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Letters (July 22, 2020)

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DON’T TOSS THE CANNABIS ORDINANCE. JUST ENFORCE IT!

Editor, 

At a time when we are seeing record high temperatures, record low rainfall, worsening dead zones off our coastline and killer toxic algae in our rivers, a proposal is afoot to expand cannabis cultivation into our rangelands. This will demand a lot of water that we can’t spare, and it will deposit a lot more fertilizer into our rivers and streams that we don’t need. This is exactly the wrong proposal at this time of worsening droughts. It will likely sabotage decades of restoration efforts which we’ve already invested in to save our struggling salmon fisheries from being pushed into extinction. We must not let our rich heritage of salmon fisheries be jeopardized by the lure of short term profits.

Some Supervisors are proposing abandoning our cannabis ordinance, which has strict requirements and limitations, replacing it with the Use Permits process which will give the Planning and Building staff a lot more “flexibility.” Replacing our ordinance with Use Permits, which are at the “discretion” of the planning staff, will also provide few, if any, remedies for complaints from the public. This is a bad deal.

You may have noticed recently the proliferation of large clusters of 14 or more white plastic hoop houses. This has occurred because the 10,000 sq. ft. of cannabis canopy allowed in the ordinance was then changed to 10,000 sq. ft. of white plastic eyesore at the “discretion” of the Planning and Building Dept. Surprises like this that destroy our views and devalue our properties are exactly what we don’t want. We should, instead, abide by the promises made in the ordinance and work to make it even better.

Instead of the proposal to expand cannabis into our last remaining open space, our rangelands, we could, instead, expand into our industrial and commercial zones where infrastructure and water resources are already developed. Cannabis growers truck in much of their soil and even at times their water, so having these activities in an industrial setting would be a much better fit than in our neighborhoods, or in our open spaces, and it would help reduce their carbon footprint. Electricity instead of generators would also greatly reduce the risk of fire.

Lured by the promise of big money, Ted Williams and John McCowen are working hand in hand with the cannabis industry to promote this expansion plan into our rangeland, largely for the benefit of the corporate grower.

The small grower is not likely to afford these bigger parcels and all the permits and infrastructure that will be needed, so this will likely benefit the better capitalized crew that is flooding in from out of the area.

We’ve already seen so much plundering and pillaging and now this proposal for bigger grows on steep, highly erodible land, will deliver just more of the same — a lot more fish choking sediment in our rivers, water diversions, garbage, code enforcement complaints, crime and threat of fire.

Code Enforcement complaints are up by 31%, with only 2 officers on the cannibis beat. Policing is stretched thin, too, and the Covelo cartel problem is spreading. Why expand cannabis to our rangelands where enforcement is much more difficult?

Measure AF [a cannabis industry proposal] went down to defeat by a large margin in every district in 2016 because it proposed cannabis for every zone. We’ve already voted this idea down, but they are determined to ignore the wishes of the public.

If we hope to have a future on this fragile earth, protecting our fisheries, our wildlife and wild lands, enforcing the laws already on the books should matter to all of us.

If you don’t wish to see our cannabis ordinance abandoned, or are sick of non-enforcement, then let your Supervisors know by mail or by phone.

Their upcoming meeting is the 4th of August. Urge them to take a cautionary approach by staying with our existing cannabis ordinance and our existing cannabis zones. I urge you to write or call to make sure that your voice is heard.

Sheila Jenkins

Willits


SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS REPLIES:

"Lured by the promise of big money, Ted Williams and John McCowen are working hand in hand with the cannabis industry to promote this expansion plan into our rangeland, largely for the benefit of the corporate grower.”

Where can I learn more about the promise of big money? Does the big money have a name? All outdoor cultivators in Mendocino County are operating on “provisional” licenses from the state. The provisionals sunset in 2022. By this time, cultivators must hold “annual” licenses in order to continue cultivating. The existing ordinance has not been successful in enabling cultivators to transition to annual state licenses. The existing ordinance, authored primarily by Supervisor McCowen, is based on a ministerial model. Our ministerial permits cannot be conditioned. Further, our ministerial permits do not meet site specific requirement of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). California Department of Food and Agriculture has worked with county staff on a concept known as “Appendix G” for over a year. This appendix would provide checkbox style site specifics. 

