MCT: Monday, February 18, 2018

• Sub-Freezing
• Wageless Cafe
• Clear Lake
• Mendo Broadband
• Forest Snow
• Potter Valley Project
• Paradise Fire
• Litigating Transparency
• Tax Rates
• Drivers Needed
• Rooftop Tweaker
• Jailhouse Lawyerism
• Nazi Rally
• Blanket Apology
• Work Space
• Yesterday's Catch
• Rigged Systems
• Facing Collapse
• Fake Emergency
• Mexico Border
• Death Penalty
• Porn Shakedown
• Swan Dive

COLD OVERNIGHT LOW TEMPERATURES will persist through Tuesday, with sub-freezing temperatures expected once again Tuesday morning in many coastal areas. Dry conditions will prevail through Tuesday, with another round of light rain and mountain snow expected Wednesday. (National Weather Service)

HUMAN TRAFFICKING SAVES THE OLD COAST CAFÉ

by Rex Gressett

Human trafficking does not depend on guns and muscles. Usually, it works by threats.

Sylvia knew from the time she was a kid that she was an American citizen. Her father was born in the US. Even in the years when her American father and her Hispanic mother were living in Tijuana, they hung on to their citizenship. Their only daughter was an American protected by the US Constitution.

The massive stroke that killed her dad struck in a life-changing instant. For the two grieving women everything was suddenly uncertain. Nothing was prepared, nothing was planned, nothing could stay the same.

Sylvia and her mom held on to a sacred promise that mom was married to an American and I was a US citizen. They made the decision and began a long journey both geographically and a more complex and difficult journey through the United States Immigration bureaucracy.

It took years. It dragged them, with no particular politeness, through injustice and battered them with bureaucratic arrogance, ignorance and indifference.

They met the challenges with patience, unwavering persistence, and careful self-control. Almost grudgingly, the bureaucrats cut them loose and five years ago they went across the broad free land to northern California and found our little city.

Sylvia came to Fort Bragg in 2013 and liked it very much. Maybe we should all take a moment to see it the way she sees it from the perspective that she has had. What price do you put on immense safety, on such a wide and basic assurance of personal dignity? How much is a friendly, busy library worth? A clean street? The warm welcoming coffee house?

She loved it. We all do.

In her case, it was enough to love to brave whatever staying here might entail. For Sylvia, it was a tougher struggle than it would have been for some of us.

Silvia is not in any way a flamboyant person, but in the way of a small town you probably all know her. Probably not by name. By her very constancy, she stands out a little. Invariably she has a smile. She owns a quiet, personal grace that might have come from learning patience in a hard school. She has a palpable personal strength and formidable competence, delicately and completely controlled by bone-deep cultural wisdom that is filled with joy — somehow old world and at the same time unique to her.

In a word, she is a gem.

She has a long-term boyfriend from whom she is basically inseparable and for years together they have negotiated the groceries and the appointments of life in Fort Bragg as a team. Mostly on foot. They are always gentle and always on the side of courtesy. Of course, you would know them.

A few years ago a coalition of the privileged came together as a legal board of directors in charge of themselves and Hospitality House and whatever money the city would give them.

They scored big under the fierce and focused direction of Anna Shaw, of unfortunate memory, by taking over the famous Old Coast Hotel and converting it to a homeless service center.

In a ferocious railroading of the City Council, backed by the full weight of the City Administration, Hospitality House acquired one of the most beautiful and historic buildings in the city. They never spent a dime of their own institutional funds. The money came exclusively from the feds on the city's annual allotment, in the form of a “forgivable” super low-interest rate loan.

An indignant city exploded in political reaction and the subsequent elections were so charged with controversy that the City Council that had voted in the deal was wiped out. The City Manager fell, the City Council fell, the City Attorney fell, but out of the wreckage Lynelle Johnson and her socialite friends got a world-class hotel for free. Ever since they have piously labored to improve and expand the temple of dependency. The hotel came with a café.

While the battle for and against the Old Coast deal raged, the café within the Hotel was touted loudly by Hospitality Center advocates as a mighty engine of empowerment.

