Trump is NOT the answer

[TargeT]

Hard to see those numbers as real. Wow!

We are about to add three more of the big ones (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_in_service) ;)

600 billion a year... its hard to waste that much money and not end up with SOMETHING to show for it lol

Take a good look at these numbers... Welcome to the empire..
http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5488908d69beddef418b4568-2500-4869/bi_graphics_globalfirepowerindex_2-01-4.png

[abmqa]

Perhaps you're right that the weapon equipment was not ordered or condoned by Trump. I really hope so.

Oh, as for that, I can GUARANTEE that it was not ordered by trump; I know our logistic systems... we just can't react in a week or two with the rumored order to an overseas location ;)

now condoned or not, that's the question.



Reuters was one of the sources and the rebels themselves the others, so a spin, or a lie is also possible imo.

Used to be I'd take it at face value, now.... your definitely right to leave the door open to subversive actions.



About Yemen = ISIS as far as US military is concerned:
You'd have to explain that, because all I know is that there where, or perhaps are trainings- camps for Al Qaida there, but ISIS in Yemen is something that I've never heard of before and I don't think that's the case at all.

Oh I don't know how much it ACTUALLY has to do with ISIS or if Yemen just didn't play ball at some point or what, but they are on our "****list" as it were.. (in reality I'm sure it's just us backing Saudi which is fighting with Yemen right now) I was not attempting to justify it, just explaining the thinking proccess.


When Trump spoke those words at his inauguration about "eradicating radical Islam terrorism from the face of the earth", I knew that we were in trouble

Well, There are different levels of "consciousness" out there, different levels of understanding on a geopolitical level... he could very well think that Isis is exactly what he is told it is & therefor rightly wants to eradicate it. Or it's welcome to the new boss, same as the old boss.

time will tell imo, "too soon" for now.


Yes, ISIS can be defeated and perhaps some sort of order can be restored in Iraq and Syria, but to send the military after radical Islam terrorism will be a bad bad move that the whole world will suffer from.

I don't think many people fully grasp the "terror" situation.

Nearly every single weapon used in the last 20 years or so has come from a super power, every IED that goes off is because we gave them 155mm artillery shells during the iran contra situation (they used a tiny bit of clever re-working and made very effective weapons out of those relics). Everything is from us.

If we quit supplying them, just the US alone and actually went after them it would be like a month (or less) long campaign.

We can literally watch nearly all of the middle east if we want to, live, and on a clear day with resolution fine enough to read what ever letter your standing on the corner holding. This isn't classified anymore, it's basically common knowledge... but i guess people forget that.

everything during the last 8 years has been a show. We have been arming both sides and trying to get the chaos stirred up to a point that would give us an excuse to "intervene" ( like we always do) if we just stop doing that it's over on it's own in a year or two.




Hard to see those numbers as real. Wow!

We are about to add three more of the big ones (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_in_service) ;)

600 billion a year... its hard to waste that much money and not end up with SOMETHING to show for it lol

Take a good look at these numbers... Welcome to the empire..
http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5488908d69beddef418b4568-2500-4869/bi_graphics_globalfirepowerindex_2-01-4.png

Gawd! With 16 more planned. Like we need them! It makes me wonder why any country would ever eff with us!!! lol

[TargeT]

I don't think it will be soon, so not even a guess on when right now ;)

Perhaps I spoke too soon....

I thought we were over this Iran thing...



The coming clash with Iran

Pat Buchanan: Why did Trump and Flynn feel the need to threaten Tehran now?


When Gen. Michael Flynn marched into the White House Briefing Room to declare that “we are officially putting Iran on notice,” he drew a red line for President Trump. In tweeting the threat, Trump agreed.
His credibility is now on the line.
And what triggered this virtual ultimatum?
Iran-backed Houthi rebels, said Flynn, attacked a Saudi warship, and Tehran tested a missile, undermining “security, prosperity and stability throughout the Middle East,” placing “American lives at risk.”
But how so?
The Saudis have been bombing the Houthi rebels and ravaging their country, Yemen, for two years. Are the Saudis entitled to immunity from retaliation in wars they start?
Where is the evidence Iran had a role in the Red Sea attack on the Saudi ship? And why would President Trump make this war his war?
As for the Iranian missile test, a 2015 U.N. resolution “called upon” Iran not to test nuclear-capable missiles. It did not forbid Iran from testing conventional missiles, which Tehran insists this was.


Is the United States making new demands on Iran not written into the nuclear treaty or international law – to provoke a confrontation?
Did Flynn coordinate with our allies about this warning of possible military action against Iran? Is NATO obligated to join any action we might take?
Or are we going to carry out any retaliation alone, as our NATO allies observe, while the Israelis, Gulf Arabs, Saudis and the Beltway War Party, which wishes to be rid of Trump, cheer him on?
Bibi Netanyahu hailed Flynn’s statement, calling Iran’s missile test a flagrant violation of the U.N. resolution and declaring, “Iranian aggression must not go unanswered.” By whom, besides us?
The Saudi king spoke with Trump Sunday. Did he persuade the president to get America more engaged against Iran?
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker is among those delighted with the White House warning:
“No longer will Iran be given a pass for its repeated ballistic missile violations, continued support of terrorism, human rights abuses and other hostile activities that threaten international peace and security.”
The problem with making a threat public – Iran is “on notice” – is that it makes it almost impossible for Iran, or Trump, to back away.
Tehran seems almost obliged to defy it, especially the demand that it cease testing conventional missiles for its own defense.


This U.S. threat will surely strengthen those Iranians opposed to the nuclear deal and who wish to see its architects, President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, thrown out in this year’s elections.
If Rex Tillerson is not to become a wartime secretary of state like Colin Powell or Dean Rusk, he is going to have to speak to the Iranians, not with defiant declarations, but in a diplomatic dialogue.
Tillerson, of course, is on record as saying the Chinese should be blocked from visiting the half-dozen fortified islets they have built on rocks and reefs in the South China Sea.
A prediction: The Chinese will not be departing from their islands, and the Iranians will defy the U.S. threat against testing their missiles.
Wednesday’s White House statement makes a collision with Iran almost unavoidable, and a war with Iran quite possible.
Why did Trump and Flynn feel the need to do this now?

There is an awful lot already on the foreign-policy plate of the new president after only two weeks, as pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine are firing artillery again, and North Korea’s nuclear missile threat, which, unlike Iran’s, is real, has yet to be addressed.
High among the reasons that many supported Trump was his understanding that George W. Bush blundered horribly in launching an unprovoked and unnecessary war on Iraq.

Along with the 15-year war in Afghanistan and our wars in Libya, Syria and Yemen, our 21st-century U.S. Mideast wars have cost us trillions of dollars and thousands of dead. And they have produced a harvest of hatred of America that was exploited by al-Qaida and ISIS to recruit jihadists to murder and massacre Westerners.
Osama’s bin Laden’s greatest achievement was not to bring down the twin towers and kill 3,000 Americans, but to goad America into plunging headlong into the Middle East, a reckless and ruinous adventure that ended her post-Cold War global primacy.
Unlike the other candidates, Trump seemed to recognize this.
It was thought he would disengage us from these wars, not rattle a saber at an Iran that is three times the size of Iraq and has as its primary weapons supplier and partner Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

When Barack Obama drew his red line against Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Syria’s civil war, and Assad appeared to cross it, Obama discovered that his countrymen wanted no part of the war that his military action might bring on.
President Obama backed down – in humiliation.
Neither the Ayatollah Khamenei nor Trump appears to be in a mood to back away, especially now that the president has made the threat public. http://www.wnd.com/2017/02/the-coming-clash-with-iran/#Eyfj4r8dW5HFHGth.99


Trump certainly will act if Israel prompts it... not good.

[Eram]

I don't think it will be soon, so not even a guess on when right now ;)

Perhaps I spoke too soon....

I thought we were over this Iran thing...



And what about the US ambassador at the UN?
She insanely (cause Russia did nothing of this sort) blamed Russia for the recent violence in Eastern Ukraine.
What is that all about?

WuQ8si3-I1s

Either Trump has no control over his people, or he is playing a very different game then the one he promised to play.

I don't know which option is worse.

[TargeT]

Either Trump has no control over his people, or he is playing a very different game then the one he promised to play.

I don't know which option is worse.


First one, IMO...

most presidents play ball.. this one isn't, so the holes in the system are showing.

[Baby Steps]

Donald Trump (DT) first meeting with Big Pharma (BP) --- it did not go well.

DT: Hi guys, thanks for coming. As you know I have stated that drug prices are excessive. I hope we can exploit the scale of US drug consumption, and the buying power of Government programmes to achieve economies of scale... basically I want to see, as per my campaign platform, CHEAPER DRUGS for our people. This is a key pledge for me. Another key pledge is to re-patriate good jobs, I want to see more of these things made at home for our people.

BP: Hi, big D. So let me get this straight... you want us to sacrifice profits, cut prices AND move plants back home to a higher cost zone that we currently have... where is the up-side for us?

DT: Guys, guys, don't forget that I will be cutting Company Income tax so there is a benefit. Overall profits should do fine...

BP: Well, those tax cuts are in the bag for us already...where is our incentive to change ? The way things are going we are looking to off-shore as much as we can, and that will blow your 'bring jobs home' clean away. So don't mess with us!

DT: Jeez, you guys do play hard ball! OK, what do you want? PLEEEZE can I have a fig leaf gesture regarding cheaper drugs for our poor seniors.. what will it take??

BP: OK that's better ! Well big T these are our demands:

1. De-regulate rules on trial drugs for the imminently terminal ( so we can torture the dying in their last weeks )
2. De-regulate the whole testing regime, because the best judge of the benefit or otherwise of our products is US, not a publicly accountable body that slightly pays lip service to the greater pubic interest.
3. Can you help us with our big loss makers in Europe- the low prices we get there... (we have drafted a policy document on this...)

DT: OK I get it except for part 3. Why is it my business what prices you get for your excellent and indispensable products in Europe? Surely they have a free market for drugs over there too??

BP: Well, Donald, see, it's like this... in Europe etc, they have a different way of operating. They ensure that there is a fully functioning price competition mechanism operating for drugs. We have mostly subverted this insidious idea back home by co-opting public regulatory bodies. So we just cannot get the prices. But it's worse than that. They just say to us ' sorry, guys, we are just not prepared to pay for that product at that price. They flat refuse. Their publicly transparent mechanisms for evaluating cost-benefit for new drugs often conclude that a cheap generic alternative, or old out of patent version is adequate for their system.

DT: Good God! Poor Europeans! They must suffer from much lower life expectancy without the latest treatments. But I cannot see where I fit in. Surely your great products sell themselves?

BP: No, we are asking for help from you above and beyond. THIS is the trade off. THIS is what we require. If we cannot convince them with back handers, research papers, advertising etc, we HAVE TO fall back on POLITICAL POWER. Use your influence to 'open' their markets. Don't worry, the 'How' is all worked out. We need to you go back to TTIP and implement the product protections enshrined in the secret provisions there. Just do NOT call it TTIP! And start with those fools the English when the come begging! The rest will follow!

DT: OK, but you drive a hard bargain!

[TargeT]

cs0BfPDvUQg

With promises to "drain the swamp!" still ringing in our ears, we have watched Trump appoint nothing but Goldman banksters, Soros stooges, neocon war hawks and police state zealots to head his cabinet. Join us this week on The Corbett Report as we examine the swamp-dwellers with which Trump has filled his swamp.

[ThePythonicCow]

Either Trump has no control over his people, or he is playing a very different game then the one he promised to play.

I don't know which option is worse.


First one, IMO...

most presidents play ball.. this one isn't, so the holes in the system are showing.

The second option, IMO... :)

President Trump's job is to serve as the US front man for some major changes in the economic, monetary and political structure of the world.

The Saudi, Iran, Israel, Syria, Turkey, ISIS, "terrorist", ... conflicts are tearing apart the Muslim world, and they are providing major cover or excuse for various major actions, world-wide, as various powerful hidden hands jockey for position and bring about various changes to the Next New World Order, with its multi-polar political order and multi-major-currency monetary system, all guided by hidden globalist hands, using increasingly sophisticated world-wide surveillance and mass population control technology. In particular, this latest outrage by the US over Iran is serving nicely to distract from this bit of news: Iran to ditch the US dollar in retaliation to Trump's travel bans (https://www.fxstreet.com/news/iran-to-ditch-the-us-dollar-in-retaliation-to-trumps-travel-bans-201702022009). The hegemony of the US Dollar is coming to an end, and Iran just took a key step in that process.

