Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018

• Precautionary Outages
• MRC Decision
• Vanished Podcast
• Capitalized Weed
• Camp Rundgren
• Blank Pleads
• Handyman Housing
• Gavin Rich
• Sewer Rates
• Haschak Endorsement
• Yesterday's Catch
• Backyard Breeders
• DC Scumbags
• Corporate America
• Narcissistic Buffoonery
• Tax Evasion
• Python Intro
• Nazi Mentality
• Grant Workshops
• HRC Costume
• Flowerpot Permit
• Strategic Self-Care
• Head-Cases
• Tax-Fraud Rich
• Wolf Woman
• Voter Choice
• Comments
• Repub Club
• Interfaith Circle
• Little Dog
• Voting Recommendations

PG&E RESTORES POWER TO 38,000 CUSTOMERS AFTER PRECAUTIONARY OUTAGE

Thousands of residents in the North Bay and the Sierra foothills had their power back Monday night as PG&E continued to restore power to customers effected by the utility preemptively shutting off electricity over potential wildfire risk Sunday.

As of 9:30 p.m. Monday, PG&E officials said power had been restored to more than 38,000 customers in the North Bay and in the Sierra Foothills. Officials said restoration work is continuing.

As of 10 p.m., PG&E said they expected to restore all customers by Tuesday. However officials did not have specific projected time they would have all power restored.

PG&E said they would be communicating information as they continued to make progress on our safety inspections.

Earlier Monday, officials said that they planned to restore power to about 42,000 of the nearly 60,000 customers being impacted by the precautionary outage. Officials said power would be restored by midnight, but did not specify where power would be restored first.

As of about 5:00 a.m. Monday morning, the utility had shut off power to more than 17,000 customers in the North Bay, including over 5,700 customers in Napa County, 415 customers in Sonoma County and 11,309 customers in Lake County.

The affected North Bay communities include Angwin, Calistoga, Deer Park, Lake Berryessa, Napa, Pope Valley and Saint Helena in Napa County, along with the unincorporated northeastern Sonoma County.

In Lake County, the communities of Clear Lake, Clear Lake Oaks, Clear Lake Park, Cobb, Finley, Hidden Valley Lake, Kelseyville, Lakeport, Lower Lake and Middletown are without power.

Another 42,000 customers in the Sierra Foothills, primarily in El Dorado and Amador counties, were also without power Monday morning.

With weather conditions improving early Monday, PG&E crews were able to begin the inspection of power lines and equipment for damage during the overnight winds.…

Full report:

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2018/10/15/pge-preemptive-power-outage-wildfire-risk-napa-sonoma-lake-counties/

CUT THE CRAP, MRC

Editor,

Here we go again. Another shut down by MRC. As if it wasn't bad enough for them to not take logs for a week right in the middle of September. But now they are not accepting logs the rest of the logging season which is approximately 4-5 weeks.

So let's see — the average working man in the woods makes about $250 a day times five is $1250 a week or roughly about $7500 which is about the time lost that we are talking about. That's about 18% of their annual income that MRC has screwed them out of. Let's not forget about the merchants from Eureka to Santa Rosa who depend on these people to spend their money in their establishments. Also, don't forget the independent truckers who waited in line for 2-3 hours for months on end at MRC to get unloaded. They probably lost $30-$40,000 this year because of MRC's screw ups. So it looks like MRC has screwed most everybody from Humboldt, Mendocino and Sonoma County out of a lot of money.

So, either someone at the top of MRC has his head up his ass or shit for brains or both.

Maybe it's time for a change. If you have someone at the top and he doesn't know what he's doing, that's up to poor way of doing business. Get someone in their who gives a damn about the working man.

Shame on you, MRC.

Larry ‘Bud’ Turrney

Fort Bragg

THE KHADIJAH BRITTON MISSING PODCAST

I wanted to reach out to you regarding your article on missing person Khadijah Britton to let you know that The Vanished Podcast is releasing an episode about Khadijah's case today. I am attaching a copy of our press release if you are interested in updating your article on Khadijah or writing a new one. I sincerely appreciate your help in getting the word out about bringing this young woman home to her family!

Best,

Amanda Coleman

* * *

Native American Khadijah Britton Missing 8 Months, Presumed Deceased

Missing since February 7, 2018 

[COVELO, CALIFORNIA, October 15, 2018]: 23 year old Khadijah Britton vanished on February 7, 2018 from a Covelo home, where a witness reported that she had been taken at gunpoint by her ex-boyfriend, Negie Fallis. Khadijah is a member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes. The Department of Justice reports that 55% of indigenous women experience violence inflicted by an intimate partner*. In the same report, Justice Department researchers found that more than 1.5 million American Indian and Alaskan Native women have experienced violence first-hand.

“Shortly before she went missing, Khadijah went to the police and told them that she didn’t want to proceed with the charges against Negie. She just walked into the tribal police office and said she wanted withdraw the charges,” Marissa says on this week’s episode.

Listen to all of The Vanished Podcast to hear Marissa speak to Khadijah’s aunt, Laura, about the day Khadijah disappeared, the events leading up to her disappearance, and the ongoing court cases involving Khadijah’s ex-boyfriend and a young woman he was involved with. To listen to this episode, click here: http://www.thevanishedpodcast.com/episodes/2018/10/13/episode-144-khadijah-britton

Anyone with information about Khadijah Britton is urged to call the anonymous tip line at 707-234-2100.

You can find The Vanished Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or anywhere you get your podcasts.

The Vanished Podcast is a weekly podcast with over 27 million downloads hosted by Marissa Jones with Wondery that features a different missing persons case each week. 

If you would like more information about The Vanished Podcast you can find us on Twitter @thevanishedpod, on Instagram @thevanishedpodcast, and on Facebook under The Vanished Podcast. If you have a missing loved one that you’d like to have featured on the show, there is a case submission form at thevanishedpodcast.com.

*https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/249736.pdf

* * *

COMMENTS RE KHADIJAH BRITTON

I just listened to the ‘vanished’ podcast and tears were rolling down my face thinking of all the pain the dijah's family has endured!

At the same time I was so disgusted with the continued negligence of the Mendicno County Sheriff's Department!

