Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Sep. 8, 2018

• Trucker Tragedy
• Storm Shelter
• PV Auction
• Bug
• Consent Calendar
• Skunk Purchase
• Home Insurance
• Little Dog
• County Fair
• Fairground Events
• Locksmith Help
• Comptche Arts
• Cosmic Questions
• Ranch Fire
• Hastings Legacy
• Albion Bridge
• Questionable Wine
• Yesterday's Catch
• Moscow Visit
• Winesong Weekend
• Hard Tack
• Saxman
• Demented Executives
• I Am
• Futile Carping
• Not Zeno
• Gadget Shrinking
• Marco Radio
• Rock O
• Auctioneer Congressman
• Theatre Audition
• Student Debt
• Swamp Vapors
• Eating Things
• Whodunnit
• Anonymous Dissent
• Native Relocation
• Law Enforcement

THE LOG TRUCK DRIVER who died last week on Highway 128 on the far side of Yorkville has still not been identified. We have learned, however, that he died as he was working on his trailer while his rig was parked. The truck then began rolling, and ran over him before plunging off the road.

ANNE! ANNE! IT'S COLD AND RAINING. LET US IN! PLEASE, ANNE!

City Of Fort Bragg To Appeal To County For Emergency Weather Funds Again This Year

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MENDOCINOSPORTSPLUS WRITES: But we also saw this posted to coast social wanting some answers:

“Has anyone ever answered the question about how many the EWS actually serves...we have heard ‘bed nights’ but has anyone ever given the number of individuals served each night and of those how many are local?

I'm all for getting the mentally ill and elderly off the street but how many of those using the EWS are the one's crapping on the streets and causing our all ready stretched to the limit PD the use of valuable time in answering calls?

How many knew winter was coming but have done nothing to prepare for it because they knew someone would do it for them?

$60,000 + would go a long way in helping the local mentally ill and elderly perhaps get a motel room where they could stay out of the weather during the day time also and not be booted out to the street in the early morning hours during the winter months.

Thank God for the Children's Fund who hand out sleeping bags for children who are cold during the winter months because no one else is handing over money to help pay heating expenses to keep them warm. Offering services like this to those who have no intention of helping themselves is enabling them to stay on the path they have chosen.”

DIVERSION FOR SALE

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) today began the auction process for soliciting proposals from parties interested in purchasing its Potter Valley Project, a hydroelectric facility in Mendocino and Lake counties.

The Potter Valley Project consists of two dams along the upper Main Stem Eel River, a powerhouse in Potter Valley, and about 5,600 acres of land, including Lake Pillsbury in Lake County.

PG&E is in the second year of the minimum five-year process of obtaining a new operating license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the project. PG&E will continue to own, operate and relicense the project throughout the auction process.

The new owner will take over the relicensing process after the project sale and transfer is complete. The current FERC license expires in 2022, but Potter Valley Project will continue to operate on annual licenses if the relicensing process goes beyond the current license expiration date.

PG&E announced it would auction the project last May, and today’s action begins the marketing phase of the auction process. PG&E is using a “request for offers” type of auction process that is intended to meet the needs of both seller and buyer – and considers other factors in addition to price.

“PG&E wants to find a new owner with the appropriate qualifications and experience to operate the project in a safe and compliant fashion. The project has unique characteristics and we believe they have the potential to yield significant value for the right owner,” said Alvin Thoma, Senior Director of Power Generation at PG&E.

The project diverts about one-fifth of the average annual flow of the upper Main Stem Eel River at Van Arsdale Reservoir through a tunnel and penstock to a powerhouse located in Potter Valley where it is used to generate electricity. The amount of water diverted by the project represents only 2 percent of the total flow of the Eel River at its mouth. Before it is diverted, some of the water is collected during the wet season and stored in Lake Pillsbury for later release – also providing lake-based recreation opportunities.

After the diverted water leaves the Potter Valley Powerhouse, it enters a canal and the East Branch of the Russian River, where it provides water to farms and communities in southern Mendocino and northern Sonoma counties as well as improving fish habitat in the Russian River. Per the conditions of the project’s operating license, water flows in the upper Main Stem Eel River below the Van Arsdale Reservoir are managed to closely mimic the upper Main Stem Eel River’s natural flow.

PG&E is seeking a new owner for the project as it no longer serves as an economical source of electricity generation for its customers. Potter Valley Project is far from PG&E’s other hydroelectric facilities and regional headquarters, making it especially costly for PG&E to operate. An increasingly competitive energy market, lower generation needs forecasted on PG&E’s system, and the increasing cost of operating the facilities were all factors in PG&E’s decision.

Depending on how many proposals are received and need to be evaluated, PG&E expects to select proposals and begin formal negotiations with a buyer by mid-2019. If all goes well, the sale and transfer of the project could be completed within one-and-a-half to two years.

Approval by FERC and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will be needed prior to transfer of ownership.

—PG&E Press Release

SEEN IN FORT BRAGG

(Photo by Susie de Castro)

WHO NEEDS SUPERVISORS?

by Mark Scaramella

YESTERDAY we noted one of the “retroactive” consent calendar items on Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors agenda involved giving $25k more to an outside law firm for what seems like an ongoing blank check arrangement, an arrangement sealed before being presented to the Board of Supervisors for consideration.

