That Brexit Thing

The internet circles I hang in are abuzz today over Brexit- that's Great Britian's decision to leave the European Union(EU). I say good for jolly old England but am surprised at how many oppose that decision, including at least one of my nephews an a  niece. My advice to them: Leave British affairs to the British. At least one of them gave that comment  a Facebook Like.

Over at Redwood Coast Business, Julie Timonns is grieving the EU's "failure". I can only guess that Julie'ie's feelings derive from her overall sympathy for unions. That and the preference for centralized control.

The others? i'm not sure why independence has gone so out of favor nowadays.I"not sure I can come up with ny examples where indpendence has turned out worse than dependence after all was said and done.

Our independence from England has worked out ok over time,depending on who you ask. 

Ia Scotland any worse off since they declared independence from England last(?) year? I haven't heard anything about that. 

Addendum: Reason magazine thinks brexit could a win- win for both England and Europe

Hummingbird Healing Center

Not sure if that's the right name, alhtough I should be sure since I Just got back from there.

It's the Medical Marijuana place at the back of the Myrtletown Shopping Center.

I'd never been there before but had a yankering for some pot with  trip to UCSF coming up. I figured it might make me feel more at ease during my imprisonment in the hospital. I fiinally decided to head down to the cannabis center this morning. I don't yet have doctor's recommendation in the form of a '215 card' but hoped that my last discharge paper fromUCSF might suffice to convince them I wasn't faking it.

That didn't work, aalthough the gal in charge seemed sympathetic . She did reconmmend a place I might quickly go in town to get a card. I stood there for a while watching the goings on-some of the customers coming in looking older than me, or so I thought.

iIfinally broke down and tried o buy one of heir cannabis based drinks. In what looked like 12 oz bottles were colored drinks  called Cannabis Quench, or something along that line. I think they were areund $20.00 each. I tried to buy one only to be toldthey were so potent they couldn't sell them to me without a real 215 card.

Oh well... I tried buyingsome of their other stuff only to be told the same thing. After a bit I gave up and left,although I intend to go back

I kinda had my heart set on having some stuff to take with me to UCSF. Too late now , but maybe next time? Maybe I'll go down now and look for that 215 clinic?

The New, Improved, Eureka?

A link on the Lost Coast Outpost took me to th LoCo's Facebook page where the first thing I saw was, "Imagine Eureka with new hotels! New stores! How about museums? Or maybe a ferris wheel?". I had to comment to that one that I can't think of one " new' thing in Eureka that has made it a better place. It was a better place when I  first moved here in the mid 70s. The Eureka Mall back then seemed a lot more fun with its atrium. Now it's just a bunch of stores, although Winco is probably an improvement over Sears that stood in the same place back then.

I guess the Bayshore Mall is considered an improvement by some. I never go down there. Then there was Food Mart in Henderson Center which closed only to be replaced with that crappy little Rite Aid. The old Payless Drugs was a much better store, although we never had Payless in Henderson Center if memory serves me correct.

As far as I"m concerned, the new, improved Eureka is anything but.

Can anyone come up with some new things that made Eureka better? There must be at least one.

Honoring Jim Howard

The Lost CoasstOutpost reports on a ceremony honoring former Eureka City Council dude, Jim  Howard. For those that don't know, Jim Howard is a negro (gasp, there's that N word again!). looks like lots of people showed up for the event, enough to convince me we won't end up back  in the days of slavery if we didn't have a Civil Rights Act as many readers have suggested here previously.

Hoopa Ray's Cleanup Continues

The Times- Standard reports on continuing efforts to clean up the Hoopa Ray's Food Place, that store having been close due to a rat inestation. Hoopa residents can't shop there until the store is cleared for opening by County Health.Some residents are now having to drive to Willow Creek for groceries.

I don't get how the health department can shut off the community's only access to food. Seems to me, if there is an actual health threat, the health department should just warn residents of it and let people make their own choices of whether they want to buy food there. The end result might still be the same with most still opting to go elsewhere for goceries, but at least they'd have the choice.

It would really piss me off if they tried a stunt like this with Eureka's Winco Foods. I suppose I could always switch to the Food Mart in Fortuna or Long Valley Market in Laytonville but I'd prefer to make that decision myself rather than the health department leaving me no choice at all.

