Press "Enter" to skip to content

Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Oct 20, 2015

* * *

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT HEADLINE announcing that a "Mendocino County Prison Guard" is back in jail after violating his probation suggests that the guy worked for the Mendocino County Sheriff at the County Jail. He didn't. He worked for the state at one of the Mendo fire camps. The Press Democrat took the story down from its website early Tuesday morning. Here it is in its pathetic entirety:

A former prison guard from Rohnert Park who served a six-month jail term for filming a teenage family member with hidden cameras in her bedroom and bathroom is back in custody.

Todd Morrow, 45, is being held without bail after his arrest last week for an alleged probation violation.

Morrow is accused of violating his release conditions by posting on Facebook, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Staebell. Detectives are looking into other possible violations, he said.

Morrow, who appeared in court in a blue jail uniform, denied the allegations. A hearing is set for Nov. 12.

The former California Department of Corrections guard was sentenced in March to six months in jail after pleading no contest to child pornography and peeping charges.

A probation report described an elaborate surveillance system that he installed, including a “pinhole” camera in a TV cabinet in the victim’s bedroom. Wires were discovered running to a computer router mounted on the garage ceiling, the report said.

A cellphone camera believed to have been used in the bathroom was also found in the garage, along with three other pinhole cameras and a radio receiver, the report said.

Additional holes were located on the girl’s bedroom wall and under a smoke detector that had been modified to accept a camera, the report said.

Detectives searched the equipment and found more than 8,000 images apparently taken by a surveillance camera, including pictures of the girl without a shirt on and of her drying off after a shower, the report said.

Morrow told probation officials he had a longtime porn addiction that ruined two marriages. He said he decided to film the girl after seeing her partially undressed when she showed his wife a sunburn.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4635912-181/former-mendocino-county-prison-guard

* * *

AV SOCCER PANTHERS BEAT LONG TIME RIVAL ROSELAND PREP!

by Coach Steve Sparks

Following a somewhat tumultuous couple of weeks that saw various players missing for reasons that should not happen, not to mention a morale-sapping 0-3 home loss to rival Calistoga, the season moved on last week with two home games with the whole squad.

First was the match against Rincon Valley last Wednesday, October 7, at Tom Smith Field. The Panthers had dominated the earlier encounter and this was no different. However, AV’s recent tendency to create but then spurn far too many chances continued in a game that was extremely one-sided in possession. Goals from Chirro Tovar, Christian Guerrero, Carlos Hernandez, and Gerardo Torales took care of business in a 4-0 victory, but such wastefulness in front of goal would not go unpunished against the better teams in this division. Perhaps the best being Roseland Prep, who came to the Valley two days later with a current league record of 11-0.

This game was a part of AV’s Homecoming festivities, and was potentially a match that would go a long way in deciding the league’s regular season winner. The Panthers were finally at full strength and the practice on the previous day focused on this big match. Both teams play with an attractive, fast-paced, high intensity style and the large and noisy crowd approaching 100 fans were expecting to see all that is good about top quality high school soccer. They were not disappointed.

The game began as it was to continue with both sets of players closing down the opposition upon any loss of possession and some crunching tackles flying in all over the field, not to mention the high level of skill on display. AV was on top in the early stages and broke the deadlock in the 19th minute when Gerardo Torales won the ball in midfield, shrugged off a couple of challenges, and sent a defense-splitting through-ball for the speedy Chirro Tovar to run down the center of the field. With two defenders nearby, Tovar timed his run perfectly and burst past both and, with the defenders in hot pursuit, closed in on goal before calmly placing the ball wide of the exposed ‘keeper into the corner of the goal from 15 yards out. The huge roar from the home fans showed how much this game meant. AV had a confidence boosting 1-0 lead.

The rest of the half was a cagey, intense, yet very entertaining game with half-chances created by each team without unduly challenging either of the goalkeepers. However, the AV coaching staff was concerned at half-time with the ability of the Knights to quickly counter-attack. With a narrow lead there was no need to be caught out in this way and this was stressed to the Panther players, and reminded of the season’s earlier match when AV held a 1-0 lead at the break only to concede three goals in the opening 15 minutes of the second half in a 4-2 defeat.

A significant amount of this consternation was removed in the 54th minute when Fernando Ferreyra received the ball just inside the Roseland half following the breakdown of a Panther attack. As the Knights streamed out on defense, Ferreyra drove the ball forward on the ground through their back line. Chirro Tovar was slow to get back onside but very smartly made no move towards Ferreyra’s pass and was thus not offside. Instead, it was Tovar’s fellow striker David Eligio who ran through from an onside position to latch on to the pass and take the ball to the edge of the Roseland penalty area before, as Tovar had done earlier, place the ball wide of the advancing ‘keeper into the net as the Panther fans went wild with delight on the sidelines. 2-0 to AV and all of those one-on-one drills that Tovar and Eligio had worked time and again had paid off big-time.

Roseland tried to bounce back but with AV’s back four of Omar Mendoza, Abraham Sanchez, Ulises Garcia, and Carlos Hernandez playing very well, the visitors could not break through, and even when the wings were breached the several potentially dangerous crosses were dealt with very capably by Panther goalie Isaac Sanchez. In the 62nd minute the Panthers virtually clinched the game when Christian Guerrero’s corner pass was met on the volley by Fernando Ferreyra seven yards from goal and his ferocious first time blast gave the Roseland ‘keeper no chance. 3-0 to AV. The Panthers continued to fight for every ball and maintained possession for much of the remaining time, so Roseland’s dreams of an unbeaten season came to an end, along with their impressive record of having scored in every game so far.

At the final whistle, the joy on the faces of players, coaches, and fans alike was something to behold. Several parents hugged me. A couple of regular supporters asked why the Panthers can’t produce this kind of performance in every game. I could only answer that better coaches than me were continually trying to come up with the solution to that predicament every week, in every sport, at every level.

With four regular season games to go, AV remains in third place, behind both Rosalind and Calistoga, whom the Panthers visit next Wednesday, October 28th. If AV wins all their matches they could still win the league title and clinch a very high seeding for the play-offs. Meanwhile, there is a home game today, October 21st, at 4pm against Upper Lake before the team finishes with three road matches. The first of these is this Friday, October 23rd at fourth-placed St Vincent’s where AV has not won in four attempts since the Mustangs joined the league in 2011. Surely it is time to put that unsatisfactory record to rest!

The players and I hope to see a good crowd at our final regular season home game today. Your support at the matches is much appreciated and vociferous home crowd support is probably worth a goal a game! Hope to see you there. Come on you Panthers!

Current record (Won/Loss/Draw): League: 9-2-1. Overall: 12-2 -2.

* * *

34TH ANNUAL CHESTNUT GATHERING

On Saturday, November 7th the Chestnut Festival and George Zeni Memorial Potluck will be held at the Zeni Ranch from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine. There is no fee to join the celebration. The Zeni’s 100+ year-old dry-farmed seedling trees are a testament to the sustainability of tree crops. Pick your own fresh chestnuts off the ground for $3.50 lb. De-burring the chestnuts on the ground is easier with good boots and gloves.

Schedule of Events:

  • 10:30-4:00 Chestnut gathering and roasting chestnuts over the open fire
  • 11:00 Tour of the ranch by the Zeni family
  • 12:30 Potluck and music, show and tell of local self-sufficiency
  • 1:00 Discussion on what this year has taught us; the drought; the best fruit and nuts
  • 2:00 to 4:00 Chestnuts, music, taste the harvest

Please bring: Potluck dish (oven available), made from local ingredients if possible, and bring your cup, plate, napkins and utensils.

Your wine, fruit, nut, or vegetable harvests to show us what works for you. Demonstration tables will be available.

Cuttings of fruit plants to share: this is the beginning of the season to start cuttings of some easy-to-root hardwood plants. Starting early means no inputs except the rain. Bring labeled, de-leafed cuttings (leave the leaf stem on) of these plants: olive, grape, fig, pomegranate, quince, mulberry, kiwi, goji, currant, gooseberry, cherry plum, roses.

