Will Fox News STOP Lying? What Else Could They Possibly Do? Their Entire Business Model is Based on LIES... If they start telling the Truth... They Face Competition From...

CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, BBC, C-SPAN, VOA, NPR, Democracy Now and Hundreds of Actual News Websites! 

With the "All Lies all the Time" Theme the Only Competition Fox Has is OANN, TASS, RN, Pravda and Truth Social...

The New Classics: Books that Everyone Ought to Read. Just so If People are Talking is a Crowd, You'll Understand the Cultural References... 

1984

Brave New World. 

The Monkey Wrench Gang

The Search for the Manchurian Candidate

Alice in Wonderland

Thru the Looking Glass

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The Whole Earth Catalog

Steal this Book

Revolution for the Hell of It

I, Robot

Foundation

Caves of Steel

Tom Sawyer

Huckleberry Finn

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

The Man in the High Castle

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Harry Potter

Lord of the Rings

The Hobbit

Remember, Be Here Now

Still Here

The Time Machine

The War of the Worlds

20,000 Leagues under the Sea

Around the World in 80 Days

Stranger in a Strange Land

Slaughterhouse Five

Cat's Cradle

The Four Agreements

Don Juan, a Yaqui Way of Knowledge

America's Bogus Wars

The Violet Overgrow (an Eco-Warriors's Journey)

The Great Gadsby

The Armies of the Night

Trout Fishing in America

Island

The Psychedelic Experience

Fahrenheit 451

The Doors of Perception

Ender's Game

The Cult of Cthulhu

Dune

Chariots of the Gods?

Autobiography of a Yogi

Electric Kool Aid Acid Test

All Quiet on the Western Front

Catch 22

Everything By Edgar Allen Poe... Steven King... 

and... 

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds... 

Just for FUN... Write Your Own List and Post it on Your Own Blog... or FaceBorg... It's a worthy Exercise in Self Introspection!

If there are any Classics I Forgot, Email Me at gregvan(at)yahoo(dot)Com

It would be FUN to BLOW a WHISTLE During a Session of the GOP House... Especially if a QAnon FREAK Was Speaking! Americans are Allowed to Visit the House While it is in session BUT...

 You Have to Go Thru a Metal Detector... SO, a PLASTIC Whistle Is Required... Wear it around your neck under your Shirt and NO ONE will Know! Remember to Remove the Metal Ring...

Until You Disrupt The Speech... and then Start Shouting! "GET YE HENSE, SATAN" or Whatever Slogans You Want to Say... 

I Suppose You would be Arrested for Disturbing the Peace... but It Would Totally Be Worth it! Especially When You Blame Trump During the Trial... or TV News Interviews.

Liz Merry Said: 

What is that yellow thing in the sky? By George, it’s the sun! Nice to see you, Ol’ Sol. Thanks for giving us a chance to soak up that lovely precipitation. Fingers crossed for more steady rain over the next couple of months. If it could come without the words torrential or flood being used, that would be nice, too. No sense in watching it all flow downstream.

This is great for the dry well folks, who will certainly see a rise in their water levels if this keeps up. The surface water deliveries for ag interests may even be at higher capacity this year, allowing farmers to not pump as much groundwater as in the recent dry past. Let’s recharge, baby!

We’re not out of the woods yet by any means, but the picture is much rosier than we had any right to expect. Shasta Lake is at 52% of capacity and Oroville is at 58%. That’s fantastic with the snowpack we have. And it doesn’t feel like the spigot is going to shut off anytime soon, does it? But what do I know? Donny One-Ball the Donkey is a much better weather forecaster than I and he ain’t talkin’.

Let’s just hope for the best and not waste any more time giving lip service to protecting the groundwater we have. The time has come – and passed – for substantive action. I’m looking at you, Groundwater Sustainability Agency. The Flood Control Conservation District (board of supervisors) will meet on Monday at 11 a.m. in the Board Chambers at 727 Oak St. in Red Bluff.

