Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018

• Day Job
• Mayor Mo
• Big Band
• Body Found
• Sunset
• Tabatha Report
• Councilmembers
• Trustee Xochilt
• Geezer Tip
• Little Dog
• Recommended Viewing
• Kenyan Art
• Barajas Hung
• Porn Filters
• Hands-on
• Oil Consumption
• Corporate Orientation
• Illegal Dumping
• Public Health
• CEO/CAO
• Christmas Spaghetti
• Yesterday's Catch
• Chomsky 89
• Mueller Report
• Life Support
• Independent Living
• Riot News
• Tobacco/Cannabis
• Dog Rescue
• Vegetarian Diet
• Calvin Christmas
• Immigrant Myths
• Inshield Wiper
• Doomsday Thermometer
• Marco Radio
• Found Object

TRAVIS R. STRICKLAND, 37, of Ukiah was caught leaving a Cloverdale bank robbery. He is also a prime suspect in last summer’s robbery of the Chase Bank on South State Street in Ukiah. Mendocino DA David Eyster, however, says he has yet to be apprised of a plan to prosecute Travis Strickland in Mendocino County, but expects to be notified by Monday.

Your trusty correspondent knows Travis pretty well, because he used to tend the bar at Ukiah’s downtown Saucy Restaurant – now called Cultivo.

So I knew Travis pretty well, I say, but not enough to avoid being shocked to find he was moonlighting as a bank robber.

* * *

In other Ukiah news, Maureen “Mo” Mulheren is Ukiah’s new mayor. She gave me the news herself when I delivered her paper to her on Thursday. “Guess what happened last night?” I couldn’t begin to guess, and felt somewhat in peril of being told I’d drank to excess and misbehaved in some way, so I waited, and she said, “They made me Mayor.”

“Who made you Mayor?”

“The People!”

“Congrats, Your Honor! Very glad for you.”

Well, I wonder what Phil Baldwin and his council of Old Fuddy Duddies will make of that, after their letter-writing campaign to the AVA against “Mo”? I’ll just go to Schat’s and see if they glare at me with their communal Evil-Eye, like they did before when I came out in support of Mo for city council, which she so handily won.

(Bruce McEwen)

IN OTHER UKIAH NEWS, Maureen “Mo” Mulheren is Ukiah’s new mayor. She gave me the news herself when I delivered her paper to her on Thursday. “Guess what happened last night?” I couldn’t begin to guess, and felt somewhat in peril of being told I’d drank to excess and misbehaved in some way, so I waited, and she said, “They made me Mayor.”

“Who made you Mayor?”

“The People!”

“Congrats, Your Honor! Very glad for you.”

Well, I wonder what Phil Baldwin and his council of Old Fuddy Duddies will make of that, after their letter-writing campaign to the AVA against “Mo”? I’ll just go to Schat’s and see if they glare at me with their communal Evil-Eye, like they did before when I came out in support of Mo for city council, which she so handily won.

(Bruce McEwen)

DEAD MAN FOUND ON EEL RIVER NEAR PIERCY

On 12/5/2018 at approximately 12:39 PM the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office received a call related to found human remains in the South Fork of the Eel River, just south of the Humboldt/Mendocino County line in Piercy. The body was first observed by a wildlife photographer around 9:00 AM but the photographer did not recognize it as human remains at first, thinking it might have been a deceased animal. The photographer later examined the photographs and showed them to a friend where they decided to contacted a member of the Southern Humboldt Technical Rescue Team (SHTRT) about their concern. SHTRT notified the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office and then responded to the location with a swift water team to assist in confirming if there was a human body and if so, to assist in body recovery. The SHTRT entered the river with a raft and navigated to a closer vantage point where it was confirmed to be a human body entangled in branches of a downed tree laying partially in the water of the Eel River. The SHTRT was able to free the body unclothed except for sneakers, from the tree branches and then navigate back to the shoreline. The body appeared to be that of a white male adult, over 6 feet tall, with a heavy build, approximately 50 years of age. The decedent appeared to have been in the water for a week or more and did not have any identification on him. On 12/6/2018 the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office was contacted by a family member of a missing adult male from Santa Rosa. The family member advised they heard of the story on a local news outlet. This family member indicated her brother had visited her in Eureka and was last seen leaving to go back to his home in Santa Rosa. This was in mid-November and her brother had not been seen or heard from since then. The Santa Rosa Police Department does have an active missing persons investigation on the caller's brother. The missing person matches the description of the male who was recovered. The missing persons vehicle was later located near Confusion Hill, approximately 6 miles upstream from where the body was located. The cause of death is not yet known and an autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday 12/11/2018. No further information will be released about the recovered body or the missing person's identity until the remains are positively identified.

(Sheriff’s Press Release)

PUDDING CREEK SUNSET

(Photos by Dick Whetstone)

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW

by Tabatha Miller, Fort Bragg City Manager

On December 10, 2018, we will say goodbye to Councilmembers Dave Turner and Michael Cimolino and welcome new Councilmembers Tess Albin-Smith and Jessica Morsell-Haye. Current Mayor Lindy Peters won reelection and will remain on the City Council for another four years. One of the obvious changes that has gotten quite a bit of attention, is that two women will replace two men on the City Council. Having spent the spring and summer discussing district election systems and preferred candidates, it is nice to see a more diverse City Council.

All that said, I want to voice my gratitude to the current City Council. These are the five men who hired me and have supported me over the last nine months. Each of these gentlemen works hard (both at their normal jobs and the City), cares deeply about their community and have given a lot. They are paid little - $300 per month and an additional $100 per month when Fort Bragg Municipal Improvement District No. 1 business is transacted, plus health insurance. The Agenda Packet for a single City Council meeting can exceed 450 pages, which means Councilmembers spend a good portion of every other weekend preparing for the Monday night meeting. Additionally, each Councilmember is assigned to committees, appointments and other official duties.