For more information about the Zeni Ranch, see their website: zeniranch.com Driving directions to the Zeni Ranch at 30995 Fish Rock Road at mile marker 15.6 (County Highway 122): From the Coast Highway 1 junction of Fish Rock (5 miles north of Gualala) go 15.5 miles east. From Highway 128 the Fish Rock Road junction is at Highway 128 marker 36.56, about 7.7 miles east of the Highway 256/128 junction, or 4.7 miles west of Yorkville. Take Fish Rock Road about 13 miles to marker 15.6. Using odometer and mile markers, it's an easy and enjoyable slow drive through a most beautiful and very remote part of the county.

For more information call Mark Albert 462-7843, Barbara & Rob Goodell 895-3897, or Jane Zeni 895-2309.

Mendocino Permaculture will also bring you the 2016 Winter Abundance Workshop - Scion and Seed Exchange on Saturday, January 30, 2016 at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. It’s our 33rd annual plant lovers day, with free scions, free seeds, free classes, and rootstocks and lunch for purchase.

* * *

APOLOGIES to two dead men, Larry Blackshear and Jason Blackshear. We confused the two last week in the big hed on the front page. Larry Blackshear was the Philo musician who moved to Oakland and was soon murdered in his Oakland home by a burglar. Oakland PD, for once, caught the killer who was duly packed off to the state pen. Jason Blackshear was, one might say, a Fort Bragg blackguard who may or may not have been deliberately choked to death by a Boonville native, James 'Red' Kester. Kester was convicted of second degree murder and is presently living out his days in state prison.

* * *

RUMORS wafting out of Philo say that the Philo Mill has been sold, and an application for a rezone from Industrial to Commercial has been filed. The parcel is five to six acres of flat land, and had lasted as long as it did as a mill on the off chance a viable timber industry might one day return to Mendocino County because it would be impossible to start a mill from scratch in the prevalent political climate.

* * *

RE: MRC Timber Harvest Plan #M612T, off Masonite Road, Navarro, a reader writes: "My brother just pulled onto the job a couple of days ago, and promised to get back to me with some more specifics. So far, he says that nothing but good is happening out there. Of course, I wouldn't expect anything else coming from him. He told me that it's definitely a fire suppression project going on out there, and that they have more planned for the future if this one works out okay. I'm not sure if they're doing strips or blocks, apparently the project he's on now is over 625 acres and runs along a ridge. He said that the strip or block is about 600 feet wide, not 80 feet like I first reported. He also told me that there were several top CalFire executives on site last week observing and taking pictures of the operation. My brother says that it 'looks like a freaking park out there.' Nice to hear that they are masticating instead of using poison (hack and squirt). He said it's a pretty clean operation that primarily targets the oaks and underbrush. Some logs are being harvested but it is not a 'clear cut' project. I would love to get a look at it, but until then I'll have to rely on my brother's observations. If all is true, their foresters deserve a big thumbs up. There is no sense in taking the chance of letting all that timber burn up if it can be saved and responsibly harvested someday. Too bad that MRC has to be so secretive about everything they do. 'Kick 'em when they're up, and kick 'em when they're down,' I guess. They're certainly using both backwards and forward memory on this one.

(Update, Sunday afternoon) Due to fire danger, mastication has been halted until it starts raining again. It makes sense, those giant grinders spin at an astonishing rate of speed and can cause sparks when they hit rocks. Fire season is still here guys, be careful. Shutting down the masticator for a few days is really using some good forward memory. Red Flag warnings this week, high fire danger."

* * *

THE SUBJECT came up on our website when a couple of people wrote in with harsh words about Marin County in general and San Anselmo in particular. I should say when print ruled I had the great joy of arguing with random people in print every week about all kinds of things. The print ava has become much less combative than it used to be because no one except Gordon Black wants to fight. Herewith I announce my intent to get in at least one on-line beef every day.

* * *

SAN ANSELMO. I'm now a part-time resident of San Anselmo due to circumstances beyond my control. I can also say it's got to be the most boring town in the world, but maybe that's just me. Going to SA for a few days every week is like shoving oneself into one of those wall beds in Japanese airports. But just down the road, in Fairfax, there's a lot of regular people, and a lot of nuts, and a lot of Section 8 housing. Marin is tricky, though. Yeah, there are a lot of rich people in the hills living in vulgar, over-large houses filled with a lot of tasteless crap inferior to garage sales, but there are even more people a pay check away from the streets, as there are everywhere in our doomed land. San Anselmo is home to lots of young people with children. The schools are supposed to be good. Maybe they are, but standards are so low who can tell? On closer inspection, the young people I've gotten to know are often living in modest houses they inherited from their parents or grandparents, and those parents and grandparents were from a time when all of Marin, except for Ross and Belvedere Island, was home to ordinary working people with ordinary incomes. In 1950 you could buy a house almost any place in Marin for twenty grand. Or less. San Anselmo, though, is hot and quiet, like a back ward somewhere. Walking its silent streets you get the feeling everyone is just behind their window curtains trying not to scream. Boonville is much more interesting, and Mendocino County is positively thrilling.

* * *

ON SECOND THOUGHT…

Just In from Fort Bragg's Special Projects Manager

Hello,

The regular meeting of the Coast Action Group for Homelessness & Mental Health issues (CAG) scheduled for Tuesday, October 20, has been canceled. Future meetings are on hold for an undetermined period as a core committee of regular attendees evaluates the most efficient and beneficial way forward to address Homelessness and Mental Health issues on the Mendocino Coast. We will provide an update to this mailing list if and when future activities and meetings of this group are scheduled.

Jennifer Owen

Special Projects Manager

City of Fort Bragg

* * *

CATCH OF THE DAY, October 19, 2015

Blackwell, Brunelle, Creed
Blackwell, Brunelle, Creed

ERIN BLACKWELL, Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

MAJARA BRUNELLE, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public.

WALTER CREED, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

Gouber, LaForce, Lucas
Gouber, LaForce, Lucas

JACK GOUBER, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

GEORGE LAFORCE, Ukiah. Domestic assault.

MICHAEL LUCAS, Ukiah. Interfering with business, parole violation.

McCutchan, Pelkey, Piloto, Thompson
McCutchan, Pelkey, Piloto, Thompson

JASON MCCUTCHAN, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

MICHAEL PELKEY, Fort Bragg. Petty theft, probation revocation.

GREGORY PILOTO, Denver/Willits. Drunk in public.

DAVID THOMPSON, Hopland. Drunk in public.

Roediger, Taft, D.Vela, P.Vela
Roediger, Taft, D.Vela, P.Vela

GENE ROEDIGER, Willits. Possession of controlled substance and paraphernalia, suspended license, probation revocation.

JEREMY TAFT, Willits. Drunk in public.

DANIEL VELA, Oakland/Redwood Valley. Pot possession for sale, sale, transport, furnish.

PABLO VELA, Oakland/Redwood Valley. Pot possession for sale, sale, transport, furnish.

* * *

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Somehow it keeps chugging along. Bottom line is America just has too much dead wood. Realtors, accountants, lawyers, salesmen, brokers don’t create value. They leach off of those that do. Until that mindset is changed America is doomed. America had its heyday 1950’s and now we’re coasting into mediocrity. We coast until it stops. Then a dictator comes along and kills everybody and we start anew. No one stays on top forever. We’re not hungry anymore. Plus we’re sloppy and pretty stupid too. We’re drugged out of our minds. When I listen to the ads on TV today I know I’m in Bizarro World. Boner medicine. Lawsuit invites. Get rich quick schemes. We’re becoming Bizarro World, not 3rd world.

