Trump is NOT the answer

[Snoweagle]

You left out the comma after "presume" and exclamation mark in place of the period.

Would have saved me time reading the rest.

Namaste.

[Antagenet]

I am so angry at Trump today I could ScREaM

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CjTEd6KtaTw

[onawah]

Trump’s Move to Suspend Enforcement of Environmental Laws is a Lifeline to the Oil Industry
The American Petroleum Institute sought the EPA’s help for companies hurt by COVID-19. One former EPA official called the suspension “an open license to pollute."

From Inside Climate News: A Pulitzer Prize-winning, non-profit, non-partisan news organization dedicated to covering climate change, energy and the environment.
BY MARIANNE LAVELLE
PHIL MCKENNA
David Hasemyer
DAVID HASEMYER
NICHOLAS KUSNETZ
MAR 27, 2020
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/2...al-enforcement

(It may still be too soon to tell, but I wonder if those who still don't think Trump belongs to a faction of the Deep State (albeit a DIFFERENT faction than HRC, et al), can come up with a good explanation for this.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/2...al-enforcement


The Environmental Protection Agency, led by Andrew Wheeler, is suspending enforcement of environmental laws amid the coronavirus pandemic.


"The Trump administration's unprecedented decision https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa...id-19-pandemic
...to suspend enforcement of U.S. environmental laws amid the COVID-19 crisis throws a lifeline to the oil industry as it copes with the greatest threat to its business in a generation.

The decision, announced late Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency, comes after a detailed call for help from the industry's largest trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, five days earlier.

The EPA went further than meeting the oil industry's request—announcing a blanket policy suspending enforcement and civil penalties for any regulated entity that can show COVID-19 was the cause of a failure to comply with the law. But it is clear that a primary beneficiary will be the oil industry, which sought suspension of its obligations under consent decrees over past air and water pollution violations at its refineries, deferral of requirements on handling of fracking wastewater and a pause in reporting its greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution.On Friday afternoon, the EPA announced a separate action to relieve refineries of their legal obligation this year to produce "summer" blends of gasoline, designed to reduce smog-forming emissions.

Although the EPA sought to portray its suspension of enforcement activities as an action that would not pose a threat to human health or safety, experts are alarmed at the risks that the retreat poses, especially to the mostly poor and minority communities that have struggled with pollution from oil and gas operations in their midst.

"Air pollution leads to respiratory distress in downwind communities and respiratory distress in turn makes you more susceptible to the coronavirus," said Betsy Southerland, a former EPA official who worked at the agency from 1984 to 2017.

The agency's enforcement suspension demonstrates that as the oil industry faces an historic challenge—plummeting global demand that is driving it to a major shut-down of production—the Trump administration is positioning itself to sustain the business and assist in a rapid return to the fossil fuel status quo.

"This is an open license to pollute," said Gina McCarthy, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, who served as administrator of the EPA during the Obama administration. "The administration should be giving its all toward making our country healthier right now. Instead it is taking advantage of an unprecedented public health crisis to do favors for polluters that threaten public health."

Judith Enck, who served as an EPA regional administrator from 2008 to 2017, calls the rules waiver "irresponsible" and fears that it will give the oil and gas industry carte blanche to pollute with little EPA accountability.

"This is a get out of jail free card, and don't think that the industry won't play it to their fullest advantage," she said.

An API spokesman said that the group "welcomed" EPA's action, stressing that the industry is "committed to prioritizing safe and reliable operations and is complying with requirements."

"Unfortunately, in some locations there may be limited personnel capacity to manage the full scope of the current regulatory requirements due to social distancing, contractor availability, and other COVID-19 impacts," the spokesman said. "Temporary relief from these requirements will allow operators and suppliers to prioritize their resources on those critical activities to enable the continued production of fuels and products."

The Worst Industry Crisis Since the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo
The oil industry's call for relief came amid what many analysts see as its worst crisis since the upheaval of the Arab oil embargo in 1973. Although in its request for help, API invoked the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry's woes escalated sharply with Saudi Arabia's March 7 announcement that it would begin increasing production, drawing on its prodigious spare capacity. The move caused oil prices to crash to less than half of what they were at the start of the year.

The point was to squeeze rival producer Russia, and by extension, frackers in the United States who had been stealing Saudi Arabia's market share. The rating agency Moody's expects a sharp increase in bankruptcies among U.S. frackers when the "staggering" amount of debt they used to finance their operations comes due.

On top of that pressure, stay-at-home orders across much of the country to slow the spread of the coronavirus have caused demand for oil to plummet. The oil consulting firm IHS Markit said that production will need to be shut down because the market is on track to produce far more oil than there is storage available to hold. The demand for gasoline in the United States could fall by more than 50 percent, an impact much greater than that of the 2008 recession.

Some oil and gas companies and their allies have sought massive federal government intervention. Some members of Congress and oil executives had reportedly called for direct financial support for the industry, perhaps through loans or trade actions against Saudi Arabia or Russia for boosting output.

Last week, a group of lawmakers called on the Trump administration to temporarily lower royalty rates for oil and gas extracted on public lands. Texas considered capping the state's oil output to try to boost prices and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) asked the administration to place an embargo on oil from Russia, Saudi Arabia and other oil producing nations. But API, representing the largest industry companies, has opposed trade sanctions or production quotas.

The EPA announced its plan to suspend enforcement of environmental laws after Congress passed a stimulus package that did not include funding to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve or other direct aid to the industry.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, said the policy would not apply to criminal violations of the law. He said the agency "expects regulated facilities to comply with regulatory requirements, where reasonably practicable."

