Press "Enter" to skip to content

Mendocino County Today: Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017

* * *

SCALMANINI CLARIFIES HIS GOAL FOR COSTCO SOLAR PANELS

by Justine Frederiksen

Ukiah City Council member Steve Scalmanini clarified Friday that while he does want Costco Wholesale Corporation to utilize solar panels, he’s not insisting that they be put on the building proposed for Ukiah.

“I don’t want solar panels added to the Ukiah store, because that would delay the project, and I don’t want to delay the project,” said Scalmanini, who earlier this week filed an appeal of the permit approved for a warehouse on Airport Park Boulevard, a move that city officials said could delay construction for six months. Before the appeal was filed, Costco representatives said they could open the store in April of 2018.

Scalmanini said only a small percentage of Ukiah’s power comes from the gas-burning PG&E plants in Lodi, so he suggested that an even greater reduction in greenhouse gases could be achieved by putting solar panels on a store in Lodi, or perhaps Fresno.

Scalmanini, points to Fresno

Mel Grandi, director of the Ukiah Electric Utility, said while it is “generally true” that using solar panels can reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions, it is never an easy “one-to-one” correlation. The reductions achieved, Grandi explained, vary greatly from location to location and depend on many factors.

Scalmanini said he disagrees with the notion that the store in Ukiah will not increase greenhouse gas emissions, or that it might even reduce them, because it will end the many vehicle trips Ukiah Valley residents make to Sonoma County warehouses on a monthly basis.

Instead, Scalmanini thinks the Ukiah store will create enough new trips from coastal and northern Mendocino County, as well as Lake County and other areas, to cause a total increase in greenhouse gas emissions. His attempt to get Costco to agree to install solar panels is a way to mitigate that increase, he said.

In the meantime, Scalmanini said he is trying to personally respond to each e-mail he has received from residents regarding his blocking of the project that so many Ukiahans support and have been anxiously waiting years for.

As of Friday afternoon he said he had not received any really nasty or threatening messages, describing most of them as respectful, “though some a bit sarcastic. And one so far was in support of (my appeal).”

The appeal is scheduled to be heard by the Ukiah City Council at 5 p.m. Aug. 24.

(Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

* * *

ON FREE SPEECH

John Fremont:

So, Marco, Would you allow a Nazi, a rapist, or a pedophile on the air to espouse repugnant opinions? I don't think so. Free speech has its limits and Zook [Zeke Krehlin] has exceeded those limits. Dump him!

Marinela Miclea:

Actually, Marco, I, too, would like to see how you respond to the question: What if a person called on the phone and said what Zeke said in his posts to the discussion listserv? I hope you’ll answer it directly, not w/ a non sequitur.

Marco McClean:

Marinela, in the late 1980s and nearly through the '90s I edited and/or published a countywide newspaper wherein I printed everything anybody wrote to and for the paper. Swearing, goofy conspiracy theories, angry tirades against former employers, science, art, poetry, everything. I even printed what people screamed into the answering machine. People often called me at home, woke me up with the phone, to harangue me about how terrible it was that I printed something by their personal enemy. How could I? "How could you, Marco! There is pain here!" Yeah, there always is. And nobody else, excepting maybe the Anderson Valley Advertiser, would print anything these people wrote, and a lot of them were pretty impressive writers.

Then I took my show to countywide KMFB in 1997 and, until Claude Hooten bought KMFB and fired everyone and destroyed it in late 2011, I read on the air everything anyone sent. People called and swore at me because they didn't like this and they didn't like that, and it was so very wrong of me to give abortion a public platform, say, because that made me complicit in 40,000,000 murders. Or, you know, really anything.

In all cases, here's how I responded in real life, not in some hypothetical fear dream: I engaged them in talk, invited them to participate in the project, and then closed with some variation on Thank you for calling, (or thank you for stopping me in the post office and poking me in the chest with your middle finger), and fair play to you, fella.

In all those years, there was only one guy who would call back and call back and refuse to understand that all he had to do to not have to even think about me ever again would be to just turn off the radio or change the channel, just like all you and John and Chuck and Ravis What's-her-name have to do to not be all pissed off about Zeke is to google how to make filters in whatever email program you use and filter directly into the trash anything from Zeke. In Thunderbird it takes a couple of mouse clicks and five seconds, maximum, and you only have to do it once. There's a function called Quick Filter.

And I think you all know that. Which just points up that you don't want to avoid Zeke's writing or attention; you just want him to not be read by others, because you see that somehow as losing and then Zeke wins and you can't stand that. You want the last word. I know exactly how that feels.

I've told you, I don't always understand Zeke. I don't have to. It takes all kinds to make a world, and every one of those kinds should have equal access to a public forum. Zeke didn't call John on the phone; that's the point. And if he chooses to, deal with that then. He calls me on the phone, and I say, "Hi, Zeke, what's up?" and he usually gets tired of talking with me before I get tired of talking with him, so it hasn't become a problem.

I have to finish getting my show together now. I'll tell you the rest tonight on the radio.

* * *

PETS 'O THE WEEK

Fancy is mbu three month old, spayed female kitten who is as cute as a button. She's very affectionate and perfectly content to be cuddled in someone's arms. Feathery toys are her favorite, so if considering her for adoption, make sure you have plenty!

Spotty is a 3 year old, neutered male, mixed breed dog, weighing in at 58 pounds. Spotty participates in our off leash play group sessions and does well with other dogs. He is an energetic dog who will need an active family to get him out and about.

This Saturday, August 19, the Ukiah Shelter will be participating in the national Clear The Shelter Event. Adoption fees for all spayed/neutered cats, kittens, dogs and puppies ready to go home will be waived. (Mendocino County residents are responsible for a $25 dog license fee.) You can find more information about Fancy, Spotty, shelter events, programs and services at www.mendoanimalshelter.com

* * *

COUNTY DEPUTIES ACCEPT MODEST PAY INCREASE

(Essentially the same as other County bargaining units: 3% a year for two years, plus two $2,000 bonuses.)

From the August 15, 2017 Board of Supervisors Agenda Packet — For Approval:

Effective July 2, 2017, a 3% salary increase and effective in the first full pay period following ratification and approval, a one-time supplemental payment of $2,000 to all permanent full-time and permanent part-time bargaining unit employees who are employed during the pay period in which the payment occurs.

Effective the first full pay period in July 2018, a 3% salary increase, and a one-time supplemental payment of $2,000 to all permanent full-time and permanent part-time bargaining unit employees who are employed during the first full pay period of July 2018.

* * *

COUNTY PREPARES TO CONTRACT OUT inland Ambulance Services using Sonoma Coumty’s Coastal Valley EMS outfit to handle the bidding. The exclusive services are scheduled to start in July of 2018

From the August 15, 2017 Board of Supervisors Agenda Packet:

After a broad EMS assessment in 2011, Mendocino County initiated a collaborative project in 2013 to explore the feasibility of implementing an Exclusive Operating Area (EOA) for the sustainable provision of emergency ambulance services within the County (see EMS Zone map). Pursuant to Board Direction, an EOA Oversight Committee, comprised of representatives from various County offices, fire chiefs and hospital staff, solicited input from emergency transport providers, dispatch providers, fire chiefs and hospitals to discuss best methods and system design of an EOA. On September 23, 2014, the County entered into an agreement with The Abaris Group to develop and implement an ambulance EOA that addressed the need to revise the County ordinance. Changes to the County ordinance were originally considered by the Board of Supervisors in April 2016. After the April Board meeting, CVEMSA was approached by various partners with concerns and revised language recommendations. As a result, CVEMSA continued to work with the Abaris Group to assess the suggested revisions and hosted two EMS ordinance workshops to provide a forum for discussion for system stakeholders. A final revised ordinance was adopted by the Board of Supervisors on January 9, 2017.

