Off the Record (October 14, 2020)

TROUBLE IN WILLITS. As if the gateway to the Redwood Empire doesn’t have enough trouble with a badly failed covid economy, so bad the town either supports a sales tax bump on November 3rd or disbands its police department, the Willits PD is disbanding itself, what with three chiefs in two years, the last two black police chiefs, a major breakthrough for predominately pale Mendocino County. Willits (and Mendo’s) first black police chief was a retired chief from, as we say, “down below,” i.e., any place south of the Mendocino County line. But the first black chief in Mendo’s iffy history apparently  soon decided he’d rather fully retire than deal full time with the sub-crackers we locals know as tweekers. The black interim chief recommended to the starry-eyed libs on the Willits City Council that a black female cop from LA be his successor. The libs damn near passed out from pure delight. A woman? A black woman? I wouldn’t presume to inhabit the mind of a black LA cop, especially a female cop, but her walking into the job in Willits must have been something like walking into that bar in Star Wars. (Or the Buckhorn in Covelo.) “Where the hell am I, and how fast can I get the hell outta here?” Pretty fast as it’s turned out because something went terribly wrong from the first. The black lady cop was soon put on administrative leave, and now she’s been fired. Can a lawsuit be far off?

I wish to inform the Willits community that I have resigned my position as the Chief of Police effective Saturday, October 10, 2020. Below is a letter to the community which I respectfully request that you print. It is important that they know I did not abandon them. I was simply placed in an impossible situation. 

Letter to the Willits Community (10/12/2020)

For a brief six weeks, I was your chief of police. The community of Willits welcomed me warmly. I had planned to stay long term and work to bring the Willits Police Department up to date in training, technology, and staffing in order to provide better service and make the community safer. Unfortunately, roadblocks to accomplishing these goals began to appear almost immediately. 

I wish I could provide you the details of the past six weeks. However, my professional ethics and standards of confidentiality prevent me from doing so. Just know that I explored every angle before arriving to the conclusion that I would not be granted the ability to provide you, the people of Willits, the service you all deserve. 

To the Willits community and all others who gave me their genuine support, I sincerely thank you. 

— Alexis Blaylock

IN OTHER PERSONNEL NEWS, and this one awaits confirmation, but we understand that Will Lee of the Fort Bragg City Council and Coast Hospital is leaving the area for a new job outtahere. Which is too bad, in our opinion, because he’s a smart, fair-minded guy in an elected position often short of the fair-minded.

THE TRUMP COLOSSUS strode the globe last week as it does every day of every week, but last week inspiring a panicked stock market sell-off when he tweeted that he would not allow talks on a stimulus bill before the November election. In other words, if you don't re-elect me, good luck with Nancy and Chuck when you're freezing in the dark in December. “Immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill  that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business.” 

THEREUPON commenced some truly hilarious speculation that Trump was suffering 'Roid Rage, the sudden mood swings, aggression and confusion that can accompany steroid treatments. 

BUT TRUMP again compared Covid to the flu, urging his trapped citizens to get their flu shots this year although the COVID fatality rate is much higher, advising us wimps that “Flu season is coming up! Many people die every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!”

DEAR LEADER proceeded to rip Joe Biden as a baby killer. “Biden and Democrats just clarified the fact that they are fully in favor of (very) LATE TERM ABORTION, right up until the time of birth, and beyond - which would be execution.” He closes with, all in caps, and a blizzard of exclamation points, “GET OUT & VOTE!!!” He might have added, “It's for the kids.” 

EXPERTISE is discounted these days, but there's no denying, although millions do, that the climate has changed, growing hotter and drier in the warm and dry West, hotter and wetter in the more tropical areas of the country. Reputable scientists say it's too late, that the coastal cities of the world will fairly soon become uninhabitable and the West will burn annually. So this guy says to me the other day, “Well, if the government told you to junk your car, would you?” Yes, but the very instant I learned that our Supervisors had funded Mendocino County's very own Climate Advisory Committee, and that the Supes themselves had declared a climate emergency, I knew in my bones that we were cooked and drowned.

