KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS. Black Bird Farm is still mostly known locally as Highland Ranch, ancestral home of the late Charmian Blattner, the Redwood Empire’s longest-running print columnist. When Charmian was a girl, Highland was a long haul across the Navarro River and on up into the hills. These days, visitors can drive in off Greenwood Road.

THE PROPERTY became well-known as Highland Ranch under the gentlemanly auspices of George Gaines, about whom a negative word has never been heard. Mr. Gaines developed the property as a comfortable, high end retreat for comfortable, high end people. Not long ago Gaines sold Highland’s lush 200 acres to the Hall family of Los Angeles. Jamie Hall, a young woman still in her twenties, daughter of John and Joan Hall, presides over the Highland property, now re-christened as Black Bird Farm and organized as a tax-exempt non-profit.

JOHN AND JOAN struck it rich in the oft-plundered gold fields of public education funding. The Halls were teachers at Hollywood High School when they discovered a particularly lucrative loophole in public education funding requirements, and very soon the Halls were multi-millionaires via a chain of store front charter schools called Options for Youth and Opportunities for Learning, paying themselves some $600,000 annually to run their publicly funded schools, a nice step up from their previous salaries at Hollywood High.

THE OPTION most frequently exercised by Options For Youth seems to have been millions in private profits for the Hall family. In 2006, a state audit concluded that the Halls had been “overpaid” by the state to the tune of $57 million, but since they’d been operating inside California’s notoriously lax school funding guidelines, the Halls had done nothing illegal. They got to keep the money, some of which apparently made its way to Philo where more than $3 million was spent to buy Highland Ranch from George Gaines. The Halls also own a lavish ranch in Colorado.

THE HALLS set up a charity run by their daughter Jaimie seeded with $10.8 million, and it’s that charity that seems to be the funding device fueling the fortunate Miss Hall’s Black Bird Farm in Philo. Black Bird says it’s an organic farm that brings in underprivileged youth for stays in lavish rural circumstances the individual underprivileged youth probably hasn’t even seen on television. EXCEPT for the ranch foreman, all the old Highland Ranch employees have been sent packing. They say the Halls first drove down their pay to minimum wage then sacked them.

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THE TRUE STATE of the economy: “As 2013 progresses, a further downturn will become visible through the orchestrated statistics. This time the Fed will have to get the printed money past the banks and into the economy, and inflation will explode. The dollar will collapse, and import prices–as globalism has turned the US into an import-dependent economy–will turn high inflation into hyperinflation. Disruptions in food and energy deliveries will become widespread, and a depreciated currency will cease to be used as a means of exchange. I wouldn’t bet my life on this prediction, but I think it is as likely as the Fed’s prediction of a full recovery that allows the Fed to terminate its bond purchases and money printing by June 2014. Americans, who have been on top of the world since the late 1940s, are not prepared for the adjustments that they are likely to have to make. And neither is their government.

(Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. His latest book is The Failure of Laissez-Faire Capitalism. Roberts’ How the Economy Was Lost is now available from CounterPunch in electronic format.)

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HEATHROW CONNECTION. In the shrouded mists of its long-ago youth London’s Heathrow Airport had two terminals: Europa and Oceana, titles worthy of Lancelot and the Lady of the Lake. What romantic names to inspire visions of pith-helmeted explorers mapping the unsteady earth in the name of Queen, country and com­merce. Now the mega-airport has grown to five termi­nals, but with the swelling has come modernism’s usual handmaiden: numbing mediocrity. Europa and Oceania are now named #2 and #3, making them easier to distin­guish from their three new sibling terminals, but woe­fully less interesting. Yes, it makes it easier to navigate, but so do freeways and bulldozers. And every their ugly proof that architecture and civic responsibility are cost-conscious Orwellian utilities, like a three-hole punch to keep our thickening surveillance folders in easily acces­sible fighting trim. Whatever the terminals are called, and however many CCTV cameras recorded each sleep-deprived step, I land in Heathrow with my cousin and brother, bound for Edinburgh. We stumble through the post-Arthurian haze and embark on a sinister if banal dance to our connecting flight. After being herded off the plane and down a wheeled staircase onto the tarmac, we worm our way onto a shuttle bus that crawls like a meandering snail across acres of exhaust-streaked asphalt until stopping at the next checkpoint. Once papers and ID are approved we pass through grey double doors and, like slabs of meat on a slaughterhouse con­veyor belt, up a tall escalator. A jog to the left (or maybe right) puts us into the belly of a beast-like shopping emporium. Perfume girls offer samples of Lurid by Calvin Klein, Sniff! by Casa de Escobar, and Dead Honey Bee by Monsanto. Newspaper vendors sell risqué tabloid gossip alongside dire warnings that fascism is patiently stomping the last vagabond sperm cells from the twin testicles of freedom and justice, to achieve the corporate state’s aim of leaving the planet genderless, hopeless and lost. After fighting through the clouds of toxic sweet we slog through boutiques kitted out with Milan’s dispos­able latest, pharmacies selling ear plugs and codeine, and numerous outposts of the British coffee chain, Nero. One imagines the Roman Emperor-God himself on a 23-hour Heathrow layover, soaking in the many hotel rooms for hire, cash vendors every 50 yards, and legions of nervous plebeians waiting for the Vandal hordes to put the torch to the empire. Amused and consoled by the cafés bearing his name, one imagines Nero grabbing a handful of this strange new money from his own coffers, or (more likely) a quick Caesarean swipe across cashier’s tempt­ing doubloons. Beyond the screaming ghosts of tyrants and commercial jingles we take a grain elevator down to a subway platform. A gleaming train arrives, disgorges its human cargo, and we step into a clean, well-ventilated car that goes nowhere. Either robots or the invisible operator says, “Stand away from the doors” or some such kindly edict from Big Brother/Sister/Undecided. A mocking minute passes. We cattle begin to shift in our pen. Finally, just as the collective conscious begins to panic, an identical train arrives on the opposite site of the platform, causing several harried passengers to dash to the new chariot sent by Claudius or Cicero. Finally our train’s doors shut, and we’re whisked down the bright tracks for 180 seconds and WHISH out again onto another identical platform and another steep escalator – make that two escalators stretching side by side towards Mt. Olympus! Double the capacity, half the time! The motorized staircase has a magic effect on my psyche. To be mechanically transported at a leisurely pace is a sign that somewhere in the overwhelming cosmic dark flick­ers a kind and nurturing force. It’s a fairy tale I repeat to myself, enjoying the slight tingles of vertigo. For if we are traveling, then maybe someday we actually arrive. (—Z)

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DEBBIE L. HOLMER, archivist of the Fort Bragg Advocate, remembers that 102 years ago, June 20th, 1911, “Jack London, the celebrated novelist, accompanied by his wife and a Japanese servant, drove into town behind four little ponies. The North Bay Counties Association has engaged this prominent writer to write an article for Sunset Magazine, boosting the resources of the seven counties. After a short visit, Mr. London left for Eureka Tuesday afternoon and intends to make a complete tour of the seven counties collecting data for his articles. This makes Jack’s second visit to Fort Bragg. He passed through here on horseback for the first time shortly after the great earthquake and states that he is surprised to see the rapid strides of improvement our little city has made in the last few years.”

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BOOMSTOCK

Three Days of Peace, Love, And…Raindrops?

by Steve Heilig

“I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed” — Marco Polo, 1324

Rain? In late June? Sure California sorely needs it, but the forecast did make the honchos at the 20th annual Sierra Nevada World Music Festival a bit apprehensive. Early Sunday morning, while walking out by the high school and health center, it began drizzling as if things might get seriously wet, the dog looked at me like I was nuts for dragging him all the way out there from down­town, and I was reminded I had no rain gear nor umbrella. But it let up, to remain a light intermittent sprinkle that caused no real woes, and later a fast-talking wild-eyed woman wearing a sliced-up unstuffed stuffed lion on her head informed me she had “taken care of the rain thing” via some voodoo-type stuff she had “learned at Burning Man last year.” Whatever works.

Prior to that reassurance, I had briefly envisioned in the fairgrounds a sprawling muddy trashy mess reminis­cent of the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival (theme: “Three days of peace, love, and music”), but the sun played hide-and-seek throughout Sunday instead, raising a kind of semi-tropical steam, and it was actually a nice respite from the heat of days before. Pretty much every­thing else went smoothly too. By Sunday evening, an eighteen-year veteran of medical services at SNWMF reported, well, nothing; the firefighters said they had nothing to fight; staff at the local stores reported their usual busiest weekend of the year; law enforcement had only tangled with a handful of underage drinkers, my traditional morning trashwalk yielded only two plastic bottles the whole length of town, and a loud nonstop-lecturing guy (there always seems to be at least one) in front of Mosswood Sunday morning yelled into his cell­phone “I’m at that festival! Where? I don’t know! Boonieville! Where’s that? I dunno! But it sure is pretty and peaceful here, man!”

The big and broad musical roster went off with nary a hitch as well, once the last-week cancellations of a couple key acts were taken care of (with replacements by stars of equivalent fame and quality, no small feat, that). As always, the mix was dominated by reggae music, leavened with African, Latin, and some other flavors. Two stages run simultaneously from late morning to late night; choices must be made, but they are happy ones. On the small “village stage” one can have a Sunday brunch show with older reggae founding figures like key Jamaican duo Keith & Tex — actually they do Motown-like “rock steady,” briefly-lived 1960s step in the evolu­tion of Jamaican music from jazz-like ska to reggae, having been together since 1967 — and Errol Dunkley with a few hundred dancing nearly-ecstatic fanatics. Or one can dance with a similar-sized joyful crowd to the funkified sound of San Francisco’s Afrolicious, or hear irresistible Columbian dance music from Candelaria, some heavy roots from St. Croix (Virgin Islands). Abja & The Lions of Kush, or feel a deep trancelike sound of proto-Rastafarian drumming by Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus — to pick some highlights from each evening. There are always pleasant surprises there, and a respite from the louder, more crowded “valley stage” where the bigger-named acts tend to appear.

Some other musical highlights? As promised by festi­val chief Warren Smith, the Korean band Windy City enchanted a large Saturday afternoon crowd with a unique, eastern-tinged take on reggae and dub, and seemed genuinely grateful to be there — they bowed to the crowd, and to each other, to start things off, and I was told they even did so to the van driver who brought them to town. Leroy Sibbles, a founding member of The Heptones, one of reggae’s most revered harmony trios, energized the whole arena with a sort of history lesson on Jamaican music. More modern reggae roots star Luciano, one of the late replacements, repeated his per­formance from last year, standing somersault included, and likewise got a big ovation (and warned, seemingly apropo of nothing, “don’t get hooked, on Facebook”). Don Carlos, the other late fill-in and another roots reggae veteran, was in top form as well. Sunday afternoon’s African/French showcase was superb, with rousing reg­gae by the French band Danakil, an even more intense set by Fatoumata Diawara from Mali, and Bombino’s blend of Saharan blues and Jimi Hendrix (Diawara was stunning both musically and visually, and her story is inspiring; Bombino’s a nomadic Touraug, and his life story to date is also worth looking up). Other female energy was provided by Marcia Griffiths and Sister Carol, who both put on very strong sets of positivity.and Hollie Cook, who was a bit, well, chirpy for my taste and was called “a delightful little kitten” by one announcer, which struck some as a bit sexist but must have been accurate in his view. Her musical partner/producer Prince Fatty did double duty as a fine DJ and performer. There were dancers and drummers most everywhere you looked, especially on the lawn in between the stages — if one could get past all the tempting food and drink pur­veyors. Festival closer Alpha Blondy, a temperamental veteran star from the Ivory Coast who sings in multiple languages not only showed up, but got onstage almost on time, and wowed the crowd, some of whom had come just to hear his first appearance at this festival.

I missed some acts I’d wanted to see, but that’s unavoidable. A bit less wow-ing, for some of us, were the brothers Marley — Damian and Stephen, sons of Bob Marley and what they call collectively their “Ghetto Youth Crew.” A renowned reggae legend who knew Marley senior once scoffed “Ghetto youth, them? — Only ghetto them youth have seen is from a jet airplane.” In other words, they might be seen to be playing a role, banking on their dad’s legend, and/or debasing his legacy a bit with some rude-sounding “dancehall” music. But the youth dem love it, as they say in Jamaica, so who am I to criticize on that level; It’s hard to follow in the musi­cal footsteps of a world-idolized musical figure — what­ever happened to Frank Sinatra, junior? Sean Lennon? Etc? But these guys try, as they drew a sellout crowd of mostly younger fans on Saturday night, so they must be doing something and must be doing something right (besides multiple product ‘brand’ marketing of things like “Marley’s Mellow Mood” drink, which is mostly sugar water, at this fest given away freely by some very allur­ing product representatives). Again, whatever works — I guess.

They were undeniably loud, too. The bands stop ear­lier than they used to, but can certainly be heard outside the fairgrounds. The next morning, while I sat reading a front-page New York Times story about how pot cultiva­tion destroys animal habitats and nature in general via various transgressions, including water diversion (shocking; and, sounds familiar?), a number of locals who chose to remain nameless were complaining about the roar and rattle. “It shook my doors and windows last night,” one said. “We’re still trying to figure out how to mitigate the impact of all this sound at a time when the fairgrounds is in trouble financially” said another. While all seemed to admire the dedication and sensitivity of the festival organizers, “It’s still got to be tweaked a bit” seemed to be the sentiment. One person identified as a doctor opined that such noise could “damage the human chest,” a seemingly dubious assertion given that thou­sands of chests inside the fairgrounds, where it was much louder, seemed to be quite healthy. But “They’re going to hear about it,” predicted one local, adding “there’s got to be some way to turn it down.” Some folks then stuck around to solve the looming national and international challenges of national security, immigration policy, affirmative action, gay marriage, climate change, and the San Francisco Giants. All in a morning’s work, but we had to move on, as my dog had his barking appointment with the numerous tough junkyard-types in the front yards up and down 128 — although he only yells back if there is a secure fence preventing actual encounters.

Whatever one might think or say, it is undeniable that the “vibe” in the festival is one of true “niceness” (a Jamaican term that means just what it would seem to). Jamaica has been called “the loudest island in the world” for how far and wide its music has spread. Thirty-two years after Bob Marley passed on, “Somehow, wherever you go, you will hear Marley there” said old pal Charlie from Point Arena, who related he once heard Bob Mar­ley music on the Ganges in India (likewise, I heard his songs in the Sahara desert). “Whatever you are going through in life, Bob wrote a song about it,” another festi­val attendee said. “I have two grandkids named Marley” said another (in my own experience, those are usually dogs). Obviously Marley is just the most visible public representation of reggae, the music’s enduring worldwide icon. It is striking to see his messages of struggle, spirit, unity, and yes, ganja live on in a multiple-generation gathering decades on. It’s not your average all-American gathering. The words of so many reggae songs are seri­ous messages and questions, like “What is the future of the human race?” — not what one tends to hear pondered in the dominant hip-hop/pop tunes of our time. If you think about some of the likely answers to such questions, things can look dark quick. Most SNWMF attendees are clearly there for a good time only, and they get that. For this one weekend, anybody who makes the trip to Boon­ville can get a whole year’s worth of not only music, but smiles, hugs, good and sometimes wackily fascinating conversation, tasty healthy food, equally good libations, fine views of the surrounding hills, and probably much more that, like Marco Polo, I will omit. Because you really had to be there and might not believe it if you weren’t. ¥¥

“I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed” — Marco Polo, 1324

* * *

Rain? In late June? Sure California sorely needs it, but the forecast did make the honchos at the 20th annual Sierra Nevada World Music Festival a bit apprehensive. Early Sunday morning, while walking out by the high school and health center, it began drizzling as if things might get seriously wet, the dog looked at me like I was nuts for dragging him all the way out there from downtown, and I was reminded I had no rain gear nor umbrella. But it let up, to remain a light intermittent sprinkle that caused no real woes, and later a fast-talking wild-eyed woman wearing a sliced-up unstuffed stuffed lion on her head informed me she had “taken care of the rain thing” via some voodoo-type stuff she had “learned at Burning Man last year.” Whatever works.

We’re only a year removed from Matt Cain’s perfect game. Certainly legions of Giants fans would say this was the finest performance ever by a major league pitcher. Older aficionados with a sense of the inherent tragedy built into our national pastime (even pennant winners lose four out of every ten games) might bring up the twelve perfect innings Harvey Haddix threw in 1959 before losing in the thirteenth.

Memory is a curious thing. For me, pure memory (one without emotion) is like a photograph or moving picture, with a main element in crisp focus and peripheral elements out of focus – either slightly fuzzy or very blurry.

I was reminded just how curious memory can be during my last visit to Anderson Valley in May. On a whim, I drove down Clearwater Ranch Road near Philo. During the early portion of my three decades in Anderson Valley that began in 1957, I went down Clearwater Creek Road often, either to see family friends Leo and Edna Sanders, or to visit classmate George Mason. However, I hadn’t been down the road in nearly 45 years.

No work of music has a greater lock on a single ritual than Edward Elgar’s Pomp & Circumstance March No. 1 does on American graduations. Cock an ear in the direction of high school and university campuses across this country in May or June and its impossible not to hear the strains of this late-colonial hymn to Englishness.

Elgar knew he had struck gold with the melody and its equally important bass-line, interrupting work on the score in 1901 to write a hasty and joyful note to a friend; “Gosh! man I’ve got a tune in my head.” The march was composed for Liverpool and given its first public performance there on October 19, 1901; the London premiere came just two days later under the baton of Henry Wood at a Proms concert. Years later, Wood recalled the piece’s rapturous reception:

“The people simply rose and yelled. I had to play it again — the same result; in fact, they refused to let me go on with the program. After a considerable delay, while the audience roared its applause, I went off and fetched Harry Dearth who was to sing Hiawatha’s Vision (Coleridge-Taylor); but they would not listen. Merely to restore order, I played the march a third time. And that, I may say, was the one and only time in the history of the promenade concerts that an orchestral item was accorded a double encore.”

Edward VII was among the many who were captivated by the tune; he ascended to the throne in January of 1901 and after hearing the march remarked to Elgar that its trio would make a good hymn. Elgar dutifully turned to the lyricist A. C. Benson, who penned the text to “Land of Hope and Glory” inserted by Elgar into the anthem he wrote for the corpulent king’s coronation in Westminster Abbey in August of 1902. After its unprecedented early success, the piece remained a fixture of the Proms; Land of Hope and Glory still starts off the outpouring of nationalistic song on the Proms last night.

The tune not only resonated at home, but also echoed across the Atlantic. The Yale Professor of Music Samuel Sanford invited his friend Elgar to the university in 1905 to receive an honorary doctorate. Sanford organized a massive musical reception for Elgar, one that involved exceptional performing forces drawn from the university, the community, and even New York City. The proceedings concluded with Pomp & Circumstance March No. 1, and it has remained the recessional for the Yale commencement ever since. The piece quickly caught on at graduation ceremonies across the continent, but as a processional. It is the most well-known work of 20th-century music in the English-speaking world; every American high school graduate knows the tune, even if not the title.

The tune now inextricably linked to American commencements is only part of a larger march, and that march only the first of a set of five composed by Elgar. He had planned a sixth, but never finished the march that would have crowned the collection. Having completed the first through fourth between 1901 and 1907, No. 5 came only in 1930, when Elgar was 73. The part of the first march that was equipped with the text “Land of Hope and Glory” and would serve as the American graduation hymn is the trio to a fast march that has the sweep and syncopation of 19th-century French ballet music, colorful even campy. This march’s vigorous energy is punctuated by cymbal crashes, the hiss of the snare, bass drum blasts, infernal trombone tirades. The opening section then draws back from these pyrotechnics and eases into a trio whose tune is the one now so familiar to us. Elgar reduces the scoring to strings and the tempo to a noble gait. The ‘Gosh!” tune rides in utter confidence above the striding bass-line, a pair of harps gliding alongside as if to sanctify the inexorable spread of civilization across the globe, British forces marching from India to South Africa, Australia to Afghanistan. A massive, tiered crescendo ushered in by drum rolls and waves of brass sets up a return to the brisk march before the magisterial tune intervenes once more, this time integrated into the full ensemble and buttressed by an organ providing benediction for the entire enterprise. This is music that embodies the fundamental forces of British imperialism: military might and Christianity.

As a motto for the projected set of Pomp & Circumstance marches, Elgar chose a verse of the poem by John Warren, Baron de Tabley, called March of Glory:

Like a proud music that draws men on to die

Madly upon the spears in martial ecstasy,

A measure that sets heaven in all their veins

And iron in their hands.

I hear the Nation march

Beneath her ensign as an eagle’s wing;

O’er shield and sheeted targe

The banners of my faith most gaily swing;

Moving to victory with solemn noise,

With worship and with conquest, and the voice of myriads.

In an interview just a few years after the stunning success of the first march, Elgar praised Britain as “a nation with great military proclivities.” He believed that the first two Pomp & Circumstance marches reflected his own “old soldier instincts” and was proud of the work’s success in stirring the patriotic impulses of his countrymen.

In the negotiations surrounding the publication of what turned out to be his last Pomp & Circumstance March (no. 5), Elgar’s publisher Leslie Bossey wrote the composer that “You admitted on your account that things are not what they were in the days when you wrote Pomp No. 1.” By then, the militarism of Elgar’s march lay long dead in the mud of the Marne.

The 1920s witnessed a backlash against Elgar among many younger musicians and critics, though Elgar’s defenders, like George Bernhard Shaw, remained staunchly behind him.

On the other side, the contrarian Scottish critic and composer Cecil Gray, one-and-a-half generations younger than Elgar, bombarded the march’s hoary ranks in a 1924 book, A Survey of Contemporary Music:

“The immortal ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ tune may at some time or other have aroused such patriotic enthusiasm in the breast of a rubber planter in the tropics as to have led him to kick his negro servant slightly harder than he would have done if he had never heard it, and served to strengthen his already profound conviction of belonging to a chosen race; but however admirable and praiseworthy such a result may be from the point of view of empire building, it has no meaning whatever from the point of view of art, which, in so far as it is worthy of the name, is eternally dedicated ad majorem Dei gloriam, and not to the greater glory of John Bull or any similar tribal fetish.”

Undaunted by such sneering attacks against late-imperial excess and hypocrisy, lovers of massed spectacle have clung to the Land of Hope and Glory section of the march, from the Royal Albert Hall to your local American high school gym. At the Proms in London, which gets under way in less than a month, the last night concert, like the one that saw the immediate apotheosis of Elgar’s most famous tune more than a century ago, has shifted its patriotic ballast and the ghost ship of Empire lists dangerously as waves of irony and self-satire threaten to swamp it. Witness Thomas Arnes’s 18th-century ode to British naval might, Rule Britannia, done by the magnificent English mezzo, Sarah Connolly in 2009 dressed up as Admiral Nelson: the hero of Trafalgar as cross-dresser, the colonizer as castrato — a symbol for the emasculation of the great conquerers, their former exploits of world dominion turned into the stuff of parody.

In 1931, seven years after Cecil Gray’s attack, Elgar recorded the trio section of his first Pomp & Circumstance march to mark the opening of the Abbey Road Studios in London. As he took to the conductor’s podium, the aged composer admonished the members of the orchestra to play the piece as if they’d never heard it before and then proceeded to lead the group in a supremely stately version of his greatest hit, undaunted by the voices of criticism that had been flaying its style and message.

Three decades later those studios would achieve their greatest fame for hosting the Beatles’ most celebrated sessions. I hear that group’s 1967 song, All You Need is Love, as an unconscious send-up of Pomp & Circumstance. Instead of a hymn-like “tune” of imperial grandeur we get a feel-good incantation “All you need is love” above an Elgarian bass-line pacing ever forward, but in a rhythmic cycle of seven beats; this isn’t the sound of soldiers marching in lockstep, but of a veteran of the Boer War with a limp. The starched dress uniforms have been replaced by flower-power blouses, the “iron spears of war” laid down for guitars, the strains “that draw men on to die” dissolved by the simple chords of of pie-in-the-sky universal love.

There are those who think that music’s meaning is unimportant, that the ideology attending a melody and a musical style are irrelevant if the resulting music stirs us. To be moved or entertained is thought to be sufficient to ward off all uncomfortable questions. This is partly why the aged Elgar wanted to hear the tune played in 1931 as if it were still young and fresh. I think it should be heard as old and tired, not about a future beckoning high school and college graduates, but about a defunct past. It’s time to divest Pomp & Circumstance of its century-long ritual status and lay it to rest, wrapped in the Anglo-American flag.

David Yearsley is a long-time contributor to CounterPunch and the Anderson Valley Advertiser. His latest book is Bach’s Feet. He can be reached at dgyearsley@gmail.com.

John is 46 but looks 20 years younger, with not a single white hair or whisker. His grungy style also suspends him in early adulthood. His mom was a registered nurse, then secretary at a garage. His dad sold car parts and drove a mail truck from Philly to Harrisburg in the evening. “I’m not doing as well as my parents, but I’m not trying as hard either,” John confided as he sat in McGlinchey’s, a pint of Rolling Rock in front of him. It was late afternoon, and the place was still quiet, with the jukebox interfering only intermittently. On four televisions, golf balls sailed or skated around cups.

I had come in after recording a segment for Press TV at a nearby studio. Seeing me in suit and tie, Shelley, the bar owner, grinned, “Coming from church?” On Iranian television, I had assumed a serious face to talk about China and the US, how China will try to muscle the US away from the Western Pacific, and how it is moving to supplant the US Dollars, first by trading with various countries (including American allies such as Japan, France and Australia) in their own currencies, then eventually having a gold-backed Yuan, at which point game’s over. I pointed out how China is intertwining itself with Europe through increasing trade and an extensive rail network completed or in progress. Already, freights can be moved by rail from Holland or Belgium to China. The US is still top (bull)dog thanks to its military and control of the world’s banking system, but China is gaining status and leverage through manufacturing, increasing trade ties and infrastructure improvement and linkages. Unlike the USA, it has a long term economic vision, and soon enough, may flash its claws and fangs and show itself no less of a bully, as is already evident by its belligerence in the South China Sea. With the decrease of cheap oil and gas, global economic growth is over, in any case, but certain countries may still chug along fine in the near future, but the US won’t be among them.

We’re so passive, we’re doomed! We watch our rights being systematically stripped away with barely an eye roll, and with each passing day, we are becoming poorer, with our wages steadily decreasing and more of us on food stamps than ever. While fixated on sports, singing contests and network news, we’re being lowered into our degradation. NSA, FBI, Homeland Security and CIA spooks shadow us for evidence of rebellion and espy nada. After inconsequential Occupy and Tea Party twitches, all is quiet. Those sign waving assemblies merely served a carthatic function, and even wore us out, without threatening the status quo at all. Too easily, they funneled our discontent into the Democratic vs. Republican sewage, with too many of us excited to line up, again, to rubber stamp our defeat.

Underemployed and malnourished even, John is ahead of the curve in our collective stumble towards destitution. A maverick screwup, he’s a pioneer of sort, a Neil Armstrong, so let’s examine this man a bit more closely. Three days a week, John scrubs and mops at this lowlife bar, and each day, he also goes to Shelley’s house to twice walk the dog. In between, he can relax on his boss’ couch and stare at the TV.

“Yo, John, how much do you make a week?”

“Ah, I don’t want to tell you, but most of what I make goes towards rent.”

“I can’t see how you make enough to eat!”

“I don’t eat that much. I drink beer, and I get my beer here for free. This is also food, you know.”

“How much do they give you?”

“Two pints.”

“Two pints! That’s not enough! How can you stop at two pints? Once I have had two pints, I must drink more. Why won’t they give you four pints, at least?”

“Maybe you can say something to Shelley about that. You can be my lawyer!”

“Yeah, I’ll say something to Shelley. Cheap motherfucker! But you haven’t explained how you manage to eat on almost no money? How do you eat?!”

“I already told you, man, I don’t eat that much. I haven’t eaten in days! Actually, yesterday, I had three ounces of spaghetti.”

“You count your ounces?!”

“I know because on the package, it said six ounces.”

“Frozen shit?”

“No, man, I don’t even have a fridge. It’s this moist, microwavable shit.”

“OK, OK, but how do you stop eating at three ounces? Why didn’t you eat the whole damn thing if you were that hungry?”

“I don’t need to eat that much. Look at your beer. Can you knock that down in one shot?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“But I can’t do that. My stomach wouldn’t be able to handle it. I don’t need to eat or drink that much. Some weeks, I only spend five bucks on food.”

“That’s ridiculous! What do you buy for five bucks?”

“You can always buy rice. Rice is cheap.”

