Saturday, September 21, 2019

Marinwood's First Fire Chief Jay Neuhaus Remberence

Jay E. Neuhaus Obituary
Jay E. Neuhaus Age 68, died peacefully on Monday, September 16th, 2019, at his home in Marinwood. From his birth, on November 26th, 1950 in Hawarden Iowa up until his death, Jay's kind personality and comic relief shined through to every person that he met. Born to Jim and Joyce Neuhaus, Jay was the 2nd of 8 children. After moving to California, he attended Redwood High, and later completed the College of Marin Fire Science and Technology program. He began his career as a Sleeper at the Kentfield Fire Department, and then became a fire fighter at the Marinwood Fire Dept. in 1970. He later rose to the rank of Fire Chief of The Marinwood Fire Dept. from 1980 to 2002. Jay is survived by his Wife Kathleen Berger Neuhaus, his children: Jessica Neuhaus, Robert Neuhaus, and Aaron Neuhaus, and 6 of his 8 siblings - Jerry Neuhaus, Justine Espinoza, Jack Neuhaus, Janice McCarthy Janine Rawlings and Judy Neuhaus, and, of course, his dogs Rags and Sukie. Jay was predeceased by his brother Jeff Neuhaus, and his beloved dog Woody. Jay was an avid camper. He loved being out in the woods enjoying the quiet while reading a Stephen King novel. He was a fan of all sports and would often be watching the Giants, 49ers and Warriors with his Dos Equis. Walking his dogs around McInnis and Marinwood Park was another passion of his. He was known around the dog walking community for always having treats for all the dogs in his pockets. A Celebration of Life is scheduled on the 40th Wedding Anniversary of Jay and Kathy. This Celebration of life will be on October 6th at the Marinwood Community Center starting at 3pm.

Published in Marin Independent Journal on Sept. 21, 2019

The Real Conflict Is Not Racial Or Sexual


American Renewal: The Real Conflict Is Not Racial Or Sexual, It’s Between The Ascendant Rich Elites And The Rest Of Us

Grae Stafford-Daily Caller News Foundation

JOEL KOTKINCONTRIBUTOR
Despite the media’s obsession on gender, race and sexual orientation, the real and determining divide in America and other advanced countries lies in the growing conflict between the ascendant upper class and the vast, and increasingly embattled, middle and working classes.
We’ve seen this fight before. The current conflict fundamentally reprises the end of the French feudal era, where the Third Estate, made up of the commoners, challenged the hegemony of the First Estate and Second, made up of the church and aristocracy.
These dynamics are unsettling our politics to the core. Both the gentry left, funded largely by Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and the libertarian right, have been slow to recognize that they are, in de Tocqueville’s term, “sitting on a volcano ready to explode.” The middle class everywhere in the world, notes a recent OECD report, is under assault, and shrinking in most places while prospects for upward mobility for the working class also declines.
The anger of the Third Estate, both the growing property-less Serf class as well as the beleaguered Yeomanry, has produced the growth of populist, parties both right and left in Europe, and the election of Donald Trump in 2016. In the U.S., this includes not simply the gradual, and sometimes jarring,  transformation of the GOP into a vehicle for populist rage, but also the rise on the Democratic side of politicians such as Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, each of whom have made class politics their signature issue. (RELATED: Bernie Sanders Says Middle Class Will Pay More In Taxes)
The Rise of Neo-Feudalism
Today’s neo-feudalism recalls the social order that existed before the democratic revolutions of the 17th and 18th Century, with our two ascendant estates filling the roles of the former dominant classes. The First Estate, once the province of the Catholic Church, has morphed into what Samuel Coleridge in the 1830s called “the Clerisy,” a group that extends beyond organized religion to the universities, media, cultural tastemakers and upper echelons of the bureaucracy. The role of the Second Estate is now being played by a rising Oligarchy, notably in tech but also Wall Street, that is consolidating control of most of the economy.
Together these two classes have waxed  while the Third Estate has declined. This essentially reversed the enormous gains made by the middle and even the working class over the past 50 years. The top 1% in America captured just 4.9 percent of total U.S. income growth in 1945-1973, but since then the country’s richest classes has gobbled up an astonishing 58.7% of all new wealth in the U.S., and 41.8 percent of total income growth during 2009-2015 alone.
In this period, the Oligarchy has benefited from the financialization of the economy and the refusal of the political class in both parties to maintain competitive markets. As a result, American industry has become increasingly concentrated. For example, the five largest banks now account for close to 50 percent of all banking assets, up from barely 30 percent just 20 years ago. (RELATED: The Biggest Bank You’ve Never Heard Of)

Friday, September 20, 2019

Marinwood CSD Director defends Intolerance



Izabela Perry defends Sivan Oyserman's call for police and fines for loud Mariachi music at Marinwood Community Center.  As usual, she launches on personal attack in attempt to silence the speaker.   A year later in 2019 Marinwood CSD  found an excuse to ban booking events to "Outsiders" instead of taking a more reasonable approach of increased supervision of events.  Since most of our rentals are to the Latino Community, we believe this is discrimination. The Marinwood CSD kept this action hidden from the public. It has lost the district a very substantial rental income .  Filmed  July 2018.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

"Fines for loud Mariachi Bands" in Marinwood



Current Marinwood CSD director Sivan Oyserman advocates fines for loud Mariachi Bands in June 2018 while serving on the Parks and Rec Commission.  John Tune complained of the loud noises from the Marinwood Community Center on weekends. Of course, controlling noise is always a legitimate concern but issuing fines because you don't like the TYPE of music is discrimination. Sivan Oyserman's calling for the police and issue fines is mean, entitled behavior of a brat.