On the agenda are overviews of the Well Registry Program and the Survey Public Workshop to be held Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. at the Red Bluff Community Center. Public comments (that’s you) will be permitted during the agenda item Monday, so bring your questions at 11 a.m. You may also attend and comment by phone – instructions on the agenda at bit.ly/fcwc01232023.

I have a few questions about the Registry. Why are they asking us for this information when the county has records back to the 1980s? DWR has over 800,000 records statewide on a searchable map. If you can’t find one on there, you can write them and they will send you the info. Why are we paying a consulting firm, megabucks to create the database? Why are landowners footing the bill through a tax disguised as a fee on their property taxes?

The database is not mandated by the state – groundwater sustainability is. The registry is supposed to tell us where and how groundwater is being used. Um, really? Take a drive around the county and look out the window. This is a lengthy project to keep us busy for three years before they have to take any effective action.

This will be the first FCWC meeting for the two new board members, Pati Nolen and Matt Hansen. Water was a focus of both their campaigns, so it will be interesting to hear what they have to say about this. And the way our GSA has handled its responsibilities up until now.

Tuesday will see the second regular board of supervisors meeting of the year and has an ambitious agenda. There will be an update on the Public Authority, which you wouldn’t think would be a big deal, but totally is. Supervisor Carlson has been asking for more information on how it operates forever. That’s what started the whole nightmare of complaints to the Grand Jury and the ultimate exoneration of Carlson.

There’s also an item for the addition of an Information Technology Coordinator. Yes, an IT person. On the surface, it looks like we’re entering the 21st century at last, but that’s not the case. The county wants beloved retired Tax Collector Dana Hollmer in the position, so a job description was created for her. The job will be flown of course, wink wink.

Hollmer earned a small stipend coordinating between the county and our main systems provider, Apex, during her tenure as County Tax Collector. She loved the work and did a great job, but she is not an IT expert. She had no authority to update processes in other departments unless that department head was so inclined.

And guess what? Many of them weren’t so inclined. That’s why our Auditor’s office is still doing county payroll manually. Paper time cards in 2023. It may also be one reason we have no Well Registry in Environmental Health. Related aside – the recently retired directors of those two departments have also been hired back “to help”. Tim Potanovic from EH and former Auditor LeRoy Anderson. How can we miss them if they won’t go away?

Hollmer is not being hired to take our systems to the next level. She is coming to piece back together the systems she left that have been unraveling a bit since her retirement over a year ago. Nobody replaced her, so the tweaks and glitches she took care of have not been happening.

In other words, Hollmer will get us back to where we were before she left. This is not progress, but it will help. Disclaimer – Dana is a good friend of mine and I adore her. She will do a great job and doesn’t want this to be permanent. So…

Let’s start looking for a real IT person or better yet, an IT department. Apex could even supply a person or two to help analyze where processes could be streamlined and develop systems where departmental interface could be improved. Security should be a concern, too, as we learned from the data breach at Social Services where thousands of people’s personal information was exposed. Social Services has its own IT person or people, and a thorough barn door repair must have been performed after that gigantic horse got out.

This is Tehama County settling for less instead of being open to the possibility of a better way. We deserve a bright future. Are we ready to invest in it?

Sadly, NOT Great Books: David Horowitz is a Confused Person that has written about 30 Books. He was Wrong in the Sixties and Continues to be Wrong Today.

He Awakened my Knowledge of Critical Thinking and Logical Fallacies When He was Interviewed on C-Span BookTV by Eric Metaxas... For Example... He says: Since Scientists Do Not Know the Original Origin of Life on Earth, They are Therefore Wrong about Climate Change. Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, BOGUS! He says: The "Green New Deal" Will Pay People To Do Nothing. He is Confusing "Universal Basic Income" with "Green New Deal." They are two different ideas. REALLY... The Green New Dead DOES Propose to Take the US Government Subsidies for Fossil Fuel and Spend that Money replacing Diesel School Buses with Electric Vehicles. Actually, That's a Smart Idea! 

