Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018

• Pinches Interview
• Affordable Housing
• Comrade Middlebrook
• Rowe Sued
• Firesafe Workshop
• Handsome Man
• Little Dog
• Elderhome Fundraiser
• School Rumor
• Night Sky
• Local Food
• Activist Mary
• Yesterday's Catch
• Comments
• Election Party
• Collapse Hysteria
• Impossible
• Early Voting
• High Rent
• Kelp Gone
• Prop C
• Conservatives
• Bolsonaro Quotes
• Watercolor Demo
• Strategic Self-care
• Yasmin Sorry
• Halloween Origins
• Pain Management
• Warmer
• Peace Demonstration
• Sacred Chanting
• Voting Recommendations
• Mendo Mayhem

PINCHES RADIO INTERVIEW

We're interviewing John Pinches, candidate for the 3rd District. We'll be asking numerous questions on what he thinks about:  CEO vs. CAO, the Retirement System, proposed closure of the Juvenile Hall, Offshore "development" aka drilling, Class K housing, support for the Coastal Commission and more. The ACCESS Program airs Tuesday. Join us at 10:30 AM on KMEC radio 105.1 or via the internet at kmecradio105.1

—Norman de Vall

THE SECOND UNIT WORKSHOP

Editor,

The Second Unit Workshop in Fort Bragg last Thursday presented several truly wonderful opportunities for current home owners in Fort Bragg to responsibly construct additional housing on their lots for extended family and/or income purposes. Obviously, Dan Gjerde, Marie Jones and Mike Oliphant have listened seriously to the citizenry and acted accordingly for the benefit of their hard working, middle class constituents. This writer felt better about the possibility of these same considerations being extended to the Coastal Zone where many land owners are struggling with large acreage and punishing regulations for building living space.

I am talking about living space for the people who work along our coastline. Those of us who work daily to support families and community who have to battle for a decent AND affordable place to live. It is difficult to see great people come to work and live here only to find that the living part is punitive due to the lack of and high cost of that absolutely necessary place to live.

The eight units that have just recently begun construction in Point Arena are a single drop in the bucket which needs to be filled in order for this area to sustain its economy. The millionaire homes are rented out to folks who can afford to vacation on our beautiful coast.

I understand that the lion’s share of those million and multi-million-dollar homes on the Coast are mostly in Sonoma county – specifically: The Sea Ranch. The housing there seems to be more and more “For Rent” and “For Sale”. Real estate ads in the Independent Coast Observer are mainly showing Sea Ranch homes and lots that are absolutely out of reach for most of the people who live in or near the Coastal Zone. The Sea Ranch Lodge and Post Office are shutting down. What does this tell us? All of this should be a “Red Flag” for Mendocino County in terms of how the future needs to look and be.

Mendocino County needs to allow the affordable living advantages that are in the “Go” position for Fort Bragg to Trickle Down the coast through Caspar, Manchester, Point Arena and Gualala which are all located right on our beautiful coast in THE Coastal Zone. Homes (notice – plural) can positively aide the local economy on those coastal plots larger than 40 acres by allowing more than one dwelling. Maybe that would be for Land Partnerships (multiple owners) and/or affordable rental units to aide in housing others: aging parents, children who want their own children, young people who are working to grow their own families and strive for their dream of living in this area and to eventually own their own property and home without being dependent on “the system” for housing. Opportunity is the key to Success and Longevity and Sustainability for all of us.

Note: Close to half of the audience were folks from the Point Arena area … Ted Williams was not in attendance … would bet that I was not the only one who noticed.

TRANSLATION, PLEASE — IHiJY?

Subject: Comrade Middlebrook

Editor:

Your anonymous Off the Record fellow at the AVA doesn't like my IHiJY baseball caps, so he somewhat trumpishly tags me as “Comrade Middlebrook” (AVA, 10/17). He fails to explain the acronym (“HE in JAIL YET?”) to your readers. Perhaps he's afraid that some of them might smile or laugh at that question, embroidered on the back of the caps. Worse, readers might buy a cap. I still have a few left. $4.96 for P&H, IF reader promises to wear the cap a few times AND to make an extra donation to her/his favorite local charity.

Send check or money order to me, General Delivery, Redwood Valley, CA 95470.

Jonathan Middlebrook

Redwood Valley

CT ROWE of Peachland Road, Boonville, will be in Judge Nadel’s Superior courtroom on Monday, November 5th, 9am. Young Mr. Rowe, a Boonville native and a graduate of Anderson Valley High School, is being sued by the Anderson Valley Land Trust, several of whose members he’s known all his life. The Trust alleges violations of Trust rules as applied to Rowe’s Peachland property.

WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER: Managing Rural Landscapes for Fire Resilience and Water Resources

Please join us for a free workshop at the Anderson Valley Grange #669, Thursday November 8^th, 7:00-8:30 pm. Information will be shared on fire preparedness and increased water security, including: Tools, resources and strategies for managing your land, and how to best respond if and when a fire occurs. Presentations will be given by the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District, Mendocino County Firesafe Council and Anderson Valley Fire Department. For more information call (707) 462-3664, ext. 103; or email linda.macelwee@mcrcd.org. This workshop is supported by funding from the North Coast Resource Partnership through a grant from the California Department of Water Resources.

NORMAN CLOW stopped in last week, having flown in to the Bay Area from Texas to arrange care for his ailing sister. He and his wife Ruth spent Thursday in The Valley visiting old friends and relatives, of whom they have many. The Clows presently live in the greater Houston area where their two sons, Austin and Casey, and a pair of grandchildren, also live. During an hour’s reminiscences, Norm produced the name of the “handsome man who looked like Clark Gable” who ran what is now the Cal Fire station south of Boonville, a question vexing some of the younger local old timers. “Van Bartlett,” Norm said. “That’s the handsome man.” But Charlie Hiatt, another young old timer, identified the handsome man as Gene Crawford. “Bartlett looked like me,” Charlie, a dead ringer for Richard Widmark, said modestly. A lady old timer remarked, “No, I do not remember the name of the guy at the Forestry Station. If he looked like Clark Gable I really missed my opportunity by not setting something on fire. Oh well…miss a few now and then.” As a newer old timer who hopes he looks like Gene Hackman, I remember Bob Groves as the man at what was then called the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and many of us of course remember Mrs. Judy Groves, who worked for years as a secretary at Anderson Valley High School. The Groves were a handsome couple, certainly, and handsome individually, too. But everyone in these parts knows, that as a population, the people of Anderson Valley are better looking, and certainly more intelligent, than any comparably-sized population in these United States!

