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MCT: Sunday, February 24, 2019

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THE AVA'S EMAIL stopped coming in sometime Friday night. The inbox remained silent until Saturday afternoon, when a slow trickle began coming in. It is unknown how much, if any, was lost, so we'd like to apologize, in advance, for any loss that may have resulted.

WE ALSO MOVED our website to a new webhost last week, and experienced some ups and downs with that process. We still need to upgrade to a more robust server with the new host, which we plan on doing Monday afternoon. Please bear with us as we iron these cyber wrinkles out.

IT'S A COMPLEX WORLD out there, fraught with all sorts of pitfalls. Sometimes we long for simpler times.

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MODERATE TO LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN will be likely across northwest California Sunday and Monday, followed by a second round of moderate rains Tuesday and Tuesday night. Additional periods of unsettled weather will be possible next weekend.

AN APPROACHING COLD FRONT will bring a period of strong southerly winds to portions of Northwest California late tonight into Monday morning. Wind gusts to 50 mph are possible around Crescent City & nearby coastal headlands. Even stronger gusts to 60 mph are expected locally across exposed higher terrain above 1500 feet elevation in Del Norte & Humboldt Counties. Wind this strong will make driving difficult. Be extra cautious traveling along exposed portions of Highways 101, 299, 36, as well as other high-elevation rural roads. Remember to secure any loose objects that may get blown around by the wind. A few downed trees or limbs are possible, which could result in isolated power outages.

(National Weather Service)

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MSP's 'Eye On The Navarro River'

EXPECT HIGHWAY 128 CLOSURE WEDNESDAY

Well, as we predicted, the NOAA Forecast for the Navarro River level has been revised from Friday when it was projected to reach 22.8' next Wednesday.

Now, NOAA says the river level will approach the 23.0' flood stage Tuesday night - and we all know CalTrans closes down Highway 128 BEFORE the level reaches flood stage.

So it stands Saturday morning, the river is projected to hit 19.90' Tuesday @ 9:00 pm. At midnight it will be 24.0' - a foot above flood stage and Highway 128 will DEFINITELY be closed.

The river is forecast to "crest" around noon Wednesday and dip below flood stage (22.40') Wednesday @ 9:00 pm.

Of course, this forecast will be revised several more times (either up or down) in the next couple days.

And we'll be keeping an eye on it...


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Re: "FIVE MILLION TO DO WHAT?" BERNIE NORVELL WRITES:

3 of the 5 million

The 68 new units of housing are proposed for 441 South St. on now-vacant land south of the Mendocino Coast District Hospital campus. Danco, an Arcata-based developer that has built numerous affordable and market rate projects, applied in 2017 to build 44 units at that location and revised its application this year to 68 units. Danco plans to have all the units built within two years of construction starting.

Twenty of the units will be permanent residential cottages (18 one-bedroom homes and two two-bedroom homes) ranging from 616 to 830 square feet with a nearby 3,000-square-foot commons building, walkways, a full-sized basketball court and a manager’s unit.

Twenty-five units will be single-story affordable senior residential cottages, similar in size, with a 1,200-square-foot commons building, utility buildings, a manager’s unit, walkways and 29 parking spaces. The remaining 23 units would be two-story workforce/family residential duplex units, ranging from 1,000 to 1,200 square feet (two and three bedrooms). Plans would also include a small basketball court and 36 covered parking spaces.

One of the special conditions of this project is that Danco will accept HUD Section 8 rental assistance and housing vouchers when considering tenant applications.

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MENDO’S SUDDEN AMBULANCE PRIVATIZATION-CONSOLIDATION

by Mark Scaramella

Mendocino County began planning to establish an Exclusive Operating Area (EOA) for inland ambulance services back in 2013. More than five years later, after several false starts, state reviews, organizational wrangling, and busted deadlines, the long delayed Request for Proposals (RFP) for the EOA was finally issued last week.

coastalvalleysems.org/entry/mendocino-county-request-for-proposal-for-eoa-provider-for-emergency-ambulance-service.html

The entire RFP process was carried out in secret by the Sonoma County-based emergency services administrative outfit, Coastal Valleys Emergency Medical Services (CVEMS), on the alleged grounds that allowing the public to participate in the process in any way could give an advantage to a potential bidder.