 In April 2019, after a crime incident at a Latino family gathering ALL EVENT BOOKINGS were halted quietly and "solved the loud Mariachi music problem". We believe this is discrimination and against Marinwood community values.

  We must not allow an intolerant few on Marinwood CSD board destroy the opportunities for family gatherings in our Marinwood Community Center.

Izabela Perry smears public and reveals the "True Liar"




Here are two clips of the same Marinwood CSD meetin on 9/10/19 just minutes apart.  In the first segment, I ask for greater scrutiny about Marinwood finances and Izabela Perry calls me a liar because “we know everything".  A few minutes later Izabela Perry calls me a liar again and asserts that the  CSD Board "knew nothing" about attempted armed rape of a 16 year old in Marinwood Community Center in April 2019.     

Clearly, this is not a credible statement. Both statements cannot be true. The CSD either "knows everything" or "doesn't know everything" and cannot be trusted to oversee Marinwood business.  I have no doubt that Marin Sheriff contacted Eric Dreiksosen, Marinwood CSD manager shortly after the incident and all CSD board directors knew about it shortly thereafter.

Unfortunately, This attempted rape of a minor girl at a party has been covered up from the public and was only revealed on August 25, 2019 Marin IJ article noting the sentencing of Jordon Escobar Perez for the crime.  It appears the Marinwood CSD board cares more about the public perception of themselves than taking rudimentary security precautions  to protect our youth. 

Most community centers in Northern California have requirements for security at events where alcohol is served. Most also have security cameras and procedures for staff to interact with local police authorities.  If we are to believe the CSD, they have been "studying" the issue for six months after the inital crime but have taken no corrective action.

Who is the real "Liar" at the Marinwood CSD?

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Marinwood CSD Pension Death Spiral

Transit planners want to make your life worse

Transit planners want to make your life worse

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019
By Joel Kotkin : dailyreeze – excerpt
In our system of government, the public sector is, well, supposed to serve the public. But increasingly the bureaucracies at the state and local level increasingly seek to tell the public how to live, even if the result is to make life worse.
This became glaringly obvious recently, when the CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Phil Washington, reeling from data showing a steady drop of transit riders, decided that the only solution was to make driving worse.
“It’s too easy to drive in this city,” said Washington. “We want to reach the riders that left and get to the new ones as well. And part of that has to do with actually making driving harder.”
Now let’s consider what that means. L.A. County is hardly a paradise now for commuters — 84 percent of whom drive to work — while the Orange County and Riverside-San Bernardino areas, where transit dependence is even less marked, are no great shakes, either. All suffer among the longest average commutes of anywhere in the nation…(more)

A Silent Legacy. The poor farm graveyard in Lucas Valley

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Marinwood CSD cancels Popular Nature Trail


Marinwood CSD manager Eric Dreikosen demands all nature signs be removed from the park 9/13/2019.


After your truly, pointed out that Marinwood CSD is engaging in discriminatory practice with the Marinwood Community Center, Eric Dreikosen demanded immediate removal of the parks nature signs which I have been instrumental in providing to the community for about ten years.

The popular nature trail sign program is a joint venture supported by community groups, Miller Creek Middle School and the Lion's Club.  Eric Dreikosen unilaterally decided I should no longer be able to donate my time and energy to this project.

The project has been heralded by the Sierra Club, Miller Creek Watershed Stewards, STRAW, the Lion's Club, the Marin IJ and Marin County Board of Supervisors as an excellent example of community efforts to improve the park. No taxpayer funds were used to support the project.  It has been duplicated at other school areas in Marin County

The subject matter on the signs was educational about Lucas Valley nature, the people who lived here and student artwork.  It was never political although Dreikosen felt it a threat to the Marinwood Maintenance facility designed by former board member Bill Hansell.

All are invited to participate in the program for future installments once the program is revived.
The Marinwood Park nature trail was created long before the current general manager was hired.

Miller Creek underwater video of Steelhead

Monday, September 16, 2019

How DeKalb County Georgia handled a Confederate Monument

Georgia makes it a crime to move or eliminate monuments to the fight for slavery


So left with no other option, put up this sign for context.


Sunday, September 15, 2019

FABLE: THE CROW AND THE PITCHER

THE CROW AND THE PITCHER

In a spell of dry weather, when the Birds could find very little to drink, a thirsty Crow found a pitcher with a little water in it. But the pitcher was high and had a narrow neck, and no matter how he tried, the Crow could not reach the water. The poor thing felt as if he must die of thirst.
Then an idea came to him. Picking up some small pebbles, he dropped them into the pitcher one by one. With each pebble the water rose a little higher until at last it was near enough so he could drink.


In a pinch a good use of our wits may help us out.

[Illustration]