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Happens almost every day. These tourist people use our parking lot as their relief station. Their dogs always apologize to me. ‘Sorry little fella. They made me do it.’ I bark back. ‘You need new people, people with manners’."

THE NOVEMBER 11 AV ELDERHOME FUNDRAISER at the Boonville Hotel starts at 2pm with an optional cottage tour, followed by a reception at 3 with wine, oyster bar, mushrooms, goat cheese, trout, cauliflower soup with chermoula, then dinner of pork loin, apples, escarole, horseradish and sage, root vegetable salad with gribiche, lemon and herbs, then dessert and coffee. (Vegetarian option available). $150 per person with funds going to complete the interior of cottage #1. Call Brian (510-388-9103) or Scarlet (895-2541) to reserve your table.

FACEBOOK was crackling last week with a rumor out of the Elementary School that a disturbed child had cut itself with a razor in a manner indicating the potential for suicide. Everyone who might for sure know the true facts went immediately silent, but we have it reliably that it was all a misunderstanding. You really can’t blame the deep pockets authorities, especially schools, for dummying up because they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Whatever they say can, and probably will, be used against them in a court of law.

NIGHT LIGHT OF THE NORTH COAST: EMERALD COUNTY SKYLINE

by David Wilson

It’s unlikely for one who lives in Humboldt County to be unaware of a certain industry, which shall here remain nameless, and for which the county is known somewhat beyond its borders, and which recently became legal in our state, for the subject naturally becomes a part of many conversations. I could discuss it in one context or another, but hasn’t that been done? And can’t others do that? For fun I decided to take a look at it from a particular angle: a silhouette of it against the stars.

Humboldt county is more than any one thing, so I found a position that would give me a skyline of both Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas-fir) and Cannabis sativa (the herb), the juxtaposition of which, depending on one’s point of view, might be either ironic or fitting. I set the camera to take a series of 169 photos of that skyline over the course of an hour and forty minutes, from which I made a short twelve-second time-lapse movie that shows the motion of the stars as they swing across the sky on their path around the Polaris, the North Star, which is the star that sits very close to Earth’s northern polar axis.

We don’t notice it when we look up at the night sky, but we know the stars are slowly marching across because they rise and set, caused by Earth’s rotation. To the west, the stars sink more or less straight into the horizon. But north of that point, the stars arc around Earth’s northern polar axis, near the North Star, as we rotate beneath them. South of that point, their paths form the mirror image as they revolve around Earth’s southern polar axis. The time-lapse video shows the northern stars in their curved path, though Polaris (the North Star) is out of view to the right.

Video Dropbox link: dropbox.com/s/k8q5rwjwxi9flf8/MilkyWay_10-9-15-Timelapse-Humboldt-Skyline-zoom2.mp4?dl=0

A Humboldt Skyline: Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas-fir) and Cannabis sativa (the herb) silhouetted against the Milky Way and stars as they slowly revolve over the course of one hour and forty minutes.

In the still image with the long star trails one can see how far the stars traveled across the sky.

A composite of stills from the timelapse. The streaks were the paths of the stars as they swung ac cross the sky.

The other still image shows the overhead sky through an opening in the canopy of tall Douglas-fir trees. Photographing over the course of a few minutes, the camera caught the stars making short trails as they moved a short distance.

Looking through a canopy of Douglas-fir, we see paths that the stars made over the course of several minutes. The Celestial Equator splits the star field; the stars on top are revolving around the northern polar axis, while the lower stars are revolving around the southern polar axis.

You’ll note that the upper stars arc around a point out of the frame above the image; they are making their way around our northern polar axis. The lower stars are traveling in the other direction, around the southern polar axis. That area separating the two arcing paths is called the celestial equator.

To keep abreast of David Wilson’s most current photography or peer into its past, follow him on Instagram at @david_wilson_mfx or his website mindscapefx.com, where you can also contact him, but which Wilson says he updates less frequently.

PLEASE! DON’T HOLD YOUR HORSES BACK!

Eating, playing, shopping, and planting right up to the goal through October has us totally fit for the continuing the C’mon Home To Eat challenge of eating locally all year round! Eating seasonally allows you to catch your food at the height of its nutrition and flavor as well as vary your diet throughout the year. There’s still time to store the last of the summer crops and line your cellar shelves with winter squash, keeper pears, and apples, as well as filling out your winter garden.

The last week in October provided some events well worth remembering. The AV Foodshed Fundraising dinner at the Boonville Hotel/Table 128 gathered locals and farmers together to share a meal built from local veggies, dairy, oil, grain, and meat from Mendocino Grain Project, Pennyroyal Farm, Filigreen Farm, Mendocino Meats, Front Porch Farm, and the Apple Farm. The farmers were honored and Erica Scharffen talked about her work at Pennyroyal creating cheeses from the goats and sheep they raise. Doug Mosel shared the history of the Mendocino Grain Project and his original inspiration to grow grain from his work with AV Foodshed. Rodney, the chef, talked about his dedication to local food. In attendance were also four couples who were staying at the Hotel who each voiced their appreciation of the dinner and our community.

On Friday Julie and Darius made outstanding pizzas with Mendocino Grain Project’s heritage Khorasan wheat, Lama and Matthew’s oyster mushrooms, and other local selections. Julie said she would now love to use MGP’s flour all the time because of its rich taste and texture. The kids munched on pizzas as they carved pumpkins. C’mon Home to Eat has been highlighting Mendocino Grain Project wheats this year and the feedback from each event has been superb.

The 37^th Annual Chestnut Gathering found an abundant harvest of chestnuts waiting for their baskets. The Zeni Ranch tour, chestnuts roasted on an open fire, music, and the local food potluck all took place with ambient fall weather.