THE LATE HARRY BISTRIN was an absolutely fanatical Democrat. I called him their Willy Loman. Always liked the guy. He'd stop by from time to time to urge me to support this or that uninspiring candidate that the Northcoast's secret society  Democrats happened to be foisting off on the captive voters north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Since Harry shuffled off to the DNC jamboree in the sky, his place has been taken by Joe Wildman, more accurately called Joe Tame Man, an even more fanatical middle of the road extremist than old Harry. Tame Man and his equivalently fanatical doppelganger, Val Muchowski, keep a close eye on every elected office in the county, from school board to Supervisor and, off stage, get the word out on who the secret society Democrats want to see on, say, the Ukiah City Council and, say, the Coast's Park and Rec board. Gotta admire their commitment, but also ask, Why? It's like going to the wall over an argument between vanilla pudding and cherry jello. If anyone's left to write a history of this area, the anemic liberal politics of the Northcoast will be one of the major factors in The National Great Slide.

“MURDER MOUNTAIN” is the riveting Netflix documentary focused on the Alderpoint area of Southern Humboldt County and, as the title implies, a macabre tale of murdered and missing persons last seen in the northeastern quadrant of the infamous Emerald Triangle of northern Mendo, southern HumCo and northwestern Trinity counties, a rugged vastness peopled by an unusually large number of reverse Rotarians, you might say. On the evening of Saturday August 9, 2003, Chris Giauque went to the Spyrock region of Mendocino County where he had property to meet with a business partner and was never seen again, one more person murdered on Murder Mountain. His remains have never been found. Chris's family has doggedly pursued all leads and continues to doggedly pursue all leads. If you know anything that might be helpful to resolution of the mystery of Chris Giauque's disappearance, please contact his father at <bob@chrisreward.org>. Bob Giauque is offering a $200,000 reward for information as to his son’s grave and the person or persons responsible for putting him there.

ANOTHER SATISFIED CUSTOMER. A woman I didn't recognize approached me outside Lemons this morning while I was peddling my papers. “I'm really pissed at you, Bruce.” Take a number and have a seat. Which I didn't say because I'm always curious about the reason, and even at my advanced age I still haven't adjusted to women using vulgar language, although the bi-gender air has been blue for decades, and I'm prone to throwing f-bombs myself among male company. Anyway, she said I was “totally wrong about not voting for Biden.” Why? I asked. I was going to say I wouldn't vote for Biden under torture, but no need to stir the old girl up unnecessarily, and I was on the job, such as it is, and was in a hurry. She said, “We all have to vote for Biden so the election isn't even close because if it's close he won't leave.” I said I understood her reasoning but that “we” have been an ineffective opposition for years because of this kind of lesser of two evil-ism, that this time it's even more depressing because the Northcoast went heavily for Bernie and here’s  Biden going around saying stuff like, “I'm not a socialist. I beat the socialist in the primaries.” As if time capsule Bern has ever represented any kind of threat to America's social-economic order. But timid as he is, “we” voted for Bernie and, as usual, the DNC stiffed us and shoved their guy deep down our craws, knowing they could scare us into voting Republican Lite. I said all this and she listened. “Well, you're wrong, Bruce. Can I give you a hug?”

MAYBE TRUMP is suffering 'roid rage. He got off 42 unusually abusive (even for him) tweet in the last 24 hours, including one from some random nutpie who declared, ''It's not republican vs democrat anymore. it's pro-america vs turn us into a third world hellhole.” Then there was one picturing Michelle Obama against a background of burning buildings and general mayhem. Why, there was even a big promise for California: “Vote TRUMP California. No more blackouts, shutdowns, ridiculous forrest (sic) fires, or water ‘rationing’ (coming soon). We can win in California NOW!”

I DID LIKE this one from our deranged leader: “I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax. Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!”

TRUMP, it seems to me, has a legit beef which, essentially, boils down to how the federal spy and police apparatuses went after him even before he was elected. They did, and the Russian link to Trump was a hoax, unless it’s a link to Russian criminals who invested  millions in hard-to-trace cash in the Orange Colossus when he was most broke. It will be interesting to read the declassified confirmation. Ditto for Hillary's e-mails. 

