Kent – Page 8 – Kent H Blacklidge II MS PhD

June 17, 2023

Supreme Court and EPA Rulings

[Written in response to an editorial in the Kokomo Tribune 6/16/2023]

It is interesting the editorial writer from the Anderson Herald Bulletin does not know basic US law under the Constitution. In the recent editorial in the Kokomo Tribune titled, “Court attacks EPA authority”, the writer clearly makes the assumption the Court has the authority to make law. It does not.

The writer in the first paragraph says, “The US Supreme Court seems to be implementing military tactics in its offensive against the natural environment, attacking first from the air and now from the water”. What? The Supreme Court’s job is to hold the government and us all to within the bounds of legislation passed by the Congress. Nothing more, nothing less.

If there are muddy issues with what current law covers, it is up to Congress to clarify or correct it as an expression of the people. The authority granted the EPA is mostly from the Clean Air and Clean Water acts passed under President Nixon and Republicans long ago.

As one who considers himself an environmentalist from Rachael Carson “Silent Spring” days, I am fully on board with regulations that result in clean air, clean water, and uncontaminated soil. And we have a long, long way to go for those.

The main complaint voiced in the editorial involves the definition of a wetland. Many believed the EPA had itself extended its authority to even mud puddles. The Court did not agree, but limited EPA authority to areas connected to federally protected waterways; an authority granted under law.

The earlier complaint about air quality asked whether the EPA could place state-level caps on carbon emissions. The Court said no under current law. Again, the Court does not make law, it only sets the boundaries of authority under the law. If changes are needed, Congress is the body to make the changes; not the Supreme Court.

So, the editorial writer needs to freshen up on the Constitution before attacking the actions of the US Supreme Court.

Let me repeat… I am an environmentalist or conservationist of decades. I strongly believe in tight, effective laws that correct or prevent environmental degradation. At the same time, I believe such laws must come from the US Congress or State Legislatures and not from regulatory agency proclamation.

June 10, 2023June 10, 2023

Biden Persecution of Trump

Yes, President Donald J Trump has been indicted on espionage charges in the handling of documents he took possession of when leaving the office of the Presidency. The bottom line is this indictment is a blatant case of political persecution.

As President, Donald Trump had the total and absolute authority to declassify any and all documents he wished. No one else in government had that authority. And he did not have to make some formal declaration about classification when possessing documents. By taking documents with him to Mar-a-Lago, all documents were automatically declassified by implication. And what did he do with those personal Presidential papers? He reportedly secured them in a locked area that was patrolled by assigned Secret Service agents.

The content of any documents the then departing President matters not. They were declassified and declared personal. The claim by President Trump is they were and are his.

There is disagreement about what are personal papers and what are not. This seems to be the lynch pin to any legal issues. One cannot question the authority to declassify. That is the President’s only. The claim is that President Trump violated the Presidential Records Act. That is in debate, but even if true there is no criminal penalty and Trump was communicating and working with the National Archives and Records Administration concerning what papers are personal and what should be possessed by the NARA. Then the raid on Mar-a-Lago by the FBI took place without notice. Even Trump’s on site lawyers were frozen out of the property while the FBI agents searched through the property even reportedly to the point of searching Melania Trump’s dresser drawers.

Now since there is no criminal action possible under the National Records Act, the Biden Administration has decided to charge Trump with espionage, a criminal charge. My prediction is this will eventually go nowhere even if it has to get to the Supreme Court before being thrown out.

Political pundits now say that what the Biden administration has done virtually assures that Donald J Trump will be the Republican nominee for President for the 2024 election. This is the opposite of what they hoped for. In truth, Democrats are scared to death that Trump will become President again in January 2025. If he does, the political bloodbath then will begin. The excising of the corrupt and criminal and deep state will be quick.

