MCT: Thursday, April 4, 2019

• More Rain
• Creepy Joe
• Status-Quo Joe
• Ed Notes
• Climate Huffing
• Head-On Collision
• Balo Bottling
• Police Report
• Crab Closure
• Mother's Plea
• Driver Wanted
• Cannabis Ag
• Quizzing
• Driftwood Horse
• Library Award
• Yesterday's Catch
• Biloxi Monument
• Comments
• Portuguese Bend
• Navy Exercises
• Online Activists
• Electricity Superusers
• March Madness
• Forgiveness Practice
• Trash Wave
• Seed Project
• Foreigner Spotting
• Sexual Assault
• Pa-ma-has
• Geezer Talk
• Aliso Canyon
• Science Fair

SHOWERS TODAY will transition to a period of moderate rain and gusty south winds during Friday morning. Additional rainfall, possibly heavy, is expected Sunday and Monday. (National Weather Service)

THE FOLLOWING responses came back from women responding to our question: Is Joe Biden a Creep?

[1] I thought he was TOTALLY creepy during the Anita Hill stuff (especially with his new hair plugs).

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[2] Someone got an awful lot of photos of his Roman hands and Russian fingers. Perhaps he's just a very touchy feely type guy. I don't care for the guy, but it's very easy to take a perfectly innocent photo and put a caption on it that completely changes the meaning of the photo. Given that there are so many videos actually capturing his touchy actions I do think he's a creep. Makes one wonder what on earth he does behind closed doors if he does this in public? He isn't breaking any law that I know of…with the exception of my Dad's law when I was a little girl… Don't touch my daughter. One would have to ask what do the parents of these little girls think of the videos? There may be a perfectly acceptable explanation but it doesn't change my mind… he's a creep.

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[3] Good lord! No! I knew men like him in my early years. He’s just exuberantly positive. That woman who got upset because he kissed the back of her head! Give me a break! This Me Too thing has gone off the rails.

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[4] I lean toward no. I think there still needs to be space in this world for "Uncle Joes" that are a bit too goofy and friendly; not all touches are sexual; some people are just too affectionate and physical. We're not robots. Usually the most "creepy" men are completely silent and don't approach you at all.

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[5] YES

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[6] Not sure of about that, but am sure he's a fool. He's too old and too baggage ridden to be running. The old should be advising not running. Same goes for Bernie. My fav is Buttigieg - the "intellectual" (sorry about the dirty word) that some philosopher (was it Socrates or Plato or ?) said societies should have as their rulers. We've been reduced to being happy if he/she can read and speak in full sentences. Buttigieg is waaay more than that and he's young, one of the many who will be destroyed soon by our present way of life, so he has skin in the game.

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[7] Ha! You mean with the whole touchy feely stuff? I saw him in person when we lived in DC. I like Uncle Joe. No creepy vibe for me.

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[8] All men are creeps, so what else is new. Biden's so arrogant he creeps on national television!

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[9] The Biden hullabaloo is a perfect example of how we're not thinking about things in clear, nuanced ways. If ever there was a topic bristling with pitfalls and ripe for such fuzzy thinking, it is, of course, the infinitely complex relations between men and women, which includes centuries of repression and exploitation but also "liberation."

We're witnessing what I call "broad-stroke payback" (BSP) for historical wrongs. Understandable, but not particularly defendable.

An example: the O.J. verdict. The spontaneous eruption of joy among many black people when the verdict was announced, even though plenty of them knew quite well he was guilty, was the purest BSP, for a couple of centuries' worth of extrajudicial lynchings, burnings, and so forth.

When "offenders" like Al Franken, Garrison Keillor (though it was kind of a relief to be rid of him, wasn't it? Kidding, kidding) and now Joe Biden are caught in the MeToo juggernaught, which, ideally, would be addressing genuinely criminal acts like pussy-grabbing, drugging and raping, groping on the street or the subway, and so on, we're seeing BSP carried to a level of near-hysteria. And it seriously muddies the waters of what is a genuine and egregious problem. Women fought for a long time to break free of the old "virtue and purity" bondage, which cast women as delicate, sexless creatures with no lusty desires and no sexual initiative. This overreaction to essentially harmless incidents of contact — Biden smelling what's-her-name's hair — recasts women as frail, prudish flowers. Places like Saudi Arabia segregate the sexes and forbid touching. Do we really want to emulate that fucked-up society in any way? Do we want some form of Sharia Law? Do we want to set back the sexual liberation of both women and men? What happened to sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll? Yes, some men need to rewire their attitudes, and learn the difference between flirtation and assault, but so do women. To put Biden on even the same spectrum as Bill Cosby is lunacy. Especially with president Pussy-Grabber in the WH.

In the particular case of Biden, it would be far better to take him to task for his smirking, condescending, old-time male chauvinist piggish treatment of Anita Hill, which, among other things, helped give us Clarence Thomas.

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[10] Yes, I do think Biden is creepy. But not a pussy grabber.