It would be like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. The homeless could serve coffee, maybe donuts. The homeless, by their own initiative, could make some cash and therefore not be homeless. It was a unique idea and very engaging. Using the café for training and income was put forward forcefully as a major goal of the Old Coast Hotel deal.

They got the Hotel for the federal grant money ok. But for years the café did not happen.

Eventually, it got to be pretty embarrassing. The rub was that Hospitality House couldn’t staff the café. Hiring regular people made bad optics with all the unemployed sucking up funds in the other room.

The empty café was already somehow in debt and there was no likelihood of immediate profitability. It was a problem. At some point MCHC actually got a grant from the federal money gods at SAMSHA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), specifically to open the café, and since the local social workers are not psychologically capable of not taking money, they were really up the creek because it still wasn't happening.

Other than the café and the few rooms upstairs, counting and processing, that is all they do at the Hospitality Center.

Their job is to convert “applicants” into “clients.” Making clients is the means by which MCHC acquires its county and federal money. Recruiting clients is the prime directive.

Being a client doesn't get you anything as such, but you can smoke in the garden and be on the same lists you could be on without the social workers.

There is sometimes coffee. The busy workers get paid for doing the processing and the numbers flow like evaporating dew into the county system where the multimillions lie.

As a practical matter, as soon the applicant qualifies and becomes a client Hospitality Center gets money. Social workers must be paid. The rules about who can be a client originate with the county.

Unfortunately for the Café, working is one thing that tends to make you flatly not eligible for county subsidies and grievously disrupts a logical and systematic progression into a decent enrollment in the subsidized economy.

If you are homeless and you work at all you pay a steep price in benefits. Taking even a little job quickly becomes a life decision.

When you enter the system headquartered at Hospitality Center you learn at the feet of the service providers very explicitly that if you work even a little, even part time, you won't qualify for subsidies, benefits or vouchers.

So with a whole building full of out-of-work desperate homeless people, Hospitality Center could not find anyone who would/could work at the café without suffering financial penalties.

Work equals no bennies, either for the client or the Center.

The café was stuck in this limbo for a couple of years. But Sylvia, who had begun living in one of the upstairs rooms at Hospitality Center (the Old Coast Hotel) kept advocating for the café to open.

It was an obvious opportunity. A way out? Who knows how it would eventually work out. She was willing to try. She could do the work, she would do it. She pushed for weeks and then for months. After MCHC got the SAMSHA grant, they had to do something. Money is money. They weren’t going to give it back.

Sylvia was the answer.

They gave her a gig. Not a job. Silvia is here with a legal visa that doesn't permit her to work and Sylvia was trying very hard to work. Or to find a place to be a part of Fort Bragg.

What was standing in her personal way was not an unwillingness to work but everything else.

Objectively, she is more competent, trustworthy and conscientious than most of the rest of the city. Everybody — literally everybody — likes her.

The administration at Hospitality Center, in a vaulting insight, reasoned that (in their words), 'If we pay Sylvia, it's illegal. So she has to work for free'.”

MCHC promised her a reduction in her rent and put her to work in the café two days a week, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. No pay.

Paul Katzaff of Thanksgiving Coffee came down and gave her some intensive training on pulling an espresso shot. I've had the same lesson. Believe me, Paul has it down pat. Zero-to-Superbarista in one lesson.

The café was opened.

The solution seemed great for everyone. Sylvia has a big jar for tips and she has their promise to reduce her rent in the room upstairs, although that is still only a promise. But the café does not pay her. And that’s what human trafficking is.

Did you think it was something that happens in a slave ship? A garment factory where workers are chained? It's that too, but mostly it’s the control of people for profit by threat of exposure to the cops.

It happens everywhere. It works great. It happened here. The definition of slavery is very easy to remember. Hard work, no pay. That’s exactly what Sylvia gets.

February 8th, 2019 interview by Sylvia's friend Kristina:

Kristina:"Tell me about the café program, Sylvia, are you still in it?”

Sylvia: “What a joke, what program? I don’t know anything about a program.”

Kristina: “How are you paid for hours worked in the café, Sylvia?”

Sylvia: “I'm not, I only get cash tips sometimes and now [I’m being] told to pay taxes on the tips. Paul collects the money and it seems less than what I saw and then I'm accused of it being short but Mari counts it and she is over.”

