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MCT: Tuesday, January 14, 2020

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SHOWERS CONTINUE THIS MORNING before a brief break is expected this afternoon and tonight. A stronger storm on Wednesday will bring heavy rain, heavy mountain snow and potentially small hail to the coast through Friday, with lower snow levels and travel impacts expected. (NWS)

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GEORGE GOWAN was found dead last week at his home on Floodgate Creek off Gschwend Road. Controversial among his neighbors for the accumulation of vehicles on the property, Mr. Gowan provided a kind of sanctuary for adrift locals. An estranged son of the late George and Mildred Gowan, he was believed to be in his mid-70s, and had returned to the Anderson Valley from many years spent in Oregon.

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"AUTO ZONE" DENIED: "The Fort Bragg City Council voted 4-1 to uphold a Planning Commission decision to deny the application for an 'Auto Zone' auto parts corporation store (one of 6,000 others) to be placed along the gateway to Fort Bragg." (David Gurney, via MCN-Announce)

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NIGHT LIGHT OF THE NORTH COAST: Harry the Honorable Hound Dog

by David Wilson

Growing up, I didn’t think of Eureka, California as beautiful. Never mind that I was a kid, and what would I know about that? Maybe I simply wasn’t tapped in to the art scene, I don’t know, but I don’t recall driving down the street and seeing so many interesting art pieces, or art being as accessible in so many venues as now. I remember the larger than life sculptures on the bay side of Highway 101 north of Eureka. They fascinated the kid I was. But with apologies to the current Eureka in which I live, the feeling that would greet me as a child when my family drove us to town was a depressing dinginess. Permeating everything, standing out from my memories of those times, was the plume of vapor ever rising from the pulp mill on the peninsula, the pall that quite literally put the “reek” in Eureka.

But Eureka has metamorphosed. Now, driving through town one sees many murals, painted utility boxes, and sculptures sprinkled about, and despite relying on kid memories for comparison, it feels as though a lot has changed inside Eureka. A great many businesses display local art, and the people come out in droves for Arts Alive every month. The transformation of Eureka has largely been organic, changed gradually and inexorably over decades by the huge numbers of creative people living here. I’m glad to be one of them. The city of Eureka itself has helped spur the change, especially recently, and is now one of fourteen officially designated California Cultural Districts.

In 2017 the city adopted its Strategic Arts Plan (https://www.eurekart.org), which among other things supports artists in publicly visible artistic projects. In one of the most transformative projects, the hideously ugly utility boxes squatting on so many street corners have been transmuted into fascinating, free-standing three-dimensional paintings. Now, wherever the old, hard grey metal boxes once crouched stands a new work of art from an artist’s imagination. Painted on all four sides, each painting tells a different story to those who pass by.

Art does that. It speaks to us. It tells us stories, or it evokes feeling. Visual art has a kind of power akin to music’s, a way to communicate that reaches beyond words to something elemental within ourselves. It opens a dialog within each of us between what we see, what we think, and what we feel. We each have our own personal experience when we take art in; the artist can suggest, but it is the viewer who fills in the story. Now the street corners are filled with stories.

With so many of these utility boxes telling their tales in Eureka, the idea of photographing them (at night, naturally) became irresistible. I have the urge to seek out the ones with the best night light around them and make images of them. The first in the series shows a work of art by Benjamin Goulart that changed a total dog of a utility box into a very good dog which he named “Harry, my Honorable Hound Dog.” Visit the piece yourself on Buhne Street at the corner of Buhne and Harrison.

You must see “Harry” in person, for then you will come away with your own. To view it here is to see it through the creative lens of my own night photography, which will influence the feelings evoked; after all, if I create a piece on another’s piece of art, it’s going to come with my own artistic flavor and intention in the mix. Of course, you’ll still come away with your own story even then.

Complete with 3-D ears, tongue and bone, “Harry, my Honorable Hound Dog” watches the cars go by from his spot on Buhne Street at the corner with Harrison Avenue. He never chases, barks or bites. Utility box painting by Benjamin Goulart, photographed on January 1, 2020. Eureka, Humboldt County, California.

(To keep abreast of David Wilson’s most current photography or peer into its past, visit or contact him at his website mindscapefx.com or follow him on Instagram at @david_wilson_mfx.)

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MENDO WALK AROUND

Mendocino High School Facility Tour

In anticipation of the upcoming Facilities Bond Election on March 3rd, 2020, Mendocino Unified School District will be hosting a tour of the Mendocino High School (MHS) campus on Thursday, January 30th at 4:00. The tour will begin in the MHS library. Otto Rice, MUSD Maintenance and Operations Supervisor, will be leading the tour of the campus. If you have any questions, please contact Jason Morse at 937-5868 or jmorse@mcn.org.

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SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS WRITES:

State Park's recent lifeguard implementation has been brilliant, filling a desperately needed collaborative component of ocean rescue. I've been in awe watching lifeguards beat jetskis to patients and integrating tightly with existing coastal fire department efforts. Ean Miller was awarded the Medal of Valor Sunday night for two spectacular life saving rescues.

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AND THEN KELIE PICKED UP THE STICK…

On Saturday, January 11, 2020 at approximately 2:21 p.m., Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies received a radio call for service for a physical altercation between an adult male and adult female in the 32000 block of Highway 20 in Fort Bragg, California. Deputies arrived and contacted both subjects in the immediate area but at different locations. Deputies learned the male and female were involved in a romantic relationship and were engaged in a heated argument that escalated when the female, Kelie Adams-Penrod, 29, of Fort Bragg, physically assaulted the male with her hands and a large wooden stick.

Adams-Penrod

Deputies observed the male had minor visible injuries consistent with the assault. Deputies also determined the female was on active summary probation with a term she obey all laws. Deputies arrested Adams-Penrod and she was transported and booked into the Mendocino County Jail where she is being held in lieu of $30,000.

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GEORGE HOLLISTER WRITES. "Yes, Bob Cummings was Jim’s Brother. Notice Bob owned the Wharf Restaurant on Noyo flat at one point. The Green Barn in Ukiah was a popular restaurant in it’s day when Bob owned it. KC Meadows has a connection there, too. Ask her about that. She likely knew Bob Cummings. It is interesting to me that one brother was surrounded by dysfunction, the other a respected member of the community. Bob was the ‘“little brother,’ too. Dysfunction is more often seen with the younger sibling. From the people I have known who knew Jim Cummings, they said he was consumed with making and having money as a result of his poor upbringing, and depression era experience. There is a moral to his timeless story. The people the Cummings brothers grew up with on the Coast are almost all gone. Few now know who they were, and what came of them. Your article on Jim is good, but insulated from a time and people recently gone by, and already forgotten. Expect the same for us at some point."

ED NOTE: I often enjoyed lunch at the old Green Barn on South State, Ukiah. Nice place, frigid air con in the summer months, reasonable prices. Yes, the two brothers were quite unalike, as often is the case and certainly the case with me and my two bros.

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THE OCEAN END OF WARD AVENUE, Fort Bragg.

(Photo by Judy Valadao)

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ED NOTES

A READER WRITES: “On my way out of the dentist’s office in Ukiah last week I was surprised to see a good-sized Mendo deputy accompanying a middle-aged woman in a gray jumpsuit with a big grin on her face showing her few remaining teeth on the way in to the dentist.”

I REMEMBER former Sheriff Tony Craver remarking that the police save a lot of amphetamine addicts from themselves by arresting them, and we all know, or should know by now, the police do most of mental health’s heavy lifting in the county despite, for instance, the county spending $20 million annually on mental health “services.”


