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MCT: Monday, January 7, 2019

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UPDATE: Tai Abreu did not appear in Ten Mile Court on Monday morning. The hearing was scheduled instead for Ukiah. We are now trying to find out what happened.


Abreu

TAI ABREU is scheduled to appear tomorrow morning, (Monday, January 7th) 9am, in Ten Mile Court, Fort Bragg. Tai is appealing to Mendocino County for a sentence adjustment under the new amendments to the California Felony Murder laws. The old law got him sentenced to life without the possibility of parole after a farce of a one-day trial in Ukiah. Tai was born and raised in Fort Bragg. He's been in state prison for nearly 18 years. One of his co-defendants, Aaron Channel, was released from prison two years ago. The third co-defendant, August Stuckey, remains in prison. Tai’s sentence depends on his suitability for parole.

Here is the link for the whole story: www.theava.com/05/1221-perezcase.html

A shorter version: counterpunch.org/2004/05/29/is-l-wop-truly-forever-the-awful-injustice-to-tai-abreu/

And here is a link to another shorter version (scroll down for the items on Tai Abreu): www.theava.com/04/0526-otr-tai-abreu.html

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THE FIRST STORM OF THE NEW YEAR delivered 2.5 inches to Boonville, and 2.8 to Yorkville. "While most of today will be dry and pleasant," says the National Weather Service, "gusty winds and rain are expected from tonight through Wednesday as an active pattern continues. Dry conditions are expected Thursday, but active weather will return over the weekend and potentially continue into early next week."

MEANWHILE, there was no flooding of Highway 128, as the Navarro River breached its sandbar.

(Sunday about 3pm)

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DAN YOUNG REPORTS ON THE HOMELESS IN MENDOCINO COUNTY AND NATIONWIDE

Please join us on KNYO at 107.7 FM from Cleone to Caspar and online at knyo.org or on your Tunein smartphone app today (Sunday Jan. 6) at Noon or on Wed. Jan 9 at Noon for the final installment of a series of reports from reporter Dan Young on the plight of the Homeless in Mendocino County and nationwide. These interviews are part of a series talking with homeless advocates from around the country. The first interview today is with Abre’ Conner, who is a Staff Attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Northern California. Reporter Dan Young discusses with Conner both state and national trends in homeless policy, along with discussing recent homeless policy initiatives in Mendocino County and the city of Fort Bragg. These interviews are available to download or listen to at any time at our podcast page at knyo.libsyn.com With natural disasters and financial collapse making housing a national problem now is the time to care, get informed, and get motivated to promote change.

Thank you Neighbors and Friends.

Bob Young

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OWL NEEDS A RIDE HOME….

Woodlands Wildlife has a little screech owl in Sonoma (about 10 min off Hwy 101 south of Santa Rosa) who has recovered from his broken shoulder and needs a ride home to Little River. Bird will come in a secure box, must be in a car (not the back of a van or truck), no dogs in the car, must be picked up before 4 p.m. on a weekday and delivered here with no errands or stops between. Anyone coming back in this direction during the next week who would like to give him a lift, please E-MAIL me at ronnie@mcn.org OR woodlandswildlife@mcn.org.

Last November this little fellow was hit by a car and was taken to Sonoma for surgery to repair a broken wing. He's made a good recovery, received physical therapy, and has been test-flown to make sure he can fly properly and catch his own food. We always try to release birds where they were found as they have a territory and probably a mate waiting for them.

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POLICE UNION LOSES CASE TO WEAKEN NEW TRANSPARENCY LAW

by Jim Shields

In last week’s column on new laws taking effect in California on Jan. 1, I highlighted SB 1421, a so-called police transparency law that allows public access to police records in cases of force, as well as investigations that confirmed the lack of honesty in the work or sexual misconduct.

On Dec. 18, “the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Employees’ Benefit Association filed a petition requesting the California Supreme Court to rule that the bill, signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in September, applies only to records created after January 1, the bill’s effective date. Such a ruling would have undermined the intent and effectiveness of the new law by excluding from public disclosure decades of records related to police misconduct.

According to the First Amendment Coalition (FAC), which filed a motion opposing the union’s petition, the state Supreme Court on Wednesday, January 2, issued a one-sentence order, rejecting the union’s request.

FAC’s Executive Director David Snyder commented that the new law requires a wide range of records relating to police misconduct to be available to the public — a sweeping change in California law.

“This is a great result for transparency and for the public,” said Snyder. “We’re grateful the Supreme Court saw through the union’s Hail Mary effort to weaken this law, which will allow broad public access to police misconduct files.”

Joining FAC in the effort to oppose the union’s petition were the Los Angeles Times, KQED, and the California News Publishers Association.

PG&E LEGAL WOES

The Sacramento Bee is reporting that PG&E is facing mounting legal problems that could potentially include murder charges if it is found culpable for starting the deadly Camp Fire several months ago. Here’s the story.

PG&E acknowledged Monday that its possible role in Northern California’s recent wave of massive wildfires could create fresh legal problems for a company already on criminal probation following a natural gas pipeline disaster.

Responding to a federal judge’s order, PG&E’s lawyers submitted an extensive series of documents outlining its cooperation with state investigations into the Nov. 8 Camp Fire in Paradise — the deadliest in state history — as well as the series of deadly fires in California’s wine country in October 2017.

CalFire has already determined that PG&E’s power equipment was responsible for many of the wine country fires, and is investigating whether problems on a transmission tower caused the Camp Fire.

The federal judge overseeing the case involving a 2010 pipeline explosion in San Bruno recently ordered PG&E to explain whether PG&E’s actions leading up to the wildfires violated any laws- and violated the terms of its probation.

PG&E in 2016 was found guilty of six felony charges in that pipeline disaster, which killed eight people. Its sentence included five years of probation, during which it was supposed to refrain from committing any more crimes.

In its response, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. didn’t admit to breaking any laws but acknowledged said it would “implicate the requirements” of its probation if the utility company is found to have committed any crimes.

“If it were determined that a wildfire had been started by reckless operation or maintenance of PG&E power lines,” PG&E attorneys told the judge, “that would, if the specific circumstances gave rise to a violation of federal, state, or local statutes, implicate the requirements” of the probation judgment, “which provides that while on probation, PG&E shall not commit another Federal, State, or local crime.”

It remains unclear what additional potential penalties PG&E could face if it’s found criminally liable for the 2017 and 2018 fires. It’s already facing scores of lawsuits and likely billions of dollars in potential civil penalties from the fires, and the Public Utilities Commission is considering breaking up the utility.

In its filing Monday, the beleaguered utility also provided summaries of reports it’s delivered to state investigators on the causes of the Camp Fire and the 2017 wine country fires.

The utility explained that mechanical problems have been found on a transmission tower near where the fire is believed to have started, in a remote area of Butte County called Pulga. Bullet holes were found on a power pole several miles away, at a different site being investigated by CalFire. The company had previously disclosed those issues to state regulators.