THE COUNTY'S senior staff apparently assumes they can just hand out money then turn around and ask the Board to “approve” the expenditure after the fact. (A safe assumption with this craven board.) This common County practice is bad for several reasons, not just the obvious one that all significant expenditures should go before the Board as a matter of routine procedure. It also insults the Board with the assumption that staff can spend large sums and the Board’s (and the public’s) opinion is irrelevant. Further, by putting it on the consent calendar it presumes authority that staff doesn’t have and it effectively precludes any discussion of preventing retroactive expenditures in the future.

YET time and again, with only an occasional bleat from Supervisor McCowen but nobody else, retroactive expenditures appear on the consent calendar.

IT'S TRUE that some of these pay outs are relatively straightforward, and that’s what the consent calendar is for — straightforward items that probably don’t need much discussion. But putting retroactive items on the consent calendar should be prohibited because staff should always have to explain why the item is retroactive and what’s being done to prevent more retroactive expenditures in the future. Otherwise the practice just gets worse.

BACK IN JUNE Ms. Molgaard told the Board, “I do realize that this is quite a consent calendar and this has to do with the fact that an edict came down from our former chair of the board of supervisors [i.e., Supervisor John McCowen] that there will be no retroactive contracts. So we have worked very hard. … The fact that they are all being done in the month of June is what is different. I see that that is kind of overwhelming. But we can certainly come back and give more detail on anything that you would like.”

SO MOLGAARD knows that there was an “edict” from McCowen (which his fellow Supervisors presumably agreed with but never said so directly) that “there will be no retroactive contracts.”

DESPITE THAT, Consent Calendar Items 4h, 4i, 4j and 4k on Tuesday’s Consent Calendar are ALL retroactive (besides the County Counsel item mentioned earlier). And these four are all from Molgaard’s Department of Health and Human Services, the prime violator of the no-retroactive items rule. (The County Counsel’s office is also a frequent offender.)

ITEM 4h is a “retroactive” contract add-on for Redwood Quality Management/Redwood Community Services (run by Molgaard’s friend and associate Camille Schraeder): “Approval of Retroactive Amendment to BOS Agreement No. 18-068 with Redwood Community Services, Inc. to Provide Crisis Counseling Services and Community Educational Meetings for the Term of October 12, 2017, through a New End Date of January 31, 2019 (Extended from June 30, 2018), and for an Unchanged Amount of $114,257.14.” (This one is at least for no more money, but it is still retroactive and requires Board approval.)

ITEM 4i is another one: “Approval of Retroactive Third Amendment to BOS Agreement No. 17-084 with Crestwood Behavioral Health, Inc. Increasing the Amount from $482,449 to $491,449 to Provide Residential Treatment Services for Health and Human Services Agency, Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Clients for the Term of July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018.” (About $9,000 spent without Board approval.)

ITEM 4j: “Approval of Retroactive Agreement with Turning Point of Central California, Inc. in the Amount of $53,272 to Provide 60 Days of Crisis Residential Care for a Severely Physically and Developmentally Disabled Foster Child for the Period of August 1, 2018 through September 29, 2018.

(MAYBE Ms. Molgaard thinks that including the word “severely” makes it ok.)

AND ITEM 4k: “Adoption of Resolution Approving Retroactive Agreement with California Department of Social Services — Adoptions Services Bureau in the Amount of $641,682 ($320,841 per fiscal year) to Provide Adoption Services for Health and Human Services Agency, Family and Children’s Services for the Term of July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2020.”

(PROBABLY routine intergovernment transfer, but this needs Board review for budgetary considerations and perhaps to see if there’s a local source for these services in the future.)

SO FOUR MORE CLEAR VIOLATIONS of the Board’s no-retroactive contracts “edict” just this week on the consent calendar. Molgaard seems to think she can violate Board edicts with impunity, despite the occasional "edict" from Supervisor McCowen.

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CONSENT CALENDAR ITEM 4n is at least not retroactive, but it is a significant item which would effectively turn inland Homeless services over to Molgaard’s pal Camille Schraeder too: “Approval of Agreement with Redwood Community Services, Inc. in the Amount of $140,000 to Provide Resources for the Homeless at the Day Resource Center/Homeless Shelter in Ukiah, Effective when Fully Executed Through June 30, 2019.”

THIS OBVIOUSLY has no business on the consent calendar, but the fact that it is, is further evidence of staff’s dismissive attitude toward the Board.

CONSENT CALENDAR ITEM 4s is interesting because it appears to be the first indication that the controversial Cultural Services Agency consolidation is starting to bear some fruit, minor as it may be: “Authorization for the Mendocino County Museum to Allow Free Admission when Presented with a Mendocino County Library Card in Celebration of the Formation of the Cultural Services Agency and Library Card Sign-up Month.”

SO AGAIN, this should be on the regular agenda because more of this kind of thing should be encouraged.

NEXT ON THE CONSENT CALENDAR is the apparent partial privatization of Code Enforcement: “Item 4v: Approval of Agreement with Don Folsom for Code Enforcement Field Inspection Services and Formal Code Determinations Related to Building and Construction Code Violations, as Well as Professional Services Related to Code Enforcement Actions, Including, but Not Limited To, Providing Expert Testimony, as May be Required for Court or Appeal Hearings, Training Code Enforcement Staff and Assisting in Policy and Procedure Development, in an amount not to Exceed $50,000, Effective from Date Agreement Becomes Fully Executed Through June 30, 2020.”