BOB ABELES of Boonville kicked off some lively back and forth re the proposed water and sewage infrastructure proposed for central Boonville. Mr. Abeles was reacting to a mischaracterization of critics of the project as agents of misinformation: “Editor…there are some who are opposed to the projects and spread misinformation" — (From yesterday’s CSD water update report) So, anyone with objections to the project or how it is being carried out is a spreader of misinformation? That sounds like a line straight out of the HBO show Chernobyl.”

WHICH PROMPTED Gwyn Leeman Smith of Boonville to comment, “Hear, hear! There are many legitimate reasons people can be opposed to these projects, lack of good information chief among them. To lump people who oppose as those who spread misinformation does not work in any of our best interests and is just wrong. Continuing to provide and disperse correct and thorough information throughout our community will go a long way to combat the misinformation out there now. Onward!”

SONNY PETTIJOHN, also of Boonville:

“There is a website that provides correct information for those that are & should be interested. www.avcsd.org/watersewer.php

CSD Board Chair Valerie Hanelt: “I apologize for that phrasing. How about “we often find that opposition to the projects is based on incomplete or misinformation”?

JOY ANDREWS, CSD General Manager: “Hi Bob, I see how that comment Valerie wrote could be read that way but I don't think it was intended to generalize all those who oppose the project. Unfortunately we are finding a lot of incorrect information being talked about in the community and we are making it our current focus to educate people even more so they can be able to make an informed decision. Thank you again for attending our most recent meeting and for your questions/concerns. I hope we can get all those answered for you.”

BOB ABELES soon wrote: “I thought you might enjoy reading this message I received from Phil Williams. Apparently, he is working for the CSD, and it might be reasonable to assume he wrote it on behalf of the CSD. Hell of a PR campaign they're running.”

FROM PHIL WILLIAMS: “Characterizing Ms. Hanelt’s observation that ‘there are some who are opposed to the projects and spread misinformation’ as a conclusion that ‘anyone with objections to the project or how it is being carried out is a spreader of misinformation’ does violence to the King’s English. Mr. Fowler is likely rolling over in his grave. The use of the conjunctive “and” merely indicates Ms. Hanelt’s observation that there are some who possess two characteristics: opposition to the projects and dispersal of misinformation. Ms. Hanelt does not say, or even indicate, that those who object to the project are the same who are spreading misinformation. Furthermore, in your mischaracterization of her observation, you improperly mistake Ms. Hanelt’s necessary condition (i.e., ‘opposition to the projects’) for the dispersal of misinformation as a sufficient condition for said dispersal. As an example, while it is necessary to have fuel to start a fire, the presence of fuel by itself does not produce a fire; one must have, from what I remember, heat, oxygen, and fuel to start a fire — fuel is therefore a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for the event of a fire. While it is entirely logical that one must oppose the projects in order to spread misinformation (i.e., opposition is necessary), that does not mean that opposition to the projects is sufficient in and of itself to result in the spread of misinformation. Ms. Andrews was being too diplomatic, sir; in no way does the most rudimentary understanding of the English language support your publicly-broadcasted mischaracterization of Ms. Hanelt’s observation. But the damage is now done. A gentleman would offer her an apology in the same forum in which the slight was given."

ED NOTE: Mr. Williams is a lawyer the District hired (through the state as part of the planning grant) to negotiate and prepare the formal contracts with the well owners who will provide the agua for the planned water system. The guy seems to have a lot of time on his hands, and his grammar lesson is off, too. Mr. Abeles’ point that critics of the project were carelessly portrayed as misrepresenting the project was clear enough and grammatically sound until lawyer Williams, belting out a gratuitous supper song to his employers, the unsuspecting people of Boonville via their Community Services District, offered a distinction without a difference while, I daresay, the people of the affected areas of Boonville would prefer that he, a shameless Healdsburg nuzzlebum straining to both smack up to the ladies driving the project bus and demonstrate that he was the fifth smartest kid in his high school English class, restrict himself to the parameters of his contract.


THE SMART TRAIN has 148 employees to move an average of 1,125 people a day. That’s one employee for every 7.6 passengers. Those fortunate 148 receive $22,916,000 in salaries and benefits, which works out to $158,000 per employee. The heavily subsidized and obviously failing rail line has an annual budget of roughly $127 million, little of it derived from passengers. The solution? Contract train service out to the Chinese or Japanese who successfully run high speed trains more than a hundred miles beyond their population centers.


RECOMMENDED READING: "Families, A Pictorial History of Round Valley, 1864 to 1938, A Project of The Friends of Round Valley Public Library, Covelo, California." Anyone interested in the history of Mendocino County will want to have a copy of this very nicely produced book which, apart from its copious and fascinating collection of photos of early Covelo and its residents, also contains many passages from memoirs and newspapers of the time, which illuminate the history of a very small place with a very big history. The book has been steered to completion by Elmer Bauer and Floyd Barney, Covelo old timers whose roots go back almost to the middle of the last century when the first white slavers and outlaws — since upgraded to pioneer and explorer status — stumbled into Round Valley. I was especially fascinated by excerpts taken from the memories of Judson Liftchild, Covelo’s first doctor who seems to have arrived in town in the 1880s. Of a time when educated people not only were expected to be able to write and talk, Liftchild, as many educated people of the time, wrote in a vivid prose which, like no other I’ve read on local history, enables us to feel what it was like in this unique, and uniquely volatile little community in eastern Mendocino County in the last quarter of the 19th century.

“CARTER ROHRBAUGH was the opposition lawyer and indulged in a number of sallies at my expense, in what I thought was rather poor taste, and I resorted to a little sarcasm myself, to the great enjoyment of the spectators, who always expected to be entertained whenever Judge Redwine’s court was in session. To my client’s surprise, as well as my own, as I really believe he was guilty, he was acquitted by the jury and Brad was returned to society, his remaining period of existence being spent in getting drunk and sobering up again. Poor Carter died under mysterious circumstances several years ago, having been shot while riding home one night. It was probably accidental, as he was too passive a character to incur enemies and passed through life as easily as possible, being satisfied with plenty of smoking materials and a book. He received an excellent education but lacked initiative. And there was little in Round Valley to stir his ambition, so he found refuge among his books, becoming a sort of literary hermit.”

BAUER AND BARNEY have made a large contribution to County history with this wonderful book, which is available from, and whose proceeds go to support, the Round Valley Public Library, P.O. Box 620, Covelo, Ca 95428. $41.04 per soft cover copy including postage and handling.


THERE was a misleading segment about exercise on NPR Monday morning, not that the rest of the line-up was any less faulty in its predictably neo-lib fashion. The exercise expert said marathons are good for you, keeps your bodily infrastructure so healthy you'll live longer. To be fair he mentioned walking as also desirable, but he mentioned walking almost as an after thought. Marathons are not good for you, as a mere glance at the cadaverous forms of distance runners should inform you. I've run marathons, and from the very first one in Livermore (of all desolate places) I knew from my knees it was a dumb thing to do. So I ran five or six more, including the Avenue of the Giants in southern HumCo. I think recommending really hard exercise discourages the millions of people who need to get up off it for their own welfare and, I guess, their extended longevity according to the expert, and if you think the random precariousness of life can be scheduled like your annual tooth cleaning, hell, go for it. I remember when running guru Jim Fixx dropped dead of a heart attack in front of the Fairmont Hotel when he was out for a morning jog. And he was as fit as it's humanly possible to be fit. A half hour of walking every day will keep your hormones moaning and, once you feel good enough with twenty minutes of so shuffling around the block, propel yourself a little longer, a little farther, a little faster until you can do a comfortable hour or so. You don't have to go nuts over it like millions of us did in the '70s, training like maniacs. I finished behind a fat guy once at Spring Lake who I thought for sure would conk out early in the 6k race, and damn near fell over when post-race he pounded down a couple of Manhattans his parents had waiting for him! There was a guy who should give lessons.


