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Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016

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fairgrounds

THE ZINNIAS are up, the pennants are flying, the Fair Grounds are bustling — the best little country fair in all the land commences Friday in Boonville. The Boonville newspaper will display a photographic collage called “The Faces of Mendocino County,” and certain to be the talk of the weekend, if not a blue ribbon winner.

facesofmendothumb2

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TIE ONE ON at the County Fair in Boonville!

by Terry Ryder

This year for the first time ever apron wearers will be featured in the Fair Parade. If you have a frilly, silly, beautiful or ugly apron bring it to the Fairgrounds and tie it on and march along with other apron wearers. Don’t let the parade pass you by — this is the easiest way ever to be part of the festivities. If you want to really plunge into Apronland you can enter your group into the parade — final day for group entry is Thursday, September 15 — check in at the Fair Office. Beverly Dutra gave me a lavender print number with big pockets and eyelet trim that looks a lot like what my Louisiana grandma wore in her kitchen — so see you there!

The Fair Boosters, a group of people including but not limited to Jay Newcomer, Tim Bates, Barbara Goodell, Captain Rainbow, Robyn Harper, Donna Pierson-Pugh, Sophia Bates, Linda MacElwee, Andy Jones, and Morgan Baynham have been working all year long to find ways to increase participation in the fair and make the entry process easier. They also created some pamphlets for distribution at the Mendocino. Fort Bragg, Ukiah and Albion Farmers Markets. Working closely with Fair Director Jim Brown, his staff and the Fair Board they have pushed to get the word out for more entries. As you visit the Fair this year if you see more produce, more flowers, or a few new additions like the aprons in the parade and the apron contest they can be thanked right along with the hardworking Fair Board and Jim and his crew including new secretary Gina Pardini.

The Boosters have been fundraising all year to earn money to upgrade the computer system for entries. They have raised a substantial amount but still need $2500 to reach their goal. If you would like to help out there will be a donation jar near the apple tasting booth at the Fair. Every little bit helps and big bits help even more. The current computer system is perilously outdated and there is a really good program out there called “Blue Ribbon” that would really streamline the process.

“Fairy Tales” is the theme for floriculture this year so when you visit June Hall there will be some delightful and imaginative arrangements awaiting. When it is hot outside an escape into the Hall of Flowers which has a concrete floor that is wetted down regularly is the perfect antidote. Look for arrangements with fanciful names like “Cinderella,” “Puss in Boots,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” and “Sleeping Beauty.” Be inspired and uplifted by the beauty and resolve to enter an arrangement yourself next year. There is nothing like the thrill of anticipation as you step into either the Hall of Flowers, the Home Arts building, the Agriculture Building or the Hall of Fibers to see if YOUR ENTRY has won a ribbon. It is a guaranteed grin ear to ear when you see a ribbon hanging there.

Don’t forget to budget some time to sit in the Hall of Fibers listening to the spinning wheels whir, smelling the rich lanolin smells, hearing sheep baa as they are being shorn. Tied for most entertaining event in this building with the sheep-shearing exhibition is the Angora rabbit clipping by the witty rabbit man from Willits with his ponytail and turquoise jewelry collar. The Hall of Fiber is very much like a henhouse filled with contented women knitting, spinning, chatting, and weaving. Men and boys of course are very welcome. A calming environment if ever there was one. Check it out.

Also don’t forget to make it back to the rabbit and chicken judging area where 4H kids strut their stuff with their small charges. This is a great photo opportunity and one of the sweetest things to watch. You can hardly beat watching a little girl with a huge chicken under her arm for an “Aww, isn’t that the cutest?” moment.

The Fair is three days long and if you love the Fair and jump right on into it with your camera in hand you can fill three days with enjoyment, relaxation and appreciation for our leisurely rural lifestyle. Above all in the words of Jay Newcomer, “Don’t forget to get your corndog early while the oil is fresh.” Wiser words were never spoken. See you at the Fair!

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POINT ARENA couldn’t field a team last Friday night so the game with host Anderson Valley was a No Show. But this Friday night Laytonville is coming to town to take us on in the Apple Bowl Game, always a big Fair Weekend attraction. Kick-off at 7pm.

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DAVID SEVERN WRITES: Welcome to the kickoff for the new face to our Mendocino County Fair and Apple Show.

grapeshow

A few months back it was voted on and approved. Now it flies as a banner in front of the Apple Hall. For all these past years of the Fair we've had Apple Jack on a snorting bucking Bronco waving his hat like a real cowboy — and beer was our drink of choice. Now we have a so far nameless bunch of grapes riding a bull and holding up a glass of wine while doing so. Real cowboys drink beer but they don't do it on the back of a bronc. The pretension of wine is such that not only can you stop at up to 30 roadside tasting rooms and still get in your car to drive to the next but also climb on the back of a bucking bull that by the way has the same half-lit smile plastered on its face as its rider. To all my friends on the Fair Board, you good ol' boys, the Okies and Arkies and scattering of Prune Pickers with dirt under your fingernails and callouses on your palms: you're selling out. You're selling out to the rich Wall Street crowd who own 90% of Valley grape crop, get insanely high breaks on their property taxes and don't even live here. I beg that you might rethink your actions and stick to your true roots as real people and not cave to the pretense of terroir.

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YES, YES! Boonville's beloved community newspaper is also throwing its annual open house Fair weekend, which is next weekend, which would be the weekend that begins Friday the 16th of September. Stop by our new office in the middle of town. Can't miss it. A very cool industrial trailer set in a set of old fashioned macadam. Stop in and say Hello. Bob Dempel of Hopland was a recent visitor. Bob walked through the door and exclaimed, "By the goddess I think I've died and gone to heaven." Coming from Hopland, the old guy is easily impressed, but we're anxious to know what you think. Not really, but do stop in. We'll be laying out the Cheese Whiz and crackers on Saturday, but you're welcome any time all weekend.

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AN OPEN LETTER TO KENNY AND ALISON through Jim Shields, Editor of the Mendocino County Observer

The charge for the man who killed Kenny with one blow, while Kenny's thumbs were reportedly locked into his belt loops, has been reduced by the Mendocino County D.A. from murder to aggravated assault according to the Mendocino County Observer.