At that time the Board was informed of progress on the draft Request for Proposals (RFP) for EOA and dispatch services, and the Health & Human Services Agency (HHSA) recommendation to combine the RFP processes for EOA and dispatch services to release one RFP with two distinct but complementary scopes of service. The establishment of an EOA creates performance standards that require additional components to dispatching that affect the current dispatch process.

HHSA and CVEMS reviewed the single RFP concept with local stakeholders and worked with the Abaris group to provide this draft RFP for the State EMSA, which must approve any ambulance related RFP prior to its release. However, the Board of Supervisors gave direction during their June 6, 2017, Budget Hearings to release these as two separate RFPs for ambulance EOA services and EMS/Fire dispatch services. Work has been done over the past two months to separate these scopes into two separate RFPs, which are scheduled to release in late August contingent upon approval from the State EMSA.

The key objectives of the RFP processes are intended to deliver the following improvements for EMS transport in the County:

  • Stable ambulance transportation within the EOA
  • Appropriate level of service and response for the acuity of the injury/illness
  • Ambulance response time standards for all types of calls
  • Clinical standards for ambulance patients to ensure high quality care
  • Contract compliance committee to ensure standards are maintained
  • Strong partnership with existing Fire/EMS resources in the County

To ensure a fair and objective process, evaluators will be selected from outside the immediate area who have no conflict of interest with any of the bidders. Local technical experts can be appointed to answer questions and ensure local knowledge is shared as necessary for the evaluators to score the proposals accurately. The evaluation committee will make a recommendation based on the highest scoring proposal, and HHSA will bring the recommended proposal to the Board of Supervisors for contract approval.

* * *

Jenna Santos & Natalie Griffin

NATALIE GRIFFIN, the brave young woman who dramatically survived a winter accident and near drowning on Highway 101 which killed her friend and driver Jenna Santos back in January has filed a $100k-plus claim against Mendocino County.

The incident made international news at the time.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4126648/Student-19-reveals-survived-horror-crash.html

According to the claim filed with the County:

Location of Loss: US Highway 101 southbound, 170 feet north of Highway 101 mile marker 57.16.

Description of Incident: Ms. Griffin was injured as a passenger in a vehicle operated by [redacted]. [Redacted] was traveling southbound on US 101 within an unincorporated area of Mendocino County. The roadway was wet and [redacted] lost traction on the wet roadway causing a loss of control of the vehicle. [Redacted] was unable to regain control and her vehicle left the roadway striking a curb and careening down a steep embankment located west of the southbound lanes of Highway 101 and ultimately came to a stop in Outlet Creek. [Redacted] died during the incident. Due to the remote nature of where the incident occurred and the high level of water in Outlet Creek due to recent rains, Ms. Griffin swam to a nearby tree and held on overnight until a passerby rescued her. The entity [Menodcino County] is responsible for either creating or allowing a dangerous condition to exist on this roadway resulting in the [redacted] vehicle losing control on a wet road surface leaving the road surface at a location of a steep embankment immediately adjacent to the roadway. The absence of a guard rail at the location without an adjacent roadway recovery area and a significant collision history and the absence of curve advisory and speed reduction signs approaching the curve created a dangerous condition of the road. The entity was on notice of the dangerous condition related to the absence of curve and speed advisory signs and a guard rail from reports of numerous prior similar incidents of vehicles leaving the roadway in the curve location of the incident.

Specific injury, damages or losses: Ms. Griffin sustained injuries including but not limited to hypothermia, a laceration to her right foot resulting in bacterial infection, laceration to tendon in right foot, post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

Ms. Griffin seeks damages in excess of $100,000.

ED NOTE: We don't understand why Jenna Santos’s name was redacted from this claim as posted online since her name was prominent in widespread news coverage of the dramatic incident involving Ms. Santos and Ms. Griffin. Also, Highway 101 is the responsibility of Caltrans, not the County of Mendocino, so Mendocino County should not have any possible liability regarding the incident.

* * *

INDICTMENT! PETER KEEGAN WILL BE TRIED FOR MURDER

Peter Keegan has been indicted for the murder of his wife of 32 years, Susan Keegan. After a criminal grand jury handed down the decision earlier this week, Dr. Keegan was arraigned in the Mendocino County Courthouse on Friday, August 11, released on $300,000 bail, and taken to the Sheriff’s office to be fingerprinted and photographed. Preparations for a trial move forward immediately.

The indictment comes exactly six years and nine months after Susan’s death. It has been the duty of this blog since its founding to call attention to the terrible miscarriage of justice that occurred when Dr. Keegan sweet-talked and bullied his way to freedom. We have since sought only this: that the community in which Susan lived, raised a family, worked, and grew into an artist understand the truth of what happened to her, and that the accused receive a day in court.

At long last, we have seen those goals realized. We are deeply grateful to those who recognized the story for what it was – murder – and persevered in pursuing truth.

Thanks are due. First and foremost, to Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster. The DA has long been the target of strong – he would probably say unrelenting – pressure from this blog. It had to be so. Eyster alone had the authority to pursue this case and without public awareness, it might have been easiest for him to let it go. But after inheriting a preliminary investigation that had been botched, he insisted that his office hit the ground again to gather the most rigorous possible evidence, and he never closed the books on the possibility of prosecution. Without Eyster, Peter Keegan would assuredly have been able to continue his game of pretend.

Thanks also to the DA’s investigators who worked tirelessly, took risks, and pushed past obfuscation and skepticism to gather the facts. Kevin Bailey and Andy Alvarado are committed and caring heroes. In the depth of their commitment and painstaking determination, they represent everything that law enforcement should be.

Timothy Stoen, neither young nor completely healthy, had the smarts, style, empathy, and workhorse qualities necessary to convince the grand jury that Dr. Keegan should be indicted. His work went on behind closed doors, but we know that Stoen’s task was to present a balanced overview of the case, and in the end he got his man.

Bruce Anderson, the ever-feisty editor of the ever-feisty Anderson Valley Advertiser, gets a special shout-out. A believer in the power of journalism to do good, he has been first with breaking news about the Keegan case again and again, continually reminding the powers-that-be of their obligation to bring the available evidence to light. Long live a free press that has no tolerance for fake news.

Many others, known and unknown, played vital roles in indicting Dr. Peter Keegan, so a broad tip of the hat to them all. There was grace and courage and strategic thinking in what so many people did for Susan Keegan and the people of Mendocino County. As we have repeatedly said on this blog, a civilized society prosecutes homicide. What a relief to know that we still inhabit one.

(Justice4Susan.com)

* * *

LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Only a true sap watches a pre-season football game, especially a 49er pre-season football game, but there they were whooping it up like it was the Super Bowl in the Montana years. When I laughed one of them snapped, ‘Go away you little bring-down, and keep your negativity to yourself’."

* * *

RUFFING COUP?

Dear Folks,

I've been made aware that there is a coup brewing to get rid of Linda Ruffing our City Manager. It would be a real tragedy for our city if we were to loose her. As a former council member, can attest to her professionalism, her honesty, her clarity, her creativity and my respect for her. This Monday (August 13) there is a city council meeting where we can let the council know of our support for her. Public comment, where we can make our thoughts known, is one of the first things on the agenda. The meeting starts at 6 PM. They will meet in Closed Session on Tuesday the 14th to discuss. Please weigh in.