IN ALL THE hullabaloo about the homeless, from Frisco to Eureka, who has not stepped forward with funding help, however rhetorical? Congressman Huffman, and Healdsburg's dynamic duo, State Senator Mike ‘Little Mikey’ McGuire and Assemblyman Jim ‘The Dentist’ Wood.


THIS HEADLINE from Monday morning’s Press Democrat: “‘People are pissed’: Sonoma County supervisor takes aim at County staff over rollout of homeless camp measures.”

CAN BULLSHIT BE FAR BEHIND?

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BE IT EVER SO HUMBLE there's no place like homeless.

(photo by Catheryn J. Brockett)

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EXERCISE IN FUTILITY

Editor:

We can build housing and provide assistance for finding jobs, etc., but these efforts won’t address a central issue: a significant portion of those without shelter will decline housing and assistance in order to remain on the streets. There they can have continued access to drug dealers, who can never be eliminated while customers remain.

It is unacceptable, and a public safety crisis, to permit drug addicts to decline to go to full-time rehab facilities until they are judged to be drug free and resources have been obtained (housing, employment, etc.) whereby they can live off the streets. If they relapse, which is likely, they should not be permitted to decline to return to rehab facilities.

The hard and costly truth is that we must have the political will to build facilities to rehabilitate addicts and to protect themselves from themselves. The public safety crisis will never go away unless we do.

Mike Menius

Forestville

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SECOND UNITS ANYONE?

Hearing - Fort Bragg City Council Code Amendment Pertaining to Second Units

On January 27, 2020, the Fort Bragg City Council will hold a Public Hearing and take action on Ordinance 959-2020 regarding an Inland Land Use and Development Code Amendment Pertaining to Second Units (Accessory Dwelling Units / Junior Accessory Dwelling Units) in order to comply with State law. To view the notice click here: city.fortbragg.com/DocumentCenter/View/11899/1-27-2020-Public-Hearing-Notice-re-Ordinance-959-2020

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MENDOCINO COLLEGE PAINTING CLASS

Sign up for Beginning or Intermediate Painting classes with instructor Rebecca Wallace http://rebeccawallace.net at Mendocino College. Classes begin Jan 21st so register today! There are three classes offered, Beginning Painting TTh 5:30-8:30 pm, Beginning Painting II & Intermediate Painting TTh 2:30- 5:20pm. We need a minimum of 10 students for the classes to go, so if you know someone who might be interested spread the word!

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AV VILLAGE TRIP TO SEE BOOK OF MORMON

Book of Mormon at Golden Gate Theater, March 31 to April 26

Matinees are on Saturdays or Sundays only. To check ticket prices, I arbitrarily chose Sunday, April 19th at 1 pm. Center mezzanine seats in 8th row are available at a group rate of $115, compared to center loge seats (1st 3 rows of balcony) at $240. I’m thinking most of you, like me, would opt for $115 tickets. What I need to know by next Monday, 1/20, is how many of you would like to go and does Sunday, April 19th work for you?

Please respond ONLY TO MARY at mheobrien@gmail.com or text me at (707)367-9728.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, January 13, 2020

Buenrostro-Corona, Culling, Delgado-Garcia, Hendry

BRAYAN BUENROSTRO-CORONA, Fort Bragg. Assault with deadly weapon with great bodily injury, witness intimidation, participation in criminal street gang.

HACK CULLING JR., Ukiah. Over an ounce of pot, criminal threats, evasion.

MAURICIO DELGADO-GARCIA, Fort Bragg. Witness intimidation, street terrorism, weapons charge add-on.

JIMMY HENDRY, Willits. Protective order violation.

Kimpton, Medina, White

BENJAMIN KIMPTON, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

GERARDO MEDINA, Calpella. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

LAURENT WHITE, Yuba City/Ukiah. Petty theft.

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MY OWN RECORD IS IMPECCABLE: I am not now and have never been a member of any church. Nor have I ever, even in this late adolescence, believed in God or afterlife or a power or consciousness beyond this world that is interested in this world. Religion, in short, bores me even more than Marxism.

— Dwight Macdonald

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MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL has handed down tough punishments to the Houston Astros for illegally stealing signs during the 2017 season. "MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred clearly wants to send a powerful message with his punishment for the Houston Astros."

fansided.com/2020/01/13/mlb-hits-astros-tough-punishments-sign-stealing-scandal/

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ABOVE ALL, DO NOT LIE TO YOURSELF. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others. Not respecting anyone, he ceases to love, and having no love, he gives himself up to passions and coarse pleasures, in order to occupy and amuse himself, and in his vices reaches complete bestiality, and it all comes from lying continually to others and to himself. A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offense. It sometimes feels very good to take offense, does it not? And surely he knows that no one has offended him, and that he himself has invented the offense and told lies just for the beauty of it, that he has exaggerated for the sake of effect, that he has picked on a word and made a mountain out of a pea --- he knows all of that, and still he is the first to take offense. He likes feeling offended, it gives him great pleasure, and thus he reaches the point of real hostility…

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1880; from "The Brothers Karamazov"

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PD HEADLINE OF THE DAY: “23 of the most expensive homes sold in Sonoma County in 2019.”

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WE JUST ANNOUNCED THE COURAGE TO CHANGE PAC - and we need your help.

We are pushing the envelope in DC by rewarding those who reject lobbyist money, fight for working families & welcome newcomers.

Change takes courage. Let’s go:

Eleven candidates are running to unseat me in the House. They’ve already raised more than $1 million to spend against us. In response, we set a very specific goal of raising $849,119 this month — the exact amount two of our Republican opponents raised to spend against us.

Our average donation right now is $16.81. So we need about 50,512 contributions to meet our goal, and we’ve just started so we're only 29% of the way there. Can I count on you to donate today?

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/aoc-dccc-social

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AMERICAN “REALITY” SHOWS like “Cops” and “Rescue 911” have an obvious crime-doesn’t-pay attitude and “boost the prestige of the law enforcement bodies,” Viktor Biryukov, producer of Russian television’s only pro-police crime show, said. “But for cop shows, Russian and American audiences are as different as the sky and earth,” said Mr. Biryukov. “If one of our shows had a whole 10-minute segment on an old lady whose favorite kitty gets stuck in a tree, and a whole brigade of police come to save it, our audience would never believe it. They’d sooner believe that the police would spit in the face of that old lady, and tell her to go climb the tree herself.”

— Sarah Koenig

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‘TREED BUT NOT BY CROW’ (1989)

Don Van Vliet

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CHUCK WILCHER WRITES:

Jerry Philbrick Wrote: “The other day they did tests at the DMV and discovered they registered 250,000 illegal voters. And California is already one of the most illegal voters voting places in the United States and they get away with it.”