The primary victim of the US sanctions against Russia, which US Ambassador Haley justified in her remarks at the UN, is Europe. These sanctions will serve, along with other insults to Europe, as the motivating factors for European nations exiting the EU and NATO, or at least for substantially reforming these institutions, to better fit the Next New World Order.

[TargeT]

Either Trump has no control over his people, or he is playing a very different game then the one he promised to play.

I don't know which option is worse.


First one, IMO...

most presidents play ball.. this one isn't, so the holes in the system are showing.

The second option, IMO... :)

President Trump's job is to serve as the US front man for some major changes in the economic, monetary and political changes in the world.


With the amount of Sachs employees he brought on, I guess he must be "in on it"; I guess the Sanctions were just a part of the destabilization of the west to transfer power to the "stable" east (though china has a LOT of PR work to do... haha)

Clearly the EU block is in for a fun year, but that alone isn't enough to bring the US down with it... perhaps trumps machinations are meant to accomplish that bit? Go broke building a wall and expanding the military? The continued departure of countries using the dollar for oil will collapse our economy over time, but is that "fast enough"? Iran isn't the first to ditch the dollar.

[AutumnW]

I don't blame people for being pro-Trump. I agree with nearly all of their sentiments and values. My question has always been, if he is sincere and if his intentions are above board. My personal view is regardless of any of that, what about the swamp? Which way are the catfish really swimming?

[TargeT]

I don't blame people for being pro-Trump.

I do, they are the same as obama supporters (with less crying).

There's NO WAY "our guy" will make it into the white house, or better to say; there's no way "their guy" won't.... it's delusional (yet fun, hope is always a fun emotion) to think other wise.

Sure seems like both parties are having their hero in office (only to have them torn down, Obama will go down as one of the worst presidents, not sure why trump will be any different).


Just look at his appointee's: the Military industrial complex's top representatives to a T.... Generals and Bankers, hell he has the #2 guy from Goldmen Sachs!

[AutumnW]

I understand the anger and sense of outrage that gained him a huge protest vote, though. If I lived in a sacrifice zone, in coal country, I would have voted for him.

I liked Obama before he was elected. As soon as he chose his cabinet, I was sickened though. I think, as you have highlighted, Trump supporters have to look at the people he has surrounding him now, too. A lot of people who loved the guy are cantankerous right wing types. Surely to God, they are starting to see the light!?

[TargeT]

A lot of people who loved the guy are cantankerous right wing types. Surely to God, they are starting to see the light!?

Why would they?

This is even worse than when Obama did it, at least with Obama it was obviously pandering to wallstreet, now with the "right" in charge, he's appointing people... From the right, so the "right" will agree with them all and not see anything wrong (at least obama supporters had more of a chance to catch the cognitive dissonance). And anyone complaining from the "left" will be marginalized like the naysayers from the right were for the last 8 years.

We seem to be looking at a mirror of the last 8 years.... Everything is the same, just it's leaning right now instead of left.. and of course... no one notices.

[onawah]

Building more pipelines is going to cost way more than they are worth in the long run in terms of polluted water and health care costs resulting from it.
Tax payers will continue to pay for the damages the industry creates in term of environmental destruction, earthquakes and even more water pollution due to fracking, which Trump encourages.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-14/as-trump-vows-to-boost-drilling-fracking-foes-turn-to-courts
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/24/politics/erin-brockovich-flint-water-crisis/
It's looking to me more every day like Paul is right, and the only optimistic premise remaining is that perhaps what we are seeing is the prophesied battle between conflicting branches of the elite in which they will finally destroy each other.
The only question being, how much of the rest of the world are they going to bring down with them?
Another prophesy has been that Native Americans (and other indigenous peoples) will be setting the example for those who choose to stand for Gaia, and they are proving themselves willing; with 70 arrested on Wednesday at Standing Rock, they are vowing to continue the protest and to set up more camps at other drilling sites.
7SDUnLk9xIo
And many are no doubt waiting to see what Erin Brockovich is going to do.
In October she said ""I don't know what we're resolving. There's a lot of name-calling and accusations and innuendos," Brockovich said. "We're watching a campaign and I feel like I'm watching some reality show of two teenagers in high school who don't get along."

The famed consumer advocate and environmental activist lamented the state of American politics and called out the Republican and the Democratic parties for failing to recognize that "we have a national water crisis."
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/24/politics/erin-brockovich-flint-water-crisis/
Simon Parkes predicted that the US economy will be devastated by the costs of cleaning up the water if fracking continues and that the earthquakes resulting will cause global damage.
Peter Paget foresees much death and destruction due to earthquakes and other disasters coming soon.
Whatever their reputations may be as whistleblowers, it doesn't seem likely from all other indicators that they are wrong.
I hope we will have better leaders than Trump to help us get through the coming decades.

[Chester]

I don't blame people for being pro-Trump. I agree with nearly all of their sentiments and values. My question has always been, if he is sincere and if his intentions are above board. My personal view is regardless of any of that, what about the swamp? Which way are the catfish really swimming?

I see two possibilities about this -

One - he has brought in folks who, when he interviewed them, talked in ways he believed they were on board with his plans and who would ensure that his agendas would be acted upon based on their area of authority. And that he felt it wise to have folks who knew how things worked in their various specific areas of expertise and who had relationships which might be helpful with a real swamp draining process. Understand, possibility one pre supposes his agenda is as he has promised... "for the people, all people."

Two - 2 a.) he either intended to sell out or 2 b.) was compromised such that he feels he has no choice or 2 c.) he found himself in too deep and overwhelmed (some of the roll out of some of his actions even I could have done better) or 2 d.) once elected the same "carrot and stick" approach he has with regards to trade has been used by various PTB representatives to "get him on board" with their agenda.

Clearly I hold hope for 1 but I certainly won't be surprised if a variation of 2 became the obvious reality.

We shall see.

And with regards to this, I will always call things as I see them (as I have done already on a few matters in other threads). I am mostly still positive Trump is about 1, but a few times I found myself concerned the truth may turn out more often than not to appear as one or more of the variations of 2. Deregulating Wall Street without eliminating a potential bail out if again we have a "too big to fail" situation has me more concerned than anything else.

[AutumnW]

Sam, I get the impression that Trump loves a good fight more than anything. He loves to scrap. That might be all there is to it.

[onawah]

Trump's New World Order
http://forbiddenknowledgetv.net/truthstream-media-trumps-new-world-order/
From: Forbidden Knowledge by Alexandra Bruce
eLS5h1ZDKvE


“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” says Melissa Dykes of Truthstream Media. She makes a strong case, here that what our attention is being distracted by the flag-burning riots at UC Berkeley from foreign policy moves (and lies) by the Trump Administration, scripted way back in 2009 in the Brookings Institutions’s analysis paper, “Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran.”

The purpose of the paper was to identify the conditions whereby a very strong international resistance to military operations against Iran could be overcome.

Dykes suggests that the sweetheart nuclear non-proliferation deal brokered by John Kerry in 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in which Iran was awarded with $55B in sanctions relief and $20B in Iranian frozen assets were liberated – and the false accusations being made by Trump and his National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, of Iran’s violations of the treaty are all parts of a longterm psychological operation, intended to aggravate the US public and to make them more amenable to military hostilities with Iran.

Iran’s recent missile test has been called a breach of the agreement, when it was not and an alleged Iranian attack on a US Navy ship was, in fact an attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels on a Saudi ship (!) but construed by the Mainstream Media as an “Iranian proxy attack”, when in reality, Iran has next to no influence in Yemen.

As geopolitical researcher Tony Cartalucci wrote in his Land Destroyer blog, “US Betrays Iran Deal as Expected – Edges Closer to War”, Michael Flynn’s lies about the Yemen’s normal response to the full-scale war being waged against it by Saudi Arabia (with next to no coverage by the Western MSM) “encapsulates a documented conspiracy drafted under President Bush, implemented under President Obama and finally coming into full fruition under President Trump, once again illustrating the continuity of agenda that transcends party politics, presidencies and political rhetoric – driven by immense corporate-financier special interests not the will of American people.”

As I have been stating frequently of late, Iran is one of the last three major economies in the world, along with Russia and China, whose currencies are not controlled by the Central Banking system headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and this is Iran’s biggest “crime,” according to the Globalist agenda.

[onawah]

Simon Parkes is on Wolf Spirit Radio now
http://wolfspiritradio.com/listenchat/
and he just said that Trump has turned the Standing Rock issue over to the courts to decide if the project will proceed or not, and if it proceeds, only US steel will be permitted for the pipes.
And he had more good words for Trump (and for Putin, for throwing the Rothschild bank out of Russia),
He said a big reason that Trump ran for POTUS is because he was irate that his son was vaccine damaged, and that one of the first things he did was order the raiding of a vaccine laboratory.

[Cidersomerset]

I just posted this on the other thread but you may like here as James Corbett
is pretty thorough and one of the best alternate political researchers imo....

How Trump Filled The Swamp

cs0BfPDvUQg

Published on 3 Feb 2017


SHOW NOTES AND MP3: https://www.corbettreport.com/?p=21637

With promises to "drain the swamp!" still ringing in our ears, we have watched
Trump appoint nothing but Goldman banksters, Soros stooges, neocon war hawks
and police state zealots to head his cabinet. Join us this week on The Corbett
Report as we examine the swamp-dwellers with which Trump has filled his swamp.

[TargeT]

I just posted this on the other thread but you may like here as James Corbett
is pretty thorough and one of the best alternate political researchers imo....

How Trump Filled The Swamp


I agree, very appropriate thread for that video. (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?94907-Trump-is-NOT-the-answer&p=1132083&viewfull=1#post1132083)

[onawah]

I've been meaning to watch that. Thanks Cindersomerset.

I just posted this on the other thread but you may like here as James Corbett
is pretty thorough and one of the best alternate political researchers imo....

How Trump Filled The Swamp

cs0BfPDvUQg

Published on 3 Feb 2017


SHOW NOTES AND MP3: https://www.corbettreport.com/?p=21637

With promises to "drain the swamp!" still ringing in our ears, we have watched
Trump appoint nothing but Goldman banksters, Soros stooges, neocon war hawks
and police state zealots to head his cabinet. Join us this week on The Corbett
Report as we examine the swamp-dwellers with which Trump has filled his swamp.

It's feeling to me like we've dodged the Clinton bullet, now only to find ourselves in the Trump et al crosshairs. So what else is new?
Possibly the Clinton boat just wasn't going to float anymore after the pizzagate leaks, and it is beginning to become all too obvious that's it's a mini Ice Age we are facing, not global warming, so that card had to be pulled hastily.
Not to mention that the bullsh-- re vaccines being safe has gone and hit the fan, though of course, most people still don't realize any of this....

[awakeningmom]

I am wondering what everyone is thinking now with Trump suggesting that the mainstream media is "downplaying" terrorist attacks in the news and that there should be more coverage of them? Doesnt sound like a man who is about to reveal 9-11 truth or any other truth anytime soon. Sounds instead like he is giving green light for more false flag attacks and more coverage of them. Are we going to go back to the George W. Bush days of red alerts and fear mongering everywhere? I have a very bad feeling about DT and future under him now -- even more than I already did.

[onawah]

If he goes that way, I don't think he will last.
There are too many forces arrayed against him already.
If he takes the high road, evolution will be on his side and he might make it, but not if he intends to take us further downhill.
Just my opinion as of right now, but that could change too!

[awakeningmom]

I just do not understand anyone who believes 911 was a false flag/inside job can possibly think Trump is not part of the same dark system as Bush and Cheney and Obama and Clinton. if you listen to trumps own words on the corbett report's Filling the Swamp video posted above, right after Trump pays homage to Isarel he reiterates the 19 arab official narrative, then praises Rudy Giuliani as a hero (!!!) that day when clearly Rudy was complicit in that crime against humanity. I may be a one trick pony, but I know that anyone who not only pretends to believe in the official narrative of 911, but audaciously sells the lie to continue wars of aggression in the middle east is not a good guy and is clearly a part of the Dark PTB who literally seem hell bent on destroying this world.

[AutumnW]

Trump's New World Order
http://forbiddenknowledgetv.net/truthstream-media-trumps-new-world-order/
From: Forbidden Knowledge by Alexandra Bruce
eLS5h1ZDKvE


“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” says Melissa Dykes of Truthstream Media. She makes a strong case, here that what our attention is being distracted by the flag-burning riots at UC Berkeley from foreign policy moves (and lies) by the Trump Administration, scripted way back in 2009 in the Brookings Institutions’s analysis paper, “Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran.”

The purpose of the paper was to identify the conditions whereby a very strong international resistance to military operations against Iran could be overcome.