I was really pissed hearing about the burn barrel and the sick and twisted EXCUSE of burning dead dogs at Negies mothers house. Not to mention the excuse she made about remodeling her house , painting and washing her house out with a hose.

Did the FBI come to his moms house and take possession of the burn barrel to have it tested ?

Did they ever use luminol in her house to check for blood ?

Did any type of Law Enforcement do anything regarding this situation ?

Law Enforcement should have called a judge and got a search warrant on the spot. They had plenty of reasons to do so, Probable Cause being the obvious one.

Smdh.

Also when Law Enforcement told the family that they will only conduct another search if they have soild evidence that will lead to her body , not a hunch or a feeling is beyond ridiculous!

What in the actual flying eff does that mean ?

I am sorry to say but in my opinion, there is Corruption going on within this case and my heart is broken for your family.

For her story not to be all over Every Media source is pathetic and appalling.

The bullshit dijah's family has had to go through is horrific !

I am gonna look up some media sources that I believe will be extremely interested in dijah's case and see who is willing to do something.

Prayers to all

Amber Wintemute

* * *

Yes, and there should be, this family has been actively searching and following their own leads and they need help from our law enforcement which has been very little. I'm no forensic scientist but these are leads I would jump on wether it was a dead end or not. I least we can rule it out

Ashley Vance

SEEMS LIKE ONLY yesterday, as us nostalgics say, that marijuana was a furtive, often harrowing way to earn one's way, what with law enforcement's Campaign Against Marijuana Production, home invaders and old fashioned thieves always on the lookout for the farmer’s secret work product. But here in Boonville, near the junction of 128 and 253, if you cast your eyes to the northeast you will see an industrial pot gro under construction, so large it clearly enjoys lush capitalization. So long, mom and pop. The big boys are here, big and bold in plain view. Of course they've been here for a while now but hidden away in the traditional style. Water for this project? We understand that the owner, or owners, plan to store rainwater in a series of tanks perched on the side of the hill above Anderson Creek.

IF YOU THOUGHT you saw a familiar-looking celebrity in The Valley over the weekend, you probably did. A whole bunch of famous people gathered at Camp Navarro to celebrate Todd Rundgren, the rock and roller. A caller said Stevie Nicks was also in town, and maybe she was.

LAST OF THE SETTLER KILLERS PLEADS. Gary Blank, the last arrested ax and knife man of the seven perps who killed and ripped-off Laytonville pot grower Jeff Settler back in 2016, has agreed to do 14 years in State Prison for his role in Settler’s murder. Settler was an out-of-state (Texas) grower killed at his farm near Laytonville by his trim crew November 11th of ’16 while his wife and infant slept nearby. The trimmers had demanded either a payday... or else. Settler found out the eternal way what they meant by ‘else.’ Blank was the trim crew’s leader. He ordered Settler to fork over, at which point the doomed Settler struck Blank with his fist; and then one of the perps, Michael Kane, who was standing by with a camper’s hatchet, struck Settler in the head, and the other love drug workers fell upon their boss with knives. Fortunately, we were spared a jury trial and all the gruesome details. Following the dispatch of Settler, the trim crew liberated many many pounds of the marijuana they’d assiduously trimmed, took the booty to a commercial park between Garberville and Redway, and sold it for ready cash, which they split more-or-less evenly, and sped off in separate directions. Of all the killers in this case, only Gary "Cricket" Blank sounded the least bit contrite, choking back a tear when he pled "Guilty, your honor." Like hatchet man Kane, Blank will get 14 years for voluntary manslaughter and robbery in concert, with the special allegation, that while Kane used a hatchet, Blank used a knife. Judgment and sentencing was set for November 2nd, 1:30, department H. (Bruce McEwen)

THE FOLLOWING is from a man named Al Nunez, the kind of deserving, hard-working Mendo guy who could use some help. A skilled man like Al would be an asset to any property owner on the Coast. He writes: "I need a new place to stay being the place I am at now is for sale and I was told I need to be off the property by January 9 2019, I would have never moved there if only I would have known this. I am a self-employed handyman and at the moment I am doing carpentry construction on an old house that was lifted at Redwood and McPhearson. I was thinking to buy a vacant lot to live on to get away from renting but none are safe and livable for my tools and motorhome. I am a clean organized 59 year old male with skills tools and a work truck. I wish to find a place in or around Fort Bragg area being most people I work for live in the area. I have $5,000 saved up so I can pay rent for awhile if rent can be $400 a-month. If I don't find a place I may have to sell everything I own even all my tools of my handyman trade thus ending my handyman career and my way of survival, 25 years worth. Please Help Me, I don't want to lose anymore. 707-409-4147. AL"

IF YOU'RE WONDERING why Gavin Newsom has no candidate statement in the sample ballot, it's because he has too much money. In California, there are voluntary expenditure ceilings for candidates running for statewide offices, $14.5 million for gubernatorial candidates. “But, but, but…Does this mean our system is for sale?” Gav has more than $20 mil stashed away, most of it from Big Democrat. Only those candidates who stay under the spending limit are permitted to purchase a 250-word statement in the sample ballot.

BACK IN SEPTEMBER OF 2013, the Ukiah Valley Sanitation District filed a formal claim against the City of Ukiah for $16 million going back to the 1960s. According to the claim, the City of Ukiah has knowingly miscalculated the number of sewer connections in the City vs. the number of sewer connections outside the City (aka the District) which determines the percentage of sewer system costs allocated to the Sanitation District since late December 1966. The claim stemmed in part from a Grand Jury report which also noted Ukiah’s miscalculations which conveniently benefited Ukiah.

According to the claim, the miscalculation is primarily caused by skewed “projections” showing an inflated number of future sewer connections in the District; these figures were never recalculated to reflect the actual (lower) number of connections as called for in the agreement between the Sanitation District and the City.

According to the agreement between the Sanitation District and the City, not only does the City of Ukiah operate the Ukiah Valley sewer system and the treatment plant, but Ukiah also does the books for the system, including the Sanitation District’s books. This in turn would have increased the costs for the Sanitation District which, although not stated directly in the claim, caused increased sewage service costs to ratepayers outside the City of Ukiah.