Meg Courtney, Fort Bragg

COASTLIB is rallying to prevent what it describes as a "coup" to remove Fort Bragg City Manager, Linda Ruffing. Ruffing is smart and capable, but she also makes way too much money, has stuffed city hall and the previous city council with persons dependent on her, has run interference for the destructive downtown influence of Hospitality House, brought in a retired cop from LA as police chief while shafting local hero John Naulty, screwing over Naulty simply to place one more person beholden to her in the chief's job. Why a coup? If a majority of the city council says it's time for her to go, don't renew her contract.

* * *

INTERESTING argument by Marco MacClean on censorship, which we've posted with tonight's batch. It's not even a constant battle anymore in "liberal" Mendocino County or anywhere else in the land with the internet. It's now possible to pass one's waking hours never hearing or reading a dissenting view. The polarization occurring generally in the country is a growing intolerance that's headed to dark political places. Charlottesville is just the beginning. Fortunately for us pwoggie-woggies of NorCal, there are enough of us to fight back.

* * *

GLENDA ANDERSON has apparently retired as the Press Democrat's Mendocino County correspondent. The long-time companion of Bari Bombing suspect, Mike Sweeney, it isn't likely that the PD, financially struggling like all print papers, will assign a full-time reporter to this area of the Northcoast. A journal-chum put it this way, "The job was never kind to her. She suffered at the hands of morons at the editing desks in Santa Rosa, and no doubt is happier now."

* * *

ABOUT THIS TIME every year the garden bounty really kicks in, and I don't mean just the zucchini. Right now it's possible to find a real peach, a peachy peach, such as the beaut local farmer Darius Richman handed me the other day. It not only looked like a peach it tasted like a peach, and try finding a peachy peach in a supermarket. They'll have peaches that look like the greatest peaches to ever fall from a tree but, blindfolded, supermarket peaches, apples, plums, apricots all taste the same, or watered-down versions of the fruit God intended.

AND WHO ROLLS IN Thursday afternoon with his own impressive bounty straight outta Arbuckle, but Patrick Kalfsbeek, beekeeper to the stars. I'd forgotten what a beefsteak tomato tasted like until Patrick handed me one of his. And his honey? The Anderson Valley has never been sweeter.

* * *

KIDS & CANNABIS

Cannabis Hour, Aug. 24, 9 a.m., on KZYX

Dear Friends,

"Kids and Cannabis" will be the topic of the next Cannabis Hour, Thursday, Aug. 24, at 9 a.m. on KZYX. How do you talk about cannabis with your children? Does "Just Say No" work? What are the best and most recent studies on the impacts of long-term teen cannabis use on the brain? Are kids in the Emerald Triangle more at risk for drug dependence or addiction than children elsewhere in California?

My guest will be Amanda Reiman, MSW, PhD. A cannabis- and drug-policy expert and educator, Dr. Reiman taught courses for ten years on substance-abuse treatment and drug policy at Univeristy of California Berkeley. After receiving her PhD from UC Berkeley in Social Welfare, Dr. Reiman completed pre- and post-doctoral fellowships with the Alcohol Research Group. Following that, she was the Director of Research and Patient Services at Berkeley Patients Group, one of the oldest dispensaries in the country, and the Manager of Marijuana Law and Policy for the Drug Policy Alliance, a national non-profit that was engaged in the drafting and campaigns of legalization initiatives across the country and abroad. Amanda was inaugural Chair of the Medical Cannabis Commission for the city of Oakland; served on the Cannabis Regulatory Commission for the city of Oakland, and is currently the Head of Community Relations for Flow Kana, a branded cannabis distribution company working with small farmers in the Emerald Triangle. She is also the Secretary of the International Cannabis Farmer’s Association, a non-profit organization that advocates for research and policies that favor sun-grown cannabis cultivation through traditional farming methods. Reiman’s earlier research focused on the role of medical cannabis dispensaries in providing health services, the integration of cannabis businesses into communities, and the use of cannabis as a substitute for alcohol and other drugs.

Please, join us for what i think will be a very engaging show! We'll take calls and questions at 9:40 a.m. at 707 895-2448. Stream it live on Kzyx.org.Or listen to the archived version on jukebox.kzyx.org.

* * *

CATCH OF THE DAY, August 12, 2017

Avants, Brown, Couthren, Hernandez

JAMES AVANTS, Albion. Controlled substance, disorderly conduct-alcohol, county parole violation.

JACOB BROWN, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

STEVE COUTHREN, Ukiah. Parole violation. (Frequent Flyer)

SACRAMENTO HERNANDEZ, Ukiah. Vandalism, failure to appear.

Hildbrand-Ford, Jenkins, Kehoe

APRIL HILDBRAND-FORD, Redwood Valley. DUI.

JAMES JENKINS, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun. Criminal threats, false imprisonment, probation revocation. (Frequent Flyer)

MATTHEW KEHOE, Laytonville. Under influence, controlled substance, disorderly conduct-alcohol.

Kotterman, Mingo, Mitchell

DUSTIN KOTTERMAN, Ukiah. DUI, resisting.

ALEANDRIA MINGO, Lakeport/Ukiah. Domestic abuse, resisting.

STACY MITCHELL, Laytonville. Taking vehicle without owner’s consent, probation revocation.

* * *

ONE DEAD, AT LEAST 26 INJURED AFTER CAR STRIKES CROWD OF COUNTERPROTESTERS IN CHARLOTTESVILLE

A car plowed into a group of anti-racist protesters in the Virginia city. Later Saturday a police helicopter crashed in Charlottesville, killing the pilot and passenger.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A car plowed into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a white nationalist rally Saturday in a Virginia college town, killing one person, sending at least 26 others to hospitals and ratcheting up tension in an increasingly violent confrontation.

The chaos boiled over at what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade: the governor declared a state of emergency, police dressed in riot gear ordered people out and helicopters circled overhead. The group had gathered to protest plans to remove a statue of the Confederal Gen. Robert E. Lee, and others who arrived to protest the racism.

Matt Korbon, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, said several hundred counter-protesters were marching when “suddenly there was just this tire screeching sound.” A silver sedan smashed into another car, then backed up, barreling through “a sea of people.”

The impact hurled people into the air. Those left standing scattered, screaming and running for safety in different directions.

The driver was later arrested, authorities said.

About three hours after the vehicle plowed in the crowd a police helicopter crashed killing the pilot and a passenger. Officials said the deaths have been linked to the violent white nationalist rally, though the connection was not immediately clear.

The turbulence began Friday night, when the white nationalists carried torches though the university campus in what they billed as a “pro-white” demonstration. It quickly spiraled into violence Saturday morning. Hundreds of people threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays. At least eight were injured and one arrested in connection.

President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday about the violence that erupted. “We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!”

But some of the white nationalists cited Trump’s victory as validation for their beliefs, and Trump’s critics pointed to the president’s racially tinged rhetoric as exploiting the nation’s festering racial tension.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson noted that Trump for years publicly questioned President Barack Obama’s citizenship.

“We are in a very dangerous place right now,” he said.

Right-wing blogger Jason Kessler had called for what he termed a “pro-white” rally in Charlottesville. White nationalists and their opponents promoted the event for weeks.

Oren Segal, who directs the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, said multiple white power groups gathered in Charlottesville, including members of neo-Nazi organizations, racist skinhead groups and Ku Klux Klan factions.

“We anticipated this event being the largest white supremacist gathering in over a decade,” Segal said. “Unfortunately, it appears to have become the most violent as well.”

The white nationalist organizations Vanguard America and Identity Evropa; the Southern nationalist League of the South; the National Socialist Movement; the Traditionalist Workers Party; and the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights also were on hand, he said, along with several groups with a smaller presence.

On the other side, anti-fascist demonstrators also gathered in Charlottesville, but they generally aren’t organized like white nationalist factions, said Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Many others were just locals caught in the fray.

