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The Green Mafia Strikes Again, Sets a New Low In Ethics

[Update – 3/16/21 – Well, what do you know? In light of these facts, I wonder if NJ Audubon has received loan forgiveness. Will the NJ press core explore that?

• MOST SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS STILL HAVEN’T HAD THEIR PPP LOANS FORGIVEN – The numbers are even worse for Black business owners: Three-quarters still haven’t received forgiveness, according to a recent survey. ~~~ end update]

According to US Department of Treasury records, NJ Audubon applied for and received an $830,136.92 COVID CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) “forgivable loan” in 2020.

NJ Audubon received these scarce taxpayer funds at a time when millions of people lost jobs and paychecks due to COVID, when thousands of small businesses were shut down and bankrupted by COVID, and bankruptcies, foreclosures and evictions skyrocketed. Millions stood in food lines.

These folks didn’t get any PPP “forgivable” loans.

Did anyone at NJ Audubon lose a job? Face eviction? Face foreclosure? File for bankruptcy?  Stand in a food line?

NJ Audubon is a private non-profit group. According to the most recent IRS Form 990 (2017-2018) I could readily find, NJA had net assets of over $28 million. Their total annual revenues were $6,645,289. 

Their $6.6 million in revenues came primarily from member dues and donations, Foundation grants, government grants, corporate consulting contracts, and major private philanthropic donors.

The disbursement of those revenues are governed by contracts and grant agreements with fixed terms – the flow of revenues does not vary based on economic conditions.

NJ Audubon’s membership is wealthy and able to write large checks. $28 million in net assets could be tapped in the event of any liquidity crisis.

According to the federal Department of Treasury, to be eligible for the funds, NJ Audubon had to certify that:

Current economic uncertainty makes the loan necessary to support your ongoing operations.

I fail to understand how COVID had any impact on NJ Audubon revenue sources that fund their “ongoing operations”. How is this loan “necessary”?

NJA CEO Eric Stiles has some explaining to do.

How could NJ Audubon be legally eligible for a PPP loan? How could they make that certification?

How could they justify the need for such a loan?

[A reader asks:

how did NJ Audubon take the hit?  They might have responded that they lost revenue from all their cancelled field trips and public presentations.

I replied that yes, NJA likely cancelled events due to COVID and lost anticipated revenues. But such revenue is not only a very small part of their total revenue, it is anticipated and thus not likely to impact this year’s cash flow needs to pay payroll and other operating expenses. ~~~]

Because they have $28 million in assets that could be used to fund operations or offset any reduction in revenues – and many wealthy members and donors who could step up – how could they ethically seek a PPP loan, even if they were technically legally eligible for one?

Maybe I should have no expectations of ethical behavior from a group that would form a “partnership” with and praise Trump. Or take hundreds of thousands of dollars from Wall Street hedge fund billionaire Peter Kellogg and use that money to log public forests – and then lie to the public about that logging.

Back in November 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported:

Evidence of PPP Fraud Mounts, Officials Say 

Reports of waste and abuse in the Paycheck Protection Program inundate government watchdogs and federal prosecutors

WASHINGTON—The federal government is swamped with reports of potential fraud in the Paycheck Protection Program, according to government officials and public data, casting a shadow on one of Washington’s signature responses to the coronavirus pandemic.

Congress and the Trump administration designed the PPP to give small businesses fast and easy access to taxpayer funds, and it worked: About $525 billion in loans were distributed to 5.2 million companies between April 3 and Aug. 8. Many business owners say it was a lifeline in turbulent times.

But evidence is growing that many others took advantage of the program’s open-door design. Banks and the government allowed companies to self-certify that they needed the funds, with little vetting.

Repeat: “with little vetting.”

Since then, the US Justice Department has prosecuted massive fraud in the PPP program.

The Small Business Administration has begun to investigate waste, fraud and abuse, but their PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM
LOAN NECESSITY QUESTIONNAIRE (NON-PROFIT BORROWERS) does not apply to NJ Audubon, because their loan is under the $2 million threshold.

But that doesn’t prevent media and legislators from asking NJ Audubon some tough questions about this loan.

PPP Background:

Traditionally, non-profits were not eligible to receive SBA-guaranteed small business loans. But the CARES Act PPP enabled many non-profit organizations to access loans to support their employees.

The Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) authorizes up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses to pay their employees during the COVID-19 crisis. All loan terms will be the same for everyone.

NJA CEO Eric Stiles makes over $130,000 salary (not counting huge benefits).

