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Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, July 11, 2018

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FOUND! (Circumstances of both absence and discovery unrevealed.)

Missing Philo Teen Located

MendocinoSportsPlus received a message Tuesday at 1:40 pm that they are no longer looking for this teen. He has been located.

(Click to enlarge)

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GRATEFUL

Dear Editor,

I would like to convey my heartfelt thanks to the friends who have reached out to me after the loss of my companion, Kent Rogers. The many text messages, emails, phone calls, letters & cards, filled with loving messages & memories, were very healing. The hole in my life seems a little smaller.

Thank You,

Neva Dyer

San Francisco

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YOU'RE AN OLD TIMER IF....

…You remember when the Little Red Schoolhouse faced Highway 128 (now Anderson Valley Way) and served as the kindergarten classroom.

…You were a customer of the pharmacy situated at the south end of Boonville.

…You were a patient of Dr. Bradford.

…You drank water or filled your car’s radiator from the “1912” water trough situated on Highway 128 a mile south of the Mendocino County line. (After a long hiatus, it again had water a few years back, but has since gone dry).

(Marshall Newman)

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LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Skrag just strolled by with his common law wife. Makes her walk behind him, and has the nerve to say to me, ‘That's Mrs. Skrag to you, mutt face’!"

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SUPES

THE THEME of Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting was IGNORE Representatives of the Behavioral Health Advisory Board, the Library Board, (previously) the Museum Board, the cannabis permit “working groups.” Pot permit stalwart Ron Harris, who shows up at nearly every Board meeting and tries to take the Supes seriously, seemed to capture the general tone with his plaintive, “How do we get answers to our questions?”

TO WHICH, of course, the Supervisors and the CEO stared back at Harris as if they hadn't heard the question.

FARM BUREAU rep Devon Jones said that it seemed like almost everyone who’s trying to participate in local government is suffering from “meeting fatigue.”

SUPERVISOR JOHN MCCOWEN seemed to agree while he again volunteered to sit on another pot “ad hoc committee” because “people have hit a wall despite their best efforts.”

THE DEEPER THEME however, was that CEO Angelo, who really runs things — most especially the Board itself — has no use for all these “advisory boards” and committees and working groups and their reports and “work product.” By turn, the advisory groups are increasingly frustrated with the Supes and thier puppeteer, Angelo

THE LIBRARY ADVISORY BOARD, chaired by a clearly frustrated Marc Comer, has become so bitter and “sour” (in Supervisor Dan Gjerde’s description) that he figured out a way to get a response out of the Supervisors by his pointed refusal to get on board the Cultural Services Agency train, Angelo and her 5-o's proposal to combine the library, the unvisited county museum and county parks into one agency(which Comer and the Library Advisory Board are adamantly opposed  to. The 5-0's were so annoyed with Comer they voted to reject his report to them, the first time in our memory the Supervisors have ever done that.

CEO ANGELO’S “Soft hiring freeze” — which Supervisor John McCowen had previously insisted be agendized for reconsideration — was postponed on the recommendation of CEO Angelo for one quarter, while admitting that her “balanced” budget really isn’t — not even close.

WE WERE BRIEFLY HOPEFUL when Supervisor McCowen pulled the consent calendar the automatic item giving County Counsel Kit Elliott a large, unexplained salary increase, saying it was an item from closed session and that he disagreed with it. But McCowen declined to explain why he pulled the item or why he disagreed with the raise, leaving the public to wonder: why bother? The rest of the Board quickly and sheepishly voted to award Elliot her big gift of public funds over McCowen’s perfunctory objection without comment or discussion.

(WE’LL HAVE MORE DETAILED ACCOUNTS of these and other mystifying moves of the Supervisors over the next few days.)

(Mark Scaramella)

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ED NOTES

FOR ALL the talk about Judge Kavanaugh's "brilliance," reading excepts of his opinions makes me wonder what's so brilliant about them:

"Suppose you were the EPA Administrator. You have to decide whether to go forward with a proposed air quality regulation. Your only statutory direction is to decide whether it is “appropriate” to go forward with the regulation. Before making that decision, what information would you want to know? You would certainly want to understand the benefits from the regulations. And you would surely ask how much the regulations would cost. You would no doubt take both of those considerations—benefits and costs—into account in making your decision. That’s just common sense and sound government practice. So it comes as a surprise in this case that EPA excluded any consideration of costs when deciding whether it is “appropriate”—the key statutory term—to impose significant new air quality regulations on the Nation’s electric utilities. In my view, it is unreasonable for EPA to exclude consideration of costs in determining whether it is “appropriate” to impose significant new regulations on electric utilities.