Dykes suggests that the sweetheart nuclear non-proliferation deal brokered by John Kerry in 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in which Iran was awarded with $55B in sanctions relief and $20B in Iranian frozen assets were liberated – and the false accusations being made by Trump and his National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, of Iran’s violations of the treaty are all parts of a longterm psychological operation, intended to aggravate the US public and to make them more amenable to military hostilities with Iran.

Iran’s recent missile test has been called a breach of the agreement, when it was not and an alleged Iranian attack on a US Navy ship was, in fact an attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels on a Saudi ship (!) but construed by the Mainstream Media as an “Iranian proxy attack”, when in reality, Iran has next to no influence in Yemen.

As geopolitical researcher Tony Cartalucci wrote in his Land Destroyer blog, “US Betrays Iran Deal as Expected – Edges Closer to War”, Michael Flynn’s lies about the Yemen’s normal response to the full-scale war being waged against it by Saudi Arabia (with next to no coverage by the Western MSM) “encapsulates a documented conspiracy drafted under President Bush, implemented under President Obama and finally coming into full fruition under President Trump, once again illustrating the continuity of agenda that transcends party politics, presidencies and political rhetoric – driven by immense corporate-financier special interests not the will of American people.”

As I have been stating frequently of late, Iran is one of the last three major economies in the world, along with Russia and China, whose currencies are not controlled by the Central Banking system headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and this is Iran’s biggest “crime,” according to the Globalist agenda.



This is extremely important. People are so thankful, with reason, that Trump and his people may have stopped a nuclear exchange with Russia, they are ignoring the fact that he appears about to start one with China.

[onawah]

Different Names - Same Masters: The David Icke Dot-Connector Videocast
Published on Feb 10, 2017
aInVxBoswzE

[onawah]

Barrett "Trump & Neocons Are Shredding US Constitution With The Support Of The Alternative Media."
The Richie Allen Show
Published on Feb 9, 2017
j3LPPEhMefE

[DNA]

Trump's actions so far show he is very anti-wall street. Trump has crushed the TPP and he has gotten rid of Dodd/Frank. Both of these actions show Trump is no friend of Wallstreet. For those who do not like Trump's choices for cabinet I ask "what did you expect?", I think his choices are real world people who KNOW what is going on with the world and how to fix it.
I'm just glad he didn't choose a bunch of lawyers who know nothing about accomplishing real world policies.
Trumps Goldman Sachs choices have been nothing but steller so far as cabinet members. Providing information on how best to remove WallStreets leverage.


The pick I'm starting to worry about is James Mattis.
I thought picking up a couple of marines for very important cabinet positions was the right call when I first heard their choice.
But as of Feb 11 I have yet to hear of Trump recalling any of the armed forces back to the US.
Further more James Mattis has just made the public declaration that Iran was "the world's biggest sponser of state terrorism" which sounds like Mattis is taking his intel from the CIA, and as such may be pushing ahead with the Neo-Con foreign policy to attack Iran just like Iraq and Libya. http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/04/politics/mattis-iran-us-sanctions-missile/


So while I'm thrilled Trump is attempting to block immigration, and has slapped Wallstreet upside the head, I'm less then thrilled with Trump's foreign policy thus far.

[Chester]

I just do not understand anyone who believes 911 was a false flag/inside job can possibly think Trump is not part of the same dark system as Bush and Cheney and Obama and Clinton. if you listen to trumps own words on the corbett report's Filling the Swamp video posted above, right after Trump pays homage to Isarel he reiterates the 19 arab official narrative, then praises Rudy Giuliani as a hero (!!!) that day when clearly Rudy was complicit in that crime against humanity. I may be a one trick pony, but I know that anyone who not only pretends to believe in the official narrative of 911, but audaciously sells the lie to continue wars of aggression in the middle east is not a good guy and is clearly a part of the Dark PTB who literally seem hell bent on destroying this world.

Of course, it is impossible to see that he's playing chess. It is impossible to imagine that it may make far more sense to "play the game" in specific areas of the Grand Game until one has achieved a position of strength one no longer has to.

Example - remember this?

Trump says Obama born in US, ‘period’ – after new ‘birther’ dust-up (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/09/16/trump-clinton-trade-barbs-over-obama-birther-movement.html)

Now ask yourself... especially in light of this news conference? A news conference that certainly was not news to Trump - a news conference held after Arpaio lost the last election (held after Arpaio foresaw less risk in having this news conference? Another chess player?)

yuhF-Ok3djI

Ask yourself - do you believe that Trump actually believes that Obama was born in the US, 'period' if "folks" had gone to such lengths (as is proven in this video alone) to try and create a "birth certificate" that Obama's folks rolled out unless maybe he actually wasn't?

Do you really think Trump believes that? Do you really think that Trump isn't "open minded" with regards to the full picture possibilities of 9-11? Do you really think Trump has completely ignored the possibilities related to "pedogate"?

Do you think Trump thinks that Hillary Clinton is unprosecutable? But will he? Hell no, because the big picture situation going on in the world is incredibly complex and if he's as smart as some think he is and if he has the heart some of us actually thinks he has, the last thing he'll do is NOT play the game in the very best way he can so that at the end of his run, he has not improved this world for all of us - as he has stated his intention to be.

Imagine if all the folks that have already tried and convicted this guy and his team would actually instead, give this guy and his team a freaking chance? It blows my mind knowing that so many folks here probably have children and yet would prefer to stick a stake in the guy before the world has a chance to rise from its impending grave?


And I must ask this one question too... If Trump is not the savior (as no one here with any sense of reason would ever expect him to be), how is it that every mistake he makes (and certainly almost all of us would agree he has made some), crucify him for every single legitimately concerning action, triple crucify him for every over blown or outright manufactured transgression?

It is as if the very ones here who want to believe a supporter like myself could actually see him in such light who are in fact trying to hold him to that very ideal!

Can you folks not see the strange hypocrisy here?

Stop accusing folks of expecting him to be a savior while holding Trump to the standard of being such. Ridiculous.

[Helene West]

And I must ask this one question too... If Trump is not the savior (as no one here with any sense of reason would ever expect him to be), how is it that every mistake he makes (and certainly almost all of us would agree he has made some), crucify him for every single legitimately concerning action, triple crucify him for every over blown or outright manufactured transgression?

What you are asking is what I think millions ask whenever they read the news today.
The answer is - because we needed a trump (or better) 30 years ago... Now the country has been so infiltrated with American haters, today's (i.e. 2017 A.D.) real racists - whitehaters, today's real sexists - alpha male haters, christian haters, etc., etc.
We're trying to apply antibiotics at the point where the disease has almost killed the patient, the patient stinks, looks horrible, etc. and we're trying now to give it medicine, it's very late and the patient could still survive....but those who have had a purpose for the corpse of america are really, really pissed.
The haters remind me of the diabolical nurse with her dogs in the movie The Omen, see trump as Gregory Peck in that hair raising scene and you got what he is up against....

[Helene West]

Correction - My quote is not from Turiya, but from Sam Hunter. Sorry Sam!

[Chester]

Turiya "...And I must ask this one question too... If Trump is not the savior (as no one here with any sense of reason would ever expect him to be), how is it that every mistake he makes (and certainly almost all of us would agree he has made some), crucify him for every single legitimately concerning action, triple crucify him for every over blown or outright manufactured transgression?..."

What you are asking is what I think millions ask whenever they read the news today.
The answer is - because we needed a trump (or better) 30 years ago... Now the country has been so infiltrated with American haters, today's (i.e. 2017 A.D.) real racists - whitehaters, today's real sexists - alpha male haters, christian haters, etc., etc.
We're trying to apply antibiotics at the point where the disease has almost killed the patient, the patient stinks, looks horrible, etc. and we're trying now to give it medicine, it's very late and the patient could still survive....but those who have had a purpose for the corpse of america are really, really pissed.
The haters remind me of the diabolical nurse with her dogs in the movie The Omen, see trump as Gregory Peck in that hair raising scene and you got what he is up against....

Trump (to me) is like a paramedic who arrives at the scene where someone is bleeding to death after experiencing a severed artery... once the blood loss is stabilized, now all sorts of others do what they can to first, save the life of the patient and then once that is no longer a concern, return the patient to the good health and life they perhaps enjoyed prior to their traumatic event.

The point I tried to make was that I see folks saying out of one side of their mouth... "You Trump supporters view him as a savior" and out of the other side of their mouth they speak about every single thing the guy tries to do, which is being done by himself, a human being, and an administrative staff of human beings in a way that suggests unless everything he does is done perfectly, he and his staff are no good. Doesn't doing this require that he in fact, be a savior? This I call an example of hypocrisy.

[turiya]

Piers Morgan has not been one of my favorite "to go to" people in the past... but his presence on the Bill Maher program had revealed something that I did not expect... nor was it expected by another so-called "left-wing progressive"...


Piers Morgan told to "foock off" on
Real Time for defending Trump
(Published on Feb 11, 2017)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaRhb4JP_vc

[onawah]

Are Trump’s ‘Dark Forces’ Coming for Your Organic Food?
February 14, 2017 by Ronnie Cummins
director of Organic Consumers Association
http://ronnie.organicconsumers.org/trumps-dark-forces-coming-organic-food/


(I'd sure like to be pleasantly surprised and find that Trump's cabinet is going to be more pro-health and environment than it looks like at this point, but I'm not holding my breath, if their past voting records are any indication.)




(Editor’s note: Since this was first published, Andrew Puzder, Trump’s pick for labor secretary, has withdrawn. A replacement has yet to be announced).

Over the past three decades, organic food, farming, and products in the U.S. have grown into a $50-billion-a-year powerhouse, representing more than 5 percent of all retail grocery sales. This growth has been achieved with little or no help from the White House, Congress or the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and that’s been true no matter which party, Democrat or Republican, has been in power.

At current rates of growth the majority of food sales in the U.S. will be organic or 100% grass-fed within three decades. Unfortunately these current levels of growth for organic, no matter how impressive they seem, will not be enough to prevent the current (food- and farm-related) public health, environmental and climate crises from metastasizing into a full-blown catastrophe within 25 years or less. That’s why my organization, the Organic Consumers Association is organizing for what we call a Consumer and Political Revolution 2017-2020.

Although the majority of consumers—no matter whether they voted for Hillary (65 million), Trump (62 million), or stayed home and didn’t vote (92 million)—tell pollsters that they know that organic food is superior to chemical/GMO food, in terms of nutrition and environmental impact, and that they believe that pesticides, synthetic hormones, antibiotic residues and GMOs are dangerous, Congress keeps subsidizing industrial agriculture, factory farms, processed food and GMO corn-derived ethanol to the tune of billions of dollars a year. At the same time, lawmakers show little or no support for organic or transition-to-organic farmers or programs.

100% grass-fed beef and dairy products are now the fastest growing segment of grocery store sales. Yet most grass-fed beef and cheese is imported from overseas (Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay) for the most part because here in the U.S., the USDA subsidizes factory-farm meat and animal products, rather than helping U.S. ranchers, farmers and processors move toward grass-fed, pasture-based, and regenerative production.

The Obama Administration behaved very much like the Bush Administration before it, providing little or no support for organic farming while touting the supposed benefits of GMOs, hi-tech agriculture, ethanol and agribusiness-friendly free trade agreements. Despite promises made in 2007 on the campaign trail that his administration would require mandatory labels on GMOs, Obama did nothing. In 2016, when Congress (including a number of recent Trump cabinet appointees) rammed through the controversial Roberts/Stabenow/Pompeo Dark Act, taking away the rights of states to require mandatory GMO labeling, Obama remained silent—instead of using his veto power.

On the campaign trail in 2016, GMO labeling and organic food were never mentioned by the Clinton or Trump campaigns. Bernie Sanders was the only major candidate to speak out for GMO labeling and organics.

Now organic consumers and farmers find ourselves facing Donald Trump and his Agribusiness/Fossil Fuel “Swamp Cabinet,” aided and abetted by a Republican (and status quo Democrat)-controlled Congress and an army of corporate lobbyists, fracking and pipeline extremists, militarists, racists, and misogynists. If we thought the “O’Bummer” administration and the Hillary campaign were disappointing, get ready for what food writer Tom Philpott calls the “Dark Forces” of the Trump Administration.

Let’s review a few of Trump’s Swamp Cabinet appointees, with a focus on how they will likely impact our food, environment and climate.

(1) Trump has appointed the archenemy of organics and GMO labeling, Mike Pompeo, former Congressman and Monsanto cheerleader from Kansas, to be head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Pompeo was the original proponent of the DARK Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. Does Pompeo’s coronation as head spook mean OCA, Food Democracy Now and our other allies should look out for suspicious email viruses or CIA-inspired drone activity over their offices? We’ll see.