In particular, both Councilmembers Turner and Cimolino deserve special recognition for their service. Dave Turner has served the City for eighteen (18) years. Two (2) as a Planning Commissioner and sixteen (16) as a City Councilmember. I am new to the City but can see the work (the Coastal Trail, Dry Sheds, Noyo Center, Summers Lane Reservoir and Sister City program just to start) that has been accomplished with Dave serving on the Council and with his leadership as Mayor. Thanks Dave! Michael Cimolino worked for the City for eighteen (18) years, then served as City Councilmember for four (4). Q-Ball knows where everything is, why it is there and who to call if you need it fixed. After he leaves town, I am not sure who we will call in an emergency. (Actually we will still call him). Thank you Q.

At Town Hall on December 10th at 5:30 p.m., the City will have a reception thanking Dave Turner and Michael Cimolino for their service and welcoming Tess Albin-Smith and Jessica Morsell-Haye to the City Council. Please join us for light refreshments. Following the reception, during the regularly scheduled City Council meeting, the new Councilmembers will be sworn in and the City Councilmembers themselves will select a Mayor.

(Tabatha Miller, Fort Bragg City Manager)

Councilmembers Will Lee, Jessica Morsell-Haye, Tess Albin-Smith, and Lindy Peters (not pictured, Bernie Norvell) at the Holiday Lights Parade

XOCHILT (pronounced Zoe-Chi) DE MARTINEZ has won a seat on the Mendocino College Board of Trustees, having been dismissed out-of-hand early on, with a 20-vote deficit, in the end she finished with a win after all the votes were finally counted. Since 1972 -- despite all the noise about Diversity and Inclusiveness -- she's the first person of color to serve on the prestigious local college board. (Bruce McEwen)

* * *

BIO:

Xochilt Morales de Martinez, MSN (Masters in Nursing), FNP (Family Nurse Practitioner), PMHNP-BC

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

Education:

2001-2003 MA in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy

1988-1991 MSN-International Cross-Cuitural Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, CA

1985-1987 FNP/PA University of Caiifomia, Davis, CA

BSN (Bachelor of Science, Nursing), Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA

GEEZER TIP. The Duluth Trading Company is an on-line store that sells a range of useful stuff for men, including toe clippers for big, gnarly nails, roomy clothing including underwear, knives up to machetes, seductive gizmos of all kinds. I just got a pair on non-prescription reading glasses, magnitude 5. The store bought jobs only magnify up to 2.5. The 5.0 jobs blow up small print like most of us need — big. I also bought a couple of knives that was a pure impulse buy. My wife hides the catalog from me, and every time I order something my wife says something like, "How old are you, anyway?"

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “People ask, ‘Must be a pretty interesting place to work, huh Little Dog? Lots of lively talk, interesting visitors?’ Not really, unless you enjoy a steady flow of pure negativity, and on top of the verbals you've got a constant visual of the two laziest cats in all of Mendocino County!"

RECOMMENDED VIEWING: The Fear of 13, a British documentary about a charismatic American, Nick Yarris, who was convicted of murder and spent 21 years on Death Row in Pennsylvania for a crime he didn't commit. Yarris tells his own fascinating story of life as a condemned man, with an especially touching account of how he educated himself during his years on death row, having been a full-time car thief and dope head until, at age 21, he was arrested for two crimes he didn't commit. Acquitted on one, but falsely convicted of capital murder, Yarris was finally released in 2004 when DNA evidence proved he was innocent of the rape and murder of a Philadelphia woman. Yarris's story can't help but make the viewer wonder how many people have been executed and/or spent years in prison for crimes they didn't commit before DNA kicked in as the slam dunk evidentiary tool it has since become.

KEEVAN LABOWITZ has once again brought us art, crafts & handmade cards from Kenya in his continuing effort to support Equip Manyatta.

This charity was created to assist a community based organization in Western Kenya, the Manyatta Youth Resource Center. (MYRC) The mission of MYRC is to increase opportunities for youth living in the slums of Manyatta Kisumu to participate in sporting activities and performing arts, to provide health education, support school attendance and build the organization into a self sustaining enterprise.

The art you purchase this month at Lauren's Restaurant in downtown Boonville will help support the individual artists, as well as support Keevan's work with Equip Manyatta. Please come take a look. (Lauren’s Restaurant)

THE RAPE TRIAL FOR ZACHARY BARAJAS, represented by Kevin Davenport, ended in a hung jury Friday. This was the second time the jury could not agree. Waiting for the murder trial upstairs to get started I sat in on some of the Barajas trial, such as the testimony of the victim; and the testimony of the accused. I, of course, didn’t have to decide, but it was known to Mr. Barajas early the next morning that the girl — a junior-classman he hadn’t seen since he graduated Ukiah High School — and who he allegedly raped their first night out together, although they’d never been close in school — well, first thing next morning his own family came to him demanding to know, "What's all this about you raping that girl?"

When the cops came to his work at Home Depot, Barajas lied to Detective Michele Maldonado, and later told the jury he had lied then because he was afraid of being accused of statutory rape, since the vic was only 17 (and pregnant) at the time.

The SARS (Sexual Assault) nurse at the hospital collected Mr. Barajas’ DNA, and Officer Andrew Phillips of the Ukiah PD had a matching sample from Mr. Barajas. Barajas then changed his story, saying it was all consensual.

Chief Prosecutor Dale Trigg immediately re-filed the charges, and a third jury trial for Barajas was set.

(Bruce McEwen)

SURPRISING DEVELOPMENT on some of America's high-end college campuses. 80 male students at Notre Dame have demanded a porn filter on campus WiFi. There's an abundance of evidence that sex criminals, and the radical increase of their numbers, have been encouraged in ensuing criminal sexual assaults by hours spent gazing at on-line pornography. The anti-porn movement is spreading among college students, at least at Catholic universities.