"This temporary policy is designed to provide enforcement discretion under the current, extraordinary conditions, while ensuring facility operations continue to protect human health and the environment," Wheeler said. He offered no projected timeline for lifting the policy.

It's unclear whether the administration's easing of environmental laws will provide significant financial relief for the oil industry. Most experts view a fall in U.S. oil production as now inevitable. Rystad Energy projected that U.S. output will decline this year as companies slash spending by up to $100 billion. It said oil producers may drill only about two-thirds as many wells as planned for the year.

The Public's Exposure to Pollution Could Increase
Numerous former EPA officials from the Obama administration said the agency's unprecedented enforcement suspension was not necessary, because the EPA always has discretion to waive penalties in cases of hardship.

"It can be appropriate to do so, provided [it's] some narrowly constrained relief but imposing enforceable conditions that assure the public remains protected," said Cynthia Giles, who served as head of EPA's enforcement office during the Obama administration. "That's not what they've done here. This is a nationwide moratorium on enforcing the environmental laws, and it does not contain the kinds of protections that are needed to ensure that there's not unlawful air and water pollution and there's not a collapse in monitoring."

She added that the EPA's action was "wildly over broad."

"I am not aware of any instance when EPA ever relinquished this fundamental authority as it does in this memo," Giles said.

Enck, who served as EPA regional administrator for New Jersey and New York, said officials dealt with crisis conditions during Hurricane Sandy in 2012 without suspending rules protecting the public.

In that case, requests for waivers were assessed individually, said Enck, now a visiting professor and senior fellow at Bennington College in Vermont.

"I wanted to hear from the lawyers and the scientists," before we made any decisions," Enck said. "Our first responsibility was to the public, not the industry to make the right decisions."

Allowing a company to postpone the repair of equipment that leaks toxic gases into the atmosphere, as API has suggested, leaves the public exposed to those pollutants for longer periods of time, increases the risk of fire and explosion and is not just a paperwork concern, Giles and other former EPA officials and environmental organizations said in a letter of protest to the EPA.

Clean Air Act rules limiting hazardous air pollution, for example, require refineries to monitor benzene levels at their fence lines and to take corrective action whenever annual concentrations of this harmful pollutant exceed 9 micrograms per cubic meter.

Monitoring reports show that at least 10 refineries in Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Texas exceeded this annual threshold in the fourth quarter of 2019, the environmental advocates said in their letter.

Pasadena Refining Systems in Texas reported that benzene levels along part of its boundary averaged 565 micrograms per cubic meter between Oct. 16 and Oct. 30 of 2019, or nearly six times the 10-hour exposure limit recommended by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

Rob Verchick, an environmental law professor at Loyola University and a deputy associate administrator for policy at the EPA during the Obama administration, said he would be particularly concerned about emergency releases from refineries and other petrochemical facilities during the regulatory suspension.

"These would affect poorer communities usually who are situated around facilities like this and those emergency releases are the kinds of things that send people to the hospital when they happen," he said.

Verchick said emergency releases occur when pressure within a petrochemical plant builds to a dangerous level and the pressurized gases, which often include harmful pollutants, are released into the atmosphere. To avoid such releases, the plants could also shut down temporarily and wait for the pressure to subside. Such shutdowns, however, take time and carry a financial burden because of decreased productivity.

Verchick said the regulatory suspension could increase the frequency of emergency releases and decrease reporting of such releases to the agency and to surrounding residents.

For people who live in nearby communities, Verchick said, the EPA's enforcement suspension would be "just open season on our population."

Mustafa Ali, vice president of environmental justice, climate and community revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation and former head of the environmental justice program at the EPA, said tying the suspension to COVID-19 is "nonsensical."

"We know that these are the communities where we have elevated levels of cancers and liver kidney, heart and lung diseases," he said. "You're going to put more pollution into these communities, then you're also going to create more chronic health conditions which make you more susceptible to COVID-19."

Ali added that in many instances, these are also medically underserved communities that will have a much more difficult time if their residents become infected.

David Uhlmann, director of the environmental law and policy program at the University of Michigan Law School, said it is important to remember that environmental laws rest on an honor system where companies are required to self-identify their pollution activities, self-monitor their compliance and self-report their violations. It might have been preferable to offer leniency on a case-by-case basis instead of a blanket waiver, he said, but the end result may not have been different.

"The Trump administration has such a deplorable record on environmental protection that the no-enforcement rule announced this week is immediately suspect," he said. "But this policy may be less nefarious than the alarming environmental rollbacks that the Trump EPA continues to pursue, even as the nation is fighting the COVID pandemic."

The Impact on Climate Change Could be Staggering
Whatever implications the enforcement suspension may have for the residents who live near refineries and other oil industry facilities, its impact on climate change could be staggering.

If an administration were in place that viewed action on the climate crisis as a priority, the slowdown in drilling could provide an opportunity to ease the economy into a clean energy transition that provides more stability for workers, analysts said.

"The fossil fuel industry is particularly capital-intensive," said Gernot Wagner, an economist at New York University who is co-author of the book Climate Shock. "Installing solar panels on people's roofs is famously labor-intensive. In a week when 3 million Americans have filed for unemployment, why not focus on actually helping those most affected by the crisis?"

Wagner was one of a group of academics who have called for Congress to address the COVID-19 crisis with a "green stimulus" package that addresses climate concerns at the same time it addresses the health and economic security of workers. The package Congress passed this week did not include any clean energy component, and the latest move by the Trump administration makes clear that is not part of its agenda.