One has to say something about President Joe Biden. When Vice President and a Senator, Biden had no authority to declassify anything yet he took all sorts of official classified and government papers according to reports. Reports are many were stored openly in a car garage and many more in a library at the University of Pennsylvania. Has the Justice Department, the FBI, and the National Archives and Records Administration done a damned thing about Biden’s violations. Of course not. Or how about Sec. Hillary Clinton violations of classified materials. Nothing there either.

Americans see through all of this and more and more are angry about the injustice being perpetrated. The 2024 election cannot come soon enough.

June 10, 2023July 16, 2023

Apartments?????

I am reading in the Kokomo Tribune about all the attempts to increase apartment style dwelling units in Kokomo including a rash of low cost – subsidized housing. It is time to stop.

Take a look around Kokomo. There are apartment developments everywhere. It is time to stop all apartment development until a complete accounting to the public can be made. The accounting needs to include the name of all apartment complexes, old and new, and the occupancy rate of each. The accounting should indicate whether the apartments are rented at open market rates or are low-cost subsidized units. It sure appears to me there are plenty vacant units of both types in our town now. Let’s see. Let’s account to the public.

There have been claims the Housing Authority wants to significantly increase the number of subsidized low-cost apartments for no reason except to attract out-of-town people to come to Kokomo to occupy them. Not a good reason.

This community should want a reasonable availability of low-cost subsidized housing for local citizens of such need, but not be a beacon to attract more people from the outside. Our goal should be to create employment for citizens so they can live and pay for market rate dwelling whether it be apartments or a home.

So… to our local government officials: STOP! Do not approve any more apartment developments until the picture is crystal clear as to how many of what type have been approved, the occupancy rate of each, and the accounting to the public has been fully and very openly made. The citizens of Kokomo have the right to know. They have the right to determine the character of our town.

May 29, 2023

Says It ALL

This photo of President Trump says it all!

The United States of America is in real trouble. Under the criminal Joe Biden regime we are in an undeclared war in Ukraine against Russia; a war that could get out of control and easily escalate into WWIII. We have millions of illegal aliens already in our country with more to follow bringing in drugs, disease, criminals, child traffic, terrorists, and others from all over the world including Communist Chinese. Look at the pictures. The majority flooding in appear to be military age men; not refugees.

We have inflation out of control. We have energy dependence on countries not our friends. We have economic dependency for essential goods and materials from Communist China; a country that wants to dominate the world. And we have elections filled with fraud.

The country is headed for collapse unless change comes soon. There is much talk, talk, talk about all the criminal behavior of our government highest agencies like the FBI, CIA, IRS, State Department, Intelligence Agencies and more; the “Deep State”. Talk and no consequences…. no convictions, no jail time. We have a court system that is either too timid (cowardly) to take on illegal activity and behavior or are corrupt itself.

The worst criminal occupies the highest office in the USA; the Presidency. Biden and his family should be in jail. That would be a start.

Our only hope is to hold out until Donald J. Trump can once again become the President of the United States of America. We pray.

April 23, 2023

Sagan: Pale Blue Dot

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator an destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar”, every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived here — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

Carl Sagan 1994

[This writing by Dr. Sagan is one of the most profound ever written. We are coming up to Earth Day 2023. Earth is in trouble environmentally and politically. The future is far from certain. The dot is in a photo taken by Voyager just before it left our Solar System. Sagan reminds us how precious and sacred our small planet home really is.]

April 9, 2023

A Prayer for Easter

[This prayer was sent by a company named, Unspoken Elements. I offer a suggestion for you to visit them at unspokenelements.com.

Heavenly Father,

We come before you with hearts full of gratitude and joy as we celebrate Easter, the glorious day of your Son’s resurrection.

We thank you for the ultimate sacrifice of your Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins and rose again on the third day, defeating death and giving us the hope of eternal life.

On this day, we celebrate the victory of light over darkness, of life over death, and of love over hate. We rejoice in the new life and hope that Easter brings and ask that you fill our hearts with joy and peace.