WHILE WE'RE TALKING SEX, I was surprised to see a segment on KGO Television the other night that featured a 7-year-old boy talking about his life as a transgender, talking about his transformation in celebratory adult language as he has obviously learned from his dingbat mother as she beamed back at the camera. A double ding proprietor of a camp for child changelings praised the "safe place for transgender children" she is allegedly providing. It was all more evidence that this country has irrevocably lost its way. Really, how many 7-year-olds do you know who even think about their sex, let alone want to change it?

(From the Daily Beast):

The letter was quickly followed by a response from more than 60 “women of Notre Dame,” who argued that pornography’s prevalence on campus was “preventing men and women from encountering the full personhood of one another in friendships and relationships.”

The proposal’s popularity made headlines in the conservative National Review and the frat-boy favorite Barstool Sports. The student senate discussed it at a recent meeting, according to the Observer, and Martinson said he broached the idea with administrators at the “top of the university.”

“The university has been very receptive,” Martinson said. “I'm confident that we'll be able to get it done by the end of the year.” Notre Dame officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Campus porn filters aren’t a totally new idea. Michael Griffin, senior vice president of Holy Cross College, told the Observer the school had installed one 15 years ago to save bandwidth, but kept it in place for moral reasons. Northern Illinois University attempted a similar ban in 2014, according to the Northern Star, but later revised it to cover only employees. Private companies like McDonalds, Panera, and Starbucks have all installed similar filters on their public Wi-Fi networks.

Whether porn is actually a problem on campus, however, is debatable. Martinson said he began advocating for the filter after hearing from male classmates who were struggling with pornography addiction. But a 2013 study found that the average college student engaged in “arousal-oriented online sexual activity” less than once or twice per month. A 2014 study of students across four countries found that 76 percent had viewed online “sexual entertainment” in their lifetimes, but showed “relatively infrequent experience” with the subject matter in the previous three months.

There’s also little evidence that porn consumption leads to negative treatment of women. A 2007 study from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia found that the amount of pornography viewed did not predict negative attitudes toward women. And as some experts have pointed out, the rate of sexual assault has decreased in recent decades, even as porn use has soared.

In fact, research shows that whether or not someone thinks of pornography as a problem is closely tied to how religious they are. A 2014 study, for example, found that religiosity and moral disapproval were the best predictors of perceived addiction to porn, but were completely unrelated to actual levels of use.

It’s no surprise then, that the push for porn filters comes from a religious segment of campus. The Notre Dame letter, for example, was part of a yearly anti-porn campaign by a campus group called the Students for Child Oriented Policy (SCOP). The group advertises itself as nonpartisan and nonsectarian, but has hosted several anti-abortion talks on campus and once circulated a petition asking Notre Dame to take a “clear stand” against same-sex marriage. Irvine, meanwhile, is president of a pro-heterosexual-marriage campus group that has been accused of promoting intolerance against LGBTQ students.

Martinson said the religious aspect was important to him personally, but that he preferred to focus on the issues of addiction and objectification of women. “It’s really important to frame things from a secular perspective because you just appeal to more people,” he said.

One Harvard student who reached out to Martinson about the filter is a converted Catholic and co-president of the Anscombe Society, which advocates for “premarital abstinence and sexual integrity.” (The group is also strongly opposed to same-sex marriage.) Will Long—a computer science and government major who recently penned an op-ed for The Harvard Crimson on “recovering the beauty of sex”—linked the use of pornography to campus hookup culture and dating apps, which he said corrode relationships between students.

This kind of moral disdain for porn isn’t new for religious conservatives, who’ve made it central to their political campaigns for decades. But the new campus anti-porn crowd is refreshing their moral arguments with the language of the #MeToo and anti-campus-rape movements, repeating familiar feminist talking points about the objectification of women and how pornography focuses predominantly on male pleasure.

Every student who spoke with The Daily Beast mentioned the levels of violence against women displayed in modern pornography. (A third of all porn scenes showed perceived physical or psychological harm to another person, one recent study found.) While the students never claimed that porn directly caused sexual assault, several said they felt it contributed to the current cultural moment.

Jack Whelan, an anti-porn advocate at Princeton, pointed to a recent video asking men to distinguish between porn scenes and stories of sexual assault.

“It’s not hard to draw a connection between men viewing that type of pornography and men acting in similar ways towards women,” Whelan said. “I think that it’s much easier to objectify women and to not see them as people when you’re simply viewing them as objects of sexual pleasure.”

The words could have been taken from the mouths of second-wave feminists like Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, who mounted protests against the burgeoning porn industry of the 1980s. In fact, Long said he thought he could partner on this fight with the women’s center or “other left-leaning women's groups”—groups he said he usually would not count as allies. (The Harvard women’s center did not respond to a request for comment.)

Today’s feminists, however, seemed largely unexcited by the porn filter proposal. In a response to the men’s letter, Notre Dame student Jackie O'Brien wrote her own letter to the editor calling the idea “patronizing” and “degrading” to sex workers. Anne Jarrett—a Notre Dame gender studies major and self-described “obvious feminist”—urged the letter-writers to call their legislators or work for a campaign around sexual assault, rather than wasting their time banning porn.

“Rather than judging these consensual acts, let’s celebrate that people are practicing consent and communicating openly with their partner (on screen or off),” she wrote.

The women weren’t alone. The original porn filter proposal sparked six letters to the editor against the idea, as well as one satirical column calling for a filter on food porn and a rebuttal entitled “Give Me Pornhub Or Give Me Death.”

Peter Jeffery, a professor at the school, wrote to say that such a filter could prevent people with a porn addiction from speaking out and finding help. Richard G. Hoover, an alumnus from the class of 1974, said he disliked pornography but did not feel “censorship” was the answer.

Even the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education—which previously advocated for SCOP when it was denied club recognition over its stance on gay marriage—said the filter would earn its “red light” rating for infringing on freedom of speech.

“Most pornographic, sexually explicit, and offensive material is protected under the First Amendment,” the civil liberties group wrote. “As such, any institution that claims to protect free speech should not treat pornography substantially different than other protected speech.”

