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Today is the second coming of Donald J. Trump’s presidency. By the day’s end, Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States. As things go in Washington, D.C., so they will go in Shasta County, a place where county government has been under siege by far-right extremists for nearly five years.
In the November election, a majority of registered Shasta County voters chose not just Trump, but his beliefs and mindset. The MAGA folks are celebrating. Informed rational people are not.
A story on the front page of today’s San Francisco Chronicle by journalist Raheem Hosseini accurately summarizes the horrors Shasta County has endured since 2018, starting with the Carr Fire, moving on to Snowmageddon, followed by COVID-19 and its aftermath, which included more than 600 Shasta County souls lost to COVID. The far-right seized upon the pandemic as the ostensible reason to resist healthcare mandates.
Early on in the resistance against federal and state mandates, there were even threats of assistance from local militia members who vowed that with one call they could have 1,000 militia members materialize to protect any business visited by the health department, ABC, FBI or any other government agency there to enforce government health mandates.
Who would dare risk a confrontation with more than 1,000 militia members? Nobody. Not the sheriff, not the district attorney, and certainly not the governor; not in a county where the majority of Shasta County voters marked ‘yes’ to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021. Luckily for Newsom, the majority of California voters voted against Newsom’s recall. Unfortunately for Shasta County, we’re on our own. No cavalry will come to our rescue.
The pandemic was just an excuse for the resistance. What the far right truly wanted was freedom; freedom to do whatever they damn well wanted, not that all the far right agreed on exactly what they wanted, from open carry to a split state. No matter. The fight was on, and with each new far-right appointee to a school board or county supervisor board seat or public health advisory board or even the under-the-radar mosquito and vector board, the balance tipped more and more in the far-right’s favor.
Meanwhile, legions of stellar county leaders and staff disappeared one way or another. Fired. Blackmailed. Recalled. Pressured. Threatened. Pushed out. Stressed out. Humiliated. Intimidated. Eventually, Shasta County’s MAGA board of supervisors majority replaced some of the most competent county employees with appointees whose primary qualification was fealty; total allegiance to the board chair, who rules like a dictator.
You may have 1 minute to speak. No, you may have 2 minutes to speak. This time, you may have 3 minutes to speak, no, not you. You!
For nearly five years I’ve had a second-row seat to the circus called the Shasta County Board of Supervisors meetings. It’s embarrassingly painful to watch current board meetings and see how remaining key staff members behave in front of the board chair. It’s a classic study in the Stockholm Syndrome, where obsequious survivors do everything in their power to not piss off the board chair, District 1 Supervisor Kevin Crye, lest they risk the wrath, sarcasm, taunts and dismissal suffered by their former colleagues.
Journalist Hosseini is just one of many media people from around the world who’ve reported upon the North State’s great divide between far-right extremists and a rainbow of rational folks of all political stripes.
A News Cafe covered it all. We researched and published tens of thousands of words’ worth of exposés about dirty far-right tactics and corrupt politicians. We stitched together crazy quilts of mixed metaphors. The sky was falling. The wolves were at the door. Shasta County’s ship was sinking. Boiled frogs. Hair on fire.
We received hate mail and death threats. I was physically assaulted twice, once in July 2023, and in November when I was grabbed and shoved by a sheriff’s deputy.
But a strange thing happened: Despite the reporting, despite repeatedly sounding alarms of treacherous waters ahead, Shasta County voters selected some of the very most unstable, unreliable people guaranteed to steer our county ship directly into rocky shores and certain disaster. Either voters didn’t believe the reporting, or they didn’t care.
The November election outcome, especially in the District 3 Supervisor race, was a wake-up call. Shasta County voters had spoken. They rejected Rickert, a moderate Republican and rancher. Rickert is a well-respected lifelong community advocate and champion for the most vulnerable, someone who Chair Crye had cruelly saddled with more board assignments than anyone else. Instead, District 3 voters selected Corkey Harmon, the epitome of a good old boy, an inexperienced, uninformed, uneducated man who’d never served on any board, who’d never done anything to speak of for the community, aside from perhaps coaching football. Asked during forums why he wanted to run, Harmon aw-shucked a frequent response, “I want my grandkids to say, ‘Gee, I wonder what grandpa is up to today!’ ”
Corkey Harmon on the campaign trail.
