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Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021

Rainy Nights | 19 New Cases | Faulkner Park | Moratorium Talk | Kits | Yorkville Posole | Atmospheric River | Burn Permits | Vineyard Color | Jacith Trumpower | Commercial Logging | 11 Digits | White House | Sheriff Shrugs | Masked | Fingerprint Biz | FB Desal | 5-10-15 Store | Scott Dam | Ball Visit | Leaky Roof | Horror Film | Code Enforcement | Equity Grant | Yesterday's Catch | Jalopy Joe | Humpty | Town Hall | Nixon-in-Law | Nullity Harris | Gould Disciples | Archangel | Corporate Ag | New Low | Ant Diner | Media Uproar | Booktower | Dem Club

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A SERIES OF STORMS will bring rain and periods of gusty winds through the weekend. The heaviest rains and strongest will occur tonight and Sunday. Wet and unsettled weather will continue on Monday and Tuesday of next week, followed by drier weather late in the week. (NWS)

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19 NEW COVID CASES reported in Mendocino County yesterday afternoon.

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FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS OF FAULKNER PARK near Boonville are mobilizing to stop a massive removal of old growth redwoods at the Park under the guise of making the PG&E lines more safe. Undergrounding the line instead makes much more sense. It’s only 2/10s of a mile. The power line is adjacent to the Manchester Road.

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CAL FIRE STAFFERS ARE MEETING with representatives from McGuire and Woods office to discuss a potential moratorium!  They must hear from the people! CALL TODAY to make your voice heard and let them know the public demands an immediate moratorium on all logging in JDSF.

  • Wood's Mendocino office number: (707) 463-5770
  • Wood's state capitol number: (916) 319-2002
  • McGuire's Mendocino office number 707-468-8914
  • McGuire's state capitol number 916-651-4002

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Comptche Kits (photo by Chuck Wilcher)

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SATURDAY LUNCH (TODAY) AT THE YORKVILLE MARKET

We are in for a wonderful rainy weekend!

Today/Saturday we will be serving pork posole (a hearty soup) with all the fixin's from 12:30- 4:30 or until sold out. Join your neighbors and friends for this hearty lunch at the Market or take it to go and enjoy at home.

Look forward to seeing you soon!

Best, Lisa Walsh

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EFFECTIVE MONDAY, October 25, 2021 at 12:01 am, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) Mendocino Unit will be lifting the burn permit suspension

CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit Chief George Gonzalez is formally cancelling the burn permit suspension and advises that those possessing current and valid agriculture and residential burn permits can now resume burning on permissible burn days. Agriculture burns must be inspected by CAL FIRE prior to burning until the end of the peak fire season. Inspections may be required for burns other than agriculture burns

Burn Permits are now available online from CAL FIRE at: https://burnpermit.fire.ca.gov

IMPORTANT. CALFIRE Burn Permits are only for residents who live in the State Responsibility Area (SRA), or where CAL FIRE has jurisdictional authority. It is the responsibility of the landowner to check with local fire agencies to determine any additional permits that might be required and if there are any additional burning restrictions for their area.

Burn Permits can be obtained by mail by calling CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit Howard Forest Headquarters in Willits, 8 am to 5pm, Monday through Friday, at (707) 459-7414. All CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit offices are closed to public access, until further notice, to prevent the public and our personnel from unnecessary exposure to COVID-19.

Burn Permits can also be obtained from the following local agencies (note: the following agencies can only issue permits within their respective districts), Anderson Valley, Laytonville, Little Lake (Willits). Redwood Valley-Calpella, and Brooktrails Fire Departments, Monday through Friday 8 am to 5pm. Please call these agencies to determine their COVID-19 burn permit procedures,

Before you burn, call Mendocino County Air Management District at (707) 463-4391 to confirm that you have all the required burn permits and to ensure it is a permissive burn day Burning can only be done on permissive burn days and is prohibited on non-burn days.

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RAIN APPROACHES THE NAVARRO WINERY

(photo by Larry Wagner)

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AUTHORITIES DETERMINE THE IDENTITY OF THE WOMAN WHO JUMPED OF UKIAH BRIDGE

by Matt LeFever

Last Friday, October 15, 2021, an eyewitness watched a woman jump off the Ron Ledford Memorial Bridge on Talmage Road east of Ukiah. Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Captain Greg Van Patten told us the woman remained unidentified until yesterday when investigators determined the woman to be Jacith Trumpower, a 37-year-old from Ukiah, California.

mendofever.com/2021/10/20/authorities-determine-the-identity-of-the-woman-who-jumped-of-ukiah-bridge/

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END OF AN ERA: Starting Sunday, You Gotta Dial ‘1-707’ Even If You’re Just Calling Someone In Town

by Hank Sims

Gather ‘round, kids, because here’s a story we old-timers tell.

Back in the day, when you wanted to call, say, the radio station, you’d walk over to the telephone appliance installed in your home, perhaps consulting the “phone book” on the way, and, after picking up the “receiver” and waiting for the “dial tone,” you’d either dial or tap out seven digits — 7, 8, 6, 5, 9, 7, 8 — depending on the type of appliance you owned. 

Those first three numbers — 786 — meant that you were calling a location in Ferndale, which might have meant that you were calling “long distance” and would incur extra charges. The last four numbers represented the particular telephone owner you were attempting to reach.

Believe it or not, some people still communicate this way!

And as of this coming Sunday, they’re going to have to change up their routine. On that day, they will have to start dialing four additional numbers before the traditional seven. Those numbers are “1” and “707,” the latter of which you may recognize from local cannabis-themed clothing products.

Why must you dial 11 digits now when you had only to dial seven before, you may ask as the rage turns your face purple and you feel yourself drowning in despair?

Take it easy, grandpa, because it’s for a good reason — specifically, the rollout of the national suicide prevention hotline, which people in need will be able to call by simply dialing three digits: 988. That rollout is hindered by the fact that there is already a 988 prefix — Whitethorn — in the 707 area code. Imagine it: If you don’t dial the “707” first, the system won’t know if you are experiencing a crisis or just trying to reach your friend in the hills.

The FCC explains it here.

But why must you start dialing the “1” first, in addition to the local area code? You know, that’s a great question. Because they told us to, I guess? In the old days the “1” meant you were calling long-distance, and it seems as though “1” has been deprecated on cell phones for a long time now. But dial the “1” you must. Here’s the California Public Utilities Commission on that.

Still on the horizon: The introduction of an “overlay” zone on top of the 707, in which new numbers in our traditional territory will be assigned to a different area code entirely, leaving 707 itself to us high-status OGs.

(Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

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White House, Downtown Ukiah

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SUPES NOTES: SLOUCHING TOWARDS CLARITY

by Mark Scaramella

An awkward moment arose at last Tuesday’s Supervisors meeting after the highly bureaucratic agenda Item 5h arose: “Discussion and Possible Action Including Adoption of Resolution Amending the Position Allocation Table as Follows: Sheriff’s Office Budget Unit 2310 - Add 1.0 FTE Network Systems Analyst II (Sponsor: Human Resources)” 

Budget unit 2310 is the Sheriff’s department. But the “sponsor” was Human Resources.

The agenda item’s background info couldn’t have been more intentionally opaque. 

“Previous Board/Board Committee Actions: On June 22, 2021, the Board of Supervisors adopted the Master Position Allocation Table for the FY 2021-2022 Budget, Resolution Number 21-090. On August 31, 2021, the Board of Supervisors directed Human Resources to work with the Sheriff's Office and bring back a recommendation at a subsequent meeting. The Human Resources Department is charged, as part of the overall maintenance of the classification and compensation plan, to evaluate current classifications, create new classifications (including appropriate salary levels), reclassify positions, examine requests for salary grade adjustments, analyze allocations, and make recommendations for additions, modifications, and corrections.”