WHY DID THE PROBLEM FESTER for so long? According to the 2013 claim, prior to 2008 the Sanitation District Board was made up of three appointees, two from the Board of Supervisors and one from the Ukiah City Council who, presumably, didn’t take an interest in the annual allocations — projected or actual — of sewer connections which increasingly favored the city and added up to lots of money in the city's favor over time.

Then in 2008, the Sanitation District was reorganized into a five-member elected board and that “independent” board began looking into the sewer connection allocations only to be stonewalled by the City of Ukiah which, the claim alleges, refused to provide the Independent Board and staff with access to the sewer system books — “even though numerous requests have been made.” The Claim says that Ukiah told the District that the records were “lost or otherwise destroyed,” even though the City had a fiduciary duty to maintain them.

THE CLAIM alleged that the annual reviews and re-allocations as called for in the City-District agreement would have corrected the projected number of non-City (District) connections to the actual number of non-City (District) connections. But the reviews were never conducted, and therefore the ratio of City-to-District hook-ups was skewed in favor of Ukiah, costing the Sanitation District millions of dollars over the years, most of it accrued since the 90s.

IT ALSO ALLEGED that the City has over-billed the Sanitation District for the District’s share of the $75 million sewer system/treatment plant expansion project in the mid-90s, based on a similarly skewed calculation of sewer hookups.

WHICH turned out to be essentially true, because last month Ukiah “settled” the claim by paying essentially the amount the District’s 2013 claim demanded.

According to the Summary provided by the District’s Ukiah attorney outfit, Duncan James & Associates:

Sonoma County Superior Court case number SCV 256737

Summary Of Damages:

$16,416,296.49 - Total Amount Of Damages

$ 9,996,246.03 - Net Recovery after all litigation expenses

$6,420,049.97 - Total District litigation expense.

THAT’S RIGHT: the City of Ukiah has to pay basically the original $16 mil-plus, while Duncan James gets $6.4 million of that. In other words, the City of Ukiah has been using the Sanitation District and its ratepayers as a slush fund to backfill the City's budget deficits for years (presumably intentionally because Ukiah benefited from the convenient miscalculation, but intentionality was not disclosed in the settlement), in a manner similar to the way the City of Ukiah used redevelopment money, but which stopped when the State of California put an end to redevelopment in the early 2010s.

THE CITY OF UKIAH ends up paying a couple of million in their own attorney fees plus the Sanitation District’s attorney fees of about $6.4 million, meaning the Sanitation District will net about $10 million after Duncan James’s huge fees are deducted. Of course, Ukiah could have offered to settle the case soon after the claim rather than fighting it all these years only to end up paying the $16 million-plus original claim. The courts could have saved everybody a lot of money if they’d ordered the parties into court-overseen settlement conferences right away and saved the City and the District lots of fees. But Mendo courts have never seen fit to order such cost-saving conferences until after the attorneys have milked their clients for as much as they can first.

THE OTHER WINGTIP SHOE WILL DROP when Ukiah area sewer system ratepayers, both in the City proper and the District outside the city, find out what their new sewer rates will be next year.

(Mark Scaramella)

POT PEOPLE FOR HASCHAK

To the Editor:

If you are a cannabis farmer, or were a cannabis farmer, John Haschak deserves your vote for 3^rd District Supervisor. He has a 12-point platform on cannabis cultivation developed with input from many local cannabis farmers and residents.

Three critical points are Haschak's plans to: 1) create regional banking so cannabis businesses can conduct safe, non-cash transactions like every other business; 2) allow farmers to sell directly to customers through farmers markets, and 3) encourage farm cooperatives that will help small permitted local farmers compete with large industrial grows.

John also wants to eliminate the county’s costly cannabis track-and-trace program, keep cannabis inspections focused on cultivation compliance not on building code enforcement; calculate fees and taxes based on cannabis that is sold and not on what is grown, and find a pathway toward transferability of licenses.

John Haschak makes sense. He is a teacher, not a politician, and is determined to solve problems not create more red tape -- for farmers or for anyone.

Please, vote for John Haschak.

Debbie Boone-Harry [707 972-5451]

Susan Byers, Willits [707 459-4068]

Erin Carney, Longvale [707 972-3536]

Melinda Clarke [707 459-3780]

Lucinda Dekker, Laytonville [707 354-3962]

Jane Futcher, Longvale [707 972-3668]

Traci Pellar, Longvale [707 984-8938]

Jenn Procacci, Covelo [(707) 983-6136]

CATCH OF THE DAY, October 15, 2018

RYAN EDWARDS, Potter Valley. DUI.

JUAN GONZALEZ, Hopland. Domestic abuse.

SERJIO GONZALEZ, Ukiah. Battery, probation revocation.

PATRICK HANOVER, Covelo. Under influence, paraphernalia, probation revocation. (Frequent Flyer)

STEPHANIE SCOTT, Forestville/Ukiah. Petty theft.

JORDAN WASHINGTON, Ukiah. DUI, suspended license.

STOP BREEDING THEM

Editor,

Every week, The Press Democrat features photos of adoptable dogs. Many of them are pit bulls and Chihuahuas, the offspring of unneutered dogs, mostly in Santa Rosa. Local rescue groups and tireless/tired volunteers are swamped with these dogs and do their best to find suitable homes. But not everyone, to say the least, wants these breeds.

We know of homeless people breeding aggressive pits for sale in their encampments. Many of these, unsurprisingly, end up being impounded and euthanized at taxpayer expense. It costs taxpayers and donors millions of dollars a year to run the animal shelter and other local rescues.

When are we going to stop letting a relatively small group of backyard breeders cause millions of dollars of expense and endless suffering? There are so many problems to deal with, but we could make real inroads into this one by offering more low cost spay/neuter and requiring licenses to breed dogs or cats, with real penalties for non-compliance.

Nancy Hair

Sebastopol

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I dabbled in the stock market my day and made as much as I lost over time. Once I was made aware of the fact that the political sellout scumbags in DC are specifically allowed by law to perform insider trading for profit while we are not, well I make it a personal rule to not play the fool ever again. I may have all the money I need but I’ll be damned if I am going to piss any of it away to some douche bag in a suit and a tie. I would rather hand it out on street corners to homeless beggars, and sometime I actually do.