Scotus Approves Warrantless Searches

Yep, as the article points out, 4th amendment protections against warrantless searches by police took a hit today iwth the Supreme Court deciding evidence of a crime can be seized even if it was found by means considered illegall... at least up until now: "

In a split 5-3 decision, the justices voted to reinstate the drug-related convictions of Joseph Edward Strieff. In the case of Strieff, he was illegally detained during a “concededly unconstitutional detention,” which eventually led to the discovery of drugs inside his vehicle.
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If memory serves me correct, this would seem to invalidate the old "fruits of the poisoned tree" protections we had previously. That meaning that if a search is begun under less than legal conditions, any evidencelater found as a result of that search is deemed inadmissible for prosecution purposes. Hard to determine just wha this means, alhough I suspect this will face judicial review again.

That's of little comfort to me. As I've wrote here before, the Supeme Court along with lesser ones, seem to rule against constitutional protections and in favor of government power just as often as not. And tha's often rgardless of who appointed the court.

The Smallest Minority

Liberty magazine's Lori Heine is disappointed in her fellow LGBT's embrace of gun control and reminds us, "When people are rounded up together like cattle, it is not very often by those who care about them, or mean them well. I take it as no less of an affront that a few elites, who think they’re better qualified to see to my safety than I am, are doing their utmost to keep me from defending myself."

Lori is one of the rare LGBT types that isn't an authoritarian. That's refreshing to see for a change.

Cell Phone Tips

From CNET comes just what I was looking for; Top Phone Tricks You're Probably Not Using. I made the mistake earlier on with my phone of following the manufacturer's advice and password protecting it. I thought at the time I'd probably regret it and I was right. Now I have to enter  a password just to answer the phone.They described one tip as making it so you wouldn't need a password if you're in a safe location such as at home. That sounded perfect, except the instructions haven't worked for me, at least not yet.

It said to go to Settings, then select Security , then Smart Lock. Then you can supposedly set what location(s) you want as safe zones. Except i can't find Smart Lock on my phone, so that idea was a bust. It iwill be fun if I can actually get that done, though. I'll try later.

I'll try some of the other tips later, too.

Citizen's United Effort Fails

Just got the following e-mail from the folk trying to raise money to overturn the Citizen's United decision. It looks like they failed, although there might be some time left:

'Fred, this is the email we don’t want to send you tomorrow.

But unless we turn things around, it’s going to become reality. With just hours to go, we still need 316 donors to hit 1,OOO,OOO donations to End Citizens United."

I'm delighted.

Libertarian Party Opposes No Fly- No Buy

The LP beats all other parties with this release, imo:

The Libertarian Party opposes the No Fly No Buy bill and other restrictions without due process

The Libertarian Party opposes the No Fly List, "no buy" lists, and other such lists where the government infringes on a person's rights without due process of law.

In recent years, the federal government has used "the war on terror" as an excuse to
encroach on our most fundamental human rights.

Warrant-less wiretapping, detaining prisoners for years without trials in Guantanamo
Bay, "no fly" lists that are compiled secretly and without due process, and similar "no
buy" lists all violate the human rights of Americans and non-Americans alike.

Our founders would be horrified and every American should be too.

Our country claims to stand as a beacon for "liberty and justice for all" and yet there is
no liberty and no justice in these breaches of our rights.

The presumptive Republican and Democratic Presidential nominees have stated their
support for many of these programs.

In contrast, Libertarian National Committee chair, Nicholas Sarwark, says, "There
shouldn't be a no-fly list, terrorist watch list, or any other secret government list you can
be put on without due process of law." Gary Johnson, the Libertarian nominee for
President agrees.

In recent days, Congress has been debating a "No Fly No Buy" bill which would prevent
people listed on the No Fly list from buying firearms.

The Libertarian Party urges Congress to vote down any bill, such as this one, that
infringes upon rights without due process. Due process is one of the most critical
elements of our justice system, designed to protect our rights. It must be respected
and upheld, no matter the circumstances.

Currently, the No Fly List is so casual that Americans are at risk of being denied access
to commercial travel because of clerical errors. This is a terrible injustice. The idea of
using such a flawed No Fly List as a guide for restricting other rights, such as gun
ownership, is appalling.

If the government has evidence egregious enough that a person should be prevented from
boarding a plane, the government needs to take this evidence to court and have a fair and
open hearing to determine whether the person in question should have his/her rights
denied. If someone is found to be plotting violence, they should be arrested immediately
and prosecuted.