After that useless bit of info, they muddled on: 

“On August 31, 2021 discussion ensued over the November 2019 request by Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) to reclassify (add/delete) vacant Public Safety Dispatcher to a Network Systems Analyst II, in Budget Unit 2310.”

Wait a minute. This started in November of 2019? Why now then?

“This request was the result of the retirement of a Public Safety Dispatcher [back in 2019] who had been assigned duties in support of the Sheriff’s Office IS [computer system] staff and the Sheriff’s Office’s belief that their needs would be better met with a Network Systems Analyst. In accordance with Policy 22, Human Resources sought the approval of Information Services (IS) leadership to add an IS position to a department other than the centralized Information Services Department.”

Hold on, again: “Information Services leadership” had to approve the Sheriff’s personnel request? Why?

“After a series of meetings and emails between November 2019 and September 2020, in which IS recommended an Information Systems Specialist be allocated to the centralized IS Department…”

Ok, as all this is translated from English-to-Albanian and back to bumbling bureaucrat-speak, a logical question arises: What “series of meetings and emails” took almost a year which “recommended an Information Systems Specialist be allocated to the centralized IS Department”? Recommended by whom? Centralized IS? And who, exactly, is Central IS? Janelle Rau?

We’re now slowly drifting into an unintended clarity which leads into the Sheriff’s sensible self-defense in his lawsuit asking for his own attorney regarding computer system autonomy and security.

But why now? Something very odd is going on here.

“Budget Unit 1960 (Information Systems) [is] to provide dedicated support to the Sheriff’s Office, [so] there was no further discussion or direction given to Human Resources.” 

Oh yes there was. This now looks like the initial a reference to the CEO’s attempt to take over the Sheriff’s computer system.

“The request was not submitted to the Board for their consideration/adoption.”

Probably because the Sheriff and his computer people balked at the CEO’s attempt to move computer people out of the Sheriff’s Office and into the CEO’s information services collective.

But since so much time has now passed:

“The Public Safety Dispatcher position is no longer vacant as it was in November 2019, nor does the MCSO have a vacant position to put forth to help cover the cost of funding. Therefore, the Sheriff’s Office will require a budget adjustment to fund the addition of one (1.0) Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Network Systems Analyst II Budget Unit 2310 [The Sheriff’s Department.] The current year fiscal impact and annual recurring costs [of about $98k] reflect wages at Step 5 (including cost of benefits) of 1.0 FTE Network Systems Analyst II for the rest of this fiscal year.” And about $158k per year thereafter. So “Budget Adjustment will be needed.” And “The Sheriff’s Office will work with the County Budget Team on a budget adjustment.”

When it was time for Board discussion, Supervisor Ted Williams immediately blurted out: “I support this. How do we pay for it?”

Meaning, we assume, he’s for letting the Sheriff’s keep his own computer system and staff, but only if the Sheriff figures out how to pay for it out of his already disputed budget.

Sheriff Kendall calmly explained that the necessary dispatch position has been filled so there are no vacancies or budget available to cover the cost the computer staffer. He then noted that his 2019 attempt to hire the computer staffer was “shot down” so the Dispatch position was soon filled. Kendall said he still needed that position because dispatch needs every slot they have nowadays. But Kendall had not brought it forward, Human Resources had.

Supervisor Williams then inadvertently revealed what was behind the whole item: “If we say no due to lack of funding, will we be sued?”

Kendall replied: “I have not sued anyone, I simply asked for an attorney.”

Yes, but the attorney was asked for because the Sheriff thought the Board was unlawfully infringing on the Sheriff’s department’s operations, particularly his Computer system and his budget and he wanted a solid legal opinion to back him up.

Supervisor Haschak then inanely asked Assistant CEO Darcie Antle: “Do we have $158k lying around unallocated?”

Apparently the Supervisor, like his colleagues, has no idea what their own budget situation is and they still don’t even have the close out numbers from last fiscal year which ended on June 30, almost four months ago.

Ms. Antle didn’t know either, so she suggested that they bring the item back “at first quarter and discuss it then.”

But because of the budget team’s failure to manage their budget, that “first quarter” report won’t be presented until December. If any departments are having budget problems almost half the year will be up before they even get a glimpse of it, much less have time to deal with it.

Sheriff Kendall has been operating without the computer staffer this long so he shrugged and agreed to bring it back in December.

Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s lawsuit demanding an attorney to clarify how much the Board can meddle with his department languishes in Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman’s chambers where it’s been for over a month now.

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RE: TRENT JAMES’ FRIDAY DUMP.

So, Hendry has been placed on administrative leave. Now it’s time for Randy Johnson to be relieved of his post at Child Support. What a scam, require finger printing for Cannabis Permits and then open a fingerprint business in your wife’s name. He was allowed to retire without charges so now he gets his retirement from the Sheriff’s office and a big paycheck from Child support, not including what he brings in at his fingerprint business or from his current marijuana grow at the Johnson compound.

(James Marmon)

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IN THIS CALIFORNIA COUNTY, ONE TOWN HAS NO WATER. ANOTHER HAS ENOUGH TO SHARE.

by Scott Wilson

FORT BRAGG, Calif. — This town took a big step toward making fresh water along the rocky, wild North Coast of California. As its wells ran dry this month, town officials looked to technology as an emergency measure, hoping to keep both residents and a lifeblood tourism industry with running faucets. The town spent $335,000 on a desalination plant, a small machine of tubes and pumps that officials christened earlier this month. Turning brackish water into useful water, the plant now provides a quarter of the local supply....

washingtonpost.com/national/in-this-california-county-one-town-has-no-water-another-has-enough-to-share/2021/10/21/a04df778-2b92-11ec-9e50-971e1983edc6_story.html

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Foster’s 5-10-15 Cent Store, Ukiah

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FORMER SUPERVISOR MIKE DELBAR (POTTER VALLEY): 

Trust the science. We see and hear this a lot lately. The Potter Valley Project isn't rocket science. It's not even political science. It's basic science. It supplies water for fish in two river systems, green power, fire suppression, and for over a half-million people in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties. Yet it's amazing that there are numerous elected leaders that can't seem to grasp the basic science surrounding a system that is the lifeblood to homes, farms, and economies on the North Coast.

The other day I saw a post with a photo lamenting a dry stretch of the Eel River and it expressed how desperate the river looked. These days one can look at Lake Mendocino and its dry lakebed and see the old Coyote Valley, its bridge and roads, and the domestic and agricultural water intake for Redwood Valley high and dry. We are amidst a drought. A serious drought. But what we are seeing today is what we will see every summer if we lose the water that originates from Lake Pillsbury and flows down the upper Eel River, to the Russian River. 

The diversion from the Eel to the Russian was built in 1906. Not long after, Scott Dam was built creating Lake Pillsbury, a recreational lake for Lake County and others. This simultaneously created a year-round water supply of which a small portion is diverted to the Russian through a mile-long tunnel. For the last 100 years, this water has created green, pollution-free power and provided the literal lifeblood for Potter Valley and the Ukiah Valley through to Northern Sonoma County. 

Lake Pillsbury, Scott Dam (photo by M. Wier)

Removal of the dam means we are faced with losing Lake Pillsbury and with it a critical water supply, mainly because PG&E has decided to walk away from the Potter Valley hydroelectric power plant. The power plant’s federal license is up for renewal, and PG&E (despite the pleas from Mendocino and Sonoma Counties) has decided that they would rather walk away than work with those who depend upon this resource. Mendocino and Sonoma Counties stood with PG&E during their last relicensing battle that lasted over 30 years. Several studies were required for that relicensing and those studies resulted in a reduction in the diversion of 50% percent. That reduction has been in place for the last 15 years. Those below the diversion have learned to adjust to that reduction in water flow, but it has been a challenge and has resulted in impacts to water rights holders and multiple years of Temporary Urgency Change Petitions with the State Water Resources Control Board for modified minimum instream flow requirements on the Russian River. 