Colleen Cook, 26, stood on a curb shouting at the rally attendees to go home.

Cook, a teacher who attended the University of Virginia, said she sent her son, who is black, out of town for the weekend.

“This isn’t how he should have to grow up,” she said.

Cliff Erickson leaned against a fence and took in the scene. He said he thinks removing the statue amounts to erasing history and said the “counter-protesters are crazier than the alt-right.”

“Both sides are hoping for a confrontation,” he said.

It’s the latest confrontation in Charlottesville since the city about 100 miles outside of Washington, D.C., voted earlier this year to remove a statue of Lee.

In May, a torch-wielding group that included prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer gathered around the statue for a nighttime protest, and in July, about 50 members of a North Carolina-based KKK group traveled there for a rally, where they were met by hundreds of counter-protesters.

Kessler said this week that the rally is partly about the removal of Confederate symbols but also about free speech and “advocating for white people.”

“This is about an anti-white climate within the Western world and the need for white people to have advocacy like other groups do,” he said in an interview.

Between rally attendees and counter-protesters, authorities were expecting as many as 6,000 people, Charlottesville police said this week.

Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer said he was disgusted that the white nationalists had come to his town and blamed Trump for inflaming racial prejudices.

“I’m not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you’re seeing in American today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president,” he said.

Charlottesville, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a liberal-leaning city that’s home to the flagship University of Virginia and Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

The statue’s removal is part of a broader city effort to change the way Charlottesville’s history of race is told in public spaces. The city has also renamed Lee Park, where the statue stands, and Jackson Park, named for Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. They’re now called Emancipation Park and Justice Park, respectively.

For now, the Lee statue remains. A group called the Monument Fund filed a lawsuit arguing that removing the statue would violate a state law governing war memorials. A judge has agreed to temporarily block the city from removing the statue for six months.

(Associated Press)

Fields

UPDATE: James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, Ohio is being held on suspicion of second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop in an accident that resulted in death, according to Col. Martin Kumer, superintendent of the Albermarle-Charlottesville County Regional Jail. Authorities are treating the incident as "criminal homicide," according to Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas. The FBI announced late Saturday that the department has opened a civil rights investigation into the car attack.

* * *

TORCHLIGHT PARADE BY RIGHT-WING WHITE MEN?

We've seen this movie before:

* * *

TRUMP’S LATEST DENIALS: NOTHING NEW

by Marilyn Davin

Pity some version of Donald Trump wasn’t President in the mid-1880s. That’s when my maternal grandmother, listed as a “servant” on the manifest of the ship, travelled, huddled in steerage, to the Land of Opportunity. Ten years old, she set out from Norway where many at the time were starving as the population outstripped the rocky soil’s capacity to feed its people. If Trump had been President my Grandma Martha would surely have been turned away by boot-jacked ICE officers. At the turn of the twentieth century, she was a poor, hungry servant girl with no credentials to earn big money in the U.S. She would have been what Trump calls a “low-quality” immigrant.

In retrospect if she had been denied passage and her family had managed to hold on in the homeland for a couple of decades, some version of myself could be living today in Norway, the country with the highest standard of living and among the lowest poverty and crime rates in the world. Instead, Grover Cleveland was President and immigrants poured into the United States; Norwegians were second only to the Irish in the number of immigrants at that time. In fact, when U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts introduced legislation at the time that would have required a literacy test for would-be immigrants, President Cleveland vetoed it. Seems the natives, as usual, were grumbling that new arrivals would work for less and drive down wages, a familiar theme throughout businesses’ nearly unbroken chokehold on the United States through its history. President Cleveland bucked the trend.

I don’t know if earlier arrivals at the turn of the last century were clamoring for servant’s jobs like the one my Norwegian grandmother had, but nearly 130 years later I suspect that the folks already here have little interest in heading out to the fields to plant, grow, and harvest the food we all eat (and buy cheaply). I always look but have yet to see a line of hopeful applicants waiting enthusiastically to take their turns hunched over crops in California’s broiling Central Valley heat for low pay, no benefits, and no disability when the back-breaking work inevitably broke their bodies. Remember what happened in Georgia back in 2011? That’s when the state’s legislature in its wisdom decided to do something about “those job-grabbing illegal immigrants.” Both houses passed House Bill 87, which did just that. The Governor signed it into law and undocumented farm workers quickly decamped to neighboring states to avoid deportation. A modicum of foresight would have predicted what happened next. The resulting labor shortage forced Georgia farmers to leave millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions, melons, and other crops rotting in the fields. Faced with the financial fallout, those farmers ended up appealing to – you guessed it – the federal government to bail them out. Those tech-savvy immigrants Trump likes so much flew right over Georgia to Silicon Valley to work. And it turned out that native Georgians, even the desperately poor among them, wouldn’t stoop to harvesting those crops.

So if Trump got his way and there was suddenly nobody to pick California’s crops, what would happen? Who if anyone would step up to do the work? Our kids would probably look up from their iPhones and iPads for a second or two to listen to the problem before laughing their heads off and sending texts, tweets, and selfies to each other about it. Maybe some other chronically unemployed groups would be interested. Cranksters would have lots of energy to zip up and down the rows but could pose an attendance problem. The opiod-addicted would have a hard time concentrating on the task. Alkies would have the same problem. Geezers like me and many others in the state would require moving seats to compensate for bad knees, hips, and backs. Certainly anybody with a job, even one paying minimum wage, would turn down this agricultural opportunity. So that would put us in the same position as Georgia, but with a very different impact. Most of the country’s salad vegetables and a high percentage of other vegetable and fruit crops are grown in California. Think of a grocery store without fruit or vegetables. People with backyard gardens would have to put up electric fences and post armed guards to protect their household crops. BLTs would only have bacon, Caesar salads only croutons and anchovies, apple pies only cinnamon and crust. The available fresh produce would be so expensive that only the 1% would be able to afford it.

This notion of only admitting the highly skilled and educated on the large scale described by Herr Trump would have unintended consequences too. Suddenly everybody’s a single hipster living in tech-intensive cities like San Francisco and Boston. A dwindling kid population would cause schools to close and remaining families to flee. Childcare would be a huge factor for families whose parents and grandparents would no longer be permitted to enter the country legally to help out. Newspapers, magazines, and all other printed material would finally give up the ghost entirely. Libraries would close. On the positive side, bike sales would go up.

An extreme picture, admittedly, but selections like these always have consequences. Look at the female shortage in China, for example, or the lawyer glut in California. Having too much of anyone is a bad idea and always ends up in ways that nobody foresaw.

So would Grandma Martha have been better off if her family had toughed it out and she had stayed in Norway? Maybe, maybe not. But Trump and the Georgia Governor certainly would not have wanted her even though she, too, beginning at 10 years old, ended up doing the back-breaking dirty work of the poor that nobody else in America wanted. Some things never change.

* * *

SUNFLOWER LADY by Diego Rivera

(Submitted by Susie de Castro)

* * *

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

For those with power there is no decline. They just get richer. Those who do go into decline so that these few others may prosper will just fade away and die. Media is owned and controlled by the haves and not by the I-don’t-have-Jack-Shits so without a sympathetic media the powerless have no voice. Their stories will be unsaid and unwritten.

For some all America has to do to be great again is to let the rich man prosper, screw everyone else. One of them is in the White House right now and you put him there America. America is on the path to be great again. Robber baron great with the poverty of sweatshop America or the misery of a Charles Dickens novel to keep steak on the rich mans plate.

Some desiring cosmic justice predict a fall, but that is premature. Injustice can for a while feed on itself. For quite a while.

* * *

"TEN MEN in our country could buy the whole world and ten million can't buy enough to eat."