During the Sixties and Early Seventies he wrote books Singing the Praises of Joseph Stalin and Communism. You had to be a TOTAL RETARD to believe that... Everybody Knew that the Mass Starvation in Both the USSR and China Proved that System Flawed. The only system that Communism is better than is MONARCHY... and that's why both the USSR and China did Communism briefly... Throw the CZAR OUT! but then they GOT A CLUE and rejected Communism. How Could David Horowitz Still Believe in Marx/Lenin all the Way up until 1974? I believe in Groucho Marx and John Lennon... Much Better... Anyway, He WOKE UP when the Black Panthers (that he was working with) Murdered a Woman he Knew... and All His Friends Blamed The White Society... Very Odd Ideas... 

SO, He FLIPPED and became a "Conservative" - Another Failed Economic System. Ronald Reagan's "VOODOO ECONOMICS" has proven to be a Disaster. The Entire Concept of "Give More Money to the Rich and then MAGICALLY they will share." Just Doesn't Happen. They also Call this System "Trickle Down" Economics... Because the Super Rich Take a Piss on the Working Class and Call it Rain. The only Economic System that could POSSIBLY WORK is "Bubble Up" Economics. Raise Wages and All that Extra Money in People's Paychecks Gets Spent at American Businesses, Increasing Profits. Causing Businesses to Hire More People to Handle the Extra Sales. Reducing Unemployment Insurance Costs, Increasing Income Taxes Paid. EVERYBODY WINS. 

He Does Spend a Lot of Time in this Interview Wondering IF GOD EXISTS and How someone could Prove It or Disprove It... That Sounds Like a TOTALLY TRIVIAL QUESTION. Go Ahead, believe whatever you want... Just Don't Kill People that Don't Believe Like You Do. The Christians and the Muslims have been murdering each other for over a Thousand Years OVER NOTHING! 

Then he Declares that Democrats Favor Using Totalitarianism to Force Hundreds Of Millions of People to Give Up Their Gas Guzzling Cars... Somehow he has Confused Joe Biden with an EARTH FIRST! Eco-Warrior. I hope that for his NEXT BOOK he Pulls His Head Out of His Ass. 

https://www.amazon.com/Mortality-Faith-Reflections-Journey-through/dp/1621578135/ref=asc_df_1621578135/

https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/08/50th-anniversary-of-summer-of-love.html

1967: The Summer of Love... San Francisco, Hippies, Flower Power, Peace, The Diggers, Haight Ashbury, LSD and the Grateful Dead. It certainly has been a Long Strange Trip. Congratulations to all those of us who have survived... One thing is for certain...

The culture of the United States was 

radically different After the 1960's... 

The conformism of the 1950's was blown away when LSD became widely available. Owsley made the chemical and made it available at Acid Tests with Ken Kesey and the Grateful Dead. He also gave it to the Beatles for their Magical Mystery Tour. The spirit lives on in a yearly camping trip called The Rainbow Gathering. It's like Woodstock but the performers are not paid and I'm in the Band.

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The Diggers of San Francisco were a street theatre company famous for their slogan "Today is the first day of the rest of your Life." They provided free food in Golden Gate park to needy Hippies during the Summer of Love. They also created a "Free Store" where all the merchandise was free. I suppose that they were skilled in getting donations. They also walked around Haight Street with a giant picture frame that passers by could step through in order to change their "Frame of Reference." The Diggers were part of the SF mime troupe, Bill Graham worked for them also as a benefit dance promoter/arranger to raise funds  by having local bands play and selling tickets. He later became the most successful rock music show promoter in the USA.

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Currently, a peaceful village called Arcata, California thrives using the basic concepts of Flower Power. It's on Highway 101 near the Oregon Border... Home of Humboldt State University...  If you want to experience the bliss yourself, take a loan from the Federal Department of Education and go to college at HSU. Arcata also is the center of Marijuana farming in the USA. The vast majority of the Grass is grown in Humboldt, Mendocino, Del Norte, Siskiyou and Trinity Counties... The extreme North Western corner of California. http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/did-you-ever-notice-arcata-california.html

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"Beyond Counterculture" Book is the History of the Hippies who fled The Haight Ashbury District of San Francisco and Moved to MATEEL in Southern Humboldt County to Earn their living farming Cannabis. Originally a Doctoral thesis.