Now the relicensing process is before us again, but it is much worse this time around. When I was elected to the Mendocino Board of Supervisors, water issues, and the Potter Valley Project in particular, were front and center on my agenda. The bulk of my 12 years of service were spent trying to find solutions that worked for everyone on this project. It's extremely disappointing to me to see that 13 years later our current representatives are so willing to walk away from this issue and worse yet, dismantle a system that has been in place for a century.

Congressman Jared Huffman created the Two Basin Solution that included select environmental groups but excluded the County of Lake in which Lake Pillsbury sits. Lake Pillsbury is a major recreation draw and economic driver for Lake County. Congressman John Garamendi recognizes the importance of retaining Lake Pillsbury. He is one elected representative that understands the science, and he should be roundly applauded for that. 

However, Lake County was denied a seat at the table in the exclusive Two Basin Solution group by Congressman Huffman. State Senator Mike McGuire was initially adamant that Lake County be included in this group; however, Congressman Huffman strongarmed Senator McGuire and Senator McGuire backed away from his support, caving to Huffman. Lake County continues to lack representation in this exclusive group that is making decisions that will impact the future of its lake…unbelievable! This isn't rocket science. But it appears that it's a very poor version of political science.

This is a critical and pivotal time for Mendocino County and Sonoma County. During my tenure on the Board of Supervisors, our relationship with the Sonoma Board of Supervisors was very strong. I worked closely with its members and the Sonoma County Water Agency to develop solutions that were science-based and considered what was best for the local economy. While I am no longer involved in county government, nor are many of those who worked on this during my tenure, it appears that the coalition is still strong, and I hope that is true. 

We have a lot in common. Yes, we have our differences, but finding a solution that works for all is critical. A solution that continues to provide water for our fisheries, water for our agricultural crops, water for our households and industrial users, and water that feeds our economy and our quality of life is possible. However, the trajectory upon which Congressman Huffman is proceeding to tear down Scott Dam, and with it destroy Lake Pillsbury and eliminate the water supply, is extremely short sighted. It will decimate the economy and with it the livelihoods of over half a million people. And what is truly baffling is that most of these folks are his constituents!

Congressman Huffman loves to tout the Two Basin Solution, yet a primary goal of this exclusive group was a feasibility study to determine whether Scott Dam should be removed based on the environmental and economic impacts of doing so. That study has yet to be conducted, and Huffman has done nothing to seek the funding necessary to carry out this type of study. Why would that be? Could it be because he lacks the clout in Congress to secure the funding? Or more likely, could it be that he does not want the study to proceed? 

Should a legitimate feasibility study be conducted on the removal of Scott Dam, it could likely find that the sediment stored behind the dam released into Eel River system following the dam’s removal would choke the river to death. It could also find that the lack of water coming out of Lake Pillsbury would cripple the economies of Mendocino and Sonoma counties. Facts of this nature could hinder someone's perception of science and this might be too risky for Huffman. 

So, Huffman, skipping the studies altogether, has jumped to the conclusion that Scott Dam must be removed. He has posted on his social media and stated publicly that decommissioning the Potter Valley Project and removing Scott Dam is the way to go, science be damned.

Huffman’s constituents run from the San Francisco/Marin County line to the Oregon border - a district that was created to sustain his position as a representative in U.S. Congress. He appears to be either ignoring or is oblivious to the needs of those in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties. Instead, he is focusing solely upon the misguided demands of those in Humboldt County and his radical environmental constituency in his home county of Marin. I sincerely hope that Congressman Huffman comes to recognize the actual science behind the Potter Valley Project. That he comes to the reality that without Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury, there is no water supply to run through the lower Eel River in the summer and late fall to augment natural flows when necessary (as in the last droughts of 2014-2016). Without Lake Pillsbury, there will be no clean energy created by the hydroelectric power plant that in turn supplies the water that supports half a million of his constituents. 

It's basic science. It shouldn't be political science. But if it were political science, any political scientist will tell you don't ignore the needs of the bulk of your constituents. In doing so, you will fail to protect the very people who elected you and have put their trust in you to represent them. 

It's time for all of us – let me say that again – ALL OF US to express our thoughts, concerns, and outrage over the notion that a 100-year-old water supply system should be destroyed at the whim of one elected representative. It is time for all of us to step up to the plate and contact Congressman Huffman, along with every other county, state, and federal elected official to help them understand how important this water supply is. They represent us, and we must call upon them to stand and defend this water system. It is time to trust the actual science and quit playing ridiculous games in political science.

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ED NOTE: I mostly agree with Delbar. The overall impact of dismantling the diversion system would be too hard on too many people, but prices of water for ag, especially unnecessary ag like grapes, should be raised, and Mendocino County, screwed since the installation of Coyote Dam, should renegotiate the wildly unfair water arrangement with SoCo via which SoCo gets our water so inexpensively they make millions selling it down south from which Mendo basically gets zilch.

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CRAIG STEHR WRITES: "Due to a publishing error in the Saturday online edition of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, you were sent incorrect information in regard to Betty Ball's California visit.  Here is the correct information: Betty Ball, co-founder of the Mendocino Environmental Center still located at 106 W. Standley Street, in Ukiah, California, will be making a rare California visit.  The public is cordially invited to a potluck and get-together on Monday, October 25th from 4-8PM.  EARTH FIRST!!"

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DO NOT GO GENTLE…

Ellie:

I'm an 87-yr. old woman, partly disabled, living in government housing in Fort Bragg & at 5am this morning, I have WATER all over my dining room floor, from dripping through the roof! Mind you, last Spring, a couple of guys replaced a section of my ceiling, sprayed plaster all over the place fixing it, & SUPPOSEDLY fixed the roof! Am I really supposed to live like this? I had to move a dining-room chair to a different place in the living room, NOT easily done with my disability, & I managed to lay down two bath towels, to try to soak up the water. But it's going to continue to rain for several days, & what the ... am I supposed to do? Live in this? I can't even sleep, cause I keep worrying that the ceiling could just COLLAPSE over me! What would YOU do?

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Susan: 

Ellie, Call your landlord. Call social services. Put a bucket under the leak. If you haven't alienated your neighbors, NICELY ask one of them if they could empty the bucket for you each evening.

As for the bed situation. You already went on a whole trip to get a mattress that obviously didn't work. Give it up and sleep on the couch. Who are you trying to impress? Put the pillows in the bedroom and throw a blanket, bedspread, etc. over the couch and call it done. Use your bedroom for a guest room, or some other activity.

I am 75 and have many elder friends in your age group. As people age, especially when they are alone and don't have plenty of money or family to help (which I ever gratefully have) they often need to rely on the generosity of the community.

The one and only dividing factor on whether that works for them is attitude. That old expression, "you catch more flies with honey," is so true. The question is not whether you are "supposed to live like this." Hundreds of people right here on the coast are a hell of a lot worse off than you -- out of water, homeless, under leaky roofs, hungry, ill, with chronic pain...

There is no "supposed to" for life. Some of it, we manifest; some of it, we are dealt. It's how you deal with it that matters. Start by getting your head out of the entitled, poor me thought process. Yes, you are 87 and partially disabled, yet you obviously have a home, albeit with leaky roof right now, a computer and a phone.

I hope you can get a roof fix arranged and have a lovely nap on your comfy couch. 

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CODE ENFORCEMENT NEWS

Redwood Valley, Ukiah, Hopland & Willits - Month of October 2021 - Multiple non-permitted commercial cannabis locations identified; plants abated after Code Enforcement engagement.