The Libertarian Party is the only political party in America devoted to protecting all
rights, of all human beings, all the time. The Libertarian Part

The Adult Use of Marijuana Act

I believe the Adult Use of Marijuan Act (AUMA) might be on the ballot this November. I don't know much about it but a gal has been posting almost daily on my NorCal Libertarians Yahoo Group, Lrtitta Pepper is opposed to it and claims it doesn't really legalize adult use of pot since it still allows sanctions for use.

I don't know, but I've yet to read any rebuttals to her repeated protests. Her most recent, I received this morning:

"I am pro-medical-marijuana because I have multiple sclerosis.  I save $300 a month in co-pays by using marijuana instead of prescription drugs that made me sick.

     I am an attorney, so I do not support the current legalization initiative.  It is long and deceptively written, will replace medical marijuana with recreational marijuana, and send many more young adults to jail.

     The Democratic Party's endorsement of this bad initiative was based on the suppression of medical marijuana patients' votes by the Chair of the Brownie Mary Club of California"

I haven't looked at the initiative's wording. Then again, I'm not sure a "clean"legalizaion initiative would be succesful at the ballot box. She might be right, but is that a valid reason for opposing it? It still might be better than the situation as-is.

Any thoughts? Anyone else been looking at this initiative? You can read more of Letitta Pepper's arguments at the NorCal Libertarians Yahoo group. Her comments are pretty much the only ones up there. You might have to join the group to read messages, but that's easy enough.

Democrats: The War Party?

Nice explanation from Consortium News on how the Democratic Party changed its reputation as the more peaceful of our two major parties. Much of it centers around... you guessed it.... Hillary Clinton.

In fairness to the Democrats, who was the last U.S. president that didn't attack other countries? The only that comes to my mind is Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. Those days seem to be long gone with their current standard bearer being an unabashed hawk.

I wonder who Jimmy Carter is backing this time?

About Jill Stein

Politico has  nice article on Green Party presidential candidate, Jill Stein. It even includes mention of the Libertarian Party's Gary Johnson. Even Humboldt's very own, David Cobb, gets a mention. I was surprised to learn he was the one who came up with the "safe state strategy". I'd only heard of that in libertarian circles previously:

"Cobb pioneered a “safe-state” strategy—hunting only for votes in deep blue and deep red states, thus successfully protecting the Greens from the “spoiler” label. But he wasn’t successful in winning votes, garnering only 120,000 votes compared to Nader’s 2.9 million.'

What that means, if you're not aware is that you can vote freely for third party candidates states that re considered "safe' for Republicans or Democrats. For example, there's no Question Clinton will win California, so you're not messing her up by voting for the Green Party. I had no idea Cobb came up with that. He never mentioned it to me

Jill Stein: Hillary Worse Than Trump

It's nice to see that great minds think alike. Reason magazine looks at Green Party presidential candidate, Jill Stein's, feeling about the front runners in the presiential race. She thinks Clinton could be  more dangerous choice than Trump:

"And it's not only the militarism that Trump talks about, it's Hillary's massive record of militarism," 

 "The rush into Libya, which was really—you know, she was the prime mover behind that campaign, which the military advisers were largely against; her approval for the war in Iraq and so on; you know, her threat to bomb Iran; and, you know, she—and her demonization of Russia and China, and the pivot against China. We are rushing towards war with Hillary Clinton, who has a track record," Stein said."

Yep, Stein is spot on.

County Pot Sales Tax On The Way

The Times- Standard reports the county Board of Supervisors is considering  a sales tax for marijuana that might soon be legally grown here. This should come as no surprise. I've wrote here before of a friend years ago telling me the only reason drugs aren't legal is government hasn't figured out a way to tax them. He's now retired from the Casa Grande, AZ police dept.

And how true that is. As we've seen everywhere marijuana has been legalized or decriminalized, governments, especially local ones, want some of the action. What gets me is we hear no complaints from most people. If it was a private company trying to skim money from the pot operations, we'd hear accusations of greed and unbridled capitalism. When our supposedly benevolent government does the same thing, not a word.

How To See The Internationl Space Station

I've always wondered if I could see the International Space Station as it passed by overhead. The Earth Sky News comes through again with info on that, although you have to wonder how well that would work around Eureka with our fog and clouds.