When the RFP was released last week it prompted questions and complaints as local emergency response organizations started to delve into the RFP’s 142 pages of fine print.

The first gripe we heard from any local official was when Anderson Valley Community Services District Board member Larry Mailliard saw the very aggressive proposal schedule — deadline for questions March 8, proposers conference March 15, final deadline for RFP questions March 22, letters of intent April 8, and proposals due by May 28. Mailliard remarked that the County took years to prepare it without any apparent sense of urgency, and now all of a sudden they want everyone to rush to get their proposals together?

Other complaints we've heard so far based on very preliminary reviews are related to some of the odd provisions in the RFP:

"Successful proposer shall reimburse the county for the cost of ambulance dispatch."

What? Why? How?

"Proposers are encouraged to establish agreements to utilize [existing ambulance providers] in conjunction with an ALS provider from the contractor whether staffed on the ambulance or as a quick response vehicle to ensure ALS level of care is available on all calls within the EOA when it is needed."

Does this mean that the Anderson Valley Ambulance will be be required to hire paramedics? How will that be reimbursed?

"The county does not guarantee any number of responses or transports."

Why do they have to point this out?

"Contractor shall respond to hazardous materials incidents, working fires, and law enforcement standbys upon request by any public safety agency or dispatch center within the EOA at no charge."

Standby at incidents and crime scenes for no cost? Won’t this 1) raise the cost, and 2) take a unit out of service for who knows how long?

"Each period in which the contractor fails to meet the 90% [response time standards] within any compliance zone the contractor shall pay to the LEMSA [i.e., Coastal Valleys EMS] a $250 financial liquidated damage for each one 10th of a percentage point by which the contract performance falls short of the 90% standard. Each period in which the contractor fails to meet the applicable response time requirements the LEMSA will review the contractor’s SSP [?], unit hour of production capacities and/or other factors to determine the causes of noncompliance."

This appears to be very subjective and could lead to some gamesmanship in not only how response times are recorded, but who’s responsible for delays and how they will be recorded.

"All areas have a maximum response time. Every call where the ambulance fails to arrive within the maximum specified time is an outlier call. The liquidated damages for each outlier is $500 per occurrence." Same question.

In addition, the data in the RFP describing current arrangements responses and service arrangements is dated and has very little information after 2016, as if the RFP was developed a couple of years ago and they have been sitting on it since then. The "key contacts" list identifies Alan Green as manager of the Anderson Valley Ambulance, but almost two years ago the non-profit Anderson Valley Ambulance Service was merged into the Anderson Valley Community Services District and is being operated by the Anderson Valley Fire Department.

Despite these problems and the seemingly over-optimistic proposal schedule, there are three private ambulance service companies likely to submit bids: Ukiah-based MedSTAR, Falck (the giant Dutch international company with a local operation which recently pulled out of Covelo for financial reasons and which repositioned some of their units to Rohnert Park creating a service gap that local ambulances had to backfille), and AMR, American Medical Response, a large emergency services outfit based in Colorado, with a major operation in Sonoma County.

In theory, by consolidating all of the ambulance calls in the Highway 101 corridor, including the lucrative "interfacility transfers" (from hospital to hospital, usually not emergencies), the winning contractor would have substantial revenue to so that, with whatever the County is going to pay the low bidder, they can provide "Advanced Life Support" (i.e., paramedics) on every call that calls for a paramedic.

It's not clear how the winning contractor would be paid either. Presumably the winning contractor will not be limited to reimbursements for individual transports under the current paltry payment schemes from the uninsured, Medical, MediCare and a few private insurance payers. We don’t see how they could provide expanded ALS service — estimated to cost at least $500,000 per ambulance, without a substantial contract/cost from the County. At present the County of Mendocino is supplementing existing ambulance services to the tune of about of almost $200,000 a year for "the ALS Grant." How much is the County budget prepared to chip in or subsidize the ambulance services?

One of the top evaluation criteria in the RFP is "integration with existing EMS providers." 