In the month of October 2021 the Mendocino County Code Enforcement Division conducted investigations regarding non-permitted commercial cannabis cultivation at the listed locations below in the Redwood Valley, Willits, Ukiah and Hopland areas. Any cannabis cultivation over the Medical or Adult Use exemption limit (as defined in Mendocino County Code Section 10A.17.030) is considered to be commercial cultivation. Please see the Mendocino County Code (MCC) Section 10A.17 for additional information.

Code Enforcement investigations confirmed that commercial cannabis cultivation was taking place at these locations without either a County Cultivation Permit or a State Cultivation License, and/or cultivation was taking place in violation of MCC Sec. 10A.17 requirements. It was determined that there were significant community quality of life concerns in these neighborhoods. The responsible parties abated the cannabis plants after Code Enforcement engagement.

10/6/21 - 9000 Block of East Road - 36 Cannabis plants abated

10/7/21 - 950 Block of Highway 175 - 112 Cannabis plants abated

10/12/21 - 650 Block of Jefferson Road - 62 Cannabis plants abated

10/13/21 - 36000 Block of North Highway 101 - 26 Cannabis plants abated

10/13/21 - 1800 Block of Vista Del Lago Road - 200 Cannabis plants abated

Code Enforcement intends to take additional action as needed to achieve compliance with any non-permitted structures at these locations.

The Code Enforcement Division receives all Cannabis and General Code Violation complaints within the unincorporated areas of Mendocino County. Complaints can be made by visiting our website at https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/planning-building-services/code-enforcement and filing an online complaint. You can also file a complaint by email at codeenforcement@mendocinocounty.org, or by phone to (707) 234 6669. Cannabis specific complaints can also be filed by calling the Cannabis Complaint Hotline at (844) 421-WEED(9333)

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EQUITY GRANT PUBLIC MEETING - OCTOBER 27TH

Greetings, 

The County of Mendocino Cannabis Program in partnership with Elevate Impact Mendocino will be hosting an Equity Grant Public Meeting on October 27, 2021 from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. (PST). Registration is required and must be submitted prior to the start of the meeting. 

To register for this event please click the following link: www.mendocinocounty.org/cannabiswebinar.

Sincerely, 

Mendocino Cannabis Program Staff 

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CATCH OF THE DAY, October 22, 2021

France, Hernandez, Ross, Young

CHRISTOPHER FRANCE, Willits. Burglary.

FRANCISCO HERNANDEZ, Dalton, Georgia/Ukiah. Cultation of over 6 marijuana plant, for sale, conspiracy.

MATTHEW ROSS, Fort Bragg. DUI.

TERRANCE YOUNG, Willits. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

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WHAT AM I DOING? HE ASKS

by James Kunstler

If you want a picture of things converging toward an unfortune outcome, imagine “Joe Biden” playing chicken with the future of the nation. Trouble is, the future is a very big thing — so big, you can’t see where it ends — while “Joe Biden” is one mere mortal, small and feeble… and the old jalopy he’s driving looks like it’s veering off the road….

The net effect is that life will go on in ways as-yet-undetermined upon this land-mass between the great oceans, but the vehicle “Joe Biden” is driving will end up a smoldering wreck, upside down in a drainage ditch with the phragmites and discarded Bud Lite cans. The passengers in the back seat are the economy and the social order of the USA, lying motionless with eyes Xed out in the twisted wreckage.

Ol’ White “Joe” did a “Town Hall” performance Thursday night, staged to demonstrate that he was in command of things, with a roster of carefully-vetted ringers chosen to pitch him softball questions on events du jour. Whose idea was that? And what sort of desperation prompted it? Answer No. 1: the claque of puppeteers watching the death-spiral of their wicked schemes to consolidate power forever; and No. 2: a manifold collapse of the scaffold barely holding up something that resembles normal life in the USA.

The Leader of the Free World wandered the stage, sometimes oddly circling his interlocutor, Anderson Cooper of CNN, who had to step in and rescue the maundering “Joe B,” when he lost himself in thickets of talking points that no amount of rehearsal could avail to untangle. “What am I doing?” he asked more than once, but no one on the scene volunteered to remind him. The “president” frequently assumed poses that signified some kind of gross cognitive dysfunction: head turned down to the floor with his eyes shut… strange, mincing steps in the direction of a fugitive thought… fists balled like a two-year-old resisting some simple instruction… There was a robotic quality to the act, too, as “JB” repeated his place-holder phrase “Here’s the deal” to preface each flight into the murky jargon of Build Back Better.

It fell short of convincing anyone about who was in charge of the nation’s affairs at a very sketchy moment in history, and at the end Ol “Joe” just ran down like a three-dollar gyroscope. In his most lost moments, such as when AC inaptly tried to prompt him on the border crisis — “I guess I should go down,” he admitted dolefully — the “POTUS” directed the cameras to his wife in the audience, saying, “Jill’s been down there!” We were supposed to conclude that she’d fixed all that for us.

The exercise was also obviously designed to turn up the heat on the two renegade senators, Joe Manchin (WVA) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) who are disinclined to vote for the trillions of dollars in pending proposed legislation to drop money from helicopters all over the land and save the economy — and impose all manner of janky surveillance measures and vote-rigging scams on the country. The Obama-led claque behind all the White House fakery wants to cram this down the country’s craw before things go so far south that Americans start to think they’re living in Tierra del Fuego.

I doubt that the Townhall stunt helped on that, and then there is the crucial Governor’s race in the Beltway state of Virginia, where swaybacked Democrat war-horse Terry McAuliffe made the possibly fatal error — in a state tormented by school-board politics — of saying, “Parents shouldn’t tell schools what to teach.” You can’t overstate how damaging that utterance was to the whole Woke Democrat hustle. All that monkey business is in the rumble seat of the jalopy that Joe Biden is driving into the ditch.

The public’s view of this panoramic debacle is apt to flip starkly in the days ahead as five years of mind-fuckery ends in this national drunken driving incident. China may postpone the Evergrande unwind a few weeks longer, but its economy is foundering on the more fundamental energy quandary — it doesn’t have enough fossil fuels to run the joint — and there’s no prospect the situation will improve, meaning that the world will get less of all of the stuff that China was making. In short, Globalism is winding down, and standards of living are sinking with that. The capital markets are gravid with terror over it.

* * *

Humpty Dumpty, 1873

* * *

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Biden's CNN "town hall." Twenty-first century America is a shadow of its former self, so its politics have become a shadow play of propaganda. This, really, is merely the political version of advertising, and that was an art that twentieth-century America invented and taught to the world. The CNN town hall was arranged to manage the public’s perfectly accurate perception that this administration cannot tie its own shoelaces. The less convincing the performance of our leaders, the greater their insistence that we must believe — and the more we see that they are false and incompetent, even if we cannot afford the cost of saying it out loud.

* * *

* * *

AS BIDEN’S AGENDA DISINTEGRATES in real time, it’s clear that Kamala Harris is the most useless vice president since Dan Quayle. She doesn’t even play the role that Pence perfected of obsequious yes-woman. She’s a blank, “a nullity,” as Lincoln’s first VP, Hannibal Hamlin mordantly described the post. 

— Jeffrey St. Clair

* * *

THE MULTIMILLIONAIRE DISCIPLES of Jay Gould — that man who in his brief life rotted the commercial morals of this nation and left them stinking when he died — have quite completely transformed our people from a nation with pretty high and respectable ideals to just the opposite of that; that our people have no ideals now that are worthy of consideration; that our Christianity which we have always been so proud of — not to say vain of — is now nothing but a shell, a sham, a hypocrisy; that we have lost our ancient sympathy with oppressed peoples struggling for life and liberty; that when we are not coldly indifferent to such things we sneer at them, and that the sneer is about the only expression the newspapers and the nation deal in with regard to such things. Before Gould Americans loved money, but he taught them to kneel down and worship it. 