"Loosening environmental restrictions is a particularly shortsighted way of attempting to stimulate economic activity," said Wagner. "Doing so during a public health crisis magnifies the concerns."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marianne Lavelle
Marianne Lavelle is a reporter for InsideClimate News. She has covered environment, science, law, and business in Washington, D.C. for more than two decades. She has won the Polk Award, the Investigative Editors and Reporters Award, and numerous other honors. Lavelle spent four years as online energy news editor and writer at National Geographic. She also has worked at U.S. News and World Report magazine and The National Law Journal. While there, she led the award-winning 1992 investigation, "Unequal Protection," on the disparity in environmental law enforcement against polluters in minority and white communities.

[thepainterdoug]

the problem is the human being. plain and simple

im a stoic and love Seneca and Marcus Aureolas . / they say study nature and teach us to do the same. Nothing is even in nature . Beauty and horror live side by side everyday. Might makes right, but the small find a way to live around it. Its hard but honest. We are not.

its amazing to me how well things are working in our society . The humans true nature is demonstrated when things are lawless. Stealing, rape ,murder, and the worst of what you can think of has happened time after time in history and will continue to do so to this very day.

We are a country of laws. Thats our best attribute. Want to rape and pillage? you go to jail and pay the price. Its the law that keeps us generally safe

The political spectrum is an on going blame game with the media running its agenda. Who's a deep state ? who and by how much? A little, a lot? i don't care, as this is all arm chair quarterbacking and its own form of entertainment .

ohh Trump should of acted sooner! well how much sooner? and then why not another day before that? and another day before that? very easy to call when sitting on the sidelines.

All who know what a mutiny is ;the deck hands revolt, throw the captain and his elite overboard, then they are in charge and now need to order their friends around and it happens all over again in short time.

think joe biden going to do better? laughable. and should he get in, then reverse the roles and the same he said, she said , armchair quarterback game begins again .

its the haves and the have-nots . always was and always will be. what we need is a paradigm shift in the heart and in the soul.

then laws wouldn't be needed to keep us in line . it would be our own heart ,soul and karmic awareness. we would all know and want to do the right thing

Lets all do our best , stop arguing and adding negative, and take care of family and neighbor , for we are not yet ready to step up from those we tear down.
IMHO
blessings all / d

[onawah]

That will be much easier once we are really, finally CLEAR about who is doing what and why, all naivety or cynicism aside.
Posting information that needs to be considered is not "adding negative", but adding to CLARITY.
I agree with the views expressed in the discussion here:https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...=1#post1346423
...which are far from divisive or confined to black and white thinking, but are taking a reasoned look at all possible scenarios.
...And that can include a lot of possibilities in shades of gray that many are not taking the time, or taking a break from reactionary thinking, to consider.

Posted by thepainterdoug (here)

Lets all do our best , stop arguing and adding negative, and take care of family and neighbor , for we are not yet ready to step up from those we tear down.
IMHO
blessings all / d

[thepainterdoug]

agreed onawah thanks

[onawah]

Lakota People's Law Project
Tell Congress: COVID aid oversight a must
3/31/20
(From their email update today. IF anyone knows what damage Trump's proposed oil industry bailout would cause, these people do! )

"As you have likely heard, the federal government recently passed a $2 trillion emergency relief package to aid Americans during the COVID-19 crisis. We’re so grateful to those of you who sent 13,000 emails to Congress demanding the CARES Act not bail out fossil fuel companies. It worked: the bill was revised — you and others stopped a $3 billion giveaway to oil companies! Other victories in the Act include expanded protections for unemployed workers, coverage for COVID-19 testing, and $64 million in aid to Indian Country. Even under quarantine, you are helping make a difference where it counts.

Despite those wins, Trump announced in a signing statement that he intends to ignore key congressional oversight provisions, leaving open the possibility that he will still earmark billions of dollars for the fossil fuel industry. Thankfully, such signing statements do not carry the force of law. As my comrade Chase Iron Eyes describes in our new video, Congress can take legal action. Click here to tell the House of Representatives to file a lawsuit against the executive branch and stop Trump from following through on his promise to bail out Big Oil.
https://www.lakotalaw.org/our-action...8&ceid=4609486
Lakota Law

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-xOTrDrZJ2Y

Chase Iron Eyes talks legal action against the White House.

In the midst of massive shelter-in-place orders, we’re seeing how quickly nature can start to rebound — bluer skies, cleaner water ways, thriving wildlife. Mother Earth is clearly sending us a message: we can’t go back to business-as-usual. The truth is, COVID-19 isn’t the primary reason the oil industry is now suffering. U.S. fracking simply can’t compete with cheap Saudi Oil and renewables. We must let the market dictate a shift to green alternatives before it’s too late, rather than continuing to subsidize dirty energy. Taking Trump’s Big Oil addiction to court can be an important step in severing our addiction to fossil fuels.

In more localized news, my part of Indian Country is beginning to feel the impacts of the pandemic, with confirmed cases near both Standing Rock and Yankton. Though we have no reported cases yet on Pine Ridge or Cheyenne River, limited testing means we can’t be sure the virus isn’t among us. We know that COVID-19 could disproportionately impact Native communities, and we’re remaining vigilant during these uncertain times. We organizers are sounding out tribal leaders (from a safe distance) on how LPLP can support public health in the days to come. Please stay tuned for ways you can assist our efforts on the reservations.

