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Who The Hell Is This Guy?

 The above photo is from “Perspectives On The Road”

“In A Little Town Called Ajo, Arizona ( Feb. 2020)

Sources Of Reparation Thought In The Liberal White Imagination

No disrespect to the iconic writings of a long line of black intellectuals, from WEB DuBois to James Baldwin and Cornel West or the more recent popularizing writings of Ta-Nehisi Coates, but it was a white Canadian, Neil Young, who introduced the idea of reparations to US liberals (most of whom don’t read the works of black intellectuals) in his 1970 classic song “Southern Man”:

Southern man, better keep your head

Don’t forget what your good book said

Southern change gonna come at last

Now your crosses are burning fast

Southern man

I saw cotton and I saw black

Tall white mansions and little shacks

Southern man, when will you pay them back?

I heard screamin’ and bullwhips cracking

How long? How long? How long?

Southern man, better keep your head

Don’t forget what your good book said

Southern change gonna come at last

Now your crosses are burning fast

Southern man

Lily Belle, your hair is golden brown

I’ve seen your black man comin’ round

Swear by God I’m gonna cut him down

I heard screamin’ and bullwhips cracking

How long? How long? How long?

There Is No Refuge

In a highway service station
Over the month of June
Was a photograph of the earth
Taken coming back from the moon
And you couldn’t see a city
On that marbled bowling ball
Or a forest or a highway
Or me here least of all
You couldn’t see these cold water restrooms
Or this baggage overload
Westbound and rolling taking refuge in the roads. ~~~ Refuge of the Roads (Joni Mitchell)

A comparison of two visual depictions of the earth speak volumes in terms of our terminal decline over my lifetime.

The photo above is the vision of the earth and the world that I grew up with, The Age Of Aquarius.

Joni Mitchell nailed it in “Woodstock” and (lyrics above) later sang of the immensity of that photo (but I think she was singing of the first moon landing Apollo 11, July 1969.)

The story of the above photo is told here by The Guardian:

When Bill Anders took this photograph from the Apollo spacecraft on Christmas Eve in 1968, our relationship with the world changed forever

This photograph is now half a century old. It was taken by the astronaut Bill Anders on Christmas Eve 1968 as the Apollo 8 spacecraft rounded the dark side of the moon for a fourth time. When Earth came up over the horizon, Anders scrabbled for his Hasselblad camera and started clicking. 

In that pre-digital age, five days passed. The astronauts returned to Earth; the film was retrieved and developed. In its new year edition, Life magazine printed the photo on a double-page spread alongside a poem by US poet laureate James Dickey: “And behold / The blue planet steeped in its dream / Of reality, its calculated vision shaking with the only love.”

That vision has been destroyed by US military madness and collapsing Empire (see the new “Earth” below)

Again, Joni saw it happening:

… Sitting in a park in Paris, France
Reading the news and it sure looks bad
They won’t give peace a chance
That was just a dream some of us had. ~~~ California (from the Blue album)

It is incredible to explore this database, click on map markers or use the dashboard. You can turn the world and see all the madness:

• USA’s Military Empire: A Visual Database

NJ Conservation Groups Have Done Little To Oppose DEP Logging

DEP Logging Is Exempt From Wetlands And Other Regulations

Murphy DEP Natural Lands Strategy Calls For Logging 200,000 Acres

When a news story omits this much context and contradictory facts, it is not journalism, it is propaganda. 

NJ Spotlight reported today that DEP took enforcement action against DEP for logging the Glassboro Wildlife Management Area, see:

• State targets its own after regulators slash forest

I sensed this grossly misleading rehabilitation and cover story was coming when Tom Johnson at NJ Spotlight wrote the initial story, which portrayed Emile DeVito and Tom Gilbert of NJ Conservation Foundation in a very favorable light and highlighted potential wetlands violations.

So, let me present the context and facts that were completely ignored, and show how misleading this “story” is. Readers would get a totally FALSE understanding by reading the Spotlight story.

First of all, the DEP has been logging in Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) and forests to create habitat for game birds and deer to appease hunters for years on thousands of acres of land. The Glassboro WMA logging was just 21 acres. DEP has expanded multiple similar sham slogans and scientifically flawed justifications for logging to create habitat, reduce wildfire risk, to provide “carbon defense”, and to improve forest health. It’s all BS, just like Glassboro was.