(The Autobiography of Mark Twain)

* * *

Archangel

* * *

CALIFORNIA GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM is placing new restrictions on the residents (watering lawns and washing sidewalks and driveways), but is doing nothing to tighten the spigots of the state’s biggest water hogs, corporate agriculture. Consider that during the worst drought in more than a century, California’s almond harvest will be the second highest in the state’s history. It requires 1,900 gallons of irrigation water to grow a pound of almonds. 

— Jeffrey St. Clair 

* * *

INFLAMMATORY ‘NEWS’ 

Dear Editor,

One of the most disturbing recent trends is the use of mass media cable networks like FOX News to castigate politicians on the opposite side of the political aisle. Today Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson smeared Rep. Eric Swalwell, who happened to be a liberal representing the East Bay. Rep. Swalwell took a position in favor ot the criminal charging of Steve Bannon for his refusal to comply with a Congressional subpoena to testify in the Jan committee investigation.

As soon as Carlson ended today's broadcast, Rep. Swalwell’s office received a death threatening phone call from one of Carlson’s listeners who, according to the representative, used racial epithets threatening not only Rep. Swalwell’s life but also the lives of the representative’s wife and children. Hasn't politics reached a new low?

Representative Swalwell is calling for an end to the kind of dangerous hate-inducing vitriole that Carlson spews out almost every day (on MSNBC, N. Wallace's show). While Carlson may have great intellectual gifts, if the results of his broadcasts are civil unrest where police officers and, probably next time, lawmakers’ lives are taken, is this worth it?

Frank H. Baumgardner

Santa Rosa,

* * *

* * *

CANCEL CULTURE TAKES A BIG “L”

by Matt Taibbi

The press tries and fails to hype a crisis into existence over Dave Chappelle's new Netflix special

First, there were the numbers. Over the course of the last week, news commentators predicted a huge demonstration of Netflix employees in protest of comedian Dave Chappelle’s The Closer special, with Yahoo! typifying coverage. “Reports say that one thousand Netflix employees — nearly 10% of the company’s workforce,” they wrote, “are planning an October 20 walkout to protest the Chappelle special.”

The Hollywood Reporter did say “at least one thousand” were planning on participating in a “virtual walkout,” whatever that is, but noted the story first came out in The Verge, which talked about a “company-wide” demonstration. Others followed, mostly without any hint that any of the reporters involved talked to anyone at Netflix but the demonstration’s organizers. 

Nobody checked, because everyone liked the narrative as was. As a result, “at least one thousand” became gospel, via headlines like Gizmodo’s“1,000 Netflix Employees Are Reportedly Planning Walkout to Protest New Chappelle Special,” or The Independent inviting us to “watch live” as “more than one thousand Netflix employees are set to walk out of their jobs on Wednesday.”

By this Wednesday, October 20th, the day of the planned walkout, the story became “hundreds of Netflix employees and supporters are expected” to show up (CNN). Then, as the event started, it became “hundreds of protesters stood in solidarity with” Netflix’s employees, per The Daily Beast, for instance. Then NBC told us “Hundreds rally outside Netflix,” where protesting employees who lined up outside were “met with roaring applause.” 

How many employees walked out? Not one news organization put the real number in a headline, and only a few had the guts to even tweet that the actual protest was reduced in the end to the famed Arrested Development meme “There are dozens of us! Dozens!”

Even the op-ed wrapups couldn’t avoid sounding like parodies, with the Washington Post talking about the “crowd of dozens” gathered outside the company’s West Hollywood offices being evidence that the popularity of a comedian whose show already gained over 10 million views was colliding with a “growing movement to protect the rights of transgender people” (how a comedy set could be a violation of “the rights of transgender people” was not explained, of course). 

Coverage across the board was ridiculously one-sided, with story after story quoting nothing but activists and woke Twitter personalities denouncing Chappelle’s “alleged jokes.” Journalists not only felt no responsibility to accurately gauge how many protesters might turn up, or balance out the outraged tweets with any of the millions of commenters who felt differently (or indifferently, as it were), they routinely mischaracterized the show’s content. For instance, Chappelle was regularly accused of having “defended” the rapper DaBaby in the special, an example being New York Times guest columnist Roxane Gay writing:

One of the strangest but most telling moments in ‘The Closer’ is when Mr. Chappelle defends DaBaby, a rapper in the news for making pretty egregious homophobic remarks.

You have to be high, or having a psychotic episode, to hear “defending DaBaby” in The Closer. For those who don’t know the story — I didn’t — DaBaby, described by Chappelle as “the number one streaming artist until about a couple of weeks ago,” went onstage in a concert in Florida in July and went on a half-coherent rant. He told “fellas” in the crowd: “If you ain’t sucking dick in the parking lot, put your cell phones up!” Some in the crowd went along. 

“Now you know, I go hard in the paint, but even I saw that shit and was like, ‘God damn, DaBaby,’ was Chappelle’s first comment. Then he went on:

Can’t do that. Can’t do that. But I do believe and I’ll make this point later that the kid made a very egregious mistake. I will acknowledge that. But, you know a lot of the LBGTQ community doesn’t know DaBaby’s history, he’s a wild guy. He once shot a n*gga… and killed him, in Walmart. Oh, this is true, Google it. DaBaby shot and killed a n*gga in Walmart in North Carolina. Nothing bad happened to his career.

Do you see where I am going with this? In our country, you can shoot and kill a n*gga, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings.

You can definitely infer from that bit that Dave Chappelle does, in fact, think it’s worse to shoot and kill a person than to make homophobic remarks. That regularly came out translated in op-ed pages as “defending DaBaby.” Such blithely insane, proudly dishonest mischaracterizations have become a regular feature of national media commentary, and Chappelle mocks the habit repeatedly in The Closer (to the delight of audiences around the world, it might behoove press people to notice). However, that’s not where he was going with the DaBaby bit. 

Chappelle became a star in the first place in part thanks to his extraordinary talent for diving into the most uncomfortable/enraging material and emerging with a routine that forces even the most dug-in, reluctant, in-denial audiences to see something they otherwise wouldn’t. Often he used an approach that was a lot more genial and forgiving than his audience deserved. 

I know I was in awe. Years ago, I wrote a book called The Divide that searched for ways to show affluent white readers especially that America has two different justice systems. One chapter told of a black bus driver repeatedly arrested and fined for obstructing pedestrian traffic — literally, for standing on the sidewalk outside his home. That story appeared side-by-side with a tale of five rich white guys who were found guilty of defrauding stockholders out of $600 million, but allowed to remain free pending appeal because a judge was moved by character testimonials like, “He is a God-fearing family man who refuses even to swear, drink, or jaywalk.”

Guidelines technically allowed the judge to impose life sentences in the latter case, and prosecutors only asked for seven years, so what did they get in the end? Nothing. An appeals court ruled that in their crisis-era trial, the rich white dudes had been “prejudicially cast… as causing an economic downturn that has affected every family in America.”

I spent three years and hundreds of pages writing that book. Chappelle did the whole thing a lot better in under just over six minutes, in “Tron Carter’s Law and Order.” (Available on Youtube.)

I don’t know a white person who didn’t find that sketch funny, but you can still watch the real punchline play out any day of the week in any municipal courtroom in America, and it’s far less funny there. Chappelle probably did more to get upper-class white people to grasp the insanity of the American justice system, and push the country toward things like bail and sentencing reform, with one inspired shot of a fictional white suspect looking toward a jury of his “peers” — in the show, a jury box full of grimacing black dudes — than a thousand earnest activists. 