Never mind the fog and clouds, I wonder how practical such an effort would be anyway. I used this site to get location specific instructions for viewing the space station.It says that the station would have been visible from my house yesterday at 9:36 pm for 2 minutes at 12 degrees above the west- southwest horizon. The problem with that being there's large 3 story victorian house directly across the street from our house that would always be in the way. Regardless, I'll try to remember to keep looking.

They say the station looks like a meteor or satellite moving across the sky. I'm wondering if you might also see its actual shape, maybe with binoculars?

Hansen's Climate Change Predictions

Reason magazine science correspondent, Ron Bailey- himself a believer (note small b) takes a look at how climate change guru, James Hansen's predictions fared years later.

I Like Hockey

I

I'll admit to being a social misfit if for no other reason than I'm not sure I could care much less about sports. Not sure I've ever cared much. Makes you really feel like an outsider when you work somewhere where everyone else is a football fan as it was when I worked at the Humboldt Bay Power Plant. Superbowl time was insufferable there as that was all most talked about then, except for me and John Krause. He didn't care, either. But others seemed to live for football. I remember the late Rich Whitmire asking me once; "How can you not like football?".

I suggested to John Krause once that maybe we should form a Society of the Socially Retarded for those of us who didn't care who won the Superbowl. We never got around to doing that.

One exception to sports for me is I enjoy watching hockey. If nothing else, that just looks like it would be fun to play. Onr problem for me being I can't skate. I used to when I was kid in Illinois. I remember a school or park there where a small pond would freeze over in the winter and everyone would go there to skate.

Then there was the time we went to one of the Great Lakes. Not sure which one it was, but I ended up skating on a huge frozen lake. At some point I fell down, hitting my head on the ice. I remember laying rhere looking across the ice and miles away were a bunch of snow covered hills. Then I blacked out, only to waken some time later on a table in a warm room. No harm done and no lasting damage to me.

Not sure if I could learn to skate again. At my age, I"d be leery to try, but it might be worth it if someone would start a hockey league up here. Don't they have an ice rink in Fortuna? We could play hockey there. I'd be leery to try, though. Watching the game on TV, I don't know I'd survive the many slams players make running into the enclosure of the ice rink . I suspect just one of those would send me to the hospital. Still, the game sure looks fun.

Gotta learn the rules, though, so if any of you want to play, here's the Dummy Guide to Hockey Rules.

Gays For Trump?

It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that the Orlando shootings have prompted at least one self described gay activist to switch his support to Donald Trump rather than Clinton.My personal experience has showed LGBT folks to lean strongly authoritarian, almost excusively, which is why I was disappointed but not surprised when one of the lesbian gals that used to live behind us told me she was a die hard Hillary supporter. She and her wife have since moved to Oregon where they can screw up that state's politics. I'll still miss Julie and Laura regardless.

But this guy says he's now backing Trump because of Trump's anti- Muslim rhetoric. Oh well. We'll see how that plays out:

"I know that Trump is an a**hole, Trump is a clown, Trump is a motormouth buffoon. You don't have to convince me of that. But he's also the only person saying anything about putting the brakes on Islamic extremism, and in light of what happened last night in Orlando, suddenly that is the only issue that really matters when it comes to the health, well-being and safety of the queer community."

Addendum: Johnny...oh, Johnny Maniac: Will you be voting for Trump now?

Gary Johnson Yard Signs Available

Finally at a more affordable price, as opposed to the $25.00 each being asked not long ago. I'll expect all readers to this blog to buy at least one sign. That should only cost $10.00 with shipping. Let's make it happen, folks. Those not cooperating will be fired from this blog;
Gary Johnson yard signs.

Bay Area Lodging Hiding?

Just got back from the Bay Area again. This trip started off a bit awkward as we weren't sure we could find a place to stay.

I'd called our normal place, The Villa Inn in San Rafael, asking if they had a room available on Tuesday night. The girl on the other end of the phone who I don't recall speaking with before, seemed unsure of herself  and said they were filled up. First time that's ever happened.

Not to worry, said I, as I'd been eying another place I'd noticed just north of the Golden Gate bridge. I looked up rhe Acqua Hotel real quick and was disappointed to find they couldn't give me room rates for the dates I entered. I figured they must be filled up, too. I wasn't too concerned at that point since, by reviews and appearance, the Acqua seemed as if it might be fairly expensive. What got me, though, was they had no phone number listed on their web site so I couldn't even call and ask if they had a room available.