What was his source? The closest I could find was this: factcheck.org/2018/09/false-claim-of-california-registering-noncitizens-to-vote/

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BIDEN, BUTTIGIEG AND CORPORATE MEDIA ARE EAGER FOR SANDERS AND WARREN TO CLASH

It would be a serious error for progressives to buy into corporate media portrayals of the Sanders and Warren campaigns as destined to play a traditional zero-sum political game.

by Norman Solomon

Corporate Democrats got a jolt at the end of last week when the highly regarded Iowa Poll showed Bernie Sanders surging into first place among Iowans likely to vote in the state’s Feb. 3 caucuses. The other big change was a steep drop for the previous Iowa frontrunner, Pete Buttigieg, who—along with Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden—came in a few percent behind Sanders. The latest poll was bad news for corporate interests, but their prospects brightened a bit over the weekend when Politico reported: “The nonaggression pact between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren is seriously fraying.”

The reason for that conclusion? While speaking with voters, some Sanders volunteers were using a script saying that Warren supporters “are highly educated, more affluent people who are going to show up and vote Democratic no matter what” and that “she’s bringing no new bases into the Democratic Party.”

At last, mainstream journalists could begin to report the kind of conflict that many had long been yearning for. As Politico mentioned in the same article, Sanders and Warren “have largely abstained from attacking one another despite regular prodding from reporters.”

That “regular prodding from reporters” should be understood in an ideological context. Overall, far-reaching progressive proposals like Medicare for All have received negative coverage from corporate media. Yet during debates, Sanders and Warren have been an effective tag team while defending such proposals. The media establishment would love to see Sanders and Warren clashing instead of cooperating.

For progressives, the need for a Sanders-Warren united front is crucial. Yes, there are some significant differences between the two candidates, especially on foreign policy (which is one of the reasons that I actively support Sanders). Those differences should be aired in the open, while maintaining a tactical alliance.

Sustaining progressive momentum for both Sanders and Warren is essential for preventing the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination from going to the likes of Biden or Buttigieg—a grim outcome that would certainly gratify the 44 billionaires and their spouses who’ve donated to Biden, the 40 billionaires and their spouses who’ve donated to Buttigieg, and the oligarchic interests they represent.

It would be a serious error for progressives to buy into corporate media portrayals of the Sanders and Warren campaigns as destined to play a traditional zero-sum political game. The chances are high that by the time the primaries end this spring, Sanders and Warren—as well as their supporters—will need to join forces so one of them can become the nominee at the Democratic National Convention in mid-July.

In the meantime, during the next few months, top corporate Democrats certainly hope to see a lot more headlines like one that greeted New York Times readers Monday morning: “Elizabeth Warren Says Bernie Sanders Sent Volunteers ‘Out to Trash Me’.”

(Sanders tried to defuse what he called a “media blow up” on Sunday, saying: “We have hundreds of employees. Elizabeth Warren has hundreds of employees. And people sometimes say things that they shouldn’t.” And: “Elizabeth Warren is a very good friend of mine. No one is going to trash Elizabeth Warren.”)

Keeping eyes on the prize this year will require a united front that can strengthen progressive forces, prevent any corporate Democrat from winning the party’s presidential nomination, and then go on to defeat Donald Trump.

(Norman Solomon is co-founder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. His books include "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death" and "Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State." He is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.)

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LEE HARVEY OSWALD IS INTERESTING because he was, at least by his own rights, a strongly political man, who not only defected to the Soviet Union but tried to assassinate the right-wing figure General Walker about seven months before the assassination of President Kennedy. I think in that seven months his life unravelled. I think he lost his grip on his political consciousness, and on almost everything else around him. And I think he became the forerunner of all those soft white young men of the late sixties and early seventies who went around committing crimes of convenience, shooting at whatever political figure or celebrity happened to drift into range.

— Don DeLillo

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FEMA SAYS IT MAY BILL FIRE VICTIMS if it can’t get $4 billion from PG&E

Federal officials say Pacific Gas and Electric Co. owes the government nearly $4 billion, and if they can’t get the payment request resolved as part of the utility’s bankruptcy case, they may later have to ask wildfire victims for a portion of the money instead.

sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/FEMA-says-it-may-bill-fire-victims-if-it-can-t-14968147.php

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SAMUEL BECKETT, when asked one beautiful spring morning whether such a day did not make him glad to be alive, responded, “I wouldn’t go as far as that.”

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MITCH CLOGG WRITES:

The Meaning Of "Sanctions"

When I was a kid and people always wore hats when they went out, women used to say, “a hat covers a multitude of sins,” meaning you want to hide some curlers or your perm is looking bedraggled or you don’t have time to wash and fix your hair. Like hats, the simple word “sanctions” covers a multitude of sins. It sounds like a neutral word, sort of technical and dry. It isn’t. It’s a crummy word. It hides the truth.

Sanctions are as violent as missiles, as undiscriminating as cluster bombs. They kill, maim and cause suffering indiscriminately. When you say you’re “imposing sanctions,” you could as well say, “You can’t get milk or medicine for your kids. Your food supply will be limited to salt and flour, in rationed amounts. Fuel will be rationed, so things WE find acceptable and useful to our interests can run, but your car, home, business, trade with other countries—sorry! No can do. There will be little or no money coming to you.

“We need to squeeze your society dry so your leaders will stop doing what we don’t like and agree to do what we say."

We retain all our violence options, but they are bad PR and messy. It doesn’t look good when you blow babies’ faces off and their moms fall down beside them. Sanctions are slow. Leaders have warm places to sleep and plenty of food. Those commodities necessary for leadership are made available to leaders. Not so the ordinary citizen. Under sanctions you starve, and before then you watch the kids and old people suffer and sicken. It’s when your leaders notice this—and care—that sanctions begin to work. (They give in.)

These things and countless others all fall under sanctions. Sanctions are laws made up by the dominant party to punish the weaker party in the cruelest (bloodless) ways possible. Used to be we’d fill your navigable waters with warships, your skies with bombers and your airwaves with threats to blow you away if you didn’t do what we tell you to do. Now we just cut off your supplies, your industries, your bank accounts and your ability to sustain yourself, however modestly. We leave the taps open to a trickle so most of you don’t die.

Before we invaded Iraq in 1991 and 2003, we reduced the country with sanctions. The United Nations researchers said a million Iraqis, weakest first, died. In both those engagements, by slow violence. The country we attacked was already on its knees.

These Are Sanctions!!

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MLK EVENT, POINT ARENA

MLK Dance Party PSA

Monday, January 13, 2020

DJ Sister Yasmin, 707-884-4703

Dance Party & Birthday Celebration For Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This Saturday, January 18, 2020, 7:00 Pm

Think Visual Gallery, 240 Main Street, Point Arena 95468

Yes! We can Dance at The Revolution!

Let's remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his 91st Birthday (January 15), as we joyfully celebrate life, love, music, ART, and Community, and his message of Unity.

Enjoy dancing and listening to extraordinary music, all styles, from Blues to Boogie, Hip Hop, Salsa, Musica Latina, Oldies, Reggae, Ska, Funk, Soul and so much more – from deep in the vaults of DJ Sister Yasmin's vast collection.

The vibes will be nice and right. Remember, "The People make The Party!"

Bring your friends and neighbors and and let's celebrate!

The photography of Jeff Hillier, Liz Perillat, and Michael Beattie will be on display from January 10 through February 10, 2020.