You can shop locally throughout the year, though some farm stands will be closing for the winter so please check before you go:

Farm Stands:

Blue Meadow Farm - at the base of Holmes Ranch Road - 895-2071

Brock Farms - on Goodacre off the base of Peachland - 895-3407

Velma's (Filigreen Farm) - on AV Way - 895-2111

Gowan's Oak Tree - on Hwy 128 between Philo and Navarro - 895-3353

Pennyroyal Creamery - on Hwy 128 in Boonville - 895-2410

Petit Teton - on Hwy 128 between Boonville and Yorkville - 684-4146

The Apple Farm - on Philo/Greenwood Road just before the bridge - 895-2333

AV Products you can access by contacting:

4 Bar K Ranch (beef) - dkooyers@gmail.com, 895-2325

Anderson Valley Community Farm- veggies, oil, meat, and value added products andersonvalleycommunityfarm@gmail.com, (831) 332-5131

Bramble Family Farm (olive oil) - sales@bramblefamilyfarms.net, 272-8487

Bucket Ranch – strawberries and beans 845-3851

McEwen Family Farm (variety of products) - bebingmcewen@gmail.com - 472-9009

Mendocino Sea Vegetable Company (seaweed) - kombuko@seaweed.net, 895-2996

Natural Products of Boonville (mushrooms & more) - keepertrout@gmail.com, 684-0182

Petit Teton (canned goods, pork, beef, squab & veggies) - farmer@petitteton.com, 684-4146

Pomo Tierra Orchard (apple products) - bernie@mcn.org

The Forest People - Radically Sustainable Mushroom Cultivation - 489-5034

Yorkville Olive Ranch (olive oil) - rhysolive@yahoo.com, 894-0530

Our local markets (Anderson Valley Market, Boont Berry, and Lemon’s Market) carry local products all year ‘round and Lemon’s often has their own wild-caught fish for sale. Pennyroyal Creamery sells their cheeses at the farm.

Anderson Valley is also fortunate to have many eateries that have local selections as part of their menus all year: Aquarelle, Bewildered Pig, Boont Berry Farm, Boonville General Store, Boonville Hotel/Table 128, Lauren’s, Paysanne, Pennyroyal Creamery. Poleeko Roadhouse, Stone and Embers, and the Yorkville Market.

Mark the Grange Holiday Potluck Dinner on December 9^th at the Grange on your calendar—the AV Foodshed and Grange will be providing local turkey, meat, and potatoes, and you can bring the fixings. Our winning C’mon Home to Eat raffle tickets will be drawn then for local dinners and farm stand gift certificates.

If you would like to receive the Foodshed’s weekly Update on local food and activities, please send an email to: avfoodshed@gmail.com or visit our website at www.avfoodshed.com.

¡Buen provecho! and bon appetit!

MARY MOORE WRITES:

This was in today's local daily and much appreciation to Chris Smith for making so many crucial points here. That is truly the mark of a good writer. I don't know why part of the article was left out of this online version so get Monday’s peedee if you want to read the whole thing. I'm going in for surgery early tomorrow morning and it's unclear how long I'll be at Petaluma Valley Hospital. Hopefully I'll be coming back to Camp Meeker by the end of this week but not sure. Much love, MM

* * *

PEACE-JUSTICE ACTIVIST MARY MOORE donates personal archive to UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library

pressdemocrat.com/news/8878121-181/sonoma-stories-peace-justice-activist-mary

CATCH OF THE DAY, October 29, 2018

JAMES AVANTS, Albion. Disoderly conduct-alcohol, county parole violation.

JERRY BAILEY, Willits. Controlled substance, ammo possession by prohibited person, paraphernalia, suspended license, probation revocation.

JOSE BARAJAS-GARCIA, Ukiah. DUI, no license.

GREGORY CRUMPLER, Ukiah. Controlled substance, under influence.

RICHARD GEIGER, Laytonville. DUI, suspended license.

JAMES GIMENEZ, Lucerne/Ukiah. Willful cruelty to child with possible injury or death.

GREG MORITZ, Cotati/Ukiah. DUI.

BELINDA SCHAFER, Ukiah. Recklessly causing a fire to structure or forestland.

ADAM VASQUEZ, Hopland. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

GREGORY WARREN, Ukiah. Domestic abuse.

ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1] I guess I am a complete asshole, but I laugh out loud every time a honey oil lab blows up. Not because someone is hurt, but because I can just perfectly visualize the situation as the flaming guy comes running out of the flaming mess he just created while the Benny Hill song plays.

[2] Here they come! Yes, by the time they get here… maybe tomorrow since they are being personally chauffeured to the border by George Soros… by tomorrow there will be millions of them, maybe over one billion. All seven billion people on Earth want to come to the USA. Remember that. Be afraid, very afraid, of these short poor brown women. They are probably just the vanguard mob and even bigger mobs will follow if Trump doesn’t stop them cold at the border. Setting up machine guns seems inefficient. Just nuke ’em all right there at the border. No, wait, that would leave a big hole in the wall for succeeding waves of lawless mobs to come swarming over the border like cockroaches… I don’t know if I will be able to sleep tonight just knowing how the mobs are growing by the minute, all the while being fed and transported in luxury by Soros.

[3] What is happening? It has been happening for years. We have been an oligarchy for at least 30 years, and right-wing talk radio blowhards have convinced a sizable percentage of Americans that fascism is a good thing, that Hair Furor is actually good for the country, and that liberals and the press are the enemies of "patriotic Americans". And whiny Democrats who stayed home rather than voting, are the reason we have this wannabe tinpot fascist dictator in the White House.

NEXT MEETING OF THE INLAND MENDOCINO DEMOCRATIC CLUB on November 8 at 5:30

The Inland Mendocino Democratic Club will hold our post-election PARTY on Thursday, November 8 at 5:30 pm at our new headquarters, 1030 North State Street, Ukiah, near Big O Tires. Let’s all join together to make our county an oasis of Justice and Peace. Together, in coalition, we can take progressive action and protect our county from the incoming Conservative nightmare. Come lend a hand. All are welcome.

THE MONSTER MASH

by James Kunstler

The sad reality is that last week’s Pittsburgh synagogue massacre is only the latest float in the long-running parade of ghastly homicidal spectacles rolling across this land and will be just as forgotten in one week as was last year’s Las Vegas Mandalay Bay slaughter of 58 concert-goers plus over 800 wounded and injured, a US record for non-military acts of violence. The Pittsburgh shootings elbowed the mass pipe bomber, Cesar Sayoc, out of the news cycle — but then Sayoc didn’t manage to actually hurt any of the high-profile figures he targeted with his mailings. What I wonder — and what the news media has so far failed to report — is just how incompetent a bomb-maker Sayoc was. Fake news meets fake bombs.