I called back the Villa Inn and the girl again said they were full. Hmmm...what to do??? I ended up going to booking dot com and checked for room availability there. Easy enough and I made reservations there easily, although I didn't feel all that comfortable about them as I wasn't confident the staff there would pay attention to online reservations.

Aside from that, I've found it's usually cheaper to pay for rooms face to face rather than online.

But what about the Acqua? Why would they not have a phone number listed to call/? Best I can figure is it's  deal with whoever does their web site; Let us handle all the reservations and we'll cut you slack on web site costs.

Regardless, we left town just hoping the reservations for Villa Inn were good but wondering what we'd do if we got there only to be told they were full and didn't have any reservations for us.

I eventually found a phone number for the Acqua by doing a search for phone directories,  mill valley. That got me an 800 number I called bu no one answered. What gives?

I was tempted to stop by there as we passed them on the freeway to ask them what was up with no phone number, but I didn't. We drove straight to the Villa Inn and the guy didn't question my reservations. Problem solved, and he charged us less than we'd paid last time by doing it by phone.

Still haven't contacted the Acqua on the phone. Maybe I'll try again today? You'd think they'd want people calling them.

Tim Martin Blasts Earth First

Nicely written letter to the editor of the Times- Standard today by Tim Martin taking the hysterical environmental organization Earth First to task for their practices. I'm surprised, but well done. I wonder if Sylia De Rooy will pipe in on this one as she did last time Martin was critical of environmental groups?

Let 'em have it, Tim!

Eureka's Schooner Bar Closes

The Lost Coast Outpost reports on long time fixture on rhe waterfront- The Schooner- is being sold. A shame as far as I'm concerned. We need more sleezy bars in Eureka, not less.

Only been in there a handful of times, mostly while delivering pizzas for Sabrina's, another long gone Eureka establshment.

Daylight Savings Bill Moves

The bill to end Daylight Savings Time in the state is moving through committee, the Sacramento Bee reports.: Senator Connie Leyva doesn't seem pleased with the bill:

As someone who counts down the days to daylight saving time,” she said, “I was a little surprised when I saw your bill.”

Oh, well. She can go back to worrying about who gets to use which elementary school bathrooms now and get back to her comfort zone.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article83558137.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter#storylink=cpy

Muslims More Gay Friendly Than Christians?

Scott Shackford of Reason magazine looks at different religious attitudes towards homosexuality, pointing out that a larger percentage of Christians find homosexuality offensive than do muslims. That's not to say muslim countries are friendly to the LGBT types. Just that being Americanized tends to tone down their anti homo feelings:

"Certainly there have been radical Christians within the United States calling for violence against homosexuals. But their calls to arms have been ignored and are not institutionalized by authorities (with prison terms and even executions) as they frequently are in Muslim-dominated countries."

In other news, London's new Muslim mayor, in office less than three months, wants women to cover up and is trying to ban "sexualized images" of women on public transportation. Who'da thunk? Let's keep that in mind when they run for office in this country.- hat tip to local libertarian busy body, Tammy Newcomb, for that story.

Daylight Savings Time Gets Hearing In California

The Sacramento Bee reports on the first ever hearing in the state legislature in regards getting rid of Daylight Savings Time. I was unaware this effort would place the issue on the ballot as an initiative for the voters to decide. It's got my vote. Why the legislature can't just vote this up or down on its own is beyond me. Maybe it takes more courage than they have to make such an earth shaking decision? Seems like a no- brainer to me, although I remember one guy commenting on this issue in the Santa Rosa Press- Democrat who seemed a big supporter of Daylight Savings Time. He never gave a good reason for why he thought it such a great thing, as I recall. At least not that I understood.

WHO Goes After Smoking in Middle East

The fellow over at the Velvet Glove, Iron Fist blog(what's that supposed to mean?) tells us the World Health Organization is going after tobacco use in Syria. It seems they also smoke something called Shisha over there, which is considered by some to be less healthy to use than tobacco. This has something to do with a proposed "plain packaging' effort:

"Despite believing that cigarettes are much, much safer than shisha, it is cigarettes the WHO are going after, presumably because they can't apply their risible plain packaging policy to waterpipes."