Kristina: “How much do you get an hour?”

Sylvia: “$0.”

Kristina: “How many days and hours is the café open?”

Sylvia: “ 9:00 am – 2:30 pm, two days a week and I work them both.”

Kristina: “What are your job duties?”

Sylvia: “Everything the manager they hired [David] used to do: open, close, supervise, inventory, order, run cash register, deal with customers, train, create specialty drinks, complaints, stock, clean.” (David quit because of the working conditions being so screwed up.)

Kristina: “What are Mari’s job duties?” [Mari is paid staff, a social worker, and doesn’t seem to know much of anything and is really scatterbrained half the time. — Interviewer's observation.]

Sylvia: “She drops in occasionally one or two times a day and just stands around.”

Kristina: “Is Mari your supervisor?”

Sylvia: “Yes, the whole time.”

Kristina: “How many hours have you worked in 2018?

Sylvia: "389 hours worked."

Kristina: “How many hours in 2019?”

Sylvia: "99 hours worked. I asked for a new time record and was told they are not having me record time anymore. Mari said she will do it and gives me a paper that has set hours that I report to work on it.” [In researching a beginning manager running a café in this area, Sylvia should be receiving a comparative salary of about $32,000/year — interviewer observation]

Sylvia is currently and has been tracking her own time records.

RAINBOW OVER CLEAR LAKE

ASKED where Mendo was on the elusive path to Broadband, Supervisor Williams replied: "Our historic approach has produced nearly the results one would expect by doing nothing at all. We need a strategic plan with clear, actionable milestones, one that can be vetted for feasibility before execution begins. I see this as the role of Supervisors and staff, not another consultant. Before I joined, the county contracted with EDFC to author a broadband plan. EDFC has worked hard to produce a document, but in the big picture, we gave them an impossible task. Broadband is part economic development, part essential ingredient for quality of life. It can’t be solved in a vacuum. EDFC cannot write an adequately actionable plan with so many unknowns about commitment from various county departments. It’s too early to say when Anderson Valley will benefit, but I’m intent on attempting to shift our trajectory toward actual deployment instead of studying who doesn’t have it. Concurrent with building a plan, we need to boost efficiency. The latency in data has and will produce poor policy decisions. A local newspaper can quickly generate a P&L, yet as a county, we don’t know what the cannabis program costs us. Sometimes economic development has upfront costs which can be justified by projections, but we don’t even have projections. An investment in modernization now has potential to benefit roads, broadband and more in the coming years."

SPARE SCOTT DAM

Editor,

There are surely lots of unintended consequences to PG&E’s bankruptcy filing. One of them, here in Mendocino County is going to affect much of the population north of the San Francisco Bay Area.

On Jan. 25, PG&E gave notice of withdrawal from their Potter Valley Project which is the diversion of water through a tunnel from the Eel River at Van Arsdale reservoir to their power house in Potter Valley into the Russian River watershed. This action by PG&E has potentially created an orphan project and future decisions are now with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC.)

The diversion at Van Arsdale reservoir was created in 1908 for the primary purpose of providing a hydro-electric resource for the City of Ukiah through the power house in Potter Valley. Scott Dam was built in 1922 to guarantee a year round water supply to the power house. Now over a hundred years later, the power production is still important, however the water supply provided by the project is even more critical.

There are some folks, including some north coast politicians, who welcome this as an opportunity to do away with Scott Dam, which holds back Lake Pillsbury, and potentially additional infrastructure related to the project.

The consequences of the shut down of the project and the removal of Scott Dam would have negative economic, social and environmental impacts. The elimination of Lake Pillsbury would be a loss to Lake County, remove the main water supply for the Potter Valley Irrigation District and significantly reduce the water supply for Lake Mendocino. All of the communities that depend on the water from Lake Mendocino for agricultural and domestic uses in Mendocino, Sonoma and North Marin would be impacted. Other beneficial uses of the water such as recreation, fire suppression and aquatic species needs would be at risk.

When the diversion was first created in 1908 and Scott Dam completed in 1922, the population of California was less than 5 million. Now, the population is 40 million and growing. We need to be realistic about protecting all of our natural resources. It will be important to retain local control over the Potter Valley Project as the FERC process moves forward. We need to support that effort.