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BIDEN'S DEFENSE: "I Tried to make a human connection, but I will be more mindful and respectful of people's personal space. I want to talk about gestures of support and encouragement that I've made to some women and some men and I've made them uncomfortable. I always try to be in my career, always tried to make a human connection. That's my responsibility, I think. I shake hands, I hug people. I grab men and women by the shoulders and say you can do this, whether they're women, men, young, old. It's the way I've always been and tried to show that I care about them and I'm listening."

‘CHANGE?’ … ‘HOPE’ OBAMA MUST HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT JOE BIDEN!

by Alexander Cockburn (August 2008)

“Change” and “hope” are not words one associates with Senator Joe Biden, a man so ripely symbolic of everything that is unchanging and hopeless about our political system that a computer simulation of the corporate-political paradigm senator in Congress would turn out “Biden” in a nano-second.

The first duty of any senator from Delaware is to do the bidding of the banks and large corporations which use the tiny state as a drop box and legal sanctuary. Biden has never failed his masters in this primary task. Find any bill that sticks it to the ordinary folk on behalf of the Money Power and you’ll likely detect Biden’s hand at work. The bankruptcy act of 2005 was just one sample. In concert with his fellow corporate serf, Senator Tom Carper, Biden blocked all efforts to hinder bankrupt corporations from fleeing from their real locations to the legal sanctuary of Delaware. Since Obama is himself a corporate serf and from day one in the US senate has been attentive to the same masters that employ Biden, the ticket is well balanced, the seesaw with Obama at one end and Biden at the other dead-level on the fulcrum of corporate capital.

Another shining moment in Biden’s progress in the current presidential term was his conduct in the hearings on Judge Alito’s nomination to the US Supreme Court. From the opening moments of the Judiciary Committee’s sessions in January, 2006, it became clear that Alito faced no serious opposition. On that first ludicrous morning Senator Pat Leahy sank his head into his hands, shaking it in unbelieving despair as Biden blathered out a self-serving and inane monologue lasting a full twenty minutes before he even asked Alito one question. In his allotted half hour Biden managed to pose only five questions, all of them ineptly phrased. He did pose two questions about Alito’s membership of a racist society at Princeton, but had already undercut them in his monologue by calling Alito “a man of integrity”, not once but twice, and further trivialized the interrogation by reaching under the dais to pull out a Princeton cap and put it on.

In all, Biden rambled for 4,000 words, leaving Alito time only to put together less than 1,000. A Delaware newspaper made deadly fun of him for his awful performance, eliciting the revealing confession from Biden that “I made a mistake. I should have gone straight to my question. I was trying to put him at ease.”

Biden is a notorious flapjaw. His vanity deludes him into believing that every word that drops from his mouth is minted in the golden currency of Pericles. Vanity is the most conspicuous characteristic of US Senators en bloc, nourished by deferential acolytes and often expressed in loutish sexual advances to staffers, interns and the like. On more than one occasion CounterPunch’s editors have listened to vivid accounts by the recipient of just such advances, this staffer of another senator being accosted by Biden in the well of the senate in the week immediately following his first wife’s fatal car accident.

His “experience” in foreign affairs consists in absolute fidelity to the conventions of cold war liberalism, the efficient elder brother of raffish “neo-conservatism.” Here again the ticket is well balanced, since Senator Obama has, within a very brief time-frame, exhibited great fidelity to the same creed.

Obama opposed the launching of the US attack on Iraq in 2003. He was not yet in the US Senate, but having arrived there in 2005 he has since voted unhesitatingly for all appropriations of the vast sums required for the war’s prosecution. Biden himself voted enthusiastically for the attack, declaring in the Senate debate in October, 2002, in a speech excavated and sent to us by Sam Husseini:

“I do not believe this is a rush to war. I believe it is a march to peace and security. I believe that failure to overwhelmingly support this resolution is likely to enhance the prospects that war will occur. … [Saddam Hussein] possesses chemical and biological weapons and is seeking nuclear weapons. … For four years now, he has prevented United Nations inspectors from uncovering those weapons…

“The terms of surrender dictated by the United Nations require him to declare and destroy his weapons of mass destruction programs. He has not done so. …

“Many predicted the administration would refuse to give the weapons inspectors one last chance to disarm. …

“Mr. President, President Bush did not lash out precipitously after 9/11. He did not snub the U.N. or our allies. He did not dismiss a new inspection regime. He did not ignore the Congress. At each pivotal moment, he has chosen a course of moderation and deliberation. …

“For two decades, Saddam Hussein has relentlessly pursued weapons of mass destruction. There is a broad agreement that he retains chemical and biological weapons, the means to manufacture those weapons and modified Scud missiles, and that he is actively seeking a nuclear capability. …

“We must be clear with the American people that we are committing to Iraq for the long haul; not just the day after, but the decade after…. [Biden confided to his colleagues that this would be a long fight, but was still for it.] I am absolutely confident the President will not take us to war alone. I am absolutely confident we will enhance his ability to get the world to be with us by us voting for this resolution.”