PG&E pointed out, in fact, it was among the first to alert officials about the fire.

PG&E stressed that the exact cause of the Camp Fire remains unknown. “CalFire has not released its conclusions about the cause of the Camp Fire, although it has publicly identified two potential incident locations at which PG&E facilities are located,” the company’s lawyers wrote.

In a legal brief last week, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said PG&E could be charged with anything from murder down to a misdemeanor crime if the utility were determined to have caused fires through reckless operation or maintenance of its electrical grid system.

(Jim Shields is the MCO’s editor and publisher, and also manages the Laytonville County Water District. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org.)

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DOES MARIJUANA MAKE YOU STUPID?

by Larry Livermore

Full disclosure: I smoked marijuana, often on a daily basis, for 26 years, from 1967 to 1993. During the lean years of the mid-1980s, I grew the stuff to supplement my income, and sold a few pounds to the drug dealer who would later help write Proposition 215, the medical marijuana ballot measure that started California on the road to full legalization. And in 1968, my life was upended by an arrest that today might not be a big deal, but at the time had me facing a minimum of 20 years in prison.

Those are some of my credentials, in case you want to dismiss me as a know-nothing puritan ranting from the peanut gallery. And, of course, if you want to accuse me of being ignorant or stupid, bear in mind that it could very possibly be marijuana that made me that way.

I jest, but not completely. Whenever I mention my suspicion that marijuana impairs brain functions, it’s inevitable that someone will respond with “But so-and-so smokes constantly, and s/he is one of the most gifted musicians/artists/scientists/whatever alive.”

It’s hard to dispute that. I’d estimate between a quarter and a third of my considerably brighter than average friends are at least occasional dope smokers, yet some of them still manage to excel in their careers or to produce art and literature superior to anything I have accomplished. On the other hand, if you knocked 10 or 20 points off Albert Einstein’s IQ, he’d still be a really smart guy, even if his Theory of Relativity turned out to be slightly less on-point.

I’ve mused on the effects of marijuana on intelligence ever since, three or four years after I stopped using it, I noticed myself being able to think, speak, and write more articulately than I had during my drug-infused decades. The counterpoint to that, of course, is that when I first tried marijuana, and for a number of years afterward, I was convinced, with an almost-religious zeal, that getting high was the best thing that had ever happened to me, that it had put me in touch with a deeper understanding of the universe and turned me into something of a minor – no, make that major – genius.

Like many wide-eyed young people in the 1960s, I had been drawn in by the promise that marijuana and other psychedelic drugs would produce a profound spiritual experience, perhaps allowing me to see God – if, of course, there was one. Instead, it soon convinced me that, for all intents and purposes, I pretty much was God.

I suspect this is the foundation of marijuana’s appeal: it encourages people to believe they know far more than they do. Since the getting of all knowledge relies on the opposite realization (“All I know is that I don’t know nothing”), you can see where that might be a problem.

My latest musings on the subject have been prompted by spending a lot of time in Asian countries where the 1950s attitude toward marijuana is still in full effect. There are some, including my present location of Singapore, where possessing or selling large quantities of cannabis can net you the death penalty.

While I try to refrain from telling other countries how to run their judicial systems, I obviously don’t advocate treating marijuana users in this way, and not merely because if I had tried my 1960s stunt in Singapore, I probably wouldn’t be here to talk about it. But at the same time, observing countries where strict laws have kept marijuana usage to a minimum has enabled me to draw a sharp contrast with my own, where the growing acceptance and approval of marijuana has rather neatly coincided with America’s descent into idiocracy.

Correlation is not causation, of course, and some marijuana advocates will no doubt protest that liberalized attitudes toward the drug have in fact lessened the damage caused by our deteriorating political and social systems. This would be premised on the long-held and too-seldom-challenged belief that marijuana, unlike alcohol, causes its users to be less violent and aggressive, more inclined toward tolerance and social justice.

I’m not sure about that. Or, to put it more succinctly, I think that it’s a load of old bollocks. It’s true that most people I know don’t get in brawls or even loud arguments when they get high, but most people I know wouldn’t do that regardless of what substance they were or weren’t consuming.

But my experiences of living and traveling in areas populated by a different demographic than I usually hang out with lead me to think marijuana is hardly the “love” or “peace” drug it’s often touted as being, but instead magnifies and reduces the inhibitions on a person’s usual character traits.

In other words, if you’re given to quiet philosophizing or strumming heartfelt folk songs on your guitar, you’ll do more of that when you get high. If, on the other hand, your idea of a life well lived involves stabbing, shooting, raping, or killing, marijuana can just as easily enhance that experience.

My years in the Emerald Triangle, ground zero for America’s marijuana industry, certainly caused me to question some of my previous assumptions. I highly recommend the documentary Murder Mountain, currently showing on Netflix and set not far from my old home, if you still think marijuana is the sole province of thoughtful, sensitive hippies.

But what to do? Obviously, we as a society are not be going back to the prohibition era, nor do I think we should. I do believe we’re presently being given the opportunity to observe a massive chemistry experiment, where one part of the world – the Americas and Western Europe in particular – increasingly views reality through marijuana-beclouded eyes, while another – mainly East Asia – remains relatively pot-free.

Again, correlation is not causation, but given the way that Asia – and China in particular – is rapidly overtaking the West, one has to wonder. Yes, there’s much to criticize about Asian systems as well, but they seem to possess a sense of purpose and discipline that has largely deserted Donald Trump’s America. I see far less of the cynicism and disillusionment that has prompted so many bright Americans to disengage from civic participation – and to a considerable and frightening extent – from a belief in society itself.

All this could be half-assed speculation on my part, perhaps the residual effect of too much marijuana consumption in my own youth. It’s also possible that the Asian countries will eventually follow the Western path toward liberalization and everyone will get stoned together, for good or ill.

But for now I’m more convinced than ever that the effects of marijuana on the brain and consciousness are more deleterious than helpful. Will marijuana invariably ruin your life or render you useless? Of course not. Will it decrease the odds of your reaching your full potential, of living a meaningful and happy life? I’m inclined to say yes.

But if we’re not going to reinstate the punitive marijuana laws of yesteryear – and we’d be insane to try – what can we do? If it were up to me, I’d treat marijuana like any other drug: as a medical issue. I think it’s been amply demonstrated that it’s ineffective and cruel to throw someone in prison for using or abusing a substance, yet if it becomes clear that the substance is harming them and/or society, can we afford to simply ignore it?

What I don’t think we should do is treat pot with a nod-and-a-wink approval that presupposes its being legal means it must be good for you. Adults may enjoy a joint at a party or after work just as they would a cocktail, and with no more harm done. But increasing numbers of adults are chain-smoking or consuming extracts containing nuclear-bomb levels of THC, in some cases turning them into little more than babbling zombies.