POT SEASON, an on-line comment: “I like clean water and fresh air. I liked the fishers who disappeared with the first clear cut pot grow, the pileated woodpecker who disappeared with the next three 2acre tree clearing exemption pot grows. I didn’t like the noise levels created by the masses of chorus frogs that lived here but find that I miss them too when they left when their water was taken to grow pot. I liked opening my windows for fresh air without having to shut them right away when the room filled with pot stink from 200 feet away. I liked the little seasonal creek running through my field that disappeared forever after the grower put up his hoop house. It was a sad exchange for the privilege of living too close to people who routinely drop their IQ by 10% each day by numbing their brains and their civility with the product that means more to them than any of the things they killed off. Actually growing pot itself did not do 90% of the damage but the greedy SOBs did it to make money. And it is a piss poor exchange. I don’t care what you want anymore than you care what I want. And if higher taxes actually checked the greedy, I wouldn’t object to it one little bit.

AS ALL MENDO BREATHES A HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF… 

Point Arena Testing Results

ALL tests conducted last Saturday October 3 at City Hall have come back NEGATIVE!!

NEGIE FALLIS, 40, generally of Covelo, was arrested by Mendocino County Sheriff deputies after the defendant’s morning court appearance and transported by federal agents to the Bay Area for his arrangement on federal gun charges in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Fallis, who kidnapped and undoubtedly murdered Khadijah Britton, also of Covelo. Last seen, Khadijah, half Fallis’s age, and as shocked friends looked on, was forced by Fallis into his car at gun point. We’re informed that if Fallis wasn’t arrested by the feds and kept in their custody he would be “taken care of” by outraged and fed-up residents of that criminal-infested community. 

LOOKS LIKE THE COUNTY of Mendo is going to the mattresses big time to defend itself against the wrongful termination suit brought by former Public Health Director Barbara Howe. According to a Consent Calendar Item on last Tuesday’s Board agenda the County approved giving the $50k more to their expensive outside counsel Liebert Cassidy Whitmore (LCW), “for a New Agreement Total of $100,000 for Litigation Services for Howe v. County of Mendocino.”

SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Mendo branch: “Housing! A local family of three has been searching for housing for months and is in danger of being homeless in two weeks. Financially secure, hard-working, awesome tenants that respect their home and neighbors. Looking for anything from a one-bedroom to 3 bedroom - any leads are appreciated! Many opportunities have fallen through, bidding wars on rentals, many people moving into the area plus COVID has made housing nearly impossible. They are in this position through no fault of their own, awesome references, AWESOME people.” — theresadoginmykitchen@gmail.com

ON THE SUBJECT of Covid, I was surprised that Kamala Harris, during last night's debate, said if Trump recommended a vaccine she wouldn't take it. I know Trump Derangement Syndrome has infected much of liberal America, but Kamala's statement is not helpful, especially in today's context of lunatic anti-vaxxers and the daily deluge of misinformed medical information bombarding us from cyber-space.

BOTH HARRIS AND PENCE stuck pretty much to their party lines, with the robotic Pence doing as well as anybody could expect from a Southern Kiwanis Club guy shoved out there to defend the indefensible, while Harris, eagerly, recited Biden's vague agenda and pretended that Biden was up to the task. This election really boils down to millions of Trumpers who believe in their bones, and not unreasonably, that the libs are responsible for everything gone sideways in America since 1967, while the libs seem to think that Trump single handedly kicked off The Great Slide. As the cliche goes, Trump's the symptom not the cause.

AND IT GOT CRAZIER on Thursday with Nancy Pelosi announcing she would lead a discussion on Friday about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office on the grounds that the meds he's taking for his COVID treatment are affecting his mental health. “Come here tomorrow,” Pelosi told reporters Thursday. 'We're going to be talking about the 25th Amendment. I'll talk to you about that tomorrow. I'm not talking about it today except to tell you if you want to talk about that I'll see you tomorrow.”

