Virginia Bass seeks re-election

As always – this is an equal opportunity blog with regard to political announcements.  The campaign press release:

Eureka, CA – Humboldt County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Virginia Bass announced today she’s seeking re-election to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors in the June 2018 election. She will kick off her re-election campaign next Tuesday, October 24th at 5:15 pm at the Eureka Woman’s Club, located at 1531 J Street in Eureka and the public is invited.

Bass highlighted some of her accomplishments during her most recent term in office, including efforts to address the issues of homelessness, provide affordable housing for low-income seniors, and facilitate job creation and economic development.  Supervisor Bass also supported efforts to establish a regulatory framework for cannabis cultivators and related industries in an effort to encourage them to come into compliance after voters passed Proposition 64, which will allow for the recreational adult use of cannabis beginning 2018.

On the issue of homelessness, Supervisor Bass established the Community Homeless Improvement Project (CHIP) in partnership with the County of Humboldt and the City of Eureka, bringing stakeholders together from the non-profit, law enforcement and local government sectors to collaboratively confront the homeless issue. This led to the creation of the Mobile Intervention Services Team (MIST), combining social workers with law enforcement on our streets to address mental illness amongst the homeless population and connect those people to the needed services.

Supervisor Bass also facilitated efforts to provide affordable housing for low-income seniors and homeless residents through the development of “The Lodge”, an infill development in close proximity to public transit and other services in Eureka.  In an effort to strengthen our local economy, Supervisor Bass has been a steadfast supporter of local small businesses. She spearheaded efforts to allow underutilized properties zoned for coastal dependent industry to be repurposed on an interim basis for other uses along the Samoa peninsula, ensuring the revitalization of those properties and surrounding infrastructure.

“It’s an honor to represent the residents of Humboldt County as your 4^th District Supervisor.  It’s important that we work together to find collaborative solutions to the problems that affect us all.  I couldn’t do what I do without my fellow Board members, our great staff, the City of Eureka and public input.  I will continue to address the homeless issues, provide affordable housing for our low-income residents and increase job creation through common-sense reforms that help our local small businesses,” Bass said upon announcing her re-election bid.  “Yet at the same time, I want to leverage my experience and knowledge as your County Supervisor and a representative for regional and statewide organizations to bring more solutions, resources and dollars to Humboldt County to protect our environment, support local job creation and increase our supply of affordable housing. We will continue to make inroads with the mental health, addiction and homeless issues.  I look forward to continue listening and meeting with residents to hear your concerns within your own neighborhoods and our county as a whole,” Bass added.

Supervisor Bass currently serves in numerous countywide, regional and statewide posts, including the Board of Directors for Humboldt County’s Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) and Redwood Region Economic Development Commission (RREDC).  Supervisor Bass is also the 2^nd Vice President for the California State Association of Counties (CSAC), the 1^st Humboldt County female representative to ever hold the position, and the 1^stHumboldt County official to serve as an officer with the organization since 1940.

Virginia Bass is a lifelong Eureka resident.  She currently represents Humboldt County’s 4th Supervisorial District, which encompasses most of the City of Eureka and the unincorporated coastal peninsula communities of Fairhaven and Samoa.  Supervisor Bass formerly served as a Eureka City Councilmember and Eureka Mayor prior to being elected to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors in 2010.

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ATR this week – Free Speech vs. Social Justice

Bob Froehlich and I are going to take up that really uncomfortable discussion about free speech vs. social justice. We are going to use the hour to frame the issue for a future discussion involving two activists of color with very different views. Tomorrow our discussion will focus on some of the recent campus events, what the First Amendment protects, and what/who it protects from. As always, 7:00 p.m.

This is our draft framework:

On college campuses some professors, as well as other students, have been subject to administrative sanctions, resulting from ideas presented or opinions given, that upset other students. Also, controversial speakers have been prevented from speaking by demonstrators or the institution has been forced to disinvite or cancel events that featured controversial speakers. New terms like “trigger warnings”, “safe spaces”, and “cultural appropriation” have become common place and old terms like “Race Traitor” and “Gaslighter” (after the 1944 mystery-thriller film about a woman whose husband slowly manipulates her into believing that she is going insane) have been revived. The common denominator to these events is the very dramatic tension between Free Speech and Social Justice- the topic of tonight’s show.

• The extreme of the Free Speech position is: any communication should be allowed except that which has been specifically excluded from First Amendment Protection by legal interpretations– for example “fighting words, etc. (Slogan = “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.”)
• The extreme of the Social Justice Position is: any speech that upsets any individual should not be allowed. Quote: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”-Maya Angelou ( American poet and civil rights activist.)

Somewhere in the show define what is and what is not protected by the the first amendment and what constitutes “Hate Speech.” 

Cultural Mapping of Eureka to launch this Saturday.

