October 2017

Hepatitis A spreading among homeless

 9-25-17
Capitol Radio
Hepatitis A Outbreak Among Homeless Has Sacramento Health Officials On Alert
Sammy Caiola 
http://www.capradio.org/102742
San Diego declared a public health emergency this month after Hepatitis A killed 16 people and sickened hundreds, most of them homeless.
The disease spreads quickly in unsanitary environments like homeless camps

Cadiz, Brackpool's Folly, another one of LA's reckless choices

 On its website, Cadiz called Feinstein’s remarks “irresponsible and not true.”
“The water that Cadiz plans to extract contains numerous contaminants including arsenic and cancer-causing Chromium-6. Left untreated, it could pollute the pristine water of the Colorado River Aqueduct, endangering the health of not only Cadiz’s customers but all 19 million Californians who rely on that water,” Feinstein’s statement said.

Adios, Harry Dean, ya te vas al tierra del sol

 
I happened by sheer chance to meet Harry Dean Stanton twice, in the winter of 1966-67, once in a large meeting hall in Stockton, again, a couple of months later in a small hotel room in Mexico City. In both places, he seemed to fade into the background in favor of more outgoing fellow actors. In both cases he was on a break from filming on location and it was as if he was just resting his entire personality. It was almost as if he was saving any impression of himself you might have had for the screen. It was, if you think about it, a dramatic accomplishment in itself. 

Dynamic score for death and taxes

 Why couldn't the apostles of dynamic scoring on tax reform use the same principle to score gun control legislation? If the agents of plutocracy in power believe they can anticipate the economic growth that will result from their massive tax giveaway to the wealthiest, why couldn't they anticipate the decrease in human slaughter that would result from gun control?
Everybody from the bankers to the NRA owns the federal government; everybody but the people. -- blj

State audit criticizes hiring of boondoggle specialist Gardner for tunnels project

 A biography Gardner submitted to the state says he is an economist with more than three decades of experience in program management, organizational leadership and strategic planning. On Hallmark’s website, he describes himself as a “project-turnaround specialist,” whose accomplishments include overseeing the development of the UC Merced campus in the early 2000s. -- Sabalow, Kasler, Sacramento Bee, Oct. 5, 2017

Computer modeling in elections

One's view toward the computer invasion of another familiar field either with enthusiastic faith in new technology...or with dark laughter. I find the latter is better protection against the new religio-technodogmatics of our times. But we live close enough to Silicon Valley that sometimes its hot breath reaches across the Dumbarton Bridge over the Altamont and through the nut orchards to our door, generating slogans like the one to explain the land-developer boondoggle known as UC Merced as "this high-tech, bio-tech engine of growth!"-- wmh

Northern California fires

The pace of the burn took firefighters by surprise: The fires charred 20,000 acres in about 12 hours, which Cox called “a phenomenal rate of growth.” He said firefighters had “zero percent” containment and warned that, while winds had weakened slightly over the course of the day, “because of heat and low humidity, fire growth is still likely.” -- Kerr et al, Washington Post, Oct. 9, 2017
 
 
10-9-17
Washington Post
At least 10 dead, tens of thousands evacuated as wildfires ravage Northern California's wine country

WELCOME BACK TO THE 20TH CENTURY

 
 

 

 California has an unlimited supply of water.

 

 

West side agribusiness can expand nuts and grapes acreage forever.

 

 

Southern california can build more houses forever.

 

 

California air will always be the purest, best air in the nation.

The right wing wants monopoly control of your mind

 ...There is also something else going on in societies defined by the equality of conditions. Claiming to be meritocratic and egalitarian, they incite individuals to compare themselves with others and appraise themselves in an overall hierarchy of values and culture. Since actual mobility is achieved only by a few, the quest for some unmistakable proof of superior status and identity replaces the ideal of success for many. Consequently, the pitiless dichotomy of us-versus-them at the foundation of modern nationalism is reinforced.

Media in the flood tides

 Although Jerry Mander, a San Francisco advertising man, wrote this 40 years ago, "it doesn't take a rocket scientist" to see that, while he calls the "machine" has been somewhat amplified by computers, it is still performing the same functions much faster of reduction and unification of viewpoint. But now, due to the extreme market analysis that all media employ, this reduction and unification has been miniaturized and fragmented in flood tides of greed for power and profit.

Adam Gray's water bill shot down by Brown

 

“The bureaucrats at the State Water Board have lost any and all credibility with the communities I represent. I will continue to pursue every avenue at my disposal to promote greater public transparency and expose this out of control kangaroo court of an agency.” -- Assemblyman Adam Gray press release, Oct. 17, 2017

Big Pharma's bribery and corruption linked to opioid epidemic

10-19-17
The Guardian
How big pharma's money--and its politicians--feed the US opioid crisis
Tom Marino might have withdrawn from consideration as Trump's drug czar but drug money is coursing through the veins of Congress-- contributing directily to an epidemic that kills thousands of Amerians each year
 The pharmaceutical industry attempted to place blame for the crisis on the millions who have became addicted instead of the mass prescribing of powerful opioids. Photograph: Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images

Merced County: Do Angel's Gate foghorns blast for you?

If the public does not have a newspaper that will dig into the county's business life, it will never be able to judge important to our citizens of anything important from the so-called "news." Like so "very, very" (to lapse into Trumpian) articles in this McClatchy Chain outlet, this is nothing more than a press release, pathetically concocted by the newspaper itself for the purpose of pleasing local "leaders."

Corrected Shakespeare comes to Cambridge University

 Academics have expressed concern that colleges trying to protect young adults from certain issues may render them incapable of dealing with real life when they graduate. -- Riusin O'Connor, The Independent, Oct. 19, 2017
 

 And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute. -- Richard III, Act. 1, Scene 1, William Shakespeare