We ask that you bless us with your presence and guide us with your wisdom. Help us to spread your love and light to those around us and be a shining example of your grace and mercy.

My this Easter season be a reminder to us all of your great love and the power of your resurrection. We offer our thanks and praise to you, O Lord, and ask that you continue to bless us with your abundant grace.

In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen

[We all need to pray for our families and for our Country and for President Donald J Trump. Times are perilous and filled with darkness. We must both pray and act.]

April 9, 2023

Easter Day

Here we are on Easter Day 2023. My family has lost a son/brother/father at way too young an age. Much of his life was still before him. We mourn and can only pray that he is now at peace and safely in the hands of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and all ancestors that have gone before him. Mark will be forever missed until the day we all follow him in our own dying day.

His father, Kent

March 31, 2023

Solar Madness

All hope the governing bodies of our community make decisions that benefit our citizens. Unfortunately, the Howard County Board of Zoning Appeals does not qualify. That Board (BZA) of 5 members in the past two months has approved solar farm projects for eastern Howard County that will take about 3,500 acres of the most prime farmland in the world out of agriculture production for 30 years or more. Think about that. Over 5 square miles of Howard County farmland will be covered with glass top solar panels for 30 years.

The rich soil land of Howard County will be destroyed for agriculture use. One of the most continuing and serious concerns of farmers is that top soil not be compacted. We will soon see heavy machinery all over this land that will, indeed, compact top soil. And, we have already been told that “dirt” will be moved to level areas. This takes bulldozers. This means top soil will be scraped off of some areas and moved to others leaving exposed clay behind.

Hundreds of pilings will be driven into the grounds. Heavy equipment is required to drive the pilings. More compaction and a total destruction of the tile drainage systems in the fields. Large area — over 5 square miles — drainage patterns will be disrupted. No one really knows now what effect that will have on neighboring properties.

Then one has to wonder about just who made such unwise, foolish, and damaging decisions. In both approvals, the BZA vote was 2 members of the Board against the solar projects and 3 for; so the approvals were made by a split vote. And who were those who voted “yes”. As far as I can tell, none of the 3 voting “yes” have any agriculture or biological background at all. One even has a direct vested interest in the development of electric vehicles. The ignorance of the three is blatant.

These approvals were made in spite of the fact new solar energy collection technology will soon follow. One such development would leave 80% or more of the land available for farming and still produce the same amount of collected solar energy. This information was given to the BZA a month ago. One must also anticipate even more technological developments in energy production in years to come making what was approved totally obsolete, but locked in for 30 years.

More importantly, the USDA early in 2022 reported the USA will become a net food importer within the next year or so. We are there. Ag exports are expected to grow at an annual rate of 0.8% per year through 2031 while imports grow at an average annual rate of 6%. Domestic preferences for an array of agriculture goods already exceed domestic production. Yet, the BZA for 30 years put rich, fertile land out of agriculture production. Insane.

Interestingly, several of the owners of the land involved are absentee owners caring about one thing — short term money. Shame on them.

The people of Howard County will come to regret the decisions made by the BZA. That may take a few years, but it will come. Eastern Howard County will become a sea of glass that will haunt those who voted “yes”.

February 23, 2023

Frustrated

I have to admit strongly that I am very frustrated at not having the voice and actual power that I once had as Publisher of the Kokomo Tribune. That newspaper in the day had great influence over what happened and the directions taken in Kokomo and surrounding area. The citizens of our area trusted us as evidenced by the over 95% of the homes receiving the Tribune each day….. seven days a week!

Our editorial philosophy was one of moderate conservative Republican. It really boiled down to “common sense”. Nothing stupid. And the people knew this and supported this.

We promoted good jobs and a safe community in a healthy environment. It was through the efforts of the Tribune that the clean up of the Wildcat Creek began. It was a polluted open sewer at the time. We exposed that and forced clean up of other places as well .