HOW THE MARKET SUSTAINS ITSELF

Here's a little-known fact: The biggest buyer of shares during the bull market hasn't been individual investors nor large institutions. It's been Corporate America itself.

cnn.com/2018/10/14/investing/stocks-week-ahead-buybacks-dow-jones/index.html

LOST IN SPACE

by James Kunstler

Speaking as a black woman… wait second! Can I do that? Well, why not. We’re now a nation consumed by make-believe, in which you can declare anything you want about yourself and insist that everyone else agree that it is so. If I identify this way, you must believe me! (Or else I will come after you with my cos-play mob and destroy you.)

The avatars out on the cutting edge of culture want to dissolve all the boundaries between all categories of everything — except us and them: their allies and their enemies. Everything else is slated to become — by force, if necessary — a big, turbid, zero-gravity soup of intersectional relativity. The reasons for this sanctioned insanity are not exactly what you think they are.

Case in point: The Sunday New York Times Magazine profile of one Jill Soloway, Hollywood producer/director and now memoirist of the book She Wants It: Desire, Power and Toppling the Patriarchy (“out this week,” note that little detail.) Mx. Soloway (Mx. being the newest engineered intersectional salutation) runs a movie production company named Topple, best known for putting out the TV show Transparent, about an older man who decides he’d be happier pretending to be a woman, and all the good family feeling that such a decision might engender, so to speak.

Gender was complicated for Mx. Soloway, for whom puberty arrived late, but with the sudden appearance of large breasts. “Do other people’s memories of their teenage years include things like soccer competitions or blue ribbons?” they write. “All I have is the memory of being suddenly overwhelmed by becoming sex to others.”

Aha, the curse of large breasts. What a life-annihilating affliction.

And yes, you read that right. Mx. Soloway now insists on being addressed as “they” (The Times obliges), invoking a linguistic hall-of-mirrors in which there are always two of you: the one located in space and the one in the mirror — shall we surmise? — or perhaps there is another explanation. One might goof on the narcissistic buffoonery of this stuff all the livelong day, but that would be tiresome and cruel, so I will just come to the point and tell you what is going on here, what it is all about.

It is about fashion, status, and prestige as has been the case in human social relations since earliest (hu)man put a banana leaf on its head, to the awe and wonder of others gathered ‘round. All three of those conditions depend on a person being special, a figure apart from the boring, moiling, deplorable mob of morons who agree to be hostage to their own biology. Biology is a disease to be overcome, and you can do that by asserting your will. For instance, in the case at hand of Mx. Soloway, you can get breast reduction surgery, cut off your hair, and wear baggy clothes. This does not make you a man, but it allows you to affect to renounce your “sexual assignment.” Anyway, who wants to be a man? (The enemy!)

Rather, you pretend to exist in a make-believe liminal realm in between, relieved of all the pain-in-the-ass tensions of being one or the other, and therefore, to some degree, the tensions of being a mature mammal. Is not the game of “pretend” the chief occupation of childhood, either a happy one or otherwise? And is not Hollywood all about the game of pretend? And so, in Hollywood, the most zealous pretenders acquire the highest prestige. The trick is to get other people to agree that your pretenses are bona fide (the Emperors New Clothes gambit).

One way to accomplish that is to elaborate a fantasy that has already been set in motion as a fashion statement. With good old-fashioned American Puritanism coming back into fashion under the guise of Maoist authoritarianism emanating from the campuses, nothing carries higher status than anathemizing human sexuality, working every angle to abolish it, to banish it from the world, and to punish those who object.

There are a few little problems with this. One is, you’re still stuck with your actual biological sexuality, whether you like it or not. Every cell in the body is imprinted — except in rare instances of what used to be called “birth defects.” There’s no “returns” policy at the sexual assignment bureau. Accordingly, people who stop short of completely screwing up their bodies with genital amputation and radical hormone treatments are still subject to sexual promptings of the type associated with their cellular DNA. Mx. Soloway has demonstrated this in her own work, as The Times explains:

After the author [Mx S.] falls in love with a lesbian while still married, the two enthusiastically make a short comedy about female ejaculation. The Topple crew pitched in, building a giant vagina and helping with costumes. Mx. Soloway calls the film, inevitably, “If You Build It, She Will Come.”

One of The New York Times’s chief roles in our society has been to confer prestige on the people they choose to write about. The Times is a mighty churning engine of status-granting, locked in a feedback loop with the readership it is working to flatter so as to place them in the social hierarchy du jour. Unfortunately, what they have to work with du jour is cultural collapse, which is exactly what converts degeneracy into prestige. It’s an unappetizing process, and its products — supposedly “gender-fluid” adult mammals — have exactly such an unappetizing presentation. What is most fashionable these days is obviously unreal, and to become a fashion-victim of that can’t have a happy ending.

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

TAIBBI: TRUMP IS JUST ONE PLAYER IN A MUCH, MUCH LARGER TAX STORY

That big ‘New York Times’ exposé should most of all remind us that upper-class tax evasion has been the norm for a generation

by Matt Taibbi

rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-tax-fraud-735710/

INTRO TO PYTHON

This Wednesday! 'Introduction to Python' @ Fort Bragg Library October 17, 6-9pm

Our 3rd 2018 'Intro to...' series, which started at Fort Bragg Library in 2016

As always, FREE and open to the public. Python is wildly popular these days and found in the smallest to largest machines.

We’ll cover basics like the print statement, variables, if then-else and for loops. Learn to write and run Python code in your browser.

Browser coding means that you can join in without installing software.

You'll want to bring your computer for this with Wifi. If you don't have a computer, you can always watch and learn.

For an early look or to verify your browser will work, try it out at: tutorialspoint.com/execute_python_online.php

You should not need to create an account or log in.

Press the execute button (left side);"Hello World!" should appear in the result window on the right.

Don't worry, we use plain talk to describe this exciting area!

Want to know more? Send us an email!

Mendo Makers <mendo.makers@gmail.com>

TRUMP’S CON JOB

Editor,

I feel the need to fully condemn Philbrick's hate filled letters to the AVA as outright fascist and anti-American in values. Last week he suggested hanging US citizens from lamposts, in town and left to rot — liberals and moderates who he's demonized and thinks worthy of public mob execution. This sure sounds like Adolph Goddamn Hitler to me, straight-up Nazi crap just in time to scare for Halloween!