Accordingly, "Due to the number of established ambulance providers within the EOA, the County encourages partnerships to provide a cost-effective service with optimal response times and integration with existing EMS providers.” Besides the existing ambulance services (including the Anderson Valley volunteer service), existing EMS providers also includes community health centers.

"In the communities of Boonville, Laytonville, and Covelo, there are health centers providing primary and urgent care. Proposers are encouraged to discuss joint staffing models to optimize and subsidize the paramedic resource when not responding and transporting patients."

“…encouraged to discuss”? How are such complicated arrangements — balancing call billing revenue, calls and/or staff covered by other agencies, the County funding from the contract, possible deductions if response time averages are not met, cost salary increases over the cost of living, etc. — supposed to be ironed out in time to incorporate them into a bid under the short proposal schedule?

Given that whoever gets the contract will be a private for-profit company, there will be an incentive to shift as much work to outside agencies as possible. For example, in Anderson Valley the contractor, arriving later from Ukiah, could let the AV volunteers do the first response with the patients, then just act as a glorified taxi service over the hill, saving time and cost.

Based on comments at last Wednesday night’s Community Services District board meeting after a very early review of the RFP package, the fire chief and the CSD board expect the Board of Supervisors to do more than just "encourage" the winning contractor to "discuss" arrangements with the local service providers. They expect the Supervisors to not only ensure that the existing (mostly volunteer) Anderson Valley EMS operation is sustained and improved, but that it retains the autonomy that it currently has including its staffing, revenue, and rate setting. And not turn the local ambulance into a subsidiary of a private company.

Whether any of the potential bidders are capable of figuring out the delicate balancing act required by this comprehensive new RFP, remains a very open question.

For the short term, it will be very interesting to see not only how the potential bidders react to the RFP via their questions (and the answers), but whether the existing inland area ambulance providers can work or will with it.

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UKIAH SHELTER PETS OF THE WEEK

Jackson shows no signs of being a "senior" dog--he has loads of energy and gobs of joy! In fact, Jackson has a puppy-like way about him. He's an active guy, but he loves being with and next to people. Jackson is muscular with a fabulous conformation. He enjoys playing fetch, and likes flipping toys in the air. Jackson is a 6 year old, neutered male, mixed breed dog and weighs in at a handsome and healthy 61 pounds. Jackson's personal webpage is right here: mendoanimalshelter.com/dogblog/jackson

Franklin is a 4 year old, neutered male, orange and white, short hair cat. Since he came to us as a "stray,” we don’t know his history, but here at the Shelter he is very friendly and talkative. Franklin lives in the lobby of the Shelter and would like to invite you to come down and visit him or perhaps even take him home!

The Ukiah Animal Shelter is located at 298 Plant Road in Ukiah; adoption hours are Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm and Wednesday from 10 am to 6:30 pm.  To see photos and bios of the shelter's adoptable animals, please visit us online at: mendoanimalshelter.com. For more information about adoptions please call 707-467-6453.

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ED NOTE

CONGRESSMAN HUFFMAN'S "Two-Basin Solution," or a version thereof, would keep Eel River water flowing from the Eel into Lake Mendocino and the Russian River  via the Potter Valley Diversion, a mile-long tunnel that through which the Eel is sent south into the Russian.

PRELIMINARILY, Huff's idea seems like the most rational way to resolve PG&E's abandonment of the power machinery of the Diversion simply to keep the diverted Eel flowing south. The Diversion isn't needed for power anymore but, kinda like a local version of Brexit, removing upstream Eel River dams and returning the Eel to its natural state and diverting no more, would mean dismantling a zillion downstream water relationships the Diversion makes possible. 

WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE the whole show revamped, especially the wildly irrational and dramatically unfair water arrangement via which Sonoma County owns almost all the diverted water. (Former supervisor Pinches was the only supervisor to ask for reconsideration of present arrangements, but he failed to even get a second to advance the discussion.)

AS IS, and if The Huff's Two Basin idea becomes reality, Sonoma County would still own almost all the diverted water stored in Lake Mendocino, an arrangement blindly agreed to by Mendocino County in the middle 1950s long before Sonoma County's population exploded and even longer before the wine industry became as politically influential as it has become. (The wine industry, natch, owns Huffman, a voluntary slave to it.)