William F. Smith

Ukiah

PROBABLY THE MOST GRAPHIC PICTURE I've seen yet of the Paradise fire.

— Bruce Tall

LITIGATING TRANSPARENCY

by Jim Shields

Hardly a day passes without new litigation in the ever-expanding legal fight over California’s landmark police transparency bill, Senate Bill 1421.

This past week, a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge denied a preliminary injunction sought by police unions that would have barred the release of police misconduct records created before January 1, 2019, the date SB 1421 went into effect.

As discussed here previously, SB 1421 reversed decades of official secrecy surrounding police misconduct by requiring police departments to release records relating to police shootings, sexual assaults, and acts of dishonesty.

According to the First Amendment Coalition (FAC), the Contra Costa County judge held that SB 1421 applies to all misconduct records, irrespective of when they were created. As a result, the judge ruled, the records must be released. However, he delayed the release of records for 10 days so that the unions can appeal the order if they wish.

That order is the first substantive ruling on a question that has fueled a pitched legal battle in courts across California.

“FAC is grateful that Judge Treat saw through the unions’ dubious legal arguments,” said FAC Executive Director David Snyder. “When the Legislature decided at long last to open up police misconduct records, they plainly didn’t discriminate between new records and old records. The public is entitled to know about police misconduct, whether it occurred in 2005 or 2019.”

Snyder says that various police unions are arguing to courts across California that the Legislature only wanted to open up records about post-2019 police misconduct. In December, a police union attempted to get the California Supreme Court to embrace its interpretation of the bill. A FAC-led media coalition opposed that effort, which the high court denied—but left it to lower courts to sort out the key legal question.

Since Jan. 1 police unions in at least eight counties have obtained court orders preventing the release of pre-2019 records. FAC and various media groups are opposing these efforts. Judge Treat’s ruling is the first to grapple with the legal issues and to come down on the side of transparency.

Fueling this statewide legal battle is — surprise, surprise — money, potentially billions of dollars in jury awards levied against cities, counties and the state of California if it is found that these old records support plaintiffs’ charges of police misconduct relative to cop shootings, sexual assaults, and acts of dishonesty, i.e., evidence tampering, cozy relationships with organized crime, etc.

I’ll keep you posted on developments.

Loopholes

How’s that 2017 “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” doing? You know that federal bill that Congress passed and President Trumped signed that promised to close those infamous loopholes that benefit those who already benefit from runaway globalism?

Well, check this out.

According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), “The popular video streaming service Netflix posted its largest-ever U.S. profit in 2018 — $845 million — on which it didn’t pay a dime in federal or state income taxes.”

In fact, the streaming giant received a $22 million return.

Netflix paid zilch. Not a dime. Not one penny.

“When hugely profitable corporations avoid tax, that means smaller businesses and working families must make up the difference,” said Matthew Gardner, ITEP senior fellow.

Citing the specific impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Gardner explains that because companies are finally releasing their complete 2018 earnings reports — which Netflix did last month — the public is finally getting a look at just how well some of the nation’s most profitable corporations are making out.

While GOP leaders like former House Speaker Paul Ryan sold the bill to the voting public by promising lower corporate rates would be offset by the closure of loopholes, Gardner says Netflix is a test case for how bogus those promises were. “Many corporations are still able to exploit loopholes and avoid paying the statutory tax rate,” he explains, “only now, that rate is substantially lower.”

Gardner explained that Netflix’s tax avoidance should come as no surprise to those who followed the debate leading up to the passage of the new tax law: A 2017 ITEP report identified Netflix as one of 100 profitable Fortune 500 corporations that paid a 0 percent federal income tax rate in at least one profitable year between 2008 and 2015. In fact, Netflix did it twice, and paid an average tax rate of 13.6 percent over the eight-year period, meaning that the company sheltered more than half of its profits from the 35 percent federal income tax rate in effect at the time.

Gardner continued his tax lesson by saying, “Leading up to the 2017 tax battle, the hope of reformers was that Congress would take a fiscally responsible approach and weed out loopholes that made Netflix’s tax avoidance possible. Instead, GOP leaders who championed the law and President Trump chose to focus on cutting the corporate tax rate as far as possible — from 35 to 21 percent — while leaving in place special breaks and loopholes.”