MR. FOLSOM appears to be a retired Sonoma County (or perhaps Santa Rosa city) building inspector who lives in Yorkville.

AGAIN, whatever the pros and cons of this proposal may be, it clearly requires Board and public consideration because having a contractor do on-the-ground code enforcement has obvious potential conflicts of interest and legal implications.

AT THIS RATE, why not put the whole agenda on the consent calendar? Oh, the Board can do the ceremonial stuff — the proclamations, the photo ops, the awards, the resolutions, the sitting while staffers give them self-serving snow jobs, the endless discussions of new wrinkles in the pot permitting program, the silent ignoring of public comment, the silly reports about the meetings they attended for no particular reason on the taxpayer’s dime, the reasons they are giving themselves and everybody else in high County positions big pay raises, etc.

BUT LEAVE THE REAL BUSINESS of the County to the power ladies who really run the show. The Supervisors rubberstamp everything as it is, so why bother with the pretense that they’re in charge of anything at all?

SKUNK TRAIN TO BUY LARGE CHUNK OF FORT BRAGG’S FORMER MILLSITE

Fort Bragg City Council members and planning commissioners, in an informal poll, supported the Skunk Train’s plans for 70 acres of the former millsite.

Skunk Train executives announced Wednesday night that the company has an agreement with Georgia-Pacific to buy 70 acres of Fort Bragg’s former millsite, the first major purchase of the 400-plus acres of oceanfront land since lumbering operations there ceased and the site was vacated in the early 2000s.

Chris Hart, president of Mendocino Railway, which owns the Skunk Train, and Skunk Train President Robert Pinoli told a joint meeting of the Fort Bragg City Council and Planning Commission that after a year or more of negotiations, secret until a meeting with city officials in mid-August, they have agreed to buy all the millsite land north of Redwood Avenue.

Their plans include a new depot, a “historic district” and plaza approximately between Redwood Avenue and the existing depot on Laurel Street, a resort hotel and 23 acres of medium- to high-density housing.

It would also likely preserve Dry Shed 4, the last remaining building on the millsite. Georgia-Pacific had got permission from the City Council to tear down the Dry Shed last spring over the objections of some who wanted to see the building preserved. The tear-down was appealed to the California Coastal Commission, though the appeal would likely be moot if the sale goes through.

Hart and Pinoli said they have a contract with G-P and the deal is expected to go through escrow in 30 to 60 days.

Some of the land would be occupied by the North Coast Brewing Company, which would use part of the Dry Shed for storage and go ahead with plans for a new brewing operation to the west of their existing plant. North Coast Brewing Company Vice President Doug Moody said the expansion could add another 90 jobs to the Brewing Company’s current workforce of 180.

Hart said that the railroad would like to refurbish its existing roundhouse, using the Dry Shed to shelter trains in the meantime, and possibly extend their tracks west to a new Glass Beach-themed depot.

That idea prompted some caution from council members. Mayor Lindy Peters and Council member Bernie Norvell both said they don’t know if all trail walkers would welcome a train on the coastal bluffs, and Peters noted that there are protected areas near Glass Beach that development there would have to avoid.

But council members and planning commissioners, in an informal poll, unanimously supported the Skunk Train’s overall plans.

Moody said the company has been looking for more space in town and “until 12 days ago we had given up hope” of moving onto the millsite. “We’ve spent the last six months trying to figure out how to stay in Fort Bragg,” he said.

During the August meeting with city officials, Skunk Train representatives presented their own land use plan, said Fort Bragg Community Development Director Marie Jones. She, City Manager Tabatha Miller, Peters and Vice Mayor Will Lee worked with Hart and Pinoli to refine their plans to agree with guidelines already established during millsite planning sessions over the last year-and-a-half.

“We think our plan closely matches what the city has been planning,” Hart said.

(Courtesy, Fort Bragg Advocate-News)

FRANK HARTZELL WRITES:

Liberty Mutual cancels my home insurance.... Recommendations for home fire insurance?

My mom and dad had house insurance through Liberty Mutual here since 1985 and before that they had it since the 50s in California and other states. Forty days before the policy was set to renew they write and say they are canceling. Has to do with fires and fire risk in our area but they provide no details and won't say anything when I call. I'd like to write about fire insurance for one of the pubs I work with and get new insurance. I’d be interested in hearing anybody's experience with this issue (other companies canceling) and recommendations on what companies are best for home fire insurance....

Frank Hartzell

frankhartzell@gmail.com

707-962-9279

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Skrag spends a suspiciously large part of his day crouched over the fish pond. It's pretty clear he's up to no good. I mentioned it and what do I get? ‘Zip it, LD.’ Skrag says watching the fish is the way he ‘meditates.’ Skrag? Meditate? These people are wayyyyy too trusting.”