For example, one of the checkbox represents approval of a Sensitive Species Review by California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Because the ministerial permit cannot be conditioned, CDFW would have the option to either approve or deny. It’s foreseeable that many of the 700 legacy cultivation provisional licenses would not be approved for continuation under the annual license. 

That is, if state agencies even complete the process. Ministerial permits do not have a finite timeline. 

Contrast this with use permits. Under discretionary use permits, agencies have 30 days to provide comment. No comment is treated as approval by default. Further, use permits meet the site specific requirement of CEQA.

Many other counties have implemented cannabis under the use permit model. That said, it’s not a panacea. Humbolt has far more staffing in their cannabis program and still only approves approximately 70 cannabis cultivation use permits per year. If we were to staff up to Humboldt's level, we’d be looking at a decade to transition. My goal is not to swap our ordinance for a use permit model, but rather, ensure we transition our legacy cultivators to annual licenses, whatever it takes. 

Some cultivators have argued to keep the current process in place. When I ask what they’ll do in 2022 when all regulated outdoor cultivation in Mendocino County ceases, I often get deer-in-headlights. Selling out to big corporations is a fiction. Corporate cannabis is focusing on places like Santa Barbara, where licensing is a breeze, farmland is plentiful and production is in close proximity to the enormous southern California consumer market. 

If Mendocino County cultivators survive the botched framework, their market will be in "county of origin" high quality flower, not biomass for extraction. Biomass requires flat farmland, cheap labor and scale, none of which fit the characteristics or culture of Mendocino County. 

Sheila Jenkins raises important points about protecting our environment. I share the concern about agricultural impact on water and I’d prefer see plants in ground without plastics. These concerns exist whether we continue with the potentially dead-end ministerial ordinance or we rebase on discretionary use permits. 

The issue at hand is structural and technical in nature. Change "largely for the benefit of the corporate grower” is a rural legend. Keeping seven hundred farms from becoming outlaws overnight is the primary motivation for considering a shift of approach. Addressing the shortcomings of the model is our path to maintaining regulation. Regulation is what protects the environment and reduces crime. 

Although Supervisor McCowen often refers to himself as my secretary in reference to finishing my half baked ideas, we have not been working on this together. I see Supervisor McCowen capitulating in recognition of staff’s continued frankness about the ordinance being fundamentally flawed. If I deserve any credit, it’s in provoking staff to admit the pipeline is clogged, perhaps indefinitely. 

Whether the ordinance can be adequately patched to meet state requirements remains to be seen, but I do have respect for McCowen’s willingness to look objectively at his creation and consider the best next steps. Brave cultivators who entered our embarrassing program have been the brunt of laughter from illicit market counterparts who recognized what an endless pit of hoops the program would be. Fixing the model is about upholding our county’s end of the deal.

Ted Williams


MARK SCARAMELLA ADDS: Where did Ms. Jenkins get the impression that the reform proposal would somehow eliminate “our existing cannabis zones”? I have not heard or seen anything about the reform proposal that would fundamentally change any existing zoning, which is exactly where the County should have focused in the first place.

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HURRY UP ON POT, SUPES

Honorable Supervisors, 

As indicated in previous memos and during prior Board meetings in June, MCA requests that the Board prioritize certain urgent cannabis related issues. 

Specifically, we strongly urge the Board to direct Staff to report back (at a BoS meeting or via publicly available written report) not later than July 21, 2020 on three outstanding matters: 

1. The status of the SSRs issue with respect to CDFW, the status of their processing more SSRs, the status of them approving of the County Program to do the SSRs in-house, and whether changing the ordinance to conduct SSRs in-house even if CDFW does not approve of the County program that has been submitted, 

2. The status of the meeting with CDFA and the ability to finalize and use Appendix G, what happened with the test cases that were submitted to CDFA, whether Appendix G will continue to be used to process current applications, and how many Appendix G applications are able to be submitted in what timeframe. 