Philbrick's version of America doesn't include a trial, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, political freedom, nope — just murder to those he doesn't like or care to understand. Odd that he does not see that he is advocating a Nazi point of view. He then states, "…and someday it will all end for certain people." Very true Jerry, both on a personal level, and the fact that the USA kicked Nazi ass before and can and will do so again.

I'm saddened and disgusted by this evil Nazi mentality disguising itself as American. It's disrespectful to those who fought and died in US wars against fascism, to now advocate those very same failed values.

Trump and his followers demonizing of liberals and democrats is a huge distraction technique. Trump is a criminal, convicted of fraud and has a $25 million fine for running a fraudulent "university," as well as many other crimes including rape!

Those who buy Trump’s con job games are fools who are easily swindled.

Little men on high horses shooting at moles, kicked off, flying head over heels are nothing but trolls. He tells AVA readers to ram it up their asses, but he's the one who landed face first out in the Laytonville grasses!

Best Regards,

Rob Mahon

Covelo

ATTENTION DOERS OF GOOD

Community Enrichment and Field-of-Interest Grant Workshop

Thursday, October 18, 2018
Noon - 1:00 P.M.

Community Foundation of Mendocino County Offices
204 S. Oak Street, Ukiah

Join Michelle Rich, Director of Grants & Programs, to learn about available grant funds, changes to the application process, and additional technical support. Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to bring a laptop. Brown bag lunches are welcome, and light refreshments will be provided.

For details see our website: Community Foundation of Mendocino County

Additional workshops will be held:

North Coast: Friday October 26, 12:00-1:00
Mendocino Coast Clinics,
205 South Street, Fort Bragg (park on street if possible to preserve client parking)

North County: Tuesday, October 30, 12:00-1:00
Willits Center for the Arts,
71 E. Commercial Street, Willits

GET YER FLOWERPOT PERMITS HERE

(Or could it be “flower ‘pot’ permits”)

city.fortbragg.com/DocumentCenter/View/1873/Flowerpot-Application-Fillable?bidId

CHRIST JESUS SAVE US ALL!

Free! Strategic Self-Care for Election Season

From: "Scott Menzies" <scott.m.menzies@gmail.com>

Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 6 pm!

The first Strategic Self-Care Summit for Election Season was so well-received that we're doing FREE encore presentations for those that couldn't make it or missed it: Weekly on Tuesdays at 6 pm at Perfect Circle T'ai Chi in Fort Bragg. See tentative schedule below!

"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." -Audre Lorde (1988)

From lowering stress to helping us think more clearly, self-care isn't just about pampering.

These Strategic Self-Care for Election Season evenings will expose attendees to a variety of techniques and strategies that can help you survive and thrive during election season, so you can participate more effectively, productively, and STRATEGICALLY in our all-too-toxic political process.

Presentations will include nutrition, massage, movement, emotional freedom technique, and emotional nonviolence.

Tuesdays at 6 pm from now through Election Day Perfect Circle T'ai Chi 330 N. Franklin Street Fort Bragg, CA

Tentative schedule:

Oct 16: T'ai Chi Politics with Scott Menzies

Oct 23: Double Bill: Feeding Your Brain to Prevent Stress with Anna Rathbun and Vote to Relax: Myofascial release for stress reduction with James Humecky

Oct 30: Double Bill: Movement for Stability, Resilience, and Embodiment with Magdalena Weinstein AND Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) for effective Mid-term election ranting with Sandy Glickfeld

Nov 6: TBA

These workshops are offered free as our contribution to our community and democracy!

If you'd like to see or print a poster, you can find a PDF here: https://goo.gl/s7iyHe

This event is produced by Perfect Circle T'ai Chi for EquanimityAction, a new local meditator-led political organization with the goal of getting informed, self-aware people politically organized, involved in local politics, and into local public office, undermining our toxic political process and encouraging thoughtful and productive discourse.

THERE’S CRAZY AND THERE’S…

Editor,

I grew up as a young man in Los Angeles. This place is Head-case Central. I used to enjoy listening to crazy people scream on a street corner. I would honestly stand and listen and try to figure out their personal grievance or pathology or whatever. If someone gave me a crude handwritten flyer about UFOs and Jesus, I read it. Honestly, I did. If someone stapled something to a telephone pole, I read it.

However, today I watch a portion of Kanye West and Trump on youtube and I honestly have no idea what's going on anymore.

Regards,

Ralph Coon

Los Angeles

“Son, there’s rich, and then there’s TAX-FRAUD rich.”

WOLF WOMAN WANTS WORK

ISO Cannabis Farm Work

My family and I are new to the area. My husband got a great job at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens and am hoping for similar part time work, and realized, hey! We are in Mendocino Co and pot is 100% legal now- I should get a job at a local cannabis farm! Trouble is, I do not have prior experience nor know how to find a job in the industry. Mother of two little ones and a former school teacher for the past decade, looking for something more serene. Does anyone have any referals for me? Greatly appreciated; thank you for your time and consideration.

Sarah Stevenson

Wolf-Mother Midwifery: Well-Woman Rites from Womb to Tomb
Cell: 808.430.8469
Personal Email: wolfmommers@gmail.com
Business Email: wolfwifery@gmail.com
Website: http://www.wolf-mother.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wolfmommers
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wolfmothermidwifery

WHAT DOES IT PROFIT A MAN to be able to vote when he has to choose between a Democrat and a Republican?

— Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (formerly H. Rap Brown)

ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1] My liberal friends’ heads explode when I assert that the worst thing that could happen next month is for a “Blue Wave” to convince the DNC that it has been right all along and should just stay in bed with Corporate America. I hate Trump and the Republican Party – two very different entities – as much as they do, but I keep insisting that if Liberals want to defeat the Conservatives they need to be better than they are. Surely recommitting to defend the working class constituency that it has betrayed for over a generation now would be easier than all of these machinations, but the Democratic Party will have none of it. Consorting with those grubby lower-class folks might keep them out of the right country clubs.