(2) Trump has appointed billionaire Betsy DeVos as secretary of education. DeVos opposes public education and prefers for-profit charter schools. Why? Because billionaires like her stand to profit off education by short-changing students. With Billionaire Betsy in charge don’t hold your breath for more money for organic school gardens, or farm-to-table programs to get organic and local food into school cafeterias. Oh yeah. One more thing, Betsy’s brother is the notorious Eric Prince, former CEO of Blackwater, later called “Xe Services” and more recently “Academi,” a feared and reviled mercenary army of ex-soldiers and for-hire spies, known for their bloody exploits in Iraq and worldwide. Blackwater’s former clients include the Monsanto Corporation, foreign governments, and numerous police forces across the U.S. Thousands of former military and former CIA officers work for Blackwater or related companies, selling their services—all the way from spying and intelligence gathering to infiltration, political lobbying and paramilitary training. According to investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater’s work with multinationals, like Monsanto, Chevron and financial giants such as Barclays and Deutsche Bank, has often been channeled through two companies owned by Erik Prince, owner of Blackwater: Total Intelligence Solutions and Terrorism Research Center.

(3) Trump has appointed Rick Perry, former Texas governor and Monsanto/factory farm cheerleader, to be head of the Energy Department. In his tenure as Texas secretary of agriculture and governor, Perry attacked food activists (including OCA’s predecessor organization, the Pure Food Campaign), supported junk food giants like McDonald’s, vocally endorsed Monsanto and corporate agribusiness, and championed anti-consumer laws such as the notorious “food slander” laws in Texas and a dozen other states that make it a crime for a food activist to “disparage” agribusiness corporations. Oprah Winfrey and food activist Howard Lyman were put on trial in Texas while Perry was ag secretary for pointing out that the beef industry’s routine practice of feeding blood, manure and slaughterhouse waste to cows was the cause of the fatal brain-wasting disease in humans, CJD (also known as “mad cow” disease).

(4) Trump has appointed Scott Pruitt, a fossil fuel extremist, climate-change denier, and proponent of factory farms and GMOs to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Pruitt, former Oklahoma attorney general, is an outspoken opponent of the EPA’s efforts to address factory farms that pollute drinking water. Pruitt was one of the first state attorneys general to file suit against the EPA over its new “Waters of the United States” rule. His position against protecting drinking water from factory farm waste has no doubt been shaped by his campaign contributors, which include the Oklahoma Farm Bureau (OFB) and Monsanto. The Humane Society of the U.S. named Pruitt the nation’s least animal-friendly attorney general for teaming up with the OFB to oppose “efforts to crack down on puppy mills, horse slaughter, the exotic pet trade, factory farming, and just about every other animal welfare issue you can think of.” As a climate-change denier and mouthpiece for corporate agribusiness, don’t expect the Pruitt EPA to ban or regulate pesticides such as Monsanto’s Roundup/Glyphosate, or to address the fact that our out-of-control food and farming system is responsible for 44-57 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.

(5) Pruitt will be joined on Trump’s climate denial team by Rex Tillerson, former Exxon Mobil CEO, who will now be secretary of state. As Intercept magazine pointed out last December:

Most of us know Exxon Mobil Corp. as an energy giant, which makes sense given that it is the world’s largest publicly held oil and gas company. Rex Tillerson, the company’s CEO, has spent his entire professional life prioritizing Exxon Mobil’s corporate interests over human rights, the environment, and the diplomatic interests of the U.S., all of which has prompted many journalists and commentators to point out that his appointment as secretary of state is not just a terrible idea but a joke seemingly ripped from the pages of a Marxist comic book.

What’s less well known is that Exxon Mobil is also one of the world’s biggest chemical companies, and that its chemical interests also sometimes run counter to those of people in the U.S. and beyond. Petrochemicals accounted for more than a quarter of Exxon Mobil’s $16 billion in net profits last year and wound up in wide range of consumer products such as plastics, tires, batteries, detergents, adhesives, synthetic fibers, and household detergents.

Among Exxon Mobil’s chemical products are phthalates, a family of chemicals widely used to make plastic pliable. Phthalates are in everything from food containers and plastic wrap to rattles, pacifiers, bottle nipples, and teething toys for babies. More than 75 percent of Americans have at least five of the chemicals in their body, according to a 2000 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

(6) Trump appointed, and of course the Republican-controlled Senate approved, an outright racist, firm supporter of big business, and supporter of the Monsanto-Bayer merger, former Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, as the new attorney general. Sessions will no doubt provide critical support to Bayer AG’s proposed $66-billion purchase of Monsanto Co., which is supposed to be undergoing state and federal scrutiny to prevent monopolistic control over food, seeds and agricultural chemicals. Monsanto’s stock, previously falling, has risen since Trump’s election and his selection of Sessions as the new AG. Sessions voted for the DARK Act and has been outspoken in his view that states have no right to require mandatory labeling of GMOs.

(7) Last but not least, Trump has appointed Sonny Perdue to head up the USDA. Perdue is the former governor of Georgia. He supports factory farms, pesticides and genetically engineered crops. In 2009, Perdue signed a bill into law that blocked local communities in Georgia from regulating factory farms to address animal cruelty, pollution or any other hazard. He took money from Monsanto and other pesticide companies for his gubernatorial campaigns. The Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a front group for the GMO industry, named Perdue their 2009 Governor of the Year. The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the multi-billion-dollar lobbying group that represents Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, Coca-Cola, General Mills (you get the picture) rushed to praise Perdue’s nomination. In a statement, GMA’s president said her group “looks forward to working with [Perdue] on issues key to keeping America’s food the safest and most affordable food supply in the history of the world.” Coming from the GMA, leader of the charge to keep labels off GMO foods, we know that “safest and most affordable food” is code for “industrial chemical GMO food.”

Beyond the imposition of his Swamp Cabinet, Trump has begun issuing executive orders that will have a major impact on organics and the food and farming system. His decree that no new federal regulations will be implemented, unless two previous federal regulations are repealed, likely means that no disclosure whatsoever will be required on genetically engineered foods, even the watered down “QR” bar codes called for under the DARK Act. Even more ominously, the pro-Trump Republican Freedom Caucus has called for the abolition of the entire National Organic Program. Other pending regulations, banning dangerous pesticides, improving animal welfare, removing certain synthetic ingredients from organic production, likewise remain in limbo.

Trump’s Mexico wall and his pronouncements that he’s going to round up and deport all immigrant workers present a rather serious challenge to U.S. food production, whether organic or non-organic. The bottom line is that most of our farmworkers, and many if not most of our restaurant and other food chain workers (processing, warehousing, distribution, retail) are immigrants without citizenship papers. If Trump follows through with his threat, much of the U.S. food and farming system will collapse.

There’s one thing Trump and his cronies can’t do, at least not very easily. They can’t stop us from our waging our #ConsumerRevolution, voting with our pocketbooks against GMOs, industrial agriculture, factory farms, sweatshop clothing, and polluting and exploitative companies and brands. And they can’t stop us from voting with our pocketbooks for organic food, Fair Trade-certified products, and companies, retailers and brands that take a stand against racism, sexism, homophobia and the destruction of our environment and climate.

And down the road, they can’t stop us from organizing a #PoliticalRevolution and throwing the politicians out of office who support the Trump and his business-as-usual agenda of the One Percent.

We have our work cut out for us. We must Resist Trump and the One Percent, including the sell-out Democrats, who have (temporarily) hijacked our economy and our political system. And we must Regenerate our food and farming system, our public health, and our grassroots networks.

Linked Source: “Dark Forces” Are Coming for Your Organic Food

[AutumnW]

Time to resurrect this thread. I think I was correct in my assumptions and thank the many who have participated so far!

MGrey, as far as Trump's supporters reacting to Obama's 'socialism' I assume you are referring to Obama's health care plan, predominantly. Because the universal option was voted down by repuglicans, it became a hot mess of corruption and conflicts of interest. It also became very expensive. It is no wonder people were distraught and irate about it.

It is surely obvious to you now that the military, pushing for a lifting of the sequester (on them, exclusively.) would like to see support withdrawn from life giving programs and redirected to government warfare programs.

I want to direct attention to my prior assessment of the deep state and what is involved here. Steve Bannon, who helped formulate Trumps's foreign policy, in order to get him elected, has been turfed out. This was likley always the plan.

Trump represents the military branch of the deep state against the civilian branch, to put it in loose untidy terms. Of course it is more Byzantine than that. Military intelligence helped get him elected and he may not even know it.

Now you have a president who would like to delegate more discretionary power to the military, so they can "act on their own."

Lovely. Can you say..."military dictatorship?" When you have a delegator in chief, off loading responsibility to the military branch, while starving other agencies to fund that military, you have a dictatorship, by the military almost by default. They just waltz in.



What we are currently witnessing is a military coup, begun with Kennedy's assassination

[TargeT]

Trump represents the military branch of the deep state against the civilian branch, to put it in loose untidy terms. Of course it is more Byzantine than that. Military intelligence helped get him elected and he may not even know it.

Hmm, I think you need to analyse the recent military actions a bit more deeply than headline level.

He launched 59 cruise missiles at an abandoned air base only 23 "hit" it(and gave warning of the attack and didn't damage anything, where'd those other missiles go? that's a SIGNIFICANT UN-IGNORABLE QUESTION there... seriously) too many weird actions there.


Now you have a president who would like to delegate more discretionary power to the military, so they can "act on their own."
Correction:
to very specific individual generals, like the guy that dropped a MOAB on the CIA caves (kinda shakes that "intel got him elected" bit) in Afghanistan, if you think that wasn't a BIG message to someone, I'm not sure what to say.. (that's the first time we've EVER used a MOAB, btw; MOABs are designed as not only a large ordinance, but a HUGE psychological weapon).


Lovely. Can you say..."military dictatorship?" When you have a delegator in chief, off loading responsibility to the military branch, while starving other agencies to fund that military, you have a dictatorship, by the military almost by default. They just waltz in.

The military chain of command is designed around delegation. If I didn't delegate my responsibilities to my soldiers the mission wouldn't get done; it is my responsibility to ensure the assignments fit the individual & their skill set and they get completed at minimum to standard. Basic management philosophy right?



What we are currently witnessing is a military coup, begun with Kennedy's assassination


or we could honestly be seeing a clean out of the deep state.

I was pretty anti trump until I started looking at some of his moves... now it's a big question mark.

Did you know when Xi was meeting with Trump his granddaughter came out and sang Xi a song in Mandarin (quite the accomplishment for her) it was the "Theme song" of his (Xi) largest political rival... this guy makes some pretty sly moves.... I'm now more open to possible 7d backgammon being played.... the fact that Xi left china is huge alone (traditionally POTUS visits china, not the other way around)... something is going on there..


though the next few moves will be telling... so far, I dunno.. I can see both ways.

[AutumnW]

Target,

I am having so much difficulty trying to find out the very basics about what happened from alternative OR mainstream. They could have launched flubber tipped missiles that bounced off that tarmac and right into outer space, for all we know.

The question remains, has he reversed his stance with regards Assad and Russia? Remains to be seen. It certainly seems to be hardening towards China. The Korea imbroglio is more about naval occupation of Asian territory, using Korea as an excuse. Eventually this will come to a head.

I think the plan, all along, was to pander to voters who desired peace and then, post election, carry on with war as usual. Though this time, it appears that the war machinery is ramping up and the wars are going to be 'bigger better and shinier.'

As far as delegation of authority to the military, you are right -- that it starts small--but it is likely going to end big, with the military more in control than ever.

There are military people who LOVE the theatre of war...Curtis leMay, Patton, etc.. And then Douglas MacArthur could not be brought under control by the civilian government so had to be fired by Truman. He was acting on his own and refused to take direction from the president. It is vitally important, as you can well appreciate, that the president is clearly uncompromised, acting of his own volition and not a mere figurehead representing the military, a symbolic artefact of sorts.

Human nature hasn't changed enough to discount for the fact that we have nuclear weapons. My only hope and this is totally off topic--that Robert Salas and other ICBM missile silo commanders stories were completely authentic and the message from the aliens is --you're not going to be able to launch one of these babies. We will interfere.

[Chester]

never mind...

I took my wife's Herbalife routine today and my mind is in overdrive, apologies.

[onawah]

One thing I can say in favor of the military is something that Simon Parkes thinks which seems accurate to me, that they are much more loyal to the American people than the police are.
In a country that is becoming more and more a police state, this could be a big advantage.
Since so many veterans end up being dependent on benefits other than just VA, such as food stamps, low income housing, etc. I would think the military would be pressing for better social programs for the poor and disabled.
It seems inevitable that at some point Earth is going to have to join ET races who are trying to keep the Reptilian and other regressive races from gaining complete control.
So dreams of peace and trading swords for plowshares may be further in the future than we'd like to think.
But sacrificing the environment for a quick fix for the economy is ludicrously short sighted. :facepalm:

[AutumnW]

Time to resurrect the thread -- again. I note that Paul Craig Roberts is now critical of Trump, as is Gerald Celente.

