On the threshold
We are on the threshold of developing artificial intelligance that has the capacity to solve many of mankind’s problems within minutes and change forever the world that we live in.
We are also on the threshold of the possibility of electing a pathological liar and a narcissist with the intellect of a third grader to the most powerful job in the world.
Throughout Donald Trump’s life, he’s been accused of assaulting and raping 26 women, he has filed bankruptcy six times, he’s been married three times and, while his wife was home with their youngest child, he was buying sex from a Playboy foldout and a porn star. He has been found guilty in New York of bank fraud, insurance fraud and tax fraud. He’s been indicted four times and has 91 charges pending.
When society attempts to hold Trump responsible for his actions, he throws a tantrum and calls people nasty names. What adult acts like this? Yet Trump supporters have no problem voting to put him in the most powerful job in the world again.
To all Republican congressmen and senators who haven’t the courage to stand up to Trump’s intimidations, you should be thinking about resigning. Or you could take a stroll through Arlington National Cemetery where you will see the graves of Americans who fought to maintain our democracy, many of whom gave their all to the oath of allegiance to our Constitution that you, too, all swore to uphold.
Bill Haupt
Colton
Forest plan is an affront
The U.S. Forest Service recently announced its revised final draft plan for the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests. Habitat destruction is the order of the day.
Currently protected buffers around spawning streams are reduced by 50% to 67%. The logging program in the 2000s was one-sixth of what the final draft plan anticipates, yet sediment levels even then were still too high in spawning streams where logging was allowed.
Even rare, old forests that sequester carbon better than younger forests and provide habitat for rare species like fisher have loopholes, unlike current plans for each of the two national forests developed in 1987. Those plans don’t allow logging in old-growth areas, which must amount to 10% of the forested acreage.
The recommendations for wilderness amount to only 17% of what could be protected, ignoring the premier large area of critical wildlife habitat in Weitas and Cayuse creeks. Areas previously recommended for wilderness by the Forest Service are either eviscerated like the Kelly Creek/Great Burn along the Idaho-Montana border, or dropped altogether like additions to the Selway-Bitterroot near Elk Summit. The paltry addition in Meadow Creek is a joke.
This plan is an affront to U.S. citizens, the land and its inhabitants. The Forest Service dissembles the public by conflating logging and restoration, a view rejected by independent science. Unlike past plans, there is no accountability.
Anyone who commented on the earlier draft has until Jan. 29 to file an objection. Better yet, contact the Biden administration and voice your opposition: whitehouse.gov/contact.
Gary Macfarlane
Troy