One of the strange side effects of an epic American political hysteria is this strange ADD-like inability of the public to focus on anything for more than a few moments, even the most arresting atrocities. The hysteria itself is too compelling, like the actions of a human limbic system driving the collective public psyche from fight to flight on the wild horses of pure emotion. Reason has been discarded by the wayside just as a super-drunk person will shed his clothing even on a freezing night. Total culture war now beats a path toward all-out civil war, with the looming mid-term election as a fulcrum of history.

The country is not “divided,” it’s sliced-and diced like a victim in one of the Halloween bloodbath movies now so beloved by movie audiences that they must be regularly updated. It’s hardly a stretch to say that the US public sees its collective self as a throng of zombies lurching across the ruined landscape in search of a dwindling supply of brains, and they even seem to take a certain comfort in that endeavor, as though the zombies were performing a meritorious public service ridding the nation of as many brains as possible.

The Democratic Party could not be more in tune with this monster mash of collapse politics. The party has been living in a haunted house of its own construction for much of this century, and methodically adding to its roster of resident blood beasts month by month in an orgy of monster creation. They remind me of the chanting and stomping “natives” in any of the long line of King Kong movies, summoning the giant ape to the gate of their Great Wall so as to scare off the party of feckless white adventurers from faraway Hollywood. Only in this edition of the story, King Kong is the Golden Golem of Greatness at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and it annoys him greatly to be summoned by these tiny savages beating their drums. Of course, America-the-Horror-Movie doesn’t add up as a coherent narrative. And so the nation sinks into bloody incoherence.

The Democratic Party war on white people and their dastardly privilege has been the theme all year long, with its flanking movement against white men especially and super-especially the hetero-normative white male villains who rape and oppress everybody else. Anyway, that’s the strategy du jour. I’m not persuaded that it’s going to work so well in the coming election. The party could not have issued a clearer message than “white men not welcome here.” Very well, then, they’ll vote somewhere else for somebody else. And if it happens that the Dems don’t prevail, and don’t manage to get their hands on the machinery of congress — then what?

For one thing, a lot of people get indicted, especially former top officers from various glades of the Intel swamp. It shouldn’t be a surprise, given the numbers of them already called before grand juries and fingered by inspectors general. But it may be shocking how high up the indictments go, and how serious the charges may be: sedition… treason…?

These midterm election may bring the moment when the Democratic Party finally blows up, at least enough to sweep away the current coterie of desperate idiots running it. It’s time to shove the crybabies offstage and allow a few clear-eyed adults to take the room, including men, yes even white men. And let all the shrieking, clamoring, marginal freaks return to the margins, where they belong.

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

“NO WAY TO PREVENT THIS,” SAYS ONLY NATION WHERE THIS REGULARLY HAPPENS (AGAIN)

(theonion.com)

FOR BETTER OR WORSE, EARLY VOTING IS CHANGING AMERICAN ELECTIONS

by Thomas Knapp

In the US, “Election Day 2018” falls on November 6 this year. But Election Day isn’t what it used to be.

The New York Times reports that “millions have voted early” — nearly a million of them by mail in the Sunshine State alone, even before that state’s early voting locations opened on October 22, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. I cast my ballot during what I expected to be an “off” time (after the pre-work rush and before the lunch rush), and still spent a few minutes in line.

More than 1/3 of the 2016 vote came in early according to the United States Election Project. This may be the first US election in which a majority of votes are cast before Election Day. And the results may be set in stone before then, too.

Politicians and pollsters seem obsessed with the putatively “undecided” vote, but let’s be honest: The guy who doesn’t know who he’s voting for two days before the election hasn’t been paying attention and probably isn’t going to bother standing in line just to register what amounts to a coin flip.

The real political goal is getting one’s “base” voters — the people who are firmly “decided” and probably were before the parties even nominated their candidates — off their butts and to the polls. Early voting makes that a lot easier.

When I was younger, you either got in line — sometimes for hours — on Election Day, or certified in writing (under penalty of perjury) that you planned to be out of the county on Election Day as a condition of casting an absentee ballot.

On Election Day itself, the party organizations busted out phone banks to call voters they perceived as part of their “bases.” Have you voted yet? Why haven’t you voted yet? Do you need a ride to the polling place? Go vote!

These days, such efforts can be spread over weeks rather than hours, reducing the number of volunteers needed. Voters can cast their ballots when they find it convenient instead of wasting their lunch hours standing in line on one, and only one, day.

Early voting magnifies the incidence and effect of the “base” vote by getting the “decided, but kinda lazy” in on the action. The “undecideds” aren’t the ones casting their votes early. They’re undecided, remember?

Early voting also probably reduces the parties’ ability to leverage “October surprises” into changed minds. How many Americans had already voted before Donald Trump could menace them with migrant caravans or his Democratic opponents had time to wave the bloody shirt over the “suspected explosive devices” mailed to prominent members of their party?

Finally, early voting will hopefully continue to increase the share of the vote commanded by “third party” and independent candidates, whose followings are smaller but presumably more likely to vote anyway, especially if it’s easier.

Is America really more “polarized” than it used to be, or is early voting just making it easier to separate out the “undecided” statistical chaff? Inquiring minds want to know.

(Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida. Courtesy, CounterPunch.org.)

PROTECT RENTERS

Editor,

Thirty-five percent of Petaluma residents are renters who will be subject to unchecked rent increases when the governor’s state of emergency expires Dec. 4. This post-fire moratorium limited rent increases to 10 percent and provided immediate relief to distress from the intensified housing crisis for people living in Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Mendocino, and Solano counties.

Come December, renters will again be struggling with the consequences of an undefined local plan to curtail explosive rent prices. Fear of increasing rent or eviction affects our most vulnerable residents who already work 70-80 hours a week to support the area’s high rents.

In Los Angeles County, an interim measure for just-cause eviction was recently passed to relieve pressure on renters. This type of legislation recognizes how efforts to support rent stabilization can prevent evictions and homelessness.

Our city councils and Board of Supervisors must consider what they’ve accomplished since October 2017 to protect us from unsustainable rent increases. Although Petaluma’s City Council asserts that county and state agencies hold jurisdiction in regulating increasing rents, it is city and county officials who our community is looking to for support and action that shows they recognize the challenges renters face in our community.