In step with his futile bid for the Democratic nomination, Biden changed his mind on the war, and part of his mandate will be to shore up the credentials of the Democratic ticket as being composed of “responsible” helmsmen of Empire, stressing that any diminution of the US presence in Iraq will be measured and thus extremely slow, balanced by all the usual imperial ventures elsewhere around the globe.

Why did Obama choose Biden? One important constituency pressing for Biden was no doubt the Israel lobby inside the Democratic Party. Obama, no matter how fervent his proclamations of support for Israel, has always been viewed with some suspicion by the lobby. For half the lifespan of the state of Israel, Biden has proved himself its unswerving acolyte in the senate.

And Obama picked Biden for the same reason Michael Dukakis chose Senator Lloyd Bentsen in 1988: the marriage of youth and experience, so reassuring to uncertain voters but most of all to the elites, that nothing dangerous or unusual will discommode business as usual. Another parallel would be Kennedy’s pick of Lyndon Johnson in 1960, LBJ being a political rival and a seasoned senator. Kennedy and Johnson didn’t like each other, and surely after Biden’s racist remarks about “clean” blacks, Obama cannot greatly care for Biden. It seems he would have preferred Chris Dodd but the latter was disqualified because of his VIP loans from Countrywide.

ED NOTES

RECOMMENDED READING, which I got into accidentally when I found it in a book store, started reading it, couldn't stop reading, shelled out forty bucks for the Penguin edition, wife jumped my bones for "spending so much on one book," kept on reading because, well, because (1) it covers in detail lots of stuff I didn't know — Kirov's murder by the man whose wife he stole, not the insider Stalinist hit I'd always heard it was, complete with the full details right down to what everyone involved looked like, while I reminded myself that few people reading this gives one hoot about Stalin and never heard of Kirov and many of the rest casually conflate Stalin's socialism with Hitler's as do television's chuckle buddies as they include Bernie and Ocasio-Cortez in both bags, and finally I don't mention Kirov to show off my own vast store of random facts and miscellaneous misinformation but as an example of how interesting and detailed this book is, and because I'm sick and tired of hearing socialists (because I am one) lumped in with two entirely aberrant forms of socialism, Stalin's and Hitler's, with Stalin's being a hurry-up industrialization of Russia under a corrupted form of Marxism-Leninism that expropriated the rich and often murdered them while Hitler's was a full-employment war state fully supported by Germans of all classes and German business and also supported here and there by American icons like Henry Ford and Charles Lindberg. It annoys me no end to hear socialism constantly linked to monsters at the head of monstrous states. If you're even going to get into the socialism conversation you ought to at least know the diff and something of its history, for instance the fact that many towns in the United States, including nearby Eureka in 1915, elected Debsian socialists as mayor and to city councils. (There were many socialists on the Northcoast in the early 20th century among loggers, millworkers and miners especially.

Anyway,

Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941

By Stephen Kotkin

Illustrated. 1,154 pp. Penguin Press. $40.

FROM A REVIEW: "Dictators lend themselves to caricature. We label them sociopaths, paranoiacs or just victims of bad childhoods. We flatten them in order to explain our own times. Saddam Hussein is Hitler; Vladimir Putin is Peter the Great; Donald Trump is Mussolini. Sometimes, we are told, they simply defy explanation. In a 1939 radio address, Winston Churchill conceded defeat in his efforts to understand Stalin’s Soviet Union. “It is,” Churchill said, “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

Stephen Kotkin demolishes such simplicities in his monumental “Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941,” the second part of a projected three-volume biography of the Soviet leader whose reign of cruelty stretched from the mid-1920s to his death in 1953. Drawing on an astonishing array of sources, Kotkin paints a richly variegated portrait, delving into Stalin’s peculiar personality even while situating him within the trajectories of Soviet history and totalitarianism more generally.

This multilayered analysis has a downside: The densely packed, 1,154-page tome — roughly a page for every four days of the period it covers — is no easy read. Yet the book unquestionably rewards the patience that it demands. Slowly but inexorably, Kotkin teases out his subject’s contradictions, revealing Stalin as both ideologue and opportunist, man of iron will and creature of the Soviet system, creep who apparently drove his wife to suicide and leader who inspired his people."

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TRIP, a national transportation research group, found in 2016 that 71 percent of major Bay Area roads were in poor shape, the worst in the nation. The state is trying to remedy this with Senate Bill 1, a legislative package that allocates $54 billion over the next 10 years to fix roads, freeways and bridges. Nearly $2 billion is being set aside for "maintenance and rehabilitation" of the state highway system, while $400 million will be used to repair bridges and culverts.

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WEDNESDAY'S INQUEST into the awful Hart Family murder/suicide last year near Westport was efficiently managed today by Sheriff Allman at the Willits Justice Center.

pressdemocrat.com/news/9416618-181/mendocino-county-inquest-reveals-new

This link to the Oregonian nicely sums up the reasons for the inquest, the first in Mendocino County for many, many years.

oregonlive.com/news/2019/04/for-california-county-hart-family-crash-inquest-brings-closure-transparency-to-yearlong-investigation.html

HUFFMAN GAINS A GAVEL and stature as Democratic leader on environment.