SURE THING, JUDGE, since the costs fall on the big biz entities your record shows you to be loyal to, and "The nation's electric utilities" being major contributors to the global warming your president doesn't believe in let's not make their owners bear any of the expense of killing the planet." This guy's a slippery dude who will speed up death by a thousand cuts.

Top: the Blomstrandbreen glacier in Kongsfjorden in 1919.

Bottom: the same glacier in 2002.

HERE HE IS on abortion: “The government has permissible interests in favoring fetal life, protecting the best interests of a minor, and refraining from facilitating abortion....” If Roe v. Wade comes before the court again, he'll go for repeal, although he's also said it's settled law.

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DEFINING SOCIALISM

...Bernie Sanders has only made things murkier by defining his brand of socialism in terms hardly indistinguishable from New Deal liberalism. “I don’t believe the government should own the corner drugstore or the means of production,” he declared in the fall of 2015, at a speech at Georgetown University, “but I do believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a fair deal.”

But while the meaning of American socialism in 2018 begins with Bernie, it doesn’t end there. Every political movement needs an intellectual movement, and when it comes to today’s brand of socialism, it’s the thirty-five-and-under crowd doing much of the heavy lifting.

They’ve got a double challenge. The first is to convince skeptical Americans that, despite what they may have learned in high school, socialism doesn’t have to mean Stalinism, and it doesn’t lead inexorably to the gulags of Soviet Russia or the starvation of Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela.

The second may be even trickier. They must explain how their version of socialism fits, or doesn’t, into the American political system while showing how, specifically, it is distinct from traditional Democratic Party liberalism. In other words, they must not only defend socialism in the 21st century; they must define it…

(the Washington Monthly)

BERNIE IS a New Deal Democrat, well to the political right of the FDR's original New Dealers. He's Exhibit A of how far to the right the discussion has been shoved that he's routinely described as "far left."

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STOCKTON, California will become the first city in the country to participate in a test of Universal Basic Income, where 100 residents will be given $500-dollars-a-month with no strings attached. UBI baby! Universal Basic Income, an idea whose time has come around. Again. Nixon was for it, for crying out loud. Nixon! His idea was to give every impoverished family of four the equivalent of $11,000 a year plus food stamps, with the basic theory being that a guaranteed floor income would obviate the grudging collection of poverty programs presently designed to what? Starve the poor into crime? An excellent piece in the July issue of the New Yorker describes the variations of UBI plans and the surprising range of support for the concept. Stockton is a trial run.

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MY TAX DOLLAR AT WORK, Mendo Division: So, I get a form letter from the County's tax collector saying I owe $26.99. If I don't pay by the end of July "a lien against you will be recorded for non-payment of property taxes." The dunning letter said it was from "S. Crane, Deputy." I tried to call S. Crane, Deputy" at number on the warning letter. It was defunct. I went to the office's website and dialed the number listed. A recording came on telling me to call some other time, that they were busy helping someone else.

I'D JUST BEEN watching Tuesday's meeting of the County leadership, none of whom I trust to prudently spend the property tax money I send them. Every time they meet they blow through thousands, sometimes millions, of public dollars on dubious projects, such as the $25 million they recently turned over to a private party to render heretofore public mental health programs. That expenditure was made via the "consent calendar" part of the Supe's agenda, meaning it got the 5-0 thumbs up without discussion. The person receiving the annual gift doesn't have to report back on how the money is spent or tell us how much she and her husband rake off for providing these services. Check that, kinda. We get a "data dashboard" that provides little in real info, such as who is paid what for doing what. Paying property taxes to these people feels like contributing to an ongoing criminal enterprise.

BUT THEY'VE got the power so it's simpler to just pay up to spare the aggravation of dealing with them, Natch, the letter threatening me with a lien on my acre of mothership Earth, doesn't tell me exactly how they came up with this piddling figure, but I suspect it's on my business, which is Boonville's beloved community newspaper — free enterprise at its most free, a virtual charity in fact. But that business consists entirely of a three-year-old computer and, thanks to the late Emil Rossi, County businesses owned by veterans are tax exempt, and I'm a veteran. Years past I paid no business tax.