THE 91ST MENDOCINO COUNTY FAIR AND APPLE SHOW will run from Friday, Sept. 14 through Sunday, Sept. 16 at the Fairgrounds in Boonville.

ukiahdailyjournal.com/lifestyle/20180906/91st-annual-mendocino-county-fair-and-apple-show-takes-place-sept-14-16

UNITY CLUB NEWS

Happy Apple Fair and Fiber Show

This is my second favorite week of the year; my birthday week coming in first. We all are busy with displays and schedules. Let's take a breath and make certain we have all our ducks in a row. If you cannot remember your hours at the bridge gate, call Liz at 2847. If you need a time to work in Floricultute, call Robyn at 2609. Now, go forth and have fun. I look into the excited eyes of a 4-H er and ask how their animals did - I always get smiles and a report of ribbons won & what's coming up next. If that doesn't do it for you, listen to the squeals of delight coming from the kids on the carnival rides. See you at the Fair.

BIG News: The Community Lending Library has changed their hours. As of 9 October 2018, the Library will open at 12:30 on Saturdays, closing at 2:30. You can more easily combine a trip to the Farmers Market or to Recycling with a visit to the Library. Tuesday hours remain the same, 1:00 to 4:00. Enjoy a book or video; come to the Library.

Our first A.V. Unity Club meeting will be held on Thursday, October 4th in the Dining Room at the Fairgrounds, at 1:30 Our Welcome Tea will be celebrated with the Executive Committee as our hostesses. Bring a friend.

See you at the Fair!

Miriam L. Martinez

A LITTLE HELP FOR LYNN

Can you help a neighbor?

Lynn Turner, locksmith, has fallen on hard times and needs some support to get back on her feet. She had a bad car deal and fought it, but lost her car and housing as a result. Please contribute whatever you can to her Go Fund Me account. Each of us need a hand up sometimes.

https://www.gofundme.com/need-a-car-and-a-roof

Rixanne Wehren <rixanne@mcn.org>

COMPTCHE CELEBRATES THE ARTS!

On September 22, from 2:00-6:00, The Comptche Community Organization will host an Art & Wine Event at the Comptche Community Hall, 1/4 Mile East of the Store on the C/U Road. 40 Artists will be present to share, show & sell their work in diverse Media, including Painting, Ceramics, Woodwork, Metal & 3D materials, as visitors enjoy tasting local wines from nearby Wineries. Entrance is free, food & wine tasting costs are minimal. Come & join us for this year’s Autumn gathering of fun & frolic at the Hall!

Contact Lynne Zickerman, lynnezi2@mcn.org (707)937-3362 for questions

BOONVILLE FAIR SUNDAY COMMUNITY CHURCH SERVICE

September 16th 2018, 8:30 AM

Apple Hall Auditorium, next to the Fair Office

Pastor Dave Kooyers from Valley Bible Fellowship will present;

“What Is Man?”

“Made in whose image?”

Free admission/Everyone Welcome

Please come and worship with us, and then enjoy the fair for the rest of the day.

For additional information please feel free to call Pastor Dave Kooyers (707) 895-2325, or the Fair Office at (707) 895-3011, or visit their website at:

HOME

10:00 am Sheep Dog Trials, Finals - Rodeo Arena

2:00 pm CCPRA Rodeo Finals - Rodeo Arena

THE MENDOCINO COMPLEX FIRE UPDATE:

The Ranch Fire remains at 410,203 acres and 98% contained. The anticipated date for full containment is September 9, 2018. The last section of uncontained fireline is west of Stonyford near Bonnie View and Happy Camp. Firefighters continue to monitor interior burning west of Stonyford and patrol firelines in this area. Suppression repair work has been completed on 390 miles of 672 miles identified. Suppression repair is complete on the River Fire.

For detailed Mendocino Complex information visit: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6073/

AT LAST THE OLD INDIAN KILLER GETS SERIOUSLY LOOKED AT

The Law and Politics of Commemoration: the Legacy of Serranus Hastings Symposium

This all-day conference on the campus of UC Hastings College of the Law will examine the legacy of the school's namesake, Serranus Hastings, who is credibly alleged to have promoted genocidal acts against Native Californians in the nineteenth century. Leading scholars and activists will consider the Hastings legacy, and, in light of the experience of other institutions grappling with questions of commemoration, what should be done about it.

Please click here <https://uchastings.webconnex.com/hastings2018> for more information and registration.

Roslyn L. Foy, Manager, College Events Center, Executive Assistant, UC Hastings College of the Law, Office of the Academic Dean, (415) 565-4682

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW with Sheri Quinn-Gibbs from KZYX about Caltrans' permit application to the Coastal Commission about the geotechnical investigation at Albion River Bridge

Interview with Sheri Quinn-Gibbs from KZYX about Caltrans' permit application to the Coastal Commission about the geotechnical investigation at Albion River Bridge.

Members of Albion Bridge Stewards and owners of the Albion River Inn were interviewed by Sheri Quinn-Gibbs, News Director/Reporter from the Mendocino Public Broadcasting KZYX News about the geotechnical investigation permit that Caltrans submitted to the CA Coastal Commission.