Jared Huffman, the North Coast’s representative in Congress, is emerging as a key leader as House Democrats, back in power after eight years, mount a wave of environmental legislation meant to spur action on climate change, block offshore oil drilling and bolster support for public lands and wildlife protections.

petaluma360.com/news/9452532-181/huffman-gains-a-gavel-and

HEAD-ON CRASH AT THE GREEN BRIDGE SOUTH OF HOPLAND CLOSED 101 AT 11AM WEDNESDAY MORNING

Major two vehicle traffic accident on US-101 south of Hopland on the green bridge. Three people transported to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital by air. One party transported to UVMC. Roadway will be closed for approximately one hour.

This vehicle caught fire while firefighters were still trying to cut injured people out of it following a head-on crash on the Green Bridge Wednesday near Hopland.

Photo courtesy of the Hopland Fire Department

BOTTLING HELP WANTED

$15, 95466-Philo, Bottling at Balo next week. Looking for some helpers. $15 per hour, 8-5. Need 4-5 Monday and Tuesday, April 8 and 9. Need 3 people on Wednesday. Call (805) 679-3081 Thanks!

Ukiah Police Department to present annual report Wednesday

WHY US?

Editor:

It seems odd that, once again, commercial fishermen are singled out for season closures while sport fishermen are allowed to fish for crab, with pots left in the ocean until June 30.

More than 1.75 million sport fishing licenses are issued yearly in California, and many participate in the ocean crab fishery. No one wants to have whale entanglements, and if there is really a serious concern about this issue, then why is the sport fishery, including commercial passenger fishing vessels (party boats), still allowed to fish?

The news media is using photos that show whales caught in ring nets, which are used solely by the sport fishermen. What is wrong with this picture?

Cathy Beck

Bodega Bay

OSCAR ALVAREZ

To the Editor:

Please pay attention to this letter. They are about to sentence my son to 28 years to life for a serious crime that he committed. I agree that he should be punished, but not life imprisonment. Knowing that there was not much evidence produced in court, they did not tell everything about the day in question. There were more people involved in the crime, but they were so focused on “the terrorist” as they call him, that they did not take into account that these other people paid Sureños to kill him. Nor did they divulge that he had mental health issues and was in a clinic for those, or that these other involved people pulled a gun on him several times. This was reported, and there were witnesses, but during his trial they were not allowed to speak because there was no interpreter. It was not brought up that one of the men involved was a registered sex offender, that the authorities knew that, but allowed him to live near children. Also, there were people on the jury that knew the family of the victim, which is against the law. Apart from that, another participant used her influence to her advantage. I hope all these people can be at peace with themselves. I ask you to weigh all these things in the balance, and I leave them in your hands, but to me it does not seem just that the others involved are walking around free and that they have applied the full weight of the law to only one, maybe because he is “Oscar Alvarez, criminal terrorist” as Scott McMenomey called him. I ask that he (McMenomey) look for the others, since he is a professional.

Mercedes Carrillo, Ukiah

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Background:

Why Did Oscar Stab Sal 70 Times?

HELP US FIND A NEW VERNON! MTA's long-time driver for our south coast bus routes, Vernon McNamee, retired recently. We need to find his replacement! If you are personable, a safe driver, and looking for a career job with great benefits in a gorgeous part of Mendocino County, apply here or pass this along to someone you know: mendocinotransit.org/careers/

FROM KATHY WYLIE:

A bill proposes Williamson Act changes to include cannabis as Ag commodity. SB 527, as introduced, Caballero. Local government: Williamson Act: cultivation of cannabis.

The California Land Conservation Act of 1965, otherwise known as the Williamson Act, authorizes a city or county to contract with a landowner to limit the use of agricultural land located in an agricultural preserve designated by the city or county. Existing law provides that unless the board or council, after notice and hearing, makes a finding to the contrary, the erection, construction, alteration, or maintenance of gas, electric, water, communication, or agricultural laborer housing facilities are compatible uses on land under a Williamson Act contract, and prohibits land occupied by any of those facilities from being excluded from an agricultural preserve by reason of that use.

This bill would additionally provide that unless the board or council after notice and hearing, makes a finding to the contrary, the cultivation of cannabis pursuant to certain types of cultivators licenses issued pursuant to the Medical and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act and the cultivation of industrial hemp, is a compatible use on land under a Williamson Act contract, and would prohibit the exclusion of land occupied by the cultivation of cannabis or the cultivation of industrial hemp pursuant to these provisions from an agricultural preserve by reason of that use.

QUIZ NEXT THURSDAY. It’s the first Thursday of the month tomorrow - so no Quiz. We shall return to exercise your minds on the second Thursday, April 11th (and the 4th Thursday). Hope to see you there. Cheers, Steve Sparks / The Quiz Master

ARTIST JEFF UITTO creates intricate sculptures from driftwood he finds along the coast of Washington State.

COAST COMMUNITY LIBRARY AWARDED BOOK TO ACTION GRANT

Coast Community Library is proud to announce that it is one of 25 public libraries awarded a 2019 Book to Action grant from the California Center for the Book. Community Partners in the grant are the Pacific Community Charter School and the Point Arena Community Garden.