September 8, 2016

Dear Jim,

Thank you for listening carefully and respectfully to Alison and printing her side of the story of her son Kenny’s death. I hope that it will help justice to prevail in a world today where those with fewer resources must fight to get what is supposedly for all.

I am deeply saddened by Kenny’s death and the pain, anger, and numbness that Alison is going through. You are a journalism hero of mine in many ways, Jim.

I’ve known Alison and Kenny well since Kenny was 7 years old, and I knew them by sight before that when I saw single mother and artist/author, Alison, pedaling her only child, Kenny, on her bicycle down Highway 101 and along the streets of Laytonville. She wore a French beret, sometimes a cape, and had an infectious laugh which softened what I think of her usually stern and wary look, something I, too, wear on occasion. There is a lot to be wary of in this world, if one thinks about it. But it didn’t stop either of them from being engaged in life and thoughtful and kind to others.

I got to know both Kenny and his mother when he joined my 3rd-8th grade class at Spy Rock School and remained with us until graduating from 8th grade when I moved North and he went on to and graduated from Laytonville High School, shepherded by good friend Joanie and other friendly and caring high school teachers.

We stayed in touch after that, but with large gaps between meeting or writing.

Kenny was exceptionally caring toward others, in a quiet, sometimes unobservable way, but often hard on himself when things didn’t go the way he expected or wanted. He was a competent mechanic by the time he was 10 and he had a sense of humor that kept me laughing, often at difficult times.

“Why are you late?” I’d ask. He was 11 years old. “I couldn’t get the damn battery to start in our truck so had to push it uphill for a mile, through 4 feet of snow,” he replied. (This was true, but exaggerated.)

We used to have soup days on Friday when the kids made soup and bread at school and we ate it for winter lunches on the last school day of the week. On one of those soup days, no one would volunteer to chop the onions and I was ready to do it myself when Kenny said, “Oh well, Lu, I might as well do it. I need a good cry today! He wasn’t kidding and he found an acceptable way to have that cry he sometimes needed!

One day he showed up without his homework. I asked him where it was and he said, “We ran out of newspapers this morning and it was very cold so I used it to start the fire.” He was a charming rascal at times, but I believed him, mostly!

I, along with Spyrock parents who were some of the most dedicated and supportive I’ve ever known in my 50 plus years in educational settings, took the students to Washington D.C. for a week. On a visit to the Smithsonian, where I’d carefully paired the students and asked parents to chaperone small groups, I’d personally taken Kenny under my wing as I knew his proclivity to explore and absorb information he found interesting, sometimes oblivious to the needs of others, myself included. I lost him on the 5th floor, if my memory serves me, and searched frantically for ½ hour before finding him, pencil in hand, keenly observing a World War I or II display, sketching and writing. He looked not at all perturbed. I had traveled up and down the escalators from 5th to 1st floor and back, twice, maybe 3 times before I spotted him. I rushed over to tell him I was so worried that he was lost and I couldn’t find him and that I hoped he wasn’t upset about being lost.

“I’m not lost, Lu,” he said. I knew I could find you. This exhibit fascinates me! Thank you for bringing me here.”

And then there were the many falls before finally learning to ski on the trip we took to Truckee at Tahoe, thanks to Stacia’s and Michael’s hospitality. The grin on his face, in his yellow bib overalls, loaned to him by Ashlee, when he finally made it down the hill without a fall, I will remember forever! It is my favorite picture, next to my most recent great grandboy!

You are very much loved, Kenny. And Alison, thank you for sharing him so freely with us all when he was little, and teaching him to share himself when he was bigger!

Big tears are dropping on my keyboard, without the aid of onions.

One of Kenny’s many teachers,

Lu Pilgrim

Laytonville

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ESCAPING THE TEENAGE WASTELAND

by John Ulysses Keevan-Lynch

“Adults should face the fact that they don't like adolescents,” wrote Leon Botstein, president of Bard College, shortly after the Columbine school shooting in 1999, “and that they have used high school to isolate the pubescent and hormonally active adolescent.” Botstein believes that, as a result of this “isolation,” high school has become an institution far too separated from the real world (in terms of social realities and responsibilities) to be useful in teaching students how to prepare for it. In essence, students waste away their time dealing with the “poor quality of recruitment and training for high school teachers” and navigating “the tyranny of peer groups” until, one day, isolation ends. Then they enter the “real world” of college or work, and discover they were ill prepared: “too many opportunities have been lost and too much time has been wasted.”

Botstein claims high school should end at 16, not 18. He has been instrumental in the creation of several “early colleges” that target high school sophomores and juniors. For those not inclined towards college, but rather towards vocational training, he proposes that “we might construct new kinds of institutions, each dedicated to one activity.”

Now, 17 years after Columbine, others have developed more flexible institutions that facilitate escape from “the tyranny of peer groups” and the “isolation” from the real world.

At Ukiah Independent Study Academy (UISA), an alternative K-12 school, students spend only an hour per week in school. In that hour, they meet one-on-one with their teacher, turn in and receive a week’s homework, and ask questions. Then, they teach themselves, or can choose courses either online or from the nearby college and high school to fulfill graduation requirements. If an hour a week isn’t enough, there are opportunities for additional tutoring, especially in math, but students are transferred out if they don’t have the self-motivation to complete their homework (five hours a week per class).

Those who want to learn skills through internships or work experience have access to all of the district high school’s internship opportunities through partial enrollment (although access can be limited) and can capitalize on UISA’s efforts help students find the niche internships or work experience they want. In addition, UISA students can take advantage of opportunities lost to traditional high-schoolers because of scheduling conflicts. “We had a student who was interested in beekeeping,” recalls Holly Rodgers, “and so was involved through a work environment in learning how to be a beekeeper.” Another, mentioned by Moises Gonzales, the secretary and registrar of UISA, is “working with his father in vineyard management.”