Gardner concludes, “Netflix appears to be every bit as unaffected by corporate tax laws now as it was before President Trump’s ‘reform,’ This is especially troubling because Netflix is precisely the sort of company that should be paying its fair share of income taxes. With a record number of subscribers, the company’s profit last year equaled its haul in the previous four years put together.”

To put all this into context, Albert Einstein once opined, “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax code.”

Russell Long, legendary former U.S. Senator from Louisiana, simplified the tax code for Einstein when he explained, “A tax loophole is something that benefits the other guy. If it benefits you, it is tax reform.”

(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, and is also the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org.)

SENIOR DRIVERS NEEDED in Fort Bragg

Drivers are needed to help deliver lunches between the hours of approximately 11:00 and 1:00 daily for our Meals On Wheels program. Please call the center at 964-0443 to volunteer for this fun, worthwhile position. There are so many people in our area who benefit from this program. You just have to have a vehicle, pick up the prepackaged meals and deliver them to members of our community. Thank you so much for your willingness to contribute in a special, positive way!

Elizabeth Pippin, Sunshine3904@outlook.com

TWEAKED UNTO PARANOIA

On February 15, 2019 at about 4:59 AM Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies were dispatched to a report of a subject attempting to gain access into a residence in the 500 block of Acorn Place in Willits. When Deputies arrived they observed a dark blue Ford F250 blocking the driveway to the residence. Deputies looked inside the truck and observed what immediately appeared to be a short barreled AR-15 style assault weapon that was partially covered by a piece of clothing. While Deputies were checking the area, a 911 call came in from a person identifying themselves as Joshua Smith, 26, of Willits, reporting he was in the area and being chased by unknown people. Ad deputies continued checking the area, they were advised that there was someone walking around on the roof of a house in the 500 block of Acorn Place. Deputies walked around the back side of the residence and located a subject on the roof of the house. Deputies obtained a ladder and ordered the subject down off the roof. The subject was identified as being Joshua Smith (AKA Gibson, Webb).

Smith was evaluated and determined to be under the influence of a controlled substance. He was placed under arrest and Deputies connected him to the Ford F250 based upon having its keys in his pocket. Deputies located a loaded assault weapon, a black ski mask and identification belonging to Smith inside of the vehicle. Smith was charged with being under the influence of a controlled substance while in possession of an assault weapon, and felony possession of an assault weapon. Smith was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held in lieu of $15,000 bail.

INMATE DYER’S COMPLAINT

Editor,

Hello. Because I am proactive deputies punish me. I am currently in custody at the Mendocino County Jail have spent long periods of time and administrative segregation for being a political activist and being retaliated against for standing up for my rights by jailhouse lawyering.

I have never been given a hearing to contest my placement. $80 worth of tenderheartedly donated lawbooks from inmates have been illegally confiscated by jail staff. Important documents have been stolen by jail staff. And they also commandeered the unit's Penal Code book.

I broke my hand getting jumped by law enforcement associates four years ago so I developed a method of cutting and pasting paragraphs of legal printouts to reduce painful handwriting using toothpaste and deodorant stickers given complementarily with our free stay at the local infirmary.

It wasn't long until I was finally elected my own attorney and the jail all of a sudden ripped my paragraphs apart when submitted for copies. I was then told to write them out. Later the courts revoked my attorney status because my handwriting all of a sudden was unreadable.

Jailhouse lawyerism is always met with the greatest of hostility from jail and prison managers. They don't like the fact that the courts will provide a forum to hear issues of when inmates are abused, beaten, wrongly punished, set up, or medically aggravated. The courts do not allow us to be treated with such cruel afflictions that would really quite shock the conscience of even the most uncompassionate.

Violence is daily but there are no sirens. Deputies boast money on cripple fights. It is well known within the Low Gap population that correctional officers will take you to the janitor's closet and beat you if you say or do something that they don't like. It doesn't matter if you are in a wheelchair, a walker, or crutches.

A lot of this is political revenge, retaliation under the color of big marijuana pharma and Proposition 64.