— Will Rogers, 1931, from the book Lies my Teacher Told Me

* * *

STUDY: ATHEISTS HAVE HIGHER INTELLIGENCE THAN THE RELIGIOUS

Dear Editor:

In the August edition of FreeThought Today Edward Dutton and Dimitri van der Linden, researchers from the Ulster Institute for Social Research and Rotterdam University say that faith is considered an instinct, and smarter people are better at overcoming those instincts. The researchers published their study in Springer's Journal of Evolutionary Psychological Science in May. They concluded that a negative correlation appears valid if religion in considered an instinct and intelligence is the ability to rise above one's instincts. Thus religion should be considered an 'evolved domain' (instinct).

"If religion is an evolved domain, then it is an instinct, and intelligence - rationally solving problems-can be understood as involving overcoming instinct and being open to non-instinctive possibilities". The study shows the more intelligent a child is, including the early years, the more likely he or she is to turn away from religion. The study also showed that older people with above-average intelligence are less likely to believe in a god. The researchers looked into the link between instinct and stress. "If religion is indeed an evolved domain, an instinct, then it will become heightened at times of stress, when people are inclined to act instinctively, and there is clear evidence for this. It also means that intelligence allows us to able to pause and reason through the situation and the possible consequences of our actions.”

I would offer a few comments: The study since it originates in Europe has had little publicity in the U. S. Also, most European countries are much more secular than our country and would be more amendable to such a study. Plus, many Americans try to solve problems and stress through praying to a god.

In peace and love,

Jim Updegraff

Sacramento

* * *

WHY I WAS FIRED BY GOOGLE

by James Damore

I was fired by Google this past Monday for a document that I wrote and circulated internally raising questions about cultural taboos and how they cloud our thinking about gender diversity at the company and in the wider tech sector. I suggested that at least some of the male-female disparity in tech could be attributed to biological differences (and, yes, I said that bias against women was a factor too). Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai declared that portions of my statement violated the company’s code of conduct and “cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace.”

My 10-page document set out what I considered a reasoned, well-researched, good-faith argument, but as I wrote, the viewpoint I was putting forward is generally suppressed at Google because of the company’s “ideological echo chamber.” My firing neatly confirms that point. How did Google, the company that hires the smartest people in the world, become so ideologically driven and intolerant of scientific debate and reasoned argument?

We all have moral preferences and beliefs about how the world is and should be. Having these views challenged can be painful, so we tend to avoid people with differing values and to associate with those who share our values. This self-segregation has become much more potent in recent decades. We are more mobile and can sort ourselves into different communities; we wait longer to find and choose just the right mate; and we spend much of our time in a digital world personalized to fit our views.

Google is a particularly intense echo chamber because it is in the middle of Silicon Valley and is so life-encompassing as a place to work. With free food, internal meme boards and weekly companywide meetings, Google becomes a huge part of its employees’ lives. Some even live on campus. For many, including myself, working at Google is a major part of their identity, almost like a cult with its own leaders and saints, all believed to righteously uphold the sacred motto of “Don’t be evil.”

Echo chambers maintain themselves by creating a shared spirit and keeping discussion confined within certain limits. As Noam Chomsky once observed, “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.”

But echo chambers also have to guard against dissent and opposition. Whether it’s in our homes, online or in our workplaces, a consensus is maintained by shaming people into conformity or excommunicating them if they persist in violating taboos. Public shaming serves not only to display the virtue of those doing the shaming but also warns others that the same punishment awaits them if they don’t conform.

In my document, I committed heresy against the Google creed by stating that not all disparities between men and women that we see in the world are the result of discriminatory treatment. When I first circulated the document about a month ago to our diversity groups and individuals at Google, there was no outcry or charge of misogyny. I engaged in reasoned discussion with some of my peers on these issues, but mostly I was ignored.

Everything changed when the document went viral within the company and the wider tech world. Those most zealously committed to the diversity creed—that all differences in outcome are due to differential treatment and all people are inherently the same—could not let this public offense go unpunished. They sent angry emails to Google’s human-resources department and everyone up my management chain, demanding censorship, retaliation and atonement.

Upper management tried to placate this surge of outrage by shaming me and misrepresenting my document, but they couldn’t really do otherwise: The mob would have set upon anyone who openly agreed with me or even tolerated my views. When the whole episode finally became a giant media controversy, thanks to external leaks, Google had to solve the problem caused by my supposedly sexist, anti-diversity manifesto, and the whole company came under heated and sometimes threatening scrutiny.

It saddens me to leave Google and to see the company silence open and honest discussion. If Google continues to ignore the very real issues raised by its diversity policies and corporate culture, it will be walking blind into the future—unable to meet the needs of its remarkable employees and sure to disappoint its billions of users.

(Mr. Damore worked as a software engineer at Google’s Mountain View campus from 2013 until this past week.)

* * *

CALIFORNIA’S LARGEST BOATING GROUP SAYS “NO THANKS” TO JERRY BROWN’S WATER-STEALING DELTA TUNNELS

The Recreational Boaters of California (RBOC), a non-profit organization serving the boating community, on August 3 announced its opposition to Governor Jerry Brown’s California WaterFix/Delta Tunnels, a massive construction project that they say could “seriously impact” boaters’ access to the Delta for many generations to come.

By Dan Bacher 

“The 1,000 miles of waterways in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta comprise a unique and treasured resource for California’s 3 million recreational boating enthusiasts,” the group said in a position paper.

RBOC joins a growing number of fishing groups, Tribes, conservation groups, environmental justice organizations, family farmers, Delta residents, businesses and elected leaders in opposing Governor Jerry Brown’s “legacy project.”

The joint Brown administration/Trump administration Delta Tunnels project could take 14 years or more to complete. The project proposes constructing two massive 35-mile long tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to facilitate the export of northern California water to corporate agribusiness interests, Southern California water agencies, and oil companies conducting fracking operations and other extreme oil drilling methods,

“RBOC has, for decades, been at the forefront of opposing proposals that would impair the ability of boaters to access to the 1,000 miles of waterways in the Delta,” Peter Robertson, president of the organization, said.

“We successfully opposed permanent barriers that would have blocked navigation to popular Delta destinations. We have supported legislation that would increase funds forfighting invasive species such as the water hyacinth,” Robertson stated.

RBPC said the proposed WaterFix project is the “latest threat to boating in the Delta.”

The group noted that major waterways and tributaries could be closed to recreational boaters during the project’s construction.

At a meeting of its Board of Directors on August 1, RBOC identified “specific, boater-related concerns” with the Notice of Determination (NOD) for the California WaterFix environmental analysis.

These include:

  • The significant, negative impact that will occur with the closure of waterways to navigation during the lengthy construction period.
  • The absence of a plan to ensure that the Delta infrastructure will not only be preserved, but improved.
  • The lack of surety that the plan will address the threat that climate change and increased water transfer pose to the amount and quality of water in the Delta.

“We are encouraging the state to consider other sources of water such as increased storage and desalination,” concluded Robertson.

While Brown and Trump administration proponents of the tunnels continually claim the Delta Tunnels will somehow “restore” the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary while providing “water supply reliability,” the hollowness of that claim was recently revealed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).

On July 28, the CDFW, under the helm of Director Chuck Bonham, issued an “incidental take permit” to kill endangered species during the construction and operation of California WaterFix, supposedly in “compliance” with Section 2081(b) of the California Endangered Species Act (CESA). The permit allows the project to kill state-listed species, including Sacramento River spring and winter-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt and other fish species.

It is worth noting that no fishing groups, environmental justice groups, Indian Tribes, or conservation groups, with the exception of Jerry Meral’s Natural Heritage Institute, currently support the Delta Tunnels.