IN AN HOUR-LONG interview on Fox, Trump suggested Gold Star families may have infected him with COVID because they “like to hug me and kiss me,” claimed he was Covid-free, said he wanted AG Bill Barr to indict Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and called Kamala Harris a “monster” and a “communist.” He also said re Pelosi, “They don't call her Crazy Nancy for nothing.” And Trump said Thursday morning he will not participate in a virtual debate with Biden. “That's not accessible to us. I beat him easily in the first debate. No, I'm not gonna waste my time in a virtual debate.” (Objectively, they both lost.)

BIDEN cackled out this witless comment on the fly that perched on Pence's head for a full two minutes during the debate, “Flies know when they smell it.” Trump or Biden. Stick a fork in US. We’re done. 

A DOZEN Michigan yobbos have been arrested for allegedly plotting to kidnap the governor of Michigan, meaning that these neo-fascist groups haven’t learned the hard lesson learned in the sixties by left radicals: The guy suggesting felony-quality action is an FBI agent. On the subject of the G-Men, they were all over Mendo during the Earth First! period circa 1990, and maintained at least two snitches that I'm sure of, both named Mike. In my opinion, the FBI also funded the Mendocino Environment Center at 106 West Standley, Ukiah, in a building owned by Supervisor John McCowen. Mike Sweeney made his headquarters there and, again in my opinion, the MEC was the site where Sweeney slipped the bomb beneath the driver's seat of Judi Bari's Subaru that blew her up the next day, the device conveniently exploding a hundred miles south of the perp. 

PHOTO: SweeneyPointing 

(These days, Sweeney lives comfortably in New Zealand exile, having retired from an unusually bifurcated career as a 60s into 70s commie with a group responsible for at least two murders (one of law enforcement) and numerous Bay Area bombings, and then Mendocino County's highly paid trash bureaucrat, Sweeney being the ultimate re-invented Mendo personality, Mendo where you are whatever you say you are, and history starts all over again every day.

THE GRIM TRUTH is that Trump and Biden’s COVID plans are pretty much the same. Both rely on a gutted for-profit medical system that barely functions under normal circumstances and is institutionally incapable of dealing with a pandemic. It could have been much different if Biden had proposed a single-payer health care plan. Now they’re arguing over minutia as a thousand people a day die and another ten thousand a day go bankrupt. — Jeff St. Clair

BY 1881 there was a well-established path from Willits to Eureka. Up what is now Brooktrails to Sherwood Valley, down Strong Mountain to Cahto Valley, up Long Valley, up Bell Springs Ridge, Alder Point, Blocksberg, Bridgeville, into Springville. The Old-Timers were smart enough to stick to the ridges where the roads didn’t wash away. If you noticed, every time the Highway 101 was closed between Garberville and Laytonville, the Bell Springs road was open. — Ernie Branscomb

NY TIMES HEADLINE: “The Plot Against Gretchin Whitmer Shows the Danger of Private Militias”

PREDICTION: The “plot” against Michigan governor Whitmer will be revealed as loose talk among fat boy gun fantasists, and the “evidence” against them will be revealed to come from two or three FBI snitches who'd infiltrated the group by walking into an outback bar and, sizing up the fat boys as armed blowhards of the type found everywhere in rural America, and who suggested the “plot” in the first place. I was surprised that even the BBC World News, via an American professor allegedly knowledgeable about these things, described the “plot” as “complicated.” I'll bet.

CLASS ANGLE the plot against Whitmer: The conspirators are working class white men. The people most afraid of working class white men (and women) are financially secure white liberals who, natch, consider working class white people as stupid, irremediable racists and Trump supporters when, in fact, Trump's white working class support, and his white support generally, derives much of its energy from the contempt felt by working class white people for the financially secure white liberals who, under the banner of progressive-ism, have screwed the entire working class regardless of race ever since Reagan and his Democrat allies.