Thank you for your support. Wishing you and your family safety and health,

Madonna Thunder Hawk
Cheyenne River Organizer
The Lakota People's Law Project

P.S. We must prioritize the health of people and planet during a pandemic — not the extractive industry that routinely jeopardizes both. I ask you to use your voice again to engage your reps and the courts. Together, let’s stop Trump’s Big Oil bailout.
https://www.lakotalaw.org/our-action...ig-oil-bailout

[onawah]

Air Pollution, on the Rise Under Trump, Puts People at Risk of Severe Illness From Coronavirus
By Alex Formuzis, Senior VP, Communications and Strategic Campaigns
TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2020
https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysi...source=twitter

(Bold letters my emphasis. Though I don't agree with EWG's perspective on "the virus", or climate change, increased pollution is definitely a BIG problem.)

"As the novel coronavirus sweeps across the U.S. and the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 climbs by the hour, the Americans at greatest risk are the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the highest-risk group includes people who suffer from heart and lung disease and asthma – all conditions that can be caused or made worse by moderate to heavy air pollution. And the European Public Health Alliance, or EPHA, warns that people “living in polluted cities are more at risk from Covid-19.”

“Patients with chronic lung and heart conditions caused or worsened by long-term exposure to air pollution are less able to fight off lung infections and more likely to die” from COVID-19, said Dr. Sara De Matteis, associate professor of occupational and environmental medicine at Cagliari University, in Italy, and a member of EPHA.

That’s especially troubling in light of the rise in U.S. air pollution levels, and the weakening of air pollution regulations, during the Trump administration.

Trump’s Assault on Air Pollution Regulations

On Tuesday, the Trump administration released its final rule rolling back President Obama’s fuel efficiency standards for automobiles, which will allow cars and light trucks to cumulatively emit nearly 1 billion more tons of lung-damaging carbon dioxide over the lifetime of the vehicle fleet than under the standards put in place during the Obama administration, The New York Times reported.

“The new rule, which is expected to be implemented by late spring, will roll back a 2012 rule that required automakers’ fleets to average about 54 miles per gallon by 2025. Instead, the fleets would have to average about 40 miles per gallon,” the Times said.

Since taking office, President Trump and his administration have overseen an unprecedented assault on federal policies aimed at reducing industrial pollution from power plants, tail pipes and coal, oil and natural gas extraction operations, including carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and methane.

The administration has or is in the process of repealing at least 95 different environmental rules, with 25 having a direct and adverse impact on the nation’s air quality, and dozens of others that will indirectly increase air pollution.

Among the 16 rules Trump has officially repealed are the Clean Power Plan, President Obama’s signature climate change initiative. The plan set strict limits on carbon emissions coal-fired power plants, which contribute to the health issues that increase susceptibility to COVID-19.

The administration has repealed a rule requiring the oil and gas industry to report methane emissions. It is seeking to revoke California’s ability to set its own stringent auto emissions standards, and has abolished a requirement that each state track emissions from cars, light trucks and other vehicles traveling on federal highways.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration released its final rule rolling back President Obama’s fuel efficiency standards for automobiles, which will allow cars and light trucks to emit nearly 1 billion more tones of carbon dioxide over the lifetime of the vehicle fleet than under the standards put in place during the Obama administration, the New York Times reported.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/c...b97480c795351f

The Environmental Protection Agency is poised to make significant changes to a 2011 rule that drove a 70 percent reduction in mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, which could cause mercury emissions to go back up. Regular exposure to mercury can impair brain and nervous system development in babies and children, and damage the lungs and immune systems in adults and people of advanced age, putting them at greater risk of contracting COVID-19.

And last week the EPA said it will let the fossil fuel, chemical, electricity utilities and other industries use “enforcement discretion” to determine for themselves whether they should be required to monitor and report air and water pollution discharges.

Air Pollution on the Rise Under Trump

Economists at Carnegie Mellon recently published research showing an increase in one form of air pollution by 5.5 percent between 2016 and 2018 after it declined by 24 percent between 2009 and 2016.

Among the reasons the researchers suspect for the rise in annual average fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, are likely policies adopted by the Trump EPA, including significant decreases in Clean Air Act enforcement actions. PM2.5 most notably comes from coal mining and the burning of fossil fuels, including from power plants and combustible engines. The authors of the study estimate an additional 9,700 premature deaths in 2018 alone due to the spike in air pollution

In addition, EPA air emissions data published in June of last year showed a significant increase in bad air days between 2017 and 2019.

In Wake of Coronavirus, Worldwide Emissions Plummet – But Will Return

New satellite data show steep reductions in air pollution in the U.S., as major cities and states have ordered millions of Americans to shelter in place and many businesses to close.

But the damage from increased air pollution has already been done, leaving many people who suffer from underlying health problems and who live or work in dense urban areas or near big sources of emissions such as power plants, refineries and chemical plants at greater risk of contracting COVID-19.

During the 2003 SARS outbreak in China, caused by a similar coronavirus, residents of areas with the highest levels of air pollution were twice as likely to die as those who lived in places with lower levels, according to a study conducted by a team of scientists from China and the U.S.

To make up for lost production time, China is now easing restrictions on manufacturing and other industrial operations that have idled since the pandemic first exploded.

That will eventually happen in the U.S., when these unprecedented efforts to quell the coronavirus and flatten the curve of infection takes hold. Entire industries will ramp back up, and hundreds of millions of Americans will return to their daily commutes to work and school, producing a surge of tailpipe and factory emissions.