“You’re right, rice is cheap, especially when you buy a huge bag, but do you ever shoplift, you know, like shove a can of tuna down your pants?”

“No, I have never done that.”

When writing about someone, I must make sure I get everything right, down to the last detail, but with John, I don’t have to fret as much, because he doesn’t know how to use a computer. John won’t be able to read what I’m writing. A man who can barely eat is not someone who will pay for wifi. There, too, John’s ahead of the curve.

“How do you not know how to use a computer? What is there not to know?” And I made some typing motion on the bar.

“Ah, man, I just can’t figure it out, but I don’t miss it. Who cares. I don’t have any tattoos either,” and he showed me his untinted arms. Nodding towards a waitress sitting nearby, bent over her laptop, John continued, “ Once she spent twenty minutes trying to teach me the computer, but I couldn’t figure it out.”

“She can’t get off the computer, and you can’t get on!”

After his two pint allotment, John slunk out of the bar. From Shelley, I then found out that he lives at the Parker Spruce, a residential hellhole that charges $250 a week, plus an extra 10 bucks since John owns a microwave. His bathroom, he shares with another tenant. This is a bum deal, obviously, but John has no choice since he has never been able to cough up enough for the security deposit of a regular apartment. A certain lethargy is also in play here, but it’s hard to have initiative on three ounces of mushy spaghetti coated in some dodgy “meat” sauce.

Just to visit a Parker Spruce resident, you must pay six bucks at the desk, though condoms are free, thanks to the city’s health department. After riding up the musty elevator, you enter a moldy hallway redolent of urine and clorox. If taking the stairs, you might step over a dime bag or two. Whole families take refuge here, not just hurting singles, drug addicts and whores, and though pets are banned, you can hear a caged canary as you walk past this door, and inside this cell is a black cat. At the end of each hallway, bars are placed on windows to prevent jumpers from diving, permanently, into hell, the final one, but if you go straight to the roof of this 12-story building, where the view is indeed spectacular and the air fresh, nothing will stop you from flying for a second or two before splashing onto the adjacent row house’s tar roof, which must be fixed every few years, after yet another corpse is removed.

Before Shelley hired John to walk his dog, he employed Casey, and she also dwelled at the Parker Spruce. In her dresser were bread, peanut butter, jam and pop tarts, and in winter, cans of Bud Ice could be kept cool in a plastic bag hanging out her window.

“So you trust John, huh?” I asked Shelley. “He doesn’t steal like Casey?”

“You know about that too!” Shelley smiled. “Casey only stole small things from me. I went to her place once and saw all these little things that looked very familiar, like salt and pepper shakers that I used to own. Everywhere I looked, there were little things that I used to own.”

“Yeah, and she stole from me! I was talking to Casey at Frank’s one night, and it was her birthday, so I bought her a couple of beers, but when I went to the bathroom, she stole one of my camera lenses. It’s very expensive, you know, more than 500 bucks, but then Casey returned it, because she felt bad, I guess. When I called Frank’s the next day, Sheila said, ‘Hey, we found your camera lens!’ I knew it had to be Casey because I never took the lens out of my bag.”

“Yeah, it was Casey.”

Soon enough, everything that isn’t nailed down will walk. It’s telling that many of our homeless still leave relative valuables such as a newish jacket, belt or pair of shoes unattended as they sleep. This means we’re not quite Third World, hurrah!, for if we were, even a pair of unwatched prescription glasses would take wing within seconds. Of course, stuff here already disappear often enough. In Berkeley, I met a white haired man who had been robbed by another homeless man four times. His coat and shoes he managed to recover in nearby trash cans, “but the photos of my wife and children are gone.” As we talked, a young woman gave him some leftover from a restaurant meal. “But I can’t eat it,” he lamented, “I don’t have any teeth.”

“You can eat it,” she smiled. “It’s only rice.”

Without fork or spoon, he then scooped the brown rice with the carry out container’s plastic top.

The big guys will steal big, including your youth, mature years and old age, your entire lives, in short, sometimes even your sanity or parts of body, while small time crooks will try to relieve you of everything else, including your salt and pepper shakers. The biggest guys will steal the earth from right under you.

I never hinted to Casey that I knew she had stolen from me, but after that incidence, I kept my distance. I have known her for a long time. Adopted, Casey has never been able to find her Puerto Rican birth mother. On each of her sneaker is scrawled “ESPERANZA” [“HOPE”]. Casey has worked as a cook and as a waitress, including here at McGlinchey’s. The last time I saw her, she said she was getting married, so I waved at her bride, a laughing woman standing across Broad Street. They had found an apartment in Point Breeze. Idyllic sounding, it’s a neighborhood best known for flying bullets.

Once, a balding, middle-aged dude saw me talking to Casey, and so advised, “You know, you shouldn’t talk to her. She’s ugly. You make yourself look bad by talking to such an ugly woman.” This guy looked like crap himself, I must add, and so do I, even on my best days. Ugly and uglier, we will slog forward, for sure. The current waitress at McGlinchey’s is only 23, however, and so not ugly. She’s pretty, in fact. Let’s meet her.

“I never went to college, because I don’t like school, and I also can’t afford it.”

“But you said you’re into languages?”

“Yeah, I studied French for five years, and the other day, when I met some French students, I could speak to them, maybe because I was drunk,” she grinned, “and I can pronounce Russian words. I read Camus’ The Stranger five times in English, but when I finally read it in French, it was so much better.”

“You read it in French from beginning to end?”

“Almost.”

She also knows scraps of Sanskrit and Japanese, which have proven useful at SugarHouse, Philly’s very first casino, opened less than three years ago. Playing roulette, she has won up to $100 while chanting “sa ta na ma,” thinking it meant, “all one none sum,” although it really means, “birth, life, death, rebirth,” as I would find out later, after googling. Sometimes she mumbled “nam myoho renge kyo.” On full moons, people win more at casinos, she informed me. Perhaps this Pisces should also use a Magic Marker to scrawl “HOPE” onto her sneakers.

Magic incantations are as good as any, for we have no other plans. Desperate people will plead to the unseen and unprovable. Give us this day our three ounces, at least, and lead us not onto the no-fly list. In 2010, I witnessed a religious procession at San Francisco’s Civic Center, with supplicants carrying this banner, “Praying the Rosary for America… As human efforts fail to solve America’s key problems, we turn to God, through His Holy Mother, asking for His urgent help.”

As we’re making no efforts to solve any of our problems, we’re muttering or shouting words that mean less and less. Amen.

Linh Dinh is the author of two books of stories, five of poems, and a novel, Love Like Hate. He’s tracking our deteriorating socialscape through his frequently updated photo blog, State of the Union.

On June 18th, in an opinion piece in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Congressman Jared Huffman heroically announced that “this week,” along with other House Democrats, he’d be taking the “SNAP challenge.” The congressman from toney Marin was going to live on food stamps, currently known as SNAP — the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program — for no more than “$4.50 a day — just $1.50 a meal,” the daily allowance for a SNAP recipient. We could follow his gastro-sacrifice on Facebook. Huffman was tightening his belt because “House Republicans are preparing to slash funding for food stamps by $20 billion — part of their extreme austerity diet for America.”

The Mendocino County medical examiner’s credibility was called into serious question and the Mendocino County public defender was put on the stand over the possible bungling of a murder case, in an unusual all-day hearing in county Superior Court Friday.

At issue is whether Timothy Slade Elliott, 40, of Hopland, got a fair trial in 2010 and whether he deserves a new one. He claims his public defender, Linda Thompson, was ineffective legal counsel and deprived him of his right to a fair trial. Judge Richard Henderson denied the motion for a new trial at the time, and Elliott was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison.

An appellate attorney in September 2012 asked for a new trial based on “a prima facie case of ineffective assistance of trial counsel,” according to a March 28 order from the First Appellate District Court, which directed the local court to re-examine the trial.

County contract medical examiner Dr. Jason Trent testified in Elliott’s 2010 murder trial that a knife – the alleged murder weapon – placed in evidence could certainly have made the 6.7-inch stab wound that killed Samuel Brandon Billy in September, 2008.

In 2012, Trent changed his mind and in two sworn statements in Elliott’s appeals process, said he thought the knife did not make the wound and that he had thought the knife blade in question was 3- to 4-inches, rather than the 1.65 inches it actually was.

But then at a hearing before Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman on Friday, Trent, who serves as the forensic pathologist for Mendocino and Lake counties, under questioning from Mendocino County Deputy District Attorney Paul Sequeira, said the knife in evidence, even though it measured 1.65 inches long, could have been the weapon that drove the 6.7-inch stab would into Billy.

A jury in August 2010 convicted Elliott of second-degree murder in the stabbing of Billy, 29, also of Hopland. The men, both members of the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians, allegedly fought at a party on tribal land early on the morning of Sept. 26, the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office stated previously. Elliott was reportedly seen delivering a blow to Billy’s abdomen, and Billy staggered a few feet and collapsed in the parking lot with a stab wound. The only witness was a young boy who said he saw the crime out his window. The defense tried to discredit the boy, noting his family were friends of the victim and that the night was very dark.

In the morning, Trent was asked over and over about his inconsistent testimony. In his written change of heart in April 2012 (and again in September of 2012) he agreed with the defense’s expert witness that the knife in evidence could not have made the stab wound.

“At trial, I was asked for my opinion of fellow pathologist Dr. Terri Haddix’s conclusion that the knife in evidence could not, when fully inserted, inflict a six-inch deep wound,” read the declaration from Trent, who performed the autopsy on Billy. “I testified to my belief that her conclusion was incorrect. My opinion was based, as I stated at trial, on the knife blade measuring between three to four inches long.”

However, on Friday he said, “Indeed I do,” when asked by Sequeira if, knowing absolutely that the knife in question was 1.65 inches long, he still believed that knife could have been the knife that caused the fatal wound.

Sequeira went to lengths – bringing out a standard wooden 12-inch ruler – to display to Trent the difference between a 3- or 3.5-inch knife blade and a 6.7-inch wound and the difference between a 1.65-inch blade to 6.7 inches. Nonetheless, Trent said he “absolutely” still believed that with enough force, the smaller blade could still do the damage.

Trent said it was important to remember that the blade in evidence had exactly the same blunt and sharp sides which matched the wound itself. He also said that the victim was somewhat overweight and that if pushed with force through soft tissue, the smaller knife was capable of inflicting the fatal wound.

Earlier in the day, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Detective Andrew Whitaker testified that back in September of 2008 he had chatted with Trent about the knife in his office when the knife was on the detective’s desk being photographed. At that time, Whitaker said, he and Trent discussed the relatively short blade, but not specifics and Trent said informally that he thought it could be the weapon. Because of that informal opinion, Whitaker said, he sent the knife – which had been turned over to authorities weeks after the stabbing incident – to the state Department of Justice for forensic testing, something he said he would not otherwise have done.

Elliott’s court-appointed private attorney Jan Cole-Wilson on Friday asked Trent over and over how he could be so inconsistent.

“I was wrong; I don’t know what else to tell you,” he kept saying about the two sworn declarations he made in 2012 about the knife. He also could not remember most of what Cole-Wilson wanted to know, such as when he first saw the knife, if he saw the knife before the trial, what he testified to during trial.

She pointed out – and Trent agreed – that making serious mistakes in criminal trials could cost him his job. But when she implied that he was changing his testimony now for the benefit of the District Attorney’s Office, he denied it.

“That’s what I swore to, that’s what I signed, but I was wrong,” he said again, about recanting his trial testimony.

In the afternoon, Public Defender Linda Thompson was called to the stand to explain the things she did in her defense case for Elliott.

Sequeira – representing the DA’s Office, which does not feel a new trial is necessary – took Thompson through her resumé and her years of criminal trial experience, and gave Thompson an opportunity to explain all the things she did to try to get an acquittal for Elliott.

“I still don’t believe Mr. Elliott did it,” she said of the case, adding that a large part of her problem putting together a case was that tribal members in Hopland – even those who were on Elliott’s side – didn’t want to get involved and would not talk to her.

That left physical evidence, and Thompson said she knew of the knife, which had appeared from what she considered a suspicious witness – another friend of the victim – so she hired a well-respected expert witness who concluded that the 1.65-inch knife blade could not have made the wound shown in the autopsy photos.

With that expert on her side, and the fact that the state DOJ found no evidence on the knife or Elliott’s clothing, she felt she had a solid defense.

Before trial she did not know whether the prosecution planned to have Trent or anyone else testify about the knife.

And that’s where she made a serious error, said Cole-Wilson, as she took over questioning Thompson.

According to Cole-Wilson, Thompson made three grave errors:

1. She did not ask the court for a special hearing on whether the knife could be excluded. The hearing would have given Thompson the opportunity to find out what the prosecution was going to say about the knife and that it planned to bring in Trent to testify. Thompson said she was sure she would not get presiding Judge Henderson to exclude the knife so she didn’t try. And, she said, “I never believed anyone was going to argue that was the knife.”

2. Cole-Wilson said Thompson should have cross-examined Trent on the stand at the trial about the size of the knife. Having just testified to a 3- to 4-inch knife making the wound, Thompson should have gotten up to point out that the knife was actually much smaller. Thompson said, however, that her experience with Trent was that he did not like to be contradicted on the stand and became “pompous” and “entrenched” when it happened. She said she was so sure of her expert’s swaying the jury she did not call Trent’s testimony into question.

3. Finally, Cole-Wilson said she didn’t understand why Thompson did not raise the issue of the size and unlikely threat of such a small knife and Trent’s conflict about the size during her closing argument. Thompson, with a sigh, answered, “I wasn’t aware that I had not.” She said after trial and during the appeals it was pointed out to her, but she had been focused on other parts of her defense at the time. “I have been wracking my brain about this case since I lost it,” she said.

After the testimony, Moorman scheduled another hearing in August, instructing Sequeira and Cole-Wilson to write briefs explaining why a new trial should or should not be granted.

Before leaving the courtroom however, Moorman had a few words for Trent, who was no longer there.

“I intend to make some findings about Dr. Trent’s credibility,” she said. She noted that “under penalty of perjury” Dr. Trent had twice recanted his trial testimony and then “came to court today and under penalty of perjury gave equally emphatic testimony that his other sworn testimony was wrong.

“Dr. Trent’s credibility is damaged,” she concluded.

Greetings one and all. If you are sitting comfortably then I shall begin. So where did that come from? I’m talking about the couple of days of very welcome showers we just experienced. After the driest winter and spring in living memory (ever?), we get this short outburst at the end of June. Of course, there is nothing strange about our weather patterns over the past decade or two. There is no such thing as global warming and any efforts in the field of climate control are unnecessary.

Obviously that leads perfectly into your Quotes of the Week, featuring the two sides (?) of the global warming debate. Let’s start with leading environmental activist, Al Gore, who reported, “Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries, engaged in the most elaborate, well organized scientific collaboration in the history of humankind, and have produced long-since a consensus that we will face a string of terrible catastrophes unless we act to prepare ourselves and deal with the underlying causes of global warming.” And more basically, we have this from comedian, Dave Barry, “If you asked me to name the three scariest threats facing the human race, I would give the same answer that most people would: nuclear war, global warming, and Windows.” More seriously and gloomily, from Larry Schweiger, President of the National Wildlife Federation, “There will be no polar ice by 2060. Somewhere along that path, the polar bear drops out.” And finally from the advocates that global warming really and truly exists, here’s some wisdom from former US Senator Joe Lieberman, “Today, we can see with our own eyes what global warming is doing. In that context it becomes truly irresponsible, if not immoral, for us not to do something.”

On the other hand, and just to keep a sense of ‘balance’ to this discussion, we have this from the late evangelical fundamentalist, Jerry Falwell, “The whole (global warming) thing is created to destroy America’s free enterprise system and our economic stability.” And from business magnate and owner of the Miss USA pageant, Donald “Nice Hair’ Trump, I present these insightful words, “It’s freezing outside. So much for all those experts on global warming.” And let’s finish with a famous piece of gibberish from George W. Bush. “I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.” Does global warming exist as a result of us humans? Can something be done about it if it does? Make up your own mind.

Onward. The majority of the 7,000+ visitors to the Valley this past weekend had no doubt left their encampments on Sunday evening before the rain was predicted to get serious, which it still hasn’t as I write on a Monday lunchtime. Meanwhile, hopefully locals have recovered from The Invasion of the Body Painters, Whirling Dervishes, and their Loud Music Playing Friends to Boonville’s 8th year of hosting the “Dreaded” (pun intended) Sierra Nevada World Music (basically reggae) Festival. The impact on the Valley seemed to be greater than ever. Some of it good, some not so. The biggest negatives I heard were connected to the shear volume of traffic in and around downtown Boonville. It started on Thursday evening and by Friday lunchtime getting across town, all of a mile, took nearly half-an-hour as the hordes arrived in massive numbers. Parking became a major problem for locals trying to go about their business and those not attending the festival wisely stayed away from town entirely. On the other hand, those locals who went to the event seem to have had a marvelous time and enjoyed the music, the dancing, the wide variety of foods, and the many interesting sights and sounds that this gathering provides. For those at home, there was KZYX&Z, our local public radio station covering the festival live. Well sort of. several breaks in their audio connection occurred as a result of gremlins, according to the radio hosts, and it made for an unsatisfactory listening experience. At least they tried. According to law enforcement, the event was uneventful in terms of crime and unsocial behavior and that’s amazing in itself with so many folks in town. (Perhaps they were medicated in some way.) Anyway, once again we have experienced another ‘happening’ that has its supporters and opponents among our local population and as I’ve said many times. that’s life in the Valley, and we’ll do it all again next year.

Public Service Announcements. Calendars and pens at the ready. #413. The next in the series of Guest Chef Dinners that take place every two months to benefit the Senior Center is coming up this weekend. Usually a Friday night event, on this occasion it is a Saturday, June 29 to be precise, with Happy Hour at 5pm followed by an Hawaiian-style pig roast cooked and then served by Chris Rossi and friends at 6pm. Tickets will certainly sell out, if they haven’t already, so call Gina at 895-3609 to reserve yours. #414. That same evening, you could make a wise decision and take a short walk/drive down the street from the Pig Roast at the Veterans Building for the monthly Sing-along-a-Liddy with Patty Liddy at Lauren’s Restaurant. That fun time will be starting at 8.30pm and it’s well worth it. #415. The Boonville Road Race which they tell me is ‘Boonville’s finest bike race’ is also on Sat, June 29. This is a benefit for ‘Cycked,’ the Valley’s ‘premier bike advocacy group, working hard to bring a 30-mile bike path from Boonville to the coast at a cost of over $25,000,000.’ Contact www.bitehardboonvilleroadrace.com for details. #416. The annual Boonville ArtWalk returns on the following weekend. Saturday, July 6, from 3-7pm. Paintings, collages, ceramics, woodwork, jewelry, textile art, and more. Call 895-2204 for details. #417. That weekend also sees the monthly Barn Sale on AV Way just north of Boonville. That’s Sat/Sun, July 6-7 from 10am to 2pm each day. #418. The Vets will not be back in the Valley until Thursday, July 11 but will have a full service on that day, featuring house calls in the morning and all your vet needs from 2-3.30pm in the afternoon at the AV Farm Supply. Call 462-8833 for further details. #419. Ginger Valen informs me that she and husband Walt have a new permanent home for their Garden Whimsy Garden Shop. It’s at 13400 Anderson Valley Way at The Little Green Barn; open on weekends from 10am to 4pm. From Hwy 128 just outside Boonville, look for the banner on the roof. They specialize in garden sculpture, gate decor, garden oriented pottery pieces, and handmade and manufactured pots for plants. Ring the bell at the gate to let them know you’ve arrived or contact them at Stoney Bottom Gardens, waldenvalen@pacific.net 707-895-9424.

Here is the menu for next week at the Senior Center in the Veterans Hall in Boonville. The Center asks for a $5 donation from Seniors and $7 for Non-Seniors for lunches. Tomorrow, Thursday, June 27, the lunch, served at 12.15pm, will be Beef Stroganoff, Noodles, Brussels Sprouts, Wheat Berry Salad, Bread Pudding. Then next Tuesday, July 2, the lunch served by Marti Titus and her crew will be Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes w/ Gravy, Corn, Rolls, Wheat Berry Salad, Birthday Cupcakes. Hope to see you there. (Heads-up! The Center will be closed on Thursday, July 4)

Nothing from The Three-Dot Lounge this week. We were closed in order to attend the music festival. However, from the bird that never sleeps, nor dances to reggae, The Old Buzzard, comes another in his insightful series, ‘The Approach of the Apocalypse.’ Buzzard reports, “The Graduation Season is at an end and the school students have departed for a summer of fun and frivolity, and perhaps even to find time to give a little help to their parents around the house and in the yard! I attended some part or all of each of the four graduation ceremonies in the Valley, although there are just two that I personally feel are really meaningful. The one for the 6th graders moving on to the new world of the big school, and last Thursday’s ceremony for the high school seniors. I know I am certainly not alone in thinking this way. I am not against the pre-school graduation or the 8th grade event as such, each are lovely occasions. But with four graduations before our students are even 18 I feel we somewhat downgrade the significance of the other two ceremonies. each of which are particularly important watershed moments in a young person’s life. I could go on, but won’t; after all, the joy on the faces of every child and parent at all four events was something both very special and even moving and perhaps this is not, as I have often thought, a sign that the Apocalypse is fast approaching. After all, I must admit, they even bought a tear or two to this old curmudgeon’s eyes.”

Time to take my leave. Until next time, Keep the Faith; be careful out there; stay out of the ditches; think good thoughts; please remember to keep your windows cracked if you have pets in your vehicle; and may your god go with you. One final request, “Let us prey.” Humbly yours, Turkey Vulture. PS. Contact me with words of support/abuse through the Letters Page or at turkeyvulture1@earthlink.net. PPS. Hi, Silver Swan. behaving yourself? Hopefully not! PPPS. Bobwhite Quail. keep up the knitting!

When hardware store owner and pioneer descendant Jack Clow was putting together the dedication event in 1963 for the newly created Hendy Woods State Park, it seems likely he would have been surprised to know that a mere 49 years later the state would come close to closing the park and shutting the public off from all its beauty and facilities. But thanks to the same tenacity shown by the women of the Anderson Valley Unity Club in their decades-long push to have the park created, Hendy Woods State Park will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary on the afternoon of Sunday, July 21, 2013.

The festivities will begin around 1, with a bring-your-own Picnic and Social. The grills will be fired up and ready to use. Chips and dip and celebration cake will be provided by the Hendy Woods Community, the non-profit group formed last year to keep the park open. Day Use entrance to the park will be free beginning at 12:30. During the course of the afternoon, there will be a brief program, gentle acoustic music provided by The Real Sarahs, and a Scavenger Hunt that will begin at 3 with mixed-age teams out foraging. The main draw, of course will be the opportunity to enjoy our park– the sunny meadow, the river, and the old growth redwood groves– and voice thanks to our forebears for saving this extraordinary place.

Thanks to newly concluded agreements, Hendy Woods is no longer threatened with closure. In an acknowledgment of the community’s spirited defense of the park, the California Department of Parks and Recreation has committed to making significant investments to upgrade aging infrastructure. The Hendy Woods Community is donating $40,000 and Save the Redwoods League is also donating $40,000 to be used for replacing the 50-year old water delivery system, which has been leaking at an alarming rate. These donations will be matched by the State from funds set aside by the Legislature after last year’s discovery that millions of dollars were hidden within the State Parks budget that could have been used to avoid park closures.

The State will also match an additional $22,826, which represents the monetized value of the 944 hours’ time delivered at the park itself by volunteers recruited by the Hendy Woods Community (HWC). Not only have these volunteers provided valuable service to the park and its visitors, but their effort is also helping to provide much-needed funding for a critical project. Based on their hours of service, the Parks Department also awarded thirteen of these volunteers 2013 Day-Use passes, good at State Parks throughout the Mendocino District.

Even though these are substantial financial contributions, in and of themselves they would not have come close to replacing the 1960s era water supply system at Hendy Woods. In recognition of both the public commitment and the park’s need, an additional $600,000 has been formally allocated by the State from the “found” budget money for the water system rehabilitation. Altogether, it’s a whole lot of money, but it’s a sprawling system. The miles of aging pipes are currently delivering water that is orange from rust particles, and the pipes have degenerated to the point where it’s difficult to find a solid spot from which to splice in a patch when a new leak begins to geyser. Fixing the system also presents the challenge of avoiding hurting the trees and other resources, making the project even more expensive. The total amount of money committed to the project does not completely fund the estimated costs, but are substantial enough that work has been scheduled to begin this Fall after the main camping season concludes. Fortunately, the system controls were modernized a few years ago, so fixing the water delivery component will mean the entire system will be rehabilitated and in good shape for the foreseeable future.

In other park news, volunteers for the Hendy Woods Community are again staffing the Visitors Center this summer. Currently, the Center, located in the Wildcat Loop of the Campsite area, is open several hours a day on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with more days being added soon. It’s a small building, but there are some interesting displays as well as t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, and other items for sale, not to mention ice cream! Proceeds are used to benefit the park.

Nature Walks are being led most Saturday mornings by HWC volunteers. Some walks are focused on birds, and others are more general. We hope to have a schedule available soon so community members can participate more easily.

Last weekend, Saturday night Campfire Talks began again after a one-year gap. The previous year, Park Rangers had hoped to fulfill the summer tradition, but their duties so often called them far afield that it proved impractical. This year the HWC is underwriting a part-time position funded from the sale of firewood at the park and Visitor Center proceeds to bring back the Campfire Talks. The Department has chosen Boonville ethno-ecologist Jeanine Pfeiffer to take the lead. Jeanine seems to know how to make learning fun. Marshmallows don’t hurt, either!

Developing a vibrant volunteer program and juggling all the pieces is a work in progress, only started last year. Volunteer Coordinator Shelly Englert is finding new ways all the time to create a program that delivers much-needed service to Hendy Woods and is fun for the volunteers. Volunteering is a great way to connect with the wider world of people who love the park. Visitors are so grateful the park is open and express that to the volunteers every day.

Even though the immediate dire threat is past, the community has learned the hard way not to be complacent. We now know better than to assume that Hendy Woods will be open and thriving for the next 50 years. We will need to continue to raise money and maintain a community presence with the Parks Department and any other entity that could affect the park’s wellbeing. We will continually need new people to help. Folks can plug into the effort through the website, HendyWoods.org.

Come enjoy your park on the afternoon of Sunday, July 21 and celebrate the first 50 years. Walk, splash around, gaze into the trees, relax. And remember, you can go there again the next week because: It’s a park. Hendy Woods is a spectacular place and being there is sheer pleasure.

Judging by Mark Scaramella’s front page article in the June 12th edition of the AVA, mental health issues are still an extremely hot topic in Mendocino County, leading me to believe that the Ukiah Players Theatre’s choice of staging One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as their most recent production was neither random nor accidental. I hope that at least some of you got the opportunity to see it during its three-week run; it was brilliantly performed by a superb cast. This was the first UPT production I had seen since moving to Ukiah last December, and it would easily rival any production of any play I have seen at any theatre company in Sacramento, San Jose, or the Bay Area. This was only the second live production of the show I had seen, the first having been at the Little Fox Theatre in San Francisco sometime during the late 1960’s or early 1970’s. This production was every bit as good as that one, if not better, and although I have enjoyed watching the film version, with Jack Nicholson as McMurphy and Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched, I was pleased to note that director Keith Aisner kept his vow to stay true to the original novel by Ken Kesey (which I have also read) and stage adaptation by Dale Wasserman.

Jerred Hernandez

Reading the local papers, you’d think there were no more child molesters at large in the community, that they’d all been rounded up. But over the past few months, the courts have been tied up in a series of chomo jury trials, the most recent one ending last Wednesday with guilty verdicts on five counts against a father, Conrad Arthur Aten, for molesting his own daughter. A few weeks before that another jury trial ended with guilty verdicts on three counts against James McClellan who “annoyed and molested” two boys from Willits. Axius G’Acha (Got ya!) from Laytonville, was found guilty of five counts of molesting a teenage girl. These cases all were prosecuted by Deputy DA Heidi Larson under Section 288 of the Penal Code, the designation for “lewd and lascivious acts with a child.”

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A busy week at the County Courthouse ended with a hearing, an Order To Show Cause from the state appellate court in the case of Timothy “Coke” Elliott, found guilty in a 2011 jury trial for the 2008 stabbing death of Sam Billy on the Hopland Rancheria. At issue was whether Mr. Elliot’s defense lawyer, Public Defender Linda Thompson, blew the case by not questioning the contentious statement by County Medical Examiner Dr. Jason Trent that a knife measuring under two inches could have caused the six inch-plus fatal wound. Last week Dr. Trent reasserted his belief that “with enough force” it indeed could have.