Elsewhere, one may find education in technical skills through a specialized high school curriculum. President Obama in his 2013 State of the Union Address pointed out that “Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges. So those German kids, they're ready for a job when they graduate high school.”

HowToGermany, a website designed to educate expatriates on life in Germany, breaks it down: “Although education is a function of the federal states, and there are differences from state to state, some generalizations are possible… From grades 1 through 4 children attend elementary school (Grundschule), where the subjects taught are the same for all. Then, after the 4th grade, they are separated according to their academic ability and the wishes of their families, and attend one of three different kinds of schools: Hauptschule, Realschule or Gymnasium.” Gymnasium is university-prep for the most academic students. Hauptschule has slower academic pacing with “vocational-oriented courses,” and prepares these students for “part-time enrollment in a vocational school combined with apprenticeship training until the age of 18.” Realschule is a mix of both.

In a May 2014 interview with USNews, the director of the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education at the University of Louisville spoke of German education positively: "The system works extraordinarily well. They have one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in the industrialized world, and going through an apprenticeship in no way prevents one from moving on to college." Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2014 also reported encouraging data: “only 3% of adults attain a general upper secondary or post-secondary qualification as highest degree,” and “Germany has been more successful than most OECD countries in holding the line on unemployment during the economic crisis.” USNews also reported that, while the US has a youth unemployment rate of 16.2 percent and the EU an average of 23.9 percent, Germany shines at 7.7 percent.

Others have their doubts about the German system. Carly Berwick, writing for the Atlantic, explained: “Many of Germany’s 16 states, including Berlin and Saxony, recently decided to phase out the lowest-level secondary school (Hauptschule), in part because parents criticized the program as leading students directly to low-wage jobs.” Even so, all of the German states still feature some form of readily available vocational training as part of Realschule or comparable programs.

Here in the US, a similar, possibly German-inspired movement is developing. Perhaps the most famous school in the “practical skills” trend, the Brooklyn-based P-Tech, was acknowledged by President Obama in his 2013 state of the union address. As Obama noted, “students will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate's degree in computers or engineering.” He described it as “a collaboration between New York Public Schools and City University of New York and IBM.”

According to the IBM Newsroom, schools designed like P-TECH are taking off in urban centers around the nation. In 2012, five started in Chicago, backed by IBM, Motorola, Verizon, and others, and since then the model has spread from Norwalk (Connecticut) to Australia.

Although Mendocino County is not home to any massive corporate employers, we do have a wealth of local businesses through which interested students may be able to learn valuable skills. The Mendocino County Human Resources Department has an Internship Program which advertises a wide variety of possible “categories,” from accounting to nursing and others.

Locally, the Anderson Valley Education Foundation connects high school students to local businesses (from farms to restaurants to small-engine repair shops) for internships.

While I never viewed my high school as a wasteland, I wanted to graduate after my junior year to get an early start on college, and by taking online college courses was able to get an expedited diploma through UISA. The graduation ceremony (UISA’s second) was a few months ago. I’ve been to several student graduations, but never one that emphasized each and every student’s individual choice and self-discipline as this one did, with teachers and students giving short speeches for each graduate. One of the volunteer student speakers commented on how nice it was that he wasn’t forced to meet his classmates until graduation; a tearful teacher described another student had used his time to take classes at the vocational college on auto-mechanics; student photography exhibits lined the walls. Some of the grads were planning on attending college. Others, working. A few had interest in military service.

The only constant was that all had set their own agendas and fashioned their work to their particular needs and desires. The freedom and independence these graduates celebrated is reminiscent of Pete Townshend’s lyrics about the happy farmer in a post-apocalyptic world — “Out here in the fields / I farm for my meals / I get my back into my living / I don’t need to fight / to prove I’m right / I don’t need to be forgiven” — from the song by The Who sometimes known by its chorus: “Teenage Wasteland.”

(John Ulysses Keevan-Lynch went to AV Elementary, is a former intern at the Anderson Valley Advertiser, and will be attending UCLA this fall.)

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FORBES MAG DOES ANDERSON VALLEY. California's Best Undiscovered Pinot Noirs -- Anderson Valley

by Nick Passmore: “There are only two kinds of Pinot Noir fans: those who’ve never heard of Anderson Valley Pinot, and those who love Anderson Valley Pinot. There probably isn’t a local ordinance mandating the wearing of plaid in Anderson Valley, but you could have fooled me so ubiquitous are the shirts. (Huh?) This region of wonderful Pinot Noirs two hours north of San Francisco – you just head through Sonoma and keep going – is very, very far, in style and style from the manicured, spa-studded luxury of Napa. These are dirt-under-the-fingernails farmers, and though I didn’t actually spy a John Deere cap, I felt sure I’d encounter one climbing off a tractor any minute. I was overdressed in my East Coast chinos and denim shirt. I wasn’t wearing plaid…” Etc.

WE’VE LONG SUSPECTED one person writes all these things for all the English-language publications in the world, from the New York Times to the Borneo Tribune. Haul the thing out every couple of months, but make a line change here and there, not that anyone will notice or care if they do notice. But to sell it to some new sap like Forbes mag where they’ll pay upwards of a couple of grand for it and give the writer a free all expenses paid week in Anderson Valley, maybe change the paragraph about the cooling pinot fog “rolling in from the nearby Pacific” to “the temperate mists off Neptune’s balls provide a perfect climate for this versatile grape…” To make sure everyone knows Boonville is more or less rural, throw in a line about pick-up trucks, plaid shirts, and dogs asleep on porches.

THE FORBES PIECE so annoyed The Major he batted out the following comment to the magazine. Which they printed on their difficult-to-find comment line. Forbes has a very strict comment policy with about a dozen rules (some reasonable, some arbitrary). They also require you to “register” to comment — which The Major did, promptly receiving an email with a code allowing him to comment.