Amber Szoboszlai, Petaluma; and Zahyra Garcia, Daly City

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The Kelp forest that existed along the California coast is gone. Rising temperatures, acidity, and not inconsequentially, sushi. The gonads of the red urchin are served worldwide, leaving an opening for the purple to munch the entire thing up. Everyday the exhaust from our commutes puts an invisible heat trapping gas into the air. It will remain there for thousands of years, like a plastic bottle in the ocean. The things we can’t see go first. The kelp forest stretched from San Fransisco to Baja. In terms of area, certainly greater than some US states. The appetite of this consumption engine is enormous.

WHAT’S THE PLAN?

Editor,

No well-run organization would spend $300 million without a solid plan or clear goals. But that’s what the backers of Proposition C, the homeless initiative on the ballot in San Francisco, intend to do. This head-spinning spectacle has the makings of a Mel Brooks movie: The central characters are cast in the opposite roles one would expect. The fiercest opponent of this attempt to expand government spending is San Francisco’s Democratic mayor, London Breed, who grew up in public housing. The most fervent supporter of what would amount to the city’s largest-ever tax increase is Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.

Ms. Breed knows that for 30 years San Francisco’s budget for the homeless has continued to grow, but the problem has only worsened. If money could solve the homeless problem, there would be no one sleeping in tents, no needles littering sidewalks and no human waste in the streets. Supporters of Proposition C confuse good intentions and wishful thinking with an effective plan for dealing with the grim realities. While Proposition C does a spectacular job outlining how to spend money, it doesn’t effectively explain why the proposals would work, how they should be judged and measured, or when they would take effect.

San Francisco’s social agencies and nonprofits are staffed with well-meaning people eager to help the homeless. But homeless services are so scattered that coordination is impossible. There are no meaningful ways to assess the effectiveness of a raft of programs. Currently San Francisco spends around $430 per city resident each year on services and programs for the homeless, compared with $260 in New York and $110 in Los Angeles. If Proposition C passes, it would take annual spending to $770 per person.

The city spends even more on the homeless than these estimates suggest, because they don’t include the hours that police officers, emergency workers, doctors, nurses and prison officers spend dealing with the consequences of the problem. This data also omit private and corporate contributions to nonprofits. Reducing the spending of existing city programs is almost impossible because of political forces and entrenched interests. As former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told me, “The more we spend, the more challenges we have.”

Rather than spending more money recklessly, the city should focus on answering some questions about its existing resources. How many homeless are on the streets of San Francisco? City departments often find themselves unable even to do the basics. How, for example, does the city communicate that no paradise awaits the homeless from other places who seek refuge in San Francisco?

How do city agencies communicate with the homeless when their mobile phones have been disconnected? Can the city keep people discharged from jails and hospitals off the streets? What are the police expected to do when there is no place to house or shelter detainees? How can the city keep families who live on the brink from getting evicted? How can the homeless feel safe about going into shelters when they cannot bring their partners, their pets or their possessions? And how can the homeless get back on their feet in a city already brutally expensive for even the middle class?

Homelessness is not one problem and requires subtle approaches. Some suffer from mental-health issues, while others are from families that have fallen behind on rent or lost a job. Many are lost to drugs and some are children who somehow still manage to attend school. Homelessness is also closely associated with other local problems—especially housing and zoning policy and the lack of high-speed regional transit systems. San Francisco has limited the supply of homes and apartments. This raises rents, which drives people onto the streets. Every soul who has encountered the cruel hardship of homelessness requires a different and specialized form of assistance.

Proposition C opponents can easily be described as wealthy, tone-deaf, self-interested and heartless even if they have been longtime donors to homeless causes. But all we seek is a coherent approach. Only a systematic plan that can be monitored, measured and tuned—and that deals with all aspects of homelessness—will bring about change. If that’s assembled, there’s reason to expect things to improve. Without it, there’s no chance.

Michael Moritz

San Francisco

MEN ARE CONSERVATIVE when they are at least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

THE NEW PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL BELIEVES:

by Sean Purdy

Brazil has a fascist presidential frontrunner. Here are 20 of Jair Bolsonaro's most racist and reactionary statements.

“Pinochet should have killed more people.” Veja, December 2, 1998.

“I have five children. Four were boys, on the fifth I got weak and had a daughter.” Speech at the Clube Hebraica, Rio de Janeiro, April 3, 2017.

“Let’s shoot all the PT members here in Acre [a Brazilian state].” Campaign event on September 1, 2018

“My advice and I do it: I cheat on my taxes as much as possible. If I don’t need to pay anything, I don’t pay.” Programa C mera Aberta, Band RJ, May 23, 1999.

“There is not the least doubt! I would organize a coup on the same day, the same day!” Bolsonaro in response to the question of what he would do with the National Congress if elected president. Programa C mera Aberta, Band RJ, May 23, 1999.

“If your son begins to act like this, sort of gay, he deserves a smack and he’ll change his behavior.” TV C mara, October 17, 2010.

“I’m favorable to torture and you know this.” Programa C mera Aberta, Band RJ, May 23, 1999.

“I don’t run this risk since my sons were very well educated and haven’t lived in environments like yours, lamentably.” In response to a question by a black woman reporter who asked what he would do if one of his sons dated a black woman. Programa CQC, Band TV, March 29, 2011.

“Through the vote you will not change anything in this country, right? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! You will only change, unfortunately, on the day when we begin a civil war here inside. And doing the job that the Military Regime didn’t do: killing thirty thousand! Beginning with FHC [Fernando Henrique Cardoso, president at the time]! … If some innocents die, alright; in every war innocent people die. I would even be happy if I died as long as thirty thousand others died together with me.” Programa C mera Aberta, Band RJ, May 23, 1999.

“The situation of the country would be better today if the dictatorship had killed more people.” Folha de São Paulo, June 30, 1999.

“What historic debt do we have with blacks? I never enslaved them. The Portuguese never set foot in Africa. The blacks were delivered by blacks.” Programa Roda Viva, July 30, 2018.

“I never beat my ex-wife. But I thought of shooting her various times.” Revista IstoÉ, February 14, 2000.

“Who never spanked a child on the bum and then had regrets? It happens.” On executions authorized by ex-President Geisel during the military dictatorship. Radio Super Noticia, May 11, 2018.

“I went to a quilombola [maroon settlement] in El Dourado Paulista. Look, the lightest African descendant there weighed 100 kg. They don’t do anything. They don’t even serve to reproduce.” Speech at the Clube Hebraica, Rio de Janeiro, April 3, 2017.