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[2] If Christine Ford really was traumatized that night, that’s unfortunate. But she lives in the United States of the Privileged in 2018, and women like her aren’t oppressed. Some people suck, sometimes bad things happen, but grow a backbone, Blasey, and get over it. If this precious wuss is what the mighty feminist movement has produced, then clearly feminism has set women back centuries. These radical feminists still have a cause at all only because they’ve moved the goalposts. It’s not about liberation and equality; it’s not fair treatment and just wages and strong, independent women. No, it’s just a full-fledged assault on masculinity where women can compete only by eliminating the competition, which means expanding their own rights beyond all reasonable proportions and terminating men’s completely. Now we’re equal! And of course, safeguarding the “right” to have sex however they want it and then murder the consequences—this is the essence of feminism in 2018. Yeah, don’t forget—this is all about abortion. My father wanted me aborted because I was an unplanned pregnancy. My parents were young and unwed and not Catholic, so my mom could have easily been persuaded, but she didn’t go through with it. I don’t think I need to mention how grateful I am. I’m here today because of a strong woman—my mother, a single mom, a survivor. As a victim of abuse, it’d be a cold day in hell before I’d side with Dr. Ford. In fact, between the two of them, Kavanaugh and Ford, I’ll stick with the pro-life judge. I think he’s got my back a little more than the volatile and unhinged feminists do, or than their willing accomplices in the media which would use my story and that of so many victims to promote their own agendas, without asking any of us what’s actually best for us or what we really want. Because it’s not about us, not really. It’s about them. If #MeToo gives me a voice, then here’s what I’d like to say: I don’t hate men. I hate BS. I hate manipulation and exploitation. I don’t need to get even with anybody. The man who hurt me is a pathetic loser. But I’ve moved on with my life, grateful for the good men who stood by me when my own father wasn’t there. I don’t want to be angry, I don’t want to stay broken. I want to live in a country where moral standards are respected—standards which exist in the first place to protect innocence and decency and where the victims of the worst abuse of all—abortion—are given a chance to live, even as I was. I want to live in the security and freedom which come with a God-centered society, and one which regards life as the greatest prize, and every soul as equal. This would be justice for victims. Vindictiveness, polarization, rage, protests—that’s for manipulative men…and women oppressed by their own propped-up victimhood.

No thank you! Time to move on, ladies. As a woman and an actual victim of sex abuse, I stand with Judge Kavanaugh, and I refuse to be represented by Dr. Blasey Ford or any of the other angry activists our pro-abort politicians might trot out to make fools of us all.

* * *

[3] Except there isn’t enough innovation that will put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Tech isn’t magically going to innovate us out of the coming horrors because tech relies on the very things that we will no longer have for it to work.

If supermarket and fuel deliveries become permanently interrupted we are going to be left with a lot of dead wood on our hands and nowhere to clear it out to.

I guess some people may get creative with their cuisine. I remember reading that people would use mummies for firewood -maybe we can find a way to dry out well enough all of the dead that will be littering the streets so they will burn – we will have to be innovative in order to keep warm during the colder winters that are on their way.

‘ART’ TRUMP HUNG IN THE WHITE HOUSE: “The Republican Club”

CIRCLE UP, MENDO!

Sacred Space Interfaith Circle 10.21.18 @ 3pm FB and Zen meditation

The monthly Sacred Space interfaith Circle will meet as usual on Sunday Oct. 20 @ 3pm at Evergreen Church Sanctuary. Kelsie Hubik, sound healer will bless us with her Kotamo, a unique custom string instrument that is constructed with three ancient and rare instruments on one resonance deck, the Monochord, the Koto and the Tampura. This combination creates soothing, tranquil music that has a calming healing effect. We experienced the gentle healing of this instrument last meeting and are pleased to have it with us again. Sacred Space is an interfaith, non dogmatic, gathering for healing with drumming, chants, prayers, music and sharing. All are welcome at the corner of Laurel and N. Corry, in Ft Bragg, one block east of the Library. Our Zen beginning meditation instruction meets Thursday @ 7pm on Oct 25. No prior experience necessary. Deanna Hopper is the instructor. for information on either group call Diana Hunter 813-1635, dhunter@mcn.org

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “I always vote. Unlike the rest of the mutts in this neighborhood, I'm civic-minded, and I study up on the issues, too.”

AVA VOTING RECOMMENDATIONS, ROUND 3

(We are updating these recommendations almost on a daily basis. Below please find our latest opinions.)

It is regrettable too that the level of collective deliberation and debate at election time is so abysmally low, especially at the national level; and also that, in more cases than not, our elections are competitive in theory only. Thanks to gerrymandering and the many other ways that the duopoly party system has succeeded in institutionalizing itself, many, perhaps most, electoral outcomes can be confidently predicted in advance. —Andrew Levine

The Northcoast is gerrymandered for conservative Democrats, hence Huffman, Wood and McGuire, a trio of seat warmers of little distinction and less accomplishment, their expensive mailers notwithstanding. McGuire boasts the Redwood Trail which, count on it, will never become reality. Wood voted against the state’s version of single payer. Huffman went for the Hillary-Schumer-Pelosi Axis over the Northcoast Democrat’s strong support for Bernie. All three are to the political right of the majority of Northcoast Democrats and imposed on us by corporate-funded Demo Central. The AVA recommends No on all three of them. It has been at least fifty years since Democrats represented working people, and Republicans sure as hell don’t represent working people, leaving millions of us with One Party running errands for the oligarchs.

Governor

Gavin Newsom: This guy’s going to be president so get used to him. He has demonstrated political courage, at least when he was confined to San Francisco, when he successfully defeated Frisco’s insane policy of handing drug addicts and drunks nearly $400 a month cash. Of course the care part of Newsom’s Care Not Cash never materialized and the streets of Baghdad by the Bay have never been as squalid as they are today. Newsom’s for the truly insane high speed train project and is about the same as Jerry Brown on all state issues. The glib, fast-talking Gav will be more of the same as he preps for the White House.

John Cox: A conservative Catholic — against abortion and the death penalty but for medical marijuana and tolerant of gay concerns — Cox opposes Trump who has nonetheless endorsed him. Not as insane on the issues as most Republicans, but no match for Newsom with his piles of money from Big Democrat who will crush the upstart papist.

Lieutenant Governor: A purely ceremonial post contested by a pair of interchangeable hack Democrats. Who cares?