BUT MAYBE the County wants the 27 bucks for some other reason, maybe an espresso machine for the Supervisors to go with their $84,000 annual salaries plus thousands more in fringe benefits for them and their families. But since S. Crane, Deputy is not available by telephone, and darned if I'm going to drive all the way to Ukiah to beard these vague entities in their lair, I guess I'll just pay up.

NO SOONER had I concluded the above than I heard Supervisor McCowen "volunteer" as part of an "ad hoc committee to further refine" the pot permit rules. I paused to say ten quick repetitions of the Jesus Prayer. Every time they've met for going on two years now, the Supervisors have been "refining" the County's cockamamie, unworkable pot rules. Anybody who thinks the County's rules are sensible, doable, is either nuts or retarded, but the Supervisors have spent hundreds of public hours "refining" them and are on their fourth pot administrator in two years, having just paid off a guy to leave, Mr. Overton, whose qualifications for the job consisted solely of "animal rights activist." Overton, if he'd somehow managed to stick around, would have been paid $90,000 a year. I owe these people $26.99?

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DAY OF THE LOCUST

Costco Opens In Ukiah On Thursday, July 19

UKIAH, Calif. — Costco will open a membership warehouse in Ukiah on Thursday, July 19, at 8 a.m. The 141,000-square-foot warehouse is located at 1275 Airport Park Blvd, at the southwest corner of Highway 101 and Talmage Road. Previously, residents of the area had to drive approximately 61 miles southeast to Santa Rosa or 68 miles southeast to Rohnert Park to shop at Costco. “We are thrilled to be bringing Costco’s low warehouse prices to the residents of Ukiah,” said Warehouse Manager Michael Wiederholt. “They have been asking us to open here for a long time, and we already have made an impact on the local job market. We look forward to contributing to the community in many ways.” In the Costco tradition, the Ukiah warehouse will offer quality, brand-name and private-label merchandise at incredible values. Costco helps businesses save money on supplies and on items for resale, and provides a wide range of products and services for personal use as well. This new Costco location will feature a variety of convenient specialty departments, including a Gas Station, Fresh Bakery, Fresh Meat, Fresh Produce, Fresh Deli with Rotisserie Chicken, Optical Department with Independent Doctor of Optometry, Pharmacy, Tire Center, Hearing Aid Center, Food Court, and Beer, Liquor, and Fine Wine. Members also can save on Costco Services such as Travel and Auto Buying. This 127th Costco warehouse in California will be the 523rd in the U.S., and 753rd worldwide. Costco has 92 million cardholders throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, England, Scotland, Wales, Spain, France, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and Iceland. The company has been recognized throughout the country for providing its employees with real living wages – the highest in the industry – and for its ethical business practices. The Costco home office is located in Issaquah, Wash. The company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol COST. For more information about Costco, please visit Costco.com.

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REVISED BILL WOULD PLACE COSTS OF WINE COUNTRY WILDFIRE LAWSUITS ON PG&E CUSTOMERS

A revised bill could stick PG&E customers with billions of dollars in lawsuit costs stemming from last year’s Wine Country wildfires.

lostcoastoutpost.com/2018/jul/10/revised-bill-would-place-cost-wine-country-wildfir/

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THE WILLITS GRADE SHOOTINGS

UPDATE 187 PC (HOMICIDE)

Miguel

On 07-10-2018 the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office coroner's division was notified Miguel Ramirez had died in a Sonoma County area hospital. Miguel Ramirez was transported to Mendocino County and a forensic autopsy has been scheduled for 07-10-2018 in connection with the investigation into the shooting incident detailed in this press release.

Calixto

UPDATE 187 PC (HOMICIDE) Mendocino County Sheriff's Detectives continued to investigate the shooting incident overnight and into 07-03-2018. During this time, Sheriff's Detectives identified Calixto Ramirez (51 years-old from Covelo, California) as the deceased adult male at the shooting scene. The second adult male has been identified as being Miguel Ramirez (30 years-old from Covelo, California). Miguel Ramirez, who was transported to an out of county hospital by air ambulance remains in critical condition. Calixto Ramirez and Miguel Ramirez have been identified as father and son. During investigations, which included assistance from the public, the shooting suspect was identified by Sheriff's Detectives as being Ubaldo Ramirez (23 year-old male from Covelo, California). Ubaldo Ramirez is the son of Calixto Ramirez (deceased) and the younger brother of Miguel Ramirez (critical condition).