‘The Bee-Friendly Garden’ by Kate Frey and Gretchen Lebuhn is the book chosen to fulfill the grant. The focus is on how to create pollinator friendly gardens and it includes regional plant lists, how to preserve native bee habitat and how to join in citizen science research about native bees.

For more information, please email Julia Larke larkej@mendocinocounty.org or call the library at (707) 882-3114.

CATCH OF THE DAY, April 3, 2019

JACOB BYERLY, Anderson/Ukiah. Burglary, vandalism, DUI.

ZEBULON COUTHREN, Willits. DUI, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

SCOTT KENNEY, Willits. DUI.

MARK KILGORE, Ukiah. DUI.

KRYSTAL MALONE, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

ROBERT TAYLOR, Ukiah. Parole violation, resisting.

VINCENT YOUNG, Philo. Suspended license, resisting, probation revocation.

BILOXI DAYS: THE MONUMENT

by Mark Scaramella

Toward the end of my four-year tour at Keesler Air Force Base outside Biloxi, Mississippi, it was becoming clear that President Nixon’s quixotic attempt to “Vietnamize” the Vietnam war by, among other things, training Vietnamese pilots to fly T-28s, would soon be ended. Base Commander General Madsen thought the hands-across-the-waters instruction should be commemorated, quickly coming up with the idea that the Air Force would donate an obsolete, T-28-A — one of the older ones with the two-bladed propeller — to the town of Biloxi.

General Madsen made arrangements with Biloxi’s town fathers who picked a spot downtown for pedestal and plane.

We in Field Maintenance would pick the donated aircraft, strip it down, and install a special mounting ring in the belly of the plane.

A couple of my Field Maintenance NCOs met with a couple of Biloxi Parks & Recs officials to work out the details, among which were very precise drawings of the pedestal so that the monumentalized T-28 could be precisely attached to its pedestal.

After weeks of work by both the town’s crew and my machine shop, the time came to tow the spruced up T-28 from the flight line to downtown Biloxi for installation.

As the designated project officer, I drove a flightline pickup with my folder of authorizing paperwork in front of a slow-moving caravan of Air Force vehicles — tractor-tug, maintenance van, crane, and following vehicle — along a pre-arranged route; several of my troops walked in front and alongside our convoy to temporarily block traffic as we slowly traversed the on-base streets, out the main gate, and on into downtown Biloxi to the installation site.

Everything went along fine until the moment of lowering the plane onto the ring of upward bolts, slowly, slowly, twist it a little, a little more….

Damn it! The bolt-holes didn’t line up! As the plane dangled over the pedestal, we valiantly tried to secure it, but somewhere, somehow, someone had made a measurement error and the installation had to be aborted.

Abouuuuuut Face!

A couple of weeks later, with close supervision, and a rebuilt mounting ring using traced out cardboard cutouts to make sure the holes matched up, we assembled the convoy and paperwork and off we went back downtown.

I naively assumed that since we had done all the paperwork and obtained all the approvals two weeks earlier that we didn’t need to do the all the paperwork and notifications over again.

Wrong.

We were moving along at a snail’s pace, maybe 2 or 3 mph, through the Keesler main gate into downtown Biloxi when, after getting about a block off base, all of a sudden an Air Police truck hit his lights and siren and came up behind us.

We slowly pulled over and came to a gradual stop.

“What are you doing, sir?” asked the Air Police supervisor as he walked up. “Do you have authority to take this plane off base?”

Oops. I hadn’t re-notified Air Police of our plans. Apparently, they thought I was in the act of stealing a T-28 in broad daylight at 3mph.

I took the file folder off the passenger seat and handed it to the AP sergeant, saying, “Sorry. I guess I didn’t realize we needed to notify you again.”

After a few minutes the AP sergeant returned, presumably having called someone about the problem.

“Ok, go ahead,” the sergeant said, handing me back the folder. “But don’t let this happen again.”

“Don't worry, Sergeant. If the bolt holes don’t match up this time, I probably won’t be the one delivering the plane the next time.”

The bolt holes lined up. The plane was installed. And I wasn’t arrested for trying to steal an Air Force T-28.

ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE DAY

What happened to the California drought?

(1) What’s a comin’? Answer: same as what come before.

Not only is there the problem of the existing army of homeless that has no hope in hell and the coming army from south of the border that also has no hope in hell, carrying who knows what diseases, but also American anti-vaxxers that never saw the aftermath of a polio outbreak and wrecked kids in wheelchairs and leg-braces.

We haven’t seen the likes of diphtheria in these parts for a long while but, given the stout resistance to the idea of immunization, maybe we’ll make a re-acquaintance.

And there’s measles. They say that in its hey-day it killed more kids than polio. I had that shitty disease when I was a little kid before they had a vaccine and all I remember is being sick as a dog for about ten days during which I would gladly have expired. Nothing noble about not immunizing the ankle-biters and nothing smart about it.

But, in the end, failure to deal with reality usually ends with reality dealing with failure. Nobody cancelled natural selection as a force in human affairs. Anti-vaxxers say their stance comes from a position of knowledge. Hokay, we’ll see.