The students admitted that advocating for a ban on porn—or for more chaste sexual ethics in general—doesn’t make them popular on campus. Whelan said he largely confined his conversations on the subject to his close friends, while Irvine said she’d recently ended things with a suitor who she learned was watching porn.

And Long said he’d received dozens of critical messages after writing his op-ed, though it didn’t curb his enthusiasm for the porn filter. Being the go-to person for these issues on campus was isolating, he said—though not necessarily in a bad way.

“I think learning to hold on to something that you believe to be true and that you believe to be important and good,” he said. “It can have good effects on individuals if they choose to hold on to that truth."

GLOBAL GREENHOUSE-GAS EMISSIONS have been growing at an alarming rate in 2018, with scientists comparing the pace to a “speeding freight train,” The New York Times reports. Two studies published Wednesday warn that the rapid increase of carbon-dioxide emissions will likely bring about the most severe consequences of global warming sooner than expected. “We’ve seen oil use go up five years in a row,” Rob Jackson, a professor of earth system science at Stanford who authored one of the two studies, told the Times. “That’s really surprising.” The new research, published by the Global Carbon Project, predicts that carbon emissions worldwide will increase by 2.7 percent this year. Scientists also said the unexpected surge in oil consumption—which has offset progress made by the sale of electric vehicles—is partly to blame.

HOW TO REPORT ILLEGAL DUMPING in Mendocino County and other helpful info

(Thanks to Supervisor Dan Gjerde for sharing this important info in Facebook. — Laurie York)

Illegal dumping is a crime and turns our beautiful communities into unsightly messes.

If you see illegal dump sites in your community, be sure to let us know. Take a picture if you can and note the exact location using an address, a mile marker, or GPS coordinates from your phone as well as the approximate size of the dump site, and what kinds of materials it contains. You can report illegal dump sites using our online reporting tool or you can give us a call.

If you see illegal dumping occurring, please make note of the same information as above, in addition to the color, make and model, the license plates of the involved vehicles, and a description of any persons you observe. Pictures can also be helpful. Be aware that you are witnessing a crime take place and make sure to protect your own safety first. Do not attempt to stop the dumping or apprehend anyone involved. Provide the information about the illegal dumping to the County or City code enforcement office or local law enforcement first, then report the dump site to us.

What do you do if somebody has illegally dumped trash onto your property?

Unauthorized dumping on your personal property is a crime. Contact your local law and/or code enforcement with information regarding the dumping on your property. If the responsible party cannot be found, you are responsible for cleanup. You may consider contacting your insurance company to inquire about property cleanup coverage.

Recycling, composting, and waste prevention are ways to cut trash costs. But some people haven’t gotten the message. They dump their trash illegally on the roadside. The cumulative impact of illegal dumping can have a devastating impact on fish and other wildlife in the area. Our local creeks have a variety of problems, including storm water runoff containing numerous pollutants, illegal trash dumping, illegal waste water discharges, and riparian habitat destruction.

Illegal trash dumping is a persistent problem that costs money and creates a bad impression for tourists. Unauthorized dumps also can become breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Dumping waste such as discarded trash, oil, appliances, scrap tires, furniture and other items on private or public land and waterways is strictly prohibited by law. In addition to being unsightly, illegal dumps can pose health and safety hazards to people and wildlife.

Litter isn’t just unsightly, it’s illegal, unhealthy and wasteful. Numerous laws exist to prohibit littering and illegal dumping. Under California law, litter is any trash thrown, discarded or dropped by a person onto public property, private property not owned by the individual, or into our waterways. Trash dumping is a crime that is punishable by a fine of $1000 and in some cases jail.

If you witness illegal dumping, a vehicle license number and description of people involved is needed by law enforcement to make a citation. Law enforcement should be called immediately.

Individuals and community groups that want to clean up illegal dumping can obtain assistance from the Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority.

Click this link to report illegal dumping: mendorecycle.org/IllegalDumping/Report

WHAT HAPPENED TO PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY AND RESOURCES?

You probably didn’t know that Mendo has a standing committee called Public Health, Safety and Resources. The Committee is made up of Supervisors John McCowen and Georgeanne Croskey. Their last meeting was back in February. All subsequent meetings have been cancelled without explanation.

You might think that this committee would feel some urgency to discuss the critical situation regarding oversight of local emergency ambulance services, languishing for years now, or the long delayed proposed consolidation of county dispatch services. Or the budgets for the agencies involved with “public health, safety and resources.”

INSTEAD we find that at that meeting last February, 10 months ago, the last one of 2018, the committee’s agenda had one item: “Discussion and Possible Action Regarding an Informational Presentation of Whole Person Care Pilot Program by the Health and Human Services Agency.”

THE PROGRAM had been in place for more than two years at the time of the presentation. According to Mendo’s Whole Person Care on line info it “provides the opportunity to expand dual diagnosis resources.”

“Population Served: Adults over the age of 18 who experience co-occurring Serious Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders.

“Services Provided: Mental Health and substance use disorder treatment assessment, treatment planning, crisis prevention and intervention, co-occurring disorders group, and individual counseling.

“Program Goals: Support individuals with a dual diagnosis of mental illness and substance use who endeavor to maintain a healthy lifestyle free of alcohol and other drugs.

“Program Evaluation Methods: The program staff conducts evaluation activities to document the number of persons served, including demographics, number of groups provided, and perception surveys. Data is reported throughout the year on all services provided. Data is reported by CSS age categories (Child, TAY, Adult, and Older Adults).”

DISMISSING the word salad about what they do or if they have accomplished anything, the key to the program, according to Supervisor John McCowen, was to raise the pay of the County’s substance abuse counselors so they could hire at least five more doers of good to do the important drug abuse counseling that feeds the info to the real purpose of the program: i.e., paying staff to produce paperwork back to the feds about how many people are spending the Whole Person money so they can pull down more money for themselves.