“A VERY NARROW REVIEW. No mention of the underpaid Mexicans who do the real work of grape growing and wine making, nor of their kids who make up almost 90% of the local student body. No mention of the huge amounts of pesticides and herbicides applied by most of the wineries mentioned, none of which are organic although we do have organic wines produced in the Anderson Valley. No mention of the water table depletion and river dewatering that goes into the hundreds and hundreds of huge ponds that the thirsty shallow rooted vines require. No mention of the giant wind machines that keep most of the Valley awake on spring night, the welfare of the grapes of course being so much more important than our sleep. No mention of the land speculation and housing shortage that the wine industry has brought to the Valley, making it very difficult for non-wine people (and wine workers) to own or rent a reasonable bit of shelter. No mention of the low-grade contempt the local wine industry is held in from most non-wine locals. No mention of the ‘poor us’ attitude the wine industry takes whenever anyone is so bold as to complain about them on even minor matters. Otherwise: a great piece of ad copy writing! PS. Mary Elke, a nice lady featured in your piece, does not live in Anderson Valley, nor do the Cakebread owners, the Duckhorn owners, the French imperialists who own Roederer, the Jess Jackson family descendants, and most of the other larger vineyards and wineries. As long as they can get $40-$60 or more for a bottle of wine that costs — at most — $8 to produce, what do they care what the locals think?”

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CATCH OF THE DAY, September 12, 2016

Britton, Byrne, Mejia, Reyes
Britton, Byrne, Mejia, Reyes

MATTHEW BRITTON, Covelo. Petty theft, failure to appear.

KYLE BYRNE, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

VICKIE MEJIA, Fort Bragg. Refusing to leave private property.

TOMAS REYES, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

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NORTH DAKOTA ARREST WARRANT FOR AMY GOODMAN raises fears for press freedom

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/12/amy-goodman-arrest-warrant-north-dakota-oil-pipeline-protest?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Gmail

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EARLIER THIS WEEK, Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein and her running mate, Ajamu Baraka, traveled to North Dakota to join the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s protests against the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL). At one point during the demonstrations, Stein spray-painted a bulldozer with the words “I approve this message.” Baraka spray-painted “decolonization” on other construction equipment. Each has since been charged with vandalism and trespassing.

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/arrest_warrants_issued_green_partys_jill_stein_ajamu_baraka_20160909

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AGRIBUSINESS PETITION TO SLASH STRIPER AND BLACK BASS NUMBERS WITHDRAWN

by Dan Bacher

In a big victory for fishing groups who were mobilizing for a huge turn out of anglers at the California Fish and Game Commission meeting in Folsom on August 25, Stewart Resnick’s Coalition for a Sustainable Delta Astroturf group and their water contractor allies withdrew their petition to increase bag limits and reduce size limits for striped bass and black bass in the San Francisco Bay-Delta.

According to an official notice on the meeting posted on the Commission’s website, “Please note: The petition number 2016-011 (striped and black bass) has been withdrawn by the petitioners. As a result the Commission will not be taking action on this petition.”

“We won, and it was worth all of our efforts,” said Dick Pool, administrator of Water4Fish, upon hearing of the petition withdrawal. “However we still have Congress trying to pass a non-native fish eradication bill.”

“There is no need to go to the California Fish and Game Commission meeting set for this Thursday,” John Beuttler of the Allied Fishing Groups advised anglers after hearing of the petition’s withdrawal. “The Commission has announced that the Coalition for Sustainable Delta, California Chamber of Commerce, California Farm Bureau Federation, Kern County Water Agency, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Northern California Water Association, San Joaquin Tributaries Authority, Southern California Water Committee, State Water Contractors, and Western Growers have withdrawn their petition number 2016-011 (striped and black bass regulations).”

Michael Boccadoro, the spokesman for the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, told the Sacramento Bee that supporters of the water contractors were “frustrated that they would be allowed only 10 minutes” to present their case before the Commission.

In a statement, the coalition said, “In recent days, Commission staff recommended maintenance of the status quo rather than taking any action in response to the petition to address this issue despite continuing reports showing declines in native endangered species.”

However, it is more likely that they withdrew the petition because of the intense opposition to it by anglers and prominent scientists including Dr. David Ostrach and Dr. Peter Moyle – and the likelihood that the Commission would reject the petition.

In a statement, the Coalition said, “It is clear that more needs to be done to halt the continuing declines, but the Commission has again refused to address the issue. We are not giving up but simply refocusing our efforts.”

On August 18, twenty-one pro- agribusiness legislators sent a letter to the Commission urging support for the petition “to address predation of at-risk fish native to the Delta by non-native predators.”

“As salmon and smelt continue to decline, it is increasingly important for the Commission to take all appropriate action to address predation,” the legislators wrote. (https://sustainabledelta.com/about/press-releases/)

Legislators signing the letter include Senators Anthony Cannella (District 12), Senator Patricia Bates (District 36), Senator Ted Gaines (District 1), Assemblyman Brian Dahle (AD1), Assemblyman Matthew Harper (AD 74), Senator Bob Huff (District 29), Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang (District 55), Senator Jim Nielsen (District 4), Assemblymember Travis Allen (AD 72), Assemblymember Adam Gray (AD 21), Senator Tom Berryhill (SD 8), Assemblyman Rudy Salas (District 32), Senator Andy Vidak (District 14), Senator Jean Fuller (District 16), Assemblywoman Beth Gaines (AD 6), Assemblyman Frank Bigelow (AD 5), Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (AD 31), Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen (AD 12), Assemblymember Devon Mathis (AD 26) and Assemblymember Bill Brough (AD 73).

The proposed changes would have increased the bag limits and decreased the size limits for black bass and striped bass in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and rivers tributary to the Delta,

The black bass size limit would have been decreased from 12 inches to 8 inches and the daily bag limit would have been increased from 5 fish to 10 fish.

The striped bass size limit would have been decreased from 18 inches to 12 inches and the daily bag limit would have been increased from 2 fish to 6 fish.

Anglers opposed the petition because it would reduce the population of stripers and black bass and not address the real causes of salmon, Delta smelt and other fish declines – water diversions, overpumping and mismanagement by the state and federal governments.

Marko Mlikotin, the executive director of the California Sportfishing League, noted that opponents of the petition included an impressive group of state and national sportfishing and outdoor organizations that wrote the commission on August 11, 2016, challenging the “scienc”e of the misdirected petition,

Several organizations, including the California Striped Bass Association and Water4Fish, launched major letter and petition campaigns that generated thousands of opposition letters.

