle of the late spring or summer, I stop, get out and walk through it, because it may well be a mudhole. Same for driving into places that are “iffy” for other reasons (like driving on a sandy beach right up to edge of the water — here, the quicksand effect “trumps” 4WD). Generally, I figure it best to walk a few hundred yards or turn around and come back another day rather than risk my damaging my vehicle or getting stuck. Whatever it is, it has worked for me for a good number of years, years, some of them before cell phones, that have seen me in some pretty tight spots that would have been out of cell phone range anyway. And I have little sympathy for people who get stuck for stupid reasons and then expect a free tow from passersby. There’s a limit to neighborliness.

      • james marmon January 15, 2018

        Yeah, I had studded tires, but I could still do some amazing slides.

  6. james marmon January 15, 2018

    Should Medicaid/Medi-Cal Recipients Have to Work?
    By Donna Westfall – January 12, 2018 – On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law legislation that established the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

    What’s the difference between Medicare and Medicaid?

    Medicare is a federal program that provides health coverage if you are 65 or older or have a severe disability, no matter your income.

    Medicaid, or in California Medi-Cal, is a state and federal program that provides health coverage if you have a very low income.

    For today’s purposes, we’ll concentrate on Medi-Cal as it pertains to able bodied individuals. But first, let’s look at the historical data: 1966 there were 4 million people on Medicaid in the United States. Today there are 70 million on Medicaid, and that equates to 1 out of 5. Understandably, there are people who work that do not have health insurance and have applied for and been given Medicaid. People are currently not legally required to hold a job while on Medicaid, and according to a study from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, 60% work full or part time. In California, under former President Obama’s administration the numbers ballooned and 1 out of 3 are now on Medi-Cal.

    But, for the 40% of those that do not work, why not?

    Why should generation after generation continue with that mind set?

    Lastly, although we hear about millions of illegals (undocumented workers and undocumented immigrants = illegals), when you ask the local Health and Human Services Department to provide information about how many are receiving benefits, they will not.

    Medicaid/Medi-Cal is paid for with Federal and State tax dollars.

    How long do you think California can keep afloat providing these health services to low income people?

    Does it bother you to have illegals provided with health benefits?

    Do you think able bodied men and women receiving Medi-Cal should be required to work even if it’s doing community service?

    http://www.crescentcitytimes.com/should-medicaidmedi-cal-recipients-have-to-work/

    • Harvey Reading January 15, 2018

      If you’re gonna make ’em work, then make employers pay at least a living wage with benefits. That aint happenin’ now. These one-sided, right-wing pseudoanalyses get tiring, James.

      And no, it doesn’t bother me a bit that immigrants are getting benefits. They get treated and paid like crap by wealthy employers and are entitled to health care. Who’s gonna pick your food, James?

  7. Lazarus January 15, 2018

    “WHAT REALLY seems to have happened in the Harris case is this: For whatever reason the Willits school board and admin wanted Harris off the school board. On the school board with Mrs. Harris was Mrs. Croskey, whose husband is a cop with the Mendo Sheriff’s Department. Of course the subsequent raid on Mrs. Harris could have been the devil weed commandos simply doing their jobs…”

    Only if you could prove it…Now that would be interesting.
    As always,
    Laz

  8. Harvey Reading January 15, 2018

    Now I’ve seen everything. Just got an email, or just opened it at least, from an outfit offering 10 percent off in “celebration” of Martin Luther King Day.

    We are truly doomed. I mean Washington and Lincoln are ancient history, but commercializing the memory of King? Already?

    Or has this been going on for a while without my noticing it?

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