The lesson to be learned is that protecting public health does not depend solely on the response to an emergency or the regulation of a specific pollutant. Public health is the sum product of many interrelated policies and practices. Protections targeting a single industrial sector or geographic region have profound ripple effects throughout society.

Congress Must Act to Reduce Air Pollution Through Clean Energy Incentives

Key tax credits for renewable energy have helped spark a revolution in the wind, solar, battery storage and electric vehicle industries, and created more than 3.3 million clean energy jobs. Now those credits are expiring, and Congress failed to reinstate these incentives in the latest coronavirus stimulus package.

The next round of aid lawmakers consider must extend and expand these tax credits and take additional steps to bolster the clean energy industry. This will simultaneously address the three great crises confronting the nation: the pandemic, the economic collapse and climate change."

[onawah]

DESPICABLE!
4/9/20
From Lakota People's Law Project email update today

"Aƞpétu wašté (Good day)! I hope you are staying well, and I want you to know that we’re praying for all our relations impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. One benefit of sheltering in place is that we’re able to keep our eyes peeled for important news. In case you missed it, I wanted to highlight a recent attack on Indigenous sovereignty and ask for your solidarity for our Mashpee relatives.

At the end of last month, the Department of Interior announced that 321 acres of land will be taken out of trust, effectively revoking the reservation status of the Mashpee Wampanoag people of Massachusetts. For those who learned the Thanksgiving story in elementary school, the Wampanoag people broke bread with the Pilgrims in Plymouth colony, and it was Wampanoag land that the Pilgrims took. And now, in the middle of an unprecedented global pandemic, President Trump’s cabinet is moving to rescind the sovereign status of these people.

The Lakota People’s Law Project stands with the Mashpee Wampanoag in the struggle to defend their birthright to live on the land of their ancestors, and we ask that you take a few moments to watch my video

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=pIHFVOJhFhc

...and #StandWithMashpee too:
https://www.lakotalaw.org/resources/...8&ceid=4609486
Lakota Law

President Obama placed the land in question into trust in 2015, but that decision has been reversed under Trump. A reinterpretation by our executive branch of a 2009 Supreme Court decision now only grants trust status to tribes recognized before 1934, when the Indian Reorganization Act was signed. Because the Mashpee weren’t federally recognized until 2007, they’ve now lost their status. As Jessie Little Doe Baird, vice chair of the tribe, said “they came for our children and took them to Carlisle because we were 'too Indian.' Today, they tell us we are not Indian enough."

The Mashpee, who have lived in the Massachusetts area for over 12,000 years, are being denied their right to autonomy. With federal trust status comes the right to manage, develop, and tax a parcel of land. This “disestablishment” of the Mashpee reservation will likely force the closure of the tribal court and police department; it will cost Native people their livelihoods in an already barren economic landscape.

This blatant land-grab isn’t even court-ordered — the directive came from Trump’s Department of the Interior. Now, the Mashpee have asked a D.C. court to issue an emergency restraining order to prevent the dissolution of trust status, and Massachusetts senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey have vowed to combat this assault on the tribe’s self-determination, saying “We will not allow the Mashpee Wampanoag to lose their homeland.”

We Native people have struggled to retain less than 2.5 percent of our lands since European contact. The Indian Wars, in essence, have never truly ended. The United States’ long history of systemically suppressing Native rights continues, and in 2020, land trust removal is the latest iteration of that same legacy of colonialism. We are disheartened, but as Indigenous people and allies, we have each others’ backs in the face of adversity. You can stand for sovereignty by standing with the Mashpee people in their time of need.

Wopila — thank you. Solidarity forever,

Chase Iron Eyes
Lead Counsel
The Lakota People's Law Project "

[amor]

I believe that President Trump has basically a good heart. He has had to survive in business among the most devious, evil corporate and gangster types who are beyond thinking in any straight way. Every move they make is devious with a second and third agenda hidden underneath with the end result being thieving profit. He has had to learn to navigate this swamp, a perfect training ground for Washington.

Recently, Coast to Coast Radio had on someone who read "reverse speech." President Trump's speech in reverse had no hidden messages, he was clean and straightforward. On the other hand, the CDC on another recording came up at LYING on the topic of complicity with the the COVID 19 viral release. They have researched 19 viruses in sequence and PATENTED ALL OF THEM according to Project Camelot's discovery. Therefore, where did the virus come from???? The President is dealing with world class MURDERERS. It is time we pray for him and rise up and remove those who created these evil institutions, corporations, secret organizations and thieves.

[onawah]

EPA paving the way for industry pollution
4/17/20
By Emily Summerlin
http://www.panna.org/blog/epa-paving...emic-resources

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency would be suspending enforcement of environmental laws.

The fact that this administration’s EPA would use this global emergency as an excuse for letting corporations get away with polluting is almost inconceivable. Yet here we are. Since the Trump administration came into office, I’ve watched EPA descend fairly quickly into almost blatant corporate cronyism, monitoring moves like appointing an oil and gas industry advocate as the agency head, reversing course on a planned ban of a dangerous pesticide, and allowing a marked increase of another dangerous pesticide in our water supply by weakening safeguards. But this takes the cake.

This was designated a temporary policy, but no end date has been set. For an agency with “environmental protection” in the name, this is an abdication of EPA’s duty.