No cover charge. Information: 707-884-4703, 882-4042

Yasmin Solomon sisteryasmin@hotmail.com

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ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1 Human brains have not evolved with the foresight of cinema so when the average person sees a famous actor who played a superhero in his or her last role, they respond in a manner that is akin to actually seeing and meeting the superhero who saved the world. This orgiastic adoration bestowed on celebrities coupled with the wealth that they accrue turns them into our society’s royal class. It is difficult then, for some celebrities not to succumb to a sense of narcissistic grandiosity: “I am a wealthy actor who is worshiped by millions of fans. Surely, my uninformed opinion on issues that I know next to nothing about is profound. Hey members of the peasant class, let me lecture to you in a patronizing and condescending way about why you are immoral scum. I will guide you about whom to vote for, what to eat, and how to navigate through daily life because I play pretend on a screen.” Then Ricky Gervais happens. He steps into the room and smashes celebrities’ privileged safe spaces. They are not used to being called out, let alone from one of their “own.” After all, Gervais is a world-famous celebrity in his own right, so he is part of the ecosystem of grand pretenders, and yet he possesses the fortitude to call out their moral hypocrisy, baffling ignorance, stifling herd mentality, and nauseating virtue signaling. He does not suffer fools gladly. Gervais stares at these pampered, narcissistic, and self-indulgent ignoramuses and tells them what millions of people are thinking, and he does it with spicy humor. Throughout history, great satirists have used their rhetorical abilities to challenge the powerful. Gervais is the latest instantiation of this long tradition: Namely, he uses his comedic talent to mock an out-of-touch elite class of professional fakers.

[2] HOMELESSNESS: I believe Martin v. Boise requires that the homeless be offered a place to sleep. It seems there are many laws from zoning open fires, etc.) to "no day camping" to "no use of tent outside designated campgrounds" which the BOS could enforce. I think the real issue is that jail is expensive and doesn't solve the problem. They should set up camp grounds, start processing people and determine where they should go. If a person has a job, help them find housing and give a housing subsidy. If a person is mentally ill, get them into a stable, mental services environment. If they are on parole, they need transitional housing. All of this should be tracked in a state or 9th circuit database so government officials can see A) what causes homelessness, B) what services are needed and C) who has received what in terms of tax-payer funded services. In that way, someone can't turn around and sue because they've either been offered and/or received service and it's been documented. In addition, I would suspect that a certain portion living on the JRT already receive benefits whether it be SSI, disability or unemployment. In a sanctioned camp, a counselor could assess what money the person already receives and if they could potentially afford their own housing in a shared-house, an official campsite or RV park or in a less expensive area. The real issue is that California and the other 9th Circuits states are being forced to provide a social safety net for the country. 25% of the nation's homeless live in California. In Sonoma County, there are 3,000 homeless people. In comparisons, there are 639 in the entire state of Wyoming. Wyoming's GDP is $34.4 billion. Sonoma County's $26.3 billion. In this scenario, when someone in Sonoma County pays their state and local taxes, a portion of it goes to provide social safety net services for the 3000 homeless people living in their county. A Sonoma County resident also pays federal taxes; federal programs are supposed to pay for the common social safety net. In this way, Californian's end up with a portion of their local taxes going towards programs which do not directly benefit them in the same way that funding for public schools, well-maintained parks, good roadways, public transportation creates a common community benefit. If we have to pay to service the needs of the country's homeless, we won't have money to run our state or our local governments. The ability to fund our infrastructure and public sphere is going to be impaired if we are also required to fund services for all the homeless people that live in California. The 9th circuit ruling does not have any financial limits on it; theoretically if every homeless person in the US moved to California, we'd be required to shelter them. That's going to drive a death nail into California's heart.

[3] So my toaster finally died. I went on Amazon to order a new one. There’s a shitload of toaster manufacturers. I found that the vast majority of them are in China. Curious, I began reading reviews from actual purchasers. It seems the China-made toasters look sharp, some even work well, but the one thing they have in common is they last only for a year or two. In contrast, I went to another site that sold refurbished American-made toasters from 100 years ago; they still work.

Toaster sales are a very minor fact of life, but my two points are that this is an example of how far we have fallen, and how we are consistently willing to put up with inferior quality. It shows in our politicians, too.

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JANUARY 12: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACK LONDON!

An 8th grade drop-out from Oakland High School, Jack London educated himself at the Oakland Public Library and eventually gained admittance to U.C. Berkeley. He dropped out after a single semester, finding college "not alive enough… a passionless pursuit of passionless intelligence". London then went on to pursue life as a factory worker, an oyster pirate on the San Francisco Bay, a member of the California Fish Patrol, a sailor, a railroad hobo, a Klondike gold prospector, a journalist, and as the Socialist Party candidate for Oakland Mayor.

And he wrote. He wrote and wrote and wrote… Jack London became the best-selling, highest paid and most popular American author of his time. Over fifty of his books and hundreds of his articles and short stories have been published in countless editions. His most notable books include "The Call of the Wild", "The Iron Heel", "White Fang, The Sea-Wolf", "The People of the Abyss", "John Barleycorn", "Martin Eden", and "The Star Rover". His story, "To Build A Fire", is regarded as an iconic classic of short fiction. His writings have been translated into several dozen languages and to this day inspire readers, writers, and social advocates around the world.

Jack London is the quintessential American author - a brilliant writer who thoughtfully and compassionately portrayed not only his life and times, but the age-old struggles between man and nature and between man and himself. His books will forever be in our hearts and minds - and on our shelves at Walden Pond Books.

Walden Pond Books

Independent Bookstore

3316 Grand Ave, Oakland, CA 94610

(510) 832-4438

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TO ALASKA & BACK

by Lloyd Sinclair

This was my third summer working on a fishing tender out of Sitka, Alaska, with Alex Carlton on the Ginny-C and Robby Bruce on the Northwind. My first trip was in the summer of 2010 right after I graduated college, and let’s be real, three months of throwing dead fish around on a boat that is only in town from time to time is a bit rough. It is such a different world with so many new obstacles, from how to tie up a large vessel on a moving swell, down to tying up a small skiff that you are towing.

Naturally, in a situation like this people either jump right in and do it again, or they do not. I did not. I waited eight years to go back up there until last year, when a stretch of physical labor seemed more like needed moment of solitude. So I talked my way into doing half a summer, which was a blast. Six weeks of hanging out in the beautiful inlets north of Sitka, with a childhood friend as my boss and his girlfriend’s crazy cousin as the other deckhand. Now, when this last summer rolled around and I was broke as a joke, I signed myself up for another six weeks. With this plan, I would be replaced like a pitcher in a baseball game, and I wouldn’t have to throw fish for the whole three months. So in late June I hopped on an airplane north to Sitka to join Alex Carlton and Kyle Norton on the Ginny-C.

The boat was a 63’ house forward schooner haul that was built in Anacortes, Washington in 1944. Turns out it had been used as a submarine chaser at the end of World War II off the coast of Washington, which is crazy because it only goes seven knots and had the shape of toy boat in a bathtub. Currently our job on the bobber was packing King and Coho salmon into big blue totes, while stuffing their bellies with ice, then hustling them back to the cannery within a day or two, so the fishermen could keep fishing.

In short, that was the job, but what impressed me was the side work that went on to make this happen. Between fixing motors, scrubbing the decks, throwing out buoy bags, or helping Alex change out an electrical system, the tasks seemed endless to the point were I started to think that these were real functional people up north. When I first arrived I remember being so refreshed by being around people who could simple do things. If there was a problem, the people in general had an aura about them – that they themselves would fix it, without picking up a phone.

