Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, July 4, 2018

• Homicide Custody
• Municipal Service
• Masonite Wall
• Lawn Jazz
• Berryessa Deserted
• Vaughn Award
• Shed Foresight
• FB Agenda
• Night Out
• Geezer Fest
• Little Dog
• Ed Notes
• Yesterday's Catch
• Citizen Cockburn
• Fascism Trial
• Great Seal
• Library Event
• The Truth
• Trump Haters
• Beacon Open
• Hard Times
• Bar Patron
• Gardens Hours
• Tattoos
• American Pastime

NORTH COUNTY SHOOTING SUSPECT IDENTIFIED AND IN CUSTODY

On July 2, 2018 at approximately 4:41 PM Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office and Officers from the California Highway Patrol where dispatched to a suspicious situation in the area of Mile Post Marker 35 on North Highway 101 south of Golden Rule. Initial reports suggested a vehicle had been involved in a traffic collision and that an occupant was suffering from a gunshot wound. Law enforcement personnel arrived and located a 2001 maroon Chevrolet Silverado 4-door pickup truck stopped in the southbound traffic lanes of North Highway 101. Inside the pickup truck were two adult male occupants suffering from obvious gunshot wounds (undetermined amount at this time). One occupant was determined to be deceased and the other occupant suffered from a life threatening injury requiring him to be transported to an out of county hospital for medical treatment. Mendocino County Sheriff's Detectives were summoned to the scene and assumed investigative jurisdiction into the incident with assistance from the California Highway Patrol, California Department of Justice and Mendocino County District Attorney's Office. Mendocino County Sheriff's Detectives conducted investigations and more information will be released as information becomes available. Anyone who may have witnessed the shooting incident or the pickup truck prior to or after the shooting is urged to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Tip-Line by calling 707-234-2100.

Update

Mendocino County Sheriff's Detectives continued to investigate the shooting incident overnight and into July 3, 2018. During this time, Sheriff's Detectives identified Calixto Ramirez (51 years-old from Covelo, California) as the deceased adult male at the shooting scene. The second adult male has been identified as being Miguel Ramirez (30 years-old from Covelo). Miguel Ramirez, who was transported to an out of county hospital by air ambulance remains in critical condition. Calixto Ramirez and Miguel Ramirez have been identified as father and son. During investigations, which included assistance from the public, the shooting suspect was identified by Sheriff's Detectives as Ubaldo Ramirez (23, of Covelo).

Ubaldo Ramirez is the son of Calixto Ramirez (deceased) and the younger brother of Miguel Ramirez (critical condition). Thanks to assistance from the public, Ubaldo Ramirez was located on 07-03-2018 at approximately 1:30 AM in a parking lot in the 77800 block of Highway 162 in Covelo, California. Ubaldo Ramirez was taken into custody without incident for the homicide of his father (Calixto Ramirez), and the attempted homicide of his brother (Miguel Ramirez). Ubaldo Ramirez was booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of homicide and attempted homicide where he was to be held without bail. Specific details regarding the shooting are not being released at this time due to pending follow-up investigations by Sheriff's Detectives. Any persons with information about this incident, including anyone who might have seen Ubaldo Ramirez between the scene (MPM 35 on North Highway 101 in Willits, California) on 07-02-2018 and Covelo on 07-03-2018 are encouraged to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Tip-Line by calling 707-234-2100.

WOULDN’T YOU?

Dear AVA,

There is a “spirited” debate about the proposed Drinking Water and Sewer projects going on now on the Facebook group: “You Know You’re From Anderson Valley When…” and as there is confusion and misinformation stoking strong feelings, I thought it would be good to ask …

If you were a Director on the Community Services District for Anderson Valley and you were aware that:

-a county health survey of Boonville existed from 1974 documenting contamination issues and stated that the only fix was a municipal sewer system,

-there were mitigation efforts in the past by North Coast Water Resources Control Board to deal with plumes of contaminants that were moving through some parcels in Boonville from the old Chevron station, and also an area on AV Way that was affected by the old Bus Barn gas/diesel tanks at the Elementary School,

-Boonville had downtown blight that residents regularly came to CSD meetings to complain about,

-many parcel owners had failing or no/inadequate septic systems and could not afford to develop their parcels, remodel, or find the requisite space for two leach fields as currently required,

-there was a dearth of housing of any kind in Boonville,

-our AVCSD Charter included establishing and maintaining Drinking Water and Sewer Districts,

-the Mendocino County General Plan in 2009 recommended water and sewer systems for Boonville.