I guess it is easier to believe he is being mind controlled by chip technology, as Catherine Austin Fitts proposed, than accept the mundane reality. It ain't wizz bang.

He was given all of his talking points to win and then did a 180 degree turn afterward.

He has a personality disorder. The thug in office is the same thug he was before he came to power. Nobody rises to the top in Merica, if they are really and truly opposed to the military industrial complex. Nothing he said recently contradicts this in any way. And he ran on a platform of increasing military budget, while starving other agencies.

What does it take to wake people up? The chances are vanishingly small that a malignant narcissist is operating from a position of principal rather than self interest. And winning is everything to them. He is blatant bull****ter who is going to surprise those left in his support base, at some point.

And no to those who think I was a Hillary enthusiast or Sanders supporter. Sanders was a compliant pro-Israel contender who would have done nothing to stop the run away military budget that supports exploitation and expansion.

I am very anti-war and that is the main reason I am anti Trump -- as are most of those who disliked all of the main candidates.

[AutumnW]

One thing I can say in favor of the military is something that Simon Parkes thinks which seems accurate to me, that they are much more loyal to the American people than the police are.
In a country that is becoming more and more a police state, this could be a big advantage.
Since so many veterans end up being dependent on benefits other than just VA, such as food stamps, low income housing, etc. I would think the military would be pressing for better social programs for the poor and disabled.
It seems inevitable that at some point Earth is going to have to join ET races who are trying to keep the Reptilian and other regressive races from gaining complete control.
So dreams of peace and trading swords for plowshares may be further in the future than we'd like to think.
But sacrificing the environment for a quick fix for the economy is ludicrously short sighted. :facepalm:

Onawah, the police are becoming militarized, so it is the other way around. The military is about protecting the elite. It is also about bureaucratic empire building within the ranks aiming to acquire vaster and larger budgets.

The junior officers and soldiers have their own sympathies, of course, but they have to listen to their commanders.

And though we may be influenced by alien intelligence, it's possible we ended up where we are due totally to degrading cultural values that have helped to maintain a pathocracy.

[Atlas]

[...] a pathocracy.
Mad Max: Fury Road
hEJnMQG9ev8

[AutumnW]

Literally a wild ride, Atlas! Our future may be as bleak, though probably less exciting.

[AutumnW]

News in late last night. Trump imposes a 20% tariff on softwood lumber from Canada. Let the trade war begin! This means higher house prices for Americans. I don't fault any leader for trying to protect their own industries but as the U.S is a net importer of goods, the jobs it will create will be offset by much higher prices. Get ready for it.

[abmqa]

Time to resurrect the thread -- again. I note that Paul Craig Roberts is now critical of Trump, as is Gerald Celente.

I guess it is easier to believe he is being mind controlled by chip technology, as Catherine Austin Fitts proposed, than accept the mundane reality. It ain't wizz bang.

He was given all of his talking points to win and then did a 180 degree turn afterward.

He has a personality disorder. The thug in office is the same thug he was before he came to power. Nobody rises to the top in Merica, if they are really and truly opposed to the military industrial complex. Nothing he said recently contradicts this in any way. And he ran on a platform of increasing military budget, while starving other agencies.

What does it take to wake people up? The chances are vanishingly small that a malignant narcissist is operating from a position of principal rather than self interest. And winning is everything to them. He is blatant bull****ter who is going to surprise those left in his support base, at some point.

And no to those who think I was a Hillary enthusiast or Sanders supporter. Sanders was a compliant pro-Israel contender who would have done nothing to stop the run away military budget that supports exploitation and expansion.

I am very anti-war and that is the main reason I am anti Trump -- as are most of those who disliked all of the main candidates.

Hi AutmnW.

I am also anti-Trump, for many of the same reasons as you. Also, my father had a business meeting with Trump in which Trump made a racist comment using the N-word. It resulted in my father rejecting a lucrative contract for carpentry work in his casinos.

It turned out to be a very wise decision, as the company that did get the contract was totally stiffed by Trump and had to go bankrupt as a result.

Recently, it occurred to me just how "Abnormal" his campaign and presidency has been.

To think that we could have a US president who has stated that he has sexually assaulted women by grabbing them by their private parts is just incredible to me.

The hyper-normalization of his conduct is extremely dangerous and seems to allow Trump to say and do things never done by US presidents.

Perhaps this is why he only seems to manage an approval rating in the 30% to 40% range. This is his base and these people are sadly either like minded with him, or just ignorant.

Anyway, I decided to do a google search for "Trump's abnormal presidency." and found the following Vice on-going article titled "A running guide to Trump's highly abnormal presidency" See link below:

https://news.vice.com/story/state-dept-is-promoting-trumps-private-club

It's really sad when Fox news has higher standards and lower tolerance for sexual harassment/abuse than we do for president of the USA.

Something is very very wrong!!

[TargeT]

To think that we could have a US president who has stated that he has sexually assaulted women by grabbing them by their private parts is just incredible to me.



This one point is a great example of why you don't understand how he got elected, and I don't understand how you don't understand ;)


haha, it's all about perception.

You perceived that statement to be sexual assault.

I heard "they let you do anything"... "let" being the short term for "consent" and further more; your acting like grown adults do NOT enjoy sex or "private part stimulation"; was it the childish "pussy" term usage that you objected to?

Or did you just hear what you wanted to hear (or did I?)

To me that whole thing was very weird, and it's turned out to be a fairly good litmus test for "where people stand" on a lot of issues.


I think there were FAR too many situations like the above during the election for them NOT to be a strategy (plus they kind of parallel things written in "the art of the deal" ). And your right, it' was a crazy election; but if he didn't break records for "the least spent on an elected presidential campaign" I'd be shocked (good or bad, it was an effective strategy).


News in late last night. Trump imposes a 20% tariff on softwood lumber from Canada. Let the trade war begin! This means higher house prices for Americans. .

Houses are still built from tree carcasses?

Houses are currently being 3d printed in under 24 hours, (http://www.collective-evolution.com/2017/03/09/this-house-was-3d-printed-in-under-24-hours/) wood construction will be gone in the blink of an eye when labor costs go from a framing crew for a week to a few technicians running the 3d printer.

Disruptive technologies are about to explode into mainstream culture; the past patterns will be come less and less relevant.

[AutumnW]

Hi Abmqa,

Very interesting about Trump using the n word. But he's not a racist! LOL. And good call your Dad made avoiding him like the plague!

I note too, the extreme departure from normal that his presidency represents. His open rudeness was seen as a breath of fresh air, after all of the blow dried, fake politicians we have suffered in the past.

Unfortunately his rough rudeness was mistaken for GENERAL HONESTY. Big big mistake. And now, instead of taking a good hard look at the man's past and extrapolating into the present, his betrayed supporters are still clinging to the broken down hope wagon, while its wheels come off.

[abmqa]

To think that we could have a US president who has stated that he has sexually assaulted women by grabbing them by their private parts is just incredible to me.



This one point is a great example of why you don't understand how he got elected, and I don't understand how you don't understand ;)


haha, it's all about perception.

You perceived that statement to be sexual assault.

I heard "they let you do anything"... "let" being the short term for "consent" and further more; your acting like grown adults do NOT enjoy sex or "private part stimulation"; was it the childish "pussy" term usage that you objected to?

Or did you just hear what you wanted to hear (or did I?)

To me that whole thing was very weird, and it's turned out to be a fairly good litmus test for "where people stand" on a lot of issues.


I think there were FAR too many situations like the above during the election for them NOT to be a strategy (plus they kind of parallel things written in "the art of the deal" ). And your right, it' was a crazy election; but if he didn't break records for "the least spent on an elected presidential campaign" I'd be shocked (good or bad, it was an effective strategy).

Yes! I see that as sexual harrassment!!

Perhaps you think it normal for a man to say such things. I'm a man and have never heard any other man say such a thing. I'm retired Air Force, and I can attest that I have heard many misogynist things said about women, but never, "I just grab them by the privates parts.

See partial transcript below:

Trump: Yeah, that’s her. With the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

Bush: Whatever you want.

Trump: Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.

Just because Trump says such things doesn't mean consent is given to such treatment, especially a woman who doesn't have a relationship with him.

The comment, I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. Doesn't give you pause to think?

I guess when you are like minded, it doesn't matter?

"I don't even wait" Wait for what? I take that as he doesn't wait for consent, because he is famous and he can do anything he wants.

WRONG!!

Kissing a Former Miss USA Contestant Twice Without Consent

Former Miss USA contestant Temple Taggart McDowell claims Trump kissed her on the lips on at least two occasions without consent when she was just 21 years old. In 1997, McDowell was representing Utah in the beauty pageant, and was “shocked” that he thought he had the right to kiss her on the lips, according to the Daily Beast. After one of the kisses, a woman who accompanied her to Trump Tower allegedly warned her not to go into a room alone with Trump. McDowell told NBC News, “I would never approach or greet somebody like that unless it was somebody that I had been dating.” Trump has called the accusation “ridiculous.”

Groping a Woman Sitting Next to Him on a Plane

In a New York Times report published October 12, Trump was accused of fondling the breasts of Jessica Leeds when she was 38 years old. Leeds, now 74, reportedly met Trump in the first-class cabin of a flight to New York more than 30 years ago, and claims he also attempted to reach under her skirt during the flight. She called the incident “an assault.” Trump has vehemently refuted the allegation.

Kissing a Receptionist at Trump Tower Against Her Will

Another revelation from the incendiary New York Times report: In 2005, receptionist Rachel Crooks was allegedly assaulted by Trump in the elevator at Trump Tower. She was working as a receptionist for a real-estate firm in the building when she ran into Trump in the elevator. After they shook hands, he allegedly refused to let go, kissed her on the cheeks, and also on the mouth. “It was so inappropriate,” Crooks told the Times. “I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.” Trump has also denied this allegation.

Saying He’d Date a 10-Year-Old Girl in Ten Years

Newly emerged footage from CBS shows Trump talking about a 10-year-old girl’s physical appearance. In the tape, Trump joked: “I’ll be dating her in ten years. Can you believe it?”

This isn’t the first time Trump has been accused of making inappropriate remarks about young women. He famously commented in 2006 that if Ivanka weren’t his daughter, he’d “perhaps” be dating her, and also gave Howard Stern the okay to refer to Ivanka as a “piece of ass.” He commented that then-12-year-old Paris Hilton caught his eye, telling Stern, “I’ve known Paris Hilton from the time she’s 12, her parents are friends of mine, and the first time I saw her she walked into the room and I said, ‘Who the hell is that?’”

Telling Another Group of 14-Year-Olds He’d Date Them in a ‘Couple of Years’

The Los Angeles Times reports that a wire brief from the Chicago Tribune in 1992 also references an instance when Trump made a joke about dating a young girl years in the future. The wire brief describes Trump outside the Plaza Hotel interacting with a youth choir group. After finding out that the girls were 14 years old, he said, “Wow! Just think — in a couple of years, I’ll be dating you.” Trump was 46 at the time.

Sexually Assaulting a People Magazine Writer

Natasha Stoynoff, a staff writer at People, came forward as an alleged victim of Trump on October 12. In an essay, Stoynoff wrote that Trump assaulted her and forcibly kissed her in 2005 while she was on assignment for the magazine. At the time, Stoynoff was asked to interview Trump and wife Melania on their one-year anniversary at Mar-a-Lago. While there, Trump allegedly insisted upon giving her a tour. Stoynoff wrote:

“We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds, he was pushing me against the wall, and forcing his tongue down my throat. Now, I’m a tall, strapping girl who grew up wrestling two giant brothers. I even once sparred with Mike Tyson. It takes a lot to push me. But Trump is much bigger — a looming figure — and he was fast, taking me by surprise, and throwing me off balance. I was stunned. And I was grateful when Trump’s longtime butler burst into the room a minute later, as I tried to unpin myself.”

Afterward, Trump reportedly told Stoynoff that the two were going to have an affair. The writer says she didn’t report the assault at the time, as she both blamed herself and wrote it off as one of the risks associated with her job.

Groping a Woman at Mar-a-Lago

Mindy McGillivray claims Donald Trump groped her 13 years ago while she was visiting Mar-a-Lago with her companion, photographer Ken Davidoff. According to the Palm Beach Post, Davidoff brought his friend McGillivray with him to the estate while he covered a concert by Ray Charles. Only 23 at the time, McGillivray allegedly had her ass grabbed by Trump while he stood next to his then-fiancée, Melania.