The interview is airing Friday 9-6-18 around 11am. You can listen to this longer version of the interview (about 20 min. long) at frequency: 90.7 MHz or online at http://www.kzyx.org/term/live-broadcast#stream/0

Here is the short version of the interview: http://www.kzyx.org/post/albion-bridge-investigation-under-debate

For more info see https://www.coastal.ca.gov/meetings/agenda/#/2018/9 Item 10 a Application of Caltrans to conduct geotechnical investigation to provide data for siting and overall design of future rehabilitation/replacement of Highway 1 Albion River Bridge involving geotechnical drilling of up to nine 70-125-ft.-deep bore holes within 6 specified sites, removal of major vegetation, grading, and use of helicopters for placement of drill rigs and construction of temporary access routes to boring sites, conducting seismic refraction surveys, and replanting cleared areas adjacent to Highway 1, on both sides of the Albion River at the Highway 1 Albion River Bridge in Albion.

That application will be accepted or denied by our Coastal Commissioners. Coastal Commission staff has recommended that Commissioners grant Caltrans the waiver with special conditions.

This CA Coastal Commission meeting will start at 9am September 12 at Town Hall, 363 North Main Street in Fort Bragg.

More information about the meeting, submit comments online by 9-7 at 5pm, see reports and exhibits, as well as live streaming and parking see https://www.coastal.ca.gov/meetings/agenda/#/2018/9

and our web page for a sample letter https://albioncab.wordpress.com/

https://documents.coastal.ca.gov/agenda-map/Parking%20Map%20Fort%20Bragg.pdf

Albion Bridge Stewards is a group of citizens, local and otherwise, working to preserve the bridge and save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. Please join us in our pursuit to save the federally and state recognized historic Albion River Bridge. See you at the meeting.

TRUTH IN ADVERTISING

Editor,

Flaws in the wine industry’s ability to promote itself as sustainable are becoming broadly apparent. Visitors to tasting rooms are increasingly asking: “Do you spray herbicides on your vineyard?” This public health question should only be the first question of many.

If a consumer knew that the winery with a sustainable label was not required to be organic, had cut down all the oak trees on the property, was depleting groundwater aquifers, had eliminated all wildlife and had paved over farmland for an event center and parking lot, that consumer would question the “sustainable” claim.

The consumer might also learn how lax regulations on winery event permits had created more dispersed tourism and increased vehicle mileage, rural traffic and greenhouse gases.

This might lead to the perception of the sustainable claim as self-serving, unsubstantiated and missing the mark of what real sustainable practices should involve.

The final question is this: Is the sustainable label meant to inform consumers or misinform them?

Nancy Feehan

Santa Rosa

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 7, 2018

TAMARA BABCOCK, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

JOSE CARDENAS, Ukiah. Domestic abuse.

ANTJUAN CRISTERNA, Berkeley/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

GREGORY CRUMPLER, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

AMBER DILLON, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia.

LISSA HAMMOND, Laytonville. Probation revocation.

DERRICK HEATER, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

JEFFERY HOCKETT, Fort Bragg. Trespassing.

DERRICK RIDENOUR, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

THOMAS SANDERS, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

AUSTIN SCHWEITZER, Lakeport/Ukiah. Stolen vehicle, receiving stolen property, suspended license, probation revocation.

OBSERVATIONS OF MOSCOW

"One final observation—very few Russians seem to have tattoos. I have now had the chance to observe hundreds of thousands of Russians—if they spoke English, they would be indistinguishable from Americans. "

ccisf.org/observations-of-moscow/

WINESONG COAST HOSPITAL FUNDRAISER THIS WEEKEND

facebook.com/events/193067311291176/

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Hard tack.

Water and white flour kneaded into dough. Do not add salt, leavening, fats, sugar, seasonings, etc. Roll into flat shapes about 3/8″ thick and then pierce with a docker like a saltine cracker before baking. Bake at 350F until browned. Make sure all the moisture is driven out. Allow to cool and then pack on edge in crates wrapped to keep out dust and pests. Properly prepared it will last for decades. To serve, break into pieces and soak in broth or soup.

As an experiment, I made a couple of batches of hard tack and then ate some samples soaked in chicken broth. Tasty. During the US Civil War, soldiers soaked their hard tack in coffee. They called it samp.

The reason for omitting salt is that it, sodium chloride, is hygroscopic, which means it attracts moisture from the air. If you go to the Bonneville salt flats you’ll notice the salt there is damp to the touch in desert conditions. Moisture will cause the hard tack to spoil. Any other ingredients will go rancid, attract moisture, etc. White flour and water only.

So, to all you preppers out there, get going on your hoard of hard tack!

ANONYMOUS

A summary of Anonymous’s op-ed: “Trump’s irrationality is threatening our tax cuts, our defense contracts and our carbon emissions!”

Following Anon’s lead, Elizabeth Warren is now calling for Trump to be removed from power through the cumbersome process set forth in the 25th Amendment, which would turn the Cabinet and the Congress into a kind of bicameral psychiatric review board, charged with evaluating the mental competency of the President, a task they are even less quipped for than determining whether he has committed a high crime or misdemeanor.