Therefore, wouldn’t you…

-approach every public agency on the county, state, and federal level to look into whether it was possible get grants to develop the systems?

-canvass the residents and business owners up and down 128 in central Boonville (Hutsell to the 128 creek overcrossing) to gauge interest? (and later canvass Lambert Area and AV Way to Elementary school?)

Note: Out of 40-50 people we talked to in central Boonville, only 2-3 were strongly opposed, the rest were wary about expense and future development, but generally supportive. Almost without exception businesses expressed eagerness to abandon maintaining their own regulated public water serving systems and avoid the costs and effort of pumping out their septic systems.

-publicize and hold a community meeting to listen to, and ask questions of, a panel of county and state agency representatives and water/sewer engineers?

Note: First meeting (10/2015) was attended by over 40 community members.

https://www.theava.com/archives/49287

To date there have been three public meetings; we probably have three to go. There has been a continual effort over the last two years to educate the public with posters around town, postcards to parcel owners notifying them of the first three meetings, AVA articles, and notices posted in AV Post Offices and the Boonville Fire Station.

-have a certified lab do blind testing on wells in congested areas? (i.e. CSD does not know which well belongs to which parcel to protect owner).

Note: Not a single parcel owner contacted opted out of testing their well as they expressed concern about their water quality. Out of 23 wells tested 20 had unacceptable levels of nitrates and e-coli. Mendocino County Health Department promptly sent out instructions to all homeowners in the well survey to advise about how to live in parcels with contaminated water. No, you cannot condemn private homes.

-establish a Boonville Planners committee?

Note: during canvassing one of the questions was whether there was interest in serving on an advisory committee. The only requirement to join the Boonville Planners was living in the service areas and a willingness to serve. The idea is that even though this body doesn’t actually have a vote – they would follow all developments and advise the CSD. As the property owners in the project service areas will ultimately be voting to accept or reject their monthly rate for the systems, it was seen to be advantageous for a dozen people to be out in the community gathering and disseminating information. This also helped convince the grantors of grass roots support.

-talk with the Chamber of Commerce, AV School Board, and AV Housing Assn, AV Clinic, and AV Fire Department about interest in hooking up?

Note: According to AVFD everyone benefits from hydrants throughout Boonville, Mountain View to Airport Blvd, Meadow Estates, AV Way to Elementary School. Also adequate pressure in pipes allows required sprinkler systems in new construction.

Then, with this information and conditional support based on affordability and concerns about future development,…

Wouldn’t you…

-apply to the State Water Board revolving fund for financial assistance to plan the systems?

Note: We received $1 million to plan the systems and hired the engineering company of Brelje and Race.)

-apply for State Water Board Grants, USDA Rural Development grants, Drinking Water for Schools Grant, Ground Water grants, and County Block Grants?

Note: To date we have a soft commitment for basically 100% of the $31 million costs.

-look for grants for low income, and senior, home owners to help bear costs of connecting their house to their new water meter to make the Drinking Water system as affordable as possible?

Note: Sewer grants cover laterals all the way to the house.

-maintain a website to inform and update everyone on developments, including FAQs, all reports and documentation (avcsd.org/water)?

Wouldn’t you?

Val Hanelt

Director, Anderson Valley Community Services District

INSIDE THE NEW FACTORY PIPE BUILDING is a long wall where all the Masonite employees still at work when the business shut down in Ukiah signed their names. Owner Ross Liberty says he wants to preserve that somehow. Liberty says he knows some of the names on the wall. Do you remember anyone whose name is likely there?

(via the Ukiah Daily Journal)

JAZZ ON THE LAWN

The Mendocino Coast Jazz Society and the Mendocino Art Center present the annual Jazz on the Lawn, with The Swingin’ Boonville Big Band, featuring vocalist Sharon Garner, Thursday, July 5, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., on the Mendocino Art Center grounds.