We opposed the building of the Lafayette Reservoir that would have covered over 4,000 acres of prime farmland. It was ultimately decommissioned by Congress which stopped the Corps of Engineers building the reservoir.

We did our best to educate people about the importance of clean air, clean water, and clean land. We were trusted.

Now we have shit coming along like a proposal to cover 1,800 and 1,700 acres of prime farmland with solar panels in eastern Howard County. Insane. It never would happen in the old Tribune days. I can only hope it will not happen today, but there is an uphill battle to prevent same.

While I am at it, I am going to bitch about President Joe Biden. I have no idea how he has the authority to unilaterally pass out billions of dollars and massive numbers of weapons to the most corrupt country on the planet, Ukraine. Ukraine has been criminal ole Joe’s money basket for a long, long time. Where in the hell is Congress. I thought they had control of the purse strings….. the Republican controlled House of Representatives at that.

I am really getting the feeling that everyone in political power in the United States is corrupt or afraid. There have been so many crimes exposed but nothing happens but talk, talk, talk, talk. No consequences. Hillary Clinton should be behind bars along with George Bush, Dick Cheney, and now Joe Biden along with his entire criminal family and fellow travelers in the Biden administration.

We are on the edge of a global nuclear war. Russia has just pulled out of a nuclear treaty with the US. Russia is not going to lose face in Ukraine. Putin will pull the trigger on nuclear weapons first.

And by the way, the United States did blow up the Nord Stream pipeline. There is no doubt. Fuckin’ Biden as usual made the decision. As reported time and time again, in his entire political life he has been on the wrong side of every decision regarding foreign relations. Now he is playing with nuclear fire.

Biden et al must go. I don’t know how or when, but he and the cackling VP have to be gone or our country is not going to survive. The doomsday clock is ticking. It is close to midnight.

February 20, 2023

Massive Solar Projects

[This piece was sent to the Kokomo Tribune. Not known if it will be published]

Are you paying attention?

In the name of clean energy, tax revenue, and landowner income; we are on the verge of losing 1,800 acres of prime farmland in eastern Howard County. If the Board of Zoning Appeals approves the project next Tuesday, a French energy company, ENGIE, will cover those acres with sterile solar panels for electricity. The area will be designated the “Emerald Green Solar Project”.

The catch is this is not for the short term. It will be for the next 30 or more years! That land will not be able to produce soy beans or corn or anything else for that matter for decades. Those are beans and corn that did go into the food supply directly or indirectly or into ethanol fuel for our vehicles. No more.

Could you guess where the solar panels are manufactured? You would be right if you guessed Communist China. The IAE (International Energy Agency) reports Communist China is the source of 75% of all solar modules, 85% of solar cells, 97% of solar wafers, and 79% of polysilicon used. Other countries than Communist China, like Viet Nam in the case of ENGIE, may do some of the assembly; but not make or supply the primary components.

And the kicker is there is yet another solar energy project coming right behind ENGIE/Emerald. This one is for 1,700 more Howard County farm acres. It is called “Locomotive Solar” by Ranger Power. It is being alleged that company is offering to pay $1,000 to people to support this project which does not yet have Board of Zoning Appeals approval either.

What is the point? All over the country massive solar field projects are popping up. The goal is to use solar panels to capture sun energy and convert it to electric power for electric utilities. The problem is these solar companies have tunnel vision. They want to gobble up massive acreages of flat, fertile farmland and take it out of production for agriculture for decades when the world is facing food shortages and hunger.

For example, due to war, Ukraine, called the “Bread Basket of the World”, will likely not harvest anything this growing season and for years to come. Europe and Africa depended heavily upon Ukraine crops for food. The United States will be called upon more and more for food supplies; not less.

This madness cannot continue. Technology moves fast. Today’s solar panel technology will be outdated very quickly. The frenzy to cover the world with today’s panels will cease. Then what? And if today’s panels are useful, put them on brownfields or on building roof tops, or on non-tillable lands; not on some of the richest, most fertile farmland in the world.