ONE WAY or another, a portion of the Eel must continue to be diverted to the huge apparatus downstream that depends on it. Not many of us would mourn seeing the wine industry die of thirst, but whole towns depend on diverted water, including Cloverdale, much of Sonoma and Marin too. Huff's idea of two basins is a good place to start the negotiations

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CATCH OF THE DAY, February 23, 2019

Campbell, Fett, Fowler

ALICIA CAMPBELL, Willits. DUI, probation revocation.

COURTNEY FETT, Ukiah. Disobeying court order.

KALLYN FOWLER, Ukiah. Domestic abuse, evasion, probation revocation.

Gentle, Koeppel

FRANK GENTLE, Clearlake/Ukiah. Domestic abuse.

JOSHUA KOEPPEL, Willits. DUI.

Savoy, Simpson, Tupper

SONYA SAVOY, Sparks, Nevada/Little River. Domestic abuse.

MARK SIMPSON, Ukiah. Battery.

KRISTINE TUPPER, Ukiah. Controlled substance, failure to appear, probation revocation.

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OAKY JOE: NO AVOIDING SODA CREEK STORE, Part 11

As told to Jonah Raskin

Soda Creek Store sits in the middle of the Mendocino National Forest. For a time I didn’t want to drive by the place because I didn’t want anyone there knowing that I was going in and out of the forest four times a week to take care of business. So I devised an alternative route, which meant taking highway 20 to Bear Creek, north on 162, cut west and come out on the backside of the forest. That means I’m driving an extra 8 hours to do 4 hours of work. Makes for a long day. I did that for a whole summer. At first, I was on my motorcycle. Then I bought a Dodge Prospector ¾ ton long bed, thinking that no one would recognize the vehicle and connect it to me.

Near the end of one long and very hot summer, when there was a big raid in the forest, I was at Lake Pillsbury and noticed smoke in the distance and a bunch of fire trucks roaring by. “What’s happening?” I ask. Someone at the Lake says, “A fire on Hull Mountain.” I say, “Oh, no, that’s my area.” I went to Ettawa Springs, stashed my truck, grabbed my bike and headed out, worried that the fire had burned my place. I get close to the smoke and a firefighter tells me, “Some grower got his truck stuck next to his garden and set the forest ablaze. The exhaust system on the truck did."

The firefighters wouldn’t let me go up to my place, but three days later I was able to get there. All of my plants had been pulled. That was the end of that season. Rule number one: you don’t drive your truck to your patch. You park a ways off and hike in. The grower who parked his truck next to his garden was arrested. He went to prison. Two years later, there was a really big grow across the canyon from me. It took ten machete guys eight hours to chop down the plants. The cops also raided my garden. They had me for toast with their coffee. One year you make it and another year you don’t.

Speaking of forest fires, let me tell you about Kurt Hamilton, a fucking moron who started 52 fires in 18 months and burned nearly 200 acres around Lake Pillsbury. Hamilton lived at Soda Creek Store because Nick, the owner, took pity on him as he does on all lost souls. My wife and I also took pity on Hamilton; we gave him our beat-up Datsun.

I came home one evening from the Lake County Fair Grounds where I was working, and my neighbor says, “Forest police were here.” Mike Nichols, the head of the forest service arson division out of Willows, left a card saying he wants to see me. I drive to Finley where my wife, Atsuko, is working at Angel’s, the best Mexican restaurant around. I have dinner and talk with Nichols. He says, “We don’t think you started any fires, but we’ve been watching you go in and out of the forest all summer.” I thought I was moving in and out secretly, but they were all over me. Nichols asks, “Do you have any idea who might be starting the fires?” I say, “Kurt Hamilton. He lives at Soda Creek Store.” Nichols asks, “Have you ever seen him start a fire?” I say, “No, but I have been around when fires start and Hamilton is always the first one on the scene. He drives a Datsun my wife and I gave him. “Fire, fire, fire,” he yells and stands around and look at the flames like he’s enjoying the scene. Nichols says, “You know, it’s sexual for a lot of these guys.” Turns out, Hamilton was using our old Datsun to drive for two-and-a-half hours from Soda Creek to Covelo to start fires there. He put a lot of effort into it.