ARE THERE MILITIAS in Mendo? Not that we know of. I dimly recall an attempt at a militia in Fort Bragg in the mid-90s, and farther back there was Jack Azevedo, a candidate for 4th District supervisor who came to public attention by sailing out of Noyo to bullhorn a giant Russian fishing ship anchored three miles offshore as it vacuumed the Pacific of all aquatic life. The fishing boundaries have since been adjusted to keep factory ships outtahere. The Russkies' big boat was clearly visible from Fort Bragg, a surreal presence that seemed nearly as large as the town itself. Azevedo, a gun guy, had a cadre of the militia-minded around him for a brief time before he flamed out, the Boonville weekly supplying the gasoline when we obtained Azevedo's enemy's list, an unintentionally hilarious roster that included a large number of the wackier libs mixed in with targets like members of the Masonic Lodge.

ANOTHER PREDICTION: Trump's going to lose so overwhelmingly he won't have the slightest pretext for prolonging his stay in the White House. The uprisings and riots a lot of people seem to be hoping they can watch on TV won't materialize to the extent hoped for as the country returns to normalcy under Harris-Biden, and take it away, Jeff St. Clair: 

“A return to normalcy, you say? Normalcy brought us the Iraq War, torture, assassination by drone, 607 billionaires & 600k homeless, the gutting of welfare, warrantless wiretaps, militarized police, the war on drugs, globalized fracking, the destruction of the Gulf of Mexico and an atmospheric C02 level of 416 ppm and rising.” And Biden’s been on board for all of it, not that he'll be president for more than a few months as his senescence becomes obvious even to the DNC and Kamala takes the reins of the runaway horses of the apocalypse."

THE AMERICAN RIGHT lacks leadership. Trump stirred them up plenty but his long-term limitations are evident. There may be smarter, more capable American fascists out there but so far none of them seem to have mass appeal. Italy and Germany, not all that long ago, were able to actualize the fascist impulse via their deluded intellectuals in books like Hitler's ‘Mein Kampf,’ a lunatic tract but, in its way, appealing to millions of Germans who really did get screwed at Versailles after losing World War One. Hitler said Germany had been sabbed by Jews, and millions of Germans bought that big lie, plus the second big lie that Germans were a master race and should therefore run the world. The Japanese also felt they were a master race while Mussolini convinced the Italians that they might not be a master race but they sure as hell were culturally superior. More generosity towards the Huns might have cooled them out after World War One, but… Hitler not only had a plan he also had plenty of smart, evil bastards around him and, together, they got the Germans feeling so sorry for themselves they marched off to the east to grab off more land for a regime they thought would last forever. Trump has no plan and he’s surrounded by stupid bastards. If Hitler had listened to his generals we might all be speaking German. Trump's no Hitler, and he's certainly no Mussolini. He's a showbiz windbag who stumbled into the presidency because the Democrats put up the only person in the country who could possibly lose to him. Which the Demos have done it again with Biden. The undemocratic feeling always latent in large numbers of Americans had not been made manifest until Trump, although there have always been fascist groupings in America. Even if we still had capable people in the power slots the number and magnitude of rolling catastrophes would probably overcome them. Whatever happens next month it's going to be wild and inevitable.

FORT BRAGG RESIDENT JULIE WELLS WRITES: “Unfortunately a lot of the businesses were already closed prior to Covid. Especially in Fort Bragg. High rents are to blame. It's definitely been worse with covid…don't get me wrong. But driving down Franklin in Fort Bragg has been a sad sight to see for a long time. I am mostly referring to the emptiness of storefronts, restaurants, etc., based on the economy not related to covid. But yes now covid has made it worse. PS. Newsom is clueless, he lives behind doors.”

TOM ALLMAN SUPPORTS MO: “As the COVID situation slowly improves, we all realize that it will take several years of adjusting to the “new normal.” Our economy, our workforce and redefining local government’s role are issues for critical thinkers who are our leaders.

I have endorsed Mo Mulheren for County Supervisor because I think she has the leadership skills to help guide us during our recovering chapter. She is extremely active in our community and listens to people who express concern. 