BUT most of the “work,” such as it may be, consists of handing the grant money over to Camille Schrader who takes her cut and then hands it over to local hospitals and clinics who are supposed to provide the “service" to “the most vulnerable adults in our community.”

THESE VULNERABLE PERSONS must be “Medi-Cal beneficiaries” who have mental health problems and who have a record of multiple contacts with health services, mainly more than ten ER visits per year. 45 people were identified for this status as of February. The giddy young woman presenter from Health and Human Services rhetorically asked, “What are they going to get besides a bunch of people sitting around and talking about them which is pretty much what happens?” Answer: Each “whole person” gets their own “wellness coach,” some “healthcare navigation” service, and a “care manager,” and maybe some short term residential vouchers.

SO BACK TO THIS SIMPLE POINT of addressing the pay scale of the substance abuse counselors. Supervisor McCowen made a point of referring this “important” question to the Board of Supervisors which, of course, doesn’t appear on any subsequent board agenda, nor does the subject of “Whole Person Care,” nor anything else related to this grant.

AND THAT was their last meeting. Every meeting since then has been cancelled. So much for Whole Person Care. Forget about ambulance services, dispatch or any other “public health, safety or resource” questions.

PS. If it seems to you that the same “whole persons” who make up the “most vulnerable adult community” are still appearing in the Sheriff’s Booking Log, or on State Street in Ukiah, or Main Street in Willits, with the same old problems, you’re probably not going to be asked to contribute to “Whole Person Project” Success Report and you don’t appreciate reports about how many whole persons were coached back to wellness.

(Mark Scaramella)

JOHN SAKOWICZ, responding to Supervisor-elect John Haschak’s recent thank you letter to his supporters, wrote, “Best wishes to John Haschak. The CEO system is broken. I hope he will consider leading the way to bringing back the CAO system. The county’s top executive should work at the direction of the Board of Supervisors, not the other way around.”

THE NECESSARY preparatory steps for such a change have not been mentioned by any current supervisors or supervisor candidates, much less the idea itself. The comment also assumes benefits that are far from clear, although there are some, in theory anyway. As far as we could tell, Carmel Angelo was made CEO so that she could more effectively lay people off and take other draconian budget balancing steps back in 2009 when the County’s budget was deeply in the red after the Great Recession. Since then the Supervisors have seemed pleased with the arrangement, even giving Ms. Angelo a big guaranteed series of raises over the next four years and declaring her to be a bargain in the process. The Supes seem to like the idea because it spares their overpaid selves the hassle of hiring and reviewing the non-elected department heads. If the Board was unhappy with the current arrangement they could start by putting more of their own proposals on their agenda, instead of letting the CEO lard it up with shallow, canned “presentations,” awards, proclamations, and the occasional hot potato she prefers the Board take the heat for.

THEORETICALLY, with a CAO (Chief Administrative Officer) some department heads might have a little more independence since they would be hired by and work for the Board instead of the CEO. But in practice, back in the days pre-Angelo days of the CAO, those department heads knew how to play the “Game of Three” to keep themselves in their positions with their auto-raises very much like the CEO system now. If, for just one dramatic example, an incompetent like Ray Hall could remain as Planning Department Head for years and years without complaint while permits and plans went ignored for months if not years, then the CAO “model” would not usher in any noticeable improvements.

AS WE HAVE SAID many times before, the only organizational change the Board could make is to require meaningful monthly departmental reporting so that the Board, the CEO or CAO, and the public can review performance and build a record that could be used for making any necessary changes or tracking any progress on major issues. But that’s even less likely than a change to the CAO model.

(Mark Scaramella)

SPAGHETTI DINNER WHITESBORO GRANGE SATURDAY

A Christmas Spaghetti Dinner to celebrate the holiday season will be held at the Whitesboro Grange on Saturday, December 8th from 4-7 p.m. On the menu are salad, spaghetti with Bob Canclini’s famous sauce (meat or vegetarian), garlic bread, beverage and homemade pie or cake for dessert. Adults $8, age 6-12 half price, children under 6 eat FREE. Join us for dinner with your community, bring your neighbors and guests. Whitesboro Grange is located 1.5 miles east on Navarro Ridge. Watch for signs just south of the Albion Bridge.

CATCH OF THE DAY, December 7, 2018

JUSTIN GARNER, Ukiah. Grand theft, failure to appear, probation revocation.

BRANDON GIBONEY, Fort Bragg. Under influence.

LATOYA HOAGLEN, Laytonville. Failure to appear.

SEAN KURLIKO, Cleone. Probation revocation.

LEINA LEITE, Ukiah. Parole violation.

ANGEL SORIA, Fort Bragg. Hit&Run resulting in death or injury.

“THOSE WHO PRECEDED US had it much worse, and did so much. It can be done.”

Happy 89th birthday to Noam Chomsky.

CAPTURE THE FLAG

by James Kunstler

A titanic battle between Mr. Trump and his antagonists looms in the political gloaming of the new year. It may not be resolvable by conventional means since the Intel and Justice agencies have been leading a two-year coup-by-subterfuge against the president, with Robert Mueller as the spearhead, leaving a slime-trail of sedition and prosecutorial misconduct that they are now desperately trying to cover up.

How then can the corrupted Department of Justice and its stepchild, the FBI, be relied on to adjudicate these unprecedented crimes against themselves?

The answer may be coming next week when the lame duck session of the House Oversight Committee calls John Huber to appear. Huber is the federal prosecutor out of the Salt Lake City district office who was assigned by the erstwhile Attorney General Jeff Sessions to look into the manifold irregularities of the RussiaGate matter. It’s not clear how much Mr. Huber can tell the committee about an ongoing case, but he hasn’t made a peep all year, and if his testimony suggests that he’s twiddling his thumbs in the sagebrush, it will inform you that we are headed into real civil war. Too much incriminating information is already loose in the public domain about Hillary Clinton and the DNC colluding with Russia, and something has to be done about it.