She urged Syrian officials to implement a "plain packaging" approach for cigarettes to reduce their "attractiveness and glamour."

You'd think the WHO would concentrate instead suggesting Syrians stop trying to kill each other but, no, that's too simple. This certainly seems similar to the U.S. and California government's war on e- cigarettes.

This doesn't come as a surprise to me. I wrote here and elsewhere long ago- back when Saddam Hussein was still alive- that once U.S. influence became dominant in Iraq, the Iraqi people would be less free than they were under Hussein. This mimicking of U.S. policy by the WHO seeems to confirm that with the WHO doing the monkey see, monkey do thing.

No way to say for sure I was right since Iraq is in such disarray right now, but the forces in play are likely the same and Iraq, by all accounts, certainly seems worse off than before we tried to save the country.

A Rumor of War?

I can't vouch for the credibility of the Strategic Culture Foundation, especially since this is the first I've heard of them, but the information in this recent report of theirs seems believable. They're saying Germany is gearing up to attack Russia because of Russia's annexation of Crimea. The Russians point the finger at us, which I find believable. I'm sure we're involved behind the scene somehow;

"The decision of the German government declaring Russia to be an enemy shows Merkel’s subservience to the Obama administration.’”

The Family Dog

My sister posted this picture on Facebook. First time I saw our family dog in decades. Her name was poochie- funny name, huh? Except I think I helped name her that. Why she's wearing my pants and t-shirt, I don't know, but I do remember humiliating her like that now and then.

That's cute little me on the right.

Amazon Fire Tablet Review Update

I gave a somewhat glowing review of my then new Amazon Fire tablet earlier on. I'll have to change that one since it died on me while at UCSF a few days ago.

I was still delighted with it and enjoyed using it. Then, one morning when I was playing around with it, the screen just went black and I couldn't get it back. I thought maybe the battery died so put it on the charger for some time. Nope. That didn't help, although an image did show up of a battery just barely charged. No matter how long I charge that thing now I still only get that same battery image.

Now I'm going to contact Amazon for instructions on returning it for either a refund or replacement. Not sure which I'd prefer, although if I can get a replacement that stays working for more than a month, I suppose that will suffice.

Since this is similar to the problem I had with the old Trio ASX tablet my sister bought me, I wonder if power supply problems are what you deal with when you have a tablet? We'll see what Amazon says.

Primary Election Results

Unlike the last time I brought this up, I think I have it right this time in that we did have a primary election earlier this week. I'm still interested in the results, especially in regards the 3rd party vote in Humboldt County. I'm still disappointed in trying to find those results.

I see the Times- Standard seems to have continued their tradition of reporting only on the results of candidates from the two major parties at least from the brief look I took a little while ago (they once included Bonnie Neely's results in a Board of Supes race when she ran unopposed, but ommitted libertarian Kevin Bastian's numbers when he he ran for congress). For better or worse, the Sacramento Bee came through with an interactive form where you can select the races you want results from, by candidate and by location- county or state. I'm not sure it works very well.

According to that page, assuming I entered the criteria right, Clinton got 55.8% of the vote in Humboldt with Sanders getting only43.2%. I'm surprised at that as I expected Sanders to do better here. Regardless, the authoritarian vote came out on top either way.

I am also surprised that Trump go75.3% of the vote, although I realize partisan loyalties might be a bigger factor here than elsewhere. Most republicans I know vote for their party regardless of any issues involved.

Funny that when I requested results for the Libertarian Party's Gary Johnson, I get a message that no new contests were added since I already viewed the races with that information. How did I manage that? I'll just chalk it up to a status quo viewpoint of the Sacramento Bee staff.

In fairness to the Bee, I haven't been able to get numbers for Johnson even from the Libertarian Party's, National Facebook page.

Oh, well. No biggie, I suppose. He wasn't going to win anyway.

The Cloverdale Super 8 Hotel: A Review

Just a quick review of the hotel we stayed in last night on our way home from UCSF. It was a bit late in the day and the wife having already done a fair amount of driving earlier, we decided on trying the Super 8 in Cloverdale. She'd stayed there once previously. It was my first time although I'd noticed it across the street when we made our usual stop at the 7/11 on  South Cloverdale Blvd. It had me intrigued and I'd mentioned we should try it sometime.

Word of warning to start: the nightly rate I got on their web site site was considerably higher than what we paid just walking in and asking for a room. $156.79 vs. the $123.29 we ended up paying. Still a bit high for our standards but, since we were already there....