Celebrate the 4th of July week while enjoying music by this 20-piece jazz big band, including some of the county’s finest musicians, led by Bob Ayres. The music will include “Avalon,”  “Shiny Stockings,” “When I Fall in Love,” “Poor Butterfly,” “Manhattan” “Lady Bird,” “Papa Loves Mambo,” “Dancing in the Dark,” “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “Angel Eyes,” and other inspiring classic tunes of the swing and modern jazz era. Bring a picnic and a blanket or lawn chair for seating.

The band has entertained audiences all over Mendocino County, and as far south as Santa Cruz and as far east as Reno. Formed in 1976 at the College of the Redwoods, first as The COR Big Band and then the Bob Ayres Big Band, the group functioned under the aegis of the College of the Redwoods for about 25 years before being sponsored by the Parks and Recreation department for several years. The band moved to Boonville in 2000 and became The Swingin’ Boonville Big Band.

Admission is free. For more information visit MendocinoArtCenter.org, or call 707-937-5818. The Mendocino Art Center is located at 45200 Little Lake Street at Kasten Street, Mendocino.

LAKE BERRYESSA NEARLY DESERTED FOR 4TH OF JULY DUE TO 44,500-ACRE COUNTY FIRE

The smoke from the County Fire has put a real damper on what would otherwise be a busy and festive holiday week at Lake Berryessa. The 60,000-acre County Fire is just 5 percent contained.

abc7news.com/watch-live-lake-berryessa-nearly-deserted-for-4th-of-july-due-to-fire/3693514/

WORK PAYS OFF FOR SPIKES AWARD WINNER ANDREW VAUGHN

pressdemocrat.com/sports/8486417-181/benefield-work-pays-off-for

FRANK HARTZELL COMMENTS:

These are the old dry sheds the Koch Brothers want to knock down. They are RIGHT next to the Skunk train depot as you can see. it would be incredibly foresighted for the city to help the Skunk get those and prepare for a future when trains will be needed again. I'm hoping the era of big boxes and chains owning everything are ending and town can use stuff like this to bounce back.

FORT BRAGG TO BEGIN REDISTRICTING PROCESS

And some other business including homeless issues, the Skunk Train, and taxes.

city.fortbragg.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_07092018-597

ELDERFEST

Correspondent Katy Tahja sent in a quick review of the Kate Wolf Music Festival…AKA “Geezer Fest”…one of the performers looked over the crowd and said “This is a few teenagers short of an Elderhostel gathering…” but did we ever have fun. How about a sing-along with Joan Osborne of Bob Dylan’s greatest song with a few thousand folks in the Music Meadow that know every word to every song? Or watching Martha Reeves (age 77) and the Vandellas singing “Dancing in the Streets” while old folks danced up a dust cloud in the twilight. Old favorites like Tom Paxton, John McCutcheon and Dave Bromberg played with Wavy Gravy and his wife of 50 years seated in the shade on the corner of the stage enjoying the music. Nina Gerber was back playing in the background after doing two sets of her own and Joe Craven kept popping up. New discoveries to me that were crowd pleasers were the Infamous Stringbusters and the Ulali Project (First Nations music). Praise goes out to the Myers Flat VFD who were the firefighting team on site. A grass fire started Friday a half mile south of the festival on Highway 101 on the east side of the road. They were on top of it and stopped the spread before formal firefighting strike teams could arrive, much too everyone’s relief. It was hotter than hell and I spent more money on strawberry lemonade (no sugar) than any other food, but without a straw…because a whole carton of their cornstarch based straws melted into a huge glob in the heat…the joys of summer festivals…this was the 15th consecutive year I’ve gone and I would recommend it to anyone who can stand a little heat.

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Am I ready for the 4th? You betcha!”

ED NOTES

RECOMMENDED VIEWING: "Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story." (Netflix, et al) The great movie star of the 40s and 50s possessed such great beauty that her considerable brains were overlooked, nay, dismissed.

