Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018

• Red Flag
• Election Results
• Dem House
• Midterm Mongering
• Voting Irregularities
• VA Cuts
• Boont Turnout
• Ocasio-Cortez Wins
• Foodshed Fundraiser
• Little Dog
• Promo Numbers
• Sheepdog Trials
• Homeless Boats
• Buddy Interfacing
• Parlamento Found
• Intoxicated Parents
• AVA Sub
• Crisis Shelter
• UFOumuamua
• Yesterday's Catch
• Pharma Gouging
• Tobacco Gram
• Facebook Myanmar
• Hot Maconochie
• Text Drifters
• Resentment
• New Congress
• America's Wars
• Dressed Up
• Chamber Music
• The Blaseys

RED FLAG WARNING — The National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for eastern parts of Mendocino County starting tomorrow at 10 p.m. and ending at 7 a.m. Friday.  It's effective for elevations above 1,000 feet. Please avoid outdoor sparks and fires during this time because fire will spread rapidly.

PG&E officials announced Tuesday that the utility has begun notifying customers across much of its Northern California service area of a potential planned power outage on Thursday to coincide with forecasted high-risk fire conditions. The planned outages would affect Sonoma, Lake and Napa counties, among other areas included in a red-flag warning issued Tuesday by the National Weather Service.

EARLY MENDO ELECTION RESULTS with only 26% of votes counted overall show John Haschak leading John Pinches in the Third District by almost ten percentage points. Lindy Peters, Jessica Morsell-Haye and Tess Albin-Smith are leading in the Fort Bragg City Council race, incumbents Mo Mulheren and Jim Brown leading in the Ukiah City Council race, and Jessica Grinberg, Amy McColley and incumbent Dr. Kevin Miller leading in the Coast Hospital Board long-term trustee seats (Karen Arnold will get the one short-term seat) — but John Redding, third member of the reform slate is only a few votes behind business as usual incumbent Dr. Miller.

WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATES

FOR MENDOCINO COLLEGE TRUSTEE Area 4, Hopland/Boonville, Robert Jason Pinoli has a lead over William "Bill" Daniel with 1,974 votes (63.78 percent), Daniel at 1,107 votes (35.77 percent).

A RARE UPSET may be in the making for the County School Board. Challenger Tarney Sheldon leads incumbent Mary Misseldine in Area 2, which is mostly Ukiah. Sheldon had 911 votes (57.84 percent), and Misseldine had 649 (41.21 percent).

JUAN OROZCO seems to be headed for the third contested seat on the Ukiah City Council as incumbents Mulheren and Brown are easily returned.

FORT BRAGG CITY COUNCIL (3 seats):

Lindy Peters - 545 votes - 20.47%
Jessica Morsell-Haye - 489 - 18.36%
Tess Albin-Smith - 452 - 16.97%
Dana Jess - 358 - 13.44%
Ruben Alcala - 335 - 12.58%
Mary Rose Kaczorowsk - 335 - 12.58%
Bobby Burns - 141 - 5.29%

IN THE 3RD DISTRICT John Haschak has a comfortable lead over John Pinches, with 52.6 percent of the vote to 47.4 percent for Pinches.

COAST HOSPITAL BOARD (3 seats):

Jessica Grinberg - 2528 votes - 25.25%
Amy Beth McColley - 2282 - 22.80%
John Redding - 1796 - 17.94%
Kevin B. Miller - 1732 - 17.30%
Jade Tippett - 1613 - 16.11%

REPUBLICANS DEPEND ON TRUMP'S POLARIZING APPROACH TO GAIN IN THE SENATE, BUT IT COSTS THEM THE HOUSE

by David Lauter

Throughout his 22 months in office, President Trump has focused intensely on a single political priority — maintaining the support of his base, even at the risk of alienating millions of other voters.

Tuesday night’s election proved both the wisdom and the risk of that approach.

In a deeply divided country, Trump’s efforts to stoke his supporters’ enthusiasm helped his party expand its margin in the Senate. But his heated attacks on opponents and denunciations of immigrants also helped Democrats retake control of the House and make major gains in races for governor.

White House aides were quick to pronounce the outcome a victory for the president. But if it was, it came with ominous overtones for his next big political challenge, in 2020.