“California anglers have a voice in the political process, and they were heard loud and clear,” said Mlikotin. “There is a need to find real and meaningful solutions to California’s water shortage, but using junk science to eviscerate Northern California fish populations in order to send more water to Southern California is not a sustainable solution.”

The coalition of sportfishing and outdoor recreation organizations opposing the petition included the Allied Fishing Groups, California Striped Bass Association, California Sportfishing League, American Sportfishing Association, CCA-Cal, Coastside Fishing Club, Congressional Sportfishing Foundation, Water4Fishg.org, Fishing League Worldwide, Bass Conservation and the National Marine Manufacturing Association.

The American Sportfishing Association (ASA) said they were “pleased to announce that striped and black (largemouth and smallmouth) bass, important sportfish species in California, won’t be targeted for eradication as invasive species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its tributaries.”

“Our coalition had science on our side and we were able to show the Fish and Wildlife Commission that all fish need water and this was simply a water grab that sought to make striped bass and largemouth and smallmouth bass the scapegoats for the status of salmon stocks,” said ASA Government Affairs Vice President Scott Gudes.

Representing millions of sportsmen and women nationwide, including tens of thousands in California, the coalition engaged their supporters who sent a clear message to the Commission that this “was a water issue, not a fish issue,” according to the ASA.

“This is a real victory for anglers. But we need to be vigilant. No doubt the agricultural industry that pushed this proposal will be back. Anglers need to stay unified,” concluded Gudes.

Prominent scientists disagree strongly with the contention of Boccadaro and the water contractors that the proposed regulations would help “protect” endangered salmon and smelt, pointing out the lack of any peer-reviewed science backing this claim.

“There is NO new peer-reviewed science that would change anything regarding this issue from the last time they tried the regulation change until now,” said David J. Ostrach Ph.D., Chief Scientist of Ostrach Consulting. “There have been some special interest group directed ‘studies’ by the water contractors and their allies, most of which are bogus or focus on hot spots and then expand that notion to the entire estuary e.g. if they’re eating them en masse at the hotspots, they’re eating them everywhere.”

“Most importantly, predation at hot spots and throughout the Delta has not been shown to affect population levels of salmon or endangered species; it is a lower-level stressor. The biggest predators known to affect population levels of endangered species in the system are the state and federal water project pumping operations, where it’s clearly documented that they’ve killed tens of millions of endangered salmon, Delta smelt, striped bass and any other fish that enters Clifton Court Forebay,” said Ostrach.

Ostrach emphasized that if the Commission ever chabges the regulations so that smaller striped bass are being caught and kept, it would likely cause a decrease in striped bass predation on other fish, such as the inland silversides, that pose a greater danger to salmon and Delta smelt.

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UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE UKIAH LIBRARY.

www.mendolibrary.org

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PROSECUTORS APPEAL Overturned Conviction of ‘Making a Murderer’ Subject Brendan Dassey - The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/10/us/brendan-dassey-of-making-a-murderer-has-his-release-delayed.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

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FROM THE KAEPERNICK DEFENSE COMMITTEE

Given the Blackness of the players, why not precede football and basketball games with the first verse of the Negro National Anthem.  "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is moving, inclusive, singable, and doesn't glorify bombs bursting through air.  Plus any fans singing along would be calling for their team to win!

Lift every voice and sing

Till earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise,

High as the list'ning skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us,

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won.

I thought I'd had an original idea until I checked with Wikipedia:

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" was publicly performed first as a poem as part of a celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday on February 12, 1900, by 500 school children at the segregated Stanton School. Its principal, James Weldon Johnson, wrote the words to introduce its honored guest Booker T. Washington. The poem was set to music soon after by Johnson's brother John in 1905. In 1919, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) dubbed it "The Negro National Anthem" for its power in voicing the cry for liberation and affirmation for African-American people.

 In Maya Angelou's 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the song is sung by the audience and students at Maya's eighth grade graduation, after a white school official dashes the educational aspirations of her class...

In 2008, jazz singer Rene Marie was asked to perform the national anthem at a civic event in Denver, Colorado, where she caused a controversy by substituting the words of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" into the song. This arrangement of the words of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" with the melody of "The Star Spangled Banner" became part of the titular suite on her 2011 CD release, "The Voice of My Beautiful Country."

— Fred Gardner

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SOLIDARITY WITH KAEPERNICK RIPPLES THROUGH THE NFL ON SEPTEMBER 11

by Dave Zirin

On Sunday, a small group of National Football League players risked their careers, their endorsements, and their livelihoods. They did so through the simple act of refusal. They refused to be a prop for the cameras. They refused to swallow their concerns about racism and police violence in order to please the needs of their employers. They refused to be intimidated by sports-radio talkers bashing their character or an online army of shameless thugs threatening their lives with the casual click of someone ordering a book from Amazon. They stood in the proudest tradition of athletes who have used their platforms for social change, and they have already felt a backlash that would ring familiar, almost note-for-note, to anyone acquainted with what that last generation had to endure.

Before naming the players who chose to stand against the current, it is worth setting the stage. Sunday was less a current than a red, white, and blue tsunami. This was opening day for the NFL — by an exponential degree the most popular sports league in the United States — and it was also September 11, 2016, the 15th anniversary of the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Those attacks killed thousands of innocent people. They also launched an unprecedented assault on civil liberties, the scapegoating of an entire religion, and an illegal war in Iraq that continues to produce an unfathomable body count. The leader of these atrocities, George W. Bush, should have had to answer for his actions. Instead, he was there on Sunday in Arlington, Texas, tossing the coin for the nationally televised game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. The Cowboys were not alone in bringing out — literally — the big guns. President Obama spoke over the Jumbotron in Seattle and Vice President Joe Biden was live in Philadelphia. Every stadium had troops march onto the field with flags roughly the size of Rhode Island. Warplanes flew overhead. Bald eagles — actual, real-life bald eagles — were even set free to soar for the cameras.