3. Report on issues relevant for the BoS to have prior to discussing the possibility and feasibility of switching to a land-use based system. The relevant issues include specifically what a "streamlined" process is comprised of and how long it would take to implement; what the costs to existing applicants and permit holders would be (not just county fees but all associated fees); what additional paperwork or requirements would be required of people who have already submitted all information required under the current system; how long it would take to process the entire existing cohort of Phase 1 applicants into a new system and whether it could all be accomplished prior to the expiration of State Provisional licensing (1/1/22); whether potential "conditions" that could be placed on a discretionary review permit would create additional requirements for the existing cohort under Phase 1. 

We also request that the the Board allows prompt calendaring and clear prioritization of discussion and possible action regarding: 

(a) The troubleshooting and resolving the Phase 1 applicant pool's provisional License deadline; (b keeping the current ordinance with amendments to it vs switching to a land use based system; (c) the issues of reopening legacy cultivation in light of the Equity Program Grant; and (d) that except for discussion and approval of the Equity Grant (specific program proposal) when Staff is ready to present it, other cannabis related issues take a backseat with respect to calendaring. This means that items such as Hemp, Satellite Imagery, and Innovations Zones would have to wait until the other issues are agonized and followed up on. 

Thank you for your consideration. 

Mendocino Cannabis Alliance 

Ukiah

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STREETSWEEPING

Editor,

How long will it be before Mendocino County cuts back the Sheriff's office and loses half our sheriff's department? I know they are capable of it because they are very liberal and probably want to follow what the rest of the liberal cities are doing. It wouldn't put it past me but I don't think Matt Kendall will let that happen but you never know who carries the punch over there. The county probably has the top say. Don't be surprised if it doesn't happen.

That mongolian piece of dog manure George Soros is putting $220 million into trying to stop the police force..

I guess a lot of you people out there like protesters tearing down the statues and looting and breaking windows and raping and killing and stuff. Liberals seem to like it. But President Trump is starting to bring the military in. I hope and pray that they grab these people and stomp them right into the asphalt so they will look like the monogram that says black lives matter only it will say blue lives matter! Get rid of them! All of them! I'm starting to feel better about the president. Thank you.

God bless Donald Trump.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

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THINK AGAIN

Letter to the Editor,

It was reported the week of July 5 that two or three East Bay ladies were cited for painting over black lives matter on public streets, i.e., refurbishing the streets back to original condition/removal of illegal tagging. Just doing good civic duty cleaning up! Oh no! Those bad bad ladies were slapped with charges of discriminatory vandalism. What? The judicial brain trust must have had several meetings formulating this charge. You may give high marks for creativity. I don't! Ridiculous! Why were no tickets issued for tagging public streets? Defacing public property? Making racist signs on public property? Be assured, black lives matter is in fact racist! Don't kid yourself or BS others. Turn the page, there is an undercurrent far beyond BLM. It is anarchy, total disruption of our system as it exists today. A large portion of these far left wing flamers are using these peaceful -- yeah right! -- protests as a cover for a special group agenda. They and those who burn, loot and destroy stores, police cars and public property could care less for the true black agenda.

You think racist comments are one-sided? Look again! Watch TV or read the newspaper. A very large number of white/black Americans are being pushed, pulled and drugged into a new mindset of racist discriminatory feelings. I have been force-fed and overflowing with white injustice reform. We need reform, no doubt. But don't, repeat don’t, attempt to give me a political enema with a firehose. I'm just apt to crap all over you and a few of those left-wing beauties you hang out with, or are about to.

Stronger letter to follow!

God bless America, the Donald, Jerry Philbrick

Still Very Old And Very Angry

Boonville

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A DUBIOUS HONOR

Good morning, Mother Earth,

Today you have the dubious honor of welcoming 226,000 new people who want to live and make a living on your surface. In fact, that 226,000 is after everyone who died last night have been replaced. It's about 150 people per minute, every minute of the year. Is there anyone out there who still believes this is sustainable?