Democrats won significant victories statewide in each of the big mid-Atlantic and Midwestern industrial states where Trump secured his upset victory two years ago. Their control of the House will give them license to investigate him and his associates for the next two years, a prospect no president welcomes, especially not one seeking reelection.

Overall, Democratic congressional candidates won considerably more votes than their Republican opponents. Like winning the popular vote in the presidential race, that doesn’t give a party any additional power. But as a rough gauge of public sentiment, it sets a troubling marker for Trump.

In 2016, he became only the fifth person in American history to win the presidency while losing the popular vote. No one has pulled that off twice.

The night provided a split decision in which the country’s liberal, Democratic cities and its conservative, Republican rural areas moved further apart politically than ever, leaving neither side with the sort of clear majority needed to resolve major national issues.

That’s not just a political abstraction. Settling big national issues almost always requires one party having the political strength to put its ideas into law.

Without that, Congress can only tinker: Both Trump and Democratic leaders, for example, have said they might agree on more money to build and repair roads, bridges and other types of infrastructure.

But Tuesday’s results point to two more years of political trench warfare and the worsening of major problems — an immigration system that both parties decry as broken, a healthcare system that remains the world’s most expensive even as it fails to cover everyone, rapidly rising federal debt, festering inequality.

Unsurprisingly, roughly three-quarters of voters in exit polls conducted for the major television networks said that the country is becoming more divided politically. Fewer than 1 in 10 said Americans are becoming more united.

For a generation, despite the efforts of four consecutive presidents starting with Bill Clinton, neither party has been able to create a long-lasting electoral majority. This period stands as the longest in more than a century in which neither party has managed to maintain clear dominance, controlling both the White House and Congress.

People in both parties who run campaigns, as well as academic experts who study them, provide a surprisingly consistent list of the reasons why stalemate has proven so persistent.

Personal leadership shortcomings are not the main problem, said UCLA political science professor Lynn Vavreck, coauthor of a newly released book, “Identity Crisis,” which analyzes the causes of Trump’s 2016 victory.

“I don’t think this is a failure of these leaders” as individuals, she said.

Instead, successive presidents have been stymied by a fundamental shift in politics in which both of the two major parties have grown more homogeneous and the mix of national concerns increasingly has turned toward issues of identity. Those two trends hardened partisan lines, making bipartisan compromise tougher and complicating any effort to forge a broader coalition.

Legislators “can shave a dollar per hundred off a tax bill, but how do you get gradations of equality?” Vavreck asked. “These issues are harder. It’s harder to see what compromise would look like.”

Live results from the 2018 midterm elections »

As each party has grown more internally united — one liberal, one conservative — party membership has increasingly overlapped with other ways in which people identify themselves — race, religion, region, even occupation and the entertainment choices people make. That has alienated the two sides further from each other, said Lilliana Mason of the University of Maryland.

“If you’re a Democrat, and you go to church with a Republican … it makes you understand them in a way that you wouldn’t have,” Mason said. As Americans have sorted themselves out along partisan lines, “we’ve seen a move away from cross-cutting identities” of that sort. As those dwindle, “people tend to be more intolerant” of those they see only as adversaries, she said.

Republican voters are now overwhelmingly white, conservative, older, rural, often evangelical Protestants. Democrats have have become the party of cities, of racial and ethnic diversity, of college graduates and younger people, and are largely secular. And politics increasingly revolves around “who you are, what your identity is,” Mason said.

Partisan media outlets and social media choices reinforce those identity lines.

A person watching CNN or MSNBC would find that “the world they’re reporting on is a different universe than the world Fox News is reporting on,” said longtime Republican strategist and pollster Whit Ayres.

“You have the ability to listen to only those outlets that reinforce what you already think” and emphasize “the rightness and goodness of your side and the evil and wrongness of the other side.”

Polling provides extensive evidence of the strain that sort of partisanship causes. Almost two-thirds of Americans, 63%, say that when they talk about politics with people with whom they disagree, they find they have less in common than they thought, according to a recent survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

Over half of Americans, 53%, say they find such political conversations “stressful and frustrating,” Pew found.