One of my favorite parts of the summer became the conversations around this subject. For the first couple of weeks I kept seeing fishermen that I had seen the year before. “Yep,” they would greet me. “Back for more punishment?” “Yeah, you know,” I would try and explain myself – “It’s just so refreshing to be around such functional people.”

“Well,” they would respond without fail, “I don’t know, did you hear about Billy Jimboo Bob? He just did such and such, and that sucks.”

Then you would have to ask them to repeat that, because the engines are roaring, the bilges are spewing overboard, and these people speak a particular fisherman mumble which is hard to understand unless you have been around it. But I rarely got them to agree that they were an abnormally high-functioning group of people. In fact, right as the season started a young local man had bought a large purse seiner boat, with new crew, and it just so happens that he got his hand caught in the net and his arm was pulled into the block, which nearly ripped his arm off. So the workingmen of this region were not about to boast about their competence in fear of being swiftly humbled, which makes sense.

Like last summer, this season also started slow, which is difficult on the mind, spirit, and then the body in terms of overeating and sitting around. Typically the first big event is the King salmon opener, which was the first week of July, but this year there was a never-ending conversation about jellyfish. We were receiving King and Coho salmon from little troll boats that drug long lines covered in hooks. The problem was that the fisherman couldn’t pull their lines quick enough before they were covered in jellies so thick that no fish would bite. For this reason it was hard to tell how many fish where out there for a couple weeks.

Then rumors started coming in about extremely high water temperatures, which is a big thing, because at times fishermen are placing their lines at temperature columns where they believe the fish might be – very secret stuff in a small local group that makes a living catching fish, and very fascinating stuff when you want to predict the future. In this case, the opinions about the future were all over the map, to the point were there was a boat named the Partisan. While the opinions on the water temperature a was consensus. “What the f**k is going on?” I even heard an old polite fishing lady use the f-word when talking about the water.

If you look at the climate closely, you can see many different sides to the situation. I heard at one point that a river had a laser fish counter that was getting record high returns, and it was thought that because the water was warm, the fish went deep and escaped from being caught. I also heard from my brother who worked as a set netter in yet another reign, that they had a medium catch, but an abnormal amount of fish were dying as they reached the nets, instead of upstream, because the high water temperatures had already exhausted them. I’ll let you think about it, but something is going on.

I enjoyed my time on the Ginny-C with Alex and Kyle. I was able to live among a beautiful seascape of thousand-foot peaks that come right out of the ocean on one side to cool rolling waves on the other, then eat great meals cooked by friends who endlessly talked about the fishing industry and dreamed of the glory days, also know as 2017, when they worked non-stop for three months and loved it.

After this, the cherry on top of my trip was that I planned to go to Palmer, just north of Anchorage, to visit my aunt. But a couple of days before flying out, Alex got the call that Robby, owner of the Ginny-C and captain of the Northwind, had just cut off the end of three fingers, which was quite a shock because Robby was Mr. Competent – even the fisherman saw him as such. Long story short, he was cutting a piece of aluminum on a table saw and it jumped.

For the next couple of days I made plans to return to Sitka after visiting my aunt to help on the Northwind. We also talked a lot among the fleet about all the ways to lose a finger. I don’t know if this is surprising or not, but there are a lot of fishermen missing fingers. There was one old man we heard about that took his chopped-off finger and put it in a jar of alcohol in front of his ship’s wheel so that it sloshed around as waves came and went. I argued that fishing was more dangerous than tree work, which I grew up doing, but it seemed the consensus was that there are more fatalities in tree work, and more missing fingers in the boat world – that what the boat people say.

So after talking about all the ways to lose a finger for a bit longer, I found myself on an airplane to have a break from the working world with my aunt and my sister, who flew up for this visit. Aunt Debbie has lived North Anchorage for forty years now, and once I arrived I could tell why. She worked for the Army Corp of Engineers for much of that time and she told me that every year when they did their personnel report she would write in the section Personal Goals – to be serene. Alaska allows you the space and beauty to make the feeling of serenity easily accessible.

My aunt enjoyed a busy work life in the region, and was happy to retell stories of running around the vast state that she loves. I was fortunate enough in that she had retired recently and would now spend her overflowing energy showing my sister and me around the rivers and state parks in her part of the Alaska. And not jokingly, we only saw the tip of the iceberg – we saw the Matanuska Glacier during lunch one day, and hiked Hatcher Pass the next. This was great family time that I felt fortunate to be part of.

By far the best of the Aunt Debbie adventures was driving the Denali Highway. Going north out of Palmer, the landscape was dramatic with muddy rivers rushing by, and large green mountains with ice fields capping the peaks in the distances. As we drove farther north, the land began to flatten out and the taiga forest took over. The short dark green trees went on forever, only to be broken up by little silver ponds reflecting the grey sky, and spectacular views of endless trees and faraway peaks that seemed close, but only because of their size. This terrain then morphed into something that I have always wanted to see – the tundra. The bushy green trees of taiga were now small like Christmas trees and the farther we drove, the fewer they became until they disappeared.

Turning onto Denali Highway we encountered a 135-mile dirt road that runs east to west across this lower part of the Alaska. With the taiga forest to the south and tundra to the north, the views are breathtaking. Once up in the tundra I can’t tell you how many times I got itchy feet while sitting in the car and I’d look at a distant mountain and say to my aunt, “I feel like I could hop out of this car and run up that thing.” “That peak is probably 15 miles away,” my aunt laughed, “And that spongy stuff is so rolly that you can barely walk on it.”

The next time we stopped to take a pee, I hiked a hundred feet out onto the uneven ground and realized she was right, it was hard to walk on. And then there was also the conversation about bears. This was another moment of realizing how functional most Alaskans can be. You ask any of them and they will give you a clear, concise response on how to react when confronting a grizzly bear compared to a black bear, but most people in the Anchorage area will then tell you moose are the real danger. My aunt loved to recount the times she got confronted by a moose and had to do the tree dancing game, where you get a tree in between you and the moose and dance around the tree until the moose is over it and leaves.

Day two on the Denali Highway was extra sunny with billowing white clouds in the distance, purple fireweed flowers lining the road, and the mirror-like ponds had white swans sitting on their nests like candles in this vibrant green landscape. Which led me to ask: “What eats the swans up here?” “Not much,” my aunt chuckled again. “Those are some tough birds.”

On our next pee break I made sure to get a closer look at a wild swan. This time from about fifty yards away I realized my aunt was right again. Had I gotten closer, that bird probably could have kicked my ass and my sister would have laughed about that until Christmas.

Finishing up Denali Highway, I just can’t help but remember how grand it seemed, but also how grateful my aunt was that caribou season hadn’t started so we missed all the hunters, and also how surprised she was that we didn’t see any moose. After another couple days of enjoying old family stories, going on hikes, and staring at large piles of firewood outside my aunt’s house, it was about time to get back to the Northwind to see what I could to help.

The Northwind is a 90’ power scow with big knuckle cranes shooting toward the bow, wooden decks, and two 80,000-pound fish holds in its belly. On my arrival, Robby and the crew, Lindsey and Lauren, where in good spirits, but Robby was just about to remove his bandages. Watching someone see the absence of missing appendages for the first time is an interesting moment. Robby, who by most standards, is joyful, carefree, and hardworking, had the reaction most people must have. Oh shit, something is not right. When removing his bandages, he was sitting on the little bench at the galley table, and when the bandages came off, his eyes could not look straight at his hand, nor could he look away, because they were trying to see the ends of his fingers that were not there. Two of them were stitched up as if a kid had done it, and the big middle finger wasn’t stitched up at all. It literally looked liked a sausage when you cut it clean, and the meat is shown as a red circle and the skin holds the outside. He looked sick. But from then on, I went on to learn a lot about how to handle something like this. It was all finger exercises, mixed in with zombie jokes and shaka bras and then little moments of watching him look at the tops of his fingers that were no more.