But the most arresting episode of the week was the prelim for Jarred Hernandez, recently extradited from Mexico to face first degree murder charges in the August 2, 2000, murder of Michael Edward Williamson. It looks like Mr. Hernandez beat Mr. Williamson to death with an aluminum baseball bat for not having him over for a barbecue. And it looks like the snubbed Mr. Hernandez, in lieu of the barbecue he hadn’t been invited to, barbecued Mr. Williamson then packed up and left for Mexico.

“Your life is the fruit of your own doing.” — Joseph Campbell

One of my favorite stories from Joseph Campbell is of a wise man introducing his young son to one of the great mysteries of life. They are sitting together under an enormous banyan tree, which is a tropical fig tree, and the man asks his son to pick a fig and cut the fruit in half.

The boy slices the fig in half and his father asks him, “What do you see?”

“I see thousands of tiny seeds,” says the boy, marveling at the innards of the fig.

“Now take one of those seeds and cut it in half,” says the father.

With some difficulty, the boy manages to extract a single seed from the fig and cut the tiny thing in half.

“What do you see?” asks the father.

“I see…nothing,” says the boy.

“From that nothing came this great banyan tree,” says the wise man. “From such nothingness came the entire universe.”

I often think of this story when I am planting rows of lettuce or carrots, the seeds so small and seemingly insignificant. Of course I know there is something inside the tiny seeds from which will sprout, under the right circumstances, shoots of life that will grow into scrumptuous heads of lettuce and sweet carrots, but that something is so tiny that until very recently in human history we lacked the means to see that something was there inside the seeming nothingness.

“Where every something, being blent together turns to a wild of nothing.” — William Shakespeare

Yesterday as I was walking through the Harvest Market parking lot in Mendocino, I saw an astounding scene. Well, I suppose it would be more accurate to say I saw a scene that astounded me. The scene might not have astounded someone else and thereby would not have been universally astounding. In any case, here is what I saw.

Parked between, and dwarfing, what I had theretofore considered a large Volvo station wagon and a large Mercedes-Benz station wagon was a humongous green pickup truck mounted on a massive tubular suspension attached to four gigantic tires such that the bottom of the behemoth truck was elevated a good seven feet off the ground. And as I was trying to imagine why anyone would want to suspend a truck so high off the ground, a man inside the cab of the truck opened the driver’s side door and climbed down the several silver rungs of the ladder/stairs used to access the cab from the ground and vice-versa.

The man—I guessed he was in his late twenties—was wearing camouflage fatigues, brown boots, and a green Australian outback commando quasi-cowboy hat. He was not a big man and seemed positively tiny juxtaposed to his enormous truck suspended high above him atop the massive tubular suspension affixed to the four gigantic tires. He came around to the back of his truck, pointed a remote control device kin to a television channel changer at the tail of his vehicle, and another ladder of silver steps was slowly extruded from a slot just below the bottom of the tailgate and came to a stop about a foot off the ground. The young man then climbed up the ladder/stairs and opened the tailgate of his colossal rig.

At first I thought his tailgate would open downward, as does the tailgate of my itsy bitsy teeny weeny pickup truck, but the young man’s tailgate was split in the middle and each half could be opened out like the door of a refrigerator. I stood in frozen fascination as the young man opened the right side tailgate door and in so doing revealed that the mammoth bed of the gargantuan truck held nothing but a small green plastic box from which the man extracted a big red dog biscuit. The man then closed the plastic box, closed his tailgate, descended to the ground, the silver steps were sucked back up into the tail of the truck, and the man returned to the driver’s side door of the truck. He then climbed the silver steps, opened the door to the cab, and gave the dog biscuit to a tiny dachshund.

“One must bear in mind one thing. It isn’t necessary to know what that thing is.” — John Ashberry

I love how when we thank someone in Spanish by saying Gracias, the response is usually De nada, which means It’s nothing, but which might also be translated Of nothing, which suggests to me that embedded in the language is the humble acknowledgment that all the gifts of life spring from the same nothing from which the universe was born. Perhaps I’m reading too much into a simple figure of speech, but I don’t think so.

When I was twenty-one, I was the translator for a marine biologist and his family traveling from California to Costa Rica and back again. We were a low budget expedition, to say the least, traveling in a large International Harvester delivery truck that we remodeled to sleep eight people, so we only needed access to a bit of level ground for our nightly accommodations to be complete. Thus every day in the late afternoon, wherever we happened to be, my job was to find us a spot where we could bivouac, and I would do this by hailing someone I liked the look of and asking if he or she knew of a good place in the vicinity where we might camp.

I made this request of men and women every afternoon for the six months we traveled in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica—more than one hundred and fifty times—and virtually every time I asked, “Hay un lugar acerca de aqui a dondé podemos acampar?” the person would reply without hesitation, “Yes. I will show you a good place.” or “Yes, you may camp here on my property.” or “Yes, come to our village.” Sometimes our hosts were poor, and sometimes they were wealthy, relatively speaking. Sometimes we stayed on farms, and sometimes we stayed on the outskirts of villages, but no matter where we stayed the people always brought us gifts, usually of food.

A man in Nicaragua invited us to camp on his beautiful farm and gave us as a going away present a huge bunch of green bananas that ripened slowly and sequentially so we had perfectly ripe bananas every day for weeks. A family in Mexico gave us a place to camp right next to their small adobe house, and in the morning before we departed they insisted we pick vegetables from their big garden. A fellow in Costa Rica took us to a camping spot on the banks of a crystal clear stream in which there were thousands of tiny silver fish, and that evening the fellow and his wife and children came to visit us, bringing with them a pot of delicious turtle soup to share. And once we stayed in a village where the people were very poor, yet two children were sent to us by their mother to present us with a little basket containing three freshly made corn tortillas.

We always thanked our hosts profusely, and we often invited them to join us for supper, though such invitations were rarely accepted. I also always offered to give our hosts a little money in thanks for their generosity, but very few people, even those who were obviously poor, would accept money for the help they gave us. And every time we took our leave and I said to our hosts Gracias mucho, the reply was invariably De nada accompanied by smiles and Buena suerte—good luck.

I know things have changed greatly since that expedition in 1970. Today, eight scruffy gringos in a yellow milk truck would probably not be treated so kindly and generously as we were treated in those countries forty years ago, but I still marvel at how willing so many people were to invite us into their lives. And I wonder what I would do if tomorrow a van pulls up beside my garden where I’m weeding and watering, and a scruffy fellow leans out the window of the van and says, “Excuse me, but do you know of a good place around here where we can camp tonight?”

I would probably suggest they try a nearby state park or private campground, though those places are no longer the bargains they used to be. Or I suppose I could invite them make their camp right over there by that little stand of redwoods on the corner of our property. They wouldn’t be in our way and they’d be gone tomorrow. I could give them some vegetables from our garden, vegetables that came from nothing, and I could ask them where they came from and where they were going. I could do that, I suppose, though I would have to like their vibe. No, I would have to love their vibe, and only then would I open our place to them.

Todd Walton’s web site is UnderTheTableBooks.com.

JUST IN FROM THE GUV’S OFFICE:

Press release from the governor’s office below:

After years of struggle, the US Supreme Court today has made same-sex marriage a reality in California. In light of the decision, I have directed the California Department of Public Health to advise the state’s counties that they must begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in California as soon as the Ninth Circuit confirms the stay is lifted,” said Governor Brown.

The effect of today’s US Supreme Court ruling is that the 2010 federal district court’s decision that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional is left intact and the law cannot be enforced.

In response, the Governor has directed the California Department of Public Health to advise county officials today that the district court’s injunction against Proposition 8 applies statewide and that all county clerks and county registrar/recorders must comply with it. However, same-sex Californians will not be able to marry until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals confirms the stay of the injunction, which has been in place throughout the appeals process, is lifted.

In preparation for this outcome, Governor Brown sought an opinion from California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris on whether the state, through the California Department of Public Health, can advise county clerks and registrar/recorders that they are bound by the federal district court’s ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

The Attorney General concluded that the California Department of Public Health “can and should” instruct county officials that they “must resume issuing marriage licenses to and recording the marriages of same-sex” couples. The Department will issue another letter to county officials as soon as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals confirms the stay is lifted.

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CALTRANS will soon commence pile driving along the route of the viaduct stretch of the six mile bypass. Will Parrish, aka Red Tail Hawk, remains locked down half way up the device known as a “wick drain stitcher,” a kind of mini-pile driver. Hawk has not been re-supplied in a week.

IT OCCURS to us here at the mothership that our star young enviro-reporter, the handsome lad presently locked down in protest at the Willits Bypass, might become a male version of Julia Butterfly. Of course Will would have to stay locked down and figure out re-supply, but…

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THE ARMADA OF THE .0001% — If Google represents the global menace of Silicon Valley, and Zuckerberg represents its amorality, then Oracle CEO Larry Ellison might best represent its crassness. The fifth richest man in the world, he spent hundreds of millions of dollars to win the America’s Cup yacht race a few years back. The winner gets to choose the next venue for the race and the type of boat to be used. So for this summer’s races, Ellison chose San Francisco Bay and a giant catamaran that appears to be exceptionally unstable. Last month, an Olympic-medal-winning sailor drowned when a boat he was training on capsized in San Francisco Bay, pinning him under its sail.

Ellison

Part of Ellison’s strategy for winning again evidently involves making the boats so expensive that almost no one can compete. A race that once had seven to 15 competitors now has four, and one may drop out. Business Insider headlined a piece, “Larry Ellison Has Completely Screwed Up The America’s Cup.” It went on to say, “Each team, with the exception of New Zealand’s, is backed by an individual billionaire, and each has spent between $65 million and $100 million so far.” In typical Silicon Valley-fashion, Ellison also figured out how to stick San Francisco for a significant part of the tab and in the process even caused the eviction of a few dozen small businesses, though in the end the city did not give him a valuable stretch of waterfront he wanted. Here’s what San Francisco is now: a front row seat on the most powerful corporations on Earth and the people who run them. So we know what you may not yet: they are not your friends and their vision is not your vision, but your data is their data, and your communications are in their hands, and they seem to be rising to become an arm of or a part-owner of the government or a law unto themselves, and no one has yet figured out what we can do about it. (— Rebecca Solnit)

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ARCATA MEN ARRESTED for Destruction of Forest Lands, Cultivation, etc.

Barton & Brown

On June 18th, 2013 at approximately 0800 hours officers with [Trinity County Narcotics Task Force, United States Forest Service, and the California Highways Patrol] walked into a marijuana cultivation site on the Six Rivers National Forest. Officers had received information that unknown subjects had been stealing water from the water source that feeds the town of Salyer. Upon entry of the marijuana cultivation site officers observed an area of the National Forest that had been clearcut. On one edge of the clearcut, officers observed growing marijuana in pots that were being prepped to be planted in raised planter boxes that were being constructed. The planter boxes were being constructed using the trees that had been cut down. As the officers cleared the clearcut, a tent was located on one edge of the clear cut. Officers approached the tent and as they did they heard a dog barking from within the tent. Officers then announced their presence and demanded that anyone in the tent show themselves. A few seconds later the dog (pitbull mix) was let out of the tent… [T]he dog was aggressive and quickly approached the officers… [T]he dog then engaged the K9 officer’s K9 by biting the 
officer’s K9 in the face. After the two dogs were separated, the dog then went after other officers. Due to the immediate threat to the officers, the dog was dispatched by an officer with a rifle. At no time did the suspects in the tent attempt to restrain the dog. After repeated requests from the officers for the suspects in the tent to show themselves officers cut holes in the sides of the tent. Two male subjects were located inside the tent along with a loaded pistol which was in reach of both suspects. Both subjects were then handcuffed. After processing the site, officers then walked both subjects out of the site and they were transported to the Trinity County Jail where they were booked on various charges. [I]t was determined that one of the suspects that was arrested [Eric Brown] was on supervised release out of Shasta County, courtesy of AB-109 (The prisoner realignment program putting former state prisoners in County jails to relieve overcrowding). 182 growing marijuana plants were eradicated and the damage to the national forest was significant. The investigation into the amount of resource damage is still being conducted and 
will be concluded at a later date. As of June 26, 2013 both Eric Brown [of Redding] and Samuel Barton [of Arcata] are still in Trinity County Jail. Brown is being held on $350,000 bail. Barton is being held on $265,000 bail. (— Trinity Co. Sheriff’s Dept. Press Release)

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WE’RE REALLY SORRY TO SEE MULLIGAN BOOKS CLOSE. We always stopped in to chat with Dave Smith at Mulligan’s, an oasis of civilization in mostly savage Ukiah. Fortunately, Dave himself is not leaving town. He “will be transferring the downtown “Mini Post Office” only to inside Mendocino Book Company, and reopening it in late June…” We hope a conversation booth will be part of Dave’s post office ops.

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AS EXHIBIT A of how far organized labor has fallen, look no further than the mastermind “organizers” for SEIU representing County workers. They’ve declared Tuesdays “Purple Day,” and have announced a bulletin board decorating contest for the membership. What’s next, pep rallies and pom pom girls? If I were a County worker I’d be turning an apoplectic purple to be funding the feebs who dream this stuff up.

WE HEAR, THOUGH, that the new SEIU guy doing the actual contract negotiating for County employees is smart and sensible; he may be able to dial down the bad feeling left by the SEIU reps who managed to lead County workers from a 10% pay cut to a 12% cut during the last round of negotiations.

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A HUSBAND AND WIFE were shopping in their local Wal-Mart. The husband picked up a case of Miller Lite and put it in their cart. “What do you think you’re doing?” asked the wife. “They’re on sale, only $10 for 24 cans,” he replied. “Put them back; it’s a waste of money,” demanded the wife. So he did and they carried on shopping. A few aisles further along, the woman picked up a $20 jar of face cream and put it in the basket. “What do you think you’re doing?” asked the husband. “It’s my face cream. It makes me look beautiful,” replied the wife. Her husband retorted: “So does 24 cans of Miller Lite and it’s half the price.” Store Loudspeaker: “MAN DOWN, AISLE 7!”

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WHAT DO OLD SPORTS STARS DO?

There’s an old cliché about high school football heroes and their prom-queen/cheerleader counterparts: that this is the high point of their lives, and it’s a long downhill slide from there, into the drab mediocrity of everyday life in the U.S.A.

Of course we know that a few of them go on to play in college, and that a tiny elite minority make it to the big-time professional level. But it still seems that post-sports-stardom, the long downhill slide is waiting. When I saw Joe Montana selling suits on TV in San Francisco, my thought was, is that it? Is that all? Did high school glory just stay with such guys longer, but they still have to turn back into pumpkins?

Elway

Here in Denver, John Elway has remained a constant presence. This morning at a traffic light, a bus turned the corner, exposing a huge blow-up of the former Broncos star quarterback’s face, his ultra-white, blond, horse-faced, toothy rich-kid features reminding us what a Real American looks like, and exhorting us to patronize his auto dealerships and restaurants. The only thing missing is a TV commercial with a jingle sung by Carly Simon. Mickey and Judy again: “Gosh, let’s start a business. Why not several? We just need to think of what crap to sell.”

“I bought a car from John Elway.”

“Gee whiz, can I touch it?”

Why do people who know nothing of food start restaurants?

Why do old, large muscle-bound men look so ridiculous in suits?

Why can’t these guys think of anything to do besides sell something?

Does John Elway fear being forgotten? Because he sure does remind the people of Denver that he’s still around and doesn’t have enough money yet. — Jeff Costello

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FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK, Ukiah, California

July 5th from 5-8pm. Enjoy one or all of the First Friday venues– art, music and refreshments.

ART CENTER UKIAH — “Veterans’ Art Juried Show “American Freedoms” – July 2013.” Celebrate American veterans who are artists and admire their work. 201 S. State Street Ukiah, 707 462-1400.

CORNER GALLERY — Willow Yielding and Alexis Greenburg, recent paintings 201 S. State Street, Ukiah, 707 462-1400 www.artcenterukiah.org.

GRACE HUDSON MUSEUM AND SUN HOUSE  — “Points of Encounter” Catherine Woskow and Larry Thomas Catherine Woskow, in a dialogue with the head, which she sees as the source of “chaotic thought, most often directed from violent contradiction.” Larry Thomas, dramatic landscapes of sea, wind, fog, and forest inform paintings that pulse with a quiet delight. 431 South Main, Ukiah, 707 467-283 www.gracehudsonmuseum.org.

KIT ELLIOTT GALLERY — “In Praise of all Things” Janet Denninger Janet Denninger, a collection of landscapes, still lifes, abstracts, and a few tasteful nudes. Please come and share her visions -and maybe take one home — now at bargain prices.” 116 South State, Ukiah, 707 468-1600.

MANZANITA & FRIENDS — “Here Comes the Sun.” Join Manzanita for a Fourth of July weekend, a Summer time display of local talent. 270 N. Pine Street, Ukiah, 707-972-9040.

MENDOCINO COUNTY LIBRARY — “Shared Visions: The Mendocino Quilt Artists 14th Annual Ukiah Library Quilt Show with special guest quilters from the Rag Tag Quilters” The show is will be available for viewing June 3rd through August 26th  during regular library hours. This annual event is made possible by the generous support of the Ukiah Library staff. 105 N. Main St, Ukiah, 707 463-4491.

THE SATURDAY AFTERNOON CLUBHOUSE — Mamma Grace Records & SAC Present Jen & her Lady Friends Light Up The Stage @ SAC Join host Jenna Mammina for a night of songs, friendship, fundraising and food! Featuring: Maureen Catalina-singer/songwriter with a country folk flair Jewels & Johnny Nation-our answer to a nouveau hippy June & Johnny Cash Jenna Mammina-song stylist/songwriter melding jazz/pop and a little bluegrass too. The night starts out with community/conversation with an appetizer potluck Followed by Open Mic/Poetry reading and then Jenna, Maureen, Jewels and Johnny will light up the stage! Proceeds of the night’s event will help support The De Waal Animal Welfare Fund at Mendocino Animal Hospital 107 South Oak, Ukiah, 707 467-8229.

UKIAH VALLEY ARTIST COOPERATIVE GALLERY —  “California Landscapes” Adelle Pruitt Adelle Pruitt’s work is in many corporate and private collections. She also restores paintings and teaches classes in her studio. 518 E. Perkins, (next to Rod’s Shoes), in the Pear Tree Center, 463-0610 Open Thursday-Saturday 11am to 5pm.

BYPASS: A MAJOR DISSERVICE

Editor,

“Papa, I want to play!”

The first time my daughter said those words during our drive it was easy to smile and let her know that Willits was just ahead, and that we would soon stop to take a break from our drive south on Highway 101 to the San Francisco Bay Area. By the tenth time she had yelled it out, the grey hairs on my head were standing straight up. Her screaming for a play stop intensified as we passed the Willits High School. Within seconds we were piling out of the car and leaping into the playground at the Willits City Park. My wife and I drew straws to see who would be first to step up the block to get a coffee and check our work email, and to see who it was that would be charged with doing the banking chores that had been impossible to do as we left Humboldt County in the early hours before the banks had even opened.

As Humboldt County residents, such is the nature of many of our trips south, and north, along Highway 101. We know that we are not the only family on the North Coast of California that has this type of convenient and happy relationship with the amenities and activities of Willits as a logical, convenient, and pleasant stop when traveling on the Redwood Highway. It is this day-to-day reality of the role that Willits plays in the travel habits of families who live on the North Coast of California that exposes the massive four-lane Caltrans Willits Bypass Project for failing to meet the real transportation needs of our communities.

The Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) is proud to have supported the local community, as well as the wider coalition of Northwest California residents, businesses, and conservation advocates, that have stepped up to challenge the mega-scale Caltrans highway development underway in the headwaters of the Eel River in Little Lake Valley. Whether it be the changes in the project that were shielded from public comment since final approval in 2006, the Caltrans dismissal of resident demands that the process integrate citizen proposals into an alternative to be considered in project review, the fact that the Bypass may not actually provide substantial relief to local traffic congestion, or the sad acquiescence of state agencies in permitting the construction of a destructive project — there are a litany of reasons our organization stands firm in joining the challenge to the Bypass Project. One result of our work is that North Coast residents understand clearly that the four-lane Willits Bypass Project is much bigger, more damaging, and far more expensive than a number of other viable options that could be designed to address the real transportation challenges faced in Willits.

For these reasons, EPIC is party, along with the Willits Environmental Center, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Sierra Club, to the ongoing federal litigation that is challenging Caltrans and the United States Army Corps of Engineers under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act. The oral arguments on this case will be heard at the end of the second week of June, with a decision to be expected after that hearing. We are proud to have stepped up publicly to challenge this project, and to support all of the people who have shined a spotlight on this $210 million monument of disservice to the future generations.

Ultimately, the havoc our society unleashes on our natural and human communities today is the mess that we are leaving for our children and grandchildren in the future. My daughter, who now revels in the opportunity to get out of the car and run in the Willits City Park, will eventually be an adult, and I am sure she will ask “what did you do when you knew that species were going extinct at a record rate, and that our climate was beginning to unravel in a way that humans had never before witnessed?” I will, with honesty, be able to tell her that, regardless of the challenges, we tried.

We tried, and we will try again. The wetlands destroying monster that would be the overbuilt northern interchange of the Willits Bypass will hopefully never be built. If it is constructed, we will stand with our children on the overpass someday, look at the abandoned rail line, and say, “We are sorry for this mess, but we tried to stop it.” There is not much solace when I contemplate what we are leaving our children, but for EPIC it means that we are proud to have supported the brave people of Willits in their effort to forge a new path forward on transportation planning at a crucial juncture in our region’s history. We tried, we are trying, and we will try again, the future generations certainly merit our efforts and commitment.

Gary Graham Hughes is the executive director of the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC). EPIC is based in Arcata, Humboldt County, and is active in Mendocino, Humboldt, Del Norte, Trinity, and Siskiyou Counties.

Gary Graham Hughes, Executive Director

Environmental Protection & Information Center

Garberville

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BUMPS RESONATE

Editor,

Here is one that resonated: It comes from the ex-Peace Corps volunteer, turned travel writer, Paul Thoroux:

“Traveling alone is important because it is only when you are alone when you realize where you are. You have nothing to fall back on but, your own resources. You need to find your way and this is why cellphone and Skype are so bad. I imagine Peace Corps volunteers, these days, instead of writing a letter home once a month, they Skype for family talking to mom and dad. You really need to be out of touch with people at home, or you need to be on your own, so that you can meet people as you are, and as they are.”

• The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley, / An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, / For promis’d joy! — Robert Burns, To a Mouse.

• From ghoulies and ghosties / And long-leggedy beasties / And things that go bump in the night, / Good Lord, deliver us! — Scottish Saying

• Give me but one hour of Scotland, / Let me see it ere I die. — William Edmondstoune Aytoun

Best wishes,

Miguel Lanigan

Upper Lake (Colombia I)

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BOEMRE, MAN

Editor,

Last chance for public comment on offshore Arctic

Some people think BOEMRE is just a new way to say BUMMER, and they would be right.

You see, the “Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement,” otherwise known as BOEMRE, is the new name for what was previously known as the Minerals Management Service (MMS), an agency so mired in corruption, pay-off scandals, and drunken, incestuous corpo-government party-bingeing, that they had to change their name.

Right now, public comment is being taken by BOEMRE on an environmental impact report (EIR) regarding the effects of expanded offshore oil exploration on the Arctic, in a huge area of ocean off the northern and northwestern coasts of Alaska. This vast Alaskan ocean is being put on the chopping block in the name of offshore oil drilling.

In the areas of the Arctic covered by the recent EIR, the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, the proposed take of marine mammals is heart-breaking. According to the report, the highest level of “take” for proposed exploration and test drilling will cost a death toll of 9,965 Bowhead Whales, 6,610 Beluga Whales, 1,720 Gray Whales, 113 Humpback Whales, 113 Minke Whales, 90 Fin Whales, 105 Killer Whales, along with 118,570 Ringed Seals and 2,568 Bearded Seals, porpoises, seals, fish, birds – and who knows what else. And these are estimates, just for the exploration phase.

This doesn’t figure in for an oil spill (which is inevitable.) The report states that in every category, if the worst happens – a “VLOS” as they call it (Very Large Oil Spill) – each and every species will suffer a catastrophe. Or as they say in the EIR report: “a VLOS could have a major impact on….” (Fill in the blank, and say good-bye to your favorite Arctic mammal, including polar bears.)

To paraphrase a letter from the NRDC:

“The amount of oil and gas activity that the Fisheries Service has proposed is staggering, with up to 24 surveys and drilling operations taking place at any given time. This scale of activity will transform the Arctic: industrializing it, bombarding its wildlife populations with deafening and lethal seismic testing, and risking this sensitive ecosystem with an oil spill that, in those remote and hazardous waters, will be virtually impossible to contain.”

“This environmental review does not meaningfully address the cumulative effects of Arctic industrialization on species that depend on sound for their survival, or the cumulative risk of oil spills from exploratory drilling.”

You have only a few more days to submit your comments on this EIR. Please urge NOAA and BOEMRE to reject this proposal of expanded Arctic oil exploration and drilling, a proposal that the public has thoroughly rejected. Ask these agencies to adopt Alternative 1 – the “no action” alternative that says we want to put a stop to Arctic oil drilling!

For info on how to submit your comments, go to:

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/permits/eis/arctic.htm

The deadline to submit comments is June 27th.

Please pass this info on to as many friends as possible.

David Gurney

Fort Bragg

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MEMO OF THE WEEK

To: County of Mendocino, Department of Planning and Building Services, 860 North Bush Street, Ukiah, CA 95482.

Dear Sir or Madam:

The Anderson Valley Community Services District requests your assistance regarding our construction of a waterless pump out toilet facility at the Boonville Airport. The building is 8′ x 8′ in size and is planned to look like a miniature control tower, but only will serve as a toilet facility for users of the airport. There are no unusual building requirements regarding the construction of the facility in that it is standard wood-stick construction.

On our first visit to your department it was learned that there apparently are no county codes or specifications for a waterless toilet system and we were asked to locate other such systems that may exist in the county. It turns out there are many. Most, if not all, of the state parks in the county use waterless pump-out toilet systems that are contained within permanent buildings. In fact, the County of Mendocino has issued coastal development permits for those toilets located on the state beaches within the county. Additionally, this type of toilet is used extensively in the federal national park system throughout the country.

The AVSCD would like to build this facility as soon as possible due to the urgent need for sanitation at the airport. Currently arriving pilots and passengers are forced to use the vegetation areas and this is not only unacceptable but does not project the proper image of how we want visitors to regard Boonville, the Anderson Valley or Mendocino County. A pump out facility is sanitary, has no impact on the environment and is an affordable solution to our current problem. This project has also been reviewed by the County of Mendocino Environmental Health department and they have approved it.

We have strived to design this facility to meet all requirements of the county that currently exist for access by disabled persons. The plastic above ground holding tank for waste material has been purchased from a leading manufacturer of such items and they are used nationwide in portable plastic handicapped toilet systems. We also have a licensed contractor selected to start construction.

Your timely response to our request would be appreciated and we look forward to moving to a successful conclusion of this needed project.

Respectfully yours,

Joy Andrews, General Manager, Anderson Valley Community Services District

Boonville

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A BLATANT WASTE

Editor,

At a time when California prisoners cost over $52,000 per year to house, why is Governor Brown continuing his methods of serial incarceration of low-level offenders? The yearly cost doubles when the inmate nears the age of 5 due to increased medical costs.

A three-judge federal panel has strongly ordered Brown to reduce the California prison population to 137.5% of design capacity or about 109,000 inmates. The current population is about 9,000 over that limit and the court has given the state until December 31, 2013, to meet the cap.

The prisoner population which is mandated by the court began in 2009 over the lack of medical care for inmates. Brown appealed the ruling to the US Supreme Court which affirmed the order in 2011, in essence giving the state an additional two years to comply with the court’s order.

On October 1, 2011, Brown did, using billions of taxpayer funds, reduce the state prison population via realignment and Assembly Bill 109. However, Brown’s scheme failed in numerous ways. First, the population was not reduced, only diverted to county lockups which the taxpayer still covers the cost. Secondly, he has successfully filled 37 out of 58 county jails throughout the state. Third, the very same attorneys who have collected millions of dollars in fees from the taxpayers have now filed a lawsuit on the counties for the very same unconstitutional level of inmate medical care that started the state prison population cap program.