Overpopulation along with avarice and greed are the main causes of almost all of our environmental problems. Why are we chopping down the Amazonian rain forest? Because an increasing population is creating a demand and market for timber, cattle and soybeans. I think today there are many countries that have exceeded their carrying capacity for humans. At this point the people often have no choice but to flee, stressing some other country’s carrying capacity. Do you think that a town like Santa Rosa would be twice as nice with twice as many people and cars? Is there too little traffic and too many parking spaces?

Mother Nature likes a nice balance which we've gone far beyond. She's very tolerant, but eventually will quit being beautiful and crash the entire population, leaving just enough of it behind to start again. Perhaps this coronavirus thing is just a "preview of coming attractions."

It seems ironic that the world's most apex predator could be brought down by something that doesn't even have a cell wall. But unless it kills 226,000 people a day, the population will continue to grow, the environment will continue to degrade and we will be responsible for our own demise.

Don Phillips

Manchester

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THE BISON ALTERNATIVE

Editor,

It’s true that cows fed on corn belch up large amounts of methane, but cows raised entirely on grass don’t produce nearly as much. 

The American bison is an even better alternative; it produces no methane and doesn’t destroy the grasslands it grazes on, but improves them.

Its wool can be spun, its hide makes better leather than cattle. Veganism is not a fact-based movement but an ideology, and as such it conveniently ignores the fact that without manure from farm animals, an all plant-based diet is actually worse for the environment.

Such a world would require even greater fossil fuel-based fertilizer and pesticide use, and more plantation-style monoculture, thus more pressure on both the bees we need to fertilize them as well as the wild-animal populations displaced to grow crops. More food would be flown huge distances to the consumer, releasing more carbon dioxide.

No wool or leather means more unbiodegradeable clothing in landfills. The real solution is a smaller population, abandoning industrial agriculture, and eating less meat, more fruits and vegetables, all grown the symbiotic, Polyface Farm’s way.

Wiley Jackson

San Francisco

11 Comments

  1. Mark Laszlo July 24, 2020

    True, the world’s human population plus greed & environmental mismanagement is exceeding Earth’s capacity to support our lives.

    Yet cabals of the ultrarich are selling us toxic products
    & poisoning our environment with deregulated toxic
    wastes. Our nuclear warlords are using micronukes in
    West Asia. There are nuclear accidents & nuclear waste is very hard to contain.

    Surely they are best informed on the predictable outcome. It is intentional. They know “The pitchforks are coming.” I’m one environmentalist who has put off having children. Probably i won’t live to, but the ultrawealthy, with more than they can ever use, partners with socialist environmentalists following the UN, have gone ahead with a semi-random worldwide depopulation plan.

    We are (yet) living in the Big Holocaust, but those who orchestrate it do not know the power of the forces they
    have unleashed. They plan to manage fleecing & killing most people who have less than them over decades or a century but it could easily work in just a few years. They think they are in control, but God & His nature are ever
    more powerful. It could backfire on the capitalists, along
    with the rest of us.

    One thing’s for sure. Everybody needs a Geiger counter & a fallout shelter, especially for children.

    They are the future. Without children, there is no future. And if those with any means who can get together & build shelters do it, the meek may yet inherit the world.

    The ultrarich & nuclear warlords are already prepped as can be. Let’s not allow them to inherit the world. There should be enough of us left over so future generations can defeat their tyranny.

    Don’t worry about overpopulation now. Have all the children you can. There will be few enough left over when the bastards are done with us.

    • Louis Bedrock July 24, 2020

      Mr. Lazlo,

      Most of your letter, indeed, most of your letters make a lot of sense. However, your last paragraph is idiotic. It sounds like it was written by the Vatican.

  2. Mark Laszlo July 24, 2020

    Jerry Philbrick, which is better, mongolian dog manure or caucasian? Until you do a taste test, your preference is
    prejudice.

    Stop shoveling horse manure on your neighbor’s minds.
    The Augean Stable Genius has already laid an Everest
    on us & many of us, will never acquire a taste for it.

    The Big Bloviator has most symptoms of neurosyphillis. I think The Real Donald Trump is a bacteria in his brain. That would explain his obvious madness. Don’t agree? let us read your defense of Donald trump’s sanity. Come on. To the point.