And when kids or teenagers, whose brains are not fully formed or developed, follow a similar course, their futures in all too many cases go straight out the window. “It’s heartbreaking,” I was once told by a London schoolteacher whose students were mostly minorities from an economically depressed area. “Up to when they’re 13 or 14, these kids are so full of energy and enthusiasm, just really eager to learn. Then they start showing up reeking of cannabis and it’s like their brains have gone walkabout. I might as well be lecturing to a brick wall. They don’t remember anything I’ve told them from one day to the next.”

The horse may have long since bolted through a wide-open door, but there are a couple things I would recommend that might mitigate the harm. The first would be to stop glamorizing or trivializing the effects of marijuana. Treat it the way we do cigarettes: make those who are hooked on it objects of derision and pity. When I was growing up, taking up smoking was a rite of passage pursued by the majority of teenagers; now most kids consider it kind of dumb. Similarly, make resources readily available for those who want to quit.

Second, although I think marijuana has to remain legal, it needs to be far more strictly controlled. Alcohol and cigarettes are also legal, but there are numerous restrictions on how they can be produced and sold and where and by whom they can be consumed. A big part of the rationale behind legalizing marijuana was to do away with the damage caused by the black market, yet the black market continues to flourish, in some cases – as depicted in Murder Mountain – doing more damage than ever.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe a stoned America is actually getting smarter than ever, and I’m the dumb one. But the harrowing, ongoing collapse of our political, social, and physical infrastructure would seem to indicate otherwise. Whether you’re pro- or anti-marijuana, whether you’re a confirmed user or a devout abstainer, I beg you to at least think about it. Science may overcome this difficulty in the future, but at present I think it’s safe to say that our supply of brain cells is not limitless.

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"MURDER MOUNTAIN," the excellent documentary now appearing on NetFlix, is excellent for many reasons, particularly its stunning visuals of stunningly beautiful Humboldt County, and excellent as an honest account of the casual violence innate in the dope business, violence and dope having long been synonymous with back country life in the Emerald Triangle. Southern Humboldt is only slightly less fraught than northeast Mendocino County; if you moved Alderpoint a few miles south, it would be in Mendocino County, and leaving it where it is in all its festering glory beside the Eel, the vibe and experience of the place is much like the wildest neighborhoods of Mendocino County. I was so totally absorbed from the first few minutes of Murder Mountain, I binge-watched all six hours of it Friday afternoon.

THIS RIVETING documentary tells us that there are 230 Humboldt-based disappearances going back to 1975, and a bunch of unsolved murders. One of the disappearances discussed at the beginning of the film is that of Asha Kreimer, who was last seen near Point Arena in Mendocino County when she dashed from the restaurant where she was having breakfast with her Albion boyfriend. Asha has never been found. The police surmised she hurled herself off the bluffs west of where she was last seen, but the police will also say some bodies are claimed forever by the ocean.

POIGNANT THROUGHOUT, the film shows Asha's mother looking for her disappeared daughter in Garberville where, it was rumored, Asha may be hidden away, with or against her will, in one of the hundreds of cannabis operations dotting southern Humboldt County. (Asha's mother is an Australian who works as a nurse. She saves up money for repeat trips to the Emerald Triangle to continue the search for her daughter, now missing for three and a half years.)

Background:

MURDER MOUNTAIN refers to the Alderpoint area, a place many of us know well, just as the film features a number of persons we know, pioneers of the Back to the land Movement like Ed Denson, Robert "Woods" Sutherland, the redoubtable Doug Fir, who remembers that he bought 40 acres near Garberville for $11,000 in the late 1960s. A few thousand urban refugees got comparable deals in the more remote areas of the Northcoast, many of those deals brokered by an enterprising fellow named Bob McKee, who warrants a film all to himself. If a single person can be said to have made the Back to the Land Movement possible, it was McKee. He sold thousands of acres of ranch and logged-over timber land to the back to the landers for small or no down payments. McKee made it easy for the influx of, well, idealists who were simultaneously estranged from mainstream American ways of living; they thought they could live more sensible lives off the land, a notion many were soon disabused of when they actually tried to do it. But many did eke out a living from their hard scrabble acres by growing marijuana, and here we are as those old homesteads, well into their second and third generation owners, are being pushed out of the pot business by hugely capitalized corporations.

SUBSEQUENT to the pioneering hippies, much less desirable immigrants appeared in Southern Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake, and Trinity counties, settling in places like Alderpoint to grow the money crop in the nearby hills. This last influx brought with it lots of straight-up criminals, many of them wed to the outlaw life and contemptuous of the peace and love values of their neighbors. Self-appointed "community" arbiters of right and wrong, basing their ethics on "consensus," were easy pickings for predators.

THE DISTRUST, nay hatred, of the police and the contempt for conventional values arrived with the first wave hippies, many of whom had been beaten and tear gassed in Bay Area demonstrations against the War On Vietnam. The Bay Area police behaved, to put it gently, unprofessionally, beating hell out of peaceful protesters. But there was always an arrogant edge to the counterculture that put many of its most righteous soldiers in direct conflict with their neighbors, and especially the police who were automatically insulted and shunned. And, as the police — local, state and federal — raided hippie dope patches, the mutual contempt festered. And criminal predators, including child molesters and killers, not to mention every day scumbags with whom scumbaggery was and is a way of life, were tolerated by the counterculture rather than them going to "The Man" and demanding that The Man suppress bad people.

A LARGE IRONY of Murder Mountain, and much of the on-line comment about the film, are the complaints from contemporary marijuana outlaws that the police haven't done enough to get rid of the predators in outback communities. Anderson Valley's naive hippies made it possible for some world class psychopaths to do their thing, and out on the Coast in places like Albion, a nest of cho-mo's thrived because, as one ancient flower child explained it to me, "Our community takes care of itself."

I WAS PLEASED to see the filmmakers chose the talented Ryan Burns, a reporter for Hank Sims’ popular Lost Coast Outpost website, to provide neutral context for the sociology of this odd, highly balkanized place.

MURDER MOUNTAIN serves nicely as a filmic history of the marijuana industry where it began, right here on the Northcoast, to what it has become, also on the Northcoast, where it now costs at least a hundred thou to get all the permits required to grow legally. The film is also a harrowing tale of an unresolved murder that seems only a couple of subpoenas away from resolution, but both sides — the vigilantes who basically solved the case only to be ignored by the police and subsequently murdered themselves still roils Southern HumCo. Murder Mountain is the goods. Don't miss it.


REPRESENTATIVE ON-LINE ASSESSMENT OF MURDER MOUNTAIN, THE MOVIE:

"If the media continues to listen to one side this is how we are looked upon by the people paid to protect and serve. Even admits we the community have to do their work they are generously paid to do. Here is what the SF folk got to hear on their news about us. (My rebuttals)

Lt. Steve Knight of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department told CBS San Francisco “The local growers don’t want law enforcement coming in to where marijuana is at. They are afraid that we will see the marijuana and will take it from them (yep, ya will), and that is their living (yes, true, now can ya understand),” and explains that there are also vigilantes within the community working outside of the law and won’t serve as witnesses for crimes tried in a courtroom (nope cause it is usually not the reason you would win the case since as you stated the jury would be told the witness is a vigilante.).