Ubaldo

Thanks to assistance from the public, Ubaldo Ramirez was located on 07-03-2018 at approximately 1:30 AM in a parking lot in the 77800 block of Highway 162 in Covelo, California. Ubaldo Ramirez was taken into custody without incident for the homicide of his father (Calixto Ramirez), and the attempted homicide of his brother (Miguel Ramirez).

Ubaldo Ramirez was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held without bail. Specific details regarding the shooting are not being released at this time due to pending follow-up investigations by Sheriff's Detectives. Any persons with information about this incident, including anyone who might have seen Ubaldo Ramirez between the scene (MPM 35 on North Highway 101 in Willits, California) on 07-02-2018 and Covelo on 07-03-2018 are encouraged to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Tip-Line by calling 707-234-2100.

ORIGINAL PRESS RELEASE

On 07-02-2018 at approximately 4:41 PM Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office and Officers from the California Highway Patrol where dispatched to a suspicious situation in the area of Mile Post Marker 35 on North Highway 101 south of Golden Rule. Initial reports suggested a vehicle had been involved in a traffic collision and that an occupant was suffering from a gunshot wound. Law enforcement personnel arrived and located a 2001 maroon Chevrolet Silverado 4-door pickup truck stopped in the southbound traffic lanes of North Highway 101. Inside the pickup truck were two adult male occupants suffering from obvious gunshot wounds (undetermined amount at this time).  One occupant was determined to be deceased and the other occupant suffered from a life threatening injury requiring him to be transported to an out of county hospital for medical treatment. Mendocino County Sheriff's Detectives were summoned to the scene and have assumed investigative jurisdiction into the incident with assistance from the California Highway Patrol, California Department of Justice and Mendocino County District Attorney's Office. Mendocino County Sheriff's Detectives are actively conducting investigations and more information will be released at a later date by press release as information becomes available. Anyone who may have witnessed the shooting incident or the pickup truck prior to or after the shooting is urged to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Tip-Line by calling 707-234-2100.

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COVELO MAN SHOT BY BROTHER DIES of gunshot wounds. The man was shot along with his father, who also died, while in a pickup stopped on Highway 101 earlier this month.

pressdemocrat.com/news/8519040-181/police-covelo-man-shot-by

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CATCH OF THE DAY, July 10, 2018

Bonson, Gamble, Hoaglin, Hogan

TRAVIS BONSON, Willits. Parole violation.

JAMES GAMBLE, Covelo. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

GARRIE HOAGLIN, Ukiah. Parole violation. (Frequent Flyer)

ALAN HOGAN, Willits. Fugitive from justice, failure to appear, probation revocation.

Johnson, Lewis, Martinez

ALEXANDER JOHNSON, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

DANA LEWIS, Ukiah. Contempt of court, probation revocation.

FRANCISCO MARTINEZ, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, false ID.

Moore, Paul, Pearson, Sanders

JOSHUA MOORE, Willits. Probation revocation.

TONY PAUL, Ukiah. Controlled substance, protective order violation, probation revocation.

ADAM PEARSON, Ukiah. Ukiah. Parole violation.

THOMAS SANDERS, Fort Bragg. Trespassing. (Frequent flyer.)

Schafer, Valdez-Ceja, Vickers

BELINDA SCHAFER, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

PALOMO VALDEZ-CEJA, Ukiah. Pot cultivation over six plants, pot possession for sale, probation revocation.

MICHAEL VICKERS, Fort Bragg. Domestic abuse. (Frequent flyer.)

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I remember in the 1970s and 80s, I used to laugh at the Soviet Union for having only one department store. They called it ‘GOOM,’ which were the initials in Russian for ‘Government Universal Store (Gosudarstvennoi OOniversitetskii Magazin). Guess we’ve got our own GOOM now in Amazon…

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A NIGHT OF TAR, FEATHERS, AND TERROR: ANTI-LABOR VIGILANTISM IN SONOMA

Wednesday, July 18, 2018, 6:00 PM
California Historical Society, San Francisco
$5 General Admission, Free for CHS Members
Learn More

In the evening of August 21, 1935 a band of vigilantes abducted Sol Nitzberg — a Jewish Sonoma County chicken farmer — along with three other labor organizers. Nitzberg and Silva Green (another organizer) were tarred and feathered and forced by the mob to parade through Santa Rosa. What is the historical backdrop to this violent event? Barry Nitzberg — grandson of Sol Nitzberg — and historian Ken Kann will unpack the history of labor organizing in and vigilante terror in Sonoma County, including the 1935 Sebastopol Apple Pickers Strike, the assault on Nitzberg and Green, and the role of ACLU in the subsequent trial.