She said, “All of a sudden I felt a grab, a little nudge. I think it’s Ken’s camera bag, that was my first instinct. I turn around and there’s Donald. He sort of looked away quickly. I quickly turned back, facing Ray Charles, and I’m stunned.’’ McGillivray claims Trump also flirted with her a year earlier when she attended a different event with Davidoff.

Groping Miss Washington USA 2013

In a Facebook post earlier this year, former Miss Washington USA Cassandra Searles claimed Trump grabbed her ass and invited her back to his hotel room, according to Rolling Stone. She called Trump a “misogynist” and accused him of treating women like cattle. Searles wrote that he “lined up [contestants] so he could get a closer look at his property,” a claim that has been corroborated by Paromita Mitra of Mississippi.

Walking in on Teen Pageant Contestants While They Were Changing

Four women who competed in the 1997 Miss Teen USA beauty pageant have accused Trump of walking into their dressing room while the contestants were changing, BuzzFeed News reported. Mariah Billado, a former Miss Vermont Teen USA, told BuzzFeed News that the contestants (who ranged in age from 14 to 19) were “just scrambling” to grab whatever garments they had when he walked in. She said, “I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man in here.’” Trump reportedly said something along the lines of, “Don’t worry, I’ve seen it all before.”

Groping Makeup Artist Jill Harth in 1997

Makeup artist Jill Harth filed a lawsuit against Trump in 1997, accusing him of cornering her and groping her in his daughter’s bedroom. Harth and Trump allegedly first met in December 1992 during a business presentation — she and her former romantic partner George Houraney wanted him to back their American Dream festival — and Trump is accused of “subjecting her to a steady string of sexual advances,” The Guardian reports. The night after the initial business meeting, Trump and Harth had dinner at the Plaza Hotel’s Oak Room, where he allegedly groped her under the table.

In January 1993, when Harth and Houraney visited Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida estate, he allegedly pulled her into one of his children’s bedrooms, pushed her up against the wall, groped her, and tried to get under her dress again. Harth has accused him of “attempted rape,” while Trump has called the allegations “meritless.”

Raping Ex-Wife Ivana, But Not in the “Criminal Sense”

The 1993 book Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump revealed that, in depositions for their contentious divorce case, Ivana Trump accused her then-husband of rape. The Daily Beast reported that, in the book, Harry Hurt III wrote that Trump confronted Ivana after a painful scalp reduction surgery to reduce his bald spot. He allegedly yelled that her “****ing doctor” ruined him, and then held back her arms and pulled out fistfuls of hair from Ivana’s scalp, before ripping off her clothes and forcing his penis inside her.

Trump previously denied the allegation, including the scalp surgery. “It’s obviously false,” Donald Trump reportedly said in 1993. “It’s incorrect and done by a guy without much talent … He is a guy that is an unattractive guy who is a vindictive and jealous person.” Trump’s legal counsel told the Daily Beast that Ivana was talking about how “she felt raped emotionally … She was not referring to it [as] a criminal matter, and not in its literal sense, though there’s many literal senses to the word.”

****-Shaming Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado

Alicia Machado won Trump’s Miss Universe pageant in 1996, and he has since called her “Miss Housekeeping” (because she is Venezuelan) and “Miss Piggy” (because she gained too much weight, in his opinion). After Machado became a talking point in his election for president, Trump took the extra step of publicly ****-shaming her. In a series of 5 a.m. tweets, Trump accused Machado of having a sex tape — which he urged voters to “check out.”

Sexually Harassing a Woman During the 1993 White House Correspondents’ Dinner

When Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter invited Trump to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 1993 as a “novelty guest,” he allegedly got more than he bargained for. Forty-five minutes after Trump sat down next to Swedish model Vendela Kirsebom, Carter claims she came over to his table, almost in tears, begging him to move her. “It seems that Trump had spent his entire time with her assaying the ‘tits’ and legs of the other female guests and asking how they measured up to those of other women, including his wife,” Carter wrote. ‘“He is,’ she told me, in words that seemed familiar, ‘the most vulgar man I have ever met.’”

Mistreating His Female Employees

An ongoing investigation by USA Today into the 4,000-plus lawsuits against Trump found that at least 20 separate lawsuits accuse the presidential candidate and managers of his companies “of discriminating against women, ignoring sexual harassment complaints and even participating in the harassment themselves.”

Trump was not directly involved in all of the lawsuits, which ranged in severity, but in one, he was accused of directing a female supervisor at a golf club to hire more attractive women. “I want you to get some good-looking hostesses here,” Trump told Sue Kwiatkowski, a supervisor at the club, according to USA Today. Kwiatkowski also alleged that he said, “People like to see good-looking people when they come in.”

In another lawsuit, a waitress alleged that Trump repeatedly flirted with her. USA Today also discovered at least three lawsuits in which women claimed they lost their jobs at a Trump company for complaining about sexual discrimination or harassment at work.

Bragging About Grabbing Women by Their Pussies

Trump was caught on tape bragging to former Access Hollywood host Billy Bush about sexually assaulting women. The lewd conversation took place while the men were visiting the set of Days of Our Lives in 2005. Trump was caught talking about a failed attempt to seduce a married woman (later revealed to be former Access host Nancy O’Dell), saying, “I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married.”

The men were then distracted by actress Arianne Zucker, prompting Trump to declare that he was going to use some Tic Tacs in case he started kissing her. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it,” Trump says. “You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”

Trying to Get Nancy O’Dell Fired for Being Pregnant

Trump has been accused of trying to get Nancy O’Dell fired from her job as a host for the Miss USA pageant after she rejected his advances (as detailed in the Access Hollywood tape), according to the Daily Beast. Trump allegedly did not like the way she looked in 2007, since O’Dell was several months pregnant and thereby not living up to Trump’s standards of appearance. However, O’Dell was under contract with NBC, and the network opted to keep her in place as a host, much to Trump’s chagrin.

Raping a 13-Year-Old at Jeffrey Epstein’s Apartment

A woman has accused Trump of raping her in 1994 when she was just 13 years old, according to BuzzFeed News. Trump has “vehemently denied the rape claims, which are being filed in a New York civil court for the third time,” BuzzFeed News reported. According to the suit, Trump allegedly had forcible sex with the plaintiff during a party at the New York City apartment of Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted pedophile who is a billionaire. In June 2016, Jezebel reported that the coverage of the lawsuit was “the culmination of an almost year-long campaign to quietly push these allegations into the public discussion, and maybe make some money in the process.”

Hiring Women Based on Appearances

Trump gave writer Mark Singer a tour of Mar-a-Lago for an article in The New Yorker in 1997. Singer wrote that Trump introduced him to the property’s resident physician, Dr. Ginger Lea Southall. When she was out of earshot, Singer asked Trump where Southall had been trained.

Trump replied, “I’m not sure. Baywatch Medical School? Does that sound right? I’ll tell you the truth. Once I saw Dr. Ginger’s photograph, I didn’t really need to look at her résumé or anyone else’s. Are you asking, ‘Did we hire her because she’d trained at Mount Sinai for fifteen years?’ The answer is no. And I’ll tell you why: because by the time she’s spent fifteen years at Mount Sinai, we don’t want to look at her.”

Groping a Woman at a Manhattan Nightclub

Kristin Anderson, who worked as a model and makeup artist in New York in the early 1990s, told the Washington Post that Donald Trump groped her when she found herself sitting next to him on a couch at a Manhattan nightclub. “It wasn’t a sexual come-on. I don’t know why he did it. It was like just to prove that he could do it, and nothing would happen,” she told the Post. “There was zero conversation. We didn’t even really look at each other. It was very random, very nonchalant on his part.”

Anderson said she was motivated to come forward with her story after seeing the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump bragged about sexual assaulting women. “I watched this woman — who could have been me; it could have been anyone — walk in and shake his hand,” she said. “That was just nauseating, because she has no idea what she was walking into, and what could possibly happen to her. And that’s just wrong.”

Groping and Kissing a Former Apprentice Contestant

Summer Zervos, a contestant on the fifth season of The Apprentice, says she was both kissed and groped by Trump after her run on the show was over and she was discussing possible employment opportunities with him. She alleges that he had her meet him at his bungalow in the Beverly Hills Hotel, where he kissed her, groped her, and thrust his genitals at her. Because she was up for employment within his organization, Zervos says “I wondered if the sexual behavior was some kind of test, or whether or not I had passed.”

She came forward after seeing the other allegations against Trump in a press conference with famed attorney Gloria Allred. When a reporter asked what she hoped would come from the allegations, Zervos responded, “I want to be able to sleep when I’m 70 at night.”

Kissing a Mar-a-Lago Guest at a Mother’s Day Brunch

Cathy Heller and her family were enjoying a Mother’s Day brunch at the Mar-a-Lago Club when Trump came by to introduce himself. According to Heller, Trump aggressively kissed her in front of her family — including three children and various in-laws — and other members of the club after a brief introduction.

Trump didn’t stop at shaking Heller’s hand. “He took my hand, and grabbed me, and went for the lips,” she told The Guardian.

Alarmed, she said she leaned backwards to avoid him and almost lost her balance. “And he said, ‘Oh, come on.’ He was strong. And he grabbed me and went for my mouth and went for my lips.” She turned her head, she claims, and Trump planted a kiss on the side of her mouth. “He kept me there for a little too long,” Heller said. “And then he just walked away.”

“I was angry and shaken,” she continued. “He was pissed. He couldn’t believe a woman would pass up the opportunity.” She added that he seemed to feel “entitled” to kiss her.

The Guardian interviewed a relative who was present at the brunch, as well as a friend whom Keller had told about the incident well before the 2005 tape was released.

Groping a Woman Outside the 1998 U.S. Open Tennis Championship

During a press conference with attorney Gloria Allred, Karena Virginia told reporters she was standing outside the 1998 U.S. Open Tennis Championship in Flushing, Queens, waiting for a car to take her home when Donald Trump approached her. She said she knew who he was, but she’d never met him.

“I was quite surprised when I overheard him talking to the other men about me,” Virginia said. “He said, ‘Hey, look at this one; we haven’t seen her before. Look at those legs,’ as though I was an object rather than a person. He then walked up to me and reached his right arm and grabbed my right arm. Then his hand touched the right inside of my breast. I was in shock. I flinched. ‘Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know who I am?’ That’s what he said to me. I felt intimidated, and I felt powerless. Then my car pulled up and I got in.” She was 27 at the time.

According to Allred, Virginia is not considering a lawsuit against Trump at this time. She said she hesitated to speak up for fear Trump would call her a liar or “just another ‘nasty woman,’” but in the end the Access Hollywood tape and Trump’s own denial of his history of sexual assault prompted her to speak up.

Groping Miss Finland in 2006 Before Appearing With Her on the Late Show With David Letterman

Ninni Laaksonen claimed on October 27 that Donald Trump grabbed her bottom in New York in 2006, shortly after she was crowned Miss Finland, the Telegraph reports. After being contacted by local paper Ilta-Sanomat, Laaksonen said Trump groped her moments before she was set to appear on the Late Show With David Letterman, alongside Trump himself and three other contestants.

“Before the show we were photographed outside the building,” Laaksonen said. “Trump stood right next to me and suddenly he squeezed by butt. He really grabbed by butt. I don’t think anybody saw it but I flinched and thought: ‘What is happening?’”



I quote you here

"This one point is a great example of why you don't understand how he got elected, and I don't understand how you don't understand ;) "


Seems to me that you are the confused one, or such a Trumpist that you can overlook such criminal behavior in order to justify your ongoing support.

Do a little research...it's all there for us to see.

[TargeT]

Perhaps you think it normal for a man to say such things. I'm a man and have never heard any other man say such a thing. I'm retired Air Force, and I can attest that I have heard many misogynist things said about women, but never, "I just grab them by the privates parts.

Well, I am also a man; I played football, wrestled and joined the military strait out of highschool; to this day I know people that talk in that "mannor", I just don't hang out with those people.

Phones are passed around with pictures of females and the question is posed "smash or pass" and these are (as far as I can tell) loving fathers and dedicated husbands.


I think that is a completely seperate topic however, and a complex one (how sex and sexuality is treated in western society, or even how different it is from region to region, California vs South Carolina for example).




See partial transcript below:

Trump: Yeah, that’s her. With the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

Bush: Whatever you want.

Trump: Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.

Just because Trump says such things doesn't mean consent is given to such treatment, especially a woman who doesn't have a relationship with him.

And if you simply work with the facts available, that does not sound like sexual assault to me.

But I don't pick up and run with every rumor I hear, or at least try my best not to.