Knight told CBS, “Many of these communities will try and solve their problems on their own (well, ya, cause you guys suck at your job). And by the time that happens unfortunately the problem has magnified (based on the above reasoning the only justice we have is our words which sometimes is enforced by our weapon).” While Humboldt County may be popular the world over for their marijuana output, their primary export is attached to a great deal of tragedy and death throughout the region (which is caused by the lies of the federal government to the people of America that marijuana has no medicinal value, ffs).

We do not need legalization we do not need regulation we need the federal laws repealed. All are based upon lies about the plants medicinal value alone. Not even gonna discuss the derogatory immigration policy that brought forward the marijuana stamp and more lies to the American people in the 30s."

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CATCH OF THE DAY, January 6, 2019

Bates, Blake, Gist, Guevara

JAY BATES, Eureka/Ukiah. Parole violation.

JAMIE BLAKE, Laytonville. Theft from elder/dependent adult, stolen property, convey/sell/etc personal ID info with intent to defraud, defrauding by ID acquisition, obtaining money by false pretenses.

SKYLER GIST, Willits. Domestic battery, resisting.

JOSHUA GUEVARA, Talmage. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

Hanger, Jackson, Menton

ANSLEY HANGER, Redwood Valley. DUI-alcohol&drugs.

ZACHARY JACKSON, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

LIANA MENTON, Ukiah. DUI.

Moran, Olvera, Peters-Pickett

CHRISTOPHER MORAN, Fort Bragg. Domestic abuse.

ARELI OLVERA, Willits. Controlled substance, suspended license (for DUI), disobeying court order, failure to appear, probation revocation.

ERNESTO PETERS-PICKETT, Covelo. Willful cruelty to child with possible injury or death.

Peyron-Lester, Sparkman, Spiker, Vincent

MONTE PEYRON-LESTER, Porterville/Ukiah. DUI, disorderly conduct-alcohol.

TYLER SPARKMAN, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

DESMOND SPIKER, Willits. Reckless evasion.

JESSE VINCENT, Willits. Failure to appear.

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WILDFIRES ALSO THREATEN WATER SUPPLIES

At least 65 percent of the public water supply in the Western U.S. comes from fire-prone areas, and wildfires can taint water with toxins and parasites.

nbcnews.com/news/us-news/after-fire-blazes-pose-hidden-threat-west-s-drinking-water-n954806

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SCALISE V. OCASIO-CORTEZ

U.S. Representative Steve Scalise has hit out at newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's supporters claiming they are 'radical' after they mocked the mass shooting that he survived.

Scalise (R-La) and Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) got into a heated Twitter exchange on Saturday as they debated her proposed hefty tax rates for the wealthy.

After some back-and-forth between the pair, Scalise tweeted screenshots of some responses from Ocasio-Cortez's supporters in which they said 'snipe his a**' and 'kick his cane'.

He argued that her supporters were 'radical'.

'Happy to continue this debate on the Floor of the People's House, but it's clearly not productive to engage here with some of your radical followers #StayClassy,' he tweeted.

The comments from Ocasio-Cortez's supporters were in reference to Scalise being seriously injured in 2017 when a gunman opened fire on a congressional Republican baseball practice.

The 53-year-old used a cane to help him walk during his recovery.

It was sparked by their earlier Twitter feud in which Scalise lashed out about Ocasio-Cortez's plans for a 70 percent tax on rich Americans to fund the Green New Deal program.

'Republicans: Let Americans keep more of their own hard-earned money. Democrats: Take away 70% of your income and give it to leftist fantasy programs,' Scalise tweeted.

Ocasio-Cortez hit back: 'You're the GOP Minority Whip. How do you not know how marginal tax rates work? Oh that's right, almost forgot: GOP works for the corporate CEOs showering themselves in multi-million dollar bonuses; not the actual working people.'

Scalise appeared to end the debate when he posted the screenshots from Ocasio-Cortez's supporters.

(Dailymail.com)

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U.S. TAX HISTORY

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WE ARE CALLING UPON those who control corporate power and property as mankind called upon kings in their day, to be a good and kind, wise and sweet, and we are calling in vain. We are asking them not to be what we have made them to be. We put power in their hands and ask them not to use it as power.

— Henry Demarest Lloyd, “Wealth Against Commonwealth”

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THE ORANGE MAN ON THE HORSE

An on-line comment:

Scanning the news, one navigates stories of people losing their jobs and perhaps their homes and maybe their citizenship. After nearly an hour of this, I return to my current reading: American Genocide, by Benjamin Madly. The book recounts in granular detail the state of California's native population (estimated at 150,000 or so at time of first 'contact' probably in 1804.) What ensued vaporized their culture and destroyed them individually. It is hard to imagine a more final end. Even extinction doesn't surpass it. Can a white person sitting at home even begin to understand how it is to watch everything suddenly vanish? This is precisely the world our Orange Plague is releasing on the world and its people. The man seems determined to destroy it all and to make an eventual move to recover what is lost even more difficult. The list of what is being lost seems endless. Off there in the distance, could that be an orange man on a horse?

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

How much money do you think it would cost for me to eliminate the need for fossil energy utilities? I couldn’t easily replace my excellent water supply, and wouldn’t care to need to replace the internet service, but right now I pay hundreds per month for gas and electric (mostly for the cost of maintaining gas and electric lines to my house; my supply cost for electricity, the actual electrons, is about 1/3rd the total cost.)

My guess is about 50k for the massive number of solar panels, the solar hot water heater, and the backup woodstove that serves as a source of heat. At 4% interest, that costs me 2k a year. With a mortgage at 6%, I could pay $300 a month over 30 years to pay off the system, depreciation obviously not included.

The downsides would be that, when the sun didn’t shine for days, I’d probably have to cut back on electricity-using. That would suck, to be sure. I’d still be better off than my 19th century forebears, of course.

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“We are gathered here today to bid farewell to the best assistant any magician could ask for.”

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VETERANS SHOULD GET BETTER TREATMENT

To the Editor:

This letter is about a problem facing veterans and their families. There is a lot of emotion behind my personal experience. But I will try to be unbiased. This is not about medical care, its about billing issues. Please note this.

A emergency situation, a intense moment in any person’s life can be challenging enough. But the way that our local hospital handles VA billing, which at the time of my experience, was not at all, is unfair and negligent in my opinion. I was told in emails in billing department, at the time, that no one was to bill VA, in the local facility.

I cannot say I was blessed, but luckily there was, other insurance payers. But, at the time of crisis, I was handed a bill while in ICU before any discharge, or even an idea of how long services would be provided or what outcome was pending. The local VA office was closed. I had no wallet for my loved one, to call a number. Subsequently, a transfer to a critical facility happened. It was all over in two days.