I was locked up in March 2012 for low-level, nonviolent property theft crimes where no loss occurred to anyone but I still received a seven and a half year sentence that will cost the taxpayers over $200,000 in state prison hotel bills. Although Brown claims he has no low-level offenders that could be released without jeopardizing public safety, here I sit.

On January 7, 2013, Brown filed a motion to vacate or modify the population reduction order which was met with strong opposition from the court and the plaintiffs. In his official filing, Brown boasts of spending that the taxpayer simply is unaware of.

Besides the blatant defiance in not complying with the federal court order to reduce the prison population by about 9,000 low-level offenders by December 31, 2013, Brown has spent billions of taxpayer dollars in his failed attempt to remove the population cap. That taxpayer money has not bought him any political popularity. In fact, the taxpayers should be outraged at the waste of funds.

Brown is spending $128.3 million to build a 135,000 square-foot medical facility at San Quentin. How can Governor Brown possibly justify $950.37 per square foot in building costs to the taxpayers?

Brown boasts that he is opening a $840 million prison facility in July of 2013 which will increase his prison beds by 1722 beds — at a cost of $47,804.88 per bed.

Our governor wants applause for opening a 1133 prison bed facility in February 2014 that will cost $167 million or $147,396.29 per bed.

Governor Brown built a 64 bed unit that opened in February 2012 that he spent $33.7 million on or $526,562.50 per bed. Has the financial status of California got to the point where we can not blink an eye at spending over half a million dollars on a single prison bed?

Governor Brown constructed a $29.8 million, 50 bed mental health unit at a cost of $596,000 per bed.

Governor Brown spent $29.5 million on a 64-bed unit at Valley State Prison that only cost the taxpayers $460,937.50 per bed and we continue to expect different results from our government. Are we insane?

Brown is finishing a 50-bed unit at California Men’s Colony at an estimated cost of $38.7 million, or just about $774,000 per bed.

Governor Brown constructed a 20 bed psychiatric unit at California Institution for Women at a cost of $7.2 million or $360,000 per bed and he opened a 45 bed unit in July 2012 at a cost of $31.3 million or $806,000 per bed.

Besides the hundreds of millions of dollars a year that the state is diverting to counties for realignment, Brown has spent well over $1 billion and has not satisfied the federal court order. The United States of America’s Constitution required Brown to reduce the population to 137.5% of design capacity. This could have been done without the serial waste of funds and without jeopardizing public safety.

Under protest, Governor Brown recently, reluctantly, submitted a plan to partially comply with the court order to the California legislature. Although the plan itself admittedly falls short of the court ordered population, Brown submits:

Allowing low-level half-time inmates that are not in fire camp to earn the additional 15% credits that the fire campers earn.

Brown proposed allowing nonviolent second-strike inmates to be reduced from 80% to 66% which is kind, considering the sentencing laws doubled their sentences to begin with.

Brown proposed allowing eight weeks milestone earning per year for each of those classes of inmates although the Department of Corrections will remain in control of what constitutes a milestone and how much time the milestone is worth. The Department of Corrections recently reduced college milestones to just one week per class.

Governor Brown requests millions more from taxpayers to rent 1600 county jail beds when he has already filled over 90% of the state’s beds.

Governor Brown is requesting that the Legislature continue to pay for and leave state prisoners in out-of-state lockups even at a time when the blueprint has been set to bring them back due to high cost.

The entire situation has become insane and the taxpayers cannot continue to finance these unrealistic and unsound prison and jail policies. At this point, I don’t believe that the taxpayers will object to an earlier release of a few thousand low-level inmates who are bound for release anyway. It’s Governor Brown’s political reputation with the law enforcement labor unions that the taxpayer is buying. Let’s face facts and do the right thing — follow the court order and quit throwing hard-earned taxpayer dollars into the wind.

My release is in about 24 months or about another $102,000 plus of taxpayer dollars depending on how you view it. I participate in college classes at my own cost to earn milestones and I will gladly volunteer for fire camp to earn additional time off my sentence. But that is up to the Department of Corrections. I am willing to correspond with anyone on the subject and would greatly appreciate taxpayer support in allowing me to earn an earlier release. I have a home and a job to go to and I will again become a productive member of society.

Michael Jordan Cooley #AM5062

Facility D, Dorm 5, Bunk 12-L.

California Correctional Institution

P.O. Box 608, Tehachapi, CA 93581

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BLUM’S BIG TUNNEL SCAM

Editor,

I’ve arranged for a well known investigative reporter, Richard Trainor, to speak on the corruption behind the bullet train, SF Bay Bridge, and other California public works projects, including the forthcoming twin tunnels boondoggle, at Tower Park Marina’s Rosa’s Restaurant, Sunday, June 30th, at 4:30pm. There will be a no host bar available. There will be an open Question and Answer period following the talk.

Richard has a proposal on how to stop the tunnels and I think it is worth all our time to listen to him. He claims the present environmental lawsuits that are just now starting to be filed will not be the answer.

He has taught me more about investigative journalism than I’ve learned in an entire career. He has the facts on how mega-rich puppeteers behind the scenes like Sen. Feinstein’s billionaire husband Richard C. Blum and Stewart Resnick, along with politicians like Willy Brown are the ones who dreamed up this twin canal scheme for their benefit. I’ve learned that Blum owns companies like Tutor Perinni, Inc. in Sylmar that does construction and major tunnel work, and also has a controlling interest in URSconstruction company that will also be involved. The same companies always seem to get the work on these major projects. Tutor Perinni just got the contract for the bullet train even though they ranked fifth at the bottom of the list on meeting the criteria including safety! When I read that news story this past week, I told my wife, “Diane Feinstein just got richer again.”

Her husband has been fined at least three times for conflict of interest, but probably he just smiles, and continues doing the same thing. I’m sure he considers the fine a small cost of doing business with the government. Feinstein has been removed from several committees, but continues to promote her husband’s interests like her promoting “China, most favored nation,” and the twin canals.

I’ve been studying each member of the original Delta Blue Ribbon Task Force that “launched” the twin canals project during Gov. Arnold’s administration. William K. Reilly has business interests with Blum. Reilly has been a key administrator with the national EPA and has many businesses, one of which even does business with the CIA. And locals think they are going to beat this with an environmental lawsuit. Doubtful!

You won’t win this battle with simple email “sign here” letters to Brown. Once the construction is started, this battle is finished and the death of the Delta begins with the 35 mile canals ripping through the middle of the Delta. You’ll cruise to Mildred Island, only to find it a construction site with a 300 foot dock for barges and night lights for 24-7 construction noise like you see on freeways under construction on I-5 and 99. This will go on for 10 years and shut down scenic highway 160 and greatly impede arterial highways 4 and 12 that serve the Delta.

I don’t see the yacht clubs or any of the marinas doing anything significant to stop it. Brown and his minions have to be smiling — unfortunately. It’s the new politics of America where the people don’t even get to vote on how to spend $50 billion.

Gene Beley

Stockton

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HE DESERVED IT

To AVA,

As a property owner on Mill Creek Drive. I could list a litany of circumstances where Harold Moore used more force than necessary. I seem to recall that one neighbor had a restraining order against Mr. Moore. More than once, for no valid reason, Mr. Moore verbally threatened hired contractors on our restaurant property. In my opinion Mr. Moore probably deserved what he got and more.

Sincerely,

Greg Dougherty

Westport

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PENURY, NOT PECUNIARY

Mr. Anderson and Mr. Scaramella,

Thank you for printing my translation of Manuel Vicent’s article entitled “Red Line” (“Línea roja”).

With your permission, I would like to correct an error.

The paragraph as it appears reads,

There came a moment when the visible poverty, the poverty of every day, crossed a red line beyond which the fall into collective pecuniary was occurring in a flood. The wave engulfed a great part of the middle class including many who could no longer count on the support of their families, or those who preferred maintaining their pride at the cost of being hungry to seeking charity.

The word “pecuniary” should be “penury”.

Manuel Vicent writes a column for the Spanish newspaper, El País. He is also the author of more than a dozen books. I am currently reading his Four Aces (Póquer de ases), a collection of short verbal portraits of 31 writers. I plan to translate several or all of them.

All the best,

Louis S. Bedrock

Roselle, NJ

Ed note: We should have caught that. Sorry, Louis.

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ROMO SHINES

Dear Editor —

With the SF Giants in a proverbial slump, happy days are few & far between. Closing pitcher Sergio Romo doesn’t have many save opportunities because by the 9th inning there’s nothing left to save.

But Romo nonetheless continues to shine in his off-mound accomplishments. A new ice cream flavor — Sergio Romo’s Mexican Chocolate — is being created & marketed by Petaluma’s Three Twins Ice Cream store. Founder of the business, Neil Gottlieb, is collaborating with Romo to help raise funds to support changing immigration law. This stems from Romo’s bold t-shirt statement, “I Only Look Illegal”, which he wore at the Giants’ World Series Victory Parade. It caught Gottlieb’s attention and sparked the unusual collaboration.

Romo was born in Brawley, CA, to parents who entered the country illegally. Despite being considered “illegal” as well, Romo went on to excel at baseball & got good enough to earn the honor of closer in the 2012 MLB World Series, won by the Giants in part thanks to Romo. He pitched the final inning and got the final out in the final game, then jumped into the catcher’s arms to celebrate, followed by his signature reared-back whole-body joyful laugh at the universe.

Next, Romo showed up at the victory parade in downtown San Francisco & greeted the throngs with the famous immigration reform statement — “I Only Look Illegal” — emblazoned on his t-shirt. “It Only Tastes Illegal” is how Romo’s new chocolate flavor will be pitched. I sure would like to wear one of those t-shirts in solidarity. Mexicans pick the food that feeds the region, help raise our children, add to the economy & contribute to the culture as a whole. My aunt, who taught Spanish & English, used to say, “We couldn’t make it without them.”

Indeed! Nor should we want to. We need them to complete ourselves.

Pebbles Trippet

Elk

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THE CRIMINALITY OF CALTRANS

Editor,

The superb presentation by the Little Lake Valley Defenders:

• Will Parish, investigative journalist and tree sitter, a.k.a. Red-tailed Hawk

• Amanda Senseman, tree sitter and climber, a.k.a. The Warbler

• Ellen Drell, Co-founder, Willits Environmental Center

• Christian Martin, Realtor, Slide and graph explanation of how Caltrans cooked the books to produce misleading traffic statistics.

• Short film by Julia French: “How Caltrans Sold the Willits Bypass.”

This presentation is so compelling that it can serve as an integrity test for politicians.

Let’s start with the Willits City Council and the County Board of Supervisors. Who is willing to view and listen to the presentation?

First cull by the Integrity Test. Integrity requires courage, the courage to be wrong, the courage to admit it, the courage to refuse the privilege big corrupt money buys.

Second cull. You who saw the presentation. Are you willing to change your opinion based on evidence you didn’t know or didn’t bother to research? Or do you prefer Group Think in the company of all the other lackey politicians?

Next in line are the regional politicians. Is there any integrity out there? The courage of conviction? Backbone? Do the group thinkers of the political class believe that Caltrans and the boys should be permitted to bulldoze and drain an important wetland/woodland of the Pacific Flyway? The Sonoma County Land Trust just received a five million dollar grant to restore wetlands. Some years ago the City of Freemont was forced to restore a wrongfully developed wetlands by the combined forces of NOAA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Army Corps of Engineers on the basis of marsh protection embodied in the Clean Water Act. Save the Bay is currently arguing to save a large area of San Francisco Bay for wetlands restoration. The villain corporation is Cargill who covets the land for housing development. On the international scene, The Nature Conservancy is fund raising for marsh restorations.

Hubris stalks the corporate class, the obscene money bigwigs. These people believe they can buy most any politician to achieve their ends. So far this seems to be true. Therefore they believe it is not necessary to listen to their constituents who are forced to live with the consequences of disaster development.

“I have never felt so much despair.” spoke Amanda Senseman, the yellow warbler, after awakening on her 70-foot high platform to a ferocious decibel level from chainsaws. What she saw was all the Spanish moss-bedecked woodlands clearcut to the ground. She was viewing a war zone. Traditional Pomo basketmaker and forager present in the audience for the Defenders’ presentation eloquently mourned for her stolen land, crying because the destruction of her homeland continues.

People like to say that the US Legal system is the best in the world. If this system is so worthy of uncritical praise, how is it that one man, a judge, formerly a lawyer, alone decides whether a whole ecosystem, the Little Lake Valley, is protected or is destroyed. Yet it is the residents of the valley and its environs who must bear the consequences of bad, no, rotten planning. In insurance law, I discovered by reading innumerable case law decisions that the judges rule 90% in favor of insurance corporations when individuals sue, no matter how valid the plaintiff’s argument.

Judges routinely fix cases by eliminating evidence to narrow the terms of debate. This seems to be a standard practice. Judge Jeffrey White has already taken an important step in fixing the case for Caltrans. His refusal to sign an injunction to halt Caltrans on its destructive path violates an important principle of law – that the public who owns and finances the court system has a right to bring forward all the issues of bad planning and its component — internal governmental, judicial, and agency corruption. The public has a right to read the text of the lawsuit and to offer a Friends of the Court, Amicus brief to present issues and scholarly opinions not otherwise offered. Judge White claimed he would reconsider his failure to sign the injunction if he were presented with additional evidence, yet he does not provide an avenue for that to occur. In the meantime, his failure has been enormously costly to the taxpayers, citizens of the Valley and to the ecosystem itself which will now have to be restored. Judge White should be removed from the bench for his disrespect for the intent and spirit of the law. Our legal system is hopelessly corrupt. Judge White is an example of that corruption.

Every environmental organization plus informal citizens groups agree that migratory birds are disappearing. Pesticides and industrial agricultural practices are an important reason. But the primary reason, all agree, is habitat destruction. This is a crime. Therefore, I propose that Judge White be challenged and removed for good cause. All the issues in their entirety need to be considered.

Caltrans must be stopped. Now.

Dorotheya M. Dorman

Redwood Valley

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ROPE LOCK’S NOT FOR LOGS

Editor,

I read Bruce McEwen’s June 12 article (“The Slungshot-Rope Lock”) with great interest as it mentioned my company a couple times. It seems as though DA’s office got some erroneous information. The closest Mr. Barnett came to working for us was an application he submitted in January of this year. I have been in logging for over 40 years and had never heard of a “Rope Lock” until I read Mr. McEwen’s article! Maybe the reason Mr. Barnett wasn’t hired here was because of his belief you can tie down loads with rope.

Mike Anderson, Anderson Logging Inc

Fort Bragg

THE DREADS LANDED. The Sierra Nevada World Music Festival packs them in every year, and Mendocino County’s most happening venue, Boonville, radiated peace, love and good vibrations all weekend, as Mendo’s very own rasta-groover, Sister Yasmin would say. Our fair town was so crowded Saturday and Sunday with reggae fans, that people were parking well beyond our civic center at Boonville High School to the north, the Boonville Brewery to the south. The holy herb was the dominant scent. Pedicabs shuttled people to and fro, and many locals enjoyed the music whether they wanted to or not, as main stage’s powerful amps boomed congas and cowbells, stirring The Valley’s somnolent summer hills.

WILLITS POLICE are investigating the death of Danny Lawrason, 77, found dead in his home on East San Francisco Avenue on Sunday June 16th. A press release from the police was ambiguous. It said that Lawrason suffered “gunshot wounds” — plural — but his death “is being investigated to determine whether foul play was involved.” Foul play as speculation means the old man was either murdered or he shot himself. Forensics are expected to reveal which.

MENDOCINO COUNTY CLERK ready for same-sex marriages

Mendocino County Clerk Sue Ranochak said Wednesday morning that she is fully prepared to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples in Mendocino County as soon as she gets the go ahead from the state. Ranochak said she has already received a letter from the state explaining how it will proceed to reinstate same-sex marriages. According to Ranochak, the state will need to wait until the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifts the stay it had placed on same-sex marriages in California while the Supreme Court considered the case. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has let stand the California Supreme Court’s ruling declaring Prop. 8 (the ballot measure making same-sex marriage illegal in the state) unconstitutional, that stay will be lifted. Ranochak says so far, her morning has been quiet, no calls coming in from people wanting to know when they could get married. Ranochak recalls June 2008 when gay marriage was declared legal statewide and the rush for gay couples to get married. “There was more of a movement in 2008. We were having contact with people prior to that decision that June, we had phone calls from people wanting to know Can we sign up? Can we be first?’” Ranochak said. Between that month and November of that year when the ballot measure banning gay marriage passed, Ranochak thinks there may have been about 50 marriage licenses given to gay couples in this county. “We did quite a few that June and then it became pretty normal after that, both heterosexual and same sex pretty much proportional,” she said. She’s not expecting the same kind of rush this time. “After years of struggle, the U.S. Supreme Court today has made same-sex marriage a reality in California. In light of the decision, I have directed the California Department of Public Health to advise the state’s counties that they must begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in California as soon as the Ninth Circuit confirms the stay is lifted,” said Brown in a statement as soon as the Supreme Court decision was announced. In preparation for this outcome, Governor Brown sought an opinion from California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris on whether the state, through the California Department of Public Health, can advise county clerks and registrar/recorders that they are bound by the federal district court’s ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. The Attorney General concluded that the California Department of Public Health “can and should” instruct county officials that they “must resume issuing marriage licenses to and recording the marriages of same-sex” couples. The Department will issue another letter to county officials as soon as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals confirms the stay is lifted. According to the San Jose Mercury News, the Supreme Court decision itself will take 25 days to become official. The Mercury News also reports that some anti-gay marriage groups may still go back to court to try to convince a state judge that the California ruling allowing gay marriage should only apply in two counties, Los Angeles and Alameda. — KC Meadows (Courtesy, Ukiah Daily Journal)

ACCORDING to County Clerk Sue Ranochak she’s ready to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples and has a letter from the state about how to proceed. But the state is waiting on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to lift the stay it had placed on same-sex marriages in California while the Supreme Court considered the case. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has let stand the California Supreme Court’s ruling 
declaring Prop. 8 (the ballot measure making same-sex marriage illegal in
the state) unconstitutional, that stay will be lifted.

MICHAEL HICKEY WRITES: Phyllis Lyon walked down the steps in the rotunda of SF City Hall, supported on one side by Mayor Lee and on the other by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had kicked off the gay marriage argument in California after making a secret deal with the SF gay community, by which the gay vote was split, allowing him to defeat the progressive candidate for mayor who had been favored to win. Newsom promised the gays that he would find a way to start gay marriage, and he kept his word. At the lectern, Mayor Lee blathered for a while, then Newsom added more blather, then the current head of a big time lezbean organization got in front of the mike. “Fuck you, Prop 8!” she shouted, then added, “I looked around the room to see if there were any kids here first, but I will put a dollar in the bad word jar anyway.” There was a lot of hurried whispering behind the scenes in the studios of the local TV stations carrying the event, and the audio link was cut. No seven second delay here, and you’ll never see this on the news tonight! Righteous indignation, gloating, and HARD partyin’ goin’ on in the Castro. Our enlightened and benevolent Supremes dropped their love bomb right in the middle of Pride Week! I guess we can get married now.

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WE’RE FOR JOAN RAINVILLE, whom we know as the friendly and helpful lady at the Mendocino Book Company. Yes, Joan has five DUIs since 1996, the latest one occurring on May 26^th when she plowed through a Westside Ukiah fence into a backyard barbecue. But the DA is charging Joan with assault with a deadly weapon for the May episode, which doesn’t seem reasonable since Joan did not deliberately aim her car at either the fence or the people on the other side of it. Considered rationally, the May event is another DUI. Which is certainly worrisome by itself, but the case is really misdemeanor, not a felony. Joan’s got a lot on her plate, and without getting into it and making excuses for her — there’s no excuse for driving drunk — it would be a travesty to send her off to prison for five years on an inflated misdemeanor. Impounding Joan’s car seems reasonable, prison doesn’t. She’ll be back in court on July 9^th for a preliminary hearing represented by Justin Petersen.

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THE HAWK has been re-supplied. Will Parrish, aka Red Tail Hawk, has been locked down half way up a crane at the Willits bypass for a week now to protest the Willits Bypass boondoggle. An attempt to hoist water and food to Parrish last Saturday was foiled by police. But under the cover of darkness Wednesday night, an agile anonymous comrade scaled nearby equipment to get Parrish another few days of supplies.

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THE ANNOUNCEMENT this week that Ukiah will again have to dip into dwindling city reserves to keep basic services limping along comes as now surprise. Ukiah perfected the art of siphoning off redevelopment money to pay for administrative salaries, to the tune of $1 million annually by the time the state pulled the plug on redevelopment. The million dollars in admin salaries that are no longer covered by RDA explains the nearly million dollar projected deficit. But in the wake of losing the RDA cash cow, no one on the City Council, and certainly no in city admin, has even suggested making any cuts to the city’s bloated administrative overhead. The topic has never even come. In fact, the city council has been giving the city manager extra perks that were never discussed publicly. Since when does a city manager get an extra $8,000 for “executive pay”? Wasn’t she hired to be an executive? And $16,500 for “merit” pay? Isn’t that really just a back door way to increase her pay while pretending that her pay has been frozen at the original $150,000 she was originally hired for? But give the city manager credit – she’s converted the people who are supposed to be supervising her into her slaves, not that slavery is in the long term interests of Ukiah.

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SIERRA NEVADA WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL DRUNKS/ARRESTS

Jed Kimball-Hiat, Drunk; Kaicee Griffin, Drunk; Jason Cass, Drunk; Arthur Streb, Drunk;Travis Benevich, Drunk; Erik Mohan, Drunk.

And Mark Weatherly, Dirk or Dagger & Indecent Exposure

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WAY TO GO, MIKE

June 27, 2013

Dear Friend,

With student loan rates set to double on Monday, July 1st, I called on the House yesterday to immediately bring up legislation I co-authored, HR 1595, the Student Loan Relief Act. This bill would allow college students to benefit from historically low interest rates by freezing the current 3.4% rate on subsidized Stafford loans for the next two years. Unfortunately, the House Majority wouldn’t allow my bill to come to up for consideration. Students and the thousands of hardworking families across our nation already carry $1 trillion in student loan debt. Allowing these rates to double undermines our economy, weakens our middle class, and puts college out of reach for millions of students. Congress needs to act now. Time is running out. The House Majority recently passed legislation, HR 1911, which would make college more expensive for students and families by forcing them into loans with interest rates that fluctuate year by year. Under HR 1911, interest rates on loans would be reset every year. So, the interest rate on a loan taken out next year by a freshman may start off low, but she doesn’t get to keep that interest rate for the life of the loan. It will change every year, potentially skyrocketing. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the bill would charge millions of students and families $3.7 billion over the next decade in additional interest payments relative to current law. The CBO also found that HR 1911 is even worse for students and families than allowing interest rates to double on July 1st as currently scheduled. Under HR 1911, students who borrow the maximum amount of subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans over five years would pay nearly $2,000 more in interest costs than if interest rates doubled. Our students and families deserve better than a bill that makes many students pay higher interest payments than they would if Congress did nothing and interest rates doubled. The one essential element to our nation’s long-term economic success is education. Instead of passing bills that would increase the debt burden for students and families, we need to work together to keep college costs down. The bill I’ve co-authored would do just that. Sincerely, Mike Thompson, Member of Congress

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A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO, searching for a Ukiah room to rent for our ace crime reporter, Bruce McEwen, we posted an ad on Craig’s List. Inresponse, we received three versions of the following message: Subject: Need Room For Rent $300

From: “Loren Manchini”

Date: Thu, June 27, 2013 9:53 am

This message is about a meet up for later on. I’m from Las Vegas, 28 years of age and last time I had a boyfriend was in December, so honestly I haven’t got laid since then So much is not known while you meet someone online, and this will be the first time that I will be doing this. I have tried many things before with my sexuality, except anal. So this is what I am looking for today, is someone who is experienced and wouldn’t mind teaching a girl how to do it. I heard it is really fun actually. My picture is also attached, and another little secret about me is I do like facials. You can see more pics of me underneath within the link. I am also aware that ladies probably send you response in their links, but I know you remember the killing in Boston, and also the issue in New York. So it is advised that once ladies get interest in classifieds, we send the guy to our profile on dating sites. Sorry but some of you guys are psychos. Lol You don’t need any card or anything, and I have more flicks on there. Im real about this, please be so also. P.S. When you enter code: 36472 in the second page, it goes direct to my profile. — Linda

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ROBERT MICHAEL SHERIDAN

Robert Michael Sheridan, born in Chicago on August 24, 1948, died unexpectedly May 26, 2013, at age 64, of a heart attack He lived in Philo for 17 years in the 1970s and 1980s, and always returned thereafter to the land he loved on Clow Ridge. He played with the valley Clams baseball team and was a member of local band Wood Heat, which performed on the coast and at The Oaks near Yorkville. His lifelong passion for music and singing culminated in the recent release of his CD “Late in the Day” with Red Sky.

Robert graduated from Oberlin College in 1970. There he met Jennifer Thiermann, the love of his life, and they moved to Mendocino and became part of the community that lived together on the mountain top. Robert eventually took over the family business in Chicago, producing and directing major events, including corporate conferences, two Presidential Youth Inaugural Concerts, the Canada Pavilion for the Winter Olympics in 2010, and the opening for the Modern Wing of the Chicago Art Institute. Friends here knew him in overalls cutting wood and building cabins, but saw pictures of Bob in formal wear with major musicians and entertainers.

Robert is survived by his wife Jennifer and his sons Devin and Robin; his siblings Marion, Ana, James, Charles, and Francis; and his beloved in-laws, nieces, nephews, aunts, and cousins. He loved being with family and friends; dancing, singing, and playing his guitar. He was an avid reader, film-goer, sports-watcher, and conversationalist. He left his magnanimous persona to inspire us all.

Donations in Robert’s honor may be made to American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102, or to Chicago Food Depository, 4100 W. Ann Lurie Place, Chicago, IL, 60632.

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OUR DEEP SEA GARBAGE DUMP: 18,000 hours of footage shows Pacific seafloor heaped in man-made trash Seafloor along the west coast and all around the Hawaiian Islands is covered in refuse A massive study of the Pacific Ocean floor shows it’s a huge underwater garbage dump. On over 18,000 hours of footage from deep sea remotely operated vehicles, researchers at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) looked at seafloor as deep as 13,000 feet and found manmade trash items in every place they looked. Deep sea vehicles viewed dive sites all along the West Coast from the Gulf of California to Vancouver Island and all around the Hawaiian Islands, with the worst accumulation of plastic, metal, fishing debris, and other trash in Monterey Canyon off the California coast. Researchers found that Monterey Canyon, where MBARI conducts 200 research dives per year, had more trash than anywhere else. In the deep sea ravine off the coast of California alone, the researchers noted over 1,150 pieces of debris on the seafloor. Researchers did not find random spatterings of trash all across the Pacific seafloor. Instead, they discovered that debris accumulates in deep sea slopes and rocky areas. There was more garbage found in deeper areas than in more shallower spots. ‘I was surprised that we saw so much trash in deeper water. We don’t usually think of our daily activities as affecting life two miles deep in the ocean.’ Said lead author of the study Kyra Schlining. ‘I’m sure that there’s a lot more debris in the canyon that we’re not seeing. A lot of it gets buried by underwater landslides and sediment movement. Some of it may also be carried into deeper water, farther down the canyon.’ Most of the debris, about a third of it, is plastic. Because there is no sunlight on the sea floor, these petroleum-based objects can take hundreds of years to degrade. And as they do, they often turn brittle and break into tiny pieces. As this happens, it becomes more likely that tiny sea floor creatures will consume the toxic substances. This can harm the animal and introduce foreign substances into the food chain. Of the plastic items, about half were plastic grocery bags. These increasingly controversial items can choke and smother animals. Los Angeles became the biggest city in the country to ban free plastic bags in grocery stores following a city council vote this past Tuesday. About $2 million a year is spent to clean up plastic bag litter in Los Angeles. Sanitation authorities estimate more than 228,000 bags are distributed in the city every hour. But clearly many of the bags are ending up deep down on the sea floor. Metal objects were the second most common. Of them, about two thirds were aluminum, steel, or tin cans. Discarded fishing equipment was also commonly observed. As were glass bottles, papers, and cloth. MBARI researchers hope to do additional research to understand the long-term biological impacts of trash in the deep sea. Working with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, they are currently finishing up a detailed study of the effects of a particularly large piece of marine debris—a shipping container that fell off a ship in 2004. Inside the container are over 1,000 steel-belted tires. Researchers believe such a large item, to which many organisms have attached despite being in a habitat devoid of solid objects, can seriously disrupt a deep sea ecosystem. There is no way to cost-effectively remove the trash, so education about preventing further accumulation is a major goal of the project. For now, though—or at least up until now—the problem has only worsened. ‘The most frustrating thing for me is that most of the material we saw—glass, metal, paper, plastic—could be recycled,’ said Schlining. ‘Ultimately, preventing the introduction of litter into the marine environment through increased public awareness remains the most efficient and cost-effective solution to this dilemma.’ (Courtesy, the London Daily Mail)

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YOU THINK the Mendocino County Jail is rough? Try China. “At the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau Investigation Center, also known as the Song Mountain Investigation Center, the cell bosses devised an exotic menu of torments. A few samples: Sichuan-style smoked duck: The enforcer burns the inmate’s pubic hair, pulls back his foreskin and blackens the head of the penis with fire.