"This one point is a great example of why you don't understand how he got elected, and I don't understand how you don't understand ;) "


Seems to me that you are the confused one, or such a Trumpist that you can overlook such criminal behavior in order to justify your ongoing support.

Do a little research...it's all there for us to see.


I agree that's a disturbing list; but not at all what I was referring to. Your taking a historical contextual look with a lot of unsubstantiated testimony (and as of yet, not a single conviction?) which you are taking for granted as "true"; I will not do that.

If you come to my island you can find rumors that I "rescue horses, starve them so I can get good "before" and "after" photos, and then fatten them back up to say I rescued them.

I've been accused more times than I can count that I steal horses.

Being a SUPER MINOR public figure has garnished me AND my family a small list like the above (no sexual harassment stuff, but a **** LOAD of people attempting character assassination due to what ever motivation). And that's not a position most people will ever be in during their life spans.

Do you know what it's like to constantly run into people that know you, know your life, know your wife, your kids, your pets.. and you have no clue who they are? What happens when that obsession slips to the dark side?

I can't imagine what true "celebrityhood" is like after my small taste of it... it's got to be pretty ****ty.

Sexual harassment is a problem and it does happen a lot, so are false rape claims and false sexual harassment claims; I've seen a good amount of both, enough that I need some sort of evidence.

[AutumnW]

Well, it's all pretty appalling and yet still many people preferred the overt third world style pig over a slick Willie type. Clinton was as bad or worse.

I am not personally offended by Trump's escapades. I find them creepy but I just don't care what he does and with who as long as nobody is being assaulted.

I am far more concerned about him molesting entire countries.

[TargeT]

Clinton was as bad or worse.

At least he had (has?) charisma... hahaha

[AutumnW]

I guess? I find all of these dudes pretty repulsive.

[abmqa]

Perhaps you think it normal for a man to say such things. I'm a man and have never heard any other man say such a thing. I'm retired Air Force, and I can attest that I have heard many misogynist things said about women, but never, "I just grab them by the privates parts.

Well, I am also a man; I played football, wrestled and joined the military strait out of highschool; to this day I know people that talk in that "mannor", I just don't hang out with those people.

Phones are passed around with pictures of females and the question is posed "smash or pass" and these are (as far as I can tell) loving fathers and dedicated husbands.


I think that is a completely seperate topic however, and a complex one (how sex and sexuality is treated in western society, or even how different it is from region to region, California vs South Carolina for example).




See partial transcript below:

Trump: Yeah, that’s her. With the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

Bush: Whatever you want.

Trump: Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.

Just because Trump says such things doesn't mean consent is given to such treatment, especially a woman who doesn't have a relationship with him.

And if you simply work with the facts available, that does not sound like sexual assault to me.

But I don't pick up and run with every rumor I hear, or at least try my best not to.





"This one point is a great example of why you don't understand how he got elected, and I don't understand how you don't understand ;) "


Seems to me that you are the confused one, or such a Trumpist that you can overlook such criminal behavior in order to justify your ongoing support.

Do a little research...it's all there for us to see.


I agree that's a disturbing list; but not at all what I was referring to. Your taking a historical contextual look with a lot of unsubstantiated testimony (and as of yet, not a single conviction?) which you are taking for granted as "true"; I will not do that.

If you come to my island you can find rumors that I "rescue horses, starve them so I can get good "before" and "after" photos, and then fatten them back up to say I rescued them.

I've been accused more times than I can count that I steal horses.

Being a SUPER MINOR public figure has garnished me AND my family a small list like the above (no sexual harassment stuff, but a **** LOAD of people attempting character assassination due to what ever motivation). And that's not a position most people will ever be in during their life spans.

Do you know what it's like to constantly run into people that know you, know your life, know your wife, your kids, your pets.. and you have no clue who they are? What happens when that obsession slips to the dark side?

I can't imagine what true "celebrityhood" is like after my small taste of it... it's got to be pretty ****ty.

Sexual harassment is a problem and it does happen a lot, so are false rape claims and false sexual harassment claims; I've seen a good amount of both, enough that I need some sort of evidence.

So let me get this right. You are saying that you need more evidence that Trump really did assault these women?

It's not enough that he has insinuated that because he is famous, women will let him do anything?

Sure, perhaps some women will let him do anything because he is famous, but not all women.

You don't believe that someone with his belief system is ever going to be rejected?

You need him to be convicted of the crime before you believe all or some of the incidents I listed?

My friend, you have your Trump filters on.

Trump stated that he doesn't wait. He can do whatever wants.

Trump statements and actions are reflected in the victims accounts that despite his renown, he cannot do whatever he wants.

Aren't you disturbed just a little bit by all of these accounts. Though some claims may be false, surely not all of them are.

How many do you need to be true for you to condemn his actions?

[TargeT]

So let me get this right. You are saying that you need more evidence that Trump really did assault these women?

I believe there was one incident that may have been considered assault with Ivana; but that's questionable as well due to outcome.

Is he most likely a sexual harassment case? probably, but then I've had unwanted touches before too and I'm still living fine.

I have a strong distaste for the legal system and the way it's often used; so I'm sure there is some bias coming through in that.



Sure, perhaps some women will let him do anything because he is famous, but not all women.

You don't believe that someone with his belief system is ever going to be rejected?

Totally agree he's a borish asshole, and I'm sure he has sexually harassed at least one or two people.

I'm having trouble seeing him as more than inappropriate at this point though, and after slick willy did 8 years, kind of par for the course?



You need him to be convicted of the crime before you believe all or some of the incidents I listed?

I guess my anecdotes were meaningless to you :(



My friend, you have your Trump filters on.

I have my "extremist" or "polarization" filters on, there's a difference ;)




Trump stated that he doesn't wait. He can do whatever wants.

Trump statements and actions are reflected in the victims accounts that despite his renown, he cannot do whatever he wants.

Unfortunately context isn't meaningless, I do not see this correlation based on those things.



Aren't you disturbed just a little bit by all of these accounts.

At this point it's hard not to see you as witch hunting or argument baiting...




I agree that's a disturbing list;

That's literally on this same page, are you just crafting phrases because you like the way they sound and their implications or trying to have an actual discussion?




Though some claims may be false, surely not all of them are.

How many do you need to be true for you to condemn his actions?



Just one case really; & certainly you don't assume am condoning said actions... do you think I am?

how far have you shoved me in the "trumpet" hole?

The further you marginalize me the more you'll ignore what I actually say and attribute what you assume a trumpet would say or not say.. above is a great example.


When I say question everything, always.

I do mean everything.. this situation certainly isn't above scrutiny & until there's something conclusive we should remain open to all probable possibilities.


q2Dop7haDnY

[abmqa]

So let me get this right. You are saying that you need more evidence that Trump really did assault these women?

I believe there was one incident that may have been considered assault with Ivana; but that's questionable as well due to outcome.

Is he most likely a sexual harassment case? probably, but then I've had unwanted touches before too and I'm still living fine.

I have a strong distaste for the legal system and the way it's often used; so I'm sure there is some bias coming through in that.



Sure, perhaps some women will let him do anything because he is famous, but not all women.

You don't believe that someone with his belief system is ever going to be rejected?

Totally agree he's a borish asshole, and I'm sure he has sexually harassed at least one or two people.

I'm having trouble seeing him as more than inappropriate at this point though, and after slick willy did 8 years, kind of par for the course?

Sexual harassment is more than inappropriate, if the person is touched it can be considered assault.



You need him to be convicted of the crime before you believe all or some of the incidents I listed?

I guess my anecdotes were meaningless to you :(

Yes, but I'm just stupid like that.



My friend, you have your Trump filters on.

I have my "extremist" or "polarization" filters on, there's a difference ;)




Trump stated that he doesn't wait. He can do whatever wants.

Trump statements and actions are reflected in the victims accounts that despite his renown, he cannot do whatever he wants.

Unfortunately context isn't meaningless, I do not see this correlation based on those things.

Perhaps I did not articulate my point clearly enough to pass through your filter. So sorry.



Aren't you disturbed just a little bit by all of these accounts.

At this point it's hard not to see you as witch hunting or argument baiting...

Really? I just asked your opinion.




I agree that's a disturbing list;

That's literally on this same page, are you just crafting phrases because you like the way they sound and their implications or trying to have an actual discussion?

You are disturbed by the list but don't believe it? Okay, that makes sense...please note the the heavy sarcasm.



Though some claims may be false, surely not all of them are.

How many do you need to be true for you to condemn his actions?



Just one case really; & certainly you don't assume am condoning said actions... do you think I am?

Not sure what you condone. Just asked a question. Is that not ok?


how far have you shoved me in the "trumpet" hole?

Your in pretty deep my friend, but what do I know? Just going by this posts and others posts of Trump support that I have seen from you.

You bias is clear enough to me. As my bias against Trump should be to you.

The further you marginalize me the more you'll ignore what I actually say and attribute what you assume a trumpet would say or not say.. above is a great example.

Sorry, if you felt marginalized by my comments and observations.

When I say question everything, always.

I do mean everything.. this situation certainly isn't above scrutiny & until there's something conclusive we should remain open to all probable possibilities.

Is it ok that I question you? You don't appear too happy when I do.

[abmqa]

Clinton was as bad or worse.

At least he had (has?) charisma... hahaha

So true! He is a despicable person, but I just can't seem to hate him. One thing for certain he was/is a great communicator.

[abmqa]

Well, it's all pretty appalling and yet still many people preferred the overt third world style pig over a slick Willie type. Clinton was as bad or worse.

I am not personally offended by Trump's escapades. I find them creepy but I just don't care what he does and with who as long as nobody is being assaulted.

I am far more concerned about him molesting entire countries.

It can be considered assault if the person being sexually harassed is touched.

As for molesting entire countries, I think we are going to war with North Korea soon. I think it would be a huge mistake to provoke a war with them. They are not a threat to the US, however it could prove disastrous for Japan and South Korea

[AutumnW]

I'm not defending a Trump on his predatory sexual style. Don't get me wrong. I just have a sense that VIPs (very important perverts) get away with more because the women the go after allow it, hoping there will be some kind of payoff in it for them. It's mutually parasitic quite frequently.

Modern women are NOT fragile flowers. There is nothing to prevent a woman from kicking him in the nads if he kisses them. And seriously who would blame them? I would rather be kissed by a carp.

And yes, I was referencing North Korea and all other countries who are in line to be dumping grounds for ordnance approaching its best before date.

[abmqa]

I'm not defending a Trump on his predatory sexual style. Don't get me wrong. I just have a sense that VIPs (very important perverts) get away with more because the women the go after allow it, hoping there will be some kind of payoff in it for them. It's mutually parasitic quite frequently.

Modern women are NOT fragile flowers. There is nothing to prevent a woman from kicking him in the nads if he kisses them. And seriously who would blame them? I would rather be kissed by a carp.

And yes, I was referencing North Korea and all other countries who are in line to be dumping grounds for ordnance approaching its best before date.

I agree with you 100%. There are women who'd like nothing better than to entrap/entice a wealthy/rich person looking for a pay-off, sometimes they go as far as marry them. It often ends in misery for all involved.

I had a good laugh visualizing Trump getting kicked in the nads. LOL Thank you for that!!

[Atlas]

[...] we are going to war with North Korea soon.
Not without China and.. the rest of the world!! Won't happen.

RlOaxe5C2nE

[sparrow7]

He is not the answer, he was the short answer between him and Hilary, if she won it could of been worst.
He has skills in economy and could fix things, he could of been a good choice for america, but he is the glory of god.

Glory ****, man pride, lion pride, call it what you want, I call it god ****.

[TargeT]

Well... Trump may not be the savior some think he is on the Pedo subject...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuU1luqCJGw


Story #2: Fmr. Trump Campaign Chair Just Arrested for Child Sex Trafficking — During the Campaign
http://bit.ly/2pAL7tg

Trump's Mythical Crackdown on Sex Trafficking
http://bit.ly/2q9KMNZ

Pearse Redmond Updates Us On The Epstein Pedophile Scandal
http://bit.ly/2p5Kh6o

Reminder: Trump's Lawyer Tried To Cover Up Trump's Deposition In Pedophile Epstein Case
http://bit.ly/2oy3wa5

Message Logs Of Trump Calls From Epstein's Phone Message Book
http://bit.ly/2q7S9mp

7 Things You Need To Know About Trump And Sex Slave Island
http://bit.ly/1q9o846

Victims Alleging Seattle Mayor Ed Murray Raped Them As Kids, Exposing Police Cover-Up
http://bit.ly/2q7SJAk

[DNA]

So true! He is a despicable person, but I just can't seem to hate him. One thing for certain he was/is a great communicator.