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“So, I have you on retainer, right?”

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WOOF! WOOF!

Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office K9 Rex has received a bullet and stab protective vest thanks to a charitable donation from non-profit organization Vested Interest in K9s, Inc.

K9 Rex's Donated Vest

K9 Rex’s vest was sponsored by Coburn’s Construction & Cabinetry, Inc. of Willits, CA and embroidered with the sentiment “Gifted by Coburn’s Construction & Cabinetry”. Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. is a 501c (3) charity located in East Taunton, MA whose mission is to provide bullet and stab protective vests and other assistance to dogs of law enforcement and related agencies throughout the United States. The non-profit was established in 2009 to assist law enforcement agencies with this potentially lifesaving body armor for their four-legged K9 officers. Since its inception, Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. provided over 2,600 protective vests, in 50 states, through private and corporate donations, at a cost of over 2.1 million dollars. The program is open to dogs actively employed in the U.S. with law enforcement or related agencies who are certified and at least 20 months of age. New K9 graduates, as well as K9s with expired vests, are eligible to participate. The donation to provide one protective vest for a law enforcement K9 is $1,050.00. Each vest has a value between $1,795 – $2,234 and a five-year warranty, and an average weight of 4-5 lbs. There is an estimated 30,000 law enforcement K9s throughout the United States. For more information or to learn about volunteer opportunities, please call 508-824-6978. Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. provides information, lists events, and accepts tax-deductible donations of any denomination at www.vik9s.org or mailed to P.O. Box 9 East Taunton, MA 02718.

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VOTER REMORSE?

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AUDITIONS!

Auditions for James and the Giant Peach are this Saturday!

HOW TO SIGN UP: Please fill out a form at: http://www.gloriana.org/james-auditions

AUDITIONS: Auditions will be held July 14th from 10am - 2pm. You will be assigned a 5 minute audition slot when you sign up. You may choose a preferred time, but they will be given on a first come, first serve basis. Please prepare a song and a monologue or funny story. Piano accompaniment will be provided.

AUDITION LOCATION: Eagles Hall, 210 N Corry, Fort Bragg, CA

PRODUCTION STAFF:

DIRECTORS | Nicole Atkinson and Carla Leach

MUSIC/VOCAL DIRECTOR | Jeff Grant

STAGE MANAGER | Andrew Atkinson

THE STORY: When James is sent by his conniving aunts to chop down their old fruit tree, he discovers a magic potion that results in a tremendous peach... and launches a journey of enormous proportions. Suddenly, James finds himself in the center of the gigantic peach, among human-sized insects with equally oversized personalities, but after it falls from the tree and rolls into the ocean, the group faces hunger, sharks and plenty of disagreements. Thanks to James' quick wit and creative thinking, the residents learn to live and work together as a family. The dangerous voyage is a success, but the adventure takes a whole new twist once they land on the Empire State Building.

A delightfully offbeat adaptation of the classic Roald Dahl adventure, the creative possibilities with James and the Giant Peach are endless. Actors will love playing the outlandish characters and performing brand new material from one of Broadway's hottest duos, Pasek & Paul (Dear Evan Hansen, Dogfight, A Christmas Story).

CASTING: Due to the vocal demands of the role of James, we will consider boys and girls ages from 7 to 15. All other lead roles we are ideally looking for teens to adults but we will consider everyone. Ensemble is 7 and up. Character breakdown is below the audition form.