* * *

AT THE END OF JUNE, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had hit a new level: two billion monthly active users. That number, the company’s preferred ‘metric’ when measuring its own size, means two billion different people used Facebook in the preceding month. It is hard to grasp just how extraordinary that is. Bear in mind that thefacebook – its original name – was launched exclusively for Harvard students in 2004. No human enterprise, no new technology or utility or service, has ever been adopted so widely so quickly. The speed of uptake far exceeds that of the internet itself, let alone ancient technologies such as television or cinema or radio.

John Lancaster, “You Are The Product,” London Review of Books

* * *

RITUAL OF CHÜD.

“My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically, and we are now dumb enough to take them literally.” -John Dominic Crossan

Here’s the recording* of last night’s (2017-08-11) KNYO (and, three hours in, also KMEC) Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show ready to download and enjoy.

Or, thanks to Hank Sims of Lost Coast Outpost, you can get it this other way, which you might like better because it offers an instant-play option and isn’t surrounded by confusing flashing ads.

*Technical problems meant that a great deal of this show was not even going out on the air on either KNYO or KMEC. Still, I persevered. The recording is complete, and it’s a pretty good show. Lots of local writing and valuable information.

Besides all that, here are links to a few not necessarily radio-useful but otherwise worthwhile items that I set aside for you while putting the show together, found mostly thanks to the fine websites listed to your right:

What happens just before showtime at the Metropolitan Opera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdUScE7VZq8

We all know what memories can bring, they bring dominoes and fire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIyiGrMt0BI

This cat had some grass in its beezer

Which made it a sad little sneezer.

To stop all the fuss

And mucus and pus

The man pulled it out with a tweezer.

https://imgur.com/gallery/l24ns

Illusions.

http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/search/label/optical%20illusions

Art.

http://illusion.scene360.com/art/106554/el-gato-chimney/

Phenakistoscopical boxers.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phenakistoscope_3g07692a.gif

The incredible praying mantis.

http://twistedsifter.com/2011/11/the-praying-mantis-facts-photos/

Rocket themed products. (I especially like the coffee table.)

http://www.crookedbrains.net/2017/08/best-rocket-themed-products.html

The chemical spellbinding and bedevilment of semen. “The Number 1 cause of death for females ages 15-59 worldwide is males. More specifically, women ages 15-59 die in this world primarily as a result of being fucked by males.”

https://trustyourperceptions.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/semen-mens-chemical-war-against-women-part-i-male-chemical-munitions-what-semen-does-to-females/

The judgment of Janet. This reminds me of the last scene in Lars von Trier’s /Dogville/.

http://misscellania.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-judgment-of-janet.html

This is the first chapter in a proposed much longer project about a weapons program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_4Qqnlpi-s

Learning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MhQJNUIYoo

Flying to McDonald’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvQ9DjJNal0

Boom, like that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjtwmypFe1c

HALT! No strong reds! Confusion.

http://misscellania.blogspot.com/2017/08/pasta-halt.html

Spectropia.

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/spectropia_the_popular_19th-century_method_of_conjuring_demons_and_ghosts

Stupid design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBhe0Mz6ah0

Stupid design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfeQvbIFBks

Fun with statues.

http://pics.sixpacktech.com/2017/08/06/fun-with-statues/

The language of pussy. Don’t touch me there. Feed me. Etc.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cat-dictionary-lessons-pussy-and-her-language

Routine job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPtgsM7U87A

This is something like what the space marine woman in /Aliens/ (Alien 2) imagined they were after when she cocked her gun and flippantly dismissed the danger by saying, “It’s just another bug hunt.” It’s never just another bug hunt.

http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/m/megalograptus.html

Can you hear the difference between a $62 violin and a $462,000 violin?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HotrHNXwpE

Everybody’s pants now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OApLDOqLymw&feature=youtu.be

And the perfect flamingo desktop image. Cover the world. (Juanita has a certificate in exotic animal handling, and she told me once that, just in terms of behavior, you can consider a flamingo a goose.)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/James’s_Flamingo_mating_rit

* * *

POETRY READING SERIES

featuring Theresa Whitehill!

(Open Mic follows)

Saturday, August 26th 3 pm

Join us for a reading with Theresa Whitehill, Poet Laureate Emeritus of Ukiah!! A California poet, graphic designer, and letterpress printer, Theresa will be visiting the Ukiah Library on Saturday, August 26th. Open mic follows. Teens & adults are invited to share poems in any form or style.

A feminist epic by Diane di Prima, LOBA is a visionary epic quest for the reintegration of the feminine, hailed by many as the great female counterpart to Allen Ginsberg's Howl when the first half appeared in 1978. Loba, "she-wolf" in Spanish explores the wilderness at the heart of experience, through the archetype of the wolf goddess, elemental symbol of complete self-acceptance.

A California poet, graphic designer, and letterpress printer, Theresa Whitehill served as Poet Laureate for the city of Ukiah from 2009 through 2011 and has been involved her entire career in production of poetry readings and events. Whitehill’s two collections of poetry, A Grammar of Longing (2009) and A Natural History of Mill Towns (1993), were both published by Pygmy Forest Press.

Light refreshments will be served. For more information – please contact Melissa at the Ukiah Library: 467-6434 or carrm@co.mendocino.ca.us

* * *

COMPUTER CLASSES FOR ADULTS:

Facebook 101 – July 11th

Email Basics – August 29th

Internet Safety 101 – Sept 19th

All classes begin at 11 am

Join us at the Ukiah Library for hands-on interactive computer classes for adults. Learn how to keep in touch with friends and family or promote your art –work on Facebook, use email to correspond & communicate business matters, and protect your identity & stay safe online!

Registration is required; please call 463-4490 to sign up!

All classes and events are free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library. For more information about the Ukiah Library Summer Reading Program, please contact: Melissa Eleftherion Carr at 707-467-4634 or carrm@co.mendocino.ca.us.

 

50 Comments

  1. BB Grace August 13, 2017

    Mr. Updegraff:

    “Americans try to solve problems and stress through praying to a god.”

    Reading the AVA it appears Atheists turn to alcohol, illegal drugs, government mental health, and you think that’s the intelligent choice?

    I love Ayn Rand, and not because Commies hate her, they don’t even read her, but still, I bring her up because when it comes to intelligent Atheists, she has my vote as no one has made a better argument for reason against religion than Rand.

    Finally, Spirituality is instinctual. Spirituality is a small part, not the whole of religion. Faith is expressed and experienced in many human emotions religion provides a “safe place” foundation to explore spiritual instincts; Mystery for example, when things happen that one doesn’t know the entire reason, like when a $20.00 bill blows up to you in a parking lot and there’s no one there to claim it. “Why me Dear God?” This is where prayer has a divine sense of humor to enjoy.

    I think I would be more impressed with Atheists if I met more who did more than drink, drugs and wonder what sex they really are when they aren’t “fucking” whatever.

    • George Hollister August 13, 2017

      Likely not to get any argument from Darwin. I have never known anyone who lacked faith. And Darwin recognized the transcending existence of religion in all cultures.

      It is safe to say that God exists in the realm of the unknown, and everyone has a relationship with that. So yea, to some, to many, a $20 bill blowing in the wind(why not a $100 bill?) coming from nowhere is a gift of God.

      We all have faith, and it plays an important role. But it is also dangerous, as we see today, and in history. The most dangerous are those who confuse what is faith with what is fact. And it is not limited to our churches either. Faith and fact is also confused in places like the EPA.

      • Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

        I find it appropriate that your comment followed that of Ms. Grace. There’s a certain odd beauty in that.

        By the way, George, it is not true that “everyone” has faith. That’s just one of your pontifications.