First of all, please vote. Vote for the candidates of your choice. The many propositions could change many aspects of our rural lifestyle. 

If you live in the Second District, please consider voting for Mo Mulheren. She will represent you well.”

AN INTERESTING REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS appeared on Mendo’s official website last week:

“This Request for Proposal (RFP) announces the intent of the County of Mendocino to seek proposals for social media, web design, and training services for Sheriff-Coroner Office. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office has a mandate to inform the public of the latest law enforcement news and developments happening within Mendocino County. In order to fulfill this duty, the Sheriff’s Office requires a private contractor to provide media, web design, and training services using social media platforms and traditional media channels. This use of social media enables the Sheriff’s Office to efficiently and effectively disseminate information about law enforcement, emergency operations, and county government programs and services as well as unusual circumstances/situations of immediate public interest.” But, when one wades through page after page after page of boilerplate and finally gets to the “Description of Services” to be provided, that page is … BLANK. How would a potential bidder know how to respond with costs and services without the basic service description?

It could be that they only are looking for qualified bidders, but if that was true they should call it an RFQ and leave out the proposed contract and boilerplate until they’re ready to accept bids.

THE DAY MARI DUMPED HIM: “Mari Rodin gets the nod from her clique, and I go into raptures of ecstasy relishing over again in my mind’s eye the day she dumped her devoted hubby, the Honorable Clayton Brennan. I was sitting at the Forest Club bar, my usual lunch counter, sipping a Coor’s Lite and looking in the mirror so I didn’t have to turn around to observe the traffic around the courthouse, when along came Judge Brennan. He was on foot, on the sidewalk across the street, and he paused just past the bail bondsman’s office to place a call on his cell. The judge had a concerned look on his face. I couldn’t hear the words, but judging by his demeanor, which deteriorated quickly, I assumed it was serious business. After a few terse comments, Brennan, shoved his phone in his pocked, angrily screwed a ring off his finger, and strode purposely down the block to the pawn shop. He emerged some moments later, with a look of relief on his face and went back to the courthouse. I couldn’t help but sympathize with Brennan. Gold was at a price slump that week; and a few days later when the price jumped up again, the pawn broker would have made a tidy profit on his honor’s wedding ring.” — Bruce McEwen

I'M OUT AT DAWN to shuffle up a challenging hill and on through the round-the-clock mausoleum streets of San Anselmo when this guy in a bathrobe, picking up the Chron from his driveway, pauses, big smile on his face, to wait for me to get closer. He's got a Biden/Harris poster on his lawn. (Marin is the national headquarters for middle-of-the-road extremism.) “Won't be long before he's gone, huh?” the guy greets me. “Yeah, Biden's definitely lost it,” I reply, picking up my pace, gratified at the confusion on the guy's face. 

THE NEXT MORNING, same route, and versions of this interface have become common to me, two women, fifty-ish, are coming at me, full glares on high beam, keeping well to the other side of the road like my mere presence might be fatal to them. When they're nearly opposite, in unison, they mask up while one screeches, “Mask!” Cupping my ear I cock my head towards them like any other old deaf guy doing the best he can in trying times. “I'm sorry. I'll try harder, ladies. I pwomise.” (Nothing like the plague to revive the milk monitors.) 

FOR YOUR FALSE ADVERTISING FILES: “Support our fearless journalism” on the Daily Beast's masthead. There’s still some fearless journalism around but you've got to search it out, and it's certainly not at the Daily Beast or the NYT, MSNBC, FOX, CNN. When journalism is truly fearless the government hit men come calling — cf Julian Assange, Snowden, any number of furriner scribes murdered over the past decade in every part of the globe.