Among her many gifts, Ms. Lamarr was an inventor of genius. One of her break-through ideas confirmed by her notebooks and several unbiased male colleagues was "frequency hopping," in use everywhere today in everything electronic and valued at about $30 billion, not a penny of which ever accrued to Ms. Lamarr who died broke. A Jewish immigrant from Austria with double incentive to defeat the Nazis, Ms. Lamarr was still young when her invention was adopted by the military to great WWII effect in accurately steering torpedoes to their enemy target, but no credit to her. She led a sad personal life of many marriages and a speed addiction courtesy of Dr. Feelgood, the infamous 60s quack who shot up the rich and the famous, including JFK, with Vitamin B and methamphetamine. Hedy Lamarr died virtually a recluse and penniless.

* * *

YOU'LL CERTAINLY feel good, doctor, if you stop in at the Navarro Store for outtasight grilled hotdogs and hamburgers from Guy's Grill, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 11am to 5pm. I know there are some great burgers in Mendocino County, but these babies at the Navarro Store are mondo boffo!

* * *

I WAS LISTENING to the KZYX news this morning — always a rather excruciatingly irrelevant experience, especially sandwiched in between bursts of NPR — when Sheriff Allman came on live to announce that the alleged shooter in yesterday's murder and attempted murder on the Willits Grade was in custody. Allman said he wasn't yet at liberty to release the suspect's name. Funny thing was I'd also just received a presser from the Sheriff's Office with the names of the victims and the alleged perp. The Sheriff seemed to be at least a half-step behind his detectives and press release writer. I checked MSP whose hyper-vigilant editor, Mr. McCarthy, already had it up, as did Kym Kemp at Redheaded Blackbelt where she said she got it from the Mendocino Voice. Three websites beat the Sheriff's news live on KZYX. The mighty ava tossed the names and the presser up on our website a few minutes later, our scanner usually being off. We depend for breaking news on a dog pack next door that unfailingly begins a group yowl just prior to the faint sounds of sirens. We'll turn on our scanner well after the fact to see where and why are first responders are headed out, monitoring the thing round the clock? Nope.

* * *

I WAS PLEASED to see a Highway Patrol presence in the Anderson Valley today (Tuesday). Through traffic, and plenty of locals, bomb through here at all hours every day and all night, too frequently moving at dangerously high speeds. All of us residents can tell vehicular horror stories. I'll never forget the afternoon I was sitting at an outside table at Boont Berry Farm when a large Mercedes hurtled past, missing me by a couple of feet, and throwing dust and gravel onto my plate. Anybody exiting the store would have been killed. And just the other day, pulling out for Boonville from the Navarro Store, a lunatic behind the wheel of a battered black pick-up raced up behind me at such a speed that if I'd even touched my brakes he would have crushed me. And he stayed right on me until I could pull over to let him pass. The guy was simply malicious, a manchild indifferent to human life, a man who deserves to be locked up.

* * *

IF THE SHERIFF put a full-time, strictly traffic officer, on 128 between Yorkville and Navarro, the County could make a lot more in speeding tickets than the County will ever make licensing marijuana.

* * *

SHAUNA ESPINOZA COMMENTED: Ok, truth time. I don’t understand the CHP warnings on our local pages. Half the time I’m always getting complaints about there never being an MCSO or CHP presence here, and then people complain when they are here. A quick story: yesterday morning I was driving to Ukiah, a black car tailgating me passed me on the double yellow going up the hill and then passed the car in front of me by using the gravel turnout on the right hand side. I doubt that driver even knew he was there, and they almost crashed when he was getting back on the road. You don’t think we need CHP here? Drivers like that one yesterday, make me believe otherwise.

CATCH OF THE DAY, July 3, 2018

RICHARD BRELO, Transient/Gualala. Vandalism of place of worship, vandalism with damage over $400, battery with serious bodily injury, hate crime, brandishing, leaded cane or similar, resisting.

ROBERT CAMPBELL, Ukiah. Bad checks, parole violation.

JESSI GARCIA, Santa Rosa/Hopland. DUI, controlled substance, evasion, parole violation.

FERNANDO GUTIERREZ-DICENTA, Covelo. DUI.

EDWARD HOLTZ III, Willits. Disturbing the peace, resisting, probation revocation.

NICOLE LABELLE, Ukiah. Controlled substance, failure to appear, probation revocation.