* * *

ROMAN LYLE ELLIOTT

1996 - 2015 Obituary Condolences

Roman Lyle Elliott 19 was born on 9/11/96 and was called back home by our Father in Heaven on 10/9/2015. We will all miss Roman very much. He will be remembered most of all by his bright smile that he had and his big heart. Roman loved his people and was very proud of his Native culture. He was a Pomo dancer and claimed all Natives as his cousins. He was also a member of the Victory Outreach Church where he gave his life to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As a young boy Roman was a model for Macy's and Mervyns clothing lines. He graduated high school here in Ukiah and had plans to attend Haskel Indian College in Kansas to pursue a career in Culinary Arts. We Love you Roman. Roman is survived by his Father Orval Elliott Jr. and his wife Diana Billy-Elliott, Mother Marian Muniz Brothers Christopher Elliott Sr. 34, Emilio Elliott Sr. 32, Orval Elliott III 28, Russell Elliott 21, Jose "Hands" Lopez 19, Roger Gorrin Jr. 37, Gilbert Gorrin 35. Sisters Marina Elliott 17, Angela Garcia 15, Uncles William Elliott Sr., Roger Elliott Sr., Ernest Elliott Sr. Brent Lockhart, Keith Pike, Aunts Merlene Sanchez, Pamela Zaste, Alice Bacera, Ada Elliott, Angela Elliott, April Tovar, Lanita Elliott, Tuesday Jack, Jane Elliott, Wilma Elliott, Darlene Lockhart, Melody Lockhart Numerous Nephews, Nieces and cousins. A viewing will start on Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 3:00 PM at the Hopland Rancheria Gym a Service will be held Friday, October 16, 2015 a 7:00 PM viewing will continue until the Funeral Service on Saturday, October 17, 2015 at Noon. Burial will follow at the Rancheria Cemetery. Arrangements are under the direction of the Eversole Mortuary.

* * *

CAN’T ANYONE FIX THIS?

by James Kunstler

The legacy mainstream media has a collective brain like a dog’s — it exists in an eternal present, so that whatever’s happening right now is all there is. Thus, Hillary’s performance in the first Democratic debate, being as bad but not worse than her competitors, means she has a lock on the nomination for president. The better part of a year lies between now and the convention, and time would be on the side of whatever force or figure rises to oppose the woman whose “turn” in power rides a myth of inevitability.

What perhaps ought to be more alarming is the way that the two major parties are lining up to be a men’s party and a woman’s party, a perfect acting-out of psychological archetypes in a society churning out millions of lost souls year-by-year. The American people apparently want a Daddy to fix all the broken systems and they want a Mommy to reassure them that everything will be all right. Hillary, of course, wants to be both, but her problem is that a lot of voters won’t accept her as either.

Her record doesn’t suggest she’s much good at fixing anything. That’s why the Benghazi affair is such a good stick to beat on her with. That was a moment when America needed a Daddy with a toilet plunger or a screw gun and all they got were cables from the home office saying everything was going to be all right. Mommy couldn’t save the Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans slaughtered there. The big pretense, of course, is the idea that congress holds hearings “so something like this will never happen again.”

It’s an interesting neurosis we’ve developed since the heyday of the assassinations in the late 1960s, this continuing promise to abolish the unforeseeable. Of course new atrocities happen all the time despite these ritual committee inquiries — these days, the mass murder of strangers is more in fashion than targeted political slayings — and there’s always another incident, and it ought to be obvious by now that we’re not so good at making sure that bad things don’t happen.

But that’s the Republican-controlled Benghazi Committee’s mission: to demonstrate that Mommy can’t fix stuff. It will be easily left to Hillary herself to prove that she’s not much good in the Mommy role either — reassuring the multitudes that everything’s going to be all right. Instead, Hillary falls back on an obsessive-compulsive pander tic, kind of an incessant hash-tag jabber of promises to the familiar cast of supplicants. Give it twelve months and see how sick of it the voters will get.

To see how much the Democrats have become the woman’s party, just consider the men candidates up on the debate stage: all pitiful archetypes. Bernie Sanders plays the meshugganah grandpa role reserved, on the screen, for Larry David or Alan Arkin. He’s always worked up about something that nobody else can really get worked up about, always raising his voice and stabbing his finger in the air in imitation of Yahweh. There’s Jim Webb, a bobblehead rattling off long legalistic disquisitions that never get to whether he can fix something or not. There’s Martin O’Malley, known primarily for his “six-pack” and “guns,” but with the persona of a frightened seven-year-old who doesn’t want to rile the teacher. And Lincoln Chaffee, a dizzy neighbor like Kramer in Seinfeld, butting in with cockamamie schemes that demonstrate he can’t fix anything.

Is it not amazing that the Democratic Party could not grudge up one figure really worth taking seriously? To me, this is truly symptomatic of how bereft of significance the party is. I’m not so sure the party will survive this election cycle. But the disorder across the gradient is equally impressive. The large Republican field of professional politician candidates is held in such bad odor as far as being able to fix anything, that the sinister clown Trump is able to put over his idiotic act of being a Daddy who can fix everything and anything, just by blustering. I suspect he’ll wear out his welcome — but if he doesn’t the Grand Old Party is showing serious signs of a serious crack-up.

Whoever gets elected in 2016 is going to face a crisis every bit as terrible as the crisis of 1860, only this time when the country blows it could come from a dozen different directions and be a lot harder to fix than the secession of Dixieland.


The third World Made By Hand novel is available !! (The Fourth and final is finished and on the way — June 2016). “Kunstler skewers everything from kitsch to greed, prejudice, bloodshed, and brainwashing in this wily, funny, rip-roaring, and profoundly provocative page- turner, leaving no doubt that the prescriptive yet devilishly satiric A World Made by Hand series will continue.” — Booklist

* * *

THE DEMS’ PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES: UNDERWAY & UNDERWHELMING

by Ralph Nader

Who thought this up — Giving a private corporation (CNN) control of a presidential debate? In the most recent Democratic presidential debate, CNN controlled which candidates were invited, who asked what questions, and the location, Las Vegas — the glittering, gambling center of America. This is a mirror image of the control Fox News exercised during their Republican candidates’ circus. Corporatism aside, the debate with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee was not a debate. With few exceptions — most notably Hillary Clinton going after Bernie Sanders on gun control, about which she is reborn — the stage was the setting for a series of interview questions to each candidate by Anderson Cooper and his colleagues.

Granted, the quality of the questions was higher than has been the case with other debate spectacles in recent years. Yet CNN’s self-censorship — in part reflected in the content of the questions and the favored positioning given to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders — was not obscured.

For example, our country has been plagued by a corporate crime wave from Wall Street to Houston. These crimes are regular occurrences, often with recidivist corporations such as giant oil, drug, auto, banking, munitions producers, and mining companies corrupting our politics. Such chronic violations are reported more often than they are properly prosecuted.

Corporate crimes affect American as workers, consumers, taxpayers, and community residents. Unfortunately, corporate criminal law is woefully weak, prosecutions are minor, and enforcement budgets are scandalously tiny. Moreover, corporate lobbyists ensure that corporate privileges and immunities are preserved and expanded in corporate-occupied Washington DC.

Somehow, in presidential debate after presidential debate “corporate crime and punishment” or “law and order for corporations” almost never get mentioned either by questioner or candidate. Bernie Sanders — break this taboo in the next five scheduled Democratic debates.

Another perennial omission is the question of how the candidates plan to give more power to the people, since all of them are saying that Washington isn’t working. I have always thought that this is the crucial question voters should ask every candidate for public office. Imagine asking a candidate:: “How are you specifically going to make ‘we the people’ a political reality, and how are you going to give more voice and power to people like me over elected representatives like you?” Watch politicians squirm over this basic inquiry.

The most remarkable part of the Democrats’ “debate” was how Hillary Clinton got away with her assertions and then got rewarded — though not in the subsequent polls, but by the pundits and malleable critics like the Washington Post’s usually cynical Dana Milbank who fell very hard for the Clintonian blarney.

Well-prepared and battle-tested in many political debates, Hillary knows how to impress conventional political reporters, while limiting their follow-up questions. She started with her latest political transformation early on. “I don’t take a backseat to anyone when it comes to progressive commitment….I’m a progressive.”