I was told by hospital staff, in later request, that they will not bill VA at all. Because they do not get paid.

I was told to try myself, ambulance services first, if I had any luck, I was asked, to tell the hospital staff, how I got the claim paid. After 1 1/2 years, three submissions of claims and the community coordinator, basically admitted having the wrong address on his official hand out to file claims, I have had no answers.

Then subsequent calling and finding out, even with the correct address, in San Francisco, no claims have ever been received or documented by the San Francisco facility. Even with the correct address. It makes no sense.

I realized, I may get a ‘no’ answer, to a claim for ambulance service, but at least I would like a yes or no answer. At least after three submissions and calls and meetings, that a claim was received, after all this time. But no, no claims were ever received or even returned for the services to me, or any letter returned to me, stating wrong address or a receipt of claim.

It is atrocious and egregious that this is how veteran’s families and veterans medical services are treated. It is a horrible injustice to the veteran that served. My loved one is a 20 years retired military, 3 times deployed. And this is the system and personnel that are completely inadequately informed or not interested in getting emergency veterans’ claims payed or at least processed. How can anyone allow this to continue at the status of non caring hospitals, military, currently not taking the time or effort, to help facilitate claim submission or at very least have correct information for veterans and families? And a follow up process to ensure it’s paid or denied for a reason. There is no process that can work, if claims end up nowhere, in who knows what corner, of the San Francisco facility. Like the bridge to nowhere, claims disappear completely. And these have very private and personal information.

My claim, after finding answers on internet all by myself, because my loved one was retired, probably, would be denied. But…..that took myself having to discover answers and relive a nightmare every time, to find that out, all by myself. If I had adequate information, and a claim was actually processed in first submission, I could have not had to endure the constant reminder of an awful time. So I write this letter for others. And I write to shed light on a horrific problem, in our military emergency billing and facilities not caring enough, to be proactive or tenacious. about veterans’ billing issues.
The veterans deserve much better, much better. In my opinion.

Catherine A. Lair
Ukiah

* * *

THERE IS NO CRISIS ON THE SOUTHERN BORDER. NONE.

(Mother Jones Magazine OnLine)

* * *

ALL IN THE FAMILY

by Dan Walters

Gov. Newsom — keeping it all in the family

Gavin Newsom will be the first Democrat in more than a century to succeed another Democrat as governor, and the succession also marks a big generational transition in California politics. A long-dominant geriatric quintet from the San Francisco Bay Area — Jerry Brown, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi and John Burton — has been slowly ceding power to younger political strivers. Moreover, Newsom is succeeding someone who could be considered his quasi-uncle since his inauguration continues the decades-long saga of four San Francisco families intertwined by blood, by marriage, by money, by culture and, of course, by politics — the Browns, the Newsoms, the Pelosis and the Gettys.

The connections date back at least 80 years, to when Jerry Brown’s father, Pat Brown, ran for San Francisco district attorney, losing in 1939 but winning in 1943, with the help of his close friend and Gavin Newsom’s grandfather, businessman William Newsom.

Fast forward two decades. Gov. Pat Brown’s administration developed Squaw Valley for the 1960s winter Olympics and, afterward, awarded a concession to operate it to William Newsom and his partner, John Pelosi.

One of Pelosi’s sons, Paul, married Nancy D’Alesandro, who went into politics and, this past week, reclaimed the speakership of the House of Representatives. Another Pelosi son married William Newsom’s daughter, Barbara, thus making Nancy Pelosi the aunt of Gavin Newson by marriage.

The Squaw Valley concession was controversial at the time and created something of a rupture between the two old friends. William Newsom wanted to make significant improvements to the ski complex, including a convention center, but Brown’s Department of Parks and Recreation balked. Newsom and his son, an attorney also named William, held a series of contentious meetings with officials over the issue. An eight-page memo about those 1966 meetings from the department’s director, Fred Jones, buried in the Pat Brown archives, describes the Newsoms as being embittered and the senior Newsom threatening to “hurt the governor politically” as Brown ran for a third term that year against Ronald Reagan.

Pat Brown’s bid for a third term failed, and the Reagan administration later bought out the Newsom concession. But the Brown-Newsom connection continued as Brown’s son, Jerry, reclaimed the governorship in 1974. He appointed the younger William Newsom, a personal friend and Gavin’s father, to a Placer County judgeship in 1975 and three years later to the state Court of Appeal.

Judge Newsom, who died a few weeks ago, had been an attorney for oil magnate J. Paul Getty, most famously delivering $3 million to Italian kidnappers of Getty’s grandson in 1973. While serving on the appellate bench in the 1980s, he helped Getty’s son, Gordon, secure a change in state trust law that allowed him to claim his share of a multi-heir trust.

After Newsom retired from the bench in 1995, he became administrator of Gordon Getty’s own trust, telling one interviewer, “I make my living working for Gordon Getty.” The trust provided seed money for the Plumpjack chain of restaurants and wine shops that Newson’s son, Gavin, and Gordon Getty’s son, Billy, developed, the first being in a Squaw Valley hotel.

Gavin Newsom had been informally adopted by the Gettys after his parents divorced, returning a similar favor that the Newsom family had done for a young Gordon Getty many years earlier. Newsom’s Plumpjack business (named for an opera that Gordon Getty wrote) led to a career in San Francisco politics, a stint as mayor, the lieutenant governorship and now to the governorship, succeeding his father’s old friend. He’s keeping it all in the extended family.

(Dan Walters is a columnist for CALmatters, a public interest journalism venture.)

* * *

* * *

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Editor:

The question has been posed: Do we have too many lawyers or too few? I was curious and I did some research on the web and, interesting enough, it came out that in the Bay Area alone, there are more lawyers than in the entire country of France! That should answer the question. Also of interest, I found out that in California we have about 170,000 but only about 57,000 physicians. So now I have a question: Who are we short of?

Arnoldo Dallera

Tiburon

* * *

* * *

RASHIDA TLAIB AND WORKING CLASS AUTHENTICITY V. TRUMP’S PLUTOCRAT PRETENSE

"These are, then, the voters who cast their ballots for Tlaib. They are beaten-down white workers and Arab-Americans fighting prejudice and African-Americans left behind by plutocrats like Trump. They work hard, eke out a living, and they cuss. They came by it honestly. They aren’t pretend working class like Trump or the Bushes. They put Rashida Tlaib in Congress for one purpose. To impeach the Mofo, Trump."

commondreams.org/views/2019/01/06/rashida-tlaib-and-working-class-authenticity-v-trumps-plutocrat-pretense

* * *

CLIMATE CHANGE DISCUSSION THIS TUESDAY

Climate Change Is The Most Pressing Issue Of Our Time

We are calling on YOU to be a part of the climate change solution!