That number has grown since 2016, when partisan divisions already ran deep. That year, Pew found that about half of people surveyed in each party said the other side made them feel “afraid.” More than 4 in 10 said the other party’s positions were “so misguided that they threaten the nation’s well-being.”

“If the other side is not just misguided, but evil, then compromise becomes all but impossible,” Ayres said.

At the extreme, belief that the opposing party represents a threat becomes a justification for political violence, said Mason. The share that sees violence as potentially justified remains small, only in single digits, research indicates, but “that’s still millions of people,” she said.

Democrats take the House, Republicans hold the Senate in split-screen midterm vote »

The issue that best encapsulates the way those divisive trends have shaped politics is the one Trump chose to focus on in the closing weeks of the campaign: immigration.

Since the last major overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws more than 20 years ago, opposition to high levels of immigration has become a core part of the Republican message, starting with denunciations of illegal entries, but expanding in the last few years to legal immigration as well.

Attitudes toward immigration formed some of the strongest predictors of a vote for Trump in 2016. Since he took office, the issue has defined much of his tenure, from the travel ban in his first month to family separations on the border this summer and denunciations of immigrant caravans this fall.

During the tenures of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, groups of lawmakers tried to strike immigration compromises in the old style — horsetrading over specific policies — only to discover that the issue had taken on a visceral, emotional symbolism that made such agreements impossible.

Trump’s raw attacks on immigrants have cemented the loyalty of many of his supporters. But that has come at the price of alienating many other voters, especially college-educated white suburbanites who see diversity and tolerance of differences as important values, and who also feel little economic threat from immigrant labor.

When party coalitions become defined so much by identity and values, bringing new groups into the tent becomes a fraught exercise, said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman.

“Everyone assumes that everybody else is immutable except the group you’re interested in,” Mellman said. “They say, ‘Oh, we’ll bring in this group and add them,’ but things move. When you bring in one group, you alienate other people.”

Eventually, if history provides a guide, the country’s political stalemate will end.

Many Democratic strategists believe that despite Trump’s victory in 2016, his dependence on older voters and the Democrats’ strong advantage with younger ones means that Republican power can’t last.

“The Republican party is driving itself off the cliff in battling the trends in the country,” said Democratic strategist Stan Greenberg, who was Clinton’s pollster during his presidency. “They’ve bottled up addressing any of our problems, and when the crash comes, it will usher in an era of reform.”

That could happen, but as Brookings Institution scholar William Galston said, periods of lengthy political stalemate don’t sort themselves out easily.

In 2016, Trump’s election “broke up a frozen party system,” he said. Tuesday’s election provided “our first snapshot” of what may come next, he said, adding, “It’s going to take a while for a new structure to form.”

(Los Angeles Times)

ACCORDING to wire service reports, civil rights groups and election officials have been deluged with thousands of reports of voting irregularities. The complaints began as soon as the polls opened Tuesday that broken machines, rejected ballots and untrained poll workers were illegally interfering to deny the right to vote. A coalition of voting-rights organizations reported more than 10,000 calls by 11:30 a.m. The coalition has deployed about 6,500 lawyers and monitors across 30 states to protect ballot access - more than any previous election.

NOT A HINT of election monkey business in Boonville where Carolyn Short, Linda McClure, Bob Vaughn, Kathleen McKenna were monitoring the local vote.

McKenna on the turnout: Not just "pretty good," but "Pretty good!"

And indeed at noon the room had more than a dozen voters in it, so many that three or four voters had to use side tables to fill out their ballots because the four fold-out privacy booths were full. There were also four or five people in line waiting to get their ballots.

Bob Vaughn suggested that the Major drop the mail-in ballot he had pre-filled earlier Tuesday morning into "the side pocket."

"I already sank the nine-ball," the Major replied.

"Doesn't matter," said Vaughn, "all those go in the side pocket."

The side pocket of the ballot box was reserved for mail-in ballots being turned in on election day in their envelopes.