    Mark W. Laszlo

    • Mark Laszlo July 25, 2020

      Jerry Philbrick,

      unsurprisingly, last night people came to beat
      me up, but neighbors protected me.

      A republic is a society where differences are not settled by lies, tricks or violence, but by arguing honestly to find the truth together. Socrates invented it for that purpose. Might
      does not make right in a republic. Might makes right in a
      dictatorship. You can say what you want in a republic but
      not in a dictatorship. Where differences are resolved by honest argument there is liberty to say what you want. But differences are resolved by lies, tricks & violence in a dictatorship where there is not liberty to talk truth to power.

      Free speech is under attack from right & left, but it is the
      American way of life to have it. It only works with an open mind & good will for people you disagree with. That’ s how to use free speech and keep it. No lies, hate or cheats in
      argument to find truth with your opponents. If you can use
      free speech like that it can be useful to the republic. When most people can’t use free speech properly, usefully, there will be no more republic, but a dictatorship of either the right or the left. Of the three, which do you prefer?

      Mark W. Laszlo

  3. Mark Laszlo July 24, 2020

    Thank you Louis.

    ‘…ultrawealthy, with more than they can ever use, partners with socialist environmentalists following the UN, have gone ahead with a semi-random worldwide depopulation plan.’

    I should add that all the socialists & environmentalists
    i know are scrupulously non-violent & of those allied with the UN’s Agenda 21 program i’m sure very few
    know about the human depopulation part.

    Agenda 21 is a comprehensive UN program for
    “sustainable development” , a phrase evoking
    hope for massive wish fulfillment to this environmentalist until i knew more about it.

    It was set in motion from “The Earth Summit” of
    1992 in Rio d’ Janeiro , Where governments, NGOs & capitalists made an agreement for the UN to take over the world to run it w/o destroying the environment.

    Could be massive wish fulfillment, if capitalists
    were not intentionally killing millions with their
    products & waste products & nuclear warlords
    atop our military industrial complex were not nuking
    people with miniaturized H-Bombs in West Asia
    & also alloying nuclear waste into HE bomb parts & also spraying Depleted Uranium, white phosphous & spreading dioxins by burning plastics every place they go to war now. Our military wages genetic warfare with weapons that spread lasting toxic residues that cause massive endemics of birth defects & cancers. They contaminate countries with poisons that laugh at human history. It may take plate tectonics to be rid of them; the perfect scorched earth weapons.

    Similarly, now vast areas of the USA are strewn with
    frack wells & chemical pipelines, poisoning our great aquifers & breadbaskets. Frack fields leak huge amounts of toxic gases & oil. Some gets in ground & well water. In the Bakken fields, Radium comes up in fracking wastewater, & filters & they are dumped illegally. There have been about 50,000 chemical pipeline accidents in the USA since 2000, mostly of crude oil. Some would fill a lake.

    Chemtrails, bad vaccines, microwave emmiting
    devices & other electrosmog emmiting devices:
    Telcos are filling the air w electricity. They are
    electrocuting the People slowly. Many now feel
    it. I just got a meter that confirms what my body
    says at home: I’m being cooked! Pharmaceutical
    drugs that kill millions, sooner or later, GMOs, roundup & nicotinoid tainted foods – no room for a complete list of depop weapons here. Aspartame.

    Many means of culling the human herd, but they also
    cull many other species & turn most of the Earth into toxic wastelands that won’t be safe for life for millenia at least. And when WMD war comes home, the whole world will be deadly above ground for an unknown time. The means of depop prove motives of capitalists & brass are not to save the habitability of Earth, If they just kiiled humans w/o harming other life it could be to save land habitability & biodiversity, but they rape the environment to death
    along with us. So those capitalist cabals priority
    must be to kill “pitchforks”.

    In Agenda 21, i perceive a deal struck between capitalists raping the world to death, who want to continue doing so until they have extracted all they can, and socialists who care for the environment.