(2) The trouble with anti-vaxxers is that they destroy carefully fostered herd immunity – they can kill other people, not just their own children.

There are tiny numbers of children who genuinely can’t be vaccinated because of pre-existing conditions – the ‘herd’ can cope with them if their numbers are not added to by healthy children with dozy parents, and THEY utterly depend on the herd immunity that other more fortunate children give them.

Apparently it takes around a 95% vaccination rate to be safe – there’s no further safety margin against the selfish idiots. Since they tend to spend vast amounts of time scouring the internet for anti-scientific drivel, how come they manage to miss all the articles about current measles epidemics in anti-vaxxer strongholds?

PORTUGUESE BEND

FRANK HARTZELL NOTES:

The Navy has a new plan for wargames off the Pacific Northwest with some expanded activities and some interesting new science on acoustics and marine mammals. Comments are due May 28. There will be a meeting at Dana Gray Elementary in early May. Most of the activity is in the Puget Sound, but they do go back and forth off Fort Bragg and exercises go as far south as HUM, or so it was in the last one. The one is above is almost 2000 pages in two pieces. I read the last two for the Advocate News and we did a good job covering it. They will likely cover it this time also. New information includes updates to training and testing requirements, an updated acoustic effects model, updated marine mammal density data, and evolving and emergent best available science. The Navy has done these exercises for 50 years but only started this EIS process at the start of the 20th century.

nwtteis.com/Home/fbclid/IwAR1JK8POIUmtGRlzzTkwVpt5WIRlOeUa80izZrWGJKYTM33qAMBiu1iWmTc

POT LOSS MAY COST UTILITIES MILLIONS

Electricity ‘superusers’ are dwindling; cannabis exodus could be factor

“…Most are likely growing marijuana indoors, local power agency officials said. Last year, these 'superuser' customers in Sonoma and Mendocino counties with monthly electric bills as high as $20,000 started to disappear.”

pressdemocrat.com/news/9453610-181/as-home-pot-growers-left

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MEMEMEMEMEMEEEEEEEEEEE! ($40 please, in advance)

Sunday, April 7, 2-6 pm: The Forgiveness Practice Workshop at The Gathering Place Celebrate yourself! Share in an experiential and informative afternoon doing The Forgiveness Practice with its Creator, Matthew Winn. An emotional clearing model that after even one session may find you are:

lighter in your body; clearer in your communications; more spacious in your feelings; and ultimately, with more spiritual freedom as you unravel some limiting old tendencies. Testimonial, Sue C. from CA: With gentle guidance, deep presence, and authentic attentiveness Matthew invited me to delve deeper to discover a lot about myself and my personal process. After doing The Forgiveness Practice, I noticed how much reverberated within me from the experience that inspired even more reflection.

$40 requested donation (or reach out for scholarships)

Participation: MUST pre-register at 206-249-9094 or LiveThriveBeFree@gmail.com.

Location: The Gathering Place at The Company Store, 303 N. Main, Fort Bragg, 964-1458. Please park in oceanside lot.

START A GARDEN PARTY!

Friday, April 19th, 2pm * 4:30pm

On Friday, April 19th, from 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm the Ukiah Library is hosting Start A Garden Party!

Celebrate spring with seeds. The Yokayo Seed Project will provide everything you need to plant seeds for your garden: seeds from our extensive seed library, soil, and containers. You get to take them home to your garden. Gardeners of all ages are welcome.

This event is sponsored by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library.

For more information, please contact the Ukiah Library at 707-463-4490.

SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH

Creating a culture of consent

Every April, Project Sanctuary joins rape crisis centers across the country and holds a month-long ‘Sexual Assault Awareness Month’ campaign. So what exactly does it mean to be aware of sexual assault? Do you, for example, know what the laws in California are around sexual assault? Let’s take a look at a few so you can gauge your awareness.

The California Age of Consent is 18 years old. In several other states it’s actually lower. The age of consent is the minimum age at which an individual is considered legally old enough to consent to participation in sexual activity. Minors aged 17 or younger in California are not legally able to consent to sexual activity, and such activity may result in prosecution for statutory rape.

Spousal rape, also known as marital rape, is nonconsensual sexual intercourse between spouses or domestic partners. It’s unique in that it falls under the umbrella of California rape laws and domestic violence law. There is no special leniency just because the offender was married to the victim. In California, spousal rape is punished the same way as a stranger rape. Activity that can lead to a spousal rape charge include things like engaging in sex with a spouse if they are passed out from drinking too much, or sex under duress when a citizen threatens a non US citizen spouse with divorce or getting a green card revoked if they don’t have sex with them.

Date rape is a term commonly used to describe nonconsensual sexual intercourse that takes place between people who are or were dating, or are voluntarily spending time together. While date rape sounds more casual than a typical California rape charge, the two are, in fact, one and the same.

Those are just a few of the sexual assault laws in California and you may have noticed that the theme running through all these scenarios is consent.