THEN YOU HAVE, Noodles in clear broth: Strings of toilet papers are soaked in a bowl of urine, and the inmate is forced to eat the toilet paper and drink the urine. There’s also the relatively wholesome Turtle Shell and Pork Skin Soup: The enforcer smacks the inmate’s kneecaps until they are bruised and swollen, like turtle shells. Walking is impossible.” (Ian Buruma, A Chinese poet’s memoir of incarceration.)

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When I was a child / I played by myself in a / corner of the schoolyard / all alone.

I hated dolls and I / hated games, animals were / not friendly and birds / flew away.

If anyone was looking / for me I hid behind a / tree and cried out “I am / an orphan.”

And here I am, the / center of all beauty! / writing these poems! / Imagine!

— Frank O’Hara

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WHILE JAMES TEMPLE writes a reasoned defense against the pillorying of techies, he seems to have forgotten that, starting with the dot-com boom of the 90s, any kind of real bohemian art scene has been priced out as well. The hippies would have bypassed San Francisco; the same with the beats before them. Too expensive. But my beef against most techies is just that they seem to be so friggin’ boring. Maybe it’s because they’re too functional or too well adjusted. Where are the charming drunks and lotharios, the Don Sherwoods, the Don Drapers? I’m sure there are a few sloppy, booze-oozing techies, but for the most part, they seem like a sort of Stepford People; clean, trim, and barren. (— Armando Lagunas Jr.)

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SELECT TV ANCHOR ESTIMATED ANNUAL SALARIES

(Courtesy, the Daily Beast):

Matt Lauer, $25 million. Bill O’Reilly, $20 million. Sean Hannity, $15 million. $Brian Williams, $13 million. Diane Sawyer, $12 million. Anderson Cooper, $11 million. Charlie Rose, $8 million. Al Roker (Al Roker!), $7 million. Piers Morgan, $6 million. George Stephanopolous, $5 million. $Chris Matthews, $5 million. Scott Pelley, $5 million. Wolf Blitzer, $3 million. $Erin Burnett, $2 million. Savannah Guthrie, $2 million.

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GOV. JERRY BROWN on Thursday signed into law a new state budget for the fiscal year beginning Monday, calling it a “momentous occasion” for California’s finances, which have been on a roller coaster for years. “We have a balanced budget, not proposed, but actually actualized — the first time in probably a decade or more where the state’s finances are in very solid shape,” Brown said. The plan outlines spending for $96.2 billion in the general fund — the state’s main checking account, which pays for schools, colleges, health and human services, and public safety — and $49 billion in special funds and bonds. Brown did not make significant changes to the plan the Legislature passed earlier in the month, though he did use his line-item veto authority to cut about $41 million from the spending plan. Most of that — some $30 million — was cut from a Department of Education fund for special education. The governor and Democratic leaders of the Legislature gathered in his office at the Capitol for the bill signing, which included two other bills that will enable the state to further implement the federal Affordable Care Act. He and the legislative leaders were jovial, and among the crowd were many health care advocates. Democrats in the Legislature had hoped for more spending during the budget process, but Brown curtailed their enthusiasm by demanding limited growth in funding for various programs. Overall state spending through the general fund will grow by less than 1 percent in the new fiscal year, according to the Department of Finance. But Democrats did get some of what they wanted, with the creation of a tuition subsidy for students from families making less than $150,000 who attend University of California or California State University schools. The budget also provides $143 million in new funding for mental health services to create crisis and triage positions throughout the state. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, had pushed for the increased mental health funding, and said it was “the first time in state history” that the budget had the most new money — after education spending — going toward mental health services. Assembly Speaker John Pérez, D-Los Angeles, got his way in creating the tuition break for UC and CSU students from middle-class families. Starting in 2014, students from families that make less than $150,000 will get tuition breaks that will grow over four years to a 40 percent reduction of the overall cost. “We’re in a position to focus on long-term planning,” Pérez said. The health care bills that Brown signed take California another step toward leading the country in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Diana Dooley attended the bill signing and said the national effort was something that “the president made possible, but we have to make real in California.”

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SANCTUARY FOREST PRESENTS a magical evening of mind-bending entertainment, featuring Brad Barton, Reality Thief. Brad is a versatile entertainer with more than 20 years in the business. His blend of magic, humor, and mind reading is a unique and unforgettable experience as he predicts your dreams, causes borrowed objects to levitate, and reveals your most cherished memories.

On Thursday, July 18^th Sanctuary Forest is bringing Brad to the Garberville Theater. Doors will open at 6 p.m. with cocktails, prosecco, beer and wine available for purchase, as well as a delicious assortment of Asian appetizers and homemade cupcakes. The show will begin at 7 p.m., and will include an intermission. Recommend for those 10 years of age and up. Admission is $15 at the door. All proceeds will go to Sanctuary Forest to support the restoration and conservation of the Mattole River watershed and surrounding areas.

Brad Barton’s impact is immediate and undeniable, and his irresistible playful manner and mind blowing magic is both mystifying and motivational. Don’t miss out on what is sure to be a memorable event!

Sanctuary Forest is a land trust whose mission is to conserve the Mattole River watershed and surrounding areas for wildlife habitat and aesthetic, spiritual and intrinsic values, in cooperation with our diverse community.

AS A LONG-TIME RESIDENT of America’s intoxicants capitol, Mendocino County, where cannabis, wine grapes, wine, beer, methamphetamine, heroin, and pure delusion reign, local journalists who mount their high horses to fulminate against the predictable consequences of our two primary businesses, booze and dope, seem, well, deluded.

SO HERE’S CHRIS COURSEY of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat piling on poor old Joan Rainville with a pecksniffian column Friday called “Delivering a message on repeat drunken driving.” Coursey rehashes Joan’s unhappy history of boozed locomotion then applauds the Mendo DA’s attempt to charge Joan with a felony rather than the misdemeanor the law says her offense is.

THE PD derives a large portion of its ad revenue from the wine business. But going by the images we get from the Rose City Daily, we know that wine drinkers aren’t drunks. They’re handsome people with big white teeth who take dainty sips from finely wrought glasses they hold to the sun.

BACK TO JOAN. We all know by now she has a history of driving drunk, but the Mendo DA has attracted even the dim attentions of the Press Democrat by attempting an end around existing law. The DA has charged Joan with felony assault with a deadly weapon, i.e., pickled Joan and her car. The law says that Joan’s latest offense is a misdemeanor, albeit a serious misdemeanor. It isn’t a felony. So the DA wants to re-write the rul book just to nail Joan.

SENDING A MESSAGE? As if a drunk driver will think to himself, “Hmmm. I’ve just downed three bottles of Pinot but my house is ten miles from here. Better not drive, though, because the Mendo DA has just charged a lady with a felony for drunk driving. He was sending me a message. And then Chris Coursey of the Press Democrat sent me another message in a column today. I’ll call Coursey for a lift home.”

DESPITE THE BARRAGE of Don’t Do It messages over the past decade the CHP says drunk driving stats have gone up and up. Americans aren’t getting the message; they’re getting drunker, as more and more alcohol is also sold every year.

YES, DRUNK DRIVING is no joke. It’s roadway roulette, and every year lots of people lose. But how about a no joke law, how about confiscation of the drunk’s vehicle for, say, a year? Second offense, permanent impound of vehicle and license? Sending messages no one hears isn’t getting it done.

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SUBJECT: FIRST DISTRICT LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

From: “Congressman Jared Huffman” <CA02JHima@mail.house.gov

Date: June 27, 2013 1:38:38 PM PDT

Dear Friend,

I’m pleased to announce my first district-wide landscape photography competition, starting today! This photography competition will showcase what is without a doubt the most beautiful Congressional District in the nation. I am modeling this program after a similar competition I held last year in my California Assembly District which was very successful.

Please email your original landscape photograph to Huffman.Staff@mail.house.gov, and include your name, hometown, and the location of the photo in the body of the email. Submissions will be accepted until July 5, 2013.

Submissions will be posted to my Facebook at Facebook.com/RepHuffman, where you will have the opportunity to vote on the photos by “liking” them. The two winning photographs, as determined by most likes, will be announced on Thursday, July 18. Each photograph will be published as my official Twitter header photo and my Facebook cover photo. I’m looking forward to seeing all the submissions, from the Golden Gate Bridge standing sentinel at the San Francisco Bay to the remote beauty of the Lost Coast, to the ancient Redwood forests.

I have included a few of last year’s Assembly District winners as an inspiration to the broader field of photographers and other citizens who aspire to such an artistic challenge in the First Congressional District.

This last one’s my absolute fave. So upbeat, so positive!

So, get snapping, and good luck!

Sincerely, Jared Huffman, Member of Congress

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ON TUESDAY, June 18, Board Chair Dan Hamburg pulled Item 4a from the consent calendar. Item 4a is Hamburg’s demand for reimbursement for his legal expenses (“unlimited, over $10,000”) associated with the County’s denial of a burial permit for his late wife which Hamburg claims should have been issued even though state law explicitly prohibits burial in unlicensed cemeteries. “The reason I pulled it is because it deals with me so I cannot vote on it,” said Hamburg. “I must abstain. So it would take other board members to approve that item. So I need a motion to approve Item 4a under consent. County Counsel Tom Parker: “I would recommend Mr. Chair that you leave the podium and let the vice chair, Mr. Pinches, run things.” Hamburg then passed the gavel to Mr. Pinches. “Leave the podium?” asked Hamburg. “Yes, if you could, please,” replied Parker. “Ok, do we have any discussion on Item 4a?” Pinches asked. (Silence.) “I move to reject the claim,” said Supervisor Dan Gjerde. “Second,” said Supervisor McCowen. “All in favor?” said Pinches. All four supervisors said “Aye.” “One abstain,” said Pinches. “One abstain,” added Hamburg as he retook his seat. “Supervisor Hamburg was absent,” added Pinches. “Absent,” repeated Hamburg as he reclaimed the gavel.

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BEYOND THE WILDWOOD MTB WEEKEND

Hi JAG-mates,

Mendocino Bike Sprite (my fun job) had our first Mountain Bike Weekend on Jackson Demonstration State Forest last weekend. One of our guests made a video that I thought I’d share. A different way to enjoy our woods. Here’s what riding in Jackson is like. And, No, I don’t ride on logs; that’s our guide Brian Astell. He’s amazing! Cheers, Amy Wynn, Mendocino Bike Sprite. 703 North Main Street. Service Shop: 568 South Franklin Street, Fort Bragg, CA 95437. p. 707-962-4602 f. 707-964-2622. www.MendoBikeSprite.com & FaceBook — “Sharing the joys of cycling on the Mendocino coast.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDDuibW6qqI&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uM2mOdXtYM

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DAVE HILLMER OF POINT ARENA writes:

Subject: Point Arena, Water Rights and Future Development

Hi, David Hillmer of Empire Contracting here. I’d like to get the word out regarding the City of Point Arena’s attempt to reduce the amount of water available to parcels in Point Arena. In 2007, the City conducted a build-out study, and supported the Point Arena Water Works (PAWW) in its rights to adequate water to support future development. In May of this year, the City has apparently reversed its position, and sent a letter to the PUC requesting water rights to be reduced by half. This action, if it moves forward, will severely compromise the ability of parcels in Priority 3 & 4 (as designated in the 07 study) to be developed. I own a parcel in Priority 3, and we are currently pursuing entitlements for an Affordable Senior Housing project there, so I am deeply concerned.  I have attached pertinent data, including the letter I presented to the Council during Public Comment on Tuesday.  Please let me know if you have any questions, thanks, David

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ANOTHER MURDER on Murder Mountain?

Sheriff Investigating Homicide in Rancho Sequoia Area.

Humboldt Co. Sheriff’s Office Press Release:

Detectives from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office are currently investigating a death that has been determined to be suspicious and suspected to be a homicide. The location of occurrence is the 3700 block of Rancho Sequoia Drive, Alderpoint.

The reporting party called the Sheriff’s Office at 8:50 AM. The reporting party stated that she had not heard from her step-father for the last four (4) days and drove to his residence in the 3700 block of Rancho Sequoia Drive. When she arrived she discovered her 57 year old step-father was deceased. Deputies and Detectives were dispatched to the residence and have ruled the death to be suspicious and are investigating the death as a homicide.

Detectives are looking for a black 2000 Jeep Cherokee, CA 5HNG536 which may be driven by Anthony Ray Lane, WMA, 510, 185, red and brown (DOB 09-18-1975). Lane is a person of interest in this investigation and is being sought for questioning by the Sheriff’s Office. Persons should not approach Lane, if located, and are asked to call the Sheriff’s Office if he is spotted. The lead investigator is Detective Franco (707) 268-3644 or (707) 445-7251.

The motive for this suspected homicide is not known at this time. Detectives are just now arriving at the time of this release. The name of the victim is not being released until additional family members can be notified. Due to the infancy of this investigation, the suspected cause of death is not being released, and will be once the Coroner is able to arrange for an autopsy.

* * *

Lane

ALDERPOINT HOMICIDE SUSPECT TAKEN INTO CUSTODY at Willits Motel

From the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Thursday June 27, 2013 at about 11:30 PM, Officers from the Willits Police Department located the black Jeep Cherokee that was believed to be operated by suspect Anthony Lane. The Willits Police Officers had received a “be on the lookout” broadcast issued by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office for this homicide investigation. The vehicle was found in the parking lot of a motel in the Willits area.

On June 28, 2013 at about 12:30 AM, officers of the Willits Police Department, with the assistance of deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, located Lane in one of the rooms of the hotel. Lane was taken into custody without incident and was transported to the Humboldt County Line, where deputies from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office took custody of Lane. Lane was booked into the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office for suspicion of murder and possession of a stolen vehicle (the black Jeep Cherokee).

At this time the motive for the crime is being investigated. There does not appear at this time to be a connection with this homicide to the earlier marijuana cultivation investigation and arrests that took place in the same area. The homicide does not appear to be a home invasion, marijuana related or in association with the Garret Rodriguez missing person investigation.

The Humboldt County Coroner’s Office is still in the process of notification of family members of the victim of this suspected homicide. For that reason, the name of the victim is not being released. An autopsy is scheduled for Saturday June 29, 2013 and the cause of death is not being released until after the autopsy is concluded and it will not jeopardize the investigation. The lead investigator is Detective Franco (707) 268-3644 or (707) 445-7251, anyone with information about this investigation is encouraged to telephone Detective Franco at the listed numbers.

(Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

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THE CLINTONS & THE RICH WOMEN

Fixers Indicated That Hillary Was a Key Player in the Marc Rich Pardon Deal

By Jeffrey St. Clair

President-in-waiting Hillary Clinton has never addressed her role in the midnight pardon of billionaire fugitive Marc Rich, who died this week. In fact, she’s rarely been asked her opinion on the free pass given to one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, a man who violated embargoes against Iran and South Africa and fled the country rather than face trial in what was billed as “the biggest tax evasion case in history.” The senator has variously said that she was “unaware” of the decision and “surprised” by it. When pressed, she merely cackles.

Even though 300 pages of core documents relating to the pardon decision remain under seal at the Clinton Library, a review of the available record tells a much different story. In fact, the Rich legal team viewed Hillary as a secret weapon, and as one door after another closed on their search for a pardon they focused more and more on invoking what Rich lawyer Robert Fink called the “HRC option.”

Who is Marc Rich? And why did he need a presidential pardon?

Rich

Born in Belgium to Jewish parents, Marc Rich moved with his family to the United States to escape Hitler. Young Marc soon went to work for a commodity firm in New York called Phillip Bros, later acquired by Salomon Brothers. He soon made his mark as an oil trader and, along with his friend Pincus “Pinky” Green, he is credited with inventing spot market trading in oil, ferrous metals and sugar. Billions flowed into the firm, and the European press took to calling Rich “the Aluminum Finger.”

Green

But Rich and “Pinky” Green felt underappreciated and underpaid. They bolted the firm, and Rich angrily vowed to “grind Phillip Bros. into oblivion.” In 1974, the pair started their own holding company, eventually known as the Marc Rich Group, and began making oil deals with Iran, Iraq and wildcatters in Texas. He and Pinky were soon billionaires and big shots in the global petrochemical trade.

.

Denise Rich

Around this time, Rich courted a buxom young Jewish singer/songwriter from Worchester, Massachusetts, named Denise. He whisked her off to his seaside villa in Marbella, Spain, where the couple were married and rapidly assumed the life of international jet-setters and art collectors. It is said that Rich owns one of the largest private collections of Picasso paintings and sculptures in the world. Rich began referring to himself as a “business machine.” The years passed. Denise bore Rich three daughters and honed her songwriting skills on transcontinental flights on the family’s private jet. Saccharine pop flowed off her microrecorder , including minor hit “Frankie.” The bank accounts swelled.

Then in 1983 crisis hit the Rich family. The US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York notified Rich and Pinky that they were under investigation for fraud, illegal oil deals with Iran and the apartheid regime in South Africa, and tax evasion. Documents were subpoenaed. Indictments were in the works. Rich hired DC heavy-hitter Edward Bennett Williams to fend off assaults of a vicious young prosecutor — none other than Rudy Giuliani.

When Giuliani requested that Pinky and Rich turn over their passports and post a large bond, Williams acted indignant and personally avowed to the federal judge overseeing the case that his client was not a flight risk. Two days later, Pinky and Rich were on a plane bound for Europe. As expected, the indictments came: a 65-count charge alleging fraud, trading with the enemy (Iran), and tax evasion.

Humiliated, Williams resigned in a huff, and Rich found a succession of new lawyers over the next decade, including former Nixon attorney Leonard Garment and Lewis Scooter Libby, who would later find refuge in the awesome power of presidential privilege.

Rich’s escape from Giuliani’s clutches is the stuff of spy novels, made even more thrilling due to the fact that he almost certainly had several moles inside Giuliani’s office, US law enforcement and intelligence agencies who kept him apprised of the schemes to nab him. He evaded the US marshals on his tail at Heathrow Airport in England, and then later his plane bound for Finland mysteriously turned at the last moment for Sweden, once again narrowly avoiding landing in custody. Years later, Rich would also escape his captors in Germany and Jamaica, courtesy of anonymous tips to the fugitive billionaire.

The tycoon’s eventual passage to safe harbor in Switzerland went from Sweden through East Germany, aided by the notorious Wolfgang Vogel, an East German lawyer who specialized in shuttling spies into and out of Eastern Europe.

Rich dropped millions at every stop, especially in Switzerland. He and “Pinky” Green choose the town of Zuq to establish their new headquarters in a blueberry-colored office tower. Entreaties were made to Swiss officials, and money liberally dispensed.

“He bought Swiss loyalty,” says Shawn Tulley, a financial crimes reporter for Fortune magazine, who covered the Rich case. “He really put out the charm and the money.” When the US Marshals finally tracked Rich down in Switzerland, they immediately petitioned the Swiss government for his extradition. Request denied. As far as the Swiss were concerned, financial crimes, especially involving taxation, were trifling concerns unworthy of governmental consideration.

When the Swiss refused to turn Rich over, the Marshals tried to kidnap the world’s most famous tax evader under the extraordinary rendition program, which has since become a staple of the Bush regime.

The Marshals set up a team outside of Rich’s mansion and his offices. But again, there was a fortuitous leak. The Swiss police approached the would-be kidnappers and told them to shut down their operation or they would be the ones sitting in jail. The Marshals retreated. Rich had found his sanctuary. He summoned Denise and the children to join him in a sprawling mansion near Lucerne and then renounced his US citizenship. This freed him from the nagging obligation of ever again having to worry about entanglements with the IRS over tax obligations. But it also threw the validity of his eventual pardon into question.

The exile of Marc Rich was not an idle one. Indeed, from 1983 to 1996 Rich’s fortune ballooned from a mere billion dollars to more than $7 billion. He and Pinky struck oil deals in Russia and Bulgaria (prompting accusations of fraud and thievery in both countries) and mining operations in central Asia, Africa and South America. Along the way, he sharpened the art of the political bribe. Rudy Giuliani alleges that during this period Rich tried to bribe the state of New York, offering millions to the State Department of Education in exchange for a withdrawal of the pending charges.

In order to buy alumina from the new leftist government of Jamaica for less than half the market price, Rich wired $50 million to Jamaican President Michael Manley in an hour of acute distress for the embattled ruler.

Even as he neared the top of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, Rich also didn’t see any reason to abandon his operations in the United States. In fact, his hand is seen orchestrating one of the most savage crackdowns on organized labor in recent decades. In 1989, Rich secretly acquired the controlling interest in a West Virginia-based company called Ravenswood Aluminum. Ravenswood was embroiled in a tumultuous battle between management and workers at the plant when in 1990, under Rich’s long-distance orders, the company tried to bust the union. On a bitterly cold night, a private security force arrived at the plant, set up armed guards at the gates and surveillance cameras around the perimeter of the facility, and locked out 1,700 workers, all members of the Steelworkers Union. Over the ensuing weeks, the armed guards repeatedly clashed with picketing union members, fogging the air with tear gas and beating skulls with their police clubs. Soon Rich made the call to hire permanent replacement workers, for less pay and reduced benefits. The lockout went on for two more years. “It was a brutal affair,” says Dan Stidham, president of the Ravenswood union local at the time of the lockout. “I’m still pretty upset with Clinton for pardoning that guy after all we went through.”

Azulay

Meanwhile, back in Lucerne, Rich was beginning to cultivate the Israeli government. He established the Rich Foundation in Tel Aviv, which would distribute more than $100 million to Israeli causes over the next decade. To oversee the foundation, Rich selected a former high-ranking Mossad official named Avner Azulay, whose ties to the intelligence agency probably never totally evaporated. Azulay was a useful conduit to Israel’s political elite. He was close to Yitzak Rabin, Ehud Barak, Shimon Peres and Ehud Olmert. A decade later, Azulay would play a key role in securing Rich’s pardon from the Clintons.

Through Azulay, Rich offered his services to the Israeli government, especially the Mossad. Indeed, according to letters from Israeli officials, Rich played the role of a “Say-Ayon,” or unpaid asset of the Mossad. In fact, Rich was subsidizing Israeli intelligence operations. He financed numerous covert missions and allowed Mossad operatives to work covertly in his offices around the world.

With experience as an international spook now added to his C.V., Rich reached out through intermediaries to both the FBI and the CIA. He offered his services to both agencies in exchange for dropping the charges against him. The CIA’s response is unknown, but the FBI was intrigued and sent the request to the Justice Department, where it was quashed.

Around this time, Rich launched into a public liaison with a glamorous Italian widow by the name of Gisela Rossi.

Rossi

He flaunted the affair in front of Denise, the tycoon’s wife who had followed him into his luxurious life on the lam. Denise filed for divorce and prepared to return to New York. But Rich, whose net worth now neared $10 billion, was offering her only a tiny settlement. So Denise took matters into her own hands. She removed a Van Gogh painting from the wall of their palace in Lucerne and warned her estranged husband that unless he ponied up more money, she would take the masterpiece with her. Ultimately, Rich offered her a settlement of $200 million. Although the amount is far less than she would have gotten in most US courts, Denise signed the papers and took her daughters with her back to Manhattan.

Rossi and Rich soon married and divided their time between St. Moritz and Marbella, Spain.

A year after the Rich’s divorce, their oldest daughter, Gabriella, was diagnosed with a rare and terminal form of leukemia. She died within the year. Marc Rich made no effort to visit Gabriella in her final months. Denise Rich seethed.

Pardon Me

The machinations to secure a pardon from Bill Clinton for Marc Rich began in earnest in the fall of 1998, when Rich’s public relations flack in the US, Gershon Kekst, squirmed his way into a seat next to Eric Holder, the number two in the Clinton Justice Department, at a gauche DC party thrown by Daimler/Chrysler. Without mentioning Rich by name, Kekst asked Holder how a man of considerable resources might be relieved of the burden of being “unproperly indicted by an overzealous prosecutor.”

Holder took a sip of wine and told Kekst that such a man would need to hire a DC lawyer who knows the ropes and has deep connections inside the Clinton administration. “He comes to me and we work it out,” confided Holder.

“Can you recommend such a person?” Kekst inquired.

Holder

Holder pointed to a man sitting at a nearby table. “There’s Jack Quinn,” Holder whispered. “He’s a perfect example.”

Kekst dutifully wrote down Quinn’s name, did some research on the former lawyer for the Clintons, and transmitted the joyful news to the Rich camp.

There is every indication that Holder was trying to drum up business for Quinn, a partner at the powerhouse firm of Arnold and Porter, as well as a top advisor for Al Gore’s presidential campaign. Holder was desperate to have Quinn’s backing in his doomed bid to become attorney general.

Quinn

Back in Switzerland, Rich ordered up a dossier on Quinn. His initial response was not favorable. Rich believed Quinn to be merely a “pretty boy” with little experience and “more connections than clout.” He decided to stick with Scooter Libby’s team. But Scooter, who had represented Rich since 1985, produced no results, and in the summer of 1999, with the clock ticking down on Clinton time, the desperate tycoon reached out to Jack Quinn.

Quinn formally became Rich’s lawyer on July 21, 1999. His fees were stiff: an initial retainer of $355,000, plus a minimum payment of $55,000 each month. Quinn’s firm, Arnold and Porter, reserved the right to represent clients suing Rich on other matters. Rich consented.

Initially, Quinn intimated to the Rich team that securing the pardon would be a relatively easy matter. A few calls to his good friend Eric Holder, and that would be that. Quinn was wrong. When Holder contacted the prosecutors in Manhattan about the Rich case, they vowed to oppose any deal until Rich returned to the US and entered a plea in the case. Rich refused.

From that point on, the Rich team, including his sympathizers inside the Clinton administration, hid their maneuvers from federal prosecutors. After discussions with White House aides Bruce Lindsey and Beth Nolan, Quinn sent out an email calling for a new approach: “It’s time to move on the GOI [Government of Israel] front but we have to get the calls initiated over there.”

Letters and calls soon flooded the White House from Israeli officials and high profile Jews, including Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert and Elie Weisel. In one way or another, each had received benefits from Rich or one of his foundations.

A problem soon developed. When presented the opportunity to discuss presidential pardons with Clinton, many of these leaders, anxious perhaps to legitimize Israeli penetration of the US government, choose to plead the case of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard instead of Rich.

Quinn scrambled comically for a solution. Quinn sends an urgent email to Robert Fink, Rich’s longtime New York lawyer.

From: Jack Quinn. To: Fink, Robert, NY.

“Hope you’re checking email; I don’t have access here to avner’s email address, or marc’s, and wonder if you can inquire whether there is a possibility of persuading Mrs Rabin to make a call to POTUS [President of the United States]. He had a deep affection for her husband.”

Fink leaps into action with an email to Avner Azulay, the former Mossad officer, now heading the Rich Foundation in Tel Aviv.

From: Fink, Robert, NY. Sent: Saturday. To: Avner Azulay

“… Jack asks if you could get Leah Rabin to call the President; Jack said he was a real big supporter of her husband…”

Azulay writes back with distressing news.

From: Avner. To: Fink, Robert, NY.

“Bob, having Leah Rabin call is not a bad idea. The problem is how do we contact her? She died last November …”

Eventually, Quinn secures a letter and congenial phone call to Clinton from Rabin’s daughter, who doesn’t really know Rich. Their best hopes seem to be evaporating. Perhaps Rich was right about Quinn, after all.

First Catch Your Foxman

The scene shifts to a crowded restaurant in Paris. It’s Valentine’s Day. Two men are having dinner and drinking wine. They know each other well. One man has just received a $100,000 contribution from the other man’s boss. The man on the receiving end of the money is Abe Foxman, and the financial gift was for his group the Anti-Defamation League. The man picking up the hefty dinner tab is Avner Azulay – though Marc Rich will soon reimburse him.