Between the Eel and Matole Rivers, Garberville and the Lost Coast.
Mateel is a Sunny and Warm.
Once PALCO logged the area, the land was really cheap. Perfect for growing Marijuana Outdoors. This location is Not on Google Streetview.

Beyond Counterculture: The Community of Mateel 

Paperback – June, 1990 by Jentri Anders.

https://www.facebook.com/jentri.anders

http://www.amazon.com/Jentri-Anders/e/B001KIM0T0/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/annotated-map-of-northern-california.html

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Cosmic Art Show - Absurdist Images created in Potatoshop by Greg Vanderlaan

http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/07/cosmic-art-show-absurdist-images.html

Free Psychedelic Art - Global Awakening is Real and Happening Now

http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/free-psychedelic-art-global-awakening.html

Rainbow Gathering Idaho 2001: A Gathering of the Tribes...

I went to the gathering with a specific goal in mind. I wanted to play my guitar and sing in public. Yes, mission accomplished. I was Living in Chico, California and working at the plastics factory. When there was a layoff, my wife suggested that I borrow the car and drive over to the gathering. My friend Mike Jensen wanted to go and so we checked the oil, brake fluid, transmission fluid and water and set out on a classic American road trip. We made it as far as Reno the first day and slept by the side of the road.... READ MORE:

http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/rainbow-gathering-idaho-2001.html

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Grateful Deadhead ART and MyStory... American History...

 I first noticed the Grateful Dead in 1968 in English class at junior high school. Our teacher had put up posters on the wall of the classroom and we wrote essays about them.

He was attempting to stimulate creative WRITING but more importantly,

creative THINKING.

One was an American flag made out of swastikas and another was a solarized/negative photo of 5 hairy men standing in front of "LITTLE BOXES" type suburban tract homes.

Our English teacher

stopped working for the school system that year and has never been heard of since. That has happened often to people that go to see the Dead... They change their lifestyle and start associating

with a different set of people... READ MORE:

http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/grateful-deadhead-art-and-mystory.html

Grateful Deadhead Tribute Webpage. Pictures and Stories. 

Many thanks to all that made the Grateful Dead an American Miracle... Just remember, if our lives together were written as a fiction story, everyone would dismiss it as being unbelieveable... Yet it all really happened!

http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/grateful-deadhead-tribute-webpage.html

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Press Conference by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Representative Sergey Lavrov IGNORED BY CNN, FOX, MSNBC, C-SPAN... Broadcast on RT Only.

Censorship? This is a VERY Important Press Conference. and the Mainstream Media is rebroadcasting trivial YADDA-YADDA... Insane!

Great Show: BOOK TV on CSPAN. Each Author gets to explain their ideas for a half an hour and that's enough to understand them. No need to read their books.

https://www.c-span.org/series/?bookTv

Here is an interesting Book: "God: a Human History" by Reza Aslan 
https://www.c-span.org/video/?443471-15/god

He explains why Christians have created God in our own image... and why Muslims do not... They feel that God is UNLIMITED and if you paint a portrait of God you place LIMITS. That's why there are no Religious Paintings of God in the Islamic World...

Here is another Interesting Book:

"Rendezvous with Oblivion: Reports from a Sinking Society"

https://www.c-span.org/video/?447453-2/rendezvous-oblivion

Thomas Frank examined economic inequalities in cities across the country... 

and how there will be fewer and fewer good jobs in the future. His example is newspaper reporters... while they personally are suffering loss of jobs they loudly trumpet the wonders of future work in the digital economy...

WHY? Because they are not in the business of telling the truth but they are in the business of telling what the boss wants to hear... and what advertisers want to hear... 

Here is another Interesting Book:

"The End of Work"

Economist John Tamny offered his thoughts on America’s future job market.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?447430-2/the-end-work