        Referencing Darwin, which is typical behavior for the right, is utter nonsense. Most biologists today have never read him and never plan to read him, except, maybe, for historical perspective. About all he did was to summarize what most naturalists had concluded on their own at the time. Since then evolutionary biology has moved forward.

        • George Hollister August 13, 2017

          Everyone I have known who tells me they have no faith, is living in denial of it. And Harv, you are no exception.

          • Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

            George, you are so full of s**t it’s pathetic.

            • George Hollister August 13, 2017

              Nothing more intelligent to say, Harv old buddy?

              Your faith is in a large central government, where wisdom and good can only emanate. I have heard you profess this, many times. It is a popular faith that transcends time and culture, and is professed by many in these very pages. To me, it is a foolish faith. But you know, we all think other’s faiths are foolish if they are different than our own. It is the way it is, and the way it has always been.

              In a civil and free society tolerance of other’s faiths is required, as long as those faiths don’t interfere with the freedom and rights of others.

              • Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

                Far more intelligent that anything you’ve ever said, old fool, including your most recent prophesy. You believe that your flowery language implies great intelligence and knowledge. Not all are fooled with such blabber.

                By the way, where’s the documentation for your slurs against Canada’s health system?

                • George Hollister August 13, 2017

                  If you want to get someone PO, challenge their faith.

                  Hey, go to Canada, become a citizen.

                  • Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

                    And still, no documentation.

                    Nah, Georgie boy, I’m staying ’till the bitter end, whether you’re pi**ed off or not.

                  • Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

                    Georgie, you seem not to know the difference between faith and reasonable expectation based on experience and knowledge. Typical.

      • LouisBedrock August 13, 2017

        It’s not all us atheists who are causing the problems.
        As Grace herself has so astutely pointed out,

        “it is …the Atheist Jews who have LBTG parades and consume alcohol, drugs, women exposing their faces and limbs,(sic)”

    • Bruce Anderson August 13, 2017

      Crimeny, BB, do you have to curse? What would Ayn, by far the worst novelist ever in the English language apart from her neo-fascist opinions, think?

      • LouisBedrock August 13, 2017

        “According to the words put into his mouth by Plato, Socrates believed that he had been sent by the gods to act as a “gadfly” to the Athenian state. He saw the state as “a great and noble steed” which had to be reminded of its proper duties.”

        BB Grace, having learned of Socrates and Plato in her book, A CHILD’S FIRST GOLDEN BOOK OF GREEK PHILOSOPHERS, fancies herself the Socrates of the twenty-first century and has called herself “a gadfly of the internet”.

        She’s more like a housefly.
        “Housefly” would be more accurate because,

        1. Grace was flits around in filth, feeds on filth, and spreads filth.
        2. She seems to be everywhere and is wanted nowhere.
        3. Her buzzing is beyond annoying.

        I used to find Grace amusing, but I don’t anymore.
        As Trump, President of the Empire, whom God created in Grace’s image, pushes the planet toward annihilation, I find stupidity and ignorance appalling, not amusing

        Grace is to Socrates what Trump is to Saladin.

        • Bill Pilgrim August 13, 2017

          “Ignorance created gods, and cunning took advantage of the opportunity.”

      • BB Grace August 13, 2017

        Captain. I sincerely apologize. I am genuinely sorry for employing violent slang to make a point.

        Violent slang is not my style and appreciate your comment protesting my use by suggesting there’s better vocabulary to accomplish my point, with, “What would Ayn; The Neo-fascist; Really?, think?”

        Rand claimed her greatest enemy was religion, so I don’t understand how she falls into a Neo fascist group, except that the definitions for neo-fascist no longer include religion, which is interesting because after WWII, the biggest issue Communists had against Fascists was religion, “bloody crusades” for example, as Fascism in Europe began in the Catholic Church:

        02:06 Fascism is also a kind of religion, a political religion,
        02:10 with all that belongs to a religion:
        02:14 absolute truth, secrets, prophets, leaders,
        02:18 division of the world into friend and enemy.
        02:22 The first fascist movement was militantly Catholic
        02:26 it was not secular. Islam has
        02:30 a political element, a political ideology
        02:34 with very strong fascist traits.
        02:38 The division of the world,
        02:42 the ideology which ends in violence,
        02:46 the dehumanisation of the enemy, the feeling of chosenness
        02:50 the moral superiority that’s all fascistic
        02:54 and the philosophy of fighting
        02:58 is the same for Islamists and fascists.
        03:02 One does not fight to live, but one lives to fight.

        http://gatesofvienna.net/2014/04/fascism-is-rooted-in-islam/

        I genuinely respect you as a good captain and love your AVA ship very much, which is why you can know my apology is sincere and I will refrain from employing slang to make a point. I stand corrected. Thank you Sir.

        • LouisBedrock August 13, 2017

          Lickspittle moron.

          • BB Grace August 13, 2017

            Jesus loves you Mr. Bedrock.

            • Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

              How would you know ma’am? Did the “Bible tell you so”?

              • LouisBedrock August 13, 2017

                Maybe He sent her an e-mail.

              • BB Grace August 13, 2017

                No; Mr. Reading. Jesus personally told me that he loves Mr. Bedrock; Furthermore, I am not ashamed to tell you that Jesus told me he loves you too and every time your dog gives you a loving look, Jesus wants you to know, he’s with you both.

                Shalom.

                • Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

                  Well, ma’am unless you can produce some proof of this “personal” conversation, I do not believe it happened. I cannot believe a nonexistent being would be able to converse with you, except in your imagination. Be cautious of what you say; one of the three manifestations of the Christian nonexistent being that you seem to “believe in” has a very low opinion of liars, according to the book he supposedly dictated.

                  My dog gives me loving looks when I feed him, so it’s more a cause-and-effect situation.

                  • LouisBedrock August 13, 2017

                    Since so many people that loved me have died, and since beggars cannot be choosers, I am happy that Jesus loves me–even though I am not gay.

                    Islam is happy that Jesus loves me.

                  • BB Grace August 13, 2017

                    True; Mr. Bedrock. Islam has no problems with Jesus loving you because your trade agreement that Islam deliver you from Moses to claim you dead or alive is respectable.
                    Shalom.

                  • LouisBedrock August 13, 2017

                    “Islam has no problems with Jesus loving you because your trade agreement that Islam deliver you from Moses to claim you dead or alive is respectable.”

                    Eloquently expressed.

                  • BB Grace August 13, 2017

                    Jesus just told me, “No worries about that Mr. Reading Kiddo; Repent when you’re ready.”
                    Shalom

                  • Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

                    Again, some proof. You and Hollister are great at making assertions but poor at providing evidence for them. Jesus gonna get you, girl. Either that or his “daddy” will. If I recall, blasphemy is the one unforgivable sin…

                  • BB Grace August 13, 2017

                    Jesus forgives. No worries for me.

                    Shalom

  2. Jeff Costello August 13, 2017

    2 billion people on facebook? That was the entire world population when I was a kid.

    Grover Cleveland… I’ve had to reassess my view of W Bush in the Trump era. Even W was a human being.

    • BB Grace August 13, 2017

      “In the future fascist will call themselves anit-fascist” Winston Churchill

      • Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

        If a bloodthirsty racist said it, it must be true.