Rich has one last shot, Foxman advises. They need to get directly to Bill and Hillary. And the key to unlocking the inner doors of the White House, Foxman told Azulay, is Denise Rich. Foxman confided that he and Denise had flown together on Air Force II to the funeral of Yitzak Rabin.
 There was just one problem. Denise Rich still loathed her husband.
 Entreaties are made to Denise, now a New York socialite and successful songwriter, by Quinn and others on the Rich teams. Three times Denise Rich declines to come to the rescue of her former husband.

Then suddenly, in November 2000, she agrees to help. What made her change her mind?

That remains open to speculation, but given Marc Rich’s history and Denise’s view that she was shortchanged in the divorce, it may well have involved a financial offering. This much is known. On November 16, Avner Azulay flies to New York and takes Denise to dinner. He pleads for her to back Rich’s pardon to her friends Bill and Hillary. Two days later Denise consents.

Dozoretz with Wm. Clinton

Denise calls her close friend Beth Dozoretz for help in the best way to handle the matter. Another rich Manhattan socialite, Dozoretz had been the finance chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Dozoretz had contributed more than $1 million to Democratic coffers. Bill Clinton was the godfather of her daughter.

Dozoretz who, like Denise Rich, would later plead the Fifth at a Senate hearing in the matter, helped Rich craft her strategy. Almost immediately, a check for $25,000 was sent from Denise Rich’s account to the DNC. This was soon followed by Denise Rich’s first letter to the Clintons, imploring them to pardon her ex-husband. Dozoretz also helped Rich bundle a $450,000 contribution to the Clinton library fund. (A Democratic fundraiser told the New York Times in 2001 that Denise had also pledged another million in four installments over the next two years. This figure was disputed by Denise Rich. But the donor lists to the Clinton Foundation are kept secret.) In all, Denise Rich made at least $1.1 million in contributions to Democratic causes, including $70,000 to Hillary’s Senate campaign and PACs, and at least $450,000 to the Clinton foundation.

For her part, Dozoretz kicked in another million of her own money to the fund. This is the same library that now refuses to release more than 300 pages of Clinton’s records relating to the pardon. She later lavished gifts on the Clintons as they left the White House, including antique furniture for the new home and golf clubs for Bill.

As Dozoretz and Denise Rich plotted their strategy, Quinn and Azulay sought another opening. In a December 19, 2000, email to Quinn, Azulay emphasizes the importance of Hillary’s role in the affair. She has just been elected senator from New York, where Rich was indicted. If there was to be fallout, it might backfire on Hillary. She would need reassurance. Dozoretz and Denise would provide financial aid, but she might also need political cover. Azulay recommends Abraham Burg, former speaker of the Knesset. “Burg is on very friendly terms with Hilary (sic) and knows POTUS from previous contacts.”

The next night there’s a party at the White House honoring Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones and Maya Angelou. Dozoretz and Denise are invited, and Denise lands a plum seat at the presidential table. Denise is wearing a burgundy ball gown trimmed in fox fur. She eats little and talks less. After dinner, Denise espies Bill having an intimate conversation with Streisand. She rushes across the room, cuts in on Babs and whisks Bill away. She makes an impassioned plea for her ex-husband, who had humiliated her, stuffs a letter into Bill’s hand and whispers, “I could not bear it were I to learn you did not see my letter.” 
When Denise arrives home, she makes a call to Lucerne. It’s the first time she has talked to Marc Rich since the divorce. She describes her meeting with Clinton. Her friends say she ended the conversation by telling Rich: “You owe me.”

A week later the Rich team is getting antsy. There’s still been no word on how Hillary feels. Rich’s New York attorney Robert Fink sends an email to Quinn: “Of all the options we discussed, the only one that seems to have real potential for making a difference is the Hillary option.”

Quinn, Dozoretz, Burg and, perhaps, Denise call Hillary’s people. They are told that the senator needs cover. According to a December 26 email from Azulay titled “Chuck Schumer”: “Hillary shall feel more at ease if she is joined by her elder sen. of NY, who also represents the Jewish population.”

Gershon Kekst leaps at the opportunity, firing an email to Fink looking for Schumer’s pressure points:

“Can Quinn tell us who is close enough to lean on Schumer?? I am willing to call him but have no real clout. Jack might be able to tell us who the top contributors are … maybe Bernard Schwartz??”

Bernard Schwartz was a good guess. The former CEO of the Defense electronics firm Loral (a Friend of Bill and Marc Rich) was a top DNC contributor and had lavished money on both Schumer and Hillary. Schwartz also donated $1 million to the Clinton library fund.

But Quinn had been around Washington a long time. He knew enough not to trust Schumer, a famous media hog who was already showing signs of being jealous of the attention Hillary was getting. Quinn notes: “I have to believe that the contact with HRC can happen w/o him after all, we are not looking for a public show of support from her.”

Calls continue to flood the Clinton White House. The King of Spain. Sandy Berger. Ehud Barak.

Meanwhile, Denise and Beth are skiing in Aspen. Beth’s phone rings. It’s Bill Clinton. Clinton tells Dozoretz, “I want to do it and am trying to get around the White House counsel.” Keep praying, Bill told the women. He also let them know that Michael Milken wasn’t getting a pardon.

A few days later, the two women are back in Washington. It’s now January 19, 2001. Jack Quinn is sitting at a board meeting of Fanny Mae. He quietly types a message to Denise on his Blackberry. (It’s not known if he bills both clients for this hour of his time.) The text message urges Denise to make one last call to Bill. Quinn tells her not to “argue merits” but merely to explain to Clinton that “it is important to me personally.”

Though both women will later dispute it, the Secret Service logs show that the next afternoon at 5:30, Beth and Denise were admitted to the private quarters of the White House. This was Denise’s nineteenth visit to the White House. Beth had visited the White House 76 times in merely the last two years. The logs do not record when the women departed. This is the encounter that appears to have consummated the pardon.

At 2:30 in the morning on January 20, Clinton gets a call from his National Security Advisor. Marc Rich’s name has surfaced in an intelligence file in connection with an international arms smuggling network. Clinton calls Quinn. Quinn says the allegations are bogus. Bill turns to his staff, all of whom oppose the pardon that is now being signed. “Take Jack’s word,” Clinton snapped. Later Clinton will claim to have been “sleep deprived” when he signed the pardon, an excuse that his wife would resurrect to explain her fabulation of her landing under sniper fire in Bosnia.

Marc Rich bought his pardon and now flies freely in his private jet, while Leonard Peltier languishes in prison with no hope of release.

That pretty much sums up Clintonism.

(This article is adapted from a piece that ran in the March 2008 edition of CounterPunch magazine. Jeffrey St. Clair is the author of Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: the Politics of Nature, Grand Theft Pentagon and Born Under a Bad Sky. His latest book is Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion. He can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net.)

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AMERICAN TROUBADOUR – WILLIAM JAMES NICHOLSON – will be appearing live on stage at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds – Not So Simple Living Fair.

Date: Saturday July 27, 2013 Time: 9:00 PM

Upstate New York’s William James Nicholson is a uniquely American artist. Yes, he writes some of the most powerful modern folk songs of today, but he performs them armed only with a custom made 11-string harp-guitar. Despite the virtuosity and musical depth, it is really the song, the emotion and the storyteller’s voice that always hold center stage.   “It is refreshing to hear a great voice combined with a great song, played with passion, competence and honesty…” (Albany, NY)   “When I saw the harp guitar I thought one thing, then when he opened his mouth to sing, something entirely surprising and beautiful happened…” (Marietta, OH)

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CRAIG’S READY!

Destroying Postmodernism before it Gets You!

Morning salutations, I have two more weeks to go at the central Berkeley men’s shelter, and then they say I’m on my own, because Alameda county social services does not have anything further to give to me. I am totally available right now! I have several hundred dollars which would get me transported anywhere in the USA lower 48, decades of experience of a radical nature, plus a fully cultivated spiritual life, and I’m willing!!! Instead of languishing in the cultural death of postmodernism, I’d like your cooperation in order to remain active frontline-wise. No need to hurry, because this is America and it’s summer; so slow down, take your time, and then encourage me to travel where you are and participate. I don’t have anything to do anymore in California. That’s just the way it is, and I am really not interested in attempting anything so ridiculous as “retiring.” That won’t work for me. I’m not the type. However, I am ready to help usher in a brand new civilization based on a spiritual foundation, Craig Louis Stehr/craigstehr@hushmail.com

INSPIRING QUOTATION:

Wherever and whenever / The mind is found / Attached to anything, / Make haste to detach / Yourself from it. / When you tarry for / Any length of time / It will turn again into / Your old home town. —Daito Kokushi (1282-1334)

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FIGHT THE POWER!

Subject: Corporate Power & Building Democracy study group forming this Sunday in FB

How did the corporations gain so much power? How can we integrate this knowledge and think clearly about what to do about it. How can we be effective in our efforts to create the democracy we want for people and the planet? These are the kinds of issues that are considered in the Corporate Power & Building Democracy study group forming this Sunday in Fort Bragg. We use a curriculum that was created by and can be downloaded from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. http://wilpf.org/CPOWER_10sessions  There will be a ten-session study group starting up again this Sunday, the 30th of June, at 6:00 PM. The first meeting will be in Fort Bragg at Meg Courtney’s home, 661North Harrison St. in Fort Bragg. The remaining sessions will be every other Sunday and will most likely be in Mendocino.  About eight people completed the study group that started last January. Michael St. John and myself will be facilitating the group going forward. If you are interested you can contact me and I will provide more details.  Carrie Durkee, 937-2554, CDurkee@mcn.org

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MOVE TO AMEND contingents in Mendocino and Point Arena July 4th parades! Local “Move to Amend.org“ members and supporters are encouraged to join fellow ‘Amenders’ in a parade contingent in the 4th of July parade in Mendocino at noon, and also in the Point Arena Parade on Sunday July 7, 2013. Banners will be provided, but bring your own flags, posters and signs to invite others to join in the national effort locally. Participants meet in Mendocino at Crown Hall at 11:30 am on Thursday July 4, 2013; and in Point Arena at the high school parking lot by 11:30 am Sunday. Contact Jane Jarlsberg at 882.2339 for more information.

THE “WE THE PEOPLE” AMENDMENT affirms that 1) rights protected under the Constitution are the rights of natural persons and not of incorporated entities and 2) money spent to influence elections may be regulated by Congress and the states and is not protected free speech under the First Amendment.

TEN ACRES of dissipation or a political celebration? Dissipation seemed preponderant at San Francisco’s civic center Saturday but, as a child of the 1950s, I’m still adjusting to new realities. I do remember, though, that the first gay parades occurred in an overall political context emphasizing all kinds of freedom, from economic to sexual. Anymore, especially this year, Gay Pride Day seems heavily corporate, heavily Democratic Party, heavily mainstream with Bradley Manning, a gay hero if there ever was one, purged as the parade’s grand marshall. He, Assange and now Snowden, are well outside the great Frisco Consensus as defined by Willie Brown, Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein. Like a great, gray poison fog the grasping talons of the Democrats enfold us all in their lethal embrace. The Republicans aren’t even good for a laugh anymore. I’d footed it up Market from Union Square with Castro Street as the goal. I wanted to see what the celebration was like only hours after the Defense of Marriage Act had fallen. I didn’t know that the Civic Center had become a weekend set aside, admission $5, to a mob scene of people with theirs buns hanging out. There’d been lots of citizens in odd costumes all over downtown, but there always are. And even at the official celebration area stretched out in front of City Hall, the revelers weren’t particularly gay — the whole sexual panoply seemed present — from the naked guys to nubile young women, and everything in between. I thought back to my deformative years when gays weren’t part of the national consciousness. I remember feeling sorry for a classmate who’d been arrested with an adult barber for “unnatural acts,” or whatever the phrase was then. It got into the newspapers, and only now can I fully imagine what it must have been like for that kid to have everyone pointing him out like some kind of secret freak. Gays weren’t gays yet, either, and the other prevalent pejorative, fag, was also unknown. Homo and homos was the term, as in, among high school wits, “How you homos doing today?” That kind of thing. I had a baseball coach who constantly grumbled that the frustrations presented by both the team and the game were “driving me fruit.” Or, “For Christ’s sake, you bums are enough to drive a guy fruit.” But I don’t remember anybody associating the phrases with homosexuality, although to those who constantly invoked it, the shrinks informed us, homosexuality must have been an omnipresent fear in these guys. In Marine Corps boot camp our DI routinely denounced Californians as “a bunch of damn queers sent to sabotage my Marine Corps.” We all laughed at that one, but not in front of him, though. He scared the shit out of all of us and often talked about how he’d like to choke us all to death. I remember wondering, If this nut is on my side, how bad can the Russians be? One day Sgt. Wells outdid himself, denouncing all of us as “syphilitic misfucks.” All this stuff seems ancient now, and very crazy. People nostalgic for the 50s weren’t there. Like most heteros, it wasn’t until those first gay marches in San Francisco that I realized how awful it had been for gay men and women. Now, if they can only free themselves from Pelosi, maybe all of us together can take on The Beast.

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ON-LINE STATEMENT OF THE DAY: A story about gay puppets receives a prominent position on SFGate’s website. This was to be expected now that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are over, Gitmo has been closed, the unemployed have become employed and Obama has locked up those responsible for the financial crisis.

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THE LATEST book on the dope biz, Humboldt County branch, is a ho-hummer called Humboldt: Life on America’s Marijuana Frontier. It’s written by a young woman, a very young woman judging from her prose, called Emily Brady.

Brady

“HUMBOLDT COUNTY was a beautiful place, there was no mistaking it, but it had become like a Hollywood set for Bob. It was like a facade, and behind the facade was a different story, one of trash, and meth, and familial dysfunction. Of course it wasn’t just Humboldt. Cops deal with the margins and extremes of society everywhere; the bowels, as Bob put it. His pessimism about the place was an occupational hazard, and he knew it…”

MS. BRADY describes the lives of four archetypal, drug-affected HumCo persons: a cop, a young woman raised in the pot counterculture; a career dope guy; and a pioneer back-to-the-lander the author calls ‘Mare’ but is clearly based on Mem Hill, a well-known eco-activist who lives in the Whitethorn area.

AS US RESIDENTS of the Emerald Triangle know, the pot business hasn’t been the harmless enterprise of the original hippies who brought it here for many years. The money involved has attracted lots of thugs, and lots of people raised by peace and love people who have also become thugs. The fairly recent addition of Mexico-based gangs to the dope business has torqued upwards the habitual violence that comes with the business. The love drug causes its own universe of misery.

THERE’S NOTHING in Ms. Brady’s book we don’t know, and nothing that Jonah Raskin’s Marijuanaland and Ray Raphael’s Cash Crop don’t do more comprehensively and a lot better. However, the portrait Ms. Brady draws of the young woman raised in the tumultuous circumstances romanticized by hippies as a “counter culture” certainly rings true as the author reveals the huge downside of the marijuana business as it plays out in the deceptive idyll of Humboldt County’s natural beauty.

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MANBEATER OF THE WEEK: Come on. No way!

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SITTER RESUPPLIED!

The dramatic resupply took place in the light of day despite the presence of two officers, who were preoccupied with a CHP vehicle stuck in the wetlands mud and a string of walkers near the site. In a tense moment, an officer or contractor attempted to move the second driver away from the machine that Will occupies, threatening the hold of the climber. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIxahiG1HIQ.)

Later that night, with floodlights on the wick drain drivers and CHP reinforcements on the ground, the resupply climber slipped away.

With new supplies, and able to contact supporters, Will is in good spirits.

Meanwhile, a medical team attempted to reach Will to check on his condition. They were turned back by CalTrans and referred to the CalTrans office, where they were told they could not enter the site.

Reportedly, the CHP decided Thursday that Will can receive one visit a day with food and water. Supporters are now organizing daily visits.

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Daring Aerial Resupply Reaches Parched Crane-Sitter on Caltrans Tower

In an action combining daring, danger and comedy, Earth First! activists succeeded in putting a climber atop the second wick drain driver, and stringing a traverse rope to the crane-sitter who had been without food and water for a week. The bold action was carried out in broad daylight Wednesday afternoon. To get to the tower, the climber had to cross a wide belt of bare earth, guarded by 2 CHP vehicles. In spite of floodlights and guards, the climber delivered his life-saving supplies, and vanished into the night.

One week ago Little Lake Valley Defender and writer Will Parrish set up residence on a 2-ft wide plank halfway up one of the two 100’ towers. About 40 people entered the worksite Saturday evening to bring supplies to Parrish, who had run out of food and water and was facing cold wet weather. In a dramatic confrontation, CHP officers cut his supply rope. After a standoff of several hours, six people were arrested, including a mother and daughter who were grabbed while attempting to comply with CHP orders to leave.

Concern for Parrish’s safety after four days without food or water has been mounting, and a medical team sought permission to bring water. Communication was cut when his cell phone fell from the tower the first day. During Saturday’s resupply attempt, Parrish called down from his perch: “I’ll starve before I’ll let this machine install another wick drain.”

According to Parrish, who now has a phone, “I’ve just been resupplied by a real-life superhero. The machine operator started to lower the crane with him on it, and the CHP just watched.” Bystanders and press recorded the life-threatening incident on camera and video. Carrying supplies and gear, the climber scaled the tower, and attached his safety harness about 60’ up.

 CHP officers were preoccupied with the effort to extract one of their vehicles from the deep mud near the site’s entrance, about 100 yards away. The officers summoned several passing protesters to help them, apparently taking them for passersby walking their dogs. The protesters helped free the car, which then got stuck again. The patrol cars next to the machine were apparently unmanned at the time.

Surveying the sea of mud left by three days of rain, long-time Willits resident Freddie Long observed: “This is a perfect illustration of why the wick drains are such a bad idea. This should be wetland, not a freeway.”

Bypass opponents say they will stop protesting when Caltrans stops work on the current version of the bypass, which they maintain is environmentally destructive and fiscally irresponsible. Sticker price for the 6 miles of road is $210 million dollars, not counting bond interest and cost overruns, or the $300 million dollar phase 2 of the project, which Caltrans says will be necessary to bring the current project up to safety standards.

Local citizens and civic organizations have long advocated a set of cheaper, less destructive alternatives. A meeting between opponents of the current project and Caltrans head Malcom Dougherty is set for July 9^th.

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Update on Will Parrish – Sitting in the Wick Drain Crane

Some small victories!

The latest news is that (as of Friday June 28th) Caltrans and the CHP have changed their policy. Will Parrish is now permitted to receive deliveries of food and water. The first delivery was made on Friday around 6:00 pm by Jessica Stull accompanied by Rachel Britten. My husband (Micheal Foley) made several large pesto hamburgers (at Will’s request) and the extras were offered to the CHP officers. We are still concerned about Will because he is being subjected to lots of heat and sun this weekend as he sits in the wick drain crane. He is still recovering from his ordeal of going without much food or water for four days and being wet and cold during the unseasonable rain storm. But, his spirits are high! Here are some ways you can help.

1. We are looking for volunteers to provide him with an evening meal/food and water delivery each day.

2. His spirits are always higher when he has visitors. So, please make some time to show your support with a personal visit.

For more information or to arrange a food delivery call Sara 707 216-5549 or 707 376-5202

Sara Grusky

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PLEASE JOIN US … For a Roadside Demonstration on Monday, July 1^st, 9:30 am – 11:30 am. Sign holding and leafleting as people return from the Kate Wolf Festival

Meet at the truck scales on Hwy 101 north of the High School at 9:30 am. Make signs if you can as we are running low. Be creative, Be positive!

(Courtesy, SaveLittleLakeValley.org)

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FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES…

by Sara Grusky, Green Uprising Farm

I am writing this with a stubby pencil inside Mendocino County Jail where I am accompanied by five other brave “trespassers” including my daughter, Thea, Earth Firster Naomi Wagner and Matthew Caldwell. We spent the last two nights on a cold concrete floor under the bright florescent lights of the 6 ft by 6 ft holding cell. Now we are more comfortably housed as official inmates with cots to sleep on. Many people ask us why we continue doing this. Jail gives one lots of time for reflection and contemplation so here is my answer to the question.

Why I trespass. Civil disobedience is a fancy name for the idea, deeply rooted in American history and culture (beginning with the Boston Tea Party), that we have a right, even a responsibility and duty, to disobey laws that are unjust, destructive to people and other living things, and do not uphold our basic constitutional rights. Henry David Thoreau popularized the idea of civil disobedience but all of the major social movements in U.S. history including the movements for the abolition of slavery, the suffrage movement, civil rights, anti-war and environmental movements have used the tactic of civil disobedience. It is a time-honored tradition.

I believe it is a great honor and privilege to stand up for what you believe in. Most days, I cannot think of anything more important to do…..except maybe farming. (I do love to nurture plants and animals and make healthy food for my family and community!) Here is a short list of reasons why I trespass.

I trespass because I do not accept as legitimate Caltrans claim to “own” approximately 2,060 acres, one third of our precious Little Lake Valley (sixty acres are part of the Bypass footprint and 2,000 are part of the so-called Mitigation Plan). I believe this “land grab” is a great travesty. We need farmland, pastures, wetlands, forests, in part, because our future will require greater local economic self-sufficiency. Our children and grandchildren will face many challenges but I would like them to have a fighting chance to make a life and have a livelihood here in Little Lake Valley.

I trespass because I do not believe it was legitimate for Caltrans to dispossess local farmers, ranchers and homeowners in order to build an over-priced and unnecessary Bypass freeway.

I trespass because I cannot accept as legitimate Caltrans claim that they have the right to destroy and remove the forests, the soil, the creeks, the ancient oaks, the wetlands the pastureland and all the beautiful, delicate and intricate life forms that depend on these miracles of nature.

I trespass to protect the future for our small herd of goats. I know this sounds silly, but it is the honest truth. Watching our goat herd graze and browse teaches me many things about the plant life in our valley. I know the goats are concerned about the future of the creeks, the wetlands and the pasture lands because they understand how they are an interdependent part of the web of life in our valley.

I trespass because many people in this community have spent more than two decades trying to get their voices heard. Doors have been slammed again and again. Our political and judicial systems have failed to provide any viable recourse for those who seek a commonsense alternative route to Caltrans’ Bypass boondoggle. Unfortunately, putting our bodies on the line seems to be necessary, but we all know it should not have come to this.

I put my body on the line as an offering of hope for the future. I know there has to be a better way than building another asphalt and concrete freeway. Climate change is real and it is caused by burning fossil fuels – including the fuel we put in our cars. So many people in Willits and in Mendocino County have a long and proud tradition of seeking and implementing alternative solutions to our energy and transportation needs. It is time all stand together to stop this bypass freeway.

Why we trespassed on June 22, 2013

More than 35 community supporters gathered to bring food and water to Will Parrish who has been sitting in the crane of the wick drain machine since June 20^th. The machine had been drilling “wicks” eighty feet deep into the wetlands to remove water and compact the soil in preparation for the fill dirt, asphalt and concrete that will follow in order to build a freeway over the top of the wetlands. Will’s brave presence on the crane of the machine has prevented it from working. The community supporters, myself and my daughter included, “trespassed” in an attempt to bring food and water to Will Parrish. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) blocked the delivery of supplies, cutting Will’s rope, and later ordering us to leave. As we were moving to leave I was grabbed and arrested. My daughter was very upset by what she perceived as my wrongful arrest and when she spoke up in my defense she was also arrested. Naomi Wagner also sat down to protest the arrests and was later arrested along with Matthew Caldwell.

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MIKE KALANTARIAN WRITES: Oh man, your Jared Huffman photo contest “winners” from last year were brilliant! You had us roaring with laughter this morning. That shot of corktop in the vines, Huffman’s happy kite, and all the rest of the entires were inspired.

Here was my entry:

Name: Mike Kalantarian, Hometown: Navarro

Photo: A view of poisoned hardwood trees, taken a few miles east of Comptche, along a steep headwater canyon of the Albion River. Mendocino Redwood Company poisons around 5,500 acres of Mendocino County forestland every year. More info:

http://mk.users.sonic.net/mrc/

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HERE IS Assemblyman Wes Chesbro’s submission from last year: “The epic grandeur of the political face”

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WITH MONDAY shaping up as the hottest day of the year, CalFire announces “A controlled burn at Lake Mendocino is now planned for Monday, the US Army Corps of Engineers announced. According to the USACE, it originally planned to conduct a live-fire training exercise with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection by burning the face of Coyote Valley Dam on June 24, but decided to postpone the event because of rain that day. The exercise is now scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. July 1, and “access to walking across the dam will not be permitted beginning at 4pm. Monday until the burning is completed.” Cal Fire also announced it will be surveying users of the Jackson Demonstration State Forest, and the group hired to do the survey will provide a overview of the “survey design and methodology” at a meeting next week that members of the public are encouraged to attend. According to CalFire, the recreation user survey will be “conducted on random dates and locations within JDSF throughout the summer and early fall,” and the results of the survey will “help guide the development of a recreation plan.” The JDSF Recreation Task Force meeting will be held at the Camp One Day Use area on Wednesday, July 3, at 2 p.m. For more information, call the Cal Fire Fort Bragg office at 707-964-5674.”

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IT’S TIRESOME to hear Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo woof repeatedly about the environmental crimes of Sonoma County winemaker-outlaw Paul Hobbs who pops up periodically with yet another blatant violation of SoCo’s weak ag and river protection rules (which, weak as they are, are more than Mendocino County has: None). Carrillo “vowed” Friday that Hobbs’ latest violation — illegally cutting down acres of streamside vegetation — “would not be ignored.” “I will tell you that the full force of the law is going to be applied in this matter,” Carrillo huffed. Every time Hobbs is caught breaking a rule, Supervisor Carrillo comes out with a tough sounding quote. A couple of years ago after a prior flagrant violation Carrillo said, “One need not wait for a legal determination before expressing outrage at the insensitivity and environmental depravity of this conduct.” And after an earlier violation, “I don’t understand how someone can show such blatant disregard not only to the process but also to our resources and to their fellow grape growers,” none of whom are ever quoted with their own complaints — probably because they’re not quite as flagrant as Hobbs so Hobbs can be the convenient “bad apple.” In recent years Hobbs has been caught illegally clearcutting forests and orchards for vineyards and violating promises made to neighbors. But no enforcement action has ever been taken. His critics say he’s happy to pay the small fines which could be imposed if necessary. But so far the SoCo District Attorney’s office has done nothing more than say, “We’re looking into it.” (The local angle: Hobbs buys Mendo pinot grapes and makes them into a tasty brand of wine called “Crossbarn,” which is just one letter from “Crossburn.”)

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METH FLOODS US BORDER CROSSING

By Elliot Spagat

SAN DIEGO—Children walk across the US-Mexico border with crystal methamphetamine strapped to their backs or concealed between notebook pages. Motorists disguise liquid meth in tequila bottles, windshield washer containers and gas tanks.

The smuggling of the drug at land border crossings has jumped in recent years but especially at San Diego’s San Ysidro port of entry, which accounted for more than 40 percent of seizures in fiscal year 2012. That’s more than three times the second-highest—five miles east—and more than five times the third-highest, in Nogales, Ariz.

The spike reflects a shift in production to Mexico after a US crackdown on domestic labs and the Sinaloa cartel’s new hold on the prized Tijuana-San Diego smuggling corridor.

A turf war that gripped Tijuana a few years ago with beheadings and daytime shootouts ended with the cartel coming out on top. The drugs, meanwhile, continue flowing through San Ysidro, the Western hemisphere’s busiest land border crossing with an average of 40,000 cars and 25,000 pedestrians entering daily.

“This is the gem for traffickers,” said Gary Hill, assistant special agent in charge of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego. “It’s the greatest place for these guys to cross because there are so many opportunities.”

Customs and Border Protection officers seized 5,566 pounds of methamphetamine at San Ysidro in the 2012 fiscal year, more than double two years earlier, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations unit. On the entire border, inspectors seized 13,195 pounds, also more than double.

From October 2012 through March, seizures totaled 2,169 pounds at San Ysidro and 1,730 pounds at Otay Mesa, giving San Diego 61 percent of the 6,364 pounds seized at Mexican border crossings. Much of the rest was found in Laredo, Texas; Nogales; and Calexico, Calif.

San Ysidro—unlike other busy border crossings—blends into a sprawl of 18 million people that includes Los Angeles, one of the nation’s top distribution hubs. By contrast, El Paso is more than 600 miles from Dallas on a lonely highway with Border Patrol checkpoints.

Rush-hour comes weekday mornings, with thousands of motorists clogging Tijuana streets to approach 24 US-bound inspection lanes on their way to school or work. Vendors weave between cars, hawking cappuccinos, burritos, newspapers and trinkets.

A $732 million expansion that has created even longer delays may offer an extra incentive for smugglers who bet that inspectors will move people quickly to avoid criticism for hampering commerce and travel, said Joe Garcia, assistant special agent in charge of ICE investigations in San Diego.