Going above and beyond for industry
The agency had been under pressure from several industries, including the oil industry, to suspend enforcement of a number of environmental regulations due to the pandemic before this announcement was made, with several industries also asking for extensions on deadlines to meet various environmental goals outlined in legal settlements they had signed with EPA.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler shared in a statement that the reasoning behind the decision was that EPA “recognizes challenges resulting from efforts to protect workers and the public from COVID-19 may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements.”

However, the memo signed by the Administrator goes far beyond what industry was even asking for — the statement does not even protect EPA's obligation to act in the event of an imminent threat to public health.

Cynthia Giles, who headed the EPA’s Office of Enforcement during the Obama administration said, “EPA should never relinquish its right and its obligation to act immediately and decisively when there is threat to public health, no matter what the reason is. I am not aware of any instance when EPA ever relinquished this fundamental authority as it does in this memo.”

A one-way street
Critics have said that it’s not unreasonable to refrain from enforcement on a case-by-case basis if companies are short-staffed because they’re working to keep their employees safe and at home. But chemical plants and other facilities that are continuing to operate right now should also be able to comply with environmental laws.

New research has come out linking air pollution to higher COVID-19 death rates. EPA should be ensuring that polluting industries are held to an even higher standard right now, not left to their own devices.

Even more upsetting? While EPA makes excuses for why corporations can’t be forced to comply with environmental protection standards during this crisis, they are making no extra allowances for the public to respond to various proposals to weaken environmental standards, refusing to budge on comment deadlines and proceeding with a number of deregulatory actions.

Just last week, EPA announced approval of a pesticide that the agency itself has determined is likely to cause cancer and to drift hundreds of feet from where it is applied — and did so by sidestepping the usual public input process for the decision. The herbicide’s registration was opened for public comment, but not listed in the federal register.

Not so fast, EPA
If EPA thought they could sneak this announcement through while the world is preoccupied with the ongoing pandemic and everything that comes with it, they’re wrong. Public uproar was immediate, and advocacy groups sprung into action to combat this egregious move by the agency.

PAN’s partners at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) along with the Environmental Justice Health Alliance (EJHA) and the Climate Justice Alliance have filed a petition seeking the issuance of an emergency final rule protecting public health, in response to the agency’s non-enforcement policy.

The petition requests that EPA issue a rule requiring companies that take advantage of the non-enforcement policy to publicly disclose when they stop monitoring or reporting their air and water pollution emissions, along with a detailed justification for doing so. The petition also urges EPA to notify the public by publishing that information within one day of notice from the companies.

EPA hasn’t yet responded, but the pressure is on. Stay tuned for ways to take action. "

[onawah]

With All Eyes On COVID, Trump Continues His Environmental Assaults
BY ANDY SHARPLESS AND ANTHA WILLIAMS
APRIL 23, 2020
https://oceana.org/blog/all-eyes-cov...m_medium=email



"As COVID-19 continues its deadly march across the United States, the public and the media are rightly captivated by the pandemic and this administration’s inadequate response. Unfortunately when it comes to President Trump’s environmental assaults, he’s proven he can walk and chew gum at the same time. In the past months as the coronavirus has commanded national attention, Trump has relaxed EPA oversight of polluters, proposed excluding climate change from public infrastructure planning and proceeded to auction off public lands and waters to fossil fuel companies.

We’ve spent our careers dealing with the aftereffects of fossil fuel disasters and working to protect our world’s ocean. And while we can’t leave anything on the field in the fight against the coronavirus, we also cannot abandon the fight against dangerous offshore drilling.

April 20 marked the 10-year anniversary of the worst human-caused environmental disaster in U.S. history: the deadly explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The disaster’s long-term economic, environmental and public health implications should be reminder enough that we can’t take our eyes off the activities of those who would give polluters and fossil fuel interests free rein to drill. An economy made vulnerable by the coronavirus simply cannot afford another disaster on the scale of Deepwater Horizon. Unfortunately, little has been done to protect people, ecosystems and wildlife from similar events in the future.

Deepwater Horizon exposed glaring shortfalls in our institutional safeguards, and yet despite the lessons made clear by the disaster and its aftermath, our leaders have been stubbornly blind to what should have been a teachable moment. Offshore oil and gas drilling remains as dirty and dangerous as it was 10 years ago — and President Trump’s campaign to radically expand offshore drilling still threatens nearly all our waters.

Oil from the BP spill washed ashore along more than 1,300 miles of coast across all five Gulf states, devastating marine life and ecosystems. The spill killed more than 150 whales and dolphins, and more than 1,000 washed up on shore over the following four years. Some estimates put the total bird mortality as high as 800,000. Oil killed up to 170,000 sea turtles — many of them endangered.

The Gulf economy reeled. Hotel owners described the phones going silent the days after the spill. Beach visits, boating and fishing plummeted, leading to a loss in the recreation industry of more than half a billion dollars. Fisheries closed, leaving some fishermen with no choice but to trade their trawl nets for booms and join the largely ineffective cleanup efforts. Government estimates put the total loss in the Gulf seafood industry at nearly a billion dollars.

More than 100,000 people were involved in the response, and in turn, were exposed to oil and the chemical dispersants that were required to address the manmade disaster. Cleanup workers reported respiratory problems, headaches, diarrhea, nausea and rashes. Some workers reported worsening health problems like blood disorders and heart problems even seven years after the disaster.

Now take a moment to imagine these tragedies taking place amid a global pandemic. Most experts say it’s only a matter of when, not if, another large-scale disaster will occur. Oil and gas companies are pushing their rigs farther out into the Gulf and into deeper waters, where risks of accidents are even higher, and where recovery and containment are even more difficult. President Trump and his allies remain focused on endangering our communities, economy and environment by expanding offshore drilling operations. It’s a catastrophe waiting to happen.