Once, there was a fire at Soda Creek Store and Hamilton just stood there and watched it get bigger and bigger like he got off on it. It took eight people to put it out. All of Hamilton’s friends lived there. He jeopardized all of them with his crazy shit. Moreover, a car driven by a man who’d robbed a bank hit a firefighter from Colusa on the way to help us at Soda Creek. Killed him. That bank robber and homicidal driver went to prison.

When I asked Nichols, the guy from the forest police, if he was going to arrest Hamilton, he says, “No, we don’t have proof.” Then he says, “We’d like you to be our eyes and ears out here. We’d really appreciate it.” I say, “Will I be charged with assault if I beat the snot out of him before I turn him over to you?” Nichols did not comment. I became the eyes and ears of the forest police. Before long they arrested Hamilton, though not because of anything I did. He went to prison for 5 years. They should have locked him up for life. He was a menace to society and to the forest, too. You know, people buy a plot of land, build a cabin and hope to retire in peace and quiet. And then Hamilton burns down their homes and turns dreams to ashes.

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I THINK OF IT as one of those fake fireplaces, always moving and always looking just the same.

— Toni Morrison, author, on television

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Boxer Cassius Clay with soul man Sam Cooke, New York City, March 1964 
Don Hunstein © 2013 Sony Music Entertainment

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THINK NERO FIDDLED while Rome burned? Think Catherine the Great was Russian? Think King Arthur lived in a castle? (Think there even was a King Arthur?) Think Cleopatra was beautiful? Americans think these things are true, but they aren’t.

Take almost any famous event of world history, from the Trojan War to World War II. The version we learned in school or at the movies was often cockeyed or bogus.

The plain fact is we have been flimflammed: We have been conned into believing that the pagan barbarians who overran the Roman Empire held civilization in contempt. We have swallowed the old line that English liberty can be traced to the signing of the Magna Carta. And we have been duped into believing that the English endured the Blitz with a stiff upper lip.

But these are the facts: Most barbarian tribes converted to Christianity, intermarried with the Roman elite, and joined the imperial army to defend the empire from its enemies. Magna Carta gave new rights only to England’s powerful barons. And during the Blitz the English complained and were bitter; and many turned to crime.

Much of our history is topsy-turvy. Captain Bligh, a genuine hero, is made out to be a sadistic menace. Edward VIII, an open Nazi sympathizer, is remembered as the noble king who gave up his crown for the love of a woman. Hirohito, an aggressive ally of the Japanese militarists, is thought of as the shy marine biologist in glasses who hated war.

It would be going to far to say that our heads are completely filled with lies. It is simply that in many cases history is written by the victors and is filtered through the prism of their prejudices.

— Richard Shenkman

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SF PUBLIC DEFENDER JEFF ADACHI DIES

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, a renowned advocate for the accused and an outspoken watchdog on police misconduct, has died. He was 59.

sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Public-Defender-Jeff-Adachi-dies-13638785.php

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The oldest olive tree in the world located on the island of Crete. It is estimated to be as over 3,000 years old and this tree still produces olives!

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NORTH COAST’S HEAT, FLOODS, WILDFIRES TO INTENSIFY

by Daniel Mintz

Escalating temperature increases, more severe flooding and higher risk of wildfires are predicted for the North Coast region in a newly-released climate change assessment.

Coordinated by several state agencies, the fourth in a series of climate change reports includes numerous regional segments. The North Coast region’s assessment was considered by Humboldt County’s Board of Supervisors at its February 19 meeting and forecasts changes that will trigger habitat loss, reduced agricultural productivity and increased threats of flooding, wildfires, heat waves and disease.

Sponsored by Supervisor Mike Wilson, the presentation summarized the report’s main findings. Ted Grantham, the report’s author, is a Eureka High School graduate and a University of California Berkeley cooperative extension specialist.