NOT EXACTLY RECOMMENDED VIEWING because the victims are so repellent, but I've been watching 'The Vow,' a documentary on HBO about a yuppie cult whose leader, a rather obvious little sociopath called Keith Ranieri, who brands the women who comprise his inner circle, one of them, it is alleged, on her vagina. Fortunately, we're spared the mechanics of that one. By brand I mean this creep — his acolytes anyway, but probably him too — brands them. With a branding iron. With his initials. The cultists are all desperate narcissists who believe guru daddy is an all-round genius, and we duly get lots of clips of the genius instructing groups of rapt, up-market morons (including the heiresses to the Bronfman/Seagram’s booze fortune) in how to get themselves “actualized” and out there to takeover America and save the world as only they can do so long as they listen to guru daddy and, of course, pay him lots and lots for his advice. It's a sad documentary. As obnoxious as a lot of the vics are you still come away feeling sorry for them for being so needy, so gullible, but when “the greatest genius the world has ever seen” turned up to play volleyball in a headband and kneepads, well, most people would have laughed and spiked him.

ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1] Absolutely wrong about prohibition being a solution to the “drug problem”. We tried it with alcohol, and the only result was more people drinking, corruption of law enforcement as well as the judicial system, and the massive boost it gave to organized crime – a policy blunder that still plagues us today. We’ve also tried it with illegal drugs like marijuana, hallucinogens, opioids, and stimulants with exactly the same results. It simply doesn’t work. The demand is too great and the money to be made supplying that demand is worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Mexico is a prime example of how an entire country can be destabilized by the drug trade. So no, ruthlessly cracking down on “the last mile dealers” has been tried and it’s an abject failure. I’ve even heard dim bulbs who know nothing about the history of prohibition say that we should execute drug dealers. If they knew anything about the subject, they would know that back in Merry Olde England, pickpockets made their best hauls at hangings – when the penalty for picking pockets was hanging.

[2] Half full or half empty, it’s time for a refill. It’s a new, catchy tune to me. “If lust and hate is the candy, if blood and love tastes so sweet…” “Then we give ’em what they want”. Sinuous, lovely lines that one likes to dwell on. I wonder what’s behind the wall of beautiful bougainvillea. Maybe I could take one as a boutonniere or you could put one in your hair.

[3] But wasn’t the local weed economy based on not paying taxes on the profit of their product? And wasn’t the high priced black market used to keep the “economy” afloat?

When markets become legal and taxed why blame the police when non permitted businesses cheat?

Compare the penalty when you illegally produce alcohol or hard drugs to illegally growing cannabis? Are any cannabis growers going to prison for three to five years in federal prison like moonshiners? I wonder what the penalty would be for 500 non permitted cannabis plants when in the future the federal government legalizes and taxes cannabis?

Would in the ATF, FDA and Justice Department in the future penalize large scale illegal cannabis production less than the current penalties for large scale moonshiners or bootleggers?

Don’t blame law enforcement when one gets caught cheating when one profited from the fact that it was illegal and knew what one was doing is illegal.

[4] Christie Olson Day and Andy Wellspring both donated to the gofundme campaign of Sierra Wooten to pay for her to hire an assistant during the time she was so busy trying to ruin the life and future employment of the Fort Bragg City Manager because her ego was hurt by a Fort Bragg City Councilmember. Ms. Wooten has never publicly apologized for her inexcusably despicable actions. It’s disappointing that Councilmember Morsell-Haye added two new advisory commission members who are aligned with a person who would retaliate against a decision not to interview her in such a hateful way.

Ed note: And now we have one member of the FB City Council frantically stuffing the already over-large name change committee with cancel culture bots. This whole show, kicked off by a deranged young woman, is one for the Only In Mendo books.

[5] The ammo situation is ridiculous. When just last year I could buy a box of 9 mm hollow point ammo for around $25 more or less, it now costs around $100-$110 a box. I just purchased 200 rounds of Federal 115 gr ammo for around $37 a box. That includes shipping fees. I hated to have to pay that much, but luckily for me I can easily afford it. It’s just the principle of the thing. Go online to major ammo sites and they have none in stock; zero. I have to go to other sites at exorbitant prices.

I have to buy 38 special and 357 mag for my revolver. It’s even harder to find, and the prices are around $50 a box. Last year I paid $22 a box at my gun dealer’s store, and felt I was overpaying. I didn’t mind because they are nice guys and it was convenient to just go there and walk out with ammo.