And the moon is made of blue cheese. Hillary Clinton, a progressive? She is the arch Wall Street corporatist, who hobnobs with criminal firms like Goldman Sachs for $250,000 a speech, and goes around the country telling closed-door business conventions what they want to hear for $5,000 a minute!

As a senator, she did not challenge the large banks and insurance companies whose avarice, willful deceptions, and thefts set the stage for the economy’s collapse in 2008-2009. In fact she supported Bill Clinton’s deregulation of Wall Street with its resulting painful consequences for single mothers and children who suffered the most from the deep recession.

A progressive would not have waited year after year, while receiving the entreaties of women’s and children’s assistance groups to endorse a modest minimum wage to $10.10 per hour over three years by her own Democratic Party in Congress. She finally took the plunge and endorsed it in April 2014, during a speech to the United Methodist Women in Boston. If the Democratic lovefest were a real debate, Bernie Sanders, who voiced domestic progressive positions all evening long, would have intervened and sent her packing. What everlasting hubris do the Clintons exude! (See Peter Schweizer’s new book, Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped make Bill and Hillary Rich. Harper Collins, 2015)

As an embedded militarist, during her tenure as Senator and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton never saw a boondoggle, obsolete weapons system, or boomeranging war she didn’t like. She delivered belligerent speeches against China, and scared Secretary of Defense Robert Gates by overruling his opposition through her White House contracts to overthrow the Libyan dictator. This illegal war opened up the savage chaos, bloodshed, and havoc in Libya that continued to spread into huge areas of central Africa.

Hillary’s war didn’t seem to interest anyone on stage except former Senator and Governor Lincoln Chafee (D-RI) — an anti-war stalwart — who was promptly marginalized despite making much sense in his brief declarations.

Senator Bernie Sanders missed opportunities to highlight Hillary Clinton’s true corporatist and militarist identity. Most unfortunately, she placed him on the defensive with the socialist/capitalist questioning. Next time, Bernie Sanders should tell the millions of voters watching the “debates” that local socialism is as American as apple pie, going back to the 18th Century, by mentioning post offices, public highways, public drinking water systems, public libraries, public schools, public universities, and public electric companies as examples.

He then could add that global corporations are destroying competitive capitalism with their corporate state or crony capitalism, despised by both conservatives and progressives.

There was one question — “which enemy are you most proud of?” — that Hillary Clinton did not anticipate and had about a minute to ponder. Her answer: “Well in addition to the NRA, the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the Iranians.” Iranians? An entire people, her enemy? Is this what her self-touted, foreign affairs experience has taught her?

For more information on what debates could be, visit www.opendebates.org.

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!

* * *

THE GHOSTBUSTER POLE

by Spec MacQuayde

Three hippies linger in the former dining room of the Farmhouse, lounged on sectional sofas and recovering from the first annual "Rakefest" Friday night. It's now Sunday afternoon, the clouds finally breaking after three days of breezy rain, temperatures in the fifties.

I guess the frigid precipitation warded off attendance for the one-night event, as folks assumed the stage would be outside. Others were paranoid the sheriffs would raid the party due to the recent mistaking of our row of okra plants for marijuana and the subsequent searching of the property. No, we renovated the interior of the house with a woodstove raging in the basement, having knocked out the walls between the dining room, kitchen, and the hardwood dance floor in the music room. We had to keep the place cozy on account of the rotating brass pole suspended between the tongue & groove oak floor and a rafter in the ceiling.

"A Ghostbuster pole!" screamed Jetta's 3 year-old son when he first saw it, clutching the brass. I guess he watches that movie nearly every day. "But it's supposed to go down to the basement!"

"Yeah, still working on that. Guess we got to cut a hole," I said, thinking it wouldn't be a half-bad idea in some ways because part of the reason we knocked out the walls was to expose the chimney and let more heat up into that front room, which is on the north side of the house.

On the posters and fliers that floated around local bars and liquor stores we'd advertised "Pole Dancing" as well as "Bar-B-Q." The plan was to butcher about a dozen of the meat chickens in our backyard coop, the Red Rangers we'd ordered this spring from the Murray McMurray hatchery in Iowa. I'm really impressed with these birds, as they have grown quickly while turning our lawn into a golf course, the back yard into a putting green lined with feathers and bird shit. I've tried the standard white meat birds before, the retarded hybrids that sit around all day and will die of thirst if the water dish is ten feet away, and wanted a bird that could fend for itself in the semi-wild. We have about thirty roosters ready to butcher, but that action never materialized prior to Rakefest. The job of replacing walls with beams, opening up the house for the stage, turned out more challenging than expected since local tweakers helped themselves to my cordless drill, skill saw, and the plug from the end of the sawz-all cord. I know it was crank heads in the case of the stolen sawz-all plug because they conscientiously wrapped the fuck around the bare wires exposed so nobody would get electrocuted by the power tool they'd rendered temporarily useless.

On Thursday afternoon Jetta hollered at me for about half an hour from the shower, I guess, while I piddled around separating our four Boer goats from four pigs. She'd just dyed her hair a more neon lavender and was in the middle of rinsing out the dye when the water quit. "Spec MacQuayde!" she was screaming when I returned to the front door, walking past the brass pole, past the newly-exposed brick chimney, and down the hall. Her eyes were closed, this dye running like half-blue blood down her skin. "There's no water pressure! I'm blind!"

"OK just a minute." At first I thought the water line leading to the pigs and goats had busted out again thanks to the vigorous rooting of the pigs near a minor leak on a plastic coupler, so I shut off the whole deal out there, thinking I'd solved the problem. My friend, Hippie, showed up with the three pilgrims who still linger in our former dining room. They were ready to help set up for the big fiesta. I guess we got distracted building a bonfire out back, so when I once again returned to the house Jetta was still blind, screaming.

"The water's not working! I can't see a fucking thing!"

After fidgeting with the cord to the pump for a spell, I decided to heck with that and dipped a five gallon feed bucket in this stock tank that actually houses a snapping turtle my son caught in the river a while back. Jetta managed to more or less rinse the dye out of her hair and eyes in the frigid water.

Oh, man we got two days of cold rain ahead, the outhouses a hundred yards away, I thought. People were calling, texting, showing up. I had no idea why our pump quit working, though suspected the little box regulating pressure had shorted out, judging by a blazing arc I noticed while fidgeting more with the cord. All night, once the crew of pilgrims (most of whom have been in Mendo from time to time) finally subsided from their obnoxious revelry, I tried to sleep, considering duct tape over the toilet, or nailing the bathroom door shut. I also worried about the last, longest beam in the front room we still hadn't installed. No cordless drill or power saw, we would have to go old-school. There was more to worry about, still. Since we'd advertised "Pole Dancing," Jetta and I had done some research at a club called "Night Moves" in Bloomington, a fairly classy place haunted mostly by dorky economics professors and college girls. I enjoy the ambiance there, not really so much interested in lap dances and such, actually preferring the place because nobody comes up to me with all the "Hey what's up, buddy?" type shit. If I go with Jetta the girls don't even talk to me. They're smart enough to dance for her, instead. About midnight, though, I grew bored of the whole scene and was ready to get the hell out of town.

"But Skittles wants to smoke some hash with us when she gets off work!"

"Who cares? She's just hustling you."

Naturally Jetta took offense to the notion that some chick would be working her over.

"That's what they do!"

Still, I guess Jetta and Skittles had exchanged numbers, so they texted later and we offered Skittles a sum of cash to dance at Rakefest.

"Cash up front? And you give me a ride?" she texted back.