    What the socialists get is making most of the land off limits to humans so nature can heal Herself & resettling the People in thoroughly surveiled & regulated towns where they can be cooked on “defrost” as soon as they start to rebel. Of course the ultrarich will have as many children
    as they want in their enclaves, but those of humble means in green, networked towns will have children only if & when allowed to.

    But why urge the People to have more children in
    an overpopulated world?

    Because capitalist bastards are not killing us to save the environment, but themselves, since we outnumber them & many notice boots in our faces, so we may overthrow them some day.

    And because their depopulation weapons are experimental. No-one knows how fast they work to raise human mortality, with all known & unknown factors combined.

    The ultrarich plan to be left over. They are the most prepped. But they do not know if they will extinct humanity, including themselves, with all they do.

    So we, of lesser means, should have more children
    because there will be so few soon, we may die out.

    I schooled & lived with rich people. Like in every
    class, there’s good & bad. I believe all classes should work together to make safe havens with fallout shelters to save children & families, including some now homeless. My years of research point to sites in Northern Mendo Co. as possibly least prone to fallouts & other hazards in the USA.
    A shelter costing less than a house may save lives as well here as a million dollar shelter where more fallout may be predicted & people have to stay underground longer.

    Rural people tend to be resourceful, especially multigenerational small landholders. They know
    how to take care of themselves. They have all
    kinds of skills to build shelters for less.

    Those families who are not prepared
    underground will all die. Those with any
    such preparations stand a chance. If
    you don’t try in time you hand over the
    world to the bastards killing the People
    right now. They are all prepped & the
    remainder of us may never get the
    bastard’s boots out of our faces, unless
    enough of us are left over free & we
    multiply to fight them.

    By free i mean taught philosophy with
    children’s books starting in elementary
    school so they have more tools to think
    and find truth. They are assigned to read
    a children”s book, then tell the class what
    they think the book says. There is no wrong
    answer. Teach love of freedom, ask them
    what it means to them. When it is common
    to the People to find objective truths by
    comparing sets of evidence & reasons,
    they will be hard to deceive & so resistant
    to fascism, politically correct Marxism &
    whatever opponents to the People’s liberty
    may come. They’ll be hard to lie to.

    Mark W. Laszlo

    • Louis Bedrock July 24, 2020

      Hi Mark,

      It’s hard to disagree with anything in your comment.

      Genesis, 1:26 laid the basis for abuse of animals and nature:

      “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

      Genesis, 1:26 KJV

      What bullshit—along with so much else from this evil book of Bronze Age ignorance and superstition!

      I also taught.
      I taught 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades (bilingual) in a poor area of the Bronx.

      There I met a lot of children who were unwanted and unloved.

      I’m not a Eugenicist, but I do believe the state should license people before allowing them to have children—or even pets. Hell, we make people get licenses before they can drive a car.

      There are a lot of cats and dogs wasting away in shelters because people who adopted puppies and kittens tired of them when they started getting bigger.

      There are a lot of kids who are neglected or abused or both because their parents got tired of them: they were not prepared for the daunting job of being a parent.

      Although required by law to do so, I was reluctant to report child neglect or abuse because the state agencies and their facilities were even worse for the kids than their families.

      No easy answers or solutions. It’s hard to find any basis for optimism. Frankly, I think civilization and the human race are doomed.

      We probably agree on many more things than disagree.

      All the best,

      Louis

  4. Mark Laszlo July 25, 2020

    Hi Louis,

    it’s OK that Abrahamic scripture
    doesn’t suit everyone. I like the
    wisdom in it though, in accord
    with my main subjective intuition;
    that there is one almighty being.

    Natural science evokes awe
    but does not foster virtues. To
    possibly manage even one planet,
    we need cultural codes to get
    along. The most entrenched both
    unify & drive people apart. but
    people need doctrines that foster
    virtue or there is no civilization.

    Civilization is people co-operating
    for their common survival & benefits,
    such as leisure for such higher
    pursuits as education. In the
    interregnum it will be challenging
    to maintain, but it must be ever
    maintained & improved on for a
    better life in common.