Secretary of State: Padilla is a machine Demo but narrowly preferable to Republican Meuser. Padilla.

State Controller: It seems like Betty Yee has been in office forever. Part of the San Francisco Democrat machine, Yee, a career officeholder, had "served" on the State Board of Equalization at a fancy salary prior to her election as State Controller. If you're as estranged from the Democrats as we are, vote for the other person (Konstantinos Roditis) as a No vote on Democrats.

State Treasurer: Fiona Ma has not distinguished herself as a SF supervisor but, as a CPA she’s at least qualified for this job, as is her CPA Republican opponent. No real diff between the two. Ma by a nose.

Attorney General: We’re for Becerra because mercy tends to be more likely with a Democrat than it is with a Republican retired judge like Bailey. Becerra.

Insurance Commissioner: Poizner over Lara because Poizner is registered Indpendent and is more likely to be independent of the rapacious industry that preys on all of us.

State Board of Equalization: Party Democrat off the San Francisco Board of Supervisors versus a Republican realtor. No choice.

United States Senator: De Leon will be a marginal improvement over Diane Feinstein. De Leon.

2nd District Representative: Incumbent Huffman vs. Dale Mensing, Republican grocery store clerk out of Garberville. Mensing!

State Senator: Veronica Jacobi vs. incumbent Mike McGuire. Jacobi has real credentials as an engineer and a business owner. Jacobi.

State Assembly: Matt Heath is a Republican who cites fatherhood as a reason for voting for him. Dude! Anybody can do it. It qualifies you for nothing, but incumbent Wood? Vote for Dad. Heath for Assembly.

Vote NO on all the incumbent judges, especially the hacks functioning as appellate judges. Speaking from sad personal experience with both the state and the appellate courts, both of which, in twisted, illogical, childlike reasoning ruled against me in two beefs I made the expensive error of pursuing beyond the Mendocino County courts, I can tell you that you might as well flip a coin as appeal to this sad gang of mostly Democrat-appointed, life, sinecure holders who have the arrogance of revealing nothing of themselves on the ballot, appearing thereon for mere re-anointment. Vote No on all of them.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Anyone in full possession knows that the public schools need to be totally re-structured, having become an immovable blob of entrenched interests that prepares no child for life in a crumbling society, especially the children of the large majority of parents. Most of you will have noted that the wealthy abandoned the public schools years ago, a clear case of the rats leaving a ship they knew was sinking. Of the two guys running for Superintendent? Thurmond seems more in touch with the entropic morass schools have become. Thurmond.

Supervisors

Third District: Haschak v. Pinches

Fifth District: Williams v. No one

Pinches for Third District Supe because he's frugal, creative, truly independent, although Haschak, improved lately as a candidate, seems to be tardily more familiar with the issues. He did well in the recent debate with Pinches in Willits. And we certainly agree with Haschak’s opposition to the recent pay raises for the County’s bigwigs as they prioritize themselves over the County’s line workers, and not for the first time. Pinches suggests the raises are somehow legally mandated, but Haschak roared back, “Show me the law.” Haschak’s major downside is his financial support from outside Democrats of the large type, including endorsements by the Demo machine that controls the Northcoast — Wood, McGuire, Huffman et al. County admin desperately wants Haschak because they see him as another Yes vote for continued featherbedding and mutual congratulation sessions in lieu of the public's business. Sensible people will vote Pinches.

Williams for 5th District Supervisor, although so far it's unclear why he wants the job, employing “job” in its loosest sense, at least the way the incumbents are doing it. There’s a cavernous disconnect between what the present County leadership says it’s doing and, objectively, actual results. The bi-monthly meetings are festivals of delusion, Potemkin-like affairs heavy on managerial self-congratulation that do not coincide with reality, kinda like meds time in an asylum. Candidates Haschak and Williams, if they think there isn’t massive dysfunction at the top, if they think the present functioning of the supervisors is acceptable, will be more of the same. Pinches has always been about getting ‘er done and unafraid to buck the management which, in theory, works for the elected supervisors.

Fort Bragg City Council: Lindy Peters, Ruben Alcala, Tess Albin-Smith, Bobby Burns, Jessica Morsell-Haye, Mary Rose Kaczorowkski, (Three seats up) Incumbents Cimolino and Turner are not running. We like Alcala and Albin-Smith so far.

Point Arena City Council: Incumbent Barbara Burkey is the only candidate running for two seats. We think she can easily fill both of them for a town that seems to exist solely to fund a couple of expensive part-time managers.

Ukiah City Council: Jim Brown and Maureen Mulheren (incumbents) with Chon Travis, Ed Haynes, Matt Froneberger and Juan Orozco running for three seats. Incumbent Kevin Doble is not running.

Travis is certainly the most exciting council candidate in some time but, having been busted by the Ukiah PD for meth possession in 2011 (which he claimed was planted on him), excitement isn't enough to doggedly sort out the business of running Ukiah. Haynes and Orozco for sure; Haynes especially will be an asset for good government on a weak and fiscally irresponsible council, second in general dereliction only to the County Board of Supervisors. Orozco is the only candidate for Prop 10 (rent control) while Brown and Mulheren opposed it as interference with private property, but had no prob giving CostCo about $6 million in infrastructure freebies. Mr. O has also argued for sensible garbage rates for one-can pick-ups who shouldn’t pay the same high rates as Ukiahans who generate much more detritus. Ukiah is not a wealthy community. Orozco would be a voice for citizens currently not represented.

Willits City Council: Incumbent Larry Stranske, Greta Kanne and Jeremy Hershman are running for two seats. Incumbent Ron Orenstein is not running. We're still in research mode re Willits but hear good things about candidate Kanne. Stranske definitely deserves re-election. Willits’ city government seems to cook along competently enough given the dearth of complaints about it.

Coast Hospital Board: Incumbent Kevin Miller, John Redding, Jade Tippett, Amy Beth McColley, and Jessica Grindberg are running for 3 long term seats (Incumbents Kitty Bruning, and Peter Glusker are not running). Also, Karen Arnold and Rex Gressett are running for incumbent Tom Birdsell’s short term seat (appointed incumbent).