From our local forestry professionals to our local farmers and winegrowers and even our local home gardeners, many in Mendocino are already leading the way.

You are invited to participate in a conversation about principles and practices to drawdown carbon and store it in the soil.

Tuesday, January 8, 2019, 6:00 pm

Caspar Community Center

Hosted by the League of Women Voters of Mendocino County

6:00-6:30 pm — Coffee and refreshments

6:30-7:30 pm — Conversations about carbon storage strategies & techniques led by Elizabeth Giumarin, PMP, MS Soil Science Educator & Consultant

7:30-8:00 pm — Networking with local farms, gardens & growers. Hear their stories and begin your own.

susan allen nutter, sanutter@mcn.org

* * *

IT WAS AN UNREAL TIME. The events in Europe, the post-war drawing of lines between the Communists and the Western powers, probably had a historical inevitability to it. Two great and uncertain powers were coming to terms with each other, a task made more difficult by their ideological differences (each believed its own myth about itself and its adversary) and by the additional frightening factor of the atomic weapon. Long-range historical analysis will probably show that in those years they were like two blind dinosaurs wrestling in a very small pit. Each thought its own policies basically defensive, and the policies of its adversary basically aggressive. Out of this would come new tensions and new fears for a new world power like the United States. But the China issue, even more emotional, and the coming of the Korean War, would legitimize the fringe viewpoints, would limit rational discussion and rational political activity. China would help freeze American policy toward Communism. A kind of demonology about a vast part of the world would become enshrined as accepted gospel. One major political party would be too frightened to challenge it, the other delighted to reap the benefits from it. All of this would affect Indochina.

— David Halberstam, ‘The Best & The Brightest,’ presaging modern parallels

32 Comments

  1. George Hollister January 7, 2019

    LM:
    “But for now I’m more convinced than ever that the effects of marijuana on the brain and consciousness are more deleterious than helpful. Will marijuana invariably ruin your life or render you useless? Of course not. Will it decrease the odds of your reaching your full potential, of living a meaningful and happy life? I’m inclined to say yes.”

    I would agree. If you have never smoked pot you have not missed anything, and if you value your brain don’t start.

    As a long time reader of Lawrence Livermore, and one who has been at odds with most of what he has written in this paper going back 30 years, 25 anyway, I agree with him completely here. And I am glad to see he has successfully made the long climb out of the smoky pit.

    • Harvey Reading January 7, 2019

      “Reefer Madness”, George? Not buying it.

      • Lazarus January 7, 2019

        I’ve always believed, perhaps naively, whatever works without harm of others.
        Many if not all of us have something we need or use to get through the day, if not this life. Some use tobacco, a known killer, some use anti-whatever, some use painkillers, millions use food, (where’s the obesity epidemic police?) and many use alcohol, which is without a doubt the most destructive of all. Yet alcohol is glamorized in nearly every aspect of the societies of our planet.
        I know stone cold alcoholics that have been saved by switching to marijuana. In one case, this guy became wildly successful. If he would have continued to drink the guy would be dead or in jail…no doubt.
        Through all of history mind-altering drugs of some kind have been used, it appears that urge is within our DNA.
        Unfortunately, we all can’t make it through, it’s not the drugs, it’s us…
        As always,
        Laz

      • George Hollister January 7, 2019

        I don’t buy “Reefer Madness” either. But I was introduced to pot by a group of Dead Head college friends back in 1971, and shortly after we all graduated there was a group consensus of the necessity to cease smoking because it interfered with the ability to think and carry on a professional life. There was one exception, a person who became a public school teacher, at the time, in Cloverdale.

        If a person over 21 wants to use THC, I am fine with that. But don’t drive when under the influence, and don’t expect me to believe how it provides all these mental awareness benefits, either. Those benefits exist purely in the imagination.

        If a person has a chronic health condition, and THC provides benefits for them, how can anyone argue with that? But that is a completely different scenario than most THC users find themselves.

  2. George Hollister January 7, 2019

    From AVA 8/3/16:

    LARRY LIVERMORE nicely sums up the feeling of non-pot smokers:

    I started smoking pot when I was about Bieber’s age. In fact for more than 20 years of my life I would have sworn that marijuana made me smarter, wiser, more moral, and probably even more handsome. In reality, as most people who knew me during that time will happily tell you, it made me an obnoxious dingbat.

    That seems to be the effect it has on most of its users. The problem is — a big problem — is that the more stoned you get, the more likely you are to believe the complete opposite.

    It’s only logical: why would people spend tons of money and (at least in some jurisdictions) even risk arrest to take a drug that made them look and act dumber than they already were? Unless, of course, one of the chief effects of the drug were to stand reality on its head and translate bleary-eyed dumbfoundedness into a half-assed approximation of cosmic insight and understanding?

    Marijuana users hate it when you point out that the “high” they experience is a form of temporary derangement if not clinical insanity. What they’re even less likely to appreciate — or be aware of — is that the derangement isn’t necessarily temporary.

    That’s not to say it’s permanent — serious long-term research needs to be done — but the mind-altering effects of marijuana last long after you stop toking down on the joints or bong hits. Days? Weeks? Months? How about years?

    I’m not necessarily the ideal guinea pig, but that’s how long it took in my case: somewhere between three or four years before the inverted perceptions of my dope years felt fully restored to their former levels of functionality.

    “But wait!” I can hear legions of dopers protest. “Just because you had a problem with marijuana doesn’t mean everybody else does. I mean, look at all the great art and philosophy that came out of the baby boom generation when they started smoking weed en masse in the 1960s!”

    To which I can only respond: Yeah, just look at it.

    One of the most pernicious impacts of marijuana is the illusion that the universe revolves around the user, and that said user is uniquely qualified to understand and explain this to lesser mortals not under its influence. It’s not hard to see why this could be particularly problematic in the case of a 19 year old, who by dint of age and hormones alone, is already convinced he knows everything.

    • james marmon January 7, 2019

      Why do you think they call it dope?

      That’s why I left the Mendocino Juvenile Drug Court. It was me against the world trying to educate Mental-cino kids about the dangers of long term Marijuana use, everyone was telling them it was the wonder drug and a constitutional right.

      James Marmon MSW
      Former Substance Abuse Counselor

      • Mike January 7, 2019

        Cannaboids in brain, receptors of thc, CBD, etc., are not fully developed until the age of 20 or so, so hopefully public ed efforts like your past one will result in this factoid becoming common knowledge.
        Can affect teen IQ, and create psychosis.

      • Eric Sunswheat January 7, 2019

        Nutritional deficiency can affect teen IQ, and create psychosis. Money for food, dental, and health care. Tax free pot now!

    • james marmon January 7, 2019

      What You Need to Know About Marijuana Use in Teens
      Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

      Marijuana and the teen brain

      Unlike adults, the teen brain is actively developing and often will not be fully developed until the mid 20s. Marijuana use during this period may harm the developing teen brain.