I agreed, so that meant that Jetta and I would have to leave the farm and drive clear up to Bloomington Friday afternoon to pick up this nebulous babe who I didn't remember, one more reason I couldn't sleep. With three dogs, several kittens and cats, and a nocturnal rooster outside, not to mention alcoholic hippies crashing in various rooms, sleep is a precious commodity. In the morning after bullshitting around with everyone we tore into the pump situation, discovering happily that the old wiring had simply fried, an easy fix. Once the water ran again, one of the crashing transients helped install the last beam across the gap between rooms. All that done, Jetta and I were ready to go pick up the dancer from Bloomington, except Skittles didn't wake up until after two p.m., and it turned out she was crashing in this tweaker shack about half an hour to the north and west of Bloomington, the opposite direction from the Farmhouse. "No way we'll be able to pick her up and get back before the music starts!"

We didn't realize it was a tweaker shack until showing up. You can tell the difference between straight Christian republicans who mow their lawn like a crew cut, hippies like me who don't really care if a few weeds grow up around the barn, and tweakers who straight don't give a damn about anything, just by the appearance of the yard. This yard, strewn with debris, reeked of the latter. Still, we'd driven all this way. Turned out that the young blonde, Skittles, had allowed some dude to take off with all her dancing clothes, she said, so we would have to meet him at the K-Mart parking lot in Bloomington. "He's my Teddy Bear," she told us, as the fellow turned out to be a young, plump dude with glasses and a nice car.

"I like being late for my own party," I said, trying to break the ice as we drove through town. The back window of my Ford Ranger still hasn't been replaced since my son and his buddies busted it out with a johnboat in the spring, and with the cold rain, Skittles complained of cold from our lack of a back seat, stretched out on a pillow. I sort of wished Jetta would sit in the back, switch places with this dancer who was gonna be working her legs all night, but didn't want to suggest that as it might sound awkward. Skittles was hungry, she said, and I thought about the chickens we'd never butchered or barbecued as we stopped at Wendy's in Bedford where it took half an hour before the girls could get served. I sat in the truck and glared at an unopened beer can thinking shit at least I'll be sober for the set I was gonna play at 9 or so with Derick Howard and Picker Dan. "I like being late. It'll be like we're on tour, on our way to the next gig, everybody waiting for us. The first band will already be playing when we get there!"

Sure enough, by the time we showed up at the Farmhouse, James Lane was playing, the sound system set up all over the house, basement, and back yard, disco-like lights flashing in the music room. The Kenan Rainwater Band took the stage, killing it. Late in the set, he started encouraging Skittles to get on the pole and dance, for crying out loud. She complained that the pole needed to be cleaned with rubbing alcohol, so we poured a little moonshine into a pint jar, dabbed it on a white towel. After that the pole didn't spin freely enough, said Skittles.

"Somebody needs to put some WD-40 on that pole or loosen it up at the top, or something," said Kenan between songs. "I wanna see some dancing!"

"Jeez, Skittles, nobody cares if your act is perfect. Just get up and dance!"

She got out and did some half-assed moves for part of a song, donning one of Jetta's jangly belly-dancing bikini outfits. Apparently she hadn't needed those dancing clothes, after all. Kenan left the stage during the guitar solos and cut the rug with her while his band played -- he's a pretty suave character with that sort of thing. After that, Skittles basically changed back into blue jeans and sneakers, a T-shirt, and sat on the sofa texting her "Teddy Bear", I guess, because he soon showed up. All week Jetta had been worried that the dancer would come down to the house and steal the show, but Skittles was gone before the White Lightning Boys even took the stage. "I'm worried about my cats," she said. She'd also stated on the way home that she'd only tried crank once and not liked it.

Never mind the non-dancer, Jetta wore a black shawl and gradually warmed into dancing for an audience for the first time, generating some long-awaited cheers. Who knows, without the stripper stiffing us, maybe she would have been too shy. She danced all night, as did some other women who'd actually paid to get into the show. Of course a bunch of guys, including me, had to try the pole. It seemed to spin just fine for us amateurs. By the time Derick Howard jammed along with the rasta-style rapper, R-Juna in the wee hours approaching dawn, we all agreed there'd been no need to hire a dancer in the first place, as well as agreeing that Derick and R-Juna should play together more often.

Sometime Saturday afternoon Jetta woke up with bruises on her thighs from hanging upside down on the pole, her arms and legs incredibly sore, "like after the first day of volleyball practice," she said. The hippies had cleaned the house, separated the recycling, made breakfast, and drank all my beer. Rain still drizzled, the trees waving at us from outside the windows. The former owner of the house showed up with some chicken he'd barbecued on a spit at their new pad in the village of Verona, and we made plans to butcher chickens and bring them over to his place for the party at the pioneer festival, Old Verona Days, in a couple weeks.

* * *

JOHN CHAMBERLIN POSTER ART SHOW AND SALE

A benefit for Mendocino Coast Children's Fund and MUSE (Mendocino Unified School Enrichment program) featuring a comprehensive exhibit of 40 years of John Chamberlin's creations will fill the Odd Fellows Hall Gallery from December 4 through 13. John's art was part of Mendocino culture since he first arrived in 1969. After John died in 2013, at his memorial person after person expressed the desire for a chance to see his work collected, shown and available. Now the community will have that chance. It's a perfect time and place to pick up some special holiday gifts! After the gallery show closes, all of John's original art will be given to the Kelley House Museum to be stored in their archives. On Friday and Saturday evenings, local musicians will be playing acoustic tunes in the second story of the gallery, a perfect place to hear acoustic music. Richard Feinburgh, Lenny Laks, Frannie Leopold, John Bush, the Random Holler Jug Band and Pattie DeMatteo will all be playing, along with many other local favorites. Odd Fellows Hall is at Kasten and Ukiah Streets, Mendocino, and the gallery is open from Friday December 4 through Sunday December 13. Gallery hours are 12 - 6 Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and12 - 9 on Friday and Saturday evenings. Music starts at 7:30. Come see a treasury of art, hear the best music, stroll down memory lane and contribute to our children's artistic and musical futures. Call 472-7960 for more information.

Pattie DeMatteo

* * *

HITLER FOR PRESIDENT (from an anonymous reader in Occidental)

HitlerPR

* * *

SALMON AWARENESS FESTIVAL CREATES EXCITEMENT AND RAISES CONSCIOUSNESS

The Eel River Recovery Project (ERRP)partnered with the Round Valley Indian Tribes (RVIT) to host the 2nd annual Round Valley Salmon Awareness Festival on Saturday, October 17, under the old growth oak tree canopy at Hidden Oaks Park in Covelo. The Saturday public education event was preceded by an education day at Round Valley Elementary School, where experts presented to students.

The outdoor education fair included new posters and handouts regarding agricultural best practices in the Eel River watershed and experts were on hand for discussion and presentations. Soil productivity specialist Noah Cornell did a compost tea demonstration, which is a way to inoculate soils with microbes that feed plants. If you have a large garden area and limited access to organic material to make compost, you can use a small amount of compost to make a large volume of tea.

Anna Birkas, of Village Ecosystems, was on hand to talk to people about farm management that conserves resources, avoids waste and even enhances the amount of water stored in the ground and available to streams as base flow during summer. She talked with attendees about roof rain water catchment, installation of grey water systems, and how to avoid concentrating water flow where it drains from rural properties or roads.

Information tables for other ERRP projects included water temperature, flow, algae and fish monitoring. Jeff Hedin, who chairs the ERRP Wilderness Committee, was on hand to discuss plans for expanding Wilderness in the East Branch South Fork Eel River. ERRP is facilitating purchase and transfer of a 4,000 acre parcel with old growth conifers and high biodiversity from private hands to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for eventual inclusion in Wilderness. Efforts are underway to have the EB South Fork designated as a Wild and Scenic River so further similar transfers can be facilitated. Protecting these areas in Wilderness will prevent their development, protect clean water supplies and provide refugia for fish and wildlife. For more information, or to learn about field trips, call Jeff at (707) 247-3030.

The traditional salmon feed was the highlight on Saturday, with fresh salmon from the mouth of the Klamath River cooked on sticks surrounding an open pit. Also on the menu was corn, homemade beans, Indian fry bread and squash. Round Valley Tribal elder Ron Lincoln Sr. gave an opening prayer and then sang songs with his granddaughter, Hazel, and wife, Jacquelyn. The purpose of the songs was in part to bring on the rains that will bring the salmon home to Round Valley.