        • james marmon August 13, 2017

          Churchill as Racist: A Hard Sell

          “Winston Churchill who in 1899 argued for equal rights for black South Africans in a debate with his Boer jailer in Pretoria, In 1906, as Undersecretary for the Colonies, he endeared himself to Gandhi by defending the rights of Indians in South Africa. The same Churchill endorsed the concept of a Jewish national home, and praised the contributions of Jews to civilization in 1920. Churchill opposed Indian self-government in the 1930s and, when he lost, sent encouragement to Gandhi…”

          https://richardlangworth.com/racism

          • Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

            Ask the Kurds and Iraqis and other “uncivilized tribes” in the Middle East following the first war, after the “victors” arbitrarily divided the spoils of the fallen Ottoman empire. He particularly supported using poison gas when they got uppity. Sounds racist to me; maybe not to a Trump supporter.

            Supporting Zionists, mostly of Euro descent over the natives of Palestine is racist, too. Sounds like you would have been a supporter of the British Empire. I would have found it despicable.

        • Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

          And besides, it seems that Churchill never said such a thing anyway.

  3. Lazarus August 13, 2017

    I though we had insanity on the Willits City council, but this guy out of Ukiah has made perhaps the most irrational argument to date against the Costco store. His so-called emissions issue should translate to an omission of his seat on the City Council.
    Ukiah, this City Council member, Steve Scalmanini, is trying to screw you out of them free cheese samples, them 1000 count bags of “Sweet and Low”, and them yummy jumbo hot dogs, with a big Coke… Turn this guy out Ukiah, turn him out…!
    As always,
    Laz

  4. George Hollister August 13, 2017

    The On Line Comment Of The Day may need to take a rest. There is more opportunity in the USA, right now, than there has been in my lifetime, maybe more than ever.

    • Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

      Dream on, old man.

    • Bill Pilgrim August 13, 2017

      …Sure, if you want to be a bartender, hotel worker, restaurant employee, Walmart greeter, Amazon warehouse stocker or Uber driver…the sky’s the limit!

  5. james marmon August 13, 2017

    Allman should look at what Sonoma County is doing, just build a mental health wing, and forget about some of his craziness.

    New Sonoma County jail wing seeks to improve care for mentally ill inmates

    “When Sonoma County sheriff’s officials publicly revealed their plans last spring to build a $48 million jail wing for the mentally ill, a common question quickly emerged.

    Why not build a psychiatric hospital instead in Sonoma County? After all, the only local hospital beds for mental health patients are operated by a for-profit company, while many low-income residents suffering a psychiatric crisis often wait for hours in an emergency room, waiting for a bed to free up in a psychiatric hospital in another county.

    “Initially, the pushback was ‘Why are you doing that? You should do it for people in the community,’ ” recalled Assistant Sheriff Randall Walker, who is in charge of county detention facilities.

    But “the community,” Walker notes, includes everybody, even those in jail.

    “It includes people in custody, and they’re going to go back into the community. Shouldn’t they go back better off than when they came?” he said.”

    http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/6662448-181/new-sonoma-county-jail-wing?artslide=0

  6. sohumlily August 13, 2017

    So many barbs in today’s MCT, and so little time….

    >sigh<

    • LouisBedrock August 13, 2017

      I understand how you feel, Fair Lily.
      However, assholery must be confronted and refuted.

  7. Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

    Old Will Rogers talked the talk, but he hung out with the wealthy folks in California.

  8. LouisBedrock August 13, 2017

    Darwin and Faith:

    “Up until his return from the Beagle in 1836, Darwin considered himself an “orthodox” Christian. There is no reason to doubt this although it is important to recognise that his orthodoxy was a specific early 19th century, rational, demonstrable, civilised, gentlemanly kind of orthodoxy. In particular, it was heavily influenced by William Paley whose Natural Theology confidently argued that nature contains “every manifestation of design… [that] design must have had a designer … That designer must have been a person [and] that person is God.” Christianity for Darwin was primarily a proof to be established and Paley did that admirably.

    When his emerging theory began to undermine these ideas, it also undermined the Christianity that was built on them. It didn’t happen immediately. Darwin’s notebooks show him trying to accommodate an intellectually credible idea of God and his new theory – in many ways successfully. …

    Those scales titled towards scepticism for the decade of so after Darwin first developed his theory but remained in the balance. He remained a theist of a Christian flavour throughout the 1840s although one with precious little faith. (Whether he had much faith before is itself questionable, as his perceptive wife, Emma, recognised even before they were married).

    When, however, his daughter Annie died in 1851, aged 10, suffering moved from being a theoretical problem to an agonisingly personal one. Most Victorian families lost children (Darwin himself lost two others in infancy) but Annie was his favourite and, unlike most Victorian fathers, he had witnessed every last, degrading moment of her short life. The experience destroyed what was left of his Christian faith.

    The claim that evolution destroyed Darwin’s faith is, thus, only a half-truth, usually made to prove somehow that evolution killed God. By the same reckoning, the claim that evolution had nothing to do with his loss of faith (which was entirely due to Annie’s death) is no more accurate, and is often made for equally polemical purposes (usually to demonstrate that evolution presents no challenges whatsoever to religious belief).

    In reality, Darwin’s loss of faith was, as he recognised, gradual and complex. …”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/sep/17/darwin-evolution-religion
    – –

    • George Hollister August 13, 2017

      Well said, but Darwin also recognized the inherent existence of faith, something that appeared to be with all humanity. His disenchantment with Christian faith is not unique, and is written about in the Bible.

      I would dispute that Darwin was challenging what was fundamental to Christianity. The Creation myth is anything but fundamental. “Do to others as you would want others to do to you” is fundamental.

      • Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

        Wow, Georgie, that’s deep…really, really deep.

      • LouisBedrock August 13, 2017

        Uhh, the Bible has the story of Darwin’s disenchantment?

        Can you cite the precise section?

        Darwin’s work and the work of his successors undermined everything about Christianity, Judaism, and biblical mythology. The Creation myth is nonsense and was invented by a bunch of savages who knew nothing of biology, physics, astronomy, or mathematics.

        Fundamental? To what? To whom

        Screw you, Hollister. You are an idiot.

  9. james marmon August 13, 2017

    VIDEO: Protesters Attacked Charlottesville Driver’s Car With Baseball Bat

    On August 12, a driver drove his vehicle into a crowd of “anti-racist” protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 other individuals. The suspect has been identified as James Alex Fields, Jr.

    Department of Memes reported that police officers in Charlottesville believed the driver was not acting maliciously, suggesting he was scared by the protesters on every side of his vehicle and he did not know what to do.

    New shocking video has emerged that corroborates this theory.

    Citizen researchers have slowed the video down and spotted an African American individual hitting the car with what appears to be a baseball bat before the suspect hit the crowd with his vehicle.

    One such video posted to Streamable shows the driver slowing down, then accelerating quickly after his rear bumper is struck with the baseball bat.

    http://www.departmentofmemes.com/article/protesters-attacked-charlottesville-drivers-car-baseball-bat/

    • Harvey Reading August 13, 2017

      “…suggesting he was scared by the protesters on every side of his vehicle and he did not know what to do.”

      So he did the most reasonable thing that came to mind and floored it, in a forward gear? Didn’t have a reverse?

      Give me a break, Marmon.

  10. Randy Burke August 13, 2017

    I have Faith that Jesus will allow Costco to Evolve into A grand Opening….But it may happen with the 2nd coming. Keeping my eyes peeled to the East awaiting the three wise men and a camel backlit in nuclear North Korean light.

  11. chuck dunbar August 13, 2017

    In the serious, scary context all Americans must be aware of, this surrealistic response by our president, speaking with the governor of Guam: “I have to tell you,you have become extremely famous all over the world, They are talking about Guam, and they’re talking about you.” Adding this bit about tourism: “You’re going to go up, like, tenfold with the expenditure of no money.” As has been said too often, a novelist could not have made this crap up…

    • BB Grace August 13, 2017

      Forget the camel; keep your eye on the donkeys.

Leave a Reply to james marmon Cancel reply

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

-