SOCIALIST STAR ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, 29, ROMPS HOME IN NEW YORK – TILTING HER PARTY TO THE LEFT AS SHE BECOMES YOUNGEST EVER WOMAN IN CONGRESS

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6361093/Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez-wins-House-seat-NY-14th-congressional-district.html

A MAGICAL EVENING

Dear Editor,

The Anderson Valley Foodshed would like to thank the Boonville Hotel (Melinda, Johnny and the wonderful staff) and all those who came out in support of local food and farmers, for our fundraising dinner. For those who weren't able to make it, it was a magical evening centered around an amazing dinner featuring all local ingredients prepared so skillfully by Rodney, Alexa and the chefs at the Hotel's Table 128 kitchen. Throughout the evening we heard from Erika McKenzie-Chapter, herd co-owner, dairy manager and head cheese maker at Pennyroyal Farms, and Doug Mosel from the Mendocino Grain Project. To hear them talk about their life's work and passion as we ate a delicious meal featuring the products of their labors was deeply nourishing to the body, heart and soul. There was an incredible mix of people who traveled from near and far to share in this meal and evening together. New friendships were made and many great conversations were had. Additional thanks go to Handley Cellars, Pennyroyal Farms and Sin Eater Cider for allowing us to taste your fine beverages throughout the meal and to Cloud Forest Institute for their fiscal support of AV Foodshed. And, of course, last but not least, thank you to the farmers who grow food in our communities and the eaters who support them, helping us to grow a robust and thriving local food economy here in Mendocino County.

Sincerely, Linda MacElwee / AV Foodshed
Boonville
www.avfoodshed.com
www.mendolocalfood.org

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Rest easy, America. I did some poll watching today, and I'm reporting I saw nothing amiss. Boonville people are straighter than straight! Hell, everyone in the County knows that.”

DURING THE (NOT-SO) ROSY “Economic Vitality” report presentation on Tuesday morning at the Supes meeting, “Visit Mendocino” Director Alison DeGrassi told the Board that the “year over year increase in Transient Occupancy was 5%,” and that, allegedly was a good thing, tourism is up — the implication, of course, being that the Visit Mendocino people are well worth the waste of money that should go to roads, cops and emergency services who really need it. Ms. DeGrassi said anyone who wanted to, could go to County Assessor’s Office’s webpage to verify that “year over year” percentage.

Guess what? Apart from the minor point that the TOT table is on the tax collector’s webpage, not the assessor’s, the numbers don’t add up. And they certainly don’t reflect that the promotional efforts have any effect whatsoever. As Ms. DeGrassi noted, some of the bed tax increase came from increased prices at local B&Bs, some because people were staying longer, and a good sized chunk was related to people displaced by fires in various ways and degrees and into the local fleabags, er, motels.

It turns out that the bed tax increase over the last three years is about 22.5%, or more than 7% “year over year.” But even then the amount on the Tax Collector’s page doesn’t match the “room occupancy tax” numbers on Auditor’s spreadsheet.

But the point that the promotional people never mention is that — apart from the fire displacements — the bed tax is historically highly correlated with overall economic activity as measured by the sales tax revenue. However, in the last three years the bed tax increase has been substantially lower than the sales tax increase which was a whopping 36%. (We don’t think that trend is likely to occur this year, btw.)

So, as usual, we get self-serving stats from the promotional people — stats skewed to justify the million or two dollars they get every year to pay toney wine and food people to attend wine tastings and place a few ads here and there, that the County should be spending on core services. It’s a kind of sanctioned theft of funds from more urgent services. Meanwhile, fire victims can’t even get a break on their rebuilding permit fees.

(Mark Scaramella)

7TH ANNUAL HOPLAND SHEEPDOG TRIALS THIS WEEKEND

Hopland Sheepdog Trials Celebrates 7th Year

“Away,” “to me,” and “that’ll do” are all terms that you are likely to hear in the Hopland hills over the weekend of November 10^th and 11^th as over 50 border collies compete in the 7^thannual Hopland Sheepdog Trials- two one-day United States Border Collie Handlers Association (USBCHA) sanctioned Open Trials hosted at the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center (HREC).

Handlers and their dogs will be traveling from all over the west to compete with their dog in this USBCHA sanctioned event in order to earn points to qualify for the National Sheepdog Finals. Competitions sanctioned by the USBCHA are called Sheep Dog Trials or ‘trials’. Individual dogs qualify to compete in ‘the Finals’ by accumulating points at USBCHA sanctioned trials such as this one throughout the year. The top 150 point earning dogs in North America are invited to test their skills against each other at the Final Championship competition in which only one sheepdog in all of North America earns the title of ‘National Finals Champion’.  That event rotates around the country was held in September of 2018 in Alturas, CA.