We have endured our share of demented executives in the recent past. Surely, Harry Truman was psychotic the moment he gave the order to nuke Nagasaki, after having witnessed the atomic horrors inflicted on Hiroshima. LBJ staffer Richard Goodwin argued that Johnson suffered from paranoid delusions and that his “mental disintegration” led the president plunge the nation deeper and deeper into the Vietnam War. James Schlesinger, Secretary of Defense during the final months of the Nixon administration, instructed the Chiefs of Staff to ignore any orders for military action given by the president that didn’t contain Schlesinger’s own signature. Schlesinger feared that Nixon might summon the Marines to the White House grounds or launch nuclear weapons to save his presidency. As Reagan’s mind began to melt in his second term, chief of staff Don Regan fought furiously with Nancy Reagan, and her astrologer Joan Quigley, over running day-to-day operations at the White House, with Regan later charging in his memoir For the Record that: “virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance with a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise.” It doesn’t get much crazier than that.

Lewis Lapham: “People may expect too much of journalism. Not only do they expect it to be entertaining, they expect it to be true.”

With Lapham’s caveat in mind, I’m going to save you the $17.99 list price for Bob Woodward’s Fear: Trump in the White House and give you the book’s greatest hits:

Sean Spicer tried several times to persuade Mattis to appear on Sunday talk shows The answer was always no. "Sean,” Mattis finally said, “I’ve killed people for a living. If you call me again, I’m going to fucking send you to Afghanistan. Are we clear?”

Trump told [serial wife beater Rob] Porter that Sessions was a “traitor” for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, Woodward writes. Mocking Sessions’s accent, Trump added, “This guy is mentally retarded. He’s this dumb Southerner. … He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.”

Trump disputed this by saying he’d never used the word “retarded,” then from the vaults of Howard Stern this emerged…

Replying to @RiegerReport

TRUMP to HOWARD STERN in April 2004:

"I was criticized in one magazine, where the writer was retarded and said, 'Donald Trump put up seven million dollars, they put up 193 million dollars and they're 50/50 partners. Why isn't Donald Trump putting up more money?'" pic.twitter.com/Oyd0xOxUxT

Video surfaces refuting Trump’s claim that he’s never called someone ‘retarded’

https://wapo.st/2Q7H95g?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.0830e4bb12b6 …

—Jeffrey St. Clair

THE WHOLE BLOODY MESS

Editor,

Life

We should have known all along that the grand experiment in Democracy would not last, could not last, had to be subverted from within and without. But, there we are, looking stunned and lost. What to do? Nothing, really. Who are we to stand against Mammon? The whole bloody mess here has made me retreat to reading Tacitus, Caesar’s Commentaries, even further back to Thucidydes. The whole panoply of mens’ stupidities is mind blowing, and never ceases. Our so-called free market policies are having the effect of re-enslaving vast swaths of the human landscape. Oh, that is not to say they put people actually in chains, or round them up in concentration camps and labor camps (but they do, actually). The Free Marketeers have learned that they don’t have to house and feed a vast labor force to enrich themselves. No, they do it by proxy now—allowing permanent underemployment, poverty level wages, and don’t have to maintain an infrastructure upon which classic slavery relied. Throw in blood sports as a diversion and enough social welfare to keep the lid on and you have a formula for true and enduring autocracy-kleptocracy-megalomania. Down through the levels of Dante’s Purgatorio we go.

Sounds pretty glum, doesn’t it? And this from one who does not actually suffer from the material consequences of this mess. We live quietly on our ridge, free from material want. Our one concern is to see that our sons continue to thrive. Hell, in my condition, I’m not even fit to hoist a sign and march. God only knows what my blood pressure would be if we had TV here. So, like so many of my kind, I’ll carp and yet have precious little ability to do a damn thing about any of it. I can’t even pour a nice glass of Rye—verboten for patients.

Yes, they allow me to use THC. I have used it only once in 3 weeks to help with sleep. Maybe tonight I’ll take some chocolate infused with cannabinoids and forget the whole mess. Since we have our deer to worry about daily now — this is their hunger time — we can’t even think of having a dog. At least a dog would look up at me and commiserate upon the day’s political events and nudge me with a wet nose to say it will be all right.

Franklin Graham, Navarro

INFO WARS, AN EXCHANGE

brian kennedy

https://www.infowars.com/man-caught-paying-off-kavanaugh-protesters-works-for-soros-funded-organization/

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Cynthia Gair

InfoWars (stylized as INFOWARS) is a far-right American conspiracy theorist and fake news website

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Rene Roberts

Thank you, Cynthia. Infowars was also just banned permanently from Twitter for advocating violence. Alex Jones is the king of false conspiracy theories and disinformation. If you follow their links, you will likely be tracked by them.

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brian kennedy

The cure for disinformation is true information not censorship. Truth never has and never will have the slightest thing to fear from lies. It just needs a little time to illuminate the situation and burn through the lies. When the king walked up to the philosopher Zeno sitting in the plaza that he wanted to honor him for his wisdom and he could name his reward, Zeno replied: “don’t stand between me and the Sun.” If you should fear anything here it would be your own ignorant self-assurance that you know what is really going on before informing yourself from as many angles as possible.

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Errol Miller

That wasn’t Zeno, famous for his paradox, but the great cynic Diogenes and Alexander the Great. Get your facts straight.

MEMO OF THE AIR: GOOD NIGHT RADIO FRIDAY NIGHT!