DEBORAH LAWRENCE, Ukiah. Controlled substance, disobeying court order, failure to appear, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

HILDA MATA, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

GREGORY NEWMAN, Anchor Bay. Burglary of inhabited dwelling.

JONAH OTWELL, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, failure to appear, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

MARY SCHAEFER, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, probation revocation.

I BECOME AN AMERICAN

by Alexander Cockburn (June 2009)

June 19, 2009 —Though the U.S. Constitution seemingly blocks my path at this time, I have taken the first necessary step in my own quest for the White House by becoming a citizen of the United States at approximately 10 am, Pacific time, last Wednesday, June 17, in the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California.

To my immediate left in the vast and splendid deco theater was a Moroccan, to my right a Salvadoran and around us 956 other candidates for citizenship from 98 countries, each holding a small specimen of the flag that was about to become our standard. All of us had sworn early that day that since our final, successful interview with immigration officials we had not become prostitutes or members of the Communist Party. Inductees to U.S. nation-hood were downstairs; relatives and friends were up in the balcony, including CounterPuncher and friend Scott Handleman, attorney at law. I was determined to start out on the right path. What is more American than to have a lawyer nearby?

Master of ceremonies was US Citizenship and Immigration Service agent Randy Ricks. The amiable Ricks actually conducted my final interview in USCIS’s San Francisco hq. At the Paramount he pulled off the rather showy feat of making short welcoming speeches to the cheerful throng in French, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Russian and I think Hindi. After various preliminaries, including uplifting videos about Ellis Island that tactfully omitted the darker moments in the island’s past, Ricks issued instructions. Each time, starting with Afghanistan, he announced a country the cohort from that nation stood up and it was easy to see that China, India, the Philippines and Salvador were very strongly represented.

A handful of Zambians brought us to the end of the roster and we were all on our feet. We raised our right hands and collectively swore that we “absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty” and that that we would “bear arms on behalf of the United States”, or perform “work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law.” The phrase rang a bell. In the Second World War in Britain, so my mother Patricia would recall from time to time, cats patrolling warehouses where food was stored would get extra rations for performing work of national importance.

Minutes later I was outside on the sidewalk, registering to vote, albeit declining to state which party I would favor.

My own path to citizenship began with a green card in 1973, allowing me to work for the Village Voice in New York and to be a legal resident. The man who helped me get that card was Ed Koch, at that time a supposedly liberal US congressman living, then as now, in Greenwich Village. A few years later, in 1977, he ran for mayor of New York City and I wrote about him harshly. Koch was heavily backed by Rupert Murdoch and the New York Post, running on a law and order platform. Ed was always a petty man, and this trait was well displayed the night he won. A PBS interviewer asked him what his “worst moment” on the race had been and he promptly said in his trade-mark squeaky whine, “the attack by Alexander Cockburn in the Voice… To think I got him his green card!” In that race there had been slurs a lot nastier than any I made. If you walked around Queens in that campaign you’d see “Vote for Cuomo, not the homo,” scrawled on plenty of walls.

There were others with thin skins. In my Voice column I made fun of a New Yorker writer, a woman dispensing lethal doses of tedium on an almost weekly basis. I didn’t know that her lover was a New Jersey congressman powerful on the Immigration and Naturalization subcommittee. Within days I was the object of a probe by the INS.

A resident alien perches on a frail branch. That New Jersey congressman could have pressured the INS to put me on the watch list, meaning the next time I returned to the US I could have found the door slammed in my face. In the mid 1980s a nutball colonel called Oliver North, working in the White House for Ronald Reagan, began to re-activate a national system of prison camps for lefties from a blueprint that had sat in government filing cabinets ever since the Palmer raids in the Red Scare following World War One. Dick Cheney most certainly dusted it off after 2001. On North’s plan it was safe to assume, as with Cheney’s, that potentially troublesome legal residents would have been locked up, then kicked out.