Border collies are widely acknowledged as the finest stock dogs in the world. This trial will showcase the highest abilities for which these dogs were bred. A sheepdog trial is designed to test a border collie’s intelligence, training and instinct.  The trial course begins with the dog leaving the handler’s side, casting out around the field (the outrun) to gather a small group of sheep that are approximately 400 yards away.  The dog brings the sheep back (the fetch) to and around the handler and then promptly drives the sheep away from the handler through a series of obstacles (the drive).  When the dog eventually returns the sheep back to the handler, the handler / dog team is required to separate the sheep (the shed) and then pen the sheep (the pen).  The majority of the commands are communicated through various whistle sounds (each sound having a particular meaning).  The dogs are also directed with voice (but never with hand signals).

The trial course and it’s judging remain essentially unchanged from similar competitions held in Great Britain under the sanction of the International Sheep Dog Society. From their ancestral home, border collies have spread to stock raising countries across the globe. Along with them has traveled the competitive sport of sheep dog trialing.

“HREC is one of 9 centers across the state owned by the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources division. Our site covers over 5,300 acres of oak woodland and chaparral that has been a working sheep ranch for over 60 years. Sheepdogs and highly talented shepherds are vital to the successful running of a flock and we are thrilled to offer the chance for local shepherds and their dogs to show us how it is done!” commented Hannah Bird, Community Educator at HREC.

The public are invited to attend as spectators between the hours of 10am-2pm on Saturday November 10^th or Sunday November 11^th.

Spectator admission is $5 (online registration or checks preferred). HREC asks visitors to leave their pets at home. Non-participating dogs will not be allowed on-site in order to protect the livestock, herding dogs, and the operation of the trial. Hot food and drinks will be available from the Slam Dunk Pizza Truck.

Visit http://hrec.ucanr.edu/ to find out more and purchase your ticket. The Hopland Sheepdog Trials 2018 will be held at the Hopland Research and Extension Center, 4070 University Road, Hopland, CA 95449. For more information contact Hannah Bird, (707) 744-1424, Ext. 105, hbird@ucanr.edu.

More on the University of California Hopland Research and Extension Center:

The Hopland Research and Extension Center is a multi-disciplinary research and education facility run by the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources Division. As stewards of more than 5,300 acres of oak woodland, grassland, chaparral, and riparian environments their mission is to find better ways to manage our natural resources and conduct sustainable agricultural practices, through science, for the benefit of California’s citizens.

More on the University of California Cooperative Extension:

UC Cooperative Extension is best described as a vast network of UC researchers and educators who work together to develop and provide science-based information to solve locally-relevant economic, agricultural, natural resource, youth development and nutrition issues.

Nestled within the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, our CE advisors live and work in every California county, applying research from the University of California to help local businesses and entire communities thrive. In turn, our experts partner with local innovators to develop and disseminate best practices through UC’s expansive local and global networks. Some of our programs include 4-H Youth Development, Master Gardeners, Expanded Food and Nutrition Education, and the Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program.

AUTHORITIES ARE CRACKING DOWN on small boats that have anchored off Sausalito, where the number of vessels that sit motionless away from shore has doubled over the last year amid a housing crisis in the Bay Area.

pressdemocrat.com/news/8919406-181/officials-crack-down-on-small

TUNED in the Supervisors this morning just as an attorney from, I believe, the Deadbeat Dad's office across the street from the County Courthouse repeated several times that the office "regularly interfaces" with this or that agency. The building was a drugstore prior to becoming a kind of jobs program for under-employed lawyers. Next door was the local baking outfit where an elderly couple ran the City Bakery, home of the best brownies ever. It was always 1950 at City Bakery. The drift of the insane conversation I was distractedly monitoring seemed to be that deadbeat collections were down. I shouldn't wonder. Former Undersheriff Randy Johnson was seated at the presentation table. He's the agency boss, and how he got the job remains a mystery, but I suppose it's safe to say Johnson is sweetening his retirement pot and someone didn't have to pull the strings too hard to install him in this particular sinecure. The lady talking about successful interfacing was lobbying for another attorney to remain in position. (The County operates strictly on the Buddy Plan.) It all suddenly became painful. "I'm old," I thought. "On time borrowed from the Reaper, and way behind in my payments. It's beautiful outside, and here I am interfacing with people and processes representing death itself." I slapped my computer shut, jumped from my chair, flung open my office door and… breathed in the cool winter air. And went back inside to interface some more.