Children are caught with methamphetamine strapped to their bodies several times a week—an “alarming increase,” according to Garcia. They are typically paid $50 to $200 for each trip, carrying 3 pounds on average.

Drivers, who collect up to $2,000 per trip, conceal methamphetamine in bumpers, batteries, radiators and almost any other crevice imaginable. Packaging is smothered with mustard, baby powder and laundry detergent to fool drug-sniffing dogs.

Crystals are increasingly dissolved in water, especially during the last year, making the drug more difficult to detect in giant X-ray scanners that inspectors order some motorists to drive through. The water is later boiled and often mixed with acetone, a combustible fluid used in paints that yields clear shards of methamphetamine favored by users. The drug often remains in liquid form until reaching its final distribution hub.

The government has expanded X-ray inspections of cars at the border in recent years, but increased production in Mexico and the Sinaloa cartel’s presence are driving the seizures, Garcia said. “This is a new corridor for them,” he said.

The US government shut large methamphetamine labs during the last decade as it introduced sharp limits on chemicals used to make the drug, causing production to shift to Mexico.

The US State Department said in March that the Mexican government seized 958 labs under former President Felipe Calderon from 2006 to 2012, compared with 145 under the previous administration. Mexico seized 267 labs last year, up from 227 in 2011.

As production moved to central Mexico, the Sinaloa cartel found opportunity in Tijuana in 2008 when it backed a breakaway faction of the Arellano Felix clan, named for a family that controlled the border smuggling route for two decades. Sinaloa, led by Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman, had long dominated nearby in eastern California and Arizona.

Tijuana registered 844 murders in 2008 in a turf war that horrified residents with castrated bodies hanging from bridges. After the Sinaloa cartel prevailed, the Mexican border city of more than 2 million people returned to relative calm, with 332 murders last year and almost no public displays of brutality.

Alfonzo “Achilles” Arzate and his younger brother Rene, known as “The Frog,” have emerged as top Sinaloa operatives in Tijuana—the former known as the brains and the latter as the brawn. The elder Arzate has been mentioned on wire intercepts for drug deals as far as Chicago, Hill said.

He appears to have gained favor with the Sinaloa cartel brass after another cartel operative raided one of his warehouses in October 2010, leading to a shootout and the government seizing 134 tons of marijuana.

Methamphetamine has also turned into a scourge throughout Tijuana, becoming the most common drug offense for dealers and consumers in the last five years, said Miguel Angel Guerrero, coordinator of the Baja California state attorney general’s organized crime unit.

“It has increased a lot in the city because it’s cheaper than cocaine, even cheaper than marijuana,” he said.

Disputes among street dealers lead to spurts of violence in Tijuana, said Guerrero, including April’s murder tally of 56 bodies. But the killings pale in numbers and brutality compared to the dark days of 2008 and 2009. While president, Calderon hailed Tijuana as a success story in his war on cartels.

“The Sinaloa cartel, their presence here has been strong enough to the point that no one is pushing back,” said the DEA’s Hill. “They just simply want to focus on making money and moving the dope across.”

(Courtesy, the Associated Press)

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MARIJUANA’S MARCH TOWARD MAINSTREAM CONFOUNDS FEDS

Nancy Benac & Alicia A. Caldwell

It took 50 years for American attitudes about marijuana to zigzag from the paranoia of “Reefer Madness” to the excesses of Woodstock back to the hard line of “Just Say No.”

The next 25 years took the nation from Bill Clinton, who famously “didn’t inhale,” to Barack Obama, who most emphatically did.

And now, in just a few short years, public opinion has moved so dramatically toward general acceptance that even those who champion legalization are surprised at how quickly attitudes are changing and states are moving to approve the drug — for medical use and just for fun.

It is a moment in America that is rife with contradictions:

• People are looking more kindly on marijuana even as science reveals more about the drug’s potential dangers, particularly for young people.

• States are giving the green light to the drug in direct defiance of a federal prohibition on its use.

• Exploration of the potential medical benefit is limited by high federal hurdles to research.

Washington policymakers seem reluctant to deal with any of it.

Richard Bonnie, a University of Virginia law professor who worked for a national commission that recommended decriminalizing marijuana in 1972, sees the public taking a big leap from prohibition to a more laissez-faire approach without full deliberation.

“It’s a remarkable story historically,” he says. “But as a matter of public policy, it’s a little worrisome. It’s intriguing, it’s interesting, it’s good that liberalization is occurring, but it is a little worrisome.”

More than a little worrisome to those in the anti-drug movement.

“We’re on this hundred-mile-an-hour freight train to legalizing a third addictive substance,” says Kevin Sabet, a former drug policy adviser in the Obama administration, lumping marijuana with tobacco and alcohol.

Legalization strategist Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, likes the direction the marijuana smoke is wafting. But he knows his side has considerable work yet to do.

“I’m constantly reminding my allies that marijuana is not going to legalize itself,” he says.

* * *

By the numbers:

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes since California voters made the first move in 1996. Voters in Colorado and Washington state took the next step last year and approved pot for recreational use. Alaska is likely to vote on the same question in 2014, and a few other states are expected to put recreational use on the ballot in 2016.

Nearly half of adults have tried marijuana, 12 percent of them in the past year, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. More teenagers now say they smoke marijuana than ordinary cigarettes.

52% of adults favor legalizing marijuana, up 11 percentage points just since 2010, according to Pew. Sixty percent think Washington shouldn’t enforce federal laws against marijuana in states that have approved its use. Seventy-two percent think government efforts to enforce marijuana laws cost more than they’re worth.

“By Election Day 2016, we expect to see at least seven states where marijuana is legal and being regulated like alcohol,” says Mason Tvert, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, a national legalization group.

* * *

Where California led the charge on medical marijuana, the next chapter in this story is being written in Colorado and Washington state.

Policymakers there are struggling with all sorts of sticky issues revolving around one central question: How do you legally regulate the production, distribution, sale and use of marijuana for recreational purposes when federal law bans all of the above?

How do you tax it? What quality control standards do you set? How do you protect children while giving grown-ups the go-ahead to light up? What about driving under the influence? Can growers take business tax deductions? Who can grow pot, and how much? Where can you use it? Can cities opt out? Can workers be fired for smoking marijuana when they’re off duty? What about taking pot out of state? The list goes on.

The overarching question has big national implications. How do you do all of this without inviting the wrath of the federal government, which has been largely silent so far on how it will respond to a gaping conflict between US and state law?

The Justice Department began reviewing the matter after last November’s election and repeatedly has promised to respond soon. But seven months later, states still are on their own, left to parse every passing comment from the department and President Obama.

In December, Obama said in an interview that “it does not make sense, from a prioritization point of view, for us to focus on recreational drug users in a state that has already said that under state law that’s legal.”

In April, Attorney General Eric Holder said to Congress, “We are certainly going to enforce federal law. … When it comes to these marijuana initiatives, I think among the kinds of things we will have to consider is the impact on children.” He also mentioned violence related to drug trafficking and organized crime.

In May, Obama told reporters: “I honestly do not believe that legalizing drugs is the answer. But I do believe that a comprehensive approach — not just law enforcement, but prevention and education and treatment — that’s what we have to do.”

Rep. Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat who favors legalization, predicts Washington will take a hands-off approach, based on Obama’s comments about setting law enforcement priorities.

“We would like to see that in writing,” Polis says. “But we believe, given the verbal assurances of the president, that we are moving forward in Colorado and Washington in implementing the will of the voters.”

The federal government has taken a similar approach toward users in states that have approved marijuana for medical use. It doesn’t go after pot-smoking cancer patients or grandmas with glaucoma. But it also has warned that people who are in the business of growing, selling and distributing marijuana on a large scale are subject to potential prosecution for violations of the Controlled Substances Act — even in states that have legalized medical use.

Federal agents in recent years have raided storefront dispensaries in California and Washington, seizing cash and pot. In April, the Justice Department targeted 63 dispensaries in Santa Ana, Calif., and filed three asset forfeiture lawsuits against properties housing seven pot shops. Prosecutors also sent letters to property owners and operators of 56 other marijuana dispensaries warning that they could face similar lawsuits.

University of Denver law professor Sam Kamin says if the administration doesn’t act soon to sort out the federal-state conflict, it may be too late to do much.

“At some point, it becomes so prevalent and so many citizens will be engaged in it that it’s hard to recriminalize something that’s become commonplace,” he says.

* * *

There’s a political calculus for the president, or any other politician, in all of this.

Younger people, who tend to vote more Democratic, are more supportive of legalizing marijuana, as are people in the West, where the libertarian streak runs strong. In Colorado, for example, last November more people voted for legalized pot (55 percent) than voted for Obama (51 percent), which could help explain why the president was silent on marijuana before the election.

“We’re going to get a cultural divide here pretty quickly,” says Greg Strimple, a Republican pollster based in Boise, Idaho, who predicts Obama will duck the issue as long as possible.

Despite increasing public acceptance of marijuana, and growing interest in its potential therapeutic uses, politicians know there are complications that could come with commercializing an addictive substance, some of them already evident in medical marijuana states. Opponents of pot are particularly worried that legalization will result in increased adolescent use as young people’s estimations of the drug’s dangers decline.

“There’s no real win on this from a political perspective,” says Sabet. “Do you want to be the president that stops a popular cause, especially a cause that’s popular within your own party? Or do you want to be the president that enables youth drug use that will have ramifications down the road?”

Marijuana legalization advocates offer politicians a rosier scenario, in which legitimate pot businesses eager to keep their operating licenses make sure not to sell to minors.

“Having a regulated system is the only way to ensure that we’re not ceding control of this popular substance to the criminal market and to black marketeers,” says Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, a trade group for legal pot businesses in the US.

See Change Research, which analyzes the marijuana business, has estimated the national market for medical marijuana alone at $1.7 billion for 2011 and has projected it could reach $8.9 billion in five years. Overall, marijuana users spend tens of billions of dollars a year on pot, experts believe.

Ultimately, marijuana advocates say, it’s Congress that needs to budge, aligning federal laws with those of states moving to legalization. But that doesn’t appear likely anytime soon.

The administration appears uncertain how to proceed.

“The executive branch is in a pickle,” Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., said at a recent news conference outside the Capitol with pot growers visiting town to lobby for changes. “Twenty-one states have a different view of the use of marijuana than the laws on the books for the federal government.”

* * *

While the federal government hunkers down, Colorado and Washington state are moving forward on their own.

Colorado’s governor in May signed a set of bills to regulate legal use of the drug, and the state’s November ballot will ask voters to approve special sales and excise taxes on pot. In Washington state, the Liquor Control Board is drawing up rules covering everything from how plants will be grown to how many stores will be allowed. It expects to issue licenses for growers and processors in December, and impose 25 percent taxes three times over — when pot is grown, processed and sold to consumers.

“What we’re beginning to see is the unraveling of the criminal approach to marijuana policy,” says Tim Lynch, director of the libertarian Cato Institute‘s Project on Criminal Justice. But, Lynch adds, “the next few years are going to be messy. There are going to be policy battles” as states work to bring a black market industry into the sunshine, and Washington wrestles with how to respond.

Already, a federal judge has struck down a Colorado requirement that pot magazines such as High Times be kept behind store counters, like pornography.

Marijuana advocates in Washington state, where officials have projected the legal pot market could bring the state a half-billion a year in revenue, are complaining that state regulators are still banning sales of hash or hash oil, a marijuana extract.

Pot growers in medical marijuana states are chafing at federal laws that deny them access to the banking system, tax deductions and other opportunities that other businesses take for granted. Many dispensaries are forced to operate on a cash-only basis, which can be an invitation to organized crime.

It’s already legal for adults in Colorado and Washington to light up at will, as long as they do so in private.

That creates all kinds of new challenges for law enforcement.

Pat Slack, a commander with the Snohomish County Regional Drug Taskforce in Washington state, said local police are receiving calls about smokers flouting regulations against lighting up in public. In at least one instance, Slack said, that included a complaint about a smoker whose haze was wafting over a backyard fence and into the middle of a child’s birthday party. But with many other problems confronting local officers, scofflaws are largely being ignored.

“There’s not much we can do to help,” Slack says. “A lot of people have to get accustomed to what the change is.”

In Colorado, Tom Gorman, director of the federal Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Taskforce, takes a tougher stance on his state’s decision to legalize pot.

“This is against the law, I don’t care what Colorado says,” Gorman said. “It puts us in a position, where you book a guy or gal and they have marijuana, do you give it back? Do you destroy it? What in effect I am doing by giving it back is I am committing a felony. If the court orders me to return it, the court is giving me an illegal order.”

More than 30 pot growers and distributors, going all-out to present a buttoned-down image in suits and sensible pumps rather than ponytails and weed T-shirts, spent two days on Capitol Hill in June lobbying for equal treatment under tax and banking laws and seeking an end to federal property seizures.

“It’s truly unfortunate that the Justice Department can’t find a way to respect the will of the people,” says Sean Luse of the 13-year-old Berkeley Patients Group in California, a multimillion-dollar pot collective whose landlord is facing the threat of property forfeiture.

* * *

As Colorado and Washington state press on, California’s experience with medical marijuana offers a window into potential pitfalls that can come with wider availability of pot.

Dispensaries for medical marijuana have proliferated in the state. Regulation has been lax, leading some overwhelmed communities to complain about too-easy access from illegal storefront pot shops and related problems such as loitering and unsavory characters. That prompted cities around the state to say enough already and ban dispensaries. Pot advocates sued.

In May, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that cities and counties can ban medical marijuana dispensaries. A few weeks later, Los Angeles voters approved a ballot measure that limits the number of pot shops in the city to 135, down from an estimated high of about 1,000. By contrast, whitepages.com lists 112 Starbucks in the city.

This isn’t full-scale buyer’s remorse, but more a course correction before the inevitable next push to full-on legalization in the state.

Baker Montgomery, a member of the Eagle Rock neighborhood council in Los Angeles, where pot shops were prevalent, said May’s vote to limit the number of shops was all about ridding the city of illicit dispensaries.

“They’re just not following what small amounts of rules there are on the books,” Montgomery said.

In 2010, California voters opted against legalizing marijuana for recreational use, drawing the line at medical use.

But Jeffrey Dunn, a Southern California attorney who represented cities in the Supreme Court case, says that in reality the state’s dispensaries have been operating so loosely that already “it’s really all-access.”

At the Venice Beach Care Center, one of the dispensaries that will be allowed to stay open in Los Angeles, founding director Brennan Thicke believes there still is widespread support for medical marijuana in California. But he says the state isn’t ready for more just yet.

“We have to get (medical) right first,” Thicke said.

Dunn doubts that’s possible.

“What we’ve learned is, it is very difficult if not impossible to regulate these facilities,” he said.

* * *

Other states, Colorado among them, have had their own bumps in the road with medical marijuana.

A Denver-area hospital, for example, saw children getting sick after eating treats and other foods made with marijuana in the two years after a 2009 federal policy change led to a surge in medical marijuana use, according to a study in JAMA Pediatrics in May. In the preceding four years, the hospital had no such cases.

The Colorado Education Department reported a sharp rise in drug-related suspensions and expulsions after medical marijuana took off. An audit of the state’s medical marijuana system found the state had failed to adequately track the growth and distribution of pot or to fully check out the backgrounds of pot dealers.

“What we’re doing is not working,” says Dr. Christian Thurstone, a psychiatrist whose Denver youth substance abuse treatment center has seen referrals for marijuana double since September. In addition, he sees young people becoming increasingly reluctant to be treated, arguing that it can’t be bad for them if it’s legal.

Yet Daniel Rees, a researcher at the University of Colorado Denver, analyzed data from 16 states that have approved medical marijuana and found no evidence that legalization had increased pot use among high school students.

In looking at young people, Rees concludes: “Should we be worried that marijuana use nationally is going up? Yes. Is legalization of medical marijuana the culprit? No.”

* * *

Growing support for legalization doesn’t mean everybody wants to light up: Barely one in 10 Americans used pot in the past year.

Those who do want to see marijuana legalized range from libertarians who oppose much government intervention to people who want to see an activist government aggressively regulate marijuana production and sales.

Safer-than-alcohol was “the message that won the day” with voters in Colorado, says Tvert.

For others, money talks: Why let drug cartels rake in untaxed profits when a cut of that money could go into government coffers?

There are other threads in the growing acceptance of pot.

People think it’s not as dangerous as once believed; some reflect back on what they see as their own harmless experience in their youth. They worry about high school kids getting an arrest record that will haunt them for life. They see racial inequity in the way marijuana laws are enforced. They’re weary of the “war on drugs,” and want law enforcement to focus on other areas.

“I don’t plan to use marijuana, but it just seemed we waste a lot of time and energy trying to enforce something when there are other things we should be focused on,” says Sherri Georges, who works at a Colorado Springs, Colo., saddle shop. “I think that alcohol is a way bigger problem than marijuana, especially for kids.”

Opponents have retorts at the ready.

They point to a 2012 study finding that regular use of marijuana during teen years can lead to a long-term drop in IQ, and a different study indicating marijuana use can induce and exacerbate psychotic illness in susceptible people. They question the idea that regulating pot will bring in big money, saying revenue estimates are grossly exaggerated.

They counter the claim that prisons are bulging with people convicted of simple possession by citing federal statistics showing only a small percentage of federal and state inmates are behind bars for that alone. Slack said the vast majority of people jailed for marijuana possession were originally charged with dealing drugs and accepted plea bargains for possession. The average possession charge for those in jail is 115 pounds, Slack says, which he calls enough for “personal use for a small city.”

Over and over, marijuana opponents warn that baby boomers who are drawing on their own innocuous experiences with pot are overlooking the much higher potency of the marijuana now in circulation.

In 2009, concentrations of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in pot, averaged close to 10 percent in marijuana, compared with about 4 percent in the 1980s, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. An estimated 9 percent of people who try marijuana eventually become addicted, and the numbers are higher for those who start using pot when they are young. That’s less than the addiction rates for nicotine or alcohol, but still significant.

“If marijuana legalization was about my old buddies at Berkeley smoking in People’s Park once a week I don’t think many of us would care that much,” says Sabet, who helped to found Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group that opposes legalization. “But it’s not about that. It’s really about creating a new industry that’s going to target kids and target minorities and our vulnerable populations just like our legal industries do today.”

* * *

So how bad, or good, is pot?

There are studies that set off medical alarm bells but also studies that support the safer-than-alcohol crowd and suggest promising therapeutic uses.

J. Michael Bostwick, a psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic, set out to sort through more than 100 sometimes conflicting studies after his teenage son became addicted to pot. In a 22-page article for Mayo Clinic Proceedings in 2012, he laid out the contradictions in US policy and declared that “little about cannabis is straightforward.”

“Anybody can find data to support almost any position,” Bostwick says now.

For all of the talk that smoking pot is no big deal, Bostwick says, he determined that “it was a very big deal. There were addiction issues. There were psychosis issues. But there was also this very large body of literature suggesting that it could potentially have very valuable pharmaceutical applications but the research was stymied” by federal barriers.

Marijuana is a Schedule I drug under 1970 law, meaning the government deems it to have “no currently accepted medical use” and a “high potential for abuse.” The only federally authorized source of marijuana for research is grown at the University of Mississippi, and the government tightly regulates its use. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says plenty of work with cannabis is ongoing, but Bostwick says federal restrictions have caused a “near-cessation of scientific research.”

The American Medical Association opposes legalizing pot, calling it a “dangerous drug” and a public health concern. But it also is urging the government to review marijuana’s status as a Schedule 1 drug in the interest of promoting more research.

“The evidence is pretty clear that in 1970 the decision to make the drug illegal, or put it on Schedule I, was a political decision,” says Bostwick. “And it seems pretty obvious in 2013 that states, making their decisions the way they are, are making political decisions. Science is not present in either situation to the degree that it needs to be.”

The National Institute on Drug Abuse’s director, Dr. Nora Volkow, says that for all the potential dangers of marijuana, “cannabinoids are just amazing compounds, and understanding how to use them properly could be actually very beneficial therapeutically.” But she worries that legalizing pot will result in increased use of marijuana by young people, and impair their brain development.

“You cannot mess around with the cognitive capacity of your young people because you are going to rely on them,” she says. “Think about it: Do you want a nation where your young people are stoned?”

* * *

As state after state moves toward a more liberal approach to marijuana, the turnaround is drawing comparisons to shifting attitudes on gay marriage, for which polls find rapidly growing acceptance, especially among younger voters. That could point toward durable majority support as this population ages. Gay marriage is now legal in 12 states and Washington, D.C.

On marijuana, “we’re having a hard time almost believing how fast public opinion is changing in our direction,” says Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance.

But William Galston and E.J. Dionne, who co-wrote a paper on the new politics of marijuana for the Brookings Institution, believe marijuana legalization hasn’t achieved a deep enough level of support to suggest a tipping point, with attitudes toward legalization marked by ambivalence and uncertainty.

“Compared with attitudes toward same-sex marriage, support for marijuana legalization is much less driven by moral conviction and much more by the belief that it is not a moral issue at all,” they wrote.

No one expects Congress to change federal law anytime soon.

Partisans on both sides think people in other states will keep a close eye on the precedent-setting experiment underway in Colorado and Washington as they decide whether to give the green light to marijuana elsewhere.

“It will happen very suddenly,” predicts the Cato Institute’s Lynch. “In 10-15 years, it will be hard to find a politician who will say they were ever against legalization.”

Sabet worries that things will move so fast that the negative effects of legalization won’t yet be fully apparent when other states start giving the go-ahead to pot. He’s hoping for a different outcome.

“I actually think that this is going to wake a lot of people up who might have looked the other way during the medical marijuana debate,” he says. “In many ways, it actually might be the catalyst to turn things around.”

Past predictions on pot have been wildly off-base, in both directions.

The 1972 commission that recommended decriminalizing marijuana speculated pot might be nothing more than a fad.

Then there’s “Reefer Madness,” the 1936 propaganda movie that pot fans rediscovered and turned into a cult classic in the 1970s. It labeled pot “The Real Public Enemy Number One!”

The movie spins a tale of dire consequences “leading finally to acts of shocking violence … ending often in incurable insanity.”

(Courtesy, the Associated Press.)

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WORLD’S MOST EVIL AND LAWLESS INSTITUTION? THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT by Fred Branfman, June 26, 2013

Executive Branch leaders have killed, wounded and made homeless well over 20 million human beings in the last 50 years, mostly civilians.

Introduction: America’s Secret Shame

America has a secret. It is not discussed in polite company or at the dinner tables of the powerful, rich and famous.

Parents do not teach it to their children. Best-selling authors do not write about it. Politicians and government officials ignore it. Intellectuals avoid it. High school and college textbooks do not refer to it. TV pundits do not comment on it. Teachers do not teach it. Journalists from the nation’s most highly regarded TV news shows, newspapers and magazines, do not report it. Columnists do not opine about it. Editorial writers do not editorialize about it. Religious leaders do not sermonize about it. Think tanks and professors do not study it. Lawyers do not litigate it and judges do not rule on it.

The few who do not keep this secret, who try to break through to their fellow citizens about it, are marginalized and ignored by society at large.

To begin to understand the magnitude of this secret, imagine that you get into your car in New York City, and set out for a drive south, staying overnight in Washington DC, a four-hour drive. As you leave, you look out your window to the left and see a row of bodies, laid end to end, running alongside you all the way to DC.

You spend the night there, and set out early the next morning for Charleston, South Carolina, an 11-hour drive. Again, looking out your window, you see the line of bodies continues, hour after hour. You are struck that most are middle-aged or older men and women, younger women, or children. You arrive in Charleston, check into your hotel, have a good meal, and get up early the next morning to drive to Miami, another 12-hour drive. And once again, hour after hour, the line of bodies continues, all the way to your destination.

If you can imagine such a drive, or these bodies piled one on top of each other reaching 120 miles into the sky, you can begin to get a feeling for former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s mid-range estimate of 1.2 million civilians killed by U.S. firepower in Vietnam. (The U.S. Senate Refugee Committee estimated 430,000 civilian dead at the end of the war. Later estimates as more information has become available, e.g. by Nick Turse, author of Kill Anything That Moves, put the number as high as 2 million.)

And the secret that is never discussed is far larger. To the 430,000 to 2 million civilians killed in Vietnam must be added those killed in Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq and many other nations (see below), all those wounded and maimed for life, and the many millions more forced to leave villages in which their families had lived for centuries to become penniless refugees. All told, U.S. Executive Branch leaders – Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals – have killed wounded and made homeless well over 20 million human beings in the last 50 years, mostly civilians.

U.S. leaders have never acknowledged their responsibility for ruining so many lives, let alone apologized or made proper amends to the survivors. Those responsible have not been punished, but rewarded. The memory of it has been erased from national consciousness, as U.S. leaders endlessly declare their nation’s, and their own, goodness. Millions of civilian lives swept under the rug, forgotten, as if this mass murder and maiming, the destruction of countless homes and villages, this epic violation of basic human decency—and laws protecting civilians in time of war which U.S. leaders have promised to observe—never happened.

Over a million innocent human lives in Vietnam alone. Grandparents, parents and children. Decent, hard-working people, each with a name, a face, and loved ones; people with dreams and hopes, and as much of a right to life as you or I. Forgotten. Over one million civilians dead, over 10 million wounded and made homeless in Vietnam alone, forgotten. And particularly remarkable is how this has happened. Totalitarian regimes go to great lengths—strict censorship, prison for those violating it—to cover up their leaders’ crimes. But in America, the information is available. All that is needed to keep America’s secret is to simply ignore it.

Americans keep this secret because facing it openly would upend our most basic understandings about our nation and its leaders. A serious public discussion of it would reveal, for example, that we cannot trust Executive Branch leaders’ human decency, words, or judgment no matter who is President. And more troubling, acknowledging it would mean admitting to ourselves that we have been misleading our own children, that our silence has robbed them of the truth of their history and made it more likely that future leaders will continue to commit acts that stain the very soul of America.

It is a matter of indisputable fact that the U.S. Executive Branch has over the past 50 years been responsible for bombing, shooting, burning alive with napalm, blowing up with cluster bombs, burying alive with 500 pound bombs, torturing, assassinating, and incarcerating without evidence, and destroying the homes and villages of, more innocent civilians in more nations over a longer period of time than any other government on earth today.

It is also undeniable that it has committed countless acts, as no less an authority than U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry noted in regard to Vietnam, which have been:

“contrary to the laws of the Geneva Convention, and… ordered as established policies from the top down,” and that “the men who ordered this are war criminals.”

And its crimes against humanity have continued since Vietnam. Thirty years later, a Nuremberg prosecutor speaking of the U.S. invasion of Iraq stated that a

“prima facie case can be made that the United States is guilty of the supreme crime against humanity, that being an illegal war of aggression against a sovereign nation.”

And as you read these words the U.S. Executive Branch is adding to its crimes, as it conducts secret drone and Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) ground assassinations of individuals without due process.

The rationalizations by which even decent human beings allow themselves to ignore their leaders’ mass murder, e.g. that “these things always happen in war,” or “it’s the other side’s fault,” are just that: rationalizations that allow us to avoid our secret shame. Human civilization, through its body of international law, has defined which acts are both immoral and illegal even in times of war. And a citizen’s first responsibility is to oppose his or her own government’s crimes, not those of others.

Although America’s media, intellectual, political and economic elites ‘turn their heads pretending they just don’t see’ U.S. leaders’ responsibility for mass murder, dozens of dedicated and honorable scholars and activists led by Noam Chomsky have spent years of their lives meticulously documenting it.

Readers wishing to flesh out the overview below are directed to five important recent books: Kill Anything That Moves, by Nick Turse, about Vietnam; Dirty Wars (and a film), by Jeremy Scahill, about Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia; The Deaths of Others, by John Tirman, covering Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan; The Untold History of the U.S. by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick (and a 10-part Showtime documentary) discussing U.S. policy from World War II to the present; and Drone Warfareby Medea Benjamin. FLYBOYS, by James Bradley, also offers invaluable information on U.S. aerial mass murder of civilians in World War II, as does The Korean War: A History by Bruce Cumings on U.S. Executive massacres of civilians in Korea. Such careful work has been supplemented by numerous reports from such organizations as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Until now, the issue of U.S. Executive Branch leaders’ disregard for innocent human life has mainly concerned their treatment of “non-people” abroad. But as the sinews of a surveillance state and police-state infrastructure have been steadily strengthened at home since 9/11, an Executive Branch mentality that has been so indifferent to innocent human life abroad will threaten increasing numbers of Americans in coming years.