[A reader just advised that those benefits include housing in Bedminster NJ (median house value over $373,000 among the highest in the nation) and a car.]

The PPP caps salary at $100,000.

The PPP “Loan Necessity Questionnaire” explores use of other funds to offset any COVID related revenue losses – maybe NJA $28 million in net assets could be tapped.

Given these abuses, we want to know when NJA will pay this loan back – we hope they have not sought loan forgiveness.

But, they are a corrupt member of the Green Mafia, so we have no more illusions.

I’ve long criticized NJA for their focus on fundraising and compromises driven by their hunger for revenues.

But exploiting a COVID PPP loan sets a new low in farming the government.

[End Note: this information was conveyed to me by a reader. I did not go digging it up. But once I became aware of it, I felt obligated to report it and make it public.

Time For Tom Waits

The road goes on forever and it wanders, sometimes into absurd and painful territory.

Ironically, just southeast of Kingman, Arizona, we found ourselves in the Aquarius Mountains.

Nothing could be further from reality. I remember the Age Of Aquarius:

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
Age of Aquarius
Aquarius

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind’s true liberation
Aquarius
Aquarius ~~~ The Fifth Dimension (1969)

That irony drove me into my friend Tom Waits (listen to his Greatest hits!) and some beers.

Tom is a painful truth teller and hero since my very young man days.

His “Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis” and rendition of “Since I Fell In Love With You” made me cry.

Of course, there’s Waltzing Matilda:

No, I don’t want your sympathy, the fugitives say
That the streets aren’t for dreaming now […]

And it’s a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace
And a wound that will never heal
No Prima Donna, the perfume is on
An old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey
And goodnight to the street sweepers
The night watchman flame keepers and goodnight to Mathilda too

I’ve actually worn a shirt that is “stained with blood and whiskey“. And I’ve lost two good friends who were there and would never sell them short – Steve Cookingham and Pete Santagate. And it was Pete who once actually bloodied that shirt when he broke my nose!

I love the man, especially his love for and compassion for real people.

It’s Biden’s Wall Now

If you’re traveling down to the north country fair
The winds hit heavy on the borderline
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine. ~~~ Girl From The North Country, Bob Dylan

[Update: 3/20/22 – Nothing’s changed under Biden, the suffering is only getting worse:

• ‘Traumatised and terrified, with nowhere else to go’: huge numbers of people stuck at US border

Update: 4/10/21 – Sickening:

• Tougher border security measures have led to more death and injury for migrants

[Update 3/10/21: Like I said, it’s Biden’s Wall now:

• Record 3,200 migrant children stuck in Border Patrol custody, with nearly half held past legal limit ~~~ end update]

Photo above is of Sonoyta, Sonora, Mexico.

Which suggests that, just like arbitrary borders, notions of North and South are relative and depend on location, no?

Where exactly is that “girl from the north country”? (or the “sad eyed lady of the lowlands”?)

Here’s what I saw recently at the US – Mexico “Across the borderline” (Ry Cooder):

There’s a place where I’ve been told
Every street is paved with gold
And it’s just across the borderline
And when it’s time to take your turn
Here’s a lesson that you must learn

The only positive news I can report is that the US Customs and Border Patrol inspection stations on Arizona State Rt. 85 between Ajo and the border and Ajo and Gila Bend were closed.

The station between Ajo and the border was almost completely disabled and abandoned, far more so than the station to the north (at Mile 18), which curiously had the US flag at half staff on Tuesday March 2. I wonder why that was? Was it a symbol of insubordination?

We’ll present our view from north to south, along Arizona State highway 85, from Ajo to Lukeville:

Ride the snake
Ride the snake
To the lake
To the lake

The ancient lake baby
The snake is long
Seven miles
Ride the snake

He’s old

And his skin is cold

The west is the best

The west is the best

Get here and we’ll do the rest. ~~~ The End (Doors)

Sonoyta Mexico, shot through the border wall

Now, aren’t you glad to be back in the good ole USA? Gas, beer, restrooms….