They think that because we got learning disabilities and social anxieties we are inferior people. A study done in 1993 showed that mentally inadequate patients who smoke cigarettes appear to demonstrate enhanced cognitive performance relative to their non-smoking counterparts. (Sandyke, R. 1993 IJN, 70.193-197.)

In strength and solidarity,

Jewel Dyer

Mendocino County Jail, 951 Low Gap Road, Ukiah, CA 95482

Ed note: Mr. Dyer, if you're going to allege retaliatory beatings and other staff crimes, without the specifics of date, time, names of vics and perps, your claims are not credible.

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN NAZI RALLY, with speaker Fritz Kuhn, 1939

SORRY

Dear Mr. Severn,

I think you are suffering from the chain of command. That is, delirious and stupidism and fantasticism and a whole bunch of other words I can think of and you need to stick your head out of your ass and get back to society the normal way and think in a normal way. Good day to you, sir.

I have a lot of friends around the country but some of my real friends are from Anderson Valley. Unfortunately, a lot of them have passed away. But a friend is a friend, it doesn't matter what nationality he or she or any walk of life they come from. My friends all respect the national anthem, the American flag, the Constitution and the freedom of religion. They respect the people of our past who gave their lives to defend and help build this country. Thank all my friends for being my friends.

I respect the Native Americans because we actually invaded their land and they fought very bravely to defend it. It's just like we as Americans of every walk of life have done in the past and the Native Americans are certainly Americans.

I love and defend President Trump because he is our leader. A lot of folks don't agree with me, but that's only fair. I defend the Sheriff Allman and his staff because they are actually our leaders. Never forget that. It's too bad that we as Americans can't get on the same page and all pull together because if we could we would be the strongest country in the world forever.

Three cheers for all the men and women who have given their lives to defend this country. It gives me cold chills just to think about it, all the miserable misery and suffering that they had to go through to accomplish that and possibly we might have to do it some more.

I think the beliefs of myself and my friends are on the right side of the American flag and I will fight to my death to believe that.

God bless Donald Trump and God bless America.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

PS. If I have offended anyone in the past or in the future, I'm sorry.

WORK SPACE

A picket line —

The only type of that fence

I want around any American dream.

Of ours.

— William J. Hughes

CATCH OF THE DAY, February 17, 2019

ERNESTINA ALTIZEN, Redwood Valley. DUI.

DEANDRE BRAZIEL, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

AUDRIA CHRISTOPH, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

RICKIE CURTIS, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

MONTY DANIELS, Ukiah. Paraphernalia.

SCOTT FABER, Ukiah. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

FREDRICK FITCH, Ukiah. Battery, disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

DARIN HAMMOND, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

DEJOA LARUE, Sacramento/Hopland. Robbery in concert, controlled substance, evasion, resisting, parole violation.

KELLIE MCCOSKER, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JOSHUA NELSON-DEAN, Ukiah. Parole violation.

JAMES PORTER, Willits. Protective order violation.

MARK SPITSEN, Incline Village/Ukiah. Disobeying court order, failure to appear.

EURAL STRICKLAND, Carmichael/Ukiah. Robbery of inhabited dwelling, evasion, resisting.

FRANCISCO VILLA, Ukiah. Domestic abuse.

DAYLEE WATSON, Covelo. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

JAKELL WATTS, Sacramento/Hopland. Robbery, burglary, evasion, resisting.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

When I was a kid, two Institutions that I dreaded were the Institution of marriage and the institution of the Alabama State Fair. Like the American Institution of Marriage, the Alabama State Fair was a huge disappointment since the games of skill were always rigged. For example, the basketball toss was an illusion to create the impression that the basketball could actually go into the basket when in reality the diameter of the basket was smaller than the diameter of the basketball and at an angle so that the basketball would invariably roll out. The ball toss game was also rigged. You could knock down one or two ceramic jars, but never all 3 jars since the Carnie would lock the third jar in place with a wooden peg. So even if you knocked down two of the ceramic jars, the best that you could do for your $5 bucks was to win some cheap 5 cent pink crap toy. This is basically what the US election system is like. It’s just like the Alabama State Fair.