Like those majestic eagles, the NFL has ascended to new heights these last 15 years by pinning the image of their league to our permanent state of war. The Pentagon has made sure that this has been a mutually beneficial relationship, tying military recruitment, staged “salute the troops” events, and a hyper-militarized form of patriotism to the NFL’s brand. Journalist Shaun Scott wrote a masterful excavation of this last week on Sports Illustrated’s website, in an article titled “How the NFL sells (and profits from) the inextricable link between football and war”:

It didn’t matter that NFL players such as Cardinals safety Pat Tillman and Rams center Jason Brown criticized the war; or that actual veterans detested insulting comparisons between the vicissitudes of combat and the triviality of sport.

What mattered was that subcultures like tailgating, fantasy football, and gambling helped the NFL become more popular than ever, and that this popularity coincided with — and exploited — the escalation of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In other words, nothing that happened Sunday, with its big budget patriotic pageantry, should have surprised anybody. It was business as usual. The true shock and awe was the presence of a small group of players who took that moment to instead express dissent. To be clear, these were not gestures against war or the national-security state. They were acts of solidarity with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s anthem demonstrations against police violence. They were protests aimed at stating the simple idea that there is a gap between the values that the flag claims to represent and the deadly realities of racism. They were also — whether intentionally or not — declarations that they would not be intimidated by the backlash felt by Kaepernick or Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall, who took a knee on Thursday and promptly lost an endorsement deal.

As “The Star-Spangled Banner” played around the country, two players on the New England Patriots: Martellus Bennett and Devin McCourty; three players on the Tennessee Titans: Jurrell Casey, Wesley Woodyard and Jason McCourty; and Marcus Peters of the Kansas City Chiefs raised their fists during or immediately after the anthem played. In addition, four players on the Miami Dolphins — Kenny Stills, Michael Thomas, Arian Foster and Jelani Jenkins — took a knee during the national anthem. The Dolphins’ gesture was all the more dramatic because it took place across the field from the Seattle Seahawks, who linked arms in a gesture of “team unity and solidarity” after their efforts to make some sort of statement about police brutality were snuffed out because, according to the reporting of NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, “#Seahawksoriginally planned to kneel together, hand over their hearts, during the anthem. But some players close with military objected.”

Never mind that these protests have had nothing to do with the military. But that mere perception was enough to suppress a small group of proudly outspoken Seahawks players who wanted to show Kaepernick that they were on his side. The endless howl that any action on Sunday should be interpreted as being “against the troops” and disrespectful to the memory of 9/11 — no matter the words of actual troops or 9/11 families — stretched from a sector of the Seahawks locker room to anonymous Twitter bigots to celebrities Rob Lowe and Kate Upton. It’s an absurd argument, meant to derail and delegitimize the actual issue that’s being raised: the extrajudicial killings of black people.

The best response to this came from Kaepernick last month when he said:

I have great respect for the men and women that have fought for this country. I have family, I have friends that have gone and fought for this country. And they fight for freedom, they fight for the people, they fight for liberty and justice, for everyone. That’s not happening. People are dying in vain because this country isn’t holding their end of the bargain up, as far as giving freedom and justice, liberty to everybody. That’s something that’s not happening. I’ve seen videos, I’ve seen circumstances where men and women that have been in the military have come back and been treated unjustly by the country they have fought for, and have been murdered by the country they fought for, on our land. That’s not right.

The pressure to fall in line was strong enough to compel a group of political players in Seattle to back down from their planned protest. But the capitulation of the Seahawks was overshadowed by these other gestures, which defied not only the political agenda of the league but also its top-down corporate structure. They are gestures that stand as a rebuke to those in the NFL audience who cheer for black bodies on the field, but rage against black voices. Jay Busbee at Yahoo! Sports called Sunday’s events a “quiet insurrection.” It is an apt description, with one caveat: This is an insurrection we can only see if we get beyond the noise.

* * *

SIGNS OF DESPERATION

by James Kunstler

Idiocy and mendacity are a bad combo in the affairs of nations, especially in elections. The present case in the USA displays both qualities to near-perfection: on one side, a boorish pseudo-savior in zero command of ideas; on the other side, a wannabe racketeer-in-chief in full command of her instinctive deceit. Trump offers incoherent rhetoric in opposition to the current dismal order of things; Clinton offers empty, pandering rhetoric in defense of that order. Both represent an epic national drive toward political suicide.

The idiocy and mendacity extend to the broad voting public and the discredited elites pretending to run the life of the nation. The American public has never been this badly educated and more distracted by manufactured trivia. They know next to nothing. Even college seniors can’t name the Secretary of State or find Switzerland on a map. They don’t know in what century the Civil War took place. They couldn’t tell you whether a hypotenuse is an animal, a vegetable, or a mineral. Their right to vote is a danger to themselves.

The elites operate in their own twilight zone of ignorance, only at a loftier level, flying on wings of sheepskin. Submitted for your approval: Harvard wizard Kenneth Rogoff’s new book, The Curse of Cash. This is the latest salvo in the international campaign to herd all money into the control of central banks and central governments, supposedly to make central planning of the economy more effective — but really for the purpose of extending the fallacy that the mis-pricing of credit and collateral (that is, of everything) can save the current incarnation of crony capitalism, and more to the point, save the fortunes of the racketeers running it, along with the reputations of their intellectual errand boys. Henceforth, all “money” transactions would be traceable, allowing unprecedented power for authorities to regulate the lives of citizens.

It remains to be seen whether the American public might be snookered into this scheme, which already has some traction in Europe. Of course, Europe is headed into some interesting political heavy weather of its own in the months ahead, and there is plenty of reason to think that even the docile people of Denmark and Sweden might eventually revolt against the central bank regime if they see the Germans do it.