CHP OFFICER LOCATES MISSING MOTORCYCLIST

LAKE COUNTY, CA. – On the evening of Monday, November 5, 2018, at approximately 6:45 P.M., the California Highway Patrol (CHP) Ukiah Communication Center (UCC) received a call of a missing motorcycle rider.  Jeremey Piner called UCC relating he and Christopher Parlamento had been riding motorcycles together that day in Lake and Napa Counties.  At some point along Butts Canyon Road the two became separated.  Mr. Piner had last seen his friend at approximately 4:15 P.M.  Concerned for his friend, Mr. Piner back tracked multiple times looking for him, but was unable to locate Parlamento.  Not having cell phone reception, Mr. Piner continued on into Napa County.  Once he had cell phone reception, he called the CHP for help on locating Mr. Parlamento.

The CHP Ukiah Communication Center immediately relayed the information to CHP units in the Clear Lake Area.  Officer Shawn Bertram acknowledged the call and began searching for the missing motorcyclist.  Just before 7:30 P.M., Officer Bertram was on Butts Canyon Road, near the Napa County line when he heard someone calling for help.  Officer Bertram located Mr. Parlamento who had driven his motorcycle off the road and collided with a tree stump.  As a result of the collision, Mr. Parlamento suffered major injuries.  Officer Bertram requested additional medical personnel to the scene for assistance.  Reach Air Ambulance responded, and transported Mr. Parlamento to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for treatment of his injuries.

“The California Highway Patrol is committed to providing the highest level of safety, service, and security to the people of California and today we were able to do just that.  Though we are sympathetic towards Mr. Parlamento’s injuries, we are grateful to Mr. Piner for calling on us, and to Officer Bertram for doing what he always does, serving the Lake County communities by locating and ensuring Mr. Parlamento’s safety,” said CHP Clear Lake Area Commander Lieutenant Randy England.

* * *

MENDOCINO COLLEGE COACH, WIFE ARRESTED ON SUSPICION OF CHILD ENDANGERMENT

A Mendocino College coach and his wife, a spokeswoman at the school, were arrested late last month after a fight in which the man supposedly fired a shotgun round into the couple’s ceiling in front of their young children, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday afternoon.

pressdemocrat.com/news/8921093-181/mendocino-college-coach-wife-arrested

ON-LINE DOESN’T COUNT

Dear Editor,

MCOE subscribed to the online version of the AVA. We look forward to reading the informative articles your writers produce.

Michelle Hutchins, Interim Superintendent

ITEM 7b on the Fort Bragg City Council’s agenda for November 13:

7B. 18-446

Receive Report and Consider Adoption of City Council Resolution Declaring a Shelter Crisis Pursuant to Government Code Section 8698.2

11132018 Shelter Crisis Att 1 - RESO Shelter Crisis

Receive Report and Provide Direction to Staff Regarding Submitting a HEAP Grant Request to the Continuum of Care for Either: 1) A $2.5 Million Grant for an 82-Unit Affordable Housing Project Consisting of 30 Units of Affordable Senior Housing, 24 Units of Permanently Supportive Housing for Homeless Veterans, Seniors and Families and 28 Units of Affordable Workforce Housing; or 2) A $1.5 Million Grant for a 44-Unit Affordable Housing Project Consisting of 14 Units of Market Rate Housing, 15 Units of Affordable Senior Housing and 15 Units of PSH for Homeless Veterans and Seniors

WE ARE NOT ALONE! Those of you grasping at cosmic straws will be pleased to know that some Harvard University astronomers say a mysterious cigar-shaped object spotted hurtling through our solar system at 196,000 mph last year may have been an alien spacecraft sent to investigate Earth. Scientists have argued about the nature of the object since it was first discovered in October 2017. But researchers at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics suggests the dark-red object, which was named “Oumuamua,” meaning “a messenger that reaches out from the distant past” in Hawaiian, might have an “artificial origin.” The paper explains: “‘Oumuamua’ may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth’s vicinity by an alien civilization.” However, the astronomers admit this is an “exotic scenario” and also suggest it could be a form of advanced technology produced by humans.