Nice place and I hope to stay there again. The only bad side for me was it being a hotel where doors to the rooms opened to the inside and you had to go through another locked door before you could even get to your room. The electronic room key cards made that an even bigger challenge until we figured the trick to using them: you put the car in the slot. Once the green light shows, you remove the card and open the door. We kept trying to turn the door knob by catching the green light for the split second it lit until we finally wised up.

On the up side, plenty of facilities within easy walking distance for most things you might need. A pizza place right across the drive way to the west.We didn't go in there but the wife did the night before with no complaints aside from the pizza being "pricey".

The hotel sits on the south side of a small mall with a supermarket (Rays?) within a few minutes walk to the north. To the north of that was a mexican restaurant, the name of which escapes me, but it seemed popular with the locals. The wife enjoyed it. I wasn't all that excited as being a chemo patient I don't have much interest in food. I ate it all, though, which is more than I can say for UCSF hospital food.

Also in the mall is a Subway sandwich place and CVS drug store among other things. It was nice to have all that within easy walking distance unlike the place we usually stay in San Rafael.

We got back to our room where I found it downright chilly- the air conditioners there having lots of ooomph, to their credit. A nice quiet room where I didn't feel cramped as I often do. Nice TV, microwave oven, coffee percolator and small refrigerator included.

The place also had a small pool, hot tub and exercise room. After a while we went out to check them out. The pool was on the smaller side with a hot tub just a few feet to the side. We hadn't figured out the key card technique so couldn't look inside the exercise room at that point. We did go in this morning as it was along the same path to the breakfast room. Just a couple treadmill units and one of those step things was all that was in there. I wasn't impressed but, having regularly stayed at a place with nothing close to even that, I wasn't complaining.

The breakfast room opens at 6:30am. Not the best. No hard boiled eggs as you find in most others but they did have bread and toasters where you could make your own along with those flavored packs of oatmeal and some standard cereals in a dispenser. Good enough for me since all I really wanted was coffee at the time.

Nice place and I look forward to staying there again, the main downside for UCSF business is the driving distance. Takes about two hours, but I figure we could easily do that if we have appoinments later in the day. After breakfast, we were back in our room at 8am. I thought at the time we could probably still get to UCSF on time if we had a 10am appointment, and that could be without even rushing ourselves.

Check it out the Super 8 next time you're around Cloverdale:

Addendum: Here's the Yelp reviews. I agree with most except complaints about the attitude of the management. They seemed nice enough to me. Not overly friendly but, then again, folks from "over there" usually aren't.

Working At The Car Wash

Reason magazine has an interesting story on the history and development of car washes. While the story is more oriented towards the effects of minimum wage increases on car washes, I still found it of interest having worked in a car wash earlier in life. In fact, I was working at the Costa Mesa Car Wash up until I moved to Eureka.

Not sure if that place is still there, but googling Costa Mesa Car Wash, Harbor Blvd. was auto filled in for me and that's where the Costa Mesa Car Wash was. Still, lots of other car washes down there according to search results, even one on Harbor Blvd.

We started at Costa Mesa Car Wash when a friend, Doug Hutchinson, worked there and asked if we wanted a job. Another friend and I jumped at it. It paid minimum wage but wasn't too bad. You'd be spent at he end of the day. We started off vacuming the interiors of cars and did that for the entire time we worked there. Always slaving away under the hot southern California sun. 

We were the only two or three white guys that worked there as I recall. The end of the wash line where the cars were dried off was pretty much all mexicans- illegals. I feel safe in using illegals as they all ran off when a border patrol bus pulled into the lot one day. I wasn't there but my roommate told me about it. 

The back of the lot was the detail lot where cars were cleaned inside and out with a lot of time put into it. It was all black guys that worked back there and they weren't friendly towards us whites. Never understood that as their jobs seemed better than ours. At least they worked in the shade and weren't pushed to get things done quickly as we were on the vacum stations.

All in all, ours wasn't too bad a job at the time. Maybe because we didn't know of anything better. I wonder how many people do that anymore now that most car washes are automated, and that trend will likely continue?

Anti-War.com: Biggest Nuclear Threat: Trump or Clinton?