He told supervisors that although the region’s residents “continue to benefit from the coastal influence,” overall annual temperature in the region will increase by 10 degrees by the end of the century and the impacts will be more intense in inland areas.

Further from the shoreline, “There are projected to be very significant increases in the number of extreme days, the duration of heat waves and the intensity of heat waves,” Grantham said.

He added that the region’s number of days per year over 100 degrees will increase from eight to 40 by century’s end.

Rainfall amounts aren’t expected to change, Grantham said, but intense rains will be more frequent. “What this means for flows in our rivers and streams is that we’re going to see higher flows, potentially, in the winter months, more intense floods and then, actually, drier conditions in the summer,” he continued.

The power rain events will generate fast run-off and together with longer dry seasons, ultimately lead to decrease in soil moisture.

That will prime the landscape for wildfires. “As our soil moisture dries out, as our vegetation dries out, it becomes more flammable,” said Grantham.

For Humboldt County, the assessment forecasts an end-of-century doubling of the area burned by wildfires.

As supervisors considered the report’s predictive computer models, some skepticism was expressed. Recalling the hollow Y2K scare, Supervisor Rex Bohn said, “Computer simulations are great but I think about being up at midnight when it turned year 2000 because we thought the world was going to shut down and nothing happened.”

In response, Wilson described Y2K as “one data point” that didn’t gain consensus. “What we have here is people basing their models on data that they’ve been collecting over the years and the response to that,” he said.

He added that “there have been predictions made and those predictions have been more or less correct if not actually somewhat conservative relative to the results that we’re seeing.”

Asked by Wilson if the assessment’s predictions are conservative, Grantham said there’s “very strong agreement” on the temperature and annual rainfall aspects. “I could have shown graphs just with the observed record over the last 50 years and you would have come away with pretty much the same conclusion about the directions of the trends,” he continued.

Sea level rise impacts will also be significant and the county is already delving into response to that with the assistance of hydrologist Alderson Laird, who will give supervisors a separate presentation soon.

Grantham said strategies of “planned retreat” and protection of assets will have to be considered. He advised that taking action will be difficult, saying, “Land use decisions are at the heart of this and there are strong economic implications of that.”

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CORPORATIONS of the magnitude of IBM or Citibank constitute themselves as what Renaissance Europe would have recognized as city-states, sovereign powers employing as many people as once lived in Philadelphia in 1789. When it suits their interest, they send their agents to Congress to write the necessary laws. A man without a company name is a man without a country; it is no longer the political commonwealth that furnishes him with a pension, medical insurance, club membership, credit cards, meaning, and a common store of experience. As recently as a hundred years ago most Americans lived in small towns arranged around a public square or green, a community consisting of a school, a courthouse, and a church, and our range of observation was available free of charge. Now we most pay for what goes by the name of common experience at the Stadium, the Cineplex, or the Mall, and we define ourselves as the sum of our possessions or the collection of our ticket stubs.

— Lewis Lapham

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CIVICS LESSON with Grammy Soulcrusher

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OH CALIFORNIA!

Editor,

California has become a dictatorship. One party rule for 14 years and now for more years coming up. Billions of dollars have been stolen from California citizens through traffic fines, license fees, permits, regulations, fishing licenses, and all sorts of other sources of revenue such as parks and beaches, etc. Billions were wasted on the bullet train to nowhere and the twin tunnels under Sacramento Valley. They could have fixed our entire infrastructure or covered our medical insurance.

The speech President Trump gave about Venezuela recently should have been about California. California is driving businesses out of the state. For years we have been mired down in air pollution rules and taxes and regulations so we cannot work. We are stifled, yet they want to tax us. It's absolutely insane!

Our colleges and universities are teaching spying and terrorism and how to become anti-American and how to bother President Trump. Sad.

Bernie Sanders is completely nuts and the other liberals are crazy as hell especially Cortez. The rotten liberal New York Times and Washington Post are the scumbags of the world. Nothing more than social fake news. They should be wiped out.

All you radical liberals out there saying bad things about President Trump are nothing but treasonous and you should be arrested and shipped out of the country. Maybe Iran.