Friday, September 7, 9pm to 5am, there's Memo of the Air, live from the KNYO performance space at 325 N. Franklin, next door to the Tip Top bar. Your chance to shine. Arrive however you arrive, enter without even knocking, head for the hygienically lit room at the back, and show-and-tell and/or perform your [ahem] act, or talk about your project, or read your own work, or whatever. If you show up and somebody's already involved, that's fine; pull a chair in and join us. There are plenty of chairs, and unless somebody's a great greedy-guts there's plenty of chocolate to go around.

But if you can't make it in person, the deadline to email your writing to be read on the air tonight is around 6pm. Also the number in the Fort Bragg studio is 707 962-3022, so you can read your own work with your own voice right there on the phone. And if there will be swears, please wait until 10pm to start that.

I've got a lot of provocative material to read as well as music to play to fill up those empty dark places in the mind and heart with the comforting knowledge-scented kapok of science as well as the humanities, not to mention practical recipes for a better real world, where the menu allows for substitutions.

Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio: Every Friday, 9pm to 5am on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg, and 105.1fm KMEC-LP Ukiah. Also there and anywhere else via http://knyo.org

Bonus track: A frenetic dance.

https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2018/09/wild-moscow-twist.html

And a few examples of the problem of air.http://bitsandpieces.us/2018/09/super-typhoon-jebi/

Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org

https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

AUCTIONEER CONGRESSMAN BILLY LONG Drowns Out Protester at Dorsey Hearing

https://youtu.be/AvALgOjojOI

AUDITIONS FOR A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS ARE SEPTEMBER 15!

Gloriana Musical Theatre is holding auditions for A Charlie Brown Christmas on September 15. Directed by Kevin and Erin Green. When Charlie Brown complains about the overwhelming materialism he sees among everyone during the Christmas season, Lucy suggests that he become director of the school Christmas pageant. Charlie Brown accepts, but this proves to be a frustrating endeavor. When an attempt to restore the proper holiday spirit with a forlorn little Christmas fir tree fails, he needs Linus’ help to discover the real meaning of Christmas. Auditions will be held on Saturday, September 15th from 10am-2pm at Eagles Hall in Fort Bragg. For information and to sign up go to Gloriana.org. This is a Young Performers production. We are looking to cast up to age 13.

SLOUCHING TOWARD OKEEFENOKE

by James Kunstler

Quite a hot time in the ole Swamp this week, with the gators, ‘possums, snakes, and snappers roiling the filthy waters to a bloody froth in the battle for supremacy of the food chain. The Swamp even has its own version of Bigfoot, the Golden Golem of Greatness. Lumbering and garrulous, unlike his shy cousin of the Oregon forests, the flaxen-haired giant plies the sloughs, oak domes, and cypress hammocks desperately seeking respect. His bellowing can be heard each night through the din of chittering insects, croaking bullfrogs, laughing anhingas, and the baying bloodhounds at his heels, as he searches for the fabled drain-plug that might convert this treacherous ecology into an upland peaceable kingdom.

Many forces are vectoring toward Defcon this autumn with an effect that may amplify the individual power of each and reach a critical mass that could just blow the Swamp to soggy bits. The Prog-led “Resistance” turned the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing into a swampish circus, complete with shrieking clowns Kamala Harris and Corey Booker trying out their 2020 election acts. Their antics are almost certainly in vain, since the sides are pre-decided and the votes are there to approve Mr. Kavanaugh, no matter how many faces they pull.

The mere prospect of Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court has induced a fever fugue in Progville that resembles those end-of-the-world apocalyptic visions in Medieval scripture. Yet to come perhaps: fainting spells, ghost sightings, infestations of biting insects, St. Vitus Dance, speaking in “tongues,” visitations of succubi, and other signs that the hosts of Beelzebub are afoot.

This inflamed rabble becomes more dangerously delusional each week as the witches fly over Washington. No need to even hunt for them anymore. They’re out in broad daylight.

With the Resistance this unhinged, and a growing roster of midterm election candidates espousing childish, otherwordly utopian fantasies, even Republicans begin to look like sober adults. Meanwhile, worms are stirring in the compost heap known as the Mueller investigation. It was reported Friday that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has been spending time in a grand jury. Months, it turns out! Who woulda thunk that? And who, exactly, convened this body?

Well, it must have been someone in the federal Justice Department, but supposedly the chief there, Jeff Sessions, has long recused himself from involvement in the Russia “matter,” since he is on the record as having held conversations with persons of the Russian persuasion. Must have been his deputy, then, Rod Rosenstein, on referral from the Inspector General, Mr. Horowitz. The question is: is this a genuine seeking for truth in the FBI’s machinations during and after the 2016 election? Or is it a Rosenstein-managed ruse in a much broader cover-your-ass operation in the ole “modified-limited-hangout” sense coined by Nixon aide Chuck Colson back in the long-ago Watergate swamp draining operation?

There is now a clear evidence trail about eight-lanes wide detailing Russian collusion of the Democratic Party, the Hillary Campaign, the FBI/DOJ, plus a caravan of Robert Mueller aides, adjuncts, colleagues and former trainees. They are all mixed up with a cavalcade of events weaving through more than one Clinton investigation (and its damage control operations), and they need to appear before grand juries too. Many, I suspect are criminally culpable and will end up in the slammer. Perhaps even ole Horse-face himself, grave and aseptic as he may seem.