CATCH OF THE DAY, November 6, 2018

PATRICK COLLINS, San Diego/Redwood Valley. DUI.

PETER COLLINS, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

TREVOR COOPER, Redwood Valley. Pot possession for sale, honey oil extraction, probation revocation.

ESTEBAN GAETA, Fort Bragg. Domestic abuse.

TRAVIS HAWK, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

CHRISTOPHER HENSON, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

ANDREW HOLM, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

AMBER KING, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear.

AMANDO LIMAS, Redwood Valley. DUI.

KRISTINA MACKEY, Clearlake Oaks/Ukiah. Battery.

JOSH RUCKER, Fort Bragg. Battery, domestic abuse.

CHRISTINE SEIGLER, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

IT IS A CONSPIRACY

Editor:

I’m an old man with Medicare Part D drug insurance. I shop at a local chain food market pharmacy. One of my prescriptions results in an $80.03 co-pay. They sell that drug for $225.69 cash. I found another chain store that sells it for $21.69 cash. I later found a website that allows me to print coupons so that the pharmacy I’ve been shopping at will sell it for $15.72 cash. Unbelievable is the only printable word that comes to mind.

At first glance, it seems the insurance company would insist I buy the drug for less, as that should mean they’d pay less. Not so, evidently. The only explanation I can dredge up is there is a conspiracy perpetrated by the U.S. government, big pharma, insurers and the pharmacies and abetted by the high percentage of citizens who don’t register to vote and those who are registered but don’t vote. Yes, the 1 percent has 99 percent of the power, but the 99 percent has 99 percent of the votes. Unfortunately, more than half of these are wasted.

Wake up, America. Let’s get money out of politics so our representatives can consider what’s best for the country rather than for their large donors. At least, get out and vote.

Aaron Rosen

Sebastopol

FACEBOOK HAS ADMITTED that it didn’t do enough to prevent the incitement of violence and hate speech in Myanmar following a report that concluded it was used as a platform for harmful and racially inflammatory content. The report was carried out by San Francisco-based nonprofit Business for Social Responsibility and it found: “Facebook has become a means for those seeking to spread hate and cause harm, and posts have been linked to offline violence.” Facebook was used to incite violence and coordinate harm in Myanmar—much of which was directed toward the Rohingya, the Muslim minority in that country. Alex Warofka, Facebook product policy manager, said the report showed that “prior to this year, we weren’t doing enough to help prevent our platform from being used to foment division and incite offline violence. We agree that we can and should do more.” The company said it had hired 100 native speakers to review Myanmar content and that, in 2018, it took down 64,000 pieces of content.

(TheDailyBeast)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Maybe it’s just me but I keep seeing people texting even on the narrow 2 lane parts of 101. They start drifting towards the edge then overcorrecting, it feels super dangerous to be driving behind that.

Those console video screens for radio, etc. are pretty damn distracting too.

You can’t look away on these narrower areas in particular — wait for a pullout please! There’s nothing between you and a car coming the other way besides two lines of paint and some reflectors. Much of 101 was not designed for high speed driving.

It’s not just the highway, read the comments of the pedestrian hit in McKinleyville — witness saw driver on phone not paying attention.

How do we deal with this problem? For real, does anyone have ideas?

HAVING RESENTMENT is like letting someone live rent-free in your head. Whether you are right or wrong, you are wallowing in low-level insanity.

— Jon Carroll

“We should reward ourselves after this with a new Congress.”