White audiences couldn’t get enough of laughing at institutional racism as described in Chappelle’s Show, but The Closer is something different. Here we’re not talking about meathead cops who shoot your dog, or fat-cat white collar lawyers, congressmen, and federal investigators who kiss the asses of corporate thieves. As I also found out, everyone hates those people, so you can beat on them all you want. They long ago stopped being taboo targets. The Closer goes after racism we’re not yet allowed to discuss.

Fifteen-plus years ago, when Chappelle’s Show was taking the entertainment world by storm, we didn’t yet live in a world where upper-class white people had completed their Apollo 11 mission to enlightenment and planted a flag in racism and discrimination as their exclusive properties. Chappelle had to be freaked out in the early 2000s to look out at packed house after packed house of white faces roaring at his jokes and hurling money at him — “Yeah, we’re racists! We really are! More!” Imagine what he thought when he took time off and returned to find that exact crowd of upscale liberals had decided to cut him out of the deal, and make an industry out of celebrating their own prejudices. They didn’t just laugh a little in their spare time to Dave Chappelle jokes now, they cranked out thousands of books and movies and TV shows on the theme, they took baths in their own shame via books like White Fragility, became credentialed experts in it, gave themselves degrees in its study.

Chappelle walked away from $50 million years ago, probably in part from being freaked out by his own popularity. Now he’s resurfaced in a country where an invisible Cultural Politburo, driven mainly by the same upscale white intellectuals who first made him rich, has decreed racism no laughing matter, a crisis so grave and urgent it can no longer be left to potty-mouth amateurs like him. Moreover, this “Thanks, we’ll take it from here” crew identified 497 additional varieties of impermissible prejudice, under which he, Dave Chappelle, is also a bigot. This is the same comic who once went way out of his way to be as gentle as possible in breaking the news to white America that it hadn’t exactly left the door to Dr. King’s mountaintop all the way open. Now they’re going to tell him what bigotry is? 

Many press accounts characterize The Closer as an exercise in “punching down” on “marginalized groups.” Chappelle repeatedly explains an opposite take:

Any of you, who have ever watched me know that I’ve never had a problem with transgender people. If you listen to what I’m saying, clearly my problem has always been with white people.

[laughter]

I’ve been arguing with the whites my entire career. Just when I thought I had you guys on the ropes you changed all the rules. “Oh yeah?” – Yeah, motherfucker! – “Well.” I am a girl now, n*gger. 

In another scene, he describes being approached by a white woman who wants to lecture him about misogyny. “Sounds to me,” she says, “like you hate women.” He initially replies in civilized-intellectual voice, like he actually cares enough to engage. “Well, you know what, miss? It’s art,” he says. “You are free to interpret this art however you like, but I can tell you as the maker of this art, that I don’t believe that I feel that way.”

Flattered, and accustomed to being taken seriously as all such people are, the woman starts to respond:

And she said, “Well, I think—” 

And I said, “Shut up, bitch! Shut the fuck up! Before I kill you and put you in the trunk. Ain’t nobody around here!”

The whole show is about his ongoing beef with mostly-upper-class, mostly-white intellectuals trying to make him take seriously their self-appointed new status as humanity’s Bigotry Police. In a now-infamous passage about being a trans-exclusionary radical feminist “TERF,” he says, “I didn’t even know what the fuck that was.” Chappelle is like the overwhelming majority of Americans, alternately mystified and enraged at being scolded for violating a confounding and constantly expanding list of social rules he had no say in writing. To be black and lectured in this way, from one’s own former audience no less, has to be doubly infuriating. No wonder he’s pissed. 

Could the jokes in The Closer age badly, a la Eddie Murphy’s Delirious, or Tracey Morgan’s “Born this way is bullshit” routine? Could “impossible pussy” become the next “Mr. T is a faggot?” Maybe, but Chappelle’s point is that it’s the audience’s job to work that out, not a handful of self-appointed moral gatekeepers in the press and on that fake place called Twitter who’ve been claiming veto power over comedy. 

After a mega-demonstration failed to materialize, news outlets continued the pretense that the company had been pushed to the brink. Article after article described Netflix on the verge of collapse, in a “crisis of their own making” as CNN put it, or grappling with “a storm on its hands,” as the eternally overwrought Daily Beast said, or “in turmoil” as GQ wrote. Turmoil? What actually happened was the general public gave an almost unanimous thumbs-up to the show, and the essentially universal condemnation of these media neurotics fell flat as Netflix — whose revenues jumped to $7.4 billion in the third quarter of this year — blew off demands to cancel the show. The press tried to hype a crisis into existence and failed, that’s all.

Pretentious idiots have essentially banned comedy for half a decade or more now, and the public has decided it wants it back, even if it’s tasteless, maybe especially if it’s tasteless. Could America finally be demanding its sense of humor back?

* * *

* * *

CALLING ALL BUSHANKSYS!

Coast Democratic Club Meeting: Elections 2022

Our Mission Is To Elect Progressive Democrats

Let's Get To Work! What Do You Want To Do?

Come To The Club Meeting On Nov 4, 5:30-7:30 Pm

Jughandle Farm Meeting Room

With Proof Of Vaccination And Wearing A Mask

Doors Will Remain Open For Ventilation And There Will Be Social Distance Seating

Let's Talk About:

Local Races

Candidate Filing Period: February 14 - March 11, 2022

Primary Election Day: June 7, 2022

Board of Supervisors District 5 - Incumbent Ted Williams

Fort Bragg City Council - 4 Incumbent Seats

Jessica Morsell-Haye

Tess Albin-Smith

Lindy Peters

Marcia Rafanan

Hospital District Board - 3 Incumbent Seats

Jessice Grinberg

Amy McColley

John Redding

Mendocino County Sheriff - Appointed Incumbent Matt Kendall

Hold The House/ Hold The Senate

California Congressional Districts

US Senate

Jughandle Farm Driveway is across from the North Caspar entrance on Highway 1 from the South, the next driveway after Fortunate Farm; at the STOP sign, turn left to the meeting room in the green building and park in the field.

41 Comments

  1. John Sakowicz October 23, 2021

    This “Trent James” rocks! Who is he?

  2. Eric Sunswheat October 23, 2021

    Costco Santa Rosa has now the temporarily rare by high demand, Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses available by appointment, if you want the booster second dose, which is same as original dose for age 18 and over.

    They haven’t tweaked the appointment computer, since the FDA approval 3 days ago, so click on, of having not received the first dose, to get to the store scheduler.

    https://costcorx.appointment-plus.com/appointments/book?section=first&workflow=covid

  3. John Sakowicz October 23, 2021

    OPEN LETTER TO FORMER WILLITS POLICE SGT. TRENT JAMES

    Hey Trent,

    I just watched all your videos on Youtube.

    Good work, brother.

    I have two questions: Was MCSO Deputy Bob Davis killed by friendly fire on the night of 14 April 1995? I never believed Bear Lincoln did it. My theory is Tony Craver’s brother, Jason, was the one who shot Davis.

    Jason Craver may have been backing up Deputies Dennis Miller and Bob Davis when the deputies opened up on Bear Lincoln and Leonard Peters — presumably upon hearing a gunshot.

    Did a trigger-happy Jason Craver fire first? Then disappear into the night?

    During the Internal Affairs investigation, Jason Craver was quick to jump from the MCSO to Sonoma County SO. He was allegedly “disappeared”. I’ve heard other MCSO deputies didn’t want to work with him.

    Tony continued to cover for Jason. Now they both live in Garden City, Idaho.

    Keep in mind, an innocent Covelo resident was also killed that same night — Leonard Peters. He was a shy, easygoing Pomo man who was not carrying a weapon at the time of his death. Peters didn’t even own a rifle. And he was “night-blind” according to his wife.

    Second question: Who killed dispensary owner Les Crane in his Laytonville home just after 2 a.m. on 18 November 2005? The murder is still unsolved.