Anyway, that’s my complaint of the day. I don’t want to harp on this, but it’s a fine example of how our country has gone to shit.

[6] Let’s go out to eat, 2020 style…

1. Arrive at restaurant, take mask off mirror (or out of glove compartment) where it hangs or lays every day when not in use.

2. Slip it on, trying not to ruin the hairdo.

*MAGICAL ANTI-GERM BARRIER ENGAGE!!!*

3. Proceed into restaurant, opening door with same handle grabbed by 200 people so far today.

4. Hostess who touches her face and mask an average of three times per minute has immediate seating for your woke party of three. Walk past entire restaurant of unmasked people. It’s ok, they’re sitting.

5. Sit down.

*SEATED ANTI-GERM FORCE FIELD ENGAGE!!!*

6. Safely within your anti-germ force field, remove mask. Browse menu while making relaxed inhales of the same recirculated AC air previously inside the lungs of the 200 people that also grabbed the door handle.

7. Waitress, who touches her face and mask an average of three times per minute drops off drinks bare handed, which she touches her face and mask with three times per minute, on average.

8. Grab drink with your bare hand. Sip leisurely, secure in knowing you’re within your anti-germ force field of “seated-ness”.

9. Too many drinks. Need to pee. Don the magical anti-germ barrier mask as you leave your anti-germ force field of “seated-ness”.

10. Walk past 40 unmasked restaurant patrons. Open bathroom with same doorknob grabbed by 100 other people so far today.

11. Return to table past same 40 unmasked restaurant patrons.

12. Remove mask. Once again safe in your anti-germ force field of “seated-ness”. Waitress takes your sweaty drink glass with her bare hand which she touches her face and mask with an average of three times per minute, refills, hands back to you. You accept with your bare hand. Grab some bread and eat it. Same hand. Yum Yum.

13. Meal complete. Mask on. Walk past 40 unmasked patrons. Make full body contact with at least 4 people waiting at the hostess stand as you squeeze your way back to the door – no matter, they’re all also wearing their magical anti-germ barriers.

14. Grab exit handle, which you are now the 220th person of the day to touch. Eating out successful.

15. Breathe a sigh of relief knowing that even after leaving the protection of your home and venturing out into the scary world of the public, you are essentially sterile thanks to your state approved methods of magical germ mitigation, THE MASK! (anon)

[7] All the Ballyhoo and hoopla about the upcoming election. Who really believes choosing senile Joe/Copmala Harris or the Orange Orangutan/religious nutjob Pence is going to make a difference or change the trajectory or outcome of the impending collapse? With Bernie Sanders out, there went any last chance we may have had to have someone at the helm that would make sure we all had access to food, water, shelter, transportation, and maybe some access to medical care regardless of people’s ability to pay or when the dollars they have are worthless.

Is it me, or do the deep government/Pentagon types seem to be backing brain damaged Biden (like they did that vile pig Clinton in 2016) because they plan to use military intervention/violence to try to save the empire and keep the party going? I am foreseeing a day soon when it will be considered treasonous if you have the audacity to question all this new McCarthyism/demonization of Russia. It is obvious to me that they view them as the greatest obstacle in maintaining hegemony over the world, the middle east in particular.

They seem to have it in for Trump because he doesn’t trust them, wanted to release documents related to the JFK coup by LBJ and the deep government, and doesn’t do as he is told like that rat bastard Obama (I actually voted for that sell out in 2008) and all the other clowns and puppets before him. Like Bitchlary Clinton would have, like senile Biden/Copmala Harris will do. I include that witch because Biden is clearly unfit for the job and so she will likely inherit the command.

Tempted to vote Trump like I did in 2016 (to pay that POS Clinton back and her corrupt cauldron of corporate whores and sell outs known as the DNC and/or the demonrat party). I think Biden will win. So the collapse advances in 2021, various resource wars will break out, more civil unrest and rioting, and no progressive measures taken to prevent us from getting skinned alive. Stash or liquidate your assets while you can, the creditor class and the government will steal from you until there is nothing left to steal.