[End Note: I’ve been along the border region for the last 4 years, from Big Bend Texas to San Diego, California. Here are some prior posts and lovely photos:

• Rio Grande – Off The Wall

• They Policed Paradise and Put Up An AeroStat

• Trump Border Wall Construction Blasting Sacred Sites – Native Ceremony & Protest Shames Trump Border Policy

• Ajo, Arizona Art (Part I – Murals)

• Sonoran Sunrise

• Sonoran Desert Sunset

• Sonoran Moonrise

• The City Beautiful Movement In The Remote Arizona Desert

• Southwestern Sunday

• Impeach And Remove – From Ajo, Arizona

• How The West Was Won? Threats To Democratic Liberal Traditions Explored At The Tucson Book Festival

People try to put us d-down (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Just because we get around (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I hope I die before I get old (talkin’ ’bout my generation). ~~~ The Who, My Generation (1965)

Today’s Washington Post editorial hits close to home –

I was born in 1957 and greatly benefitted from the “major overhaul” of education WaPo editors applaud – but the renewed emphasis on science and math did NOT come at the cost of neglect of music, art, literature, civics, history, or especially critical thinking – precisely the neglect we suffer from today (all that came at least a generation later, precipitated by know-nothing Republicans and reaching its nadir in President Reagan).

The WaPo editors wrote:

WHEN THE Soviet Union in 1957 launched the Sputnik satellite, beating the United States into space, it galvanized reforms in U.S. education. Knowing that the best and brightest scientists, engineers and mathematicians were needed to win the race for space and compete economically with the world, the country undertook a major overhaul of education with massive investments in teaching science and math. Today, the United States faces a new challenge, but this time the threat is from within: growing cynicism in government, civic dysfunction and challenges to democratic institutions. Recent troubling events — notably the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol — should be a Sputnik-like spur to strengthen American democracy with improvements in civics and history education.

I agree that:

There has been a steady erosion in the teaching of civics and history over the past 50 years. While the country spends about $50 federal dollars per student per year on science and math education, only five cents per year per student is allocated for civic education. Ten states have no requirement to teach civics. Such inattention shows in the numbers of Americans who can’t name the three branches of government and don’t understand the importance of checks and balances. Misunderstanding of government leads to distrust and disengagement and provides fertile soil for paralyzing polarization.

But, it’s not just money and curriculum. I come from a family of educational leaders and I served as a local school board member. So, I know first hand that it’s the US culture, Neoliberal ideology, and corporate power.

Tragically, I think it’s way, way, way too late for the way, way, way too little remedy the WaPo advocates:

Well-timed, then, is an initiative announced this week offering a strategy to build excellence in civics and history instruction for K-12 students. Educating for American Democracy, a two-year effort funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Education Department, provides national guidance that states, local school districts and educators can use to strengthen and help transform the teaching of civics and history, designed with a diverse 21st-century student body in mind.

The climate emergency is upon us. We must act now – and as Chris Hedges argues, rebel. We don’t have time for generational educational reforms.

Of course, we don’t hear any of that from a paper owned by Trillionaire Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, who profits from this ignorance and cultural decay.

Any educational reforms targeting civics will need to be preceded and accompanied by total rejection of the “Neoliberal Washington consensus”; a restoration of notions of the public interest, from the commons to collective action; rebellion and direct action to destroy the corporate power structure and military – industrial complex; and the “revolution in values” that the Hippies and Dr. King called for in the 1960’s.

My generation.

Land Trusts Undermine Science Based Regional Planning and Regulation

Rutgers Study Used To Support Forest Preservation

Same Rutgers Study Advocated Massive Commercial Logging

NJ Spotlight’s story today is a study in contradictions (beginning with the headline!), see:

• New funding for land preservation in Highlands, New Jersey’s ‘golden goose’

I want to focus on climate, but I must first mention the deeply troubling pattern of how elite land preservation trusts constantly promote development with the slogan “smart growth” and undermine the role of State and regional planning and regulation.

I)  Conservation Contradictions

The Land Trust model depends on the kindness of rich strangers: wealthy landowners and willing sellers. As a result, their opportunistic and money driven preservation projects result in a scattershot patchwork that is the antithesis of science based planning. Often, Land Trust deals are just that – a parcel of land is preserved in exchange for development – deals that undermine the efforts of local activists, local governments, and state and regional planners and regulators to restrict development.

(Importantly, the Land Trust model is private and secret and thus anti-democratic by definition. In contrast, the landscape, water, and plant and wildlife are public trust resources and must be protected via open, transparent, and democratic governmental – not private – means.)

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is an egregious practitioner of that:

“You also need economic development, so, to me, smart growth planning is the sweet spot,” said Eric Olsen, director of lands and rivers for The Nature Conservancy. “What we’re trying to do is protect 40, 100, 200 acres at a time to build a pattern of protected lands.”

The Highlands Act is not based on “smart growth”, so thankfully TNC was AWOL during passage of the Highlands Act. Olsen can take his “sweet spot” and shove it.