And beyond the immediate risks posed by offshore drilling to surrounding communities, this industry has brought us to our current global climate crisis. Hundred-year storms occurring multiple times a year, coastal flooding, massive wildfires and even plagues of locusts — all are linked to an unfolding climate catastrophe that comes from burning fossil fuels. All the signs point to the need for a rapid drawdown of fossil fuel production, and aggressive investment in clean renewable energy.

You’d think the Deepwater Horizon disaster would have been a wakeup call — the moment that we as a nation said “never again.” That should have been the moment we committed to the long-overdue phase out of our dependence on fossil fuels, while effectuating a focused investment plan for our clean energy future.

But we did not. And instead of working to prevent another spill, the oil and gas industry is working with President Trump to weaken the already inadequate rules put in place to prevent another tragedy.

Instead of protecting the local people and economies that provide billions in GDP and hundreds of thousands of jobs to coastal states, President Trump is threatening those clean coastal economies with his plan to expand offshore drilling to nearly every shore. This flies in the face of overwhelming opposition that has grown to include more than 380 municipalities and over 2,200 local, state and federal elected officials. Now, all the governors along the East and West coasts — Republicans and Democrats alike — are on the record against drilling, too.

It’s been 10 years since one of the worst preventable disasters this country has ever seen. We hope that this year we will finally learn from that awful lesson, reverse course and return to a path of progress — a path that leads to clean coasts, healthy oceans and a carbon-free future. The disaster we’re experiencing in real time should be a jarring wakeup call: It’s never too late to do the right thing, but the sooner we act, the more lives we’ll save."

By Antha Williams, who leads the Environment Program at Bloomberg Philanthropies; and Andrew Sharpless, the CEO of Oceana, the largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation.

(I keep thinking about scenes from the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dh9UsP9UMyQ

Fracking and other such dangerous practices only hastens the destruction.
Plandemics may reduce the population, but won't stop the destruction.
The only thing that might is the release of advanced. sustainable, clean technologies, and it doesn't look like the controllers are willing for that to happen.
What will it take?)

[onawah]

Sign the petition: Demand the Department of the Interior stop the sale of all public lands and waters to the oil and gas industry during the COVID-19 pandemic
5/8/20
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign...urce=facebook&

"As the price of oil continues to drop, the oil and gas industry is trying everything to put their interests before COVID-19 relief. Right now, they’re positioned to gobble up giant swaths of public lands and waters on the cheap and are also pushing through massive new extraction projects while the country is reeling from COVID-19 and unable to fight back.

Here’s the background:

The oil and gas industry is actively pushing the Bureau of Land Management to allow new drilling and fracking leases near the Arches and Canyonlands national parks in Utah outside of the area’s “master leasing plan”. Allowing new oil and gas extraction to happen in Utah would advance the climate crisis, threaten the national parks, destroy treasured public lands, and put the great Colorado River at risk for contamination. One parcel the oil industry has requested is double the size of Arches national park itself!

The Department of the Interior cannot sit idly by and watch it happen. The National Environmental Policy Act says that the public must have enough time to analyze and comment on these projects in detail. This cannot adequately be done while communities closest to this potential oil and gas development and extraction are focused on paying their bills and keeping healthy. We must push the DOI to immediately suspend all current public comment periods, upcoming oil and gas lease sales, and new policy proposals for public lands and waters.

The Department of the Interior was created to serve people and give a voice to U.S. communities. Allowing the oil and gas industry to run amuck while the rest of the country is distracted by a global health and economic crisis will have deeply negative effects now and for decades to come. We must demand all oil and gas lease sales on public lands and in public waters stop immediately.

Sign the petition: Demand DOI stop oil and gas leases immediately — we’re in a time of crisis and cannot afford environmental catastrophes now or ever."
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign...urce=facebook&
Participating Organizations:
CCAN Action
Climate Hawks Vote
Climate Reality
Daily Kos
Endangered Species Coalition
Friends of the Earth Action
Food & Water Action
Global Warming Solutions
Greenpeace USA
Interfaith Power & Light
LeftNet
Stand.earth
Waterkeeper Alliance "

[onawah]

Compare the information shared by two experts, Dr. Buttar and Dr. Zach. to what Trump says regarding the Plandemic, showing how very far behind the learning curve he still is.
I don't question that he is doing the best he can considering the murderous agenda he is up against, but just how MUCH he is apparently missing is not reassuring. Disagreeing with Fauci is not going to be nearly enough.
I hope enough of the public wake up a lot faster.
What we all really need to understand is how much the very toxic environment we have created on the planet is to our existence, not to mention our health, and Trump is far from strong on the environment.