“God above everything. There is no such thing as this secular state. The state is Christian and the minority will have to change, if they can. The minorities will have to adapt to the position of the majority.” Speech at the Aeroporto João Suassuna, Campina Grande, February 8, 2017.

“I’m not going to combat or discriminate, but if I see two men kissing on the street, I’m going to hit them.” Folha de São Paulo, May 19, 2002.

“I would never rape you because you don’t deserve it.” Jair Bolsonaro to Federal Deputy, Maria do Rosário, November 2003.

“And mistresses? Are they prohibited too?” Commenting on a law that would ban nepotism in government jobs. Folha de São Paulo, April 14, 2005.

“The big mistake was to torture and not kill. Fuck them! Fuck them!” Commenting on the possibility of a revision in the Amnesty Law which would lead to the punishment of torturers during the military dictatorship. August 7, 2008.

“I would be unable to love a gay son. I won’t be a hypocrite here: I would prefer that my son die in an accident rather than appear with a [gay] moustache. For me, he would be dead.” Playboy, 2011.

(Jacobinmag.com)

PATI BREED FIRST FRIDAY ARTIST AT EDGEWATER GALLERY

First Friday, November 2, at Edgewater Gallery

Pati Gloria Breed is featured artist

November 2, from 5-8 pm

356 N. Main St., Fort Bragg

Pati will do a demonstration of watercolor techniques at 6 pm on First Friday. Her paintings are vibrant and mystical. The philosophy that inspires her work is the belief that we are Spiritual Beings having a physical experience. Her paintings are visual poems of the beauty of the spirit.

Light refreshments served. Admission is free.

MAGICAL THINKING THERAPY

Free Strategic Self-Care: Sandy Glickfeld and Magdalena Weinstein

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

With an endless barrage of terrible news, we hope tomorrow's double dose of Strategic Self-Care (free and open to the public) can provide you some tools to help you manage these pretty awful times. Tuesday at 6 pm at Perfect Circle T'ai Chi in Fort Bragg (330 N. Franklin Street). Call 409-0133 for more information. Publicly-viewable Facebook event can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2073884422926588/ "Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) for Effective Mid-term Election Ranting" with Sandy Glickfeld AND... "Movement for Stability, Resilience and Embodiment" with Magdalena Weinstein About the presentations: "Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) for Effective Mid-term Election Ranting" with Sandy Glickfeld The intention of this workshop is to utilize Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), also known as Tapping, to move emotional energy that is likely stuck in our nervous systems from the daily barrage of "news" throughout this midterm election season. The goal of this work is to move from triggered emotions to being more calm, grounded, and empowered. "Movement for Stability, Resilience and Embodiment" with Magdalena Weinstein Join us in the exploration of the profound potential of movement for restoring human stability, resilience and embodiment, qualities essential to create thriving and resilient communities that can withstand any challenge.

The presenters:

Sandy Glickfeld spent 31 years as a public school Speech Pathologist. She's done 40 years of Transformational work with Landmark Education, 6 months with Coaches Training Institute, 18 years of attendance and assisting at the annual Conference for Global Transformation, 6 years of Transformational Coaches Training with Margaret M Lynch and much more. She's also been involved in musical theatre for 33 years, including performances of Music and Magic with The Fabulous Blendos and The Glickfeld Follies - An Almost One Woman Show.

Magdalena Weinstein is passionate about movement and of explorations of the human psyche. She is a graduate of the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco, Yogamocan Teacher Training, and the Yoga Tune Up Teacher Training. She is also a Process Coaching Teacher and Trainer and an IRest Yoga Nidra Level 2 teacher. She has done Yoga and Fascia immersions with Tom Myers, the developer of Anatomy Trains, and also has trained in Yoga and Somatic Experiencing. Magdalena is also a Crisis Counselor and a Reiki master. EquanimityAction is a new local meditator-led political organization attempting to actively integrate self-development and politics in order to overtly undermine our toxic political discourse and get informed, self-aware people politically organized and into local public office. It is not about being passive or weak, but about knowing when to take hard action to effect change, maintaining our work for the long haul, and understanding that internal self-development must be a part of external political efforts. Weekly Strategic Self-Care is a movement-builder for EquanimityAction, with the goal of building awareness around the organization and its goals while giving attendees useful information that can help them survive and thrive in politics. We hope to eventually formalize so that we can cultivate and officially run candidates for local elected offices by 2020.

Scott Menzies, M.A. (Environment & Community)
Instructor/Proprietor
Perfect Circle Taijiquan
330 N. Franklin St, Fort Bragg, CA
530-410-3333 (cell)
707-962-3009 (studio - ringer always off)

UNBLOCK YAZ BUT LIKE MAKE IT STRICTLY CONDITIONAL

One more time I ask you all to support me in my efforts to get my telephone number unblocked by kzyx/z at this extraordinary time, right before an election and in these dangerous times when all our voices need to be heard. Healing and love is necessary for our survival as a species and I am willing to mediate whatever their beef is with me. It is certainly nothing that I ever said over our airwaves, so why should my voice be banished? It is punitive and undemocratic of them to do this to me. If you agree that my/our Freedom of Speech is crucial at this perilous time when all voices of reason need to be heard, please call The Discussion tonight and request the powers that be to unblock my phone number so that I may contribute to our community, public radio station. I also request that you call Alice W. and Jeff Parker and support me in this effort. The phone number is 895-2324 (office line), On Air Line is 895-2448, and they are gm@kzyx.org and pd@kzyx.org.

Thank you for your support of this founding member/programmer and producer, 29 year supporter, on and off the air, and participating (until they blocked my phone) member of our on air radio community and almost 50 year resident of Mendocino county.

Peace, Love and Justice,

DJ Sister Yasmin

707-884-4703 (let ring 5X) no computer at my home

ED NOTE: As one old friend to another, if you apologized to KZYX for being so rude and abusive they would probably unblock you. Just sayin'.