The education day at RVES included a visit from Laytonville Elementary School students, who brought their textile arts salmon banner to share. Kindergarten through second grade students paraded around the school yard as a salmon run while other students played vibraphones to create the sound of rain and running water. The project leader and textile artist, Dorje Bond, came with the students as did Laytonville Principal Lorre Stang. Students also learned about aquatic insects, sediment in streams, traditional ecological knowledge, water conservation, and watched underwater videos of Eel River fishes. ERRP has received a Mendocino County Fish and Game Advisory Commission grant to help teachers at RVES teach about salmon and river ecology. Students will take fieldtrips and become involved in monitoring the nearby Middle Fork of the Eel River. Anyone wishing to assist with RVES projects can call Bruce Hilbach-Barger at 983-6169.

For more information and access to additional educational materials, see www.EelRiverRecovery.org.

* * *

BOUNTIFUL MUSIC!

by Karen Rifkin

Accomplished musicians from near and far will be gathering on a stage at the First Presbyterian Church of Ukiah on Sunday, Nov. 8 at 3 pm for an afternoon of eclectic sound featuring classical and contemporary compositions performed by orchestra members and friends as a benefit fundraiser for the Ukiah Symphony Association. Cellist and Symphony member Joel Cohen has organized the fundraiser, and will be performing classical and Celtic music with violinist Tammie Dyer. Well-known local performer, teacher and pianist Elizabeth MacDougall will play one contemporary and one classical piece. The Brasstastics, a group of Ukiah Symphony brass players, will also play two contemporary pieces. And violinist Dennie Mehocich with pianist Paul Shrage will perform Joseph Haydn's Piano Concerto #3. Board president Jean Stirling explains the need for a fundraiser. "The association has had a very small but supportive group of long-term sponsors and loyal patrons. We pay up to $3,000 per concert to rent the venue at the college and to use a variety of their equipment... We are committed in continuing to bring high-quality musical performance to the area." The First Presbyterian Church is on the corner of Dora and Perkins Streets in Ukiah. Tickets are $25 for adults; $20 for seniors; $5 for children and students with ASB cards; and $35 for family tickets (2 adults and 2-3 children). Tickets are available at Mendocino Book Company, 102 South School Street, Ukiah or at www.ukiahsymphony.org. For questions call 462-0236.

* * *

WOWSER!

The huge fundraiser is being spearheaded by the parents and grandparents of the youth we have served, because they love the results.

We did not initiate the fund raiser on the 24th.

The Lions club is hosting a BBQ, there are free booths for vendors, music, and a live and silent auction.

We have business plans. Many versions. They show projections. They, like all plans are pie in the sky numbers.

If people are interested enough they want to see a business plan, tell them to talk to us that kind of interest might have someone who may actually want to help out.

If people cannot see what we have already done, with so few dollars and people, I do not know if they will ever be convinced.

The skills it took to put something like this together can speak for us.

We did not talk about it, we did it, we made a space, and we worked with people.

This started out as a Maker Space for existing makers and some classes.

We instead saw a different need.

The need to help people make lives that worked.

Those were the people that came and stayed.

Those were the people we started working with, because what they wanted/needed was not happening anywhere else. No one was turned away for lack of money, this was not a good business model, we quickly saw that the people who needed our help the most did not have the money to support this.

Or, people came in and they saw this was such a non-conforming out of the box idea they were not supportive (or at least the people and agencies you have heard from).

We worked tirelessly with an expert consultant to come up with our sustainability plan, and worked on our own selves to become better humans. The quality and skills of our board and advisors are amazing. You are right, there are people who we make uncomfortable. We are doing something different. We did not play the game of asking first and doing things their way, we just did it.

We are just people trying to help the community we chose to live in who happen to have some extremely skilled makers as the part of we. .

The people we work with, the ones that get the most benefit from Wowser, have the least voice.

I heard our program need to be formalized. The 72 classes we held this Summer, the 64 that would have been offered right now? What program has to be formalized in a membership space? Fund-raising? Dog and pony?

Our 'program' is simple, each one teach one, or two or three.... Share knowledge, mistakes are ok (as long as safely done) that is a learning point. We ask, what they want to make, and work from whatever level they are at. And, let them know its ok to experiment with different media, to explore and figure out what resonates with their person.

The grandmothers took up the flag of the fund-raiser:

One sheepishly brought her grandson here, when we had the free summer sessions for members. (on a membership drive of $4.44 per month payments). She was worried about the cost; she was worried her grandson would not want to be here. She was worried because he was not interested in anything and did not want to go to school, only play video games. We talked to him; we put him in charge of the bikes. How do you explain that in a plan? How can you plan that that would work? We have to think on the balls of our mind and watch and listen. That is all we do. The bike area, it’s messy there, but he is growing in confidence, and self-motivating to keep the area neater, because he is in charge. He is finding out that putting tools back makes them easier to find. He is finding his center and what he will be. It’s about just letting kids be people, and keeping the one rule, safety. It's not safe to be around tools if you are angry and not able to focus. It's that simple, and it works. It's telling him he is not just modeling behavior for himself, it’s for the adults that are here too, because sometimes they try to cut safety corners and we can't allow that here. He is on his way to being the maker of his own life.

The other grandmother was worried about her grandson when he was not interested in school. He has been here since before we opened, helping with the pre-build out; scraping the walls and cleaning and building an unusable space into a Maker Space. Learning how to build things. We told a contractor about him, he got his first job. He loves to build things; he was amazed we found a server for him when he wanted to make a Mind Craft server. He saw that we listened and responded to what he said. He had a space to try out his ideas. He built both things that worked and some that did not. He learned because he wanted to. His grandmother said she did not know what we did but she is really happy with the results. And, that she wanted to do this fund raiser. He just finished making a second German Wheel. Because he could. Because he has learned how to be not just a construction worker, but how to design something and make it real. He is now a maker.

This is not a band aid, this gives our kids and community a real chance to thrive, and it happens because they experience it is their choice on how they get there. We now are seeing parents and grandparents who knew whatever it was we did worked.

If you have seen the community this now is, you would know you can't make that happen in a plan, it has to be organic. That took time.

Young people know when something is not real. The kids we work with know we are real. How do you write that up to someone looking in from the outside?

This works for people who choose to be here because they sense there is something here, they might not know what, but they 'get' that something is here for them.

This does not work because it does not make enough money off the people mentioned in the "It's all about" part; at least not until they can start selling what they make. Then they will make their own money, grass roots style.

This would work if enough people actually come here for classes and to be members. This would work as we produced our revenue producing items off the drawing board and into production.

This would work as more people have successes and choose to help other people. This would work if the agencies that are there to 'help' the people we work with help keep us going. We are out there, we build big crazy things to get kids engaged in wanting to learn.

Whatever happens from here on out, we built it, and we will always have the experience of the lives we were able to touch.

Yes, we were angry at first, just like going through the stages of a death, this was our baby, we could not understand why more people did not 'get' it.

We are just people with all the flaws and warts any people have. The difference was we did something about what we believed in, and it was working. The difference is we have been working on our core team as well. Wowser is a work in process, so are we, every day all the time we are becoming better at being human.

One member just told me Wowser is like Cheers without the alcohol, but I get what she meant, it’s like a home away from home, a safe place to just be.

Who is this for?

It's about people, it’s about one of the above kids bringing in money from the job he has now saying here, take this to pay off some of your bills.

It's about the one staying up all night after working all day making dream catchers to sell to help Wowser stay open.

It's about the kid who couldn't go to college because he has to work to pay his mother’s mortgage and making shields he can sell to try to keep Wowser open.

It's about the same kids mother, who is remembering who she is and that she has talent to work with and self-motivating on getting her life back together.

It's about the disabled woman who works making jewelry during the four good hours she has each day to sell to keep Wowser open.