    The working theory is Crane refused to pay protection money to Tom Allman who was Tony Craver’s alleged bagman at that time. The only witness to Crane’s murder said Crane’s killers “looked like SWAT”.

    Masks. Tactical pants. Danner tactical boots. The whole kit.

    I’m still researching both deaths — Deputy Bob Davis and Les Crane. Please contact me, care of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, once you relocate to your new home. The publisher has my email address.

    Much respect,

    John Sakowicz, MCSO, 2000-2004

    • Bruce McEwen October 23, 2021

      Mr. Sakowicz, a bore of international repute, has, to my mind, pretty well, with the above tedious recital of his own conspiracy theories, outdone himself.

      How in the world could this young rookie, Trent James, who has probably never heard the Bear Lincoln legend, know any of the particulars? Supposing any officers with knowledge — that is to say evidence — about the case Sako waxes so psycho about — well, OMG do you really think they would have shared it w/ a newbie, a cop new to the force?

      Is it possible that Saco, the celebrated radio personality, can be as big an eejit as Jemmy Marmon (who has his own idiotic agenda of personal axes to grind at Mr. Trent James’ expense), huh?

      • Marmon October 23, 2021

        My goal is to clean up that courthouse, right now it’s probably the most corrupt in history. With Jeanine Nadel now as presiding judge it’s going to only escalate.

        The presiding judge is the judge in charge of a particular court or judicial district. If there is a panel of judges, the term refers to the senior active judge. The presiding judge manages the courts, assigns cases to other judges and specialized courts, oversees the court calendar, and can decide cases.

        I know that the Flatten team was very concerned and even alledged that the judges in Mendocino were conplictit in covering up abuses by Mendocino County law enforcement. Jeanine Nadel is in Carmel Angelo’s back pocket.

        Marmon

      • Stephen Rosenthal October 23, 2021

        Best writing you’ve done in a while, Mc. Good on ya.

  4. George Hollister October 23, 2021

    Mike Delbar: “However, the trajectory upon which Congressman Huffman is proceeding to tear down Scott Dam, and with it destroy Lake Pillsbury and eliminate the water supply, is extremely short sighted. It will decimate the economy and with it the livelihoods of over half a million people. And what is truly baffling is that most of these folks are his constituents!”

    This is an ideological crusade for Huffman, and the economy of his constituents, or who he hurts, or how many fish he kills is not a concern. Huffman’s initiative to remove Scott Dam, and drain Lake Pillsbury is his version of “we have to destroy the village in order to save it”.

    • Ryan Webb October 23, 2021

      And this is continued gaslighting by ag interests, that want someone else to pay for their water supply to:
      A- Blame Huffman and Enviros for PG&E’s decision to rid themselves of two uneconomical concrete liabilities in the middle of the Eel River
      B- Pretend dams are good for fish

      Smart readers should understand this as little more than ag interests attempting to spend your tax dollars to continue to support them using more water than exists in the Russian River. This is the local equivalent of wealthy almond growers in the central valley demanding the State and Feds to build more north state water storage, “for the benefit of fish”. I smell a rat.

      • George Hollister October 23, 2021

        Smart readers also know that the deliberately unfunded, NMFS requested, fish study would help clarify what the various options would have on fish in the Russian, and Eel rivers.

        • Harvey Reading October 23, 2021

          I suspect that plenty of studies have been completed in the past showing Eel Water belongs in the Eel, not in the Russian to be squandered by grape farmers and wine factories. I mean, for crissakes, it’s a no brainer, which should be right up your grape-farmer-lovin’ alley. No clarification is needed. The farm boys and girls are just trying to put off the inevitable, by playing stupid word games to delay the process.

          • Harvey Reading October 23, 2021

            Fortunately for you diversion-loving dummies, the US is a plutocracy. Those with the most money determine what happens. The good thing is, the plutocrats will become extinct along with rest of us. In the end, their bunkers and rocket ships will do them no good at all. Enjoy an eternity, of nothingness, coming to your neck of the woods, much sooner than anticipated by the oligarchs.

        • Ryan October 23, 2021

          There are at least two options, extinction and not. I see pretty clearly which way you are leaning.

  5. Betsy Cawn October 23, 2021

    I have to wonder what similarities there might be between the Mendocino and Lake County Sheriff’s departments in terms of unethical practices and the leadership impacts on recruitment and retention. Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin has described the extreme shortages of personnel that result in his moving patrol deputies into critical positions (such as dispatch and jail operations), as part of the reason we have such limited field service capacity. As it is, illegal cannabis operations proliferate alongside “commercial” grows with permits granted “early activation” status — allowing the unchecked development of water supplies that interfere with adjacent resources, and intrusion of unprofessional roads that destroy natural drainages and increase fire risks. Mr. Marmon, if you have a way to contact Mr. James would you be so kind as to ask him to comment on our situation, please?

      • Betsy Cawn October 24, 2021

        Thanks, Mr. Marmon, I did subscribe but see no mechanism for adding comments. Lawlessness in Lake County and our bedazzled Board of Supervisors must make the Sheriff’s job doubly frustrating, given the stupidity of recent years’ legislated “leniency” toward “petty” (non-violent) crime and the lack of staff.

        • Marmon October 24, 2021

          Open a video and scroll down to comments, you may need to pause the video if you just want to comment.

          Marmon

        • Marmon October 24, 2021

          Lake County’s DA’s office has Bruce Smith working as an investigator. He is named in the Racketeering lawsuit in Flatten et al. vs. Smith et al. Apparently all the rumors going around throughout the years might be true. Dirty cops everywhere.

          Marmon

  6. Harvey Reading October 23, 2021

    END OF AN ERA:

    Technology stumbles on, or is it back?

    Here in the center of WY, a state with only one area code (307), I need only dial the 7 digit number for any call within the state on the cell phone. That might not work if my location was close to a state border, near the boundary of a different area code.

    The land line, which I only use for non-toll calls within the “local” calling area, which is tiny, requires the usual 1 plus the area code for long-distance dialing, even if that area code is 307.

  7. Joe October 23, 2021

    Anyone who believes Biden is running anything has rocks in their heads.

  8. Jane October 23, 2021

    If you would like to express your displeasure at his apparent abandonment of the 2-basin solution, Huffman’s phone: +12022255161

  9. Joe October 23, 2021

    The only reason there are 8 billion humans on the planet is the availability of inexpensive fossil fuels.

    • George Hollister October 23, 2021

      The potato had a lot to do with it, too. But, you are right. Our economy functions on inexpensive fuel. The finer things in life that we take for granted depend on it. Fertilizer for low price food production depends on it. Heavy equipment that improves efficiency depends on it. Our freedom to travel affordably depends on it. Etc., Etc. With the Industrial Revolution came the use of coal. Firewood, animal power, and human power went away, at least in the West. Who wants to go back? I mean, really.

      • Harvey Reading October 23, 2021

        Go back? There will be no going back. We WILL become extinct. We have plundered and wasted our way to extinction.

    • Patrick A. Kittle October 23, 2021

      Right you are, Joe.

      The ability to determine the location of oil miles under the bottom of the ocean is truly impressive, never mind the ingenuity required to extract, refine, & deliver it. Of course just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should do it.

      That brief black gooey cornucopia in the grand flow of time allowed foolish humanity to quickly metastasize from less than a billion to 8 billion, with billions more on the way.

      Is it too late to fix without the historical constraints — famine, disease & war?
      — [ https://npg.org/ ]

  10. Harvey Reading October 23, 2021

    ED NOTE: I mostly agree with Delbar.

    I mostly don’t. Let the people move somewhere else, to places with naturally occurring, adequate water (if they can find one in this severely overpopulated country). Or quit breeding. These droughts are only going to get worse, because our kaputalist rulers aren’t gonna let guvamints do anything real in terms of slowing catastrophic climate change. I got quite a kick out of the optimistic ones reading their rain gauges yesterday…by the way, what’s the Sierra snowpack prediction…?