So what exactly does it mean to get consent in relation to sexual activity? We like this description from RAINN “…When you’re engaging in sexual activity, consent is about communication. And it should happen every time. Giving consent for one activity, one time, does not mean giving consent for increased or recurring sexual contact. For example, agreeing to kiss someone doesn’t give that person permission to remove your clothes. Having sex with someone in the past doesn’t give that person permission to have sex with you again in the future. You can withdraw consent at any point if you feel uncomfortable. It’s important to clearly communicate to your partner that you are no longer comfortable with this activity and wish to stop. The best way to ensure both parties are comfortable with any sexual activity is to talk about it”

Project Sanctuary is incorporating the idea of consent into many of our activities this April. We will be partnering with several bars and pubs in the county to promote consent and safety with consent messaging on coasters, and the Angel Shot program where bartenders receive special training to spot potential abuse. Several businesses and organizations throughout the County will have special SAAM info on their countertops along with a basket of free consent and SAAM buttons for community members to wear in April.

International Denim Day is April 24th. This is a special day in April to recognize a supreme court ruling in Italy that a rape victim’s assailant could not have gotten the victims tight jeans off without her participation and therefore his conviction was overturned. Italian women took to the streets by the thousands, including female government officials, wearing jeans in protest. Denim Day has become an international symbol of the anti-victim-blaming movement. If you would like to host a Denim Day at your workplace it’s super easy. We can supply you with Denim Day buttons for your staff and everyone wears denim to work that day.

Please join us this April in our efforts to prevent sexual assault by visiting our webpage for a complete list of ways to engage in SAAM. www.projectsanctuary.org

For over thirty years, Project Sanctuary has served as a resource and crisis center for survivors of domestic violence and /or sexual abuse in Mendocino County. Services are free and include counseling, legal advocacy, transitional housing, prevention education and community outreach, and safe and confidential shelter. Dina Polkinghorne has been with Project Sanctuary since 2005, serving as it’s Executive Director for the last 10 years.

PHOTOGRAPH OF LUCY TELLES, also known as Pa-ma-has (1885-1955) seated beside her largest basket, completed in 1933 after about four years of work, Yosemite. From the Collections of the San Joaquin Valley Library System Member Libraries

PLAY IT FORWARD

In bed last night. Just. Mentally reviewing the day. Normal. The phone rings. Herb. What he said was so surprising and new that it was as if I had gotten into a conversation with a seat-mate, a stranger on a train, someone unknown you were making small talk with while flying to France. Having mostly what information he thought he had gotten from me, he introduced me to someone I didn't know. It was like trying to put frayed cable ends together and expecting it to work. Geezer talk. Herb, you sound just like me. I love you. And Alecks, I am bowing and humbled. And I hope you two had a great dinner. Herb and I talked for an hour.

For my many friends in Mendo, I want to assure you that I have never been happier. I am not in the hospital. I am happily writing in pre-season Eugene. One of my students has reported of dreaming of me. Nothing here is meant to be in the slightest way like complaining. Herb, you are as confused as I am, but you are my oldest friend. You introduced me to Wild River. You changed my life.

Weird dreams last night. Perhaps the weirdest yet. A high bar. Insults at the Hog Farm. One of my students particularly offended. An XM radio somehow involved. I am hugely sorry, and I continue to try my best, to be entertaining and passionate and interesting. Another playing her lovely violin. It is fine to have her with me here, playing it forward. Playing for dinner. I love you all. If I have offended any, I haven't meant to. I love you. Thank you. I bow.

(Bruce Brady)

OVER 120 GROUPS URGE CA GOVERNOR TO SHUT DOWN ALISO CANYON FACILITY, HALT NEW FOSSIL FUEL PROJECTS

by Dan Bacher

More than 120 national, statewide, and local organizations on March 27 delivered a letter urging Governor Gavin Newsom to take "bold action" to prevent the worst impacts of climate change in California, including shutting down the notorious Aliso Canyon gas storage facility, according to a news release from a coalition of groups.

During his campaign, Newsom pledged to “on day one … issue a directive putting California on a clear path to 100 percent renewable energy."

"Yet nearly three months into his term he has not taken any significant steps on climate or outlined a comprehensive policy," according to the groups.

Environmentalists point to moves by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who recently announced his decision to forgo rebuilding three coastal gas plants as part of a shift to 100 percent renewable energy, and voiced support for shutting down the SoCalGas Aliso Canyon storage facility for good.

That facility was the site of the worst gas blowout in U.S. history in 2015, releasing 100,000 metric tons of methane into the atmosphere. Groups called on Gov. Newsom to demonstrate leadership, close down Aliso Canyon, and take a series of steps to move California off fossil fuels.

“Now that Mayor Garcetti has announced ‘the beginning of the end of natural gas’ in L.A., there is no imaginable reason to keep the dangerous Aliso Canyon gas facility open for one more day,” said Alexandra Nagy, Senior Organizer at Food & Water Watch. “As a first step to protecting public health and our climate, Governor Newsom should take this action immediately.”

Gov. Newsom, who on the campaign trail agreed for the need to shut down Aliso Canyon, has the power to order regulators to decommission the facility.