A THIRD INSIGHT from the debates about whether to publish information on the probable collapse of our societies is that sometimes people can express a paternalistic relationship between themselves as environmental experts and other people whom they categorise as “the public”. That is related to the non-populist anti-politics technocratic attitude that has pervaded contemporary environmentalism. It is a perspective that frames the challenges as one of encouraging people to try harder to be nicer and better rather than coming together in solidarity to either undermine or overthrow a system that demands we participate in environmental degradation.

—Jem Bendell

PROTEST TRUMP'S FAKE EMERGENCY TOMORROW!

Demonstrate Against Trump’s Fake Emergency Border Declaration, Monday, February 18, 12 Noon, Town Hall, Main & Laurel Sts., Fort Bragg: Join Nationwide Protest. Bring Signs. (See League Of Women Voters Statement Below)

Sign up here: crisisresponse.us/event/crisis-response/search/?event_id=124476&rd=1&taf=1&akid=.6837314.oUJDie&ar=1&action_id=291921931

MEXICO HAPPY TO PAY FOR WALL — IF…

This map shows the US-Mexico border from 1821 until 1845 when Texas was annexed as a slave state, increasing the power of the Southern states. Mexico had abolished slavery in 1829, but it granted an exception until 1830 to Texas. The annexation of Texas led to the Mexican–American War (1846 to 1848) and the border became what it is today.

SEN. LYNN HUTCHINGS, R-Cheyenne, argued that without the death penalty Jesus Christ would not have been able to die to absolve the sins of mankind, and therefore capital punishment should be maintained: “The greatest man who ever lived died via the death penalty for you and me,” she said. “I’m grateful to him for our future hope because of this. Governments were instituted to execute justice. If it wasn’t for Jesus dying via the death penalty, we would all have no hope.”

(Wyoming Caspar Star-Tribune: ‘Wyoming Senate defeats death penalty repeal bill’)

NO SURPRISE that this moron is also a homophobe.

ATTEMPT TO SHAKEDOWN THE AVA

Subject: ava - fredamoon

From: "Corrinne Heffernan" hnkanneiyy@outlook.com

Date: Sun, February 17, 2019 4:52 pm

To: "ava@pacific.net" ava@pacific.net

I am well aware fredamoon is your pass words. Lets get right to the purpose. Not one person has paid me to investigate you. You do not know me and you are most likely thinking why you are getting this e-mail?

Let me tell you, i set up a software on the 18+ vids (pornography) website and guess what, you visited this site to experience fun (you know what I mean). While you were watching videos, your browser started out working as a RDP that has a keylogger which provided me with access to your screen and web cam. Immediately after that, my software program obtained all of your contacts from your Messenger, social networks, and e-mail. And then I created a double video. 1st part shows the video you were viewing (you have a nice taste :)), and second part displays the view of your web camera, & it is you.

You got not one but two alternatives. Lets review each one of these possibilities in particulars:

Very first choice is to dismiss this e-mail. in that case I will send your very own tape to each of your personal contacts and just think concerning the embarrassment you feel. Moreover if you happen to be in a romance, how it would affect?

other alternative should be to pay me $987. Let us think of it as a donation. in this scenario I most certainly will straightaway erase your video. You can keep on your way of life like this never happened and you never will hear back again from me.

You'll make the payment by the Bitcoin (if you don't know this, search ‘ho to buy bitcoin’ in Google search engine).

DTC address:

1LU2C1qyJzN762Kz6PK9JrdCjEX8nXxy5B

(case sensitive copy and paste it)

in case you are thinking about going to the cops, okay, this message cannot be traced back to me. I have taken care of my steps. i am also not trying to ask you for money a whole lot, i simply prefer to be rewarded. You now have two days to make the payment. I have a unique pixel in his e-mail, and right now I know that you have read this e-mail. If i do not receive bitcoins, I will certainly send your video to all of your contacts including family members, colleagues, and many others. Nonetheless, if I receive the payment, I’ll destroy the recording immediately. if you need proof, reply with Yeah and i will send your video recording to your eight friends. This is a nonnegotiable offer, thus please do not waste mine time and yours by responding to this e-mail message.

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ED NOTE: THIS IS A COMMON, WELL-KNOWN SCAM, documented on several on line sites for several months now.