NOT ON THE AGENDA – America’s Wars Are a Non-Factor in Today’s Midterm Elections

"So where does the U.S. currently stand on foreign policy today? Well, it is actively bombing seven countries, has up to 800 military bases in 80 countries, has combat troops, special forces, drones and/or advisors on the ground in (or in the skies above) Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, West Africa, Libya and Pakistan, among others. Occasionally, American service-members are still dying across the Middle East – often in treacherous insider attacks, in which they very people we "advise and assist" turn their weapons on our troops. Furthermore, it is unclear that the US is either "winning" – whatever that means anymore – or accomplishing anything of note in any of these locales."

original.antiwar.com/danny_sjursen/2018/11/05/2012334409

TWO MUSICIANS WITH MENDOCINO COUNTY CONNECTIONS RETURN TO PRESTON HALL FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT IN THE OPUS CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES

Mendocino, Calif. – November 6, 2018 – Opus Chamber Music favorites Matthew Miksak, bass-baritone, and Carole Barnes, piano, will present the last of Schubert's song cycles, a setting of twenty-four poems by Wilhelm Müller, Winterreise (Winter's Journey). The concert will take place on Sunday, November 18, 3pm at Preston Hall in Mendocino. Miksak and Barnes have previously performed another one of Schubert's song cycles together, Die Schoene Mullerin, and they are thrilled to perform together again for the November concert.

Schubert’s Winterreise is regarded as one of his greatest achievements and represents a devastating period in the composer’s life. “He was in the early stages of syphilis and was extremely depressed,” said Miksak. As he was coming to terms with his death sentence, Schubert stumbled across a book of Wilhelm Müller poems, which inspired the creation of this composition. “The first 12 songs have to do with the protagonist’s painful loss of a relationship with a woman he deeply loved,” Miksak explained. “In the second half of the song cycle, he begins to lose touch with reality and contemplates the purpose of life.” Schubert and Müller were contemporaries, and both died at a young age. Ironically, Müller hoped someone would set his poem to music, but he never met Schubert nor heard any of his compositions.

Barnes and Miksak are both frequent performers in the Mendocino county area. Barnes is an active chamber musician, and has performed at Mendocino’s Preston Hall, the Mendocino Art Center and at other public venues and house concerts in northern California. “Mendocino has a very active music community, which has provided many opportunities for music making with both instrumentalists and singers,” said Barnes. Miksak, a Mendocino local, performed the role of Don Quixote in the Gloriana production of The Man of La Mancha, as well as the role of the Toreador in Bizet’s Carmen during the 2010 Mendocino Music Festival.

All Opus Chamber Music concerts will be at Preston Hall, 44867 Main St, Mendocino. Advance single concert tickets are available for $22 online at symphonyoftheredwoods.org, at Harvest Market in Fort Bragg and Out of This World in Mendocino. Tickets at the door are $25. Attendees ages 18 and under are always free. For more information, please contact our general manager, Ellen Persa, at 707-946-0898 or symphony@mcn.org. Like Opus Chamber Music on Facebook at www.facebook.com/opuschambermusic.

Carole Barnes and Matthew Miksak

THIS RED HOT ITEM, not sourced, is also circulating on the internet, but I'd guess it's more rightwing propaganda suggesting that Christine Blasey's testimony during the Kavanaugh hearings was a lib sab job aimed at sabotaging Kavanaugh. Seems from here that the judge sabbed himself via his unhinged testimony, but there he is on "the highest court of the land."

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Who Is Dr. Christine Blasey Ford?

Besides being a self-appointed “professor” at Palo Alto University -- an "off brand" institution -- she also works at a major university down the street from Palo Alto. She just so happens to head up the CIA undergraduate internship program at Stanford University.

Christine Blasey’s brother, Ralph III, once worked for the international law firm of baker, Hostetler. The firm created "Fusion GPS", the company who wrote the Russian “dossier”. They later admitted it was only a collection of field interviews.

Baker Hostetler is located in the same building where the CIA operates three companies, including:

Red Coats inc

Admiral Security Services

Datawatch

All three companies are operated by Ralph Blasey II. He is the father of Christine and Ralph III.

Christine’s grandfather was Nicholas Deak. In the past, former CIA director William Casey has publicly acknowledged Deak’s decades of service to the CIA.

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"ON BRETT KAVANAUGH'S first day as justice, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal to a ruling written by Kavanaugh himself in 2017 when he was an appellate court judge. Kavanaugh had determined that the EPA lacked the authority under the Clean Air Act to enforce an Obama administration rule regulating hydrofluorocarbons, industrial chemicals that deplete the ozone. And so it begins."

— Eliot Weinberger, Ten Typical Days in Trump's America