“Gov. Gavin Newsom, please step up where your predecessor Jerry Brown chose not to,” said community member Kyoko Hibino, a Save Porter Ranch founder. “The unprecedented SoCalGas blowout caused people like me, my neighbors’ kids, and pets to become violently ill, with symptoms that we suffer from to this day. Fossil fuels are dangerous. Period. We have a choice to move forward to a clean, safe energy future, or continue to pay the price with human lives and health.”

The organizations also call on Gov. Newsom to immediately: 
• End new oil and gas development 
• Halt the most dangerous forms of drilling, like fracking, acidizing and cyclic steam 
• Create a plan for ending all fossil fuel production in California in the next ten years 
• Institute a moratorium on new fossil fuel infrastructure, including pipelines, power plants, refineries and export facilities 
• Implement a 2,500 foot setback for all current drilling projects to protect homes, schools, hospitals, and water supplies 
• Protect the state’s water supply from oil and gas contamination by halting the injection of oil wastewater into aquifers and prohibiting the use of oil wastewater to irrigate crops 
• Put California on the path to a fair and just transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 in line with scientific consensus and national calls for a green new deal

While campaigning, Gov. Newsom voiced his opposition to “fracking and other unsafe oil operations” and advocates say that given the threat posed to California from climate change, there is no safe way to continue oil and gas drilling.

Members of frontline communities urged him to step up and keep his promise to curtail fossil fuel operations.

“I am a living survivor of a major oil refinery explosion that occurred in front of my home which burned seven members of my family and injured over 200 people,” said Jesse Marquez, executive director of the Coalition for a Safe Environment. “I have lived all my life in the shadows of hundreds of operating and abandoned oil wells in my community of Wilmington, exposed to toxic air pollution every day. It is time for us to end our dependence on fossil fuels.”

“As a Native American activist, advisor for the Barbareño Band of Chumash Indians, and co-chair of the Santa Barbara Standing Rock Coalition, I urge you to honor your promises to protect Mother Earth and to hear her call for immediate action,” said Emiliano Campobello.

“In this hour of need, we are grateful to have a leader of compassionate heart like yourself as governor. I pray that your heart will give you courage and lead the wisdom of your mind to support policies that preserve the future for all our children and the coming generations," he added.

Health professionals emphasized that these steps are essential to safeguarding the wellbeing of Californians.

“As nurses we know that fossil fuel production and infrastructure pose significant threats to public health – and the climate disruption they cause will increase harmful health impacts for all Californians,” said Zenei Cortez, RN and co-president of the California Nurses Association. “Governor Newsom has a chance to come out early as a national climate leader, by taking bold action. That should start with a moratorium on dangerous fossil fuel projects and infrastructure to protect our communities locally and our planet globally.”

“It’s time we ended California’s environmental identity crisis and no one is better suited to lead us than Gov. Newsom with a long history of making strong statements against fracking and dangerous oil and gas development, combined with his refusal to take dirty oil money in the last election,” said David Braun, director of Rootskeeper. “We are hopeful that Gov. Newsom will live up to his promise by putting public health and the future of this planet above toxic oil industry profits”

As governor, Newsom has the broad authority to take these steps, according to the letter.

Read the letter here: https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sites/default/files/newsom_climate_letter_final_final.pdf

MENDOCINO COUNTY SCIENCE FAIR WINNERS Prepare for State Competition

UKIAH, CA — On Saturday, March 30, the Mendocino County Office of Education (MCOE) hosted the 33rd annual Mendocino County Science Fair, where 212 students submitted 155 projects, representing 23 local schools. The top 10 submissions advance to the California state science fair, scheduled for April 29-30 at the California Science Center, Exposition Park in Los Angeles. Organizers there expect about 900 participants from 400 schools throughout the state to compete for more than $50,000 in awards. Kimberly Barden, MCOE Student Events Manager thanked the team of dedicated educators, parents and community members who worked together to make the event possible. She said, “The Mendocino County Office of Education really appreciates the teachers, science fair coordinators and parents who support the curiosity and commitment of these students in the field of science. We also deeply appreciate the 54 judges and other volunteers who made this event go so smoothly.” Mendocino County students in grades 3-12 submitted science fair projects in several ways: as part of class projects, as teams (with two or three members), or as individuals. They entered projects in a wide variety of categories, including behavioral/health/social sciences, biological sciences, earth sciences, ecology/environmental sciences, engineering/technology (Earth/Space), mathematics as it relates to physical sciences, and physical sciences.

The Mendocino County Office of Education is a public agency whose primary purpose is to provide educational leadership, resources and services to schools to ensure wide-ranging educational opportunities for all students.

Top Row, Left to Right: Jade L'Heureux, Dalton Robinson, Audrey Sherf, Mariah Cox, Willow Daun-Widner, Hunter Paris, Tyler Simerson

Bottom Row, Left to Right: YiFan Chan, Yee-Kit Chan, Jaimie Yu, Kylie Neuroth, Jonah Meyes, Michael Okawa

Not pictured: Owen Schuster and Andreas Allende