These are negative reasons, of the sort that guided me in earlier years to elect to be Irish when I got my first passport. I had the choice between the UK and Eire, as it was then called. I was pondering this when our school radios announced in 1956 that the RAF had bombed Ismailia as a first blow in the Suez invasion. The lads in our Patchell’s house room in Glenalmond rose to their feet cheering. My sympathies were with the Egyptians. I remained seated and listened to a heated debate as to whether I should be tried and hanged as a traitor. Plenty of my schoolfellows in this Scotch school had fathers serving in the British armed forces and the mood in Patchell’s was very ugly. Looking at the choleric supporters of the Union Jack it seemed better to be Irish. My brothers Andrew and Patrick made the same decision about Irish citizenship a few years later. Patrick was vindicated in 2005 when Shia fighters at a roadblock in southern Iraq asked to look at his papers and when they saw his passport was Irish let him pass. Patrick reckons that if he had been carrying a UK passport they would have shot him on the spot.

So much for the negative reasons. But I have plenty of positive thoughts about America and am very happy to be stepping aboard what CounterPunch writers describe in unsparing detail each day as a sinking ship. After three and a half decades, why be a non-voting (albeit tax-paying) visitor, particularly if you’ve been dispensing measured counsel for many years on how the country should be run? I’ve lived in every quadrant of the United States and driven across it maybe forty times – not hard when you live in the west and buy old cars from a friend in the southeast. I know the place as well if not better than many.

And though on conventional reckoning it might seem late to start that long journey to the White House, the lure is strong.

Now it’s true that Article 2 of the US Constitution states that “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.” But if we are to believe a flourishing conspiracy movement, Obama has successfully nullified that provision. A substantial number of Americans argue strongly that his father’s Kenyan citizenship, not to mention the refusal of the state of Hawai’i to release his original birth certificate, throw Obama’s eligibility into question. But since Obama will obviously not step down from the presidency even if every allegation is proved true, then Article 2 will be on its way to becoming a dead letter, encouraged in that process by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his supporters.

Mysteries of the sort swirling around Obama’s entry into the world also attended my birth. I was born on June 6 – so my handwritten birth certificate states – in a large house owned by an American woman, a friend of my parents, outside Bonar Bridge, near Inverness. It was wartime and my father, befitting his status as a noted Commie, wasn’t allowed into the Scottish highlands on national security grounds. They wanted to draft him into military service and send him off to be shot by the Germans. Then they worried he would foment mutiny and cancelled his call-up papers. They hoped he would be killed in the blitz, which he nearly was — by the V-2 that blew up our house. He was out buying the paper.

For years my mother claimed I was born on a Sunday and delivered by a doctor in a kilt summoned from a nearby river bank where he was fishing. I looked up June 6, 1941 on my computer recently and it was a Friday, not a Sunday. Three missing days – a gap big enough to drive a presidential bid through.

But who’d want to be president?, you ask. Look at Obama. He talked of change, of hope, of persuading America to sink its differences and move on. Five months later he’s hitting roadblocks manned by forces rougher by far than the Shia who spared Patrick: the insurance industry, the drug companies and the American Medical Association – all of them implacably opposed to his hopes of edging towards some sort of universal health coverage; the Israel lobby and, prime minister Netanyahu, all furious at the idea of curbing Israeli settlements and giving Palestinians a state in fragments of their former land; the arms companies and their sales reps in Congress, who have had free rein for sixty years; the banks whose errand boy Obama has become.

It’ll be eight more impasse-ridden years, and then… it will be time for the man on the white horse, or in my case Agnes, a chestnut mare, half Arab, half thorough-bred, – getting along in years, but a worthy successor to the steed bearing my ancestor, Admiral Sir George Cockburn who entered Washington and torched the White House in 1814. He sent soldiers to the print foundry of the local paper and instructed them to destroy all the Cs , “so that the rascals cannot spell my name.” Running against Washington is always the default option for an American politician. I’m on my way.

"FASCISM doesn’t arise suddenly in an existing democracy. It is not easy to get people to give up their ideas of freedom and civility. You have to do trial runs that, if they are done well, serve two purposes. They get people used to something they may initially recoil from; and they allow you to refine and calibrate. This is what is happening now and we would be fools not to see it."