I’ve caught two of Trump’s rallies the past week or so. His freestyling babble at the podium makes me wish I could wave a magic wand and just make him vanish in a cloud of orange vapor, or perhaps turn him into Richard Nixon. (Doesn’t all this make you nostalgic for ole Nixie?) He can’t shut up about the economic miracles that he has wrought with his mighty “stable genius” brain. Perhaps he has not noticed that the money system is crumbling all around the world at the margins. If he does not understand that this rot eventually must reach the center, then he has washed down too many cheeseburgers with his own Kool Aid. Having taken ownership of all this lock, stock, and barrel, then he is perfectly situated to be blamed when the honey-wagon of algo-trading robots turns south and whatever remains of the world’s hot money, including the US dollar, goes up in smoke. If it coincides even bluntly with the mid-term election, then we will find ourselves living through Civil War Two.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page.)

FINE DINING 1 AND 2

Bob Coppock:

I've eaten horse meat. Interesting flavor. That's mostly in northern France and Belgium, I guess. In France also you are likely to get pheasant with a bit of buckshot, if you aren't careful.. Then there's pate de foie gras, now illegal here. Not to mention raw hamburger (tartare).

Marco McClean:

Rattlesnake. I was fifteen or sixteen. My friend Randy shot a rattlesnake in his garage, cleaned it and froze it, didn't say anything about it, because it was just another thing that happened. One day I was over there and he remembered it, thawed it out in the sink and cooked it in a frying pan, in bacon grease. So I can tell you that fried rattlesnake tastes like bacon grease. That's how I learned that frogs taste like bacon grease, too. I've heard that the French eat frogs all the time.

THINK THEY WROTE IT?

"The New York Times wrote it. … As a former senior official in a presidential administration, I can state with certainty that no senior official would express disagreement anonymously. Anonymous dissent has no credibility. Moreover, the dishonor of it undermines the character of the writer. A real dissenter would use his reputation and the status of his high position to lend weight to his dissent."

— Paul Craig Roberts

unz.com/proberts/i-know-who-the-senior-official-is-who-wrote-the-ny-times-op-ed/

ANNUAL NOME CULT WALK BEGINS

The 23rd annual Nome Cult walk from Chico to Round Valley will start Sunday, Sept. 9. The 100-mile trek follows the route that Indians were forced to march from Chico to the Nome Cult Reservation in 1863. Descendants of Native Americans who took part in the original relocation and other supporters walk the route each year. Although the path itself has disappeared, this route is now called the Nome Cult Trail. The theme of the walk is "Honor their memory...a path not forgotten."

Their planned schedule is:

• Sunday, Sept. 9, Begin walk toward Orland
• Monday, Sept. 10, Walk toward Newville Cemetery
• Tuesday, Sept. 11, Walk to Black Bear Campground
• Wednesday, Sept. 12, Continue to Log Springs
• Thursday, Sept. 13, On to Wells Cabin
• Friday, Sept. 14, Walk to Eel River
• Saturday, Sept. 15, Finish walk to Round Valley Indian Reservation

The removal of Indians from Chico to the Nome Cult Reservation in 1863 is one of the many forced relocations following the establishment of reservations in northern California in the 1850s. Several different tribes were moved to the Nome Cult Reservation after it was established in Round Valley in 1856.

The Mendocino National Forest asks that people traveling on roads along the trail route - M4, County Road 55 and FH7 into Eel River Station and Covelo - be mindful of the event and careful of the walkers to ensure their safety.

—U.S. Forest Service

MENDOCINO COUNTY REFUSES TO ENFORCE LAW while Mendocino County Burns

Editor,

The citizen’s initiative Measure V became law June 8, 2016 and declares “…INTENTIONALLY KILLED AND LEFT STANDING TREES A PUBLIC NUISANCE.”

As of August 2018 this law has been ignored.

It is unconscionable that our county government ignores the will of the people. No one knows why. Does the threat of a lawsuit trump the will and welfare of the people of Mendocino County? Measure V is designed to help lessen catastrophic fires, death and destruction in this time of severe drought and climate change.

When supervisors Brown, McCowen, and Woodhouse refused to join Hamburg and Gjerde to enforce V, County Counsel Katherine Elliott asked the state’s Attorney Generals lawyers for a legal opinion in February 2017. AG attorney Catherine Bidart wrote it 13 months later in April 2018. It’s been “circulating” among AG attorneys since and Bidart cannot give anyone a date for release.

I put in a Public Records Request on August 13 and received an almost immediate reply from Bidart herself stating that Opinion 17-202 cannot be released while being “reviewed” due to attorney-client privilege (between attorneys of the same AG office).

Bidart response to V Opinion request

This may be legally defensible but is morally reprehensible! We can only guess as to why the holdup, but we the people have had enough. We don’t want to wait any longer.

Mendocino County burns and top brass at Calfire called the millions of bone dry dead standing trees as a major problem. In the meantime, MRC and other timber operators are continuing hack & squirt and leaving millions of dead standing trees near our homes and roads.

We want the board of supervisors to enforce, retroactively, Measure V, and we want it now. This is, after all supposed to be a democracy and our supervisors are elected to represent our interests and they should follow the law.

Els Cooperrider

Ukiah

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RESPONSE

Editor,

Stupid laws enacted by an ill informed (duped) public should not be enforced.

Ward Hanes, Boonville