* * *

YASMIN CONTRITE

Apology again

Dear Alice and Jeffrey and everyone at KZYX/Z:

I am once again apologizing to you and everyone at kzyx/z. Whatever I did to you, I am very, very sorry. Alice, I told you many months ago when I said those words over the phone, that I did not know that you were on the line. I thought you put me on hold, and when you told me you heard me, I remember apologizing at that time. Maybe you don't remember this, so I am again sincerely apologizing to you Alice, and you Jeffrey, and to all at kzyx/z that I have harmed, hurt, maligned or upset in any and every way. I hope you can and will accept my most sincere apologies, and reinstate my phone access to your Open Lines programs as soon as possible. I know you have decided to silence my voice from our airwaves, but at this most crucial, critical and urgent time in our country and the world, more Democracy means more voices over our airwaves, I hope you might agree, including mine. I am open to any mediation, dialogue, discussion, contractual agreement that you wish me to sign, rules, whatever you want me to do. I am willing to consider any of your conditions, so please do not "throw the baby out with the bath water" as you have done by banning, censoring and silencing my voice from OUR airwaves at this most serious time of chaos and lack of unity in our land. We need all sane and serious voices to dialog with each other in the name of Peace and Love. Please forgive me! Please unblock my phone right away! Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

DJ Sister Yasmin, 884-4703

BETWEEN THE WORLDS: Holly Tannen on KZYX, Tuesday 1 pm

Roots and All: Between the Worlds

KZYX 1 pm Tuesday October 30th

On Tuesday October 30th, Jeff Zolitor and his guest, folklorist Holly Tannen, will talk about the origins of Halloween in pagan and Christian traditions, and how people understand their relationships with beings in the spirit world. The program will highlight traditional songs about encounters with death, spirits and ancestors, and Holly will present her new song, A Dybbuk Named Fred. (A dybbuk is a Jewish ghost. This one, however, is Zoroastrian (lapsed). PLEASE NOTE that Roots and All is now on at 1 pm rather than 2.)

MENDOCINO COAST DISTRICT HOSPITAL INSURES CONTINUATION OF PAIN MANAGEMENT SERVICES

The health and well-being of our community members is the most important thing to everyone at Mendocino Coast District Hospital (MCDH) and North Coast Family Health Center (NCFHC). Pain Management is a much needed and desired service for our community, and MCDH staff will work tirelessly to continue high-quality Pain Management services.

Interventional Pain Specialist, Quan Le, MD, joined NCFHC in September of 2018, and was able to quickly resume Pain Management Services.

Dr. Le has made a big difference for many of our Pain Management patients, and in a short time has become a wonderful part of our team. On October 31, 2018, Dr. Le will be leaving NCFHC and will be replaced by our new Interventional Pain Specialist, Akbar Khan, DO.

‘Our intention is that there will never be a lapse in Pain Management Services here at MCDH, and we make every effort to ensure that is the case.

Dr. Khan, our new award-winning Interventional Pain Specialist, will join NCFHC at the end of this month and we’re excited for our patients to benefit from his experience and expertise. He plans to be part of our program here for the next six months and may decide to stay on permanently,’ commented Will Lee, Director of Medical Staff Services at MCDH.

Dr. Khan received his Medical Degree from Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Vallejo, CA, and he completed his Internship in 2010 at the Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, NY.

His Residency was completed in 2013 at the Tufts Medical Center in Boston, MA where he served as Chief Resident. He completed a comprehensive Spine Medicine Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic in 2014.

Dr. Khan is triple board certified by the American Osteopathic Board of Pain Medicine, the American Osteopathic Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

He has received the award as Sacramento Top Doctor in Sacramento Magazine in 2016. He also received Resident of the Year award from Tufts Medical Center in 2013, and was on the Dean’s List at Touro University of Osteopathic Medicine from 2006 - 2009.

NCFHC is now scheduling Pain Management appointments for current patients and accepting referrals for new patients.

Call 707.961.4631 to make an appointment, referrals can be faxed to 707.964.1192.”

Thank you,

William V. Lee, CPCS, CPMSM, Director- Medical Staff Services, Mendocino Coast District Hospital

“Warmer… Warmer… Oh, sorry, I was talking about the environment.”

VETERANS DAY PEACE DEMONSTRATION, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9 AT NOON IN GUALALA

South Coast People For Peace And Justice invite everyone to join our Peace Demonstration in honor of Veterans Day on Friday, November 9 at noon in front of Red Stella (the old post office) across Highway 1 from Surf Supermarket. We respect, support and honor all Veterans of all wars and we say, "We must end all ongoing wars and occupations and BRING ALL TROOPS HOME SAFELY and take care of them when they return!"

The cost of US wars is out of control. The US spent $700 billion on the military in 2017. Since 2001 there have been 6,800 U.S. troops killed in combat. Since 2001 ongoing U.S. wars have cost $5.6 trillion. Trump's NATO military spending request would add $600 billion to military spending. The war in Afghanistan is costing U.S. taxpayers $4 million per hour. Each Air Force F22 fighter jet costs $60,000 per hour to operate. At an average of 300 hours per year, the total cost is $18 billion-- for each jet. Add to this $350 million in production cost for each of the 187 F22s. (from nationalpriorities.org)

Let's imagine what our country could do with this out of control military spending: Provide Universal Healthcare for all our people; Free tuition for all students; Housing for every unhoused person in our nation; Renewable Energy research, expansion, worker retraining and ending fossil fuels extraction and saving our planet; Prioritizing caring for LGTBQ folks, People of Color, Women, Children, Seniors, Low Income People, Disabled folks, and all marginalized and disenfranchised people in our country: Fixing our Voting system, new voting machines with paper trails, adding more polling places; Legal access for poor people; Repairing our infrastructure, roads, buildings, hospitals, schools, earthquake and climate change preparedness and retrofitting; Raising the minimum wage to at least $15.00 an hour; Workers rights, immigrants and refugees rights, People Rights instead of ongoing war which benefits no one except arms manufacturers and the Pentagon.

Please join us on Friday, November 9 to stand for PEACE and support of our troops of all wars, past and present. Bring signs, musical instruments, your friends and neighbors.

Information: 884-4703 and 271-9170. See you there!

MAGICAL SONG

MCSL Event Tuesday, Oct 30th, 6 TO 7pm

From: "Ani" <anilovelight@gmail.com>

Sacred Chanting hosted by Kathryn Allegra. Manifesting from the heart through Sacred Song, calling in the Divine Presence. This is the joy of meditative group singing. The Gathering Place at The Co. Store, corner of Main and Redwood. Tuesday. Oct. 30th, 6 to 7PM. Donations appreciated.

Remember Be The Love

THE AVA'S VOTING RECOMMENDATIONS

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 Northcoast Democrat's strong support for Bernie. All three are to the political right of the majority of Northcoast Democrats and have been 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 Two-Headed Party running errands for the wealthy.