One day an old Hawaiian fisherman passed when we were tied up at Sitka Sound Seafood, and Robby gave him the shaka bra with the three middle fingers cut short, the old man responded,“You know how that got started?” he yelled over the motors. “An old local on the islands was working in a sugar mill and he cut his middle three fingers, so the kids would wave to him with their hand like that.”

The old Hawaiian man smiled and waved with his middle three fingers down in homage to the working man. Then the question on the docks became, man, you are taking this so well, to which Robby would reply by showing his bandaged fingers – “Well, I’m bummed about this.”

It was fun working on this boat, and I have to say, and one of the reasons was because Robby didn’t have some fingers yet he really wanted to stay busy. So he would drive the boat at night so the crew could get extra sleep, do the fish tickets so two of us could help the fishermen, and on busy nights when we stayed up late throwing around bloody fish, he would go into the galley and cook ribs. This was working heaven.

During this time Robby was also sleeping a lot and this led to a moment I’ll never forget, because you always want to see that holy shit look on your boss’ face, when you know everything is under control, and it was also the most blood I have ever seen at one time.

We were tendering for chum salmon. How this works is fishermen cut the fish’s throat and throw it in the sack that weighs from 200 to 2,000 pounds. We pick bags out of the holds of the smaller boats with our cranes and swung them over and dumped them straight into the larger holds on our boat. This keeps these bloody fish bags more or less contained. On this particular night, it was the day before a King salmon closer and it had also been a very poor opening, so at 9:00 p.m. one random fisherman came in with three 1,500-pound bags, but he had mixed his beautiful King salmon in with the bloody chum salmon. To solve the problem we started sorting the fish out of the massive bloody sacks with fish tails flying everywhere. We threw the chum salmon into the hold where they would splash into the water, and the King salmon onto a table to be packed on ice.

As this fishermen left, he apologized, and what do you know, the next two boats had done the same thing. Before you know it hours had passed of throwing around extra bloody fish in a manner that was not normal and as it went on it looked more and more like a massacre was taking place. It was just reaching midnight when Robby woke up with the idea that he would have a cup of coffee and a peaceful drive north. Instead, when he walked out of the cabin with his hand in white bandages held above his head, his big black metal boat looked like a horror film. He saw the layer of rich red blood and fish hearts covering almost every surface on his boat and said, “You gotta fix this.” “Yeah, for sure,” I laughed to myself and replied, “That was a bit of a shit show.”

I will never forget that image – the globs of blood and fish slime on everything from the blue totes to the rusted black metal bulwarks of the old power scow. It really was a slaughterhouse of sorts. The fishermen are the hunters, the cannery is the butcher shop, and the tenders are the pack mules.

Honestly, one of the best feelings of purpose comes from doing this work. Within this industry there is a clear line where you can see that you are feeding our world. You see boatloads of fish chugging in one direction, and as you pack each King salmon on ice, you know that you are providing something tangible to our world. It is either raining or the bugs are out and eleven pounds at a time, you lift the dead chunks of meat and put them on ice so that they can be sent out to feed people. Though it may sound simple, you know you are actually doing something vital.

Getting ready to return home from this trip I couldn’t help but think how few people in our modern society are not in tune with the actual value of physical labor. And although many fishermen originate from the lower forty-eight states, fishermen are a group of people that hold a different value system. There was even one who referred to the people of the south as pizza delivery people, as if we are all simply middlemen passing something around with few of us actually doing the work. So to finish this story I will explain why I called it To Alaska and Back.

When I got on the Northwind, I had a one-way ticket because I wanted to help as long as I could and Robby was not sure when he would be ready to work again. But the one thing that was for sure was he was already itching to get back into it. He had bought extra large gloves so they could fit over his swollen fingers and Lauren and Lindsey, the other deckhands, were smart enough to hide them so he wouldn’t dive into the bloody mess and get his hand infected.

While on the other end I was starting to get messages from a friend in eastern California who was freaking out because he was not getting the brush cleared around his house and fire season was coming. This played itself out for a couple weeks until it seemed time for me to leave. I flew home to bust out my chainsaw to help in California. On arrival I found a very flustered group of thirty-something year-old men, with a massive amount of dry brush surrounding the house, no fire insurance, and no interest in cleaning up the mess. The idea was that I was the laborer so I should figure out what should be done on arrival and then do it. Because here, being the boss matters more then sweating a bit to make your house safe from a fire. So as I got more and more pressure to move around piles of dry brush, that I was told daily might have rattlesnakes in it, in ninety-degree weather with minimal help, I started to see a deepening contrast in America between the laborers and the non-laborers.

Looking back at the beginning of my summer when I joked with the fishermen about them being so functional, I realized I was right – none of them would dump a bunch of work on another person without at least acknowledging the quantity. Up north, hard work is the common denominator, and people relate to you under those terms. As far as fishermen are concerned, work it is what makes our world go ’round, and if you have ever really done physical labor you know they are right. And if you are on side of the American struggle that prefers others do your work for you, then go kill seven hundred fish over the course of an eighteen-hour day, or pack 15,000 pounds on ice, and the next time you eat a fish it will taste like the sweat off your brow, rather than the salt of the sea.

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FOUND OBJECT

18 Comments

  1. Craig Stehr January 14, 2020

    The ego dies when you realize that it does not exist. What exists is only the Universal Being, the Cosmic Consciousness.

    Swami Chidananda

  2. James Marmon January 14, 2020

    WHERE’S THE TINY HOUSE VILLAGE CAMILLE?

    Emergency homeless shelter location to be used for tiny house village

    “UKIAH, 12/20/2016 — The temporary winter shelter at 1045 South State Street in Ukiah opened late this year. But if all goes according to plan, that property will be the site of a permanent homeless shelter, in the form of the long-delayed tiny house “village,” the construction of which will be paid for and led by the non-profit organization Redwood Community Services (RCS).

    In January of 2016, RCS was awarded $1,014,700 in Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), to build a community center and 35 to 40 tiny houses to be used by homeless people. But that project was put on hold when another buyer bought the property slated for the village out from under them.

    At a Mendocino County Board of Supervisors meeting yesterday, December 19, RCS Executive Director Camille Schraeder told the board that RCS now plans to buy the property at 1045 South State Street, remodel parts of the existing building to serve as the community center, and place the tiny houses on a large vacant area on the property. The federal grant money is enough to carry out the first phase of the project, building the community center, while funding for the second phase, the construction of the tiny houses, has not been worked out yet.”

    https://mendovoice.com/2016/12/tiny-house-village/

    James Marmon MSW

    • James Marmon January 14, 2020

      The community center opened Aug. 1, 2019, a little over 4 months ago. It is the 5th center opened in Ukiah for the homeless.

      Marbut’s recommendation was to have only one centralize location. Another recommendation ignored.