No honest human being can deny what the facts below reveal about the U.S. Executive’s institutional evil and lawlessness. The only serious question is what we are willing to do about it.

Can Americans Trust the U.S. Executive Branch?

Columnist George Will recently summarized the fundamental issue underlying not only Edward Snowden’s recent whistleblowing, but all controversies about U.S. Executive Branch behavior:

“The problem is we’re using technologies of information-gathering that didn’t exist 20 years ago… and they require reposing extraordinary trust in the Executive Branch of government.”

Former Bush aide Matthew Dowd chimed in on the same talk show, saying “what they’re saying is trust us, trust us.” Trust is indeed the only basis for supporting a U.S. Executive which hides its activities from its own citizens.

But can we trust the Executive’s Branch’s commitment to truth, law and democracy, or even basic human decency? Judging its actions, not words, over the past 50 years is the key to deciding this issue. And we might begin with some basic questions:

How would you regard the leaders of a foreign power who sent machines of war that suddenly appeared over your home, dropped bombs which killed dozens of your neighbors and your infant daughter, wounded your teenage son, destroyed your home, and then forced you into a refugee camp where your older daughter had to prostitute herself to those foreigners in order to support you, your wife and legless son? (U.S. Executive Branch officials created over 10 million refugees in South Vietnam.)

What would you think of foreign leaders who occupied your country, disbanded the military and police, and you found yourself at the mercy of marauding gangs who one day kidnapped your uncle and cousin, tortured them with drills, and then left their mangled bodies in a garbage dump? (U.S. Executive Branch officials occupied Iraq, disbanded the police, and failed to provide law and order as legally required of Occupying Powers.)

How would you view a foreign power which bombed you for five and a half years, forced you and your family to live in caves and holes like animals, burned and buried alive countless of your neighbors, and then one day blinded you in a bombing raid that leveled your ancestral village, where you had honored your ancestors and had hoped after your death to be remembered by your offspring? (U.S. Executive Branch leaders massively bombed civilian targets in Laos for nine years, Cambodia for four years.)

What would you think of foreign assassins who, as Jeremy Scahill reports in Dirty Wars, broke into your house at 3:30am as a dance was coming to an end, shot your brother and his 15-year old son, then shot another of your brothers and three women relatives (the mothers of 16 children) denied medical help to your brother and 18-year-old daughter so that they slowly bled to death before your eyes, then dug the bullets out of the women’s bodies to cover up their crimes, hauled you off to prison, and for months thereafter claimed they were acting in self-defense? And how would you feel toward the leaders of the nation that had fielded not only these JSOC assassins but thousands more, who were conducting similar secret and lawless assassinations of unarmed suspects while covering up their crimes in many other countries around the world?

How would you view the foreign leaders responsible right now for drone attacks against you if you lived in northwest Pakistan where, a Stanford/NYU study reported after a visit there:

“hovering drones have traumatized millions living in these areas. Drones hover twenty-four hours a day over communities in northwest Pakistan, striking homes, vehicles and public spaces without warning. Their presence terrorizes men, women and children, giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities. Those living under drones have to face the constant worry that a deadly strike may be fired at any moment, and the knowledge that they are powerless to protect themselves.”

These are not rhetorical questions. Every one of these acts, and countless more, have been committed by the U.S. Executive Branch over the past 50 years, and will continue indefinitely until it is transformed. If we judge them by their actions, not words, we must face the following facts:

– The U.S. Executive Branch killed in Vietnam from a U.S. Senate Refugee Subcommittee-estimated 430,000 civilians to the 1.2 million civilians later estimated by Robert McNamara, to the two million civilians estimated by Nick Turse. And it wounded at least 1,050,000 civilians and refugeed at least 11,368,000, according to the Refugee subcommittee; assassinated through its Phoenix Program an officially estimated 26,000 civilians, and imprisoned and tortured 34,000 more, on unproven grounds that they were “Vietcong cadre”; created an estimated 800,000-1.3 million war orphans and 1 million war widows; and after the war ended left behind Agent Orange poisons, unexploded cluster bombs, and landmines, creating an estimated 150,000 deformed Vietnamese children; and killing and maiming 42,000 peacetime victims.

– The U.S. Executive has, in Laos, conducted nine years of bombing which has been estimated by Laos’ National Regulatory Authority to have killed and wounded a minimum of 30,000 civilians by bombing from 1964-’73, and another 20,000 since then from the unexploded cluster bombs it left behind. It also created over 50,000 refugees after it had leveled the 700-year-old civilization on the Plain of Jars.

– The U.S. Executive has, in Cambodia, killed and wounded tens of thousands of civilians by carpet-bombing villages from 1969-’75. All told, after Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger secretly bombed and invaded Cambodia, waging a war that made the U.S. Executive responsible for casualties on all sides, the U.S. Senate Refugee Subcommittee estimated that 450,000 persons had been killed and wounded, and 3,990,000 made refugees. Historian Michael Clodfelter has estimated that, all told, 600,000 Cambodian civilians died.

– The U.S. Executive under Bill Clinton in Iraq, John Tirman reports in The Deaths of Others, imposed an embargo so severe that “UNICEF estimated that 500,000 children under five years of age had died as a result of the war and sanctions from malnutrition, diseases for which cures were available but medicine in Iraq was not, and poor health at birth due to prenatal effects on mothers.”

Dennis Halliday, Assistant UN Secretary General, declared that

“I had been instructed to implement a (sanctions) policy that has effectively killed over a million individuals.”

– And after invading Iraq in 2003, the Executive under George W. Bush, as the Occupying Power, was legally responsible for maintaining law and order. Its war was also an aggressive war as outlawed at Nuremberg. It thus bears both the moral and legal responsibility for the deaths of more than130,000 Iraqis (Iraq Body Count) to 654,965 (Lancet Scientific Journal) to 1,220,580 (Opinion Research Business), hundreds of thousands more wounded, and more than officially estimated 5 million refugees.

– The Executive has, in Afghanistan, conducted thousands of night raids familiar to viewers of World War II Gestapo movies – killing over 1500 civilians in 6282 raids in 10 months from 2010 to early 2011 alone, as revealed by investigative reporter Gareth Porter. They have also conducted numerous bombing strikes and supported a corrupt regime which has stolen billions of dollars while their fellow citizens died for lack of healthcare and food.

–The Executive has, in Pakistan and Yemen, killed an estimated 2,800-4,000 persons from drone strikes, only 73 of whom it has named. Most were killed in “signature strikes” in which the victims’ names were unknown, and who in no way threatened the United States.

– Also, over the past 50 years, the U.S. Executive Branch bears a major responsibility for massive death and torture throughout Central and Latin America, Africa and Asia. Church, human rights and others estimate that U.S.-installed, trained, equipped and advised death squads in El Salvador and Contras in Nicaragua killed well over 35,000 and 30,000 persons respectively. The U.S.-supported Rios Montt regime in Guatemala killed an estimated 200,000. The U.S.-supported coup in Chile brought to power a regime that killed an estimated 3,200-15,000 political opponents and tortured another 30,000. U.S. support for Indonesian government genocide in East Timor helped kill over 200,000 persons. U.S. support for terrorists led by Jonas Savimbi in Angola helped kill an estimated 1.2 million persons and displaced another 1.5 million.

And how much can you trust the decency of a US. Executive that treats these millions of human beings as mere nameless, faceless “collateral damage” at best, direct targets at worst, as human garbage barely worthy of mention, as “non-people” as Noam Chomsky has observed?

We almost never ask such questions in this country, never try to put ourselves in the shoes of the tens of millions of victims of our leaders’ war-making, because doing so confronts us with a grave dilemma. On the one hand, if we would say these acts are evil if done to ourselves they are obviously also evil when done to others. But admitting that would require most of us to challenge our most basic beliefs about this nation and its leadership. And if we are members of our political, intellectual, media, government and private sector elites, it would threaten our jobs and livelihoods.

We are divided. The honest part of ourselves knows there is only one word that can adequately describe the U.S. Executive Branch’s indifference to non-American life. It is not a word to be used lightly, for overuse robs it of its power. But when appropriate, failing to use it is an act of moral cowardice that assures its continuation. That word is “evil”.

If we would regard such acts as evil if done to us, they are equally evil if done to others. This is what we teach our children when we teach them the Golden Rule or that America is a nation of laws not men. It means, simply, that if needlessly ruining the lives of the innocent is evil, the U.S. Executive Branch is the most evil and lawless institution on the face of the Earth today, cannot be trusted, and poses a clear and present danger to countless innocents abroad and democracy at home.

We speak of “institutional evil” here because the greatest evils of our time are conducted by often personally decent, even idealistic, men and women. It is not necessary to be hate-filled or personally violent for an American to commit evil today. One need only be part of, or support the police, intelligence and military activities of the U.S. Executive Branch.

But the practical part of ourselves, the part that needs to make a living and maintain emotional equilibrium, leads us to ignore the mass evil our leaders engage in. It is so much easier. For accepting this truth means accepting that our leaders are not good and decent people; that JSOC commandos are not “heroes” but rather lawless assassins whose very existence shames us all; that we are not being protected, but endangered by leaders who are turning hundreds of millions of Muslims against us; that we must assume that Executive officials are right now secretly engaging in a wide variety of illegal and immoral activities that would shock and disgust us if they were revealed; and that we cannot believe a word they say when these abuses are revealed as they so regularly engage in secrecy and stonewalling, lying when discovered, covering up when the lie is revealed, and claiming it was an aberration and/or blaming it on a subordinate when the coverup fails. (8)

The issue of trust is key since it is the only basis upon which U.S. citizens can support secret Executive actions about which they are not informed. And the issue of trust is ultimately a moral, not legal judgment. We acknowledge that the citizen actually has a moral obligation to resist an unjust law promulgated by an immoral government, whether in the Soviet Union, South Africa, or, as we acknowledge when we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, in America.

Even when the law is used by the likes of David Ignatius, David Brooks, Tom Brokaw, and Nancy Pelosi to attack an Edward Snowden, their key unstated assumption is that they trust the U.S. Executive since they know little more about its secret activities than anyone else. The moral dividing line is clear. Those indifferent to innocent human life and democracy are less angry at Executive mass murder and threats to democracy than at those who reveal this wrongdoing.

Although the principal responsibility for the millions of lives U.S. leaders have ruined lies with the Executive, most of America’s other organs of power have also participated in keeping the screams of America’s victims from reaching the public. Republicans and conservatives have not only shown no concern for America’s innocent victims, but cheered on its leaders’ torment of the innocent.

Bush U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, when asked by a New York Times writer about U.S. responsibility to aid the millions of refugees its invasion of Iraq had created, responded that the refugees had:

“nothing to do with our overthrow of Saddam. Our obligation was to give them new institutions and provide security. We have fulfilled that obligation. I don’t think we have an obligation to compensate for the hardships of war. Helping the refugees flies in the face of received logic. You don’t want to encourage the refugees to stay.”

But particularly striking has been the behavior of centrists and liberals who know full well the horrors U.S. Executive Branch leaders have inflicted upon the innocent, espouse humanitarian values, but simply look the other way. TheTimes, for example, quite appropriately ran photos and small bios humanizing each of the nearly 3,000 Americans killed on 9/11. But its editors have made a conscious decision not to humanize virtually any of the millions of non-Americans for whose deaths U.S. leaders are responsible, as has the rest of the U.S. mass media.

David Petraeus became Afghanistan commander on July 4, 2010, and proceeded to loosen General McChrystal’s rules of engagement, triple bombing and night raids and invade southern Afghanistan, leading to a huge increase in U.S. and Taliban violence against civilians. Within months, the Red Cross said conditions for civilians were the worst they’d been for 30 years.

A Pakistan newspaper reported that things were so bad at the Kandahar Mirwais hospital that civilian casualties “overwhelm the limited bed space. On some days, the floor is red with blood” and that “the overflow at Kandahar’s Mirwais hospital has forced hundreds of sick and injured Afghans to cross the border into Pakistan every day to seek medical treatment.” It also noted that “many Afghans are unable to get to basic healthcare” because, despite hundreds of billions in U.S. spending on war, “thirty years of conflict have left the country’s health care system struggling to cope.”

The Special Representative to Afghanistan of close ally Great Britain said:

“David Petraeus should be ashamed of himself … He has increased the violence, trebled the number of special forces raids and there has been a lot more rather regrettable boasting from the military about the body count … Petraeus has ignored his own principles of counter-insurgency which speaks of politics being the predominant factor in dealing with an insurgency.”

But none of this reached the American public. No stories of visits to Kandahar Hospital, no interviews with Britain’s Special Representative appeared in the U.S. mass media. Instead, dozens of U.S. journalists visiting Afghanistan praised General Petraeus, and presented his sanitized version of a war in which only “militants” are killed. Petraeus’ greatest accomplishment, Time magazine columnist Joe Klein informed his readers after a Petraeus-managed trip to Afghanistan, was to turn the U. S. army into a “learning institution.”

And Democratic Party politicians, while at least voicing concern for those in need in this nation and acting honorably for a few brief moments at the end of the Indochina war, have funded the Executive’s killing abroad and limited their own concerns to the wellbeing of America’s soldiers. (9)

In 1967, Chomsky wrote a landmark essay entitled “The Responsibility of Intellectuals,” arguing that public intellectuals – who had the time, opportunity and freedom to study the pain its leaders inflicted upon the innocent, and to convey it to the larger public – had a special responsibility to do so.

But his argument, by and large, has fallen upon deaf ears, particularly since Vietnam. Thousands of intellectuals, members of Congress, pundits, academics and journalists have turned a blind eye to U.S. mass murder. And many even turned into “liberal hawks”, supporting war against Iraq. The likes of the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen, the N.Y. Times’ Thomas Friedman, Slate’s Christopher Hitchens, The New Republic’s Leon Wieseltier, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, and many others not only urged a war that brought a living hell to Iraq, but being liberals, justified it on the grounds that it would help the Iraqi people. (See “Bush’s Useful Idiots,” by Tony Judt.)

They even denigrated the millions of decent and honorable Americans who marched to try and head off the Iraq war. It is so easy when making a good living and having access to “official sources” to see oneself as smarter and better-informed than “naïve” students and grandmothers in tennis shoes. Hitchens, for example, called war opponents “moral imbeciles,” “noisy morons,” “overbred and gutless,” “naive” and “foolish.”

And after the war began most of these “liberal war hawks” then turned a blind eye to the civilian carnage resulting from the war they had supported in the name of the Iraqi people, as the body count steadily rose by tens of thousands until over 5 million Iraqis were killed, wounded or made homeless. Nor did they apologize to the millions of their fellow Americans opposing the war whom they had so arrogantly maligned, and who had turned out to be so much wiser and more moral than were they.

Executive Evil in Microcosm: A Personal Report

I first encountered U.S. Executive evil and lawlessness in September 1969, when I interviewed the first Lao rice farmers to come out of communist zones in northern Laos into American zones around the capital city of Vientiane. I was horrified as these gentle Lao, who did not even know where America was, described living under U.S. bombing for five and a half years. I interviewed people who had been blinded and lost limbs and yet were the lucky ones because they had survived. As I learned of grandmothers burned alive, pregnant mothers buried alive, children blown to bits by antipersonnel bombs, and realized that millions of Lao and Vietnamese farmers were still being bombed, I felt as if I had discovered Auschwitz while the killing was still continuing.

As I began to research the bombing, visiting U.S. airbases in Thailand and South Vietnam, talking with U.S. Embassy officials, interviewing a former U.S. Air Force captain over a period of months, I learned it was but a handful of top U.S. Executive Branch leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike, who were solely responsible for the bombing. Neither Congress nor the American people had even been informed, let alone offered their consent. The U.S. Executive, I learned, was a power unto its own that could not legitimately claim to represent the American people.

From May 1964 until March 1970, U.S. Executive officials constantly denied they were even bombing in Laos. When the evidence became so great that even Richard Nixon had to admit the bombing, Executive Branch officials continued to lie by denying they had bombed any civilian targets at all—even as I was interviewing over 1,000 refugees on dozens of occasions and hearing from each that their villages had been destroyed and that they had witnessed countless civilian casualties.

One day I was shocked to feel pellets still in the body of an old grandmother and see a 3-year old girl with napalm wounds on her breast, stomach and vagina. That night I read that U.S. Air Attaché Colonel William Tyrrell had testified to the U.S. Senate that:

“I recall talking to refugees from (the Plain of Jars) and they told me they knew of no civilian casualties during the operation. Villages, even in a freedrop zone, would be restricted from bombing.” (10)

I couldn’t believe it! How could a U.S. official look a U.S. senator directly in the eye and tell so big a lie?

I also read how the Senate had not been told of this mass bombing, how Executive officials had lied to senators even in a closed 1968 hearing. Senator William Fulbright stated at the fall of 1969 hearing that:

“I think the surprise that is evidenced by the chairman of the subcom­mittee and others, that they did not know the extent of this involve­ment until these hearings, is pretty clear evidence that we were not aware of these activities, although we had had some hearings on it.” (11)

Realizing that a handful of U.S. Executive Branch leaders had the power, all by themselves, to level the Plain of Jars shook me to my core. Every belief I had about America was upended. If a handful of Executive leaders could unilaterally and secretly destroy the 700-year-old civilization on the Plain of Jars, it meant that America was not a democracy, that the U.S. was a government of men, not laws. And it meant that these men were not good and decent human beings, but rather cold-blooded killers who showed neither pity nor mercy to those whose lives they so carelessly destroyed.

On a deeper level, it meant that even core beliefs I took for granted were untrue. Might did make right. Crime did pay. Suffering is not redemptive. Life looks very different in a Lao refugee camp looking up than in Washington, D.C. looking down. In those camps I realized that U.S. Executive Branch leaders lacked even a shred of simple human decency toward the people of the Plain.

I remember once laying in my bed late at night after returning from an interview with Thao Vong, a 38-year old Lao farmer who had been blinded in a U.S. bombing raid. Vong was a gentle soul, displayed no anger to those who had turned him from a provider of four into a helpless dependent.

I contrasted him and the other Lao farmers who had been burned and buried alive by bombers dispatched by LBJ, McNamara, Nixon and Kissinger. The latter were ruthless, often angry and violent men, indifferent to non-American life—precisely the qualities threatening all life on earth. Thao Vong was gentle, kind and loving, and he and his fellow Lao wanted nothing more than to be left alone to raise their families, enjoy nature and practice Buddhism — precisely the qualities needed for humanity to survive.

I also thought of sweet-faced Sao Doumma, whose wedding photo had so struck me, and who was killed in a bombing raid executed by Henry Kissinger seven years later. (12)

And I found myself wondering: by what right does a Henry Kissinger live and a Sao Doumma die? Who gave Richard Nixon and he the right to murder her? Who gave Lyndon Johnson the right to blind Thao Vong? I found myself asking, what just law or morality can justify these “killers in high places” who burned and buried alive countless Lao rice farmers who posed no threat whatsoever to their nation, solely because they could?

I was also troubled by another thought: if even a Thao Vong and his fellow subsistence-level farmers were not safe from this kind of brutal savagery, who was? If I believed that a society is judged by how it treats the weakest among us, what did this say about my nation?

And I found myself particularly reflecting on the question I found most troubling of all: beyond the issue of lawless and heartless American leaders, what does it say about my species as a whole that the most powerful could so torment the weakest for so long with virtually no one else knowing or caring? I was anguished not only about this extreme form of mass murder, but what it implied about humanity.

I shuddered in 1969 as I reflected on what I was seeing with my own eyes. I shudder today as I write these words.

One particular fact puzzled me during my investigations of the air war. All the refugees said the worst bombing occurred from the end of 1968 until the summer of 1969. They were bombed daily, every village was leveled, thousands were murdered and maimed. But I knew from U.S. Embassy friends that there were no more than a few thousand North Vietnamese troops in Laos at the time, and that there was no military reason for the sudden and brutal increase in U.S. bombing. Why, then, had this aerial holocaust occurred?

And then, to my everlasting horror, I found out. At Senator Fulbright’s hearing, he asked Deputy Chief of Mission Monteagle Stearns why the bombing of northern Laos had so intensified after Lyndon Johnson’s bombing halt over North Vietnam. Stearns answered simply:

“Well, we had all those planes sitting around and couldn’t just let them stay there with nothing to do.” (13)

Yes, there it was, in black and white. U.S. officials had exterminated thousands of people of the Plain of Jars, destroying their entire civilization, because the U.S. Executive just couldn’t let its planes sit around with nothing to do. The fact that innocent human beings were living there was irrelevant. No one hated the Lao. For Executive policy-makers in Washington, they just didn’t exist, had no more importance than cockroaches or mosquitoes.

And that wasn’t all. Once the planes became available, they did in fact discover a purpose for them, as the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Refugees reported in September 1970:

“The United States has undertaken a large-scale air war over Laos to destroy the physical and social infrastructure in Pathet Lao held areas. Throughout all this there has been a policy of secrecy. The bombing has taken and is taking a heavy toll among civilians.” (14)

Once the planes became available, the people of the Plain of Jars were not “collateral damage” to military targets. They were the target.

Chomsky, who interviewed the refugees in 1970 and is the world’s expert on U.S. war crimes abroad, has called the bombing of northern Laos “one of the most malevolent acts of modern history,” and N.Y. Times columnist Anthony Lewis termed it “the most appalling episode of lawless cruelty in American history.” Chomsky has also stated that though U.S. leaders did not achieve their primary goal of winning militarily in Indochina, they did destroy a possible independent economic alternative to the U.S. model for developing countries.

“Malevolence.” “Lawless.” “Cruel.” These are not words we normally apply to the Executive Branch as an institution, or the individuals who head its powerful agencies. But if we are to decide whether we can trust the Executive Branch with our own lives we must face the truth of its evil lawlessness.

Executive Lawlessness: Might Makes Right

In the movie The Fog of War, McNamara stated that after World War II, General Curtis Lemay, who had firebombed Tokyo killing 100,000 civilians and dropped the atomic bomb, said:

“`if we’d lost the war, we’d all have been prosecuted as war criminals.’ And I think he’s right. He, and I’d say I, were behaving as war criminals. LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?”

Good question. U.S. leaders dropped 6.7 million ton of bombs and fired an equal amount of ground artillery in Indochina, killed 1.2 million Vietnamese civilians, wounded over a million more, leveled towns and villages, created 10 million refugees, and poisoned Vietnam’s forests and soil. This was precisely “the indiscriminate destruction of cities, towns, and villages,” and “other inhumane acts committed against civilian populations”, as so painstakingly documented in Kill Anything That Moves, for which the U.S. executed Nazi leaders at Nuremberg. Had the same judgment been rendered on Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, and other top officials in their administration like Henry Kissinger and Robert McNamara, they too would have been executed – as McNamara acknowledged.

But the truth is that we live in a world, and an America, in which the rule of law does not prevail and might makes right. Our leaders endlessly inform us that America is a “nation of laws not men,” even though they only escape punishment for their massive violations of basic human decency and the law, as McNamara suggested, because they are too powerful to be punished.

Even if one believes the U.S. had a right to intervene in Indochina or Iraq, no decent human being can possibly excuse its disregard for civilian life after doing so. You do not need to be a lawyer to know this was wrong. You just need a conscience.

In addition to one’s own sense of right and wrong, however, there is another basis for deciding whether Americans can “trust” the Executive Branch: its willingness to observe the rule of international law. Laboriously, over more than a century, humanity has slowly evolved a body of international law that spells out what “geopolitical evil” consists of.

This body of international law is what determines whether a given nation is or is not acting lawfully. Any nation – from North Korea to Russia to the United States – can pass its own domestic laws legalizing its war-making, e.g. North Korea giving itself the right to attack South Korea, or George Bush using the “Authorization for the Use of Military Force,” authorizing him only to respond appropriately to 9/11, to justify his illegal invasion of Iraq, failure to meet the legal responsibilities of an Occupying Power, and subsequent mass murder.

But domestic laws cannot be said to truly constitute the “rule of law” unless they also conform to international standards. The second of the Nuremberg Principles specifically states that

“the fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under international law.”

And the third and fourth principles specifically state that the fact that one is a head of state, government official, or was acting under orders “does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.”

No nation on earth has refused to ratify so many laws seeking to protect civilians in times of war, and so violated even those it has signed, than the U.S. The U.S. did ratify the “Fourth Geneva Convention Relative To The Protection Of Civilian Persons In Time Of War, 1949,” but has massively violated it ever since.

Those laws seeking to protect civilians in times of war that the U.S. has refused to ratify include (1) Protocol II to the Geneva Convention, passed in 1977, “relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts”; (2) the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC); (3) the Rome Statute Of The International Criminal Court; (4) the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which prohibits the abduction and secret detention of the state; (5) the Optional Protocol To The Convention Against Torture; the Mine Ban Treaty; the Cluster Bomb Treaty. And though the U.S. ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, it has gutted it by demanding exceptions for itself.

The responsibility for the U.S. failure to ratify treaties protecting innocent people is shared between the Executive Branch and U.S. Senate conservatives. But there is little doubt that if a president and giant Executive Branch agencies, especially the Pentagon, lobbied for them they would probably be ratified. In almost every case, however, it is Pentagon lobbying and presidential indifference which has prevented ratification. Former Vietnam Veterans Foundation chief Bobby Muller personally lobbied then-President Bill Clinton to sign the land mine treaty, for example. Clinton responded that it was up to Muller to “get the military on board” but showed no interest himself in trying to do so.

The Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly defines “grave breaches” which are to be considered “war crimes.” Those that U.S. leaders have committed on a massive scale include:

“launching an indiscriminate attack affecting the civilian population or civilian objects in the knowledge that such attack will cause excessive loss of life, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects.” (Protocol 1, Article 85).

U.S. Executive Branch leaders have tried to escape their legal responsibilities in their current war-making by claiming they do not apply to today’s “War on Terror” against “non-state” actors. But this is, of course, as valid as North Korea giving itself the right to attack South Korea. As U.N. Rapporteurs on Torture and Drone strikes have stated, there is no serious doubt that U.S. leaders have massively violated both the spirit and letter of international law seeking to protect civilians in wartime.

Among the most obvious and important violations of international law to which U.S. leaders are a signatory include:

(1) Failing to meet their responsibilities for “Protection Of Civilian Persons In Time Of War,” including Article 25 of the 1907 Hague Convention which states that “attack or bombardment of towns, villages, habitations or buildings which are not defended, is prohibited.”

In Vietnam alone U.S. leaders dropped 6.7 million tons of bombs and used an equal amount of ground artillery. As Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick report,

“Unexploded ordnance blanketed the countryside. Nineteen million gallons of herbicide poisoned the environment. In the South, the U.S. had destroyed 9,000 of 15,000 hamlets. In the north it rained destruction on all six industrial cities leveling 28 of 30 provincial towns and 96 of 116 district towns … Nearly 4 million of their citizens had been killed. The landscape had been shattered. The beautiful triple-canopy forests are largely gone. In 2009 land mines and unexploded bombs still contaminated over a third of the land in six central Vietnamese provinces. Over 16 million acres remained to be cleared. Beyond the terrible toll of the war itself, 42,000 more Vietnamese were killed by leftover explosives.”

(2) Failing to meet their responsibilities as an Occupying Power in Iraq as required by the Hague Convention Article 43 which states that

“the authority of the legitimate power having in fact passed into the hands of the occupant, the latter shall take all the measures in his power to ensure … public order and safety.”

As discussed, U.S. Executive leaders failed to provide public order and safety; the U.S. military was revealed in the Wikileaks cables to be turning over captives to be tortured by the Iraqi police; and, of course, the U.S. was itself murdering, maiming, torturing and incarcerating the innocent. (16)

(3) Engaging in the “Crimes Against Peace” defined at Nuremberg to include “planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances,” and defined by U.S. Chief Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson as

“the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”

There is no doubt that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was such a “crime against the peace.” U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan unambiguously stated, as reported in a BBC article entitled “Iraq War Illegal, Says Annan”:

“I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN charter from our point of view, from the charter point of view, it was illegal.”

Benjamin Ferencz, a U.S. Nuremberg prosecutor who convicted 22 Nazis, has stated that a:

“prima facie case can be made that the United States is guilty of the supreme crime against humanity, that being an illegal war of aggression against a sovereign nation.”

He also noted that the British deputy legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry had stated that:

“I regret that I cannot agree that it is lawful to use force against Iraq without a second Security Council resolution … [A]n unlawful use of force on such a scale amounts to the crime of aggression; nor can I agree with such action in circumstances that are so detrimental to the international order and the rule of law.”

Only in America could leaders convince their citizens they are not launching an aggressive war when they unilaterally attack foreign nations thousands of miles away which pose no serious threat to them.