Second, the DEP’s draft Natural and Working Lands Strategy calls for logging 200,000 acres of forests, 10,000 TIMES the Glassboro WMA logging, see:

• Murphy DEP “Natural And Working Lands Strategy” Targets Logging On 200,000 Acres Of Forests

Third, Spotlight claims that DEP enforced freshwater wetlands regulations. However, “forestry” (logging) is exempt from DEP freshwater wetlands regulations and many other State and local requirements (local land use jurisdiction is preempted). The DEP “Wetlands Forestry BMP” is 30 years old, is weak technically, and voluntary, see:

• Environmental Damage Of DEP Sparta Mountain Logging Plan Largely Unregulated

Fourth, DEP just received Pinelands Commission approval to log 1,400 acres (65 times larger than Glassboro). It was a disguised military defense project. Emile DeVito of NJ Conservation Foundation aggressively and very publicly supported that logging, see:

• ORWELL: Conservationists Conduct Tour To Promote DEP Logging Of Pinelands Forests

Fifth, Tom Gilbert of NJCF served as Co-Chair for Senator Smith’s Forestry Task Force. In that role, he did nothing to hold DEP accountable for their logging programs, he opposed and did little to aggressively advocate to support a moratorium on logging in NJ, and he undermined and sold out more aggressively anti-logging members of the Task Force who sought to preserve NJ forests, see:

• Legislative Forestry Task Force Recommendations Are A Non-Starter (Part Two)

Sixth, DEP has logged over 200 acres at Sparta Mountain WMA (10 times larger than Glassboro) with little effective opposition by NJCF and to hold DEP accountable in the media.

And finally, adding insult to injury, DEP just spent $129,000 to purchase a “forestry excavator” to expand their capacity to log forests (ironically, the machine likely to have logged Glassboro)see:

• Murphy DEP Used Military Funds To Purchase A “Forestry Excavator”

When a news story omits this much context and contradictory facts, it is not journalism, it is propaganda. 

Given these facts, I sent the following request to DeVito and Gilbert, with copies to other conservation groups and media who have failed to work on the above issues I raised.

Gentlemen – would you be so kind as to send me the applicable DEP enforcement documents referenced in today’s NJ Spotlight story?

I am curious about the alleged wetlands violations, because I was operating under the fact that forestry is exempt from DEP freshwater wetlands and other regulations.

I’d like to see how the DEP enforced, because we may be able to pursue enforcement at many other DEP “forestry” sites.

As you know, DEP has logged over 200 acres on Sparta Mt. WMA (10 times more than Glassboro), plans to log over 1,300 acres in the Pinelands (65 times Glassboro), and the DEP Natural and Working Lands Strategy calls for logging on 200,000 acres (10,000 times Glassboro). 

All of these projects impact freshwater wetlands.

LaTourette Failed To Disclose His Legal Representation of BASF And Recuse From Any DEP Involvement

Worse, His DEP Ethics Documents Masked Prior BASF Legal Work

On July 12, 2016, just months before he joined the Murphy NJ DEP management team and shortly thereafter became DEP Commissioner, Shawn LaTourette legally represented and filed a legal brief on behalf of corporate chemical giant BASF.

For the documentation of LaTourette’s fingerprints over all that, see the below screen shots (or hit this link to the Appellate Court’s decision, which documents the LaTourette role).

This legal work on behalf of BASF involved a federal Superfund site known as the JIS landfill in South Brunswick, NJ.

I will discuss merits of that case in a subsequent post because they are directly relevant to Commissioner LaTourette’s unethical involvement in the BASF DEP NRD settlement in Toms River, at the Ciba Geigy federal Superfund site.

The BASF JIS Landfill Superfund case involved credible claims of fraud against LaTourette’s law firm. It also included Natural Resource Damages, property valuation, DEP regulatory oversight, redevelopment, and the liability for unknown additional site contamination:

These are all relevant issues to the BASF Ciba Geigy NRD settlement.

The JIS landfill Superfund site remains subject to current ongoing DEP regulatory oversight.

Incredibly, Commissioner LaTourette’s DEP Ethics disclosure documents failed to disclose this prior BASF legal work. He also failed to recuse from BASF matters before the DEP, as legally required under both NJ Ethics laws and the standards of professional legal ethics codes.

Perhaps even worse, his ethics disclosure and recusal documents appear to actively mask this prior BASF legal representation.

Specifically, see Attachment A of LaTourette’s ethics recusal memo and look at how LaTourette appears to have masked his BASF work at the JIS Superfund site via a vague and generic reference to a “JIS Landfill Performing Parties Group” (instead of naming the individual corporate member of that group).

Despite all of LaTourette’s prior undisclosed legal work on behalf of BASF at the JIS landfill Superfund site – and his failure to recuse – Commissioner LaTourette engaged in a series of grossly unethical conduct, including:

1) participating in the legal negotiations of the DEP BASF NRD settlement;

2) supervising the technical work of DEP’s Natural Resource Damage program and Site Remediation program professionals involved in ongoing regulatory oversight and enforcement at the BASF Ciba Geigy site;

3) briefing the Governor’s Office and working with the Attorney General on the BASF deal;

4) negotiating, in secret, with several environmental groups prior to the public announcement of the DEP BASF NRD deal; and

5) participating in DEP press releases and public statements to the public and media to promote the BASF DEP NRD deal.

Before I proceed on these apparent egregious violations of NJ ethics law and canons of legal ethics, I will contact Commissioner LaTourette to provide an opportunity to respond to these materials.

In the event that he fails to do so or confirms these facts, I will do the following:

1) reach out to Toms River opponents of the BASF – DEP sweetheart NRD settlement;

2) contact media to generate public awareness of this corruption;

3) request legislative oversight;

4) file another complaint with the NJ Ethics Commission; and

5) file a complaint with the NJ Bar Association.