Antiwar dot com makes the case that Hillary Clinton poses the biggest risk for nuclear war when compared to Donald Trump:

"Hillary Clinton made a strong case for why handing the nuclear codes over to a President Donald Trump would be a scary idea, but there may be equal or even greater reason to fear turning them over to her. In perhaps the most likely area where nuclear war could break out – along Russia’s borders – Clinton comes across as the more belligerent of the two."

 "Clinton’s neoconservative interpretation of what’s happening in Eastern Europe is so upside-down and inside-out that it could ultimately become the flashpoint for a nuclear war between Russia and the West."

They make a good point. They don't bring up what someone over at lewrockwell dot com did today: That Hillary being a woman would likely have her feeling she'd have to prove herself which could lead to even more belligerent foreign policy and escalation of tensions. Their arguments make sense.

That Hillary Scandal Video

I'm reading that this video of Hillary Clinton's scandals has gone viral. Let me help.

City of Eureka Announcements

I just received the City of Eureka's monthly newsletter in my inbox. Among other things it included city manager Greg Sparks' update on efforts to deal with the homeless. He does admit, as I alluded to earlier on, that cleaning up the Devil's Playground has created concentrations of homeless elsewhere. See? Told ya so.

There's also an recruiting advertisement of sorts for those who might be interested in working in vehicle abatement- that's tagging apparent abandoned cars for removal. Unpaid, but it only takes a few hours a day and they say they can work around your schedule. I'd be tempted to do that one. I've already turned in 3 cars that were abandoned.

The calendar also shows the Famer's Markets started up again yesterday. I must have missed it as I didn't see them in Henderson Center when I drove through.

Not sure I mentioned it here before, but I'm not a fan of the Farmer's Markets if for no other reason than they screw up the parking and traffic in Henderson Center.

Aside from that, although it shouldn't be any of my business, I don't see how those folks find it worth it to come to Eureka to sell produce. Some of them drive from as far away as Orleans, only to sell a carton of tomatoes? Why bother? Seem to me it would make more sense to open a roadside produce stand up there and have Eurekans drive to you.

SacBee's Candidate Matcher Quiz

The Sacramento Bee has its own candidate match quiz up where you answer questions and it tells you what candidate's views you're more in line with. Rather odd that the quesions are based on presidential issues yet I was matched with U.S. Senate candidates. It showed me as favoring Ron Unz and Duf Sundheim for U.S. Senate. I already voted for Gail Lightfoot.

The Eureka Police Trimmer Sting

Not sure what to make of the sting orchestrated by Eureka Police Chief Andrew Mills as reported by the North Coast Journal. At first glance I thought it troubling he'd  be trying to lure people in search of work- no matter what kind- only to arrest them. 

It turns out that's not the case. It seems he learned that many of our homeless came here for work in the marijuana trimming industry only to find it's not so easy and they end up on the streets. Mills' plan was meant to discourage them from coming up here for that in the first place. When someone replied to his Craigslist ad for trimmers, he'd send them a letter identifying himself and warning them of the consequences should they end up in that line of work.

How many he actually discouraged is anyone's guess, but that doesn't seem like a bad plan to me. I do get a bit leery, though, when society is moving one way- toward legalization- and police departments move the other and seem to double down their efforts. This plan, however, seems to almost be one of those things where no harm seems to be done aside from growers having a shortage of workers.

Video: Libertarians Make Their Case

Happy Birthday, Sheriff Downey

I've been informed by Facebook that today is Sheriff Mike Downey's birthday. How sweet! All of you need to call the Sheriff's office at 445-7251 and wish him a happy birthday.

That Highway Patrol Show

Duh, duh, dah, duh, dah dah, da dah...

That's me doing the theme from that old tv show Highway Patrol. Remember that show back in the '50s or '60s? I was humming that theme the other day and asked the wife if she knew what it was. She didn't. Then I wanted to ask her if she remembered it because Broderick Crawford played the highway patrol boss guy, except I couldn't remember his name.. I showed her a picture of Crawford later and she still didn't remember him or the show.

How can anyone not remember one of the few tv shows you could watch when you played sick so you could stay home from school? Then again, Sheriff John's Lunch Brigade was regular viewing for me back then and she remembers that one.

Anyone else remember Highway Patrol? I watched it all the time but don't recall being all that excited by it. Not at all as good a show as the old Dragnet series. I'm not sure I'd get much of a kick out of watching Highway Patrol again today.