God Bless Donald Trump

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

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ROCKET QUEEN OF THE BUN BANG FAI

“She, not it. Ymbrynes are always female.”

-Miss Peregrine

The recording of last night's (2019-02-22) KNYO Fort Bragg and KMEC
Ukiah world-class Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show is available by
one or two clicks, depending on whether you want to listen to it now or
download it and keep it for later and, speaking of which, it's right here:
https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0321

KMEC's getting closer to the $9,000 it needs by the end of this month.
That money will keep it going through the end of summer. Real community
radio stations like KMEC and KNYO have all the real expenses and
responsibilities and technical challenges of the giant bloated smarmy
NPR stations but /don't and can't/, and wouldn't anyway, get giant
yearly government grants to remain mediocre and harmless in all ways
-- we can be harmless just fine without that kind of hierarchical
corporate-control mufflement, thanks very much -- and we don't have the
advantage of a monopoly on a high-power license where a single
transmitter can cover hundreds and hundreds of square miles of potential
donors. Radio is cheap, so it's possible to do it on the cheap. But it's
not free. Every penny you give to a station like KNYO or KMEC goes to
pay for something we really need to pay for: rent on a storefront
performance space and studios, electricity, water, internet and phones,
streaming fees, maintenance and equipment, and so on. None of it goes
into the pocket of the bosses in the office. Please help. Maybe when you
get your tax return, if you don't absolutely need to spend it all on a
new back tire or those fine gingham curtains you've had your eye on.

To donate to KMEC: Simply call 707-234-3236 and state your intent. Or go
to KMECradio.org/donate. Or mail a check to KMEC, 106 W. Standley,
Ukiah. Or just walk in; the Mendocino Environment Center (MEC), home of
KMEC, is across the street to the north from the Ukiah courthouse.
Standard membership for KMEC is $40, but nobody is going to quibble if
you can't make it exact. You are a divine individual, and you are very
loved; I hope you know that.

To donate to KNYO, the Little Lion in Fort Bragg: You can go to KNYO.org
and click on the big crimson Donate button. And if that's too
technological for you or it doesn't work, mail a check to KNYO, p.o. box
1651, Fort Bragg CA. If you'd like to underwrite a specific show, or
you'd like your own show to play with, where nobody's breathing down
your neck and they just turn you loose to do radio, contact Bob Young:
bobb@poetworld.net

Besides that, also at http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you can find a
fresh batch of dozens of links to not necessarily radio-useful but
nonetheless worthwhile educational items I set aside for you while
gathering the show together. Such as:

Tender Owls. (In Russian with English subtitles.) "I am hanging on a
rope, swinging and kicking. I really would like a little more air.
Suddenly from behind me comes the tender chirping of the owl: /Oui! Oui!/")
https://tinyurl.com/TenderOwls

Loneliness. Why?
http://misscellania.blogspot.com/2019/02/loneliness-in-nutshell.html

Queen of the Bun Bang Fai.
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/05/bun-bang-fai-rocket-festival-in.html

And "Too bad Mike Pence isn't here. He loves Madonna."
https://boingboing.net/2019/02/20/randy-rainbow-calls-out-trump.html

—Marco McClean, memo@mcn.orghttps://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

11 Comments

  1. Craig Stehr February 24, 2019

    Another fabulous Saturday BBQ at Honolulu’s Plumeria Alternative Hostel, the weather being perfect, and the tables full of everything delicious. Guests incoming and outgoing from everywhere, lately Canada and the Pacific Northwest, (mostly Seattle and Portland). The conversation got around to the futility of politics, but was quickly upgraded to higher philosophical matters so we all didn’t suffer too long. I chimed in noting that the Dalai Lama said, that the degree to which one’s life is successful may be measured by how much one is able to let go. We moved on to dessert and ice cream after that. Looks like Sunday is going to be a challenging day of letting go at Waikiki Beach. ~Mahalo~

  2. Lee Edmundson February 24, 2019

    Note to Jerry Philbrick: Check your meds, take your meds. If you don’t have them, get them. Really in need of mental health intervention here.

    I have an old friend in San Antonio Texas who goes off of similar tirades. I empathize with his condition, as I do with yours, Jerry.