    Our world may yet become the
    best, since many intuitions say it
    was always meant to be and
    intuitions sometimes prove
    correct.

    There’s a well credentialed
    climatologist who says on top of
    everything else that’s happening
    due to climate mismanagement,
    methane released from the Arctic
    ocean floor will extinct humanity
    within decades.

    However, i think it’s beyond
    any human mind to know all
    the factors to prove or disprove
    such predictions in advance.

    Most of what i believe is based
    on the best objective evidence
    & interpretation of it i can
    understand.

    If i believe anything because
    i want to, i admit it.

    I choose to believe humanity
    will survive.

    I believe most will be dead
    soon because in scriptures,
    God can’t stand some things
    people do forever. There are
    national karmas. As Thomas
    Jefferson put it in his far more
    innocent day: “I tremble for
    my country when i reflect that
    God is just.”

    Positing one almighty’s existence,
    and His representation of virtues,
    how can that God stand for Genetic
    warfare? He will surely return it to
    the nation that uses it against the
    most innocent: Even children
    unborn.

    Doctrines on virtues may originate
    from drives in human nature, having
    a natural basis in it. For instance a
    conscience exists in most of us,
    religious or not.

    If commoness of some intuitions
    can prove they are true, IT such
    proofs must be called subjective,
    but we are not fully human without
    finding & acting on native intuitions
    that motivate practice of virtues,
    with all respect for natural science
    that finds objective truths by other
    means. Each has it’s own means
    to find it’s own kind of truth.

    I don’t believe in one almighty being
    because i choose to. I do because
    my best subjective intuition shows
    His constant presence & no mere
    human could stand my company
    all the time!

    I want to believe in Him but i don’t
    have to want it to believe it.

    I believe humanity will persist
    because i want to. I choose to.
    Because some factors are not
    quantifiable & some surely yet
    unknown. Whether our species
    will last many years or not should
    be considered unknown before
    our fate is found. It being a fair
    assumption that chances for
    human persistence are not
    knowable for sure, the logic
    easily follows we have a chance
    if we attempt to save children
    & their genomes by sensible
    preparations & practice.

    My perception is that is common,
    objective sense coming from
    subjective moral or ethical sense.
    It’s a morally unambiguous cause,
    whatever the outcome.

    I wouldn’t dare trying to start such
    a project to save lives, or argue
    with fascists to reduce future
    influence of ideas that corrode
    civilization in our county, if i did
    not believe in one almighty. I’m
    just a man, but am sure He’s
    truly in control of the Universe,
    so if He wills it, i will be safe
    and succeed. I don’t expect long
    life, just hope to launch a land
    project, get it well started & maybe
    live to teach some about how
    we got to where we are in history
    & how to sort truth from nonsense.
    I want to live and die for my county,
    especially the children.

    By desire and choice, my reason
    to exist is Mendocino County, who’s
    most precious resource is children.

    Perceiving innocence to be an
    attribute of the Almighty, surely He
    loves & values their lives & good
    because they have it. And with
    them there’s always a chance
    they might make a better world.

    Best sites may be at high elevations
    for purer air. There’s going to be a
    lot of crap in it, but crap flows &
    settles downward by action of gravity.

    Air & water filters are a must, but
    where fallouts are least they would
    last least. The atmosphere’s
    composition will fluctuate & change
    over time, but underground gardens,
    artificially lit, can boost O2, purify
    shelter air, provide fresh food &
    save food storage space.

    Yet any preps are better than none.
    Call it chance or hand of God,
    conditions will vary from unknown
    causes. So those less prepared
    may have a chance, if at all
    prepared.

    From a native New Yorker: Thanks
    for doing the heroic work of a
    New York public school teacher,
    Louis.

    Mark W. Laszlo

  5. Louis Bedrock July 25, 2020

    Mark,

    There is a lot of wisdom in your words.
    I could not disagree more strongly about faith and gods but whatever gets one through the night, whatever works…

    Thanks for your kind words about teachers. I wish I could have done more job more effectively.

    Louis

    • Mark Laszlo July 25, 2020

      El Barrio, one of the toughest districts in NY.
      You’re a hero!

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