It's about the one who was date raped and working at building things to get through the pain.

It's about the girl who has to watch over her family and try to keep the violence down and this is her respite.

It's about the homeless girl who did not have anywhere to go because she was afraid of physical harm if she had stayed home.

It's about the kid who has no friends because he is different in some way.

It's about someone rebuilding their life after a horrific accident and relearning how to be ok with themselves and sharing the skills they forgot they had.

It's about the kids who spend the night under the bridge because their parents don't want to drive to get them in town.

It's about all the things people pretend do not happen because if they did they might have to find a way to deal with it.

It's about human dignity. It's about relearning how to be in community, and how much we have to share with each other.

It's about all of us, the humans of this society that are working through life and finding a place where they can be safe.

It's about people doing something from their hearts because it is the right thing to do.

Wowser was a building that had been empty for many years, we built out the space and asked people one by one "What do you want to build" and found ways to empower them to build their lives.

— Cyndee Logan

* * *

WILD MUSHROOMS, HAPPY HOSTS:

Heritage Luncheon offers fall bounty

A delicious and relaxing afternoon of local culture and conversation will be on offer at the 6th Annual Heritage Luncheon, taking place at the Mendocino County Museum on Saturday, November 7 from 1 to 3:30 pm. Guests will be served a lunch of tasty mushroom dishes, local meats, cheese and produce, along with frolicsome wines and frisky beers. Expert speakers will be on hand to share their knowledge about cooking with fungi, winemaking and the advent of beer-brewing in the county, including Merry Winslow and Alison Gardner, authors of "The Wild Mushroom Cookbook," and Mark Beaman, Associate Winemaker at Mendocino Wine Company. Guests will also be able to view the Museum's collections of historical equipment, from a complete still to the first wine-bottling machine in the county. Tickets are $35 and all proceeds support Museum exhibits, events and educational programs. For tickets and more information, visit www.MendocinoMuseum.org This event is part of Mendocino County's annual Mushroom, Wine and Beer Festival, with tastings, tours, classes, special menus and more, taking place throughout the county November 6-15. For more information and a downloadable brochure visit visitmendocino.com/event/mushroom-wine-and-beer-fest/ The Mendocino County Museum is at 400 East Commercial St. in Willits and is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 am to 4:30 pm.

Roberta Werdinger

Writer, Publicist, Editor

RWerdinger@Yahoo.com

* * *

KACHINA DOLLS by Eagle Peak Middle School 5th grades

First Friday Art Walk

Friday, November 6th, 5:00-7:30pm

Join us for a creative and delightful display of Student Art. The 5th grades of Eagle Peak will share the Kachina Doll they made as part of their study of Southwest Indian culture.

Also enjoy hands-on crafting of Leaf Suncatchers.

Relax with Folk Music duo Twining Time and yummy treats from Mama’s Café.

The Friends of the Ukiah Library Book Sale will be open from 4:30 - 7:45pm on Friday and from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm on Saturday.

* * *

THE DRONE PAPERS: Killings and Whistleblowers"

On KMEC Radio -- MP3 link

Hello friends:

Here's the link to today's show with Ray McGovern: http://www.kmecradio.org/a/21804/

We explored a few of the legal issues regarding drones and "remote killing", including the following: the President's broad authority for remote killing; the rule of law and the unconstitutionality of remote killing and military commissions; standards for the use of lethal force; procedures, coordination, and review; the internal decision-making process at the White House; the killing of noncombatants; the killing of U.S. citizens; and the notable lack of external oversight, especially Congressional and judicial oversight.

We also discussed the role of whistleblowers in bringing drones and illegal remote killing to light.

Another fine interview with Ray. Thank you, Ray.

— John and Sid at KMEC Radio

20 Comments

  1. Mike October 20, 2015

    “by James Kunstler

    The legacy mainstream media has a collective brain like a dog’s — it exists in an eternal present, so that whatever’s happening right now is all there is. ”

    Whatever is happening right now IS ALL THERE IS, LOL. Such a simple thing, yet Mr. Kunstler fails to relax with that I suppose. Yes, the “past” is a “now” happening as is the never existing future.

    Perhaps Mr. Kunstler meant to highlight the need for the media to provide in depth historical context, in the NOW? That right there is indeed where we find ourselves seriously malnourished by our daily cable news feedings.

    And, yes oh yes, we are also malnourished by the bland selections offered to the voter in the Dem nomination race. (Bernie’s got some good energy, and intentions, but Hillary’s ideas on college affordability and other issues are actually better and more creative and don’t entail a massive tax and spend operation.)

    But, this reincarnated storyline (which in 1964 had the Birchers, and Barry Goldwater trying to torch Big Government and the frightening “others”) is something Mr. Kunstler sees playing out in the NOW of the near future like the 1860 storyline.

    That scenario does have a limited reality. As the imaginative content taking shape in Mr. Kunstler’s “mind”. And, even in other people’s minds. (I saw many folks post on social media that a civil war would be coming shortly after Obama’s far reaching order protecting “illegal” immigrants from deportation threats and being granted protection instead—–frankly speaking, the popcorn I had bought for THAT show has long gone stale.)

    We’re just playing out old storylines here. The quiet people always end up voting and the crazy, loud trippers end up in the freak show entertainment section of the circus.

    Sure would be nice if the quite grownups out there (no, not exactly Nixon’s Silent Majority) had more of a choice offered to them.

    But, with Bruce Anderson clearly warming daily to first “Hill” and now “Hil”, and showing signs of finally POSSIBLY considering going to one of Val’s swinging parties, it seems like people may warm up or re warm up to Hillary Clinton. Two new polls out today, check them out on realclearpolitics. She’s leaving Bernie and Joe way behind now.

    Problem is……and, hopefully upcoming polling will show changes on this too…..”Hil” isn’t doing so hot against potential Rep opponents. Joe and Bernie seem to do better!

    • Harvey Reading October 20, 2015

      My opinion is that reading the likes of Kunstler, one of the current gods of the pseudolibs, is a total waste of limited time.

      • Bruce Anderson October 20, 2015

        Kunstler is one of the few zeitgeist writers around. Industrial civ is crashing, and he describes the crash is vivid prose. Matt Taibbi is another zeitgeist guy. I can’t think of another one off hand.

        • BB Grace October 20, 2015

          Peter Joseph? Zeitgeist was very popular within the Ron Paul rEVOlution as Ron Paul’s campaign and Zeitgeist nearly came out together in 07. By the beginning of Ron Paul’s second campaign ’12 (or is that actually third?), Zeitgeist was debunked and the Hunger Games began, though I think the Atlas Shrugged movies (still waiting for part 3) were more popular for being visionary.

  2. Mike October 20, 2015

    On September 30, 1794, President George Washington mounted a horse. And, began leading an army of 13,000 guys to collect taxes by force, including lethal force if necessary, from American whiskey making citizens in Pennsylvania.

    Should we be using flying horses today? Instead of these perhaps more technologically feasible drones? (Which do the necessary work pretty well by all accounts……..The international organizations monitoring all of this have numbers to review here, helpful in providing some comparison to past methods with much higher carnage tolls.)

  3. Bruce Anderson October 20, 2015

    I wouldn’t vote for Hil if I was waterboarded. I expect, as always, to be voting Green for president.

    What’s wrong with “tax and spend?’ Why shouldn’t the wealthy pay their fair share of the common burden? America would be a much less violent, far less dysfunctional country if we enjoyed a level of European-like amenities. Free education through college, single payer health care, guaranteed housing, free day care and so on, once Americans had it all, and all of it funded by a fair system of taxation, the rightwing and corporate shills like the Clintons, would never be able to unravel it. The political right called Roosevelt a communist and “a traitor to his class” for enacting social security and for supporting a tax system that whacked the big incomes at 90 percent, and the rich these days whine about less than 30 percent, if that. Roosevelt also instituted a public works program and generally saved capitalism from itself. The right has been trying to undo social security ever since while the Clintons undid Wall Street regulation with the roll back of Glass Steagell. Democrats are merely the softer side of the reigning duopoly.