It’s obvious that the Obama White House, along with CIA director John Brennan, and Director of National intel James Clapper, used the FBI and the DOJ (with support from the nation’s two leading newspapers), and help from Britain’s MI6 intel shop, to run illegal operations against Mr. Trump during the 2016 election, and then persisted in acts to delegitimize him after Jan 20, 2017. All this, of course, is apart from whether you like Mr. Trump or approve of his policies.

It’s well documented elsewhere that Robert Mueller’s mission to detect election “collusion” between Russia and Mr. Trump was a bust, and that all he has to show for it is a roll of contrived convictions for lying to federal prosecutors and the FBI. The case of General Flynn lies at the center because he served as Mr. Obama’s Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and he knew too much about US shenanigans around the notorious Iran nuclear deal and other shady doings. They were alarmed when he went over to Mr. Trump’s campaign, and determined to disable him. Once Mr. Trump appointed Gen. Flynn Director of National Security, Mr. Obama engineered an “incident” in late December of 2016 (confiscating Russian properties in Maryland over alleged election meddling and laying down new sanctions), that prompted Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak to phone Gen. Flynn, the incoming DNS.

US Intel was prepared for that set-up and recorded the call, which required the illegal “unmasking” of Flynn, a nicety of spycraft. Thus, the FBI had a transcript of the phone call and were easily able to entrap Flynn in mis-remembering the particulars of the call. Where is that transcript?

The predicate for this operation was completely dishonest: that incoming senior government officials are forbidden to speak to foreign ambassadors. In fact it is their duty to consult with foreign officials, especially in Mr. Flynn’s job, and a long-established tradition of every presidential transition. The coup cadres of the Deep State used The New York Times and The Washington Post to persuade the public that Gen. Flynn had done something treasonous, when it was nothing more than routine transition business.

Gen. Flynn’s sentencing paperwork was released a few days ago. The question is: will he be free to speak about the process he was put through? If there was any contingency against him speaking freely in his sentencing guidelines, it hasn’t been publicized. In any case, he deserves to be pardoned, and I believe that Mr. Trump will do exactly that after Mr. Mueller releases his long-awaited report.

Others have made the point that the Mueller Report will be a handbook for the impeachment of Mr. Trump by the House. The house can run hearings on that until the cows come home, but they (the house, not the cows) are unlikely to get a conviction in the Senate. The larger question is whether Mr. Mueller himself should be subject to prosecution and there’s plenty of evidence that he has been involved in misconduct himself going back to the shady Uranium One deal when he was the FBI Director. It’s obvious that he was brought onto the RussiaGate case in the Spring of 2017 not to find the truth about “collusion” but to attempt to save the reputation of the FBI and the DOJ using all the considerable power of a special prosecutor to cover the trail of official misdeeds.

There is enough ill-feeling and bad faith about all that activity to suggest that President Trump will have to set in motion some kind of extraordinary adjudication process. There have been rumblings for more than a year that he might accomplish that by declaring an emergency and bringing on military tribunals to sort this mess out. Until now, that has seemed farfetched to me. Not anymore. If, over the weeks turning the corner to 2019, Mr. Huber or Mr. Mueller or any of the House and Senate Committees don’t show any progress in airing out the official criminality among government employees, then we are headed into a titanic conflict between two camps in government. The financial markets may already be signaling the distress coming down the road as these two camps prepare to play capture the flag.

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

‘I WANT TO LIVE LIKE A HUMAN BEING’: Where N.Y. Fails Its Mentally Ill

nytimes.com/2018/12/06/nyregion/nyc-housing-mentally-ill.html

AND IT BEGINS...

Altria Takes Stake in Canadian Cannabis Company

wsj.com/articles/altria-takes-stake-in-canadian-cannabis-company-cronos-1544187762

JOHN SAKOWICZ'S FAVORITE PHOTO

My Favorite Photograph Taken In 2018

Panicked dogs, left caged by an owner who fled rising floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, are rescued by the volunteer rescuer Ryan Nichols of Longview, Texas, in Leland, North Carolina, on September 16, 2018. God bless people like Ryan Nichols.

VEGETARIANISM-THE ECOLOGICAL NECESSITY

by Lee Simon

Vegetarianism is the ecological necessity. My talk will explain why it is environmentally imperative that we reduce or eliminate our eating animals and birds.

I have no opinion and no desire or need to tell anyone what they should eat or not eat, or what animals or plants they should grow or slaughter. That is personal choice, and must be respected. However, the planet is telling us that meat eating is harmful to planetary ecology and human survival.

I'm not talking about the small farmers who grow and sell the cows, pigs, and sheep. That's their livelihood. Rather, it's about supply and demand. The big ranchers feed and grow the animals we eat because the demand for them is there. Remove the demand and the supply will disappear. Simple economics.

The environment is not just what we call nature. It's also us; we are also the environment. It's all interconnected. We know that riding around in cars and flying around in airplanes is not good for the environment. Why is it so hard for us to see that feeding our food to animals we then kill is not good for the environment?

We do not eat dogs or cats; we do not eat crows or eagles; thus, we choose which animals and birds we will eat, and which we will turn up our noses at. Why should we treat cows and pigs and sheep and chickens and turkeys any differently than dogs and cats. Are we selectively compassionate? Is it humane to kill a fellow mammal, when it is not necessary for survival? Can we not extend compassion to all of our fellow mammals?

We are, we tell ourselves, at the top of the food chain. The other mammals are there for us to kill and eat That's nature, they say, red in tooth and claw. But that idea assumes that compassion for our fellow mammals is counter-productive to our survival. The fact is, for the first time in human history, that it is now counter-productive to our survival to feed, grow, and eat our fellow mammals.

How many of us have ever visited a slaughterhouse, or driven by a giant feedlot? One trip would be enough. You can smell the feedlot on I-5 in California from five miles away; then you get up to it and you see thousands of steers crunched in together, pooping on each other's feet and trumping around in it. As the Beatle Paul McCartney once said, "If slaughterhouses had glass walls we'd all be vegetarians".