      Negative effects include:

      Difficulty thinking and problem solving.
      Problems with memory and learning.
      Impaired coordination.
      Difficulty maintaining attention

      https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/factsheets/teens.htm

      Most adult dope heads started smoking pot in their teens and joined in with other fools to promote the normalization of stupidity.

      James Marmon MSW
      Former Substance Abuse Counselor
      Mendocino Juvenile Drug Court

  3. Bruce McEwen January 7, 2019

    From the lachrymose gibber of the drunkard

    To the fey prattle of the stoner

    There’s nothing quite as repugnant

    As the sanctimony of the sober.

    — Grandpa McEwen’s Epigrams No. mmxix

    • james marmon January 7, 2019

      Seek some help McEwen!

  4. Mike January 7, 2019

    The gibber reveals the ever present broken heartedness that is unavoidably existing for all of us.

    The prattle brings us to the edge of the fog, and if we laugh at our BS then we may step beyond the fog bank.

  5. Eric Sunswheat January 7, 2019

    RE: …allow broad public access to police misconduct files.

    —->. Finally Ukiah Officer Peter Hoyle may receive push back on testimony and actions.

  6. james marmon January 7, 2019

    A good example as to why they call it dope. Free food, dental, and health care for all, where do you think all that money will come from? I say tax pot heavily, create a big Sin Tax, treat it like cigarettes and booze. Stop the marijuana industry from advertising it as the super cure and therefore completely harmless. Make the industry put a warning on their labels. Put it under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

    James

    • Harvey Reading January 7, 2019

      Don’t tax “sin”. Tax the wealthy. They earned what they have on the backs of low-paid, no benefits working people. You, James, are obviously a stooge of the wealthy. Shame on you.

      And, cut “defense” spending to the point that that the arrogant murderers we elect to the presidency and congress cannot wage wage offensive wars, like the ones we’ve been involved in constantly since the end of the second war with the world.

      Pot is not the problem.

      • james marmon January 7, 2019

        “Don’t tax “sin”. Tax the wealthy” Yeah, take away incentive and no one will motivated, without incentive we will slow our species’ evolution down to a crawl. Why go to the struggle to invent something if there’s nothing in it for you, love is all you need.

        love, love, love

        “All you need is love
        All you need is love, love, love is all you need
        There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known
        Nothing you can see that isn’t shown
        There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be
        It’s easy”

        -John Lennon and Susie de Castro

        • Harvey Reading January 7, 2019

          You are really brainwashed, poor boy. You sound just like a fat rich guy defending “his” wealth, that he earned on the backs of working people. I have heard and read them doing that since I was a kid. James, you are clearly part of the problem.

          • james marmon January 7, 2019

            You hate the working class harv, you blame them for not selling out against capitalism and joining your socialist movement, why should you care? What are you shooting for, a country controlled by the poor? The poor will never be satisfied until the become the rich and are in control of the working class. The whole thing is about who controls the working class and you know it. The working class should have the right to decide who controls them, don’t you think? Taxing the rich will only hurt the working class. The only way things will ever get any better is by having a stronger working class.

            • Harvey Reading January 7, 2019

              Naw, James, I don’t. I’m pretty disappointed with them though, have been since the early 70s, when they quit fighting the bosses and settled back as the “middle class” people they’d been told–by the lying media and lying politicians–they’d become. Apparently you know little or nothing of socialism, and, for what it’s worth, I’d as soon have the poor in charge than the murderous rich folks we’ve had since the country began. Taxing the rich and cutting the war budget would go a long way toward improving the lives of the rest of us.

              Looking to republicans to help the Working Class is generally stupidity, pure and simple. In your case it is willful ignorance. Republicans are, and always have been the party of the rich. Read some history, and you will learn that I am not lying. Unfortunately, you’re too wound up with the nonsensical “wisdom” that you learned as a child to even see straight. That’s too bad. It makes you a good puppet for the wealthy. You should grow up and see reality. Holding on to antiquated, dangerous ideas won’t get you, or anyone else, save the wealthy ruling class, anywhere.

              Oh, I left out an important part of my story in my earlier comment:

              Gary’s wife had bought him a brand-new gas-powered ice augur for Christmas, so we were using it for the first time. It cut through that 15-inch ice like a knife through butter.

              Unfortunately, after the second hole, some water splashed onto the throttle cable and froze between the cable and its sheath, leaving the throttle stuck in the wide-open position. At 16 below there wasn’t much we could do about thawing the cable. We solved the problem by having Gary guide the thing into to the ice and lift it out, when the hole was drilled. As soon as the augur portion cleared the hole, I would rock the on-off switch to the off position. We drilled 10 more holes in about 10 minutes.

    • Stephen Rosenthal January 7, 2019

      “Free food, dental, and health care for all, where do you think all that money will come from?”

      Where do you think all that money for the border wall you lust for will come from?

      • james marmon January 7, 2019

        Mexico will pay for the wall, directly or indirectly. Money spent on our social programs, prison systems and the caring for illegal immigrants can be re-directed to the wall which would be great for a infrastructure project. Shoring up the border will allow us to put more security in our shipping ports and airports. You guys are not taking full advantage of large portions of your brains, do yourself a favor, ask question, think for yourself, and evolve.

        Trump is like 3 or 4 steps ahead of America’s majority. Thank God for the Electoral College, and thank God for Donald J. Trump!

        Think, Think, Think!

        James Marmon MSW

        • Stephen Rosenthal January 8, 2019

          You know James, your incessant prattle reminds of a quote from Mark Twain, viz.: Sometimes it’s better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you’re a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

          • Eric Sunswheat January 8, 2019

            I occasionally read between the lines, and sense a satirical interwoven Philbrick thread in some of James’ writings, to troll for response, while seemingly pandering to, but actually, mocking Trump.

      • james marmon January 7, 2019

        Up until 2 years ago I was as dumb and a rock too. Good God, I was a practicing social worker, how left could one be? I watched CNN from morning to night. When Trump came along I opened up some unused parts of my brain that I didn’t even know existed, I had always believed in whatever I was being told. CNN thought they were convincing everyone that Trump was crazy but it backfired. I have to thank CNN for making me think again, I liked what he was saying, thank you CNN and the AVA for so much negative coverage.

        James Marmon MSW
        Free Thinker

        James Marmon MSW

  7. Harvey Reading January 7, 2019

    I’m sure I’ve peddled this yarn before, but what the hell.

    For me it was booze and grass, starting at age 19. Never hallucinated, never experienced great thoughts; they all seemed nonsensical the morning after. Found out early on that I could drive better when drunk than I could when stoned. For some reason, my sense of motion was affected by grass more than by booze. I once found myself driving at 3 mph down Sonoma’s Broadway at about one-thirty in the morning, making a beer run before the liquor store closed. Quit drinking at 39, after CHP finally got me; smoked grass occasionally thereafter, with long periods of complete abstinence. And never drove while under its influence after I quit drinking, goody two-shoes that I am.