People we trust recommend Arnold, Redding and Grinberg. No, we don’t care if Redding’s a Catholic and generally conservative. We're of course partial to our ace Coast Correspondent, R. Gressett, but want him to focus on his journalo-responsibilities.

Coast Parks & Rec: Bob Bushansky (incumbent) is the only candidate running for three seats. He’s the guy who says Mendo Public Radio’s opaque budget is not only perfectly balanced, it’s perfectly understandable. Which it isn’t. Bushansky, natch, is the KZYX board’s treasurer. He’s probably just right for Parks & Rec.

County School Board: Incumbents Don Cruser and Mary Misseldine, plus Tarney Sheldon are running for three seats. Incumbent Camille Schraeder is not running.

Fait accompli. The three candidates are the winners of this cozy little paid sinecure that oversees an invisible agency. We only hope the County School Board will not join the gutless wonders already working surreptitiously to undermine newly elected superintendent, Michelle Hutchins. She ought to at least be given a chance to do the job without fending off ghosts, especially in the context of MCOE, an entity presided over by howling incompetents for many years.

Mendo College Board, 3 seats up. Incumbents Ed Haynes and Janet Chaniot are not running. Ed Nickerman, Camille Schraeder, Donald Burgess, Patrick Webb, Giny Chandler, Xochilt Martinez, John Pegan, Larry Lang and Jerry Eaton are running for three seats. We thought Nickerman was dead, an assumption which is a measure of the college's invisibility, and we have no idea of the issues involved here, if any. Also: Robert Pinoli Jr., incumbent is running against William Daniel for one short-term seat. Pinoli is an Anderson Valley homeboy so we’ve got to go with him, but William “Bill” Daniels, unlike the other candidates, has posted campaign signs, meaning he really wants the job. We hope to find out why. Nickerman for sure, at least while he remains upright because he’s a nice guy we’ve known for many years.

A READER NOTES re candidate Lang: “This guy was the theater tech staff person, one of the highest paid classified positions at the college. He was an inch away from impossible to work with and finally after years of complaints from outside and inside the institution, he was fired. He then got his union to help him sue the college, a move that cost tax payers lots of moola. And eventually, he won a settlement. This is not a surprising event at the college, it was the way the well-paid higher-ups dealt with problematic employees. Instead of doing their job and conducting actual evaluations, the problematic person was paid off to just go away.”

Local Measures

Fort Bragg Measure H - Shall the measure to enact a three-eighths (3/8th) of a cent general purpose transactions and use tax to provide the City with an estimated $623,000 per year for a limited period of fifteen years be adopted? YES

Willits Measure I - To fund general municipal expenses such as police, fire, roads and recreation, shall the City of Willits tax cannabis (marijuana) businesses at annual rates not to exceed $10 per canopy square foot for cultivation (adjustable for inflation), 6% of gross receipts for retail cannabis businesses, and 4% for all other cannabis businesses; which is expected to generate an estimated $250,000 to $400,000 annually and will be levied until repealed by the voters or the City Council? YES.(About time the stoners coughed up.)

Statewide Ballot Measures

Proposition 1 — Authorizes Bonds to Fund Specified Housing Assistance Programs. Legislative Statute. YES. With many Americans now sleeping in their cars and on the streets, it’s past time for an effective federal housing programs of the New Deal type, but some money at the state level is better than no adequate money at all levels.

Proposition 2 — Authorizes Bonds to Fund Existing Housing Program for Individuals with Mental Illness. Legislative Statute. YES, although we desperately need to re-institute state hospitals.

Proposition 3 — Authorizes Bonds to Fund Projects for Water Supply and Quality, Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Water Conveyance, and Groundwater Sustainability and Storage. Initiative Statute. YES. Water quality and quantity is deteriorating faster than it can be intelligently managed, but Prop 3 is a step forward.

Proposition 4 — Authorizes Bonds Funding Construction at Hospitals Providing Children’s Health Care. Initiative Statute. YES

Proposition 5 — Changes Requirements for Certain Property Owners to Transfer their Property Tax Base to Replacement Property. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute. NO. Pedaled by the real estate industry under the guise of breaks for empty nesters left rattling around in big houses who, if 5 passes, get a tax break on a smaller place. The prob is while real estate sales would undoubtedly increase as people downsize, property tax incomes to local jurisdictions would fall, not that we’re happy with the management of our property taxes here in Mendocino County. This prop would do nothing to ease the housing shortage as its funders, the real estate combines, suggest.

Proposition 6 — Eliminates Certain Road Repair and Transportation Funding. Requires Certain Fuel Taxes and Vehicle Fees be Approved by The Electorate. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. NO. Not a good time to roll back the gas tax with infrastructure crumbling throughout the state.

Proposition 7 — Conforms California Daylight Saving Time to Federal Law. Allows Legislature to Change Daylight Saving Time Period. Legislative Statute. YES

Proposition 8 — Regulates Amounts Outpatient Kidney Dialysis Clinics Charge for Dialysis Treatment. Initiative Statute. YES. Years ago, I accompanied a friend to one of these blood-washing joints in Santa Rosa. My friend had been blackballed from several for complaining about conditions which, in the place I saw, were demonstrably poor. Syndicates of greedy doctors own these most lucrative businesses which, in the advanced countries of the world, are part of single-payer medical systems where they rightly belong. Imagine your kidneys owned by faceless collections of medical exploiters, and that’s what we presently have as is.

Proposition 9 (On July 18, 2018, Proposition 9 was removed from the ballot by order of the California Supreme Court. It was the Divide California into thirds initiative.)

Proposition 10 — Expands Local Governments’ Authority to Enact Rent Control on Residential Property. Initiative Statute. YES. Doesn’t go nearly far enough and, in the spine-free political context of elected Mendo, unlikely to be initiated.

Proposition 11 — Requires Private-Sector Emergency Ambulance Employees to Remain On-Call During Work Breaks. Eliminates Certain Employer Liability. Initiative Statute. NO. Corporate-owned ambulance services behind this one as a way to chisel free work out of first responders.

Proposition 12 — Establishes New Standards for Confinement of Specified Farm Animals; Bans Sale of Noncomplying Products. Initiative Statute. YES. Seems common health sense to us unless you’re indifferent to the chicken on your plate spending its short life getting shot up with chemicals in a cage so small the thing can’t even turn around.