There are two ways to raise beef; in factory farms or as grass fed. Grass fed steers help the land capture carbon and sequester it in the ground. That's good. However, even that is not a perfect fix.

Unless the pastures are systematically rotated the amount of carbon sequestered is not very much. Furthermore, there is not enough land nationally to meet the increasing demand for beef to raise it by grazing the steers. With small family farms the impact is negligible; I'm talking about the big cattle ranches.

Pasture cows grow more slowly than grain fed cows, and they gain weight more slowly, so nationally we would need 30% more cattle to get the same amount of meat we now consume. Existing pastureland could only support 27% of current beef production levels if every farmer switched to grass fed.

There is much debate about what diet a modern human being should eat, and what kind of meat is better or worse, and that is a topic for another day. That debate rages on.

Mankind has been eating meat since way before we evolved to being homo sapiens. People had to hunt and gather. The men hunted and got meat, if they were lucky and skillful at the hunt. Most of the time they were not, so the women would gather berries, seeds, and bugs. They ate lots of bugs for protein.

Then, about 10,000 years ago, people started agriculture, farming of grains and animals. This had survival value then; people got more calories, they grew bigger. They cooked the foods, which made them much easier to digest. That had survival value. But environmentally meat eating does not any longer have survival value. In fact, it is counter-productive to survival. There are too many people on the planet these days.

Today livestock already occupy more than 25% of earth's ice-free land. 75% of all agricultural land is given over to growing animals or the corn and soy to feed the animals, or to pastures to grazing the animals. 75%, wow.

Animals grown for food consume an amount of food greater than the caloric needs of the entire human population.

That land used to be home to forests and wild animals and biologically diverse ecosystems. Those things reduce how much carbon is absorbed and how much water is naturally filtered.

To undo the harm meat eating does to our environment we will need, according to the United Nations, to reduce beef consumption by about 90%. That is not the direction in which we are headed. Good luck with that.

Meat consumption tripled between 1980 and 2010. It is expected to nearly double what it is now by 2050, due to increased global desire to eat meat, and to continuing population growth.

Just in America alone we put 337 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions into the air, along with 489 billion pounds of manure, and we use more than 21 trillion gallons of water to provide us with burgers and steaks and bacon etc.

As a species we need to switch from eating meat to eating plant foods. The Netherlands, the Dutch, have issued dietary guidelines for people to eat meat only twice a week. That's a start.

We live in a pro-ranching culture. This goes back to the early days of this country. The early colonial settlers practiced ecological imperialism, as well as cultural genocide of the Native Americans. They pushed out native flora and fauna, cut down forests, and substituted farm animals. Then the government gave the land from which the Native Americans were removed on to reservations to ranchers, to grow cattle on.

Think about how many times a week, and even how many times day we eat meat. Breakfast ham or bacon; lunch meat in a sandwich; dinner meat and birds. We psychologically distance ourselves from the reality of this. We say, "Hey, want to get a burger?" or "Boy, that steak is delicious".

We never say, "Hey, want to get a ground up slab of dead cow?" or "Boy, that piece of dead cow's butt really tastes good". We don't pay any attention to what they put in the hamburger, including sugar, or to what gross parts of the cow they put in the "all beef" hot dogs. We tell ourselves it must be o.k., the government inspects it, and we're not dying from it. At least not quickly .

I'm not so sure we're not dying from it, or at minimum, getting diseased from it big time. When you take a look at the amount of pesticides, antibiotics, additives, growth hormones, and GMO we ingest by eating the meat of mass produced animals and birds, it's enough to make anyone a vegetarian. Mass produced meat demands those additives because there are too few acres and too many people to do otherwise.

The corn and soybeans, which could be fed to people, is fed to animals so the people can eat them. But the corn and soy fed cows are inefficient converters; they eat more food than they produce for us to eat. Also, it takes 10 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of meat.

Around 70 percent of the world's soy is fed directly to livestock, and only six percent of soy is turned into human food.

Today's corn crop is mainly used for bio-fuels (roughly 40 percent of U.S. corn is used for ethanol to put in gasoline) and, roughly 36 percent of U.S. corn is used to feed animals.

Thus, 40 + 36 is 76% of all the corn we grow in America is not fed to people.

Chickens and pigs convert grain into meat at rates of two or three to one (ie, it takes 2kg of feed to produce 1kg of chicken). The ratio for lamb is between four and six to one, and the conversion rate for beef starts at five to one and goes as high as 20kg of feed to 1kg of red meat.

In the United States alone, 56 million acres of land are used to grow feed for animals, while only 4 million acres are producing plants for humans to eat. That is not an ecologically sound ratio.

Meat eating and the global climate crisis are directly related. Animal agriculture greatly impacts on global warming.

The mass production of meat produces a large amount of methane gas in the process.

The cows produce lots of methane gas, by farting, 100 to 500 liters a day per cow. This causes 30 times more heat trapping and greenhouse gas.

That comes out to about 4 pounds of greenhouse gases per quarter pound of beef.

It all fits together. Climate change, deforestation, desertification, melting ice and rising sea levels, sociopolitical instability and violence, all of which are due to human overpopulation.

Now, what about the water? Fresh potable water is already in short supply on our planet. It takes 16 times as much water to feed animals we eat than it takes to irrigate grain crops we eat. 16 times more.

It takes 2,500 gallons of water, 12 pounds of grain, 35 pounds of topsoil and the energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline to produce one pound of mass produced feedlot beef.

To produce one pound of mass produced beef takes 2,500 gallons of water; one pound of pork takes 576 gallons of water. As a comparison, the water footprint of soybeans is 216 gallons; corn is 108 gallons.

By the year 2025, seven years from now, 2 of every 3 humans on earth will not have enough fresh water to drink. The methane gas animals put into our atmosphere, coupled with the greenhouse gasses produced by the use of fossil fuels to transport and refrigerate the meat, is melting the ice caps that give us fresh water.