    A few years after moving here to the high plains, a driller and his family moved next door. He and wife were in their mid thirties. They had two boys, one in diapers, one in third grade. The driller invited me out ice fishing on the eve of 2011. It was a first for me, and probably a last. It was about 16 below. So I suited in an insulated oversuit and pacs, and off we went, about an hour before dark. He had some grass that he had received from an acquaintance with Canadian connections. It was reeeeeeeal smooth, and was the first I had smoked in about 9 years.

    After we reached the fishin’ hole, on Boysen Reservoir, about 200 yards from shore (yes, he drove his full-sized Dodge pickup onto the lake, which I found a bit terrifying), I started getting paranoid, and found myself trying to remember the symptoms of hypothermia. I took a few snapshots of the desolate surroundings, and then it hit me: I wasn’t cold at all. Rather, I was reacting to the grass, in the same way I had reacted to some (also really smooth) Panama Red that my cousin and roommate had scored back in ’70. After that I was fine and enjoyed the outing.

    We only “caught” two fish, a nice rainbow trout and a pretty fair rainbow perch. On the way back, his 4WD Dodge got its tires spinning while going up the icy grade that led from the beach to the plain above, so “Gary” backed down and considered driving back onto the ice and traveling on the reservoir surface to another road about a half mile away. That option was not to my liking, so I suggested that instead he get a better run at the road in front of us, believing that would get us to the top in short order, and with no more driving on the surface of the reservoir. It took a little convincing to get Gary to agree, but, with greater momentum we made it to the top easily. I was very relieved. Several vehicles go through the ice every year and I was NOT interested in experiencing that. Plus it would have ruined what was left of my high.

    About three years later, Gary, by then divorced, moved away, owing to a slowdown in drilling. I don’t miss grass at all. Don’t know if I will ever use it again or not. In short, grass is just no big deal to me. Never has been.

  8. Eric Sunswheat January 7, 2019

    Money:
    http://moslereconomics-kg5winhhtut.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/powerpoints/7DIF.pdf

    Those worried about paying off the national debt can’t possibly understand how it all works at the operational, nuts and bolts (debits and credits) level. Otherwise they would realize that question is entirely inapplicable. What they don’t understand is that both dollars and U.S. Treasury debt (securities) are nothing more than “accounts,” which are nothing more than numbers that the government makes on its own books.

    Longevity:
    https://www.ptreyeslight.com/article/lengthening-telomeres-slowing-effect-time

    As Helmut spoke, I began to think about telomeres—a hot topic in medicine these days—and how nice and long his must be. Telomeres are the “caps” at the end of genetic material, like the tips of shoelaces. Like those tips, telomeres keep genes from fraying, which leads to degeneration and aging at the cellular level. Longer telomeres are associated with healthier cells, which translate into a more youthful organism…

    Participants’ telomere length and telomerase—the enzyme that lengthens telomeres—activity was tested at baseline and at the end of a six-month study period.

    The researchers found that although exercise of any sort improved fitness (an important component of healthy aging), those who engaged in aerobic activity in any form—walking, jogging or interval training—underwent a significant lengthening in telomeres and increase in telomerase activity.

    Resistance training did not lead to lengthened telomeres, and those who remained sedentary had telomeres that remained the same length or shortened. In summary, the aerobic exercises led to youthfulness on a cellular level.

  9. Eric Sunswheat January 7, 2019

    http://moslereconomics-kg5winhhtut.stackpathdns.com/wp-content/powerpoints/7DIF.pdf

    So what are the deadly (yet perhaps innocent) frauds? First, government finance is supposed to be similar to household finance: government needs to tax and borrow first before it can spend. Second, today’s deficits burden our grandchildren with government debt. Third, worse, deficits absorb today’s saving. Fourth, Social Security has promised pensions and healthcare that it will never be able to afford. Fifth, the U.S. trade deficit reduces domestic employment and dangerously indebts Americans to the whims of foreigners – who might decide to cut off the supply of loans that we need. Sixth, and related to fraud number three, we need savings to finance investment (so government budgets lead to less investment). And, finally, higher budget deficits imply taxes will have to be higher in the future – adding to the burden on future taxpayers.

    Mosler shows that whether or not these beliefs are innocent, they are most certainly wrong. Again, there might be some sort of economy in which they could be more-or-less correct. For example, in a nonmonetary economy, a farmer needs to save seed corn to ‘invest’ it in next year’s rop. On a gold standard, a government really does need to tax and borrow to ensure it can maintain a fixed exchange rate. And so on. But in the case of nonconvertible currency (in the sense that government does not promise to convert at a fixed exchange rate to precious metal or foreign currency), none of these myths holds. Each is a fraud.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/StephanieKelton

  10. james marmon January 7, 2019

    RE: CLIMATE CHANGE DISCUSSION THIS TUESDAY

    Wouldn’t it be wiser to prepare for disasters caused by climate change rather than trying to control or stop it, what if all of our stopgap and control efforts fail?

    We don’t even know for sure that humans caused climate change, let alone whether or not we can possibly reverse it. NOT SETTLED SCIENCE!

    Groupthink exists!

    Do yourself a favor, ask questions, think for yourself, and EVOLVE!

    James Marmon
    Personal Growth Consultant

  11. Eric Sunswheat January 7, 2019

    https://amp.thisisinsider.com/therapy-long-term-jonathan-alpert-be-fearless-2019-1

    Although long-term therapy can be necessary to address “severe psychological disorders,” Alpert wrote, the average patient typically doesn’t need years, or even months, with their doctor.

    Most people, he said, seek help for “discrete, treatable issues” like unfulfilling jobs and relationships or a fear of change. And those problems don’t need to take dozens of sessions to solve, he said.

    “Therapy can – and should – focus on goals and outcomes, and people should be able to graduate from it,” he said.

  12. james marmon January 8, 2019

    Have any of you ever walked out of a voting booth scratching your head wondering who you really voted for? The conscious mind does not vote, The unconscious mind takes over in that booth. The unconscious mind is what I call God. That’s why 63 million American citizens believe Trump was heaven sent.

    Hidden powers: 6 amazing things your unconscious mind can do

    “THINK you know what’s going on in your mind? You must be kidding. Much of our mental life happens in the unconscious: a place that Freud famously considered to be a cesspit of our most basic animalistic desires. This is a view that modern neuroscientists definitely don’t share, but they do agree with Freud on one thing – that our brains have an uncanny knack for working stuff out, with no need for conscious involvement.”

    https://www.newscientist.com/round-up/unconscious/

    James Marmon MSW

    • Harvey Reading January 8, 2019

      Your “logic” is a bit flawed, James. One of his opponents got three million more votes than did Trump. Amazing how that fact always escapes you. And, no, I have NEVER left a voting booth, or mailed in ballot, wondering for whom I had voted. You do have the imagination of an adolescent.

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