–Fintan O’Toole

truthdig.com/articles/its-time-to-use-the-f-word-to-describe-trump/

FOURTH OF JULY FACT

Editor:

Before adjourning on July 4, 1776, Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams as a committee to design a seal for the new country that was essentially formed that week. Out of this committee came the concept of a two-sided seal, with E Pluribus Unum on one side and, on the other, the radiating eye of providence that we all see on the one dollar bill.

Paul Zamarian
President, the Great Seal Foundation Santa Rosa

* * *

ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=5

UKIAH LIBRARY: Art Walk, Book Sale, & Dog Days of Summer!

mailchi.mp/8b699ad03114/art-walk-book-sale-dog-days-of-summer?e=a3c5eb703b

“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, even though nobody has any idea what that is anymore?”

JAMES MARMON TO LITTLE DOG: Little Dog, those folks marching up and down Boonville could care less about children being separated from their parents, they’re Trump haters and they look for any reason to protest against him and/or his policies. If POTUS said he loved dogs they would turn on you in minute. They would demand the extinction of your species and cats would become the majority party in your world. Skrag would lead them into the future.

BEACON LIGHT BY-THE-SEA TO OPEN JULY 4TH

MSP swung by the Beacon Light-by-the-Sea cocktail lounge in Elk and learned it will be opened Wednesday, July 4th @ 4:00 pm. It’s usually only open weekends. Not a bad place to go after the Mendo parade…

(Mendocino SportsPlus)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

From where I’m sitting it looks like poverty is wide-spread and increasing. People have to consolidate households to make ends meet. Everybody does seem to be working, but few have full-time jobs and the work available doesn’t pay the bills, so two jobs each has become the norm, with many people working 60 plus hours a week for peanuts. Basically, we seem to be slipping back to the social norms for the working class of 10 hour days, 6 days a week, reminiscent of the 19th century in this country. Roads aren’t being cared for, properties are falling into decay and dissolution, shopping is disappearing. The local mall is turning into a place of nail salons and tattoo parlors and no longer attract a classy clientèle. They’ll manage to hold on for a while, but pretty soon it will close down because those kinds of businesses can’t pay the rent the mall needs to stay in business, and the big department stores are dying. Every time I shop the groceries are more expensive, and taxes haven’t decreased, state and local cities and counties are always crying poor mouth and raising the sales tax, the income tax, the vehicle tax, the gas tax, the tax on everything, Buddy, it’s hard times. You guys can go on and party like it’s 1999, but it wouldn’t take much to light the tinder around here, and then, perhaps the torches and scythes and ropes come out and the peasants are pounding on your door in the middle of the night with demands you can’t meet.

POLLY WANTS A SHOT AND A BEER

In Montana they don’t card parrots in bars.

EXTENDED SUMMER HOURS AT BOTANICAL GARDENS

The Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens is extending evening hours beginning Thursday. Come and experience the magic of our 47-acre garden by the sea in the warm filtered evening light. The Garden will be open until 7:00pm each Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from July 5 through September 29. Regular Gardens admissions applies. Free for members of the Gardens, sign up for a membership today (online www.gardenbythesea.org or at The Garden Store).

SUMMER HOURS - Jul through Sep (the Gardens and The Garden Store): 9:00AM to 7:00PM - Thursday, Friday, Saturday; 9:00AM to 5:00PM - Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; Nursery - 9:00AM to 5:00PM daily; Rhody’s Garden Cafe - 11:00AM to 3:00PM daily; The Gardens, Nursery, Store, and Cafe are open daily this summer with the exception of September 8 for Winesong Charity Auction and Tasting. Special event tickets are required on August 4 for Art in the Gardens.

AMERICAN PASTIME

When I was a little kid in Chicago

Jimmy Yancey, the great blues

and boogie-woogie piano player,

worked as a groundskeeper

at Comiskey Park, where the White Sox played —

Years later, I listened to his records

and did the best I could to imitate

his left hand, not knowing he'd played

baseball for the Chicago All-Americans

in the Negro Leagues, throwing down

his best curves and sliders on both

the black and white keys, remembering

how he'd appeared as a tap dancer

and pianist in Europe and at Carnegie Hall,

then kept his day job working at Comiskey

for twenty-five years, until he died

in 1951, sweeping the infield

— Barry Gifford

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4eQbeuX2Y0