CHARACTERS: Ladahlord (20 - 60) A strange, magical storyteller. James (7 - 15) A lonely young boy who lacks confidence, however, when given the right encouragement he becomes resourceful and innovative. Spiker (30 - 60) James' mean aunt. Sponge (30 - 60) James' other mean aunt. Spider (16 - 40) A normal spider who has become human-sized after eating a crocodile tongue. Green Grasshopper (16 - 40) A wizened grasshopper who has become human-sized after eating a crocodile tongue. Centipede (16 - 40) An ornery centipede who becomes human-sized after eating a crocodile tongue. Ladybug (16 - 60) A motherly ladybug who has become human-sized after eating a crocodile tongue. Earthworm (16 - 40) An earthworm who has become human-sized after eating a crocodile tongue. Ensemble (7 and up) Crowd, Karl Kreatour, Reporters, Vagrants, Garden Guild, Bobby-Cops, Willy Wonka, Oompa Loompas, Hollywood Agents, Seagulls, New Yorkers, Matron Nurse, Mr. and Mrs. Trotter, and more.

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VEGGIE GARDENING FOR KIDS Saturday, July 14 from 10:00AM to 12:00PM at Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens

Discounted price for the Lil' Sprouts Workshop on July 14! This 1-day, 2-hour workshop is a great introduction to gardening for your young ones with a green thumb. Kids will learn about backyard ecosystems and learn to make helpful garden observations. We will work and play while planting, nurturing, and harvesting in the organic demonstration vegetable garden at Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. Children ages 8 to 10 of any level of gardening experience are welcome to attend. Don't miss out on this wonderful introduction to veggie gardening, sign your children up today!

Class cost is $10 for Gardens members (MCBG household memberships apply towards children or grandchildren in the same household); $20 for non-members (includes Gardens admission for the day). Sign your children up by phoning The Garden Store at Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens at 707-964-4352 ext. 16 or stop by The Garden Store at Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens.

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COALITION PROTESTS DELTA TUNNELS TAX AS MWD REVOTES ON $11 BILLION TO FINANCE WATERFIX

by Dan Bacher

redgreenandblue.org/2018/07/09/coalition-protests-delta-tunnels-tax-mwd-revotes-11-billion-finance-waterfix/

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TRUMP, THE MOVIE.

MICHAEL MOORE'S LATEST Anti-Trump Documentary, "Fahrenheit 11/9," to Be Released Before Midterms

In 1998, on "The Roseanne Show," Donald Trump congratulated fellow guest Michael Moore on his film Roger and Me, Moore's takedown of General Motor's C.E.O. Roger Smith. Trump jokingly commented: "I hope he doesn't make one on me."

Some twenty years later, under circumstances that neither Nostradamus nor Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent – who could discern unknown answers to unseen questions – could have imagined, Moore is making a film about President Trump. The documentary, titled Fahrenheit 11/9 – a reference to the day in 2016 when Trump was elected – is due to be released in some 1500 theaters on September 21, just in time for the midterm elections.

On a recent edition of "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert," Moore announced the release date of Fahrenheit 11/9, and previewed some footage. According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Veteran film exec Tom Ortenberg, who stepped down as CEO of Open Road Films last November, is in the process of launching a new company, Briarcliff Entertainment, and is partnering with Moore to release" the film.

Moore "showed footage in which he attempts to gain entry into Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, or as he told someone as he attempted to enter, the 'Southern White House,'" the Hollywood Reporter pointed out. "He is shown being kept out by an iron gate at a door as the camera zooms in to see who is inside. 'Just tell him it's me,' Moore is heard saying to a doorman."

Last month Moore tweeted out the clip from "The Roseanne Show." "I know Roseanne. And I know Trump. And they are about to rue the day they knew me …," Moore tweeted. In a previous post Moore wrote, "So @therealroseanne woke up this morning & posted hateful, slanderous tweets about me, Valerie Jarrett, George Soros & Chelsea Clinton — and ABC fired her. If only NBC had fired Trump when he started his racist birther movement in 2011, he wouldn't be in the White House today."

In 2004, Moore's documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11 took on President George W. Bush's War on Terror, and the cheerleading role-played by the mainstream media. The film, which went on to become the largest grossing documentary film in history ($222 million domestic and foreign), was both critically acclaimed and roundly criticized, in the still-in-its-infancy social media. Conservatives fell all over themselves to counter Moore; one filmmaker titled his movie Michael Moore Hates America.

In a 2005 piece titled "Michael Moore gets ready to roll," I wrote: "Before Fahrenheit 9/11 hit the theaters in June 2004, Russo Marsh & Rogers, a Sacramento, California-based public relation firm, teamed up with Move America Forward -- the conservative group that recently sponsored the so-called Truth Tour to Iraq -- to launch a pre-emptive strike against the film. The campaign, which ultimately had little impact, urged supporters to 'Stop Michael Moore' by taking 'action against the release of his anti-American movie.'