EXCLUSIVE: Trump talks Michael Flynn, Obama admin and China with Maria Bartiromo
5/14/20
Fox Business
1.01M subscribers
"President Trump discusses battling coronavirus, reopening the U.S. economy and fallout from the Russia investigation on 'Mornings with Maria.' "

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=U-7N8HAKWmc

DOCTOR WHO PREDICTED COVID-19 ANSWERS ALL
May 8, 2020
The HighWire with Del Bigtree
143K subscribers
"Triple board-certified M.D., Dr. Zach, joins Del in an evolutionary discussion on why Coronavirus is here, what it’s trying to tell us, and how we emerge from the darkness."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RAt...ature=youtu.be


Krystal Tini Interviews Dr Buttar
26,442 views• 5/14/20
Dr Rashid A Buttar
316K subscribers

"Rashid A. Buttar, DO, FAAPM, FACAM, FAAIM: Dr. Rashid A. Buttar received his undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis with a double major in Biology and Theology at age 21, and then attended medical school at the University of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery in Des Moines, Iowa, graduating with his medical degree at age 25. He trained in General Surgery and Emergency Medicine and served as Brigade Surgeon for 2nd Infantry Division, Republic of South Korea, and later as Chief of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Moncrief Army Community Hospital at Ft. Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina while serving in the US Army.

Dr. Buttar became an Eagle Scout at the age of 14, becoming the youngest person in the US to get his Eagle that year, and made the list for promotion to Major in the US Army at the age of 28, becoming the youngest person to make the list for Major that year in the US Army just prior to finishing his service in the Armed Forces. During his military career, Dr. Buttar had the privilege of serving with and being attached to the 2nd Infantry Division, the 101st Air Assault Division and the 5th Special Forces Group. Dr. Buttar is board certified and a Diplomate in Clinical Metal Toxicology and Preventive Medicine, is board eligible in Emergency Medicine and has achieved fellowship status in three separate medical organizations (Fellow of the American College for Advancement in Medicine, Fellow of the American Academy of Preventive Medicine, and Fellow of the American Association of Integrative Medicine).

Dr. Buttar now serves as the Medical Director for the Centers for Advanced Medicine with clinics on the east and west coast. The Centers specialize in the treatment and needs of patients refractory to conventional treatments and who have failed the standard approach to their disease process. With a special emphasis on the interrelationship between environmental toxicity and the insidious disease processes and the “up-regulation” of the immune system, the Center has attracted patients from 89 different countries suffering from autism, cancer, heart disease, stroke and many other conditions too numerous to list."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qPCvAq9xjbE

[Kryztian]

Posted by onawah (here)
[B]Compare the information shared by two experts, Dr. Buttar and Dr. Zach. to what Trump says regarding the Plandemic, showing how very far behind the learning curve he still is.
I don't question that he is doing the best he can considering the murderous agenda he is up against, but just how MUCH he is apparently missing is not reassuring. Disagreeing with Fauci is not going to be nearly enough.

Here is a person who does not get the flu shot and clearly believes in the power of his own immune system, but now he is holding up a future virus as the answer to all our problems? According to Judy Mikovits, Trump is hearing her story, and Trump has stopped funding to the WHO, so here's for holding on to the hope that he is a little smarter than he is letting on.

[greybeard]

No apology for reposting this.
Trump must be aware of VICTORY - Bill Gates, Anthony Fauci & Big Pharma lost a Massive Supreme Court Case in USA

Just perhaps he will now take action against these people.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9JG5b8Qt_CY

[onawah]

That's a very long, passionate rant in the video, apparently designed mostly to convince naysayers, but there is no info provided about a Supreme Court decision.
So until there is credible verification, I wouldn't jump to conclusions that the vaccine agenda has been turned upside down overnight, wonderful though that would be.

Posted by greybeard (here)
No apology for reposting this.
Trump must be aware of VICTORY - Bill Gates, Anthony Fauci & Big Pharma lost a Massive Supreme Court Case in USA

Just perhaps he will now take action against these people.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9JG5b8Qt_CY

[greybeard]

[QUOTE=onawah;1356246]That's a very long, passionate rant in the video, apparently designed mostly to convince naysayers, but there is no info provided about a Supreme Court decision.
So until there is credible verification, I wouldn't jump to conclusions that the vaccine agenda has been turned upside down overnight, wonderful though that would be.

[QUOTE=greybeard;1356242]No apology for reposting this.
Trump must be aware of VICTORY - Bill Gates, Anthony Fauci & Big Pharma lost a Massive Supreme Court Case in USA

Just perhaps he will now take action against these people.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9JG5b8Qt_CY True Natalie--- sounds valid you guys in America must be able to check the validity of what he said--PLEASE do.

Chris

[greybeard]

Supreme Court rules vaccines are unavoidably unsafe - Opinion ...
www.hutchnews.com/a1f84eca-2bf8-5839-b94b-d0a0d1...

The Supreme Court has ruled vaccines are "unavoidably unsafe." Vaccines contain mercury, formaldehyde, aluminum, polysorbate 80, cell lines from aborted fetuses, tissue from hamsters, dog kidneys,...

I cant access this from UK.
Chris

[Kryztian]

Posted by onawah (here)
but there is no info provided about a Supreme Court decision.
So until there is credible verification, I wouldn't jump to conclusions that the vaccine agenda has been turned upside down overnight,

I was looking for some verification on this too. Here is the article he is reading at the beginning of the video:

https://c-vine.com/blog/2020/04/24/w...vaccine-fraud/

There are no links, court case numbers, dates, judge names or any details in the article that would connect it to verifiable court records . It is really hard to believe that it did happen, because Robert Kennedy Jr. and Del Bigtree would be telling us about it now in the many recent videos we have been watching.

Perhaps the author is not that good at verifying fact and citing references OR perhaps the author is a disinformation agent. I am sure that that the people pulling off the plandemic plan to use agents of disinformation to pull off their scam. It's hard to say what this is. I would be happy to be proven wrong, but for right now, I am not going to put any stock in this story and urge everyone to look at "information", whether they agree with it or disagree with it, with a skeptical eye.