Aggravating matters is the hyper-complexity of our current financial arrangements, much of it in the service of deliberately mystifying the masses. Does the public understand the rationale behind zero interest rate policy (ZIRP)? Not any more than they understand the interaction of gluons and quarks or the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It is one of the abiding mysteries of our time, for instance, that a group like AARP, purporting to represent the interests of retired persons, has offered not a peep of pushback to ZIRP, which has pounded retired people dependent on savings into penury. Of course, this might be explained by the pervasive racketeering feature of our current national life: AARP is an insurance racket masquerading as a citizen interest group. Or, stretching credulity to suppose that AARP is honest, perhaps the org’s executives don’t understand that zero interest on savings equals zero income to savers.

Kenneth Rogoff tries to justify his war on cash by invoking two of the era’s favorite bogymen: terrorists and drug dealers. Cash, he says, allows this axis of evil to do its thing(s). This is a ruse, of course. If currency is eliminated, these outfits will turn to gold and silver, it’s that simple. And so will everybody else, by the way. The real reason to abolish cash and herd all money into central banks is to permit the authorities to confiscate it one way or another, either by unavoidable taxation or by “bail-ins” — declaring deposits to be “unsecured loans” that can be repudiated in the event of a financial “accident.”

The results are already in for this experiment: “money” becomes more and more dishonest, that is, it cannot be trusted to represent what it pretends to stand for: an index of account and a store of value. Its role as the basis of capital formation is so impaired that real capital (i.e. wealth) cannot be generated, meaning that none of the credit issued as “money” will ever be paid back. Zero interest rate policy eventually equals zero interest paid. “Money” based on loans that won’t be paid back loses its legitimacy. Herding all the “money” onto central bank computers only allows for more three-card-monte maneuvers to conceal the bezzle. It would be much harder to hide the destruction of value in circulating paper currency. Eliminating currency as a medium of exchange can only lead to the repudiation of “money” — which will beat a quick path to the repudiation of all authority. And there is your recipe for really suicidal political disorder.

One more thing this week: why exactly are America’s Clinton-invested political elites inveighing so strenuously against Russia and its president, Mr. Putin? The US has gone out of its way to provoke Russia militarily the past several years. We foolishly sponsored the revolution in Ukraine that has left it a failed state — and which prompted Russia to reclaim the Crimea, historically its own territory and the site of its strategically crucial warm water ports. We continue to run NATO war game exercises along Russia’s borders. We fly surveillance planes in their airspace and then act surprised when Russia sends up fighters to remind us where we are. We hold naval exercises in the Black Sea and wonder why the Russians buzz us. Are we out of our minds? How would we act if the Russians flew their planes over Catalina Island or held naval war games off Hampton Roads? Who does the US policy elite think they’re kidding?

These memes in financial and foreign policy are dangerously crazy and dishonest. They are doing a good job of making the US political establishment look like a claque of fools and outlaws, and laying a red carpet for the election of Trump, the fake savior… the apotheosis of the fabled Greater Fool.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/JamesHowardKunstler?ty=h)

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Desperation is exactly where they need the Common American Idiot to be right now. Desperate idiots are far more likely to accept whatever crap comes out of November’s “election”, accept negative interest rates, and then even beg for a cashless system to replace it. The American Association of Retarded People (AARP) seriously believes that it has the hearts and minds of the old bobble heads in hand, and they very well might. The first thing they do is bombard us with mailings that start when you turn fifty and then sell you out to the army of telemarketers and “Financial advisors” (give US your money) that grease their palms. I cannot understand why anyone of age would even consider trusting such a scurrilous bunch. Once the masses fall for NIRP, if they do, cashless systems (with NO NIRP) all of a sudden become a “wonderful” option. Once a system goes cashless, total theft becomes something most high school kids can pull off.

Whether you believe in God and the Devil or not, anyone with even half a brain should be able to understand that Free Will or Total Control represents the qualities that those two represent. Free good, Control Bad. Repeat until it sinks in!

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SYMPHONY OF THE REDWOODS 2016-2017 Season

www.symphonyoftheredwoods.org
SEASON SPONSOR: North Coast Brewing Co.
Contact Information:
Alex Pierangeli, Executive Director
707.964.0898
symphony@mcn.org

All performances at Cotton Auditorium - 500 N Harold St, Fort Bragg, CA

Tickets are $20, guests age 18 and under free

Available at Harvest Market and the Redwood Coast Senior Center in Fort Bragg, Out of This World in Mendocino, and at the door

Fall Concert

Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016, 7:30pm

Sunday, Nov. 13, 2016, 2pm

  • Márquez: Danzón No. 2
  • Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez, feat. Paul Psarras, guitar
  • Piazzola: Libertango
  • Stravinsky: The Firebird

Concert Sponsors: Charles & Olivia Hasty

Winter Concert

Saturday, January 28, 2017, 7:30pm

Sunday, January 29, 2017, 2pm

  • Martinu: Overture for Orchestra
  • Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante, feat. Livia Sohn, violin and Sharon Wei, viola
  • Sibelius: Symphony No. 5

Concert Sponsor: Bob Wheat – Edward Jones

Spring Concert

Saturday, April 8, 2017, 7:30 pm

Sunday, April 9, 2017, 2pm

  • Brahms: Symphony No. 3
  • Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4, feat. Spencer Myer, piano

Concert Sponsors: John & Kathryn Hughes

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THE PALESTINIAN PERSPECTIVE. On Saturday afternoon, September 24, from 2 to 4pm, the San Francisco-based Freedom Archives, the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and the Little Lake Grange, 291 School Street, Willits, will host an informal discussion with four members of a 19 person delegation of anti-prison, labor, and scholar-activists who visited the occupied Palestinian West Bank this past March. It was the first U.S. delegation to Palestine to focus specifically on political imprisonment and designed to strengthen the solidarity between Palestinian and US prisoners.

According to a statement issued by the delegation, during the ten day trip, “we were empowered and humbled by stories of the many ways Palestinians maintain their culture and dignity” while maintaining resistance to Israel’s ongoing military occupation and that will be the main subject of the planned discussion.Free. Donations accepted. For information, please call 707-467-0518 (Jeff Blankfort)

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JUST IN FROM KALI YUGI

From: ganderson@bvinst.edu

Sent: Mon, 12 Sep 2016 19:15:50 -0700

To: craigstehr@inbox.com

Subject: RE: TO ALL:

Thank you for your thoughtful reply...