    Don’t worry, be happy, eh?

  11. Marmon October 23, 2021

    RE: INFLAMMATORY ‘NEWS’

    “Representative Swalwell is calling for an end to the kind of dangerous hate-inducing vitriole that Carlson spews out almost every day”

    Tucker Carlson averages 3.2 million viewers each night. Out of that 3.2 million viewers only one allegedly made a threatening call to Swalwell and for that Carlson needs to be shutdown, taken off the air, and cancelled forever?

    Tucker has taken over 1st place from Sean Hannity as the most watched prime time news show. Isn’t that cause for celebration?

    Marmon

    • Harvey Reading October 23, 2021

      “Tucker Carlson averages 3.2 million viewers each night.”

      Proving that there are an awful lot of dumbasses in the country. And that’s just one nooze show. How many read the Noo Yawk Timz? The Washingmachine Post? And all the other wealth-owned propaganda outlets? How many lies do they tell us about this virus, just to get us all warmed up for a war with those “evil” Chinese, when the real enemies are right here at home, counting their billions?

    • George Hollister October 23, 2021

      It is not exactly a news show, inflammatory, or otherwise. Calling Tucker Carlson a news show would be like calling the AVA Editor Notes news. Of course commentary hiding as news is also at CNN, MSMBC, NYT, etc., etc.

      • Harvey Reading October 23, 2021

        Dream on, dear boy. Have your fantasies if you must.

    • Harvey Reading October 23, 2021

      It’s OK, dear boy, you make lots of mistakes. You should stop relying on lunatic-fringe think tanks as sources.

  12. Craig Stehr October 23, 2021

    Looking forward to seeing Betty Ball again at the MEC on Saturday, after a long long long time. Oughta be an epic reunion for all. ;-))

    • Craig Stehr October 23, 2021

      WHOA! WHOA!! WHOA!!!!! I JUST SENT OUT A HUGE NETWORKING MESSAGE ON BOTH FACEBOOK AND GMAIL ABOUT THE BETTY BALL VISIT AT THE MEC IN UKIAH, INFORMATION WHICH I READ ON THE AVA ONLINE EDITION TODAY. A FRIEND ALERTED ME TO THE FACT THAT THERE IS NO SATURDAY OCTOBER 25TH! IT’S EITHER SATURDAY OCTOBER 23RD OR MONDAY OCTOBER 25TH. WHAT_THE_F*CK??

      • Professor Cosmos October 23, 2021

        It happens to all of us at 7 decades.
        I need a calenders or my phone to get me oriented to time, which in fact doesn’t exist!
        At some point, the Mahamantra will go silent on its own, the timeless zone then your new abode. Happened that way with Papaji, and when he told Ramana, Ramana realized Papaji had realized his essential nature.
        Assume for now it’s Saturday and get your umbrella and rain boots ready…it’s an hour away for event start.

        • Craig Stehr October 23, 2021

          Please know that I walked to the Mendocino Environmental Center located at 106 W. Standley Street in downtown Ukiah, California at 6PM on Saturday October 23rd, 2021. It is closed. There is no posted flyer in regard to an upcoming potluck-reunion with co-founder Betty Ball, supposedly taking place on Monday October 25th, 2021 between the hours of 4 and 8PM (according to the MEC Facebook page). End of message.

          Craig Louis Stehr
          October 23rd, 2021

          • Bruce McEwen October 23, 2021

            Dude, sue the bastards!

  13. Bruce McEwen October 23, 2021

    THE OLD CHISLOMN TRAIL

    Well I headed up the trail October 23rd
    headed up the trail with a Houston herd.
    On a $10 horse and $40 saddle
    I started out punching those long-horn cattle,

    Come a ki-yi-yippi-i -yippy-ay
    Come a ki-yi-yippy-yippy-i

    With my seat in the saddle and hand on the horn
    I’m the best old cowboy ever been born
    Cloudy in the west, looking like rain
    and my danged old slicker’s in the wagon again!

    Wind began to blow, rain began to fall
    and looked like we might lose ’em all–
    no chaps, no slicker and it’s pouring down rain,
    I swear I’ll never ride heard again.

    (chorus)

    Well I’ve lamed my horse and don’t know how
    punching these long-horn Texas cows
    So I went to the boss gonna draw my roll
    but the boss had me figured $9 in the hole!

    (chorus)

    Me and the boss, we had a little spat
    and I hit him in the face with a 10 gallon hat
    Boss said to me, I’ll fire you!
    Not only you but the whole danged crew!

    (chorus)

    I’ll sell my horse and I’ll sell my saddle
    and you can punch your own long-horned cattle,
    #@&^$@+!)(&^%$#@$%^&
    @#()(&%E&$_—#$IO*!&^@67890-=1/

    by John Waynne

  14. Craig Louis Stehr October 23, 2021

    For the moment, I’ve contacted both the MEC and Larry Sheehy (who is close to the MEC historically) on Facebook, and reported the problem. This will have to do for now. ;-))

  15. John Sakowicz October 24, 2021

    I’ve had it with Bruce McEwen. When did a cynical, cranky, old drunk ever contribute to the greater public good, much less solve a crime, much less a murder?

    When did mockery, and contempt, and snarkiness, ever substitute for civic duty?

    You can take your condescension and shove it.

    I care passionately about the deaths of three MCSO deputies. — Bob Davis, Brett White, and Eric Gore. I am joined by many other people who are concerned about public corruption, especially in law enforcement.

    Regarding Bob Davis, if Bear Lincoln didn’t shoot Davis — Lincoln was acquitted — then who did? Why weren’t the ballistics matched up to any gun?

    According to Sheriff Tuso, Davis was “hit by gunfire from a second, unseen person, who fled into the night.”

    A second, unseen person who fled into the night?

    How convenient! If that person wasn’t Deputy Dennis Miller, was it Deputy Jason Craver who was backing up Davis and Miller?

    In the alternative, Miller killed Davis.

    Davis could have been killed by one of Deputy Miller’s bullets, as Miller sprayed fully automatic M-16 fire and simultaneously fell down. Wildly firing the M-16 on full automatic while falling down is in the incident report.

    Miller only changed his initial story after tests proved Leonard “Acorn” Peters’ gun had not been fired that night.

    Repeat: Had not been fired.

    Yes, Miller changed his story. Several times. After saying Peters shot first, Miller said Peters never shot. Later, when speaking to internal affairs investigators, Miller embellished his story. He claimed remembering seeing two men on the road, but said he lost sight of the second man. Changing his story a third time, Miller said the second man was Bear Lincoln.

    None of it adds up.

    The MCSO only covered for Miller. They were forthcoming about nothing. “Round Valley Indians For Justice” had to sue even to get autopsy reports.

    Concerning, the alleged suicides of Deputies Brett White and Eric Gore, a credible source told me that then-Sergeant Shannon Barney made both 911 calls. According to the source, Barney was actually in White’s house when Barney called.

    What a coincidence!

    Eric Gore, meanwhile, was allowed to bleed out after he shot himself. Gore could have been saved, but someone in a command position made a bogus call that Gore’ had a bomb.

    More than a hour passed before the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad arrived on scene. (MCSO had no bomb squad at that time.)

    And, of course, no bomb was found.

    Why would Barney want White and Gore dead? Because they were all at the center of a wife-swapping scandal that we now know was unequivocally substantiated in Deputy Jason Cox’s lawsuit, the settlement terms of which remain sealed to this day.

    Conspiracies?

    I think not.

    The Forest Club calls thee, Bruce McEwen, so have another drink and step aside. Cold cases get solved all the time, and good cops, like Trent James, solve those cases.

    John Sakowicz

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