Governor

Gavin Newsom: This guy’s going to be president so get used to him. He has demonstrated some political courage, at least when he was confined to San Francisco, successfully defeating 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, a sad fact brought to us by party-line Democrats. Newsom’s for the truly insane high speed train project and is about the same as Jerry Brown on all other 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.

Vote 3rd party for Governor.

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. And she has in one capacity or another. A long time member 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 Independent 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. McGuire voted for SB 901 that protects PG&E while shifting more costs to ratepayers and wildfire victims, relieving the power monopoly of the consequences of its negligence and generally weakening environmental protections into the non-bargain. McGuire abstained on limiting open carry, and on giving farmworkers the same rights on overtime pay as other workers and preventing deportation of immigrants for minor drug offenses. He voted to weaken requirements to reduce methane pollution (84 times more potent than carbon dioxide). Vote for 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 Daddy as a protest against Wood.

Vote NO on all the incumbent judges who are all Democrat-appointed, life sinecure holders who have the arrogance of revealing nothing of themselves on the ballot, appearing thereon for mere re-anointment by us saps. 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 had sunk. 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. Haschak’s major downside, in our opinion, 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, Albin-Smith and Lindy.

Point Arena City Council: Incumbent Barbara Burkey is the only candidate running for two seats. We think she can easily fill both or all the seats 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 support Kanne based on input from people we consider grounded. 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, including Dr. Glusker who is retiring from the board, 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.

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. The pure numbers of people driven insane by our present social-political order need more than fiscal bandaids.

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 but its downside is cheap water for water-profligate corporate farms, but this one contains the good and the bad.

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, onerous as it is, 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. Don't let them dump responsibility for their most expensive and/or troublesome patients onto emergency rooms. Yes.

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 anywhere on the "progressive" Northcoast.

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 are 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. 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. And then you eat it. Yes.

MENDO MAYHEM, CHAPTER 4

by Bruce McEwen

As our great big beautiful L/Cpl. Early, as he came round the second-to-the-last, not the last (for by then he would have tripped a lazer-wire, if you will, and blown the pegs out from under his POWs with a mechanicall ambush he’d set himself, upon leaving the “compound” that morning) the last switch-back in the trail to the landing Zone where the helicopter crew were camped, and as he rounded the bend he sang out (the way his drill instructor had emphasized in boot camp) with a certain, perhaps forgivable, note of pride, as he called, “Ahoy, the Zippo!”

Crew Chief and Sgt. Ryan dropped their wrenches, picked up their weapons, and came out on the tail ramp of the CH-53. Shading their eyes with a kind of salute, we might say, to see who was coming down from the southern ridge-top, just as the sun nestled into that quadrant of the sky, wondering what fresh mischief was afoot. Once they recognized their crewman, our resourceful Lance Corporal Richard Early J. Early, Sgt. Ryan disarmed the Claymores.

Chief: “What have you there, Lance Corporal?

L/Cpl.: “These pretty birds crossed my path, Chief. I brought ‘em back to you, Sir, to dispose of ‘em as y’all see fit, Sir.”

Chief: “Don’t call me ‘Sir’, Marine; I work for a living.”

L/Cpl.: “Very good, Sur. But beggin’ y’all’s- leave, Suh, Marines are trained to call everyone ‘sir’, by y’all’s leave, Suhr…”

Chief: “Thank you for your superfluous erudition, Lance Corporal; a little learning is a dangerous thing and we generally leave that part to the admiralty, however…. Perhaps, now, you’ll introduce us to our, um, uh, guests?”

Before L/Cpl. Early collected himself from the eloquent rebuke, the prisoners acted.

Mr. Gupta went first: “Cholly [sandwiching his iPhone between his palms, as he curtsied like a temple dancer, and announced his name] Gupta, Hare hare…hare Krishna. 0ommm….”

Next, the other prisoner took a turn: “Tempest,” she said, in a hushed breath with downcast eyes, and whispered….as in Shakespeare and Dylan.”

Chief: “I don’t get it...,?”

Sgt. Ryan, standing by at parade rest, leaned forward and whispered in the Crew Chief’s ear. We couldn’t hear what he said, at the time, but it later became public knowledge, that the Sarge informed his Chief, with a growl of reproval, that the name Tempest was a code It was all Ryan could do to keep from hissing the words: “she’s a sleeper agent from the DEA, HLS, CIA, FBI, DNC and her ‘maiden’ (!) name was Docility-at-sea, or some similar damned foolishness. But whatever, Sir – I thought you fer sure , Sir, thatyou got the memo...You do have a S&C clearance, Sir, don’t you?”

Chief (ignoring Sgt. Ryan): “What in the devil were you two doing out in this burn-zone, if I may venture such an abstruse query – I mean, my God, the world’s gone to pieces and you two venture into a charcoal desert – what gives?”

Cholly: “We saw your uh… what you call trajectory”—

Tempest: “(Shut up, Cholly!) He’s nuts, Sir -- or Chief, or whatever they like call you – don’t listen to him – Cholly, I mean – he’s nuts!

Cholly: “Am nae ony noots, nae, ony froots 0Oom…

Chief: “Have the prisoners separated, Lance Corporal. If I’m not mistaken, an inovaotor, a Sheriff from around here – forgetable name, but sound ideas on how to deal with nuts. Sergeant Ryan, be so good as to take command of the prisoners.”

Ryan: “Lance Corporal.”

Early: ‘Yes, Sir?”

Ryan: “Issue the prisoners entrenching tools, spoons, whatever implements you can find and set Mr. Cholly Gupta to digging a grave for our KIA, down below the spring and 50 yards up –the north slope -- and not too deep, as we’ll be back to recover the body soonest. Mark it with a cairn of rocks, in the shape of a Zippo. Take the spy, the Tempest creature, up the other slope, outta sight of her Cholly, and have her dig a latrine trench, for women only, well out of sight of the men’s latrine, understood?

Early: “Uhrrr, Sarge.”

Ryan: “Carry on, then. But where’d you leave Doc?”

Early: “Top of the ridge, Sarge, overlooking the Big Blue Feature, what they call Indian Valley Res or some such shit.”

Ryan: “I’ll go relieve him. See that he gets some mid-rats (midnight rations for people on guard duty) when he gets back —you too, Lance: there’s still some green baloney and moldy bread.

L/Cpl.: “Aye-aye, Sarge.”