Hare Krishna Craig, Kali-yuga is scheduled to last for 427,000 years more. However, within this Kali-yuga, there is a special Golden Age (Suvarna-yuga) of Lord Caitanya which lasts for 10,000 years. According to our calculation, it began in the 500th year of Lord Caitanya’s appearance, ie 1986. But I see the present time as a dawning of the Golden Age in which the ghosts of the Kali-yuga flee away in the rising sun. So perhaps, the year of 2062 can be considered when the Golden Age will be in full swing. Ys/Grantharaja dasa Bhaktivedanta Institutewww.bvinst.edu Juhu Road, Juhu, Mumbai 400 049 India, Ph: 91-22-2620-0312; 2334 Stuart St, Berkeley CA 94705. Ph: 510-841-7618

From: Craig Stehr [mailto:craigstehr@inbox.com]

Sent: Monday, September 12, 2016 3:52 PM

To: ganderson@bvinst.edu

Cc: mayapurvoice@yahoo.com

Subject: TO ALL: Thank you for your thoughtful reply...

Respected authorities on the yugic cycle indicate the end of Kali Yuga will be in 2025, followed by a "transitional period" of 300 years before Satya Yuga begins. Also, Dane Rudhyar predicted that the Age of Aquarius begins in the year 2062. Time is tricky, but not so much so as space.  Email me when you wish to get together to go to appropriate places and destroy the postmodern chaos carnival, particularly all of its mundane stupid insane idiotic aggravating motherfucking appendages. Jesus loves you, Buddha thanks you very much, but Krishna is coming with Radha to join us in the global demolition project. And then we're getting the fuck outta here, going on a celestial party tour back to Godhead for the hottest orgy forevermore.

Craig Louis StehrEmail: CraigStehr@inbox.com

12 Comments

  1. LouisBedrock September 13, 2016

    https://pro.magnumphotos.com/image/PAR350689.html

    This is the photograph by Cristina García Rodero that Mr. McEwen alluded to yesterday. It’s title is “First Cigarette”.

    I hope that it’s obvious that the gentleman in the center of the photo is not me.

    I have never married, have no children, and if I did, would not allow them to smoke or salute the flag.

    Click on the photo to enlarge it.

  2. Jim Updegraff September 13, 2016

    Craig Stehr: In 2062 climate change will be in full force and in 400 years will the human race still be around?

  3. Bill Pilgrim September 13, 2016

    @ Craig, @ ganderson,

    Despite the calculations of “respected authorities,” notable Avatars such as Sai Baba, Swami Premananda, Swami Muktananda, etc., all proclaimed that Kali Yuga has ended and we are on the cusp of the next cycle. That means we should be expecting the appearance of Kalki Avatar, the Rider on the White Horse, who will lead the Forces of Light to victory over the forces of materiality, selfishness and wickedness.
    Many around the world believe the Avatar is already here. Mysterious, so-called miraculous images and appearances of a man dressed all in white, sitting on a white steed, have been appearing worldwide for years.

    • Craig Stehr September 13, 2016

      My friend at Bhaktivedanta Institute in Mumbai, India said that although there might be human inhabitants on the planet earth in 400 years, you probably would not wish to be here due to the extremely degraded conditions which will be prevalent. Also, check out the Wikipedia link for Kalki avatar, Vishnu’s tenth and last incarnation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki

      All of the Krishna devotees whom I know are focused incessantly on the chanting of the mahamantram, as they will be leaving the earth plane shortly, going on a tour of the spiritual sky with Sri Krishna and his eternal consort Srimati Radharani, all the way back to Godhead, precisely Krishna’s planet Goloka Vrindavan, which is just beyond Vaikuntha planet. If you wish to be with us, chant: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare ;-)

      • BB Grace September 13, 2016

        Ever study with Chabad? I’m in my third year.

        • Craig Stehr September 13, 2016

          I had a friend who was a student of Rabbi Schneerson in Crown Heights NYC. He said that the orthodoxy was okay if that’s your path, but otherwise almost impossible to practice in the USA. This is similar to what I’ve encountered in regard to Bhakta yoga in the USA. But who cares, really? I just take care of my own situation. Here is a nonstop Krishna bhajan for your enjoyment:

          • BB Grace September 13, 2016

            I’m limited by sex to which religions I can explore. Hindu limits their experience to married women. I wanted to know what Abraham was about and how I found Chabad. Tanya is mysticism at it’s best.. Hummus Curry it’s becoming a national dish, if you understand that the spirit, is far far more important than the material Earth <- stuff. Maya Haha Maya Haha Maya Maya HaHa HaHa ;x

      • Bill Pilgrim September 13, 2016

        …More ‘end of the world’ and ‘rapture’ prognostications, this time not from Christians.
        Let them chant all they want. The coming of the Avatar means humanity transforming THIS world… not floating off to another.
        OM…Tat…Sat…OM…

        • Craig Stehr September 13, 2016

          Just left the Krishna temple in Berkeley. The walls are adorned with bas reliefs depicting Krishna’s pastimes, battles, etc. There is a bas relief of Kalki avatar, astride a white horse, golden sword at the ready, surrounded by miserable deranged scroungers on the earth, lightning is striking above. Geez! I’m leaving San Francisco’s Emperor Norton Travel Inn at 11 A.M. on Monday September 19th. Have sent out waves of networking emails seeking others who are spiritually centered, and willing to be part of a nomadic action group. News update at ten.

  4. Jim Updegraff September 13, 2016

    The warrant for the arrest of Amy Goodman for trespassing on private property shouldn’t come as a surprise – The oil lobby owns the governor and most of the legislators. As for Dr Stein the paint spraying is vandalism and if you do the deed you do the time.

  5. Jim Updegraff September 13, 2016

    August hit a new high in temperature – you can leave your long johns in the dresser – you may not need them this winter.

  6. Whyte Owen September 13, 2016

    On the future of climate, a fascinating and useful graph from one of our more arcane cartoonists:

    http://xkcd.com

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