Any information about a new film by the Oscar-winning Moore inevitably gets the juices flowing and tongues wagging. Months before he was to begin shooting Sicko, a film dealing with Americas' health care industry, the pharmaceutical industry launched a pre-emptive strike against him and the film. The Guardian reported that at least six pharmaceutical firms sent memos to their workers warning them to be on the lookout for "a scruffy guy in a baseball cap" who asks too many questions.

Moore and Trump have crossed paths since "The Roseanne Show," at least on Twitter. Trump tweeted about Moore's one-man Broadway show, The Terms of My Surrender: "While not at all presidential I must point out that the Sloppy Michael Moore Show on Broadway was a Total Bomb and was forced to close. Sad!"

In a recent Facebook post, Moore wrote that he has "known Roseanne Barr for over 25 years. I've known her as Roseanne Barr, Roseanne Arnold, just 'Roseanne', then back to Roseanne Barr. I've spent time in her home, criss-crossed the country with her to help remove George W. Bush from the White House, appeared on her shows, been there for her when she needed something, and connected her with one of my producers who did an insightful, one-of-a-kind documentary into the genius and the tragedy that is Roseanne Barr."

She "seems to be suffering from some sort of madness. It's more than just saying she's a racist," Moore added. "She operates in the same sewer of lies, conspiracy theories and bigotry that's been rising in America for years and that has now succeeded in electing our current president. Totally nuts."

He then wrote: "Here's who's not crazy: Donald J. Trump. Trump, though he shows all the signs of being absolutely bonkers, is not insane. He's the real deal. His racism and hate is real, it's well thought-out, he's the true master of manipulation, a brilliant performance artist, and an evil genius. He outsmarted a nation of liberals and Democrats and won the White House by losing the actual vote of the people. He neutered and then destroyed the Grand Old Republican Party. He knows exactly what he is doing."

Moore's annual Traverse City Film Festival is slated to begin on July 31. While the festival is, as The Detroit Free Press recently reported, "packed with movies about relevant issues," it is unclear whether Moore will premiere Fahrenheit 11/9.

Whether Fahrenheit 11/9 will outperform Fahrenheit 9/11 is anybody's guess, but one doesn't need Nostradamus to tell you that conservatives will apoplectically rail against it, while liberals will undoubtedly flock to the theaters.

(Buzzflash.com)

 

7 Comments

  1. Eric Sunswheat July 11, 2018

    Therapeutic setting.
    https://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/if-you-guild-it-they-will-come/Content?oid=4037416
    In a forest, the plants collaborate. They take turns blooming, share space, distribute different nutrients and succeed each other over generations. In our home gardens, we can create diverse, low-maintenance food forests by mimicking these patterns. In its most basic form, this is called companion planting, and gardeners have been doing it for millennia.

  2. Harvey Reading July 11, 2018

    “‘We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — so did the divine right of kings’.

    — Ursula K. Le Guin”

    From a leaf just before the index of Wess Harris’s Written in Blood.

    Down with libertarianism!

  3. james marmon July 11, 2018

    Harv, you should try reading stuff you don’t like or agree with and broaden your thinking. Start thinking about lateral thinking. Lateral thinking is when an assumption that people believe is true is challenged, leading to a new line of thought that would probably not have been considered otherwise.

    James Marmon MSW
    Personal Growth Consultant

    ‘don’t just go through it, grow through it’

    • George Hollister July 11, 2018

      Easier said than done, for anyone, particularly when one is old.

      • Harvey Reading July 11, 2018

        And twice as hard when two are old.

    • Harvey Reading July 11, 2018

      I do, James. Occasionally I read your comments. They tend to cloud my mind with vagueness and irrationality, though. It’s sort of like having a bad dream.

      • Harvey Reading July 11, 2018

        Oh, and and several months ago, I read Chernow’s hagiography of that horrid Hamilton guy (you know, the hagiography they made into a play on Broadway), and tomorrow I’ll start reading that racist fellow’s book about Bell curves. He always pretends that he’s not racist, but you can tell that he’s lying if you’re sharp like me. He’s a favorite of the right wing, which isn’t surprising since they’re racist to the core. Misogynistic, too.

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