      5 – Reduce Duplication of Services While Increasing Agency Specialization

      “Considering the size of the community and the number of individuals experiencing homelessness, it was very surprising to this researcher to identify many areas of service duplication. For example:

      Currently, within Ukiah, there are 3 functioning “day-centers” (eg locations that provide a variety of day-time services). Two are formal operations, the 1st is at MCAVHN (Mendocino County AIDS/Viral Hepatitis Network) and the 2nd is at Manzanita Services, Inc’s Wellness Center. The Ukiah Library also operates as an informal defacto 3rd daycenter. Looking to the future, a 4th day-center is planned to be opened by RCS adjacent to the Ukiah Winter Shelter. Additionally, Nor Cal Christian Ministries has submitted an application to the City of Ukiah to operate a would be 5th day-center in South Ukiah. In addition to general services, most of these service centers provide specialized niche services to specific groups. As a practice, in most cases, individuals beyond the targeted service groups have also utilized these service centers. The current situation has not been strategically coordinated.

      Service duplications such as above have several negative effects to the overall system: creates inter-agency inefficiencies, creates intra-agency ineffectiveness, crowds out utilization of excess inventory by other programs, dilutes core competencies of agencies, and opens the “system” up to “service-shopping.”

      Strategic thinking and meaningful dialogue are needed in order to reduce duplication of services, improve inter-agency efficiencies and increase intra-agency effectiveness. This in turn will lead to higher levels of agency specialization.”

      https://www.mendocinocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=20042

      James Marmon MSW

  3. Lazarus January 14, 2020

    Found Object

    “The party’s over…”

    As always,
    Laz

  4. George Hollister January 14, 2020

    MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL has handed down tough punishments to the Houston Astros

    This scandal makes all major league managers look like wimps. The Astros manager knew about the cheating, knew it was against MLB rules, objected to it, but appeared powerless to do anything to stop it. Why? Because star players, like Carlos Beltran, who were actively involved in the cheating are more important than the manager. I think of Dusty Baker and Barry Bonds, or how about Dust Baker and Bryce Harper? I think of Matt Williams and Bryce Harper, too. Williams was run out of Washington for attempting to exert some authority on the pre-madonna Harper.

    The Astros manager was placed in a bad situation. The right thing for him to have done was resign. Yes, mid-season. The Astros GM should have been given an ultimatum, by the manager, to either support him in his position of authority or he would quit.

    • Stephen Rosenthal January 14, 2020

      George,
      I agree with you about the players and Hinch. But the Astros as an organization got off easy, as a reading of this article by Jeff Passan will prove. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28477741/why-anger-boiling-scenes-houston-astros-sign-stealing-punishments

      As usual, the billionaires get away with all sorts of chicanery while the lower level personnel (aka flunkies) take the hit. Manfred should have stripped Houston of its World Series Championship, vacated the title and suspended the owner whether he was aware of this or not. From Bud Selig and his turn-a-blind-eye approach to the steroids era to Manfred and this complete disregard of the essence of sport’s competition (reports are that many more teams may be implicated), I must admit I’m losing interest in baseball, of all sports the one I love the most. What’s the point of investing time in something you know or strongly suspect is not on the up and up?

      • George Hollister January 14, 2020

        The Astros remind me of GE, Boing, etc. and an some local companies, big an small. Their practices reflect aggressive ignorant egotism. At least the Astros could win, usually not the case for most organizations with this mentality. But of course, win for how long?

        I met a man named Jim Lynch who was driving a log truck hauling logs off my property a few years ago. Jim told me he had been a manager for LP back in the Harry Merlo era. He said, “I never was afraid of being fired.” He did what was right, for him, and that was it. Why was Jim never afraid to be fired? Because he never put himself in a position that he needed any job that bad that he would compromise his morals. Jim made good money, saved, invested, and could also drive a log truck if he had to. There is a lesson there for everybody, including baseball managers.

  5. Marshall Newman January 14, 2020

    Sad to hear about George Gowan. The fabric of “old” Anderson Valley gets a little thinner with each loss.

    • Bruce Anderson January 14, 2020

      This George was George Jr. George Sr. passed some time ago. We’re getting old, Marshall.

      • Marshall Newman January 14, 2020

        Yes, I knew it was the son. George Sr. used to put in our temporary summer bridge over the Navarro River with his CAT (a D-7?) the first week in May each year. We ARE getting old, but most folks today – to their detriment – never had the opportunity to experience the Anderson Valley we knew.

  6. James Marmon January 14, 2020

    RE: HOMELESS DEATHS IN SONOMA COUNTY

    Lives cut short in Santa Rosa trail camp reflect grim toll of homelessness
    (3 deaths in 2019 in Joe Rodota Trail homeless camp)

    Given a chance to speak to the loved ones of those who died, “I would say what I’ve been saying to everyone about the subject, which is that we need to do better,” she said.

    “Human beings deserve better, and I don’t want to be part of a society where we consistently allow people to fall through the cracks.”

    -Supervisor Lynda Hopkin

    https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/10563512-181/lives-cut-short-in-santa?sba=AAS

  7. chuck dunbar January 14, 2020

    Speaking–again–of the mighty kangaroo–

    A kangaroo has a really funny bit part in the 1990 movie “Shrimp on the Barbie,” starring Cheech Marin. It’s a pretty hilarious “30’s-style screwball comedy” (per one review) that I’ve watched a few times.

  8. Eric Sunswheat January 14, 2020

    “The higher unemployment is, the stronger that potential protective effect appears to be,” says Kaufman.

    The researchers found that 26,000 deaths could have been prevented following the 2009 peak in unemployment during the last recession had the minimum wage been $2 higher.

    The report focused on less-educated adults because that group is more likely to earn the minimum wage. That group is also at a higher risk of depression and suicide, says Kaufman. Raising the minimum wage did not seem to affect whether college graduates would die by suicide.

    A number of other researchers are exploring the connections between the economy and our well-being. The study is the third in less than a year to show that raising the minimum wage may lower suicide rates, says Dr. Alexander Tsai, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital, who was not involved with the current research.
    https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/08/794568118/raising-the-minimum-wage-by-1-may-prevent-thousands-of-suicides-study-shows

  9. chuck dunbar January 14, 2020

    Excellent piece by Mitch Clogg on the evil consequences of sanctions.

    • chuck dunbar January 14, 2020

      Consequences of Sanctions:

      United Nations Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet speaks last year about the possible consequences of U.S. sanctions against Venezuela:

      “ ‘I am deeply worried about the potentially severe impact on the human rights of the people of Venezuela of the new set of unilateral sanctions imposed by the US this week,’ the UN human rights commissioner said in a statement. ‘The sanctions are extremely broad and fail to contain sufficient measures to mitigate their impact on the most vulnerable sectors of the population.’ Despite some exceptions for sales linked to food, clothing and medicine, she said the measures were ‘still likely to significantly exacerbate the crisis for millions of ordinary Venezuelans.’ ”

      BBC 8/9/19

  10. Harvey Reading January 14, 2020

    ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK [3]

    Many items are produced in Asia, including most electronics–like computers and radiotelephone-computer-camera-flashlight devices–and have been for decades. I have not experienced any more problems, including longevity problems, with items produced in other countries–especially motor vehicles–than I have with items produced here in freedomlandia. That is not surprising to me. I remember when I was a kid, that certain curmudgeons would always be whining in a vein similar to that of the person who made the comment.

    To say the least, I find the veracity of the comment to be suspect.

  11. Bob Abeles January 14, 2020

    Re: THE OCEAN END OF WARD AVENUE, Fort Bragg. What a gorgeous photograph. The foreground is reminiscent of the paintings of Claud Monet. We are truly blessed to live in this place.

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