One hamburger paddy takes 450 gallons of water to produce. Here are some comparisons.

To grow just 2.2 pounds of food takes this amount of fresh water:

Lettuce 15 gallons, Tomatoes 22 gallons, Corn 107 gallons, Peaches 142 gallons, Avocados 220 gallons, Rice 403 gallons

That's from plants to get 2.2 pounds of food. However, from animals:

Eggs 573 gallons of water, Chicken 815 gallons, Cheese 896 gallons, Pork 1,630 gallons, Butter 2,044 gallons, Beef 2,500 to 5,000 gallons.

So, almonds require 4 gallons of water to produce one gram of protein. It reportedly takes 1800 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef. This works out to over 27 gallons of water to produce one gram of protein. So as a source of protein almonds are about 6.25 times more efficient as far as water usage goes.

I have been, as I said, a vegetarian for 47 years, I was a vegan for about 10 years, and I ate nothing but raw, uncooked food for one year, and never felt better in my life. Seeds, nuts, vegetables, fruits. Ecologically sound food.

We are, we say, at the top of the food chain. The other mammals are there for us to kill and eat. That's nature, red in tooth and claw, they say. But that idea assumes that compassion for our fellow mammals is counter-productive to our survival. The fact is that it is now counter-productive to our survival to feed, grow, and eat our fellow mammals.

Meat has a political aspect too. Even though 46 million Americans voted for the present administration, let's say 300 million vote with their forks, knives and spoons to continue to decimate the ecosystem, waste calories, destroy animal habitats, and pig out at the steak house restaurants. This talk would not be popular in Texas. And probably not here either, but I urge you to consider the facts and ideas I've presented and also the difference between your wants and your needs.

Lee Simon

LeeSimon62433@gmail.com

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Lies and fucking lies.

Myth # 1: They don’t pay taxes

Undocumented immigrants are already U.S. taxpayers.

Collectively, they paid an estimated $10.6 billion to state and local taxes in 2010, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a research organization that works on tax policy issues. Contributions varied by state. In Montana they contributed $2 million. In California, more than $2.2 billion. On average they pay about 6.4% of their income in state and local taxes, ITEP said.

Myth # 2: They don’t pay into Social Security

The truth is that undocumented immigrants contribute more in payroll taxes than they will ever consume in public benefits.

Take Social Security. According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), unauthorized immigrants — who are not eligible to receive Social Security benefits — have paid an eye-popping $100 billion into the fund over the past decade.

Myth #3: They drain the system

Undocumented immigrants do not qualify for welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, and most other public benefits. Most of these programs require proof of legal immigration status and under the 1996 welfare law, even legal immigrants cannot receive these benefits until they have been in the United States for more than five years.

Myth # 4: They take American jobs

The American economy needs immigrant workers.

The belief that immigrants take jobs that can otherwise be filled by hard-working Americans has been disputed by an overwhelming number of economic research studies and data.

Myth # 5: It’s just a matter of following the law

Many Americans want immigrants to enter the country legally.

But under current immigration laws, there are very few options for legal immigration, the costs are increasingly prohibitive and the wait for any kind of status can be long and frustrating.

INSHIELD

Editor,

I have invented a device to clean the inside of a car windshield, as well as the fingerprints off the touchscreens of smartphones and tablets. I am attaching a pre-written article with photos. It would be a great encouragement to an entrepreneur if you would be willing to run this article in your paper.

If you would like to interview me as a personal interest story about how I invented inShield Wiper and got it on QVC, please feel free to reach out to me at: 858-945-1112 or reply to this email. I would be delighted to send you a fee inShield Wiper so you can try it out, as well. Thank you for helping me get the word out about my new product.

Merry Christmas,Tim Probasco, Inventor

www.inShieldWiper.com

* * *

Clean your windshield without a twist

We all know how difficult it is to thoroughly wipe the haze and smudges from the inside of our windshields and rear glass (let alone the puppy kisses when we take our furry friends with us). There is now a solution! inShield Wiper has a microfiber pad that attaches to the back of your hand, which makes for a more natural wiping angle (as opposed to contorting and twisting your arm when you try to use the palm of your hand in the traditional way). inShield Wiper is available as a 2-pack for just under $20. Keep one in the car and use the other to clean the fingerprints off your smartphones, tablet screens and your flat screen TV. You can purchase them at www.inshieldwiper.com and for a limited time you get free shipping when you order two or more 2-packs. These make great stocking stuffers and gifts for those “hard to buy for” friends and family members.

If you would like us to send you a free sample of inShield Wiper or to interview the inventor please contact us at: 858-945-1112 or tim@inshieldwiper.com

MEMO OF THE AIR: INFAMY

Tonight, Pearl Harbor Day Night, Friday, 9pm to 5am, I'm reading Memo of the Air by live remote from Juanita's apartment, /not/ from the back room of the KNYO performance space at 325 N. Franklin, next door to the Tip Top bar, so make plans to show-and-tell there /next/ week, Nov. 14.

Deadline to get your writing on the air tonight is around 7pm. If you're still working on it after that, just email it whenever you're done and I'll read it on the show next time. Or save it and come in and read it yourself in person next week, see above.

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

Also you can always go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's show, and shows before that. By Saturday night, tonight's MOTA magically becomes last week's MOTA, so if you wait till then to look you'll find that too. It'll be right on top.

Some bonus tracks for/with dinner:

It sounds like a bunch of frantic ant ballerinas scrambling to get out of the rain.

https://theawesomer.com/1000-harmonics/455952/

Chingghis Qaghan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEoi6CpaUWw

Seven million years of human evolution.

https://laughingsquid.com/seven-million-years-of-human-evolution-timeline/

And happy holidays to all 14,000 racistly kidnapped concentration-camp kids having the time of their lives.

http://lustik.tumblr.com/post/180648961542/riki-blanco

—Marco McClean

FOUND OBJECT (you provide the caption)