Where has TNC been for the last 16 years of implementation of Highlands regional planning and DEP regulation? The Act mapped a core “preservation area” of some 400,000 acres (over 400,00 acres more in the Planning Area are eligible for more aggressive protections). That protected NJ land is 8 TIMES larger than the TNC goal for the entire Appalachian region:

The initiative, called the Appalachian Landscapes Protection Fund, aims to raise up to $18 million to conserve 50,000 acres of forest throughout the Appalachian range.

The Highlands Act regulates development in the Preservation area at perhaps the lowest density in the country – 1 unit per 88 acres – prohibits disturbance of 300 foot wide buffers along streams and lakes, and a whopping 1,000 feet buffer for vernal pools: (Highlands Plan)

The Highlands Act prohibited the extension of infrastructure to support new development. That’s an incredibly important tool and timely in light of calls to impose a moratorium on new fossil infrastructure.

Contradicting these incredibly powerful national models of planning and regulatory tools – which the Spotlight story ignores –  TNC or Ruga spun this misleading crap to the Spotlight reporter and once again the Highlands Act’s aggressive planning and regulation get short shrift:

The Highlands Act, passed in 2004, has helped to rein in unchecked development and community planning, though New Jersey’s complex system of home rule often cuts against strategic land conservation efforts.

There are three lies there:

1. The Highlands Act “helped”? Are you kidding me? The Highlands Act has protected far more land, water, and habitat than TNC and the Appalachian Landscapes Protection Fund.

2. “Complex system”? The Highlands Act over-rides local home rule in the Preservation Area. How could that fact be ignored?

3. “ strategic land conservation efforts”? Again, are you kidding me? TNC relies on voluntary willing sellers. That means that the location, extent, and timing of their acquisitions is opportunistic and transactional. THERE IS NO SCIENCE BASED PLAN. THAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF STRATEGIC.

Now getting back to our climate contradictions.

II)  Climate Contradictions

I particularly latched on to this important paragraph in the Spotlight story:

A 2011 study by Rutgers University and the state Department of Environmental Protection, which looked at the carbon density of New Jersey’s forests, found that the Highlands are between 50 and 75 years away from peak growth (as of the study’s publication date), meaning they will continue to build carbon capacity for much of the remainder of this century. Soils and organic matter will sequester carbon at increasing rates for even longer.

That’s a critically important point for 2 reasons:

1) it directly contradicts the primary rationale that the Murphy DEP and NJ Audubon use to justify logging in Highlands forests. DEP and NJA argue that Highlands forests are old and need to be made more diverse by logging to create “young forests”.

2) It also exposes a major flaw in DEP and NJA logging because those logging initiatives completely ignore carbon sequestration.

Yet neither Elliott Ruga, TNC, or the Spotlight reporter seem to be aware of all that and fail to mention it. Just like they fail to mention the protections afforded by the Highlands Act.

I can’t figure out if this is a result of incompetence or corruption – probably both.

But the contradictions continue.

That same Rutgers study that estimated carbon sequestration in NJ forests and provided a strong rationale for preserving all remaining forests, also provided a justification for massive commercial logging of those same forests!

I recall warning about this biomass bullshit threat to NJ forests years ago, see:

• Will NJ Forests Bend Over for Biomass?

• BPU “Biomass” Boondoggles – Zombie Garbage Incineration

So, the Rutgers study is not all sweetness and light. Check out these findings from Rutgers:

In order to determine the amount of wood-based biomass that could be sustainably produced in NJ and the resultant renewable energy production potential, an assessment of the major sources of wood was conducted. These included Class 1 type materials including; Forestry Residues, Primary and Secondary Forestry Products Industry Residues, Urban Forestry and Landscaping Residues, and Bioenergy Crops and Class 2 material which was from Construction and Demolition Waste sources. Once the maximum potential quantities of wood-based biomass was determined, the renewable energy production potential was determined based on the current efficiencies of the various appropriate conversion technologies. […]

New Jersey has many business development opportunities for wood-based bioenergy production. The information provided can be used as a resource for project developers looking to locate their business in New Jersey. In addition to the economic benefits of using NJ’s woody biomass for energy production, there are many environmental benefits that could be realized from utilizing woody biomass as well.

“Wood-based bioenergy production” means logging our forests, not using them for carbon sequestration.

The people of NJ do not want to promote “business development opportunities” or provide incentives to locate a commercial logging industry in New Jersey.

Again, all these outrageous contradictions are just ignored by Ruga,  Olson and NJ Spotlight.

(and will someone please tell Elliott Ruga to stop the economic metaphors and reinforcing economic interests that are killing us?)