Mark my words and take note of the fact that whether it’s the topic of the unhoused or bird flu, Harmon is so out of the loop that his simplistic responses always circle back to personal stories, whether it’s recalling how he built a fence to keep homeless off his property, or asking health officer Dr. “Mew” (Mu) if his wife’s chicken flock would be ok. (It will, said Mu.) Beyond that, he’s got nothing, except to be Crye’s loyal yes man.
During his campaign, Harmon insisted he’d be his own man and do his own thinking, which sounded questionable considering District 5 Supervisor Kelstrom and Chair Crye were openly a wishin’ and a hopin’ that Harmon would be on the dais with them. Their hopes and wishes were granted. And because history shows that what Kevin Crye wants, Kevin Crye gets — whether it’s attempted removal of a female classmate’s bathing suit or a visit with Mike Lindell on the county dime — Crye finagled things so he’s the chair again, something that hasn’t happened in Shasta County since the ’50s.
The vote to re-appoint Crye as chair was Harmon’s first horrible vote, and could arguably turn out to be the most damning decision of his entire stint as supervisor, for however long he sticks it out. He ignored logical arguments presented by bright, level-headed new supervisors Allen Long and Matt Plummer, who reminded Harmon of his promise to be his own man, and to help turn the board into a more civilized place.
Harmon turned a deaf ear to Long and Plummer’s pleas, and sided with Crye and Kelstrom to reappoint Crye as chair. Even if Harmon were to quit his new board position tomorrow, it’s too late. The damage is done. The die is cast. Crye remains the king dictator, flanked by Harmon as his literal right-hand man, and Kelstrom on Crye’s left. Consequently, Plummer and Long are on opposite sides of the dais, far from one another, where they cannot consult with one another, as Crye does constantly with his frequent whispers to Harmon and Kelstrom, as does our spineless county CEO with the county counsel, hand-picked by Crye.
I had vowed to myself that I’d attend the board of supervisors meetings until District 3 Supervisor Mary Rickert’s last meeting. Although I’d known all along during those meetings that my presence couldn’t stop Crye from sneering and bullying Rickert, it felt important to bear witness to actual crimes and blatant violations being committed by the board majority in the name of county business.
With regard to the Shasta County Board of Supervisors meetings, there’s a changing of the guard here at A News Cafe. I’ve handed over the board of supervisors baton to award-winning career journalist R.V. Scheide. Rest assured, those meetings are in good, able hands.
Me? I’m catching my breath, and will dust off my old feature-writing and food-writing skills. Never fear, I’m not swearing off politics entirely, and will still weigh in from time to time.
Nationally, by the end of today Trump will be our president. Locally, Trump-admirers Crye, Kelstrom and Harmon are in charge of county government.
Reality has set in. It’s taken some time, but I’ve mostly worked through the stages of election grief: denial, anger, bargaining, and even depression.
Finally, I’ve reached acceptance, with a plan. I will hunker down, and find things that bring me greater mental health, balance and joy. I will surround myself with good, positive people. Since I cannot change the outcome of the election, there’s no sense getting fixated on politics. For the first time in my adult life I will not watch the televised inauguration today.
Maybe it’s true that the public gets the government we deserve. We’ll just have to ride this one out. Four years will be here before we know it. Right? Right??
I’m reminded of words of wisdom spoken by former District 2 Supervisor Leonard Moty, who was recalled by the far-right mob in a lie-based election: Until the day their garbage isn’t picked up, most people won’t wake up and notice the negative things that have happened to the county.
Hopefully, by then it won’t be too late.
P.S. The sky is falling.
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