    • Mike October 20, 2015

      I agree completely with single payer, guaranteed housing, a basic assured living income, etc. And, the overall safety net assurances those countries have set up. And, I think those George Wallace supporting blue collar guy types, some of them flocking to Trump today, are the same people that are or can be attracted to the messaging of a Senator Sanders and Senator Warren. So, there’s an inevitable tsunami coming to set all of that up, if for no other reasons than the fact that the oligarchy recognizes that these bare minimum things (housing, health care, living income) better be provided are they are going to have a lot of deep puncture wounds from rusted pitch forks.

      I don’t think we need to go back to Ike’s tax rates, though.

    • Eric Sunswheat October 20, 2015

      What is, human overpopulation climate shift resources allocation and utilization.

  4. BB Grace October 20, 2015

    RE: ON SECOND THOUGHT…

    Translation: Now that Fort Bragg has a Hospitality Wellness Mental Health Management Housing Job Placement Rehab Center with off site soup kitchen, Parking, and ADA access, they have no idea what to do with it.

    But they sure let the people of Fort Bragg know what they really think of them when getting the Old Coast Hotel. Why would City Council want to meet the public when they made it clear that the people of Fort Bragg are a bunch of greedy selfish uncompassionate frauds with NIMBYtudes from deep rooted stigma against the homeless and mentally ill. Read the past Letters to the Editors of Mendocino Papers or just ask City Council or administration and friends in the County who LOVE Fort Bragg, and ironically, work hard to attract tourists to Fort Bragg, where Glass Beach is becomming remarkable for the strenuous enforcement of not having glass removed from the beach (old dump) and the Skunk Train doesn’t make enough runs to stay in business on the Coast (but then maybe that water contract from Willits LOL)..

    Anywhere else, folks would be happy to have glass removed from the beach, eh?

    Did Koch Headlands really need tons of asphalt to be called a coastal trail? Fort Bragg paved what could have been made into paradice and put up a parking lot with wrap around highway.. hey it’s big enough to bypass Fort Bragg. Hmmm. Maybe Fort Bragg City Council can do that when they tear Main Street up for next year’s tourist season?

    Well, this gets around the Brown Act better than anything.. cancel meetings, continue to do whatever, no worries about public.

  5. Jim Updegraff October 20, 2015

    All factors considered my vote would go to the Flat Earth Society.

  6. Harvey Reading October 20, 2015

    Re: SAN ANSELMO

    I find it humorous that a Marin County town, with a median income, around $90K+, about the same as El Dorado Hills is being defended and pictured as populated with people living paycheck-to-paycheck. Those are some pretty fair paychecks …

    • Bruce Anderson October 20, 2015

      You really ought to get out more, Harv. What do you suggest? Air strikes?

      • Harvey Reading October 20, 2015

        I wonder how many of those in San Anselmo who are poor-mouthing actually live in homes, fully paid for, that were originally purchased by parents, or grandparents, shortly after the “good” war ended, when housing in Marin was cheap. Well-off people often belittle their circumstances to those “beneath” them because they don’t like being hated.

        As to your condescending advice, I get out plenty and got out and saw plenty during my 52 years in California. You sound a little like an old sea captain for the war department whose wisdom appeared on these pages some years back.

  7. Jim Updegraff October 20, 2015

    If you eat high on the hog you live paycheck-to-paycheck.

  8. james marmon October 20, 2015

    RE: Catch of the day.

    It looks like another catch and release case with my cousin. I checked with the jail on their website and found that he was only held for a few hours and then released. The look in his eyes breaks my heart. I saw the little boy in his eyes, and I feel so so sorry for his dad.

    Where is Laura’s Law? Due to HIPPA laws, none of us (his family) have any idea as to if he is receiving any services or not. Our hands are tied here folks.

    He is not a transient, both sides of his family have lived in Mendocino County for several generations and have always been positive contributors to the community.

    We need the County’s help, but I’m concerned about that scenario too. He may need to be conserved, but I would die a thousand deaths just knowing that Bryan Lowery (Public Guardian) and Stacy Cryer (the now again mental health director), were making all the decisions regarding my cousin’s life. Especially if they’re relying on “Ortner only” for all of their information and recommendations.

    Ortner is a for profit agency and I’m sure that their recommendations are based on making a profit, and not what is always best for their clients. Lowery and Ortner just may feel that jail is the best thing for my cousin from a financial perspective only. That could save the County and Ortner thousands and thousands of dollars.

    Lowery and his staff have no mental health experience nor education. He staffed the public guardian’s office with some of his cronies from Family and Children’s Services and they are learning while on the run. They’re home grown and none of them have any professional degrees. They may be hard workers, and well intended, but that doesn’t make things right. I would look everyone of them in the eye and say the same thing, face to face.

    The Mendocino County Mental Health Program is really important to me folks, both from a personal and professional stand point. This is really a sick situation. I would love to be involved in my cousin’s treatment, if nothing more than just a liaison. He reached out to me on facebook a few weeks ago and that is really a good thing. I haven’t had contact with him in years. He knows that I’m a mental health expert and so he usually avoids or becomes confrontational with me.

    Jackie was the reason I chose Mental Health as my concentration (major) in the first place. I had plans to come back to Mendocino with my expertise and help him someday. At that time, 1993-95, Mendocino County Mental Health was under fire for several high profile lawsuits that were a result of several deaths in the community. The County was forced to spend big big money.

    I certainly hope that Carmel Angelo’s proposed audit provides us with some real answers to our current mental health system, and that we make some changes fast. Mendocino County needs to bring in some outside professionals who don’t have personal ties or loyalty to either one of the current ASOs (RQMC and OMG) or any of their subcontractors.

    Stacy Cryer taking over the helm at Mental Health is not enough, even though I think she will clean things up a little bit, I don’t think she’ll be able to take complete control and make the hard decisions, especially with Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb still at her side. Cryer doesn’t have any mental health education or experience either, she relies heavily on her top advisors. That’s the elephant in the room, her advisors.

    The big three don’t want to admit that they made some grave mistakes regarding the privatization of Mental Health services. The three of them will continue to spin the truth, just you wait and see. Cryer’s attitude through this whole thing is “we’re going to make this thing work, no matter what.” (Do or die)

    At what point does a this collaborative or community partnership become a conspiracy to bilk taxpayers of millions of Federal and State dollars? Where are the checks and balances?

    Groupthink exists here folks, the County needs a devil’s advocate in the mix if they plan on getting things even close to headed in the right direction, that devils advocate should be us, the public.

    Just going along with things is not the answer.

    I would have preferred to have written my concerns to the Board of Supervisors only, but I am prohibited from contacting any County official or Employee, including members of the Board of Supervisors. I have no other way to complain, but right here.

    James Marmon, MSW

    • BB Grace October 20, 2015

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_liability_company

      A limited liability company (LLC) is the United States-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that combines the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a corporation.[1] An LLC is not a corporation; it is a legal form of a company that provides limited liability to its owners in many jurisdictions. LLCs do not need to be organized for profit.[2] In certain U.S. states (for example, Texas), businesses that provide professional services requiring a state professional license, such as legal or medical services, may not be allowed to form an LLC but may be required to form a very similar entity called a Professional Limited Liability Company (PLLC).[3]

  9. Keith Bramstedt October 20, 2015

    Re: San Anselmo
    Bruce says San Anselmo’s “boring.” I’ve lived here 20 years, I’d never pondered the question before. I spend more time in Downtowns Fairfax and San Rafael than Downtown San Anselmo, because they’re more interesting. There’s not much in Downtown San Anselmo I’m attracted to: there’s one coffeehouse I like, the library’s nice. But the restaurants are too pricey for me, and the people are quite homogeneous.
    I haven’t lived in Marin for 24 years for the culture, I like it mostly for the natural beauty and surroundings.

Leave a Reply to Jim Updegraff Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

-