Societies for Poetic Action, an artist group located in Eureka that creates art and actions for ecological and social justice causes, is embarking on a year-long project creating a “People’s Map of Eureka,” as part of our effort toward a more engaged and participatory community. Cultural mapping is a valuable tool that enables us to understand and share culture, to re-think history, and to promote creativity and development.

At 3pm on Saturday, October 21 we will launch the project at a Community Meeting at Synapsis Nova, 212 G Street, Suite 102, Eureka. The members of Societies for Poetic Action will introduce the project through a creative, interactive dialogue with the community.

Contact: wearehere@societiesforpoeticaction.org

Lacking “the elements”

NBC says it didn’t move forward with Farrow’s story on the Weinstein sexual assault/harassment history because the story lacked “the elements.”  What the missing elements were is anybody’s guess.  The New Yorker ran with the very same story according to Farrow in a Rachel Maddow interview.

It just, you know, “lacked the elements.”  Kind of like the Austrian Emperor to Mozart in Amadeus.  “There are too many notes.  Just cut a few.”

Here’s part of the interview, but you might want to go to the site and watch the whole story.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Governor Brown signs into law SB 54 and some other great bills recognizing that undocumented immigrants are people.  It’s not everything I want, but it’s a great statement.

Trump and ICE are already throwing tantrums.

Also these other bills, as reported from SFGate.

SB68 by Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens (Los Angeles County): Expands a state law allowing undocumented immigrants to qualify for in-state tuition. Previously, the law said undocumented students had to have spent three years at a California high school and graduated. Under the new law, students can count years spent at a California community college or adult education courses toward the three-year requirement for in-state tuition.

SB156 by Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine (San Diego County): Requires the California Department of Veterans Affairs and California National Guard to help undocumented immigrants serving in the military and veterans with their applications for citizenship.

SB257 by Lara: Allows students whose undocumented immigrant parents are deported to continue to attend their school regardless of where they or their parents reside.

SB29 by Lara: Prevents cities and counties from entering into new or modified contracts with for-profit immigration detention facilities.

AB21 by Assemblyman Ash Kalra, D-San Jose: Requires colleges and universities that offer Cal Grants to create policies that safeguard their campuses from immigration officials by ensuring personal information of students and faculty is not released and by notifying students and faculty when immigration agents are on campus.

AB299 by Assemblyman Ian Calderon, D-Whittier (Los Angeles County): Bars public agencies from compelling landlords to disclose immigration information on tenants.

AB343 by Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento: Allows in-state tuition at California community colleges for Iraqi and Afghan nationals who have special immigrant visas to work with the American military.

AB699 by Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach: Requires the state attorney general to develop model policies by April on how public schools can limit immigration enforcement on their campuses and requires school districts to adopt the policy or a similar policy by July.

AB450 by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco: Requires employers to ask for a judicial warrant before allowing federal immigration officials into a workplace and bars employers from sharing their employees’ confidential information, such as Social Security numbers, without a subpoena.

AB291 by Chiu: Bars landlords from threatening to report a tenant to immigration officials.

SB54 by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles: Sets limits on when local law enforcement agencies can help the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency on deportation cases.

 

Posted in Arcata

Taken by Brendan O’Loughlin

Thoughts and Prayers

The NRA, the President, and Congress all offered their thoughts and prayers.  Thom Hartman played this over the radio this morning.

https://youtu.be/5hdX1MUOgQw

He just can’t help himself

“I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack”

God what an asshole!

 

Trump Tells Puerto Rico: Storm Relief Has Thrown Budget ‘Out Of Whack’

President Donald Trump on Tuesday continued to stress that assisting Puerto Rico following a devastating hurricane had “thrown our budget…

TALKINGPOINTSMEMO.COM

On the complexity of the Hugh Hefner legacy

Just wanted to share an excellent short video.   That he once pushed child porn (involving Brooke Shields) isn’t forgivable, nor some of the accounts of his treatment of the women in his mansion – assuming their accounts are true, and they seem to ring true.

But I remember some of the interviews of the 1970s which I read with my friends as we got into one of my friend’s father’s stash in his garage.  I remember the interview with Carter where he admitted “lust in his heart.”  I remember G. Gorton Liddy confessing that he would have killed columnist Jack Anderson if it would have kept Nixon in office.  I remember articles about the Weathermen, Watergate, the Vietnam War, and other issues from a take much of the rest of the media avoided.

Basically, the boobs drew me in, and the magazine delivered some early political education.  And social.  The magazine helped popularize Jazz, Beat poetry, and what was then considered gourmet coffee.

But, he made an industry which reduced sex to a commodity and it was not friendly to women.  He didn’t invent rape culture, but he certainly exploited it.

So how to evaluate?  Well, check out what Barbara Ehrenreich as to say (she had a great chapter about Playboy way back in Hearts of Men).