    As Victor Biondo once said — and it is so very true — “What you’re angry about is not what you’re really angry about”.

    Old age and diminishing abilities — physical and mental — can make anyone cranky. I’ll grant you that, Jerry. I’m in the same boat.

    But since the 1960s the “Love it or leave it” crowd has ignored legitimate calls for change in America. Civil Rights for African-Americans, for Women, Gays, and so many others.

    It’s as if the slogan “Might Makes Right” has been transformed into, “White Makes Right”.

    Wrong. We are a rainbow nation. Built upon immigrants and immigration. My first American ancestor was initially an indentured servant in Virginia in 1650. Go figure.

    But let’s try and retain a sense of dignity and decorum, huh?

    Jerry, Donald Trump is a con artist who has bamboozled you and so very many others like you into believing a different kind of America is possible: White, male, heterosexual, Christian, anti-women’s rights. It is a delusion.

    Take your meds, fella. The new day has dawned and its color is not white, its gender is not male. America is a rainbow.

    We are an American People who embrace and support all our brothers and sisters, of all colors and ethnic backgrounds. Rich or poor, native or immigrant, of whatever religion, of whatever economic status. We are all Americans, and have to engender the American Creed.
    What’s That? Give a good read of the Declaration of Independence. Then the Constitution.

    And you might throw in. “Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You”.

    Sorry, but I am weary of the bigotry that currently drives the right-wing agenda and propaganda.

    Peace on Earth. Good Will to All.

    And remember, Dumpster the Trumpster 2020.

    Lee Edmundson
    Mendocino

    • Pat Kittle February 24, 2019

      The only promises Trump keeps are to Israel lobby war criminals, if you haven’t noticed.
      — [ https://israelpalestinenews.org/time-for-media-to-tell-americans-about-the-bills-in-congress-to-give-israel-38-billion/ ]

      That’s painfully obvious to anyone who dares to look beyond Israel lobby-approved sources (NPR, Fox News, SPLC, Breitbart, etc., etc.):
      — [ http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/the-growing-anti-semitism-scam/ ]

      Jerry Philbrick voted for Trump, got Netanyahu.

    • George Hollister February 24, 2019

      Lee, what about the more common bigotry that drives the left wing agenda? Let’s not give that a pass.

      • Harvey Reading February 24, 2019

        “Mommy, Mommy, come quick. Mr. Hollister vomited all over the carpet.”

        “I know, sweetie. He can’t help it. He’s old and doesn’t realize what he’s doing. His mind doesn’t work like it should. We’ll clean it up after he’s gone.”

        “Well, OK, Mommy, but please don’t invite him over again.”

        “OK, sweetie. I won’t”

  3. Harvey Reading February 24, 2019

    Re: MENDO’S SUDDEN AMBULANCE PRIVATIZATION-CONSOLIDATION

    You people will be sorry you allowed your elected windbags to privatize emergency services. You will pay more. There will be more, mostly unnecessary, “life flight” air ambulance responses for the purpose of getting people who are medically brain dead (as opposed to naturally brain dead but still walking around) to an expensive kaputalist medical facility where they can be kept on life support for months, earning private medicine yet more small fortunes, while bankrupting patients and their families.

  4. Harvey Reading February 24, 2019

    Re: CIVICS LESSON with Granny Soulcrusher

    How can you people keep voting for Feinstein?

  5. Marshall Newman February 24, 2019

    Donald Trump already has had enough blessings. God bless the rest of us.

  6. George Hollister February 24, 2019

    A Thomas Sowell quote that applies to Huffman’s “two-basin solution”:

    “Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.”

    • Harvey Reading February 24, 2019

      Typical conservative hogwash, from a think tanker.

  7. Pat Kittle February 24, 2019

    Richard Shenkman is right!

    “Take almost any famous event of world history, from the Trojan War to World War II. The version we learned in school or at the movies was often cockeyed or bogus.

    “The plain fact is we have been flimflammed.”
    ————————————————————————-

    Exhibit A:

    9-11 – ISRAEL DID IT:
    — [ https://wikispooks.com/wiki/9-11/Israel_did_it ]

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