In regards to Clinton he is capable of showing no shame because he is a sociopath/psychopath.
Bill was a rapist who Hillary would take the offensive in defending time and time again, including using coercion, bribes and threats.
Sociopaths are often great communicators due to their having no conscience to give them pause or hold them back.
I thought Target made some pretty good points with his anecdotes earlier but you chose to simply stick to your meme that "Trump is bad m-kay".


I'm not really talking to you abmqa, I'm giving my take for folks who can hear the truth.
Those of us who love Trump do so because of one reason before all else. Trump is not a life long politician. All life long politicians have been corrupted to some extent or another and usually to much worse of a degree then even we on the alternative side of the media would guess.
Trump was not a life long politician.
Trump appeared to be able to make decisions without being tethered to unseen forces.
This seemed to be the case before Syria and the MOAB in Afghanistan.
Now it appears he has been compromised, and this has been most disturbing and sad.
It's so funny how the mainstream media began supporting Trump after he "got with the program".
For those who have eyes it was most telling indeed.

[TargeT]

It's so funny how the mainstream media began supporting Trump after he "got with the program".
For those who have eyes it was most telling indeed.

Media focus is one of my biggest indicators of "the message desired to be pushed", which means it (what ever gets air time on TV) should be instantly questioned and scrutinized.

They use that tool (TV) very specifically, no one gets air time that isn't allowed to.... this, to me, is a huge and helpful clue for discernment.

[DNA]

Well, it's all pretty appalling and yet still many people preferred the overt third world style pig over a slick Willie type. Clinton was as bad or worse.

I am not personally offended by Trump's escapades. I find them creepy but I just don't care what he does and with who as long as nobody is being assaulted.

I am far more concerned about him molesting entire countries.

It can be considered assault if the person being sexually harassed is touched.

As for molesting entire countries, I think we are going to war with North Korea soon. I think it would be a huge mistake to provoke a war with them. They are not a threat to the US, however it could prove disastrous for Japan and South Korea


You only care about what the main stream media make it easy for you to understand.
What would you think of Obama if you knew he had gay lovers in his church and that those gay lovers all mysteriously died within two months of each other at the end of 2007 right before Obama's campaign took off?
How would Trump's accusations of "assault" look compared with Obama saying okay to the murder of his former lovers as long as he got to be president?
I learned a lot from this whole Obamma thing from MichaelV's thread here. What Obamma called his wife has people talking. (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?73420-What-Obama-Called-His-Wife-Has-Many-People-Talking)

I'll be honest. I thought the whole premise of the thread was distasteful, and I found myself getting agitated and preparing to post a negative response to the thread without checking the links that were provided. I paused and checked the links and there was some really crazy information there. First and foremost was the whole deal with Obamma's church parish, accusations that three of his homosexual lovers were killed within sixty days of one another in the last months of 2007, right as his campaign was generating a buzz.

Two members of Obama's church who were suspected gay lovers of Obamma killed execution style within six weeks of one another in November and December of 2007, right before Obama's campaign really took off. (http://gopthedailydose.com/2013/05/26/mom-of-murdered-obama-gay-lover-speaks-up/)

[abmqa]

Well, it's all pretty appalling and yet still many people preferred the overt third world style pig over a slick Willie type. Clinton was as bad or worse.

I am not personally offended by Trump's escapades. I find them creepy but I just don't care what he does and with who as long as nobody is being assaulted.

I am far more concerned about him molesting entire countries.

It can be considered assault if the person being sexually harassed is touched.

As for molesting entire countries, I think we are going to war with North Korea soon. I think it would be a huge mistake to provoke a war with them. They are not a threat to the US, however it could prove disastrous for Japan and South Korea



You only care about what the main stream media make it easy for you to understand.

I'm sorry, do you know me??

From your statement above it appears that not only that you know me, but you also know what I care about. I feel that is very presumptuous of you.

From your statement one would think that I get my information only from the the MSM. If you are not sure where I get my information from please feel free to ask. I would be happy to share many of my sources of information.



What would you think of Obama if you knew he had gay lovers in his church and that those gay lovers all mysteriously died within two months of each other at the end of 2007 right before Obama's campaign took off?
How would Trump's accusations of "assault" look compared with Obama saying okay to the murder of his former lovers as long as he got to be president?
I learned a lot from this whole Obamma thing from MichaelV's thread here. What Obamma called his wife has people talking. (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?73420-What-Obama-Called-His-Wife-Has-Many-People-Talking)

To address yet another statement of yours. You appear to think you know what I am aware of. Yet another presumption by you.

Yes, I know all about Obama and Larry Sinclair. That includes how Joe Biden's son Beau the Attorney General for the State of Delaware had Larry arrested on some trumped-up (no pun intended) charges in order to derail Larry's press conference. How Larry Sinclair (supposedly) attempted suicide. I have read Larry's book http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/10/17/910867/- You should read it, if you haven't already. I tend to believe what Larry Sinclair has said and written. I believed back then and I still believe it.

I'll be honest. I thought the whole premise of the thread was distasteful, and I found myself getting agitated and preparing to post a negative response to the thread without checking the links that were provided. I paused and checked the links and there was some really crazy information there. First and foremost was the whole deal with Obamma's church parish, accusations that three of his homosexual lovers were killed within sixty days of one another in the last months of 2007, right as his campaign was generating a buzz.

Two members of Obama's church who were suspected gay lovers of Obamma killed execution style within six weeks of one another in November and December of 2007, right before Obama's campaign really took off. (http://gopthedailydose.com/2013/05/26/mom-of-murdered-obama-gay-lover-speaks-up/)

Hopefully you can see, I am not some idiot who blindly follows and believes what the MSM puts out.

For you to insinuate that I do, IMO is not only presumptuous but also insulting.

I came to Project Avalon to learn about information that is not presented in the MSM, and to debate the veracity of the information available.

I think that I am like many members here, I am a truth seeker.

If you would like to know more about me, I am happy to send you a PM with some details that may help you to understand me better.

[abmqa]

[...] we are going to war with North Korea soon.
Not without China and.. the rest of the world!! Won't happen.

RlOaxe5C2nE

Atlas, I truly hope and pray that you are correct.

However, from the moves being made by the US, Russian and Chinese military forces and my military experience with the lead up to a war, I'm seeing many disturbing signs.

[Helene West]

Well, it's all pretty appalling and yet still many people preferred the overt third world style pig over a slick Willie type. Clinton was as bad or worse.

I am not personally offended by Trump's escapades. I find them creepy but I just don't care what he does and with who as long as nobody is being assaulted.

I am far more concerned about him molesting entire countries.

It can be considered assault if the person being sexually harassed is touched.

As for molesting entire countries, I think we are going to war with North Korea soon. I think it would be a huge mistake to provoke a war with them. They are not a threat to the US, however it could prove disastrous for Japan and South Korea


You only care about what the main stream media make it easy for you to understand.
What would you think of Obama if you knew he had gay lovers in his church and that those gay lovers all mysteriously died within two months of each other at the end of 2007 right before Obama's campaign took off?
How would Trump's accusations of "assault" look compared with Obama saying okay to the murder of his former lovers as long as he got to be president?
I learned a lot from this whole Obamma thing from MichaelV's thread here. What Obamma called his wife has people talking. (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?73420-What-Obama-Called-His-Wife-Has-Many-People-Talking)

I'll be honest. I thought the whole premise of the thread was distasteful, and I found myself getting agitated and preparing to post a negative response to the thread without checking the links that were provided. I paused and checked the links and there was some really crazy information there. First and foremost was the whole deal with Obamma's church parish, accusations that three of his homosexual lovers were killed within sixty days of one another in the last months of 2007, right as his campaign was generating a buzz.

Two members of Obama's church who were suspected gay lovers of Obamma killed execution style within six weeks of one another in November and December of 2007, right before Obama's campaign really took off. (http://gopthedailydose.com/2013/05/26/mom-of-murdered-obama-gay-lover-speaks-up/)

Thank you DNA for your courage in posting this.
I've wondered since I came to this forum why no one has ever mentioned this topic. But then it is scary when the globalist killing machine shows you what it will do to defend it's puppets. It's devastating what him and clinton have gotten away with. Stone Cold Killers.
If you go to larry sinclair's website (white guy he did coke with and had 2 sexcapades with) strange things can happen to your computer. Then there is a woman who rense had on a few times (can't remember her name) who went to the occidental high school in hawaii with obama and was part of the little clique he sometimes hung with. She said he was always broke and bumming cigs and change. Then occasionally he'd step out of a car driven by older white guys and he was flush and would buy stuff for other people.
I feel if the two girls are really his daughters they were conceived through artificial insemination.
And we're subjected non-stop to the phony outrage of mainstream sheep against trump. We must see his tax returns, that's important. But murder, who cares?

[abmqa]

So true! He is a despicable person, but I just can't seem to hate him. One thing for certain he was/is a great communicator.

In regards to Clinton he is capable of showing no shame because he is a sociopath/psychopath.
Bill was a rapist who Hillary would take the offensive in defending time and time again, including using coercion, bribes and threats.
Sociopaths are often great communicators due to their having no conscience to give them pause or hold them back.


I thought Target made some pretty good points with his anecdotes earlier but you chose to simply stick to your meme that "Trump is bad m-kay".

You are correct. I believe Trump is a bad person and a Horrible President!! I believe that I have many valid reasons to feel the way I do, and most of all I have a right to voice my opinion. I have formed my opinion based on the things that Trump has said and done.

So if you are able to over-look him making fun of the disabled, calling people names like a child, his bigotry, racist and misogynistic ways. I could go on and on, but you already know all of his faults, right?


I'm not really talking to you abmqa, I'm giving my take for folks who can hear the truth.

I joined PA because I am a Truth Seeker! We may not agree about Trump, but that doesn't have anything to do with Truth.


Those of us who love Trump do so because of one reason before all else. Trump is not a life long politician. All life long politicians have been corrupted to some extent or another and usually to much worse of a degree then even we on the alternative side of the media would guess.
Trump was not a life long politician.

This doesn't mean Trump is not corrupt or cannot be corrupted. It just means he hasn't had the chance in the political arena.


Trump appeared to be able to make decisions without being tethered to unseen forces.
This seemed to be the case before Syria and the MOAB in Afghanistan.
Now it appears he has been compromised, and this has been most disturbing and sad.


It's so funny how the mainstream media began supporting Trump after he "got with the program".

For those who have eyes it was most telling indeed.

You are correct. The mainstream media from left and right lauded Trump's military action. This is very disturbing, because I feel that Trump lives for praise. IMO it's his primary motivating factor. I just hope and pray he doesn't drag us into war.

[Shannon]

Clinton was as bad or worse.

At least he had (has?) charisma... hahaha

So true! He is a despicable person, but I just can't seem to hate him. One thing for certain he was/is a great communicator.

Great communicator...more like great bullchit artist! ;)

[abmqa]

Clinton was as bad or worse.

At least he had (has?) charisma... hahaha

So true! He is a despicable person, but I just can't seem to hate him. One thing for certain he was/is a great communicator.

Great communicator...more like great bullchit artist! ;)

I am no fan of the Clinton's. He is/was IMO, a cocaine addict and drug runner. Although, he may not have personally killed people, I believe that he has had people killed. Same with Hilary, who I believe had people killed and is also a closet lesbian.

See link here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLWMnH31D-Y

and here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPX1G--iE3Q

[DNA]

Well, it's all pretty appalling and yet still many people preferred the overt third world style pig over a slick Willie type. Clinton was as bad or worse.

I am not personally offended by Trump's escapades. I find them creepy but I just don't care what he does and with who as long as nobody is being assaulted.

I am far more concerned about him molesting entire countries.

It can be considered assault if the person being sexually harassed is touched.

As for molesting entire countries, I think we are going to war with North Korea soon. I think it would be a huge mistake to provoke a war with them. They are not a threat to the US, however it could prove disastrous for Japan and South Korea



You only care about what the main stream media make it easy for you to understand.

I'm sorry, do you know me??

From your statement above it appears that not only that you know me, but you also know what I care about. I feel that is very presumptuous of you.

From your statement one would think that I get my information only from the the MSM. If you are not sure where I get my information from please feel free to ask. I would be happy to share many of my sources of information.



What would you think of Obama if you knew he had gay lovers in his church and that those gay lovers all mysteriously died within two months of each other at the end of 2007 right before Obama's campaign took off?
How would Trump's accusations of "assault" look compared with Obama saying okay to the murder of his former lovers as long as he got to be president?
I learned a lot from this whole Obamma thing from MichaelV's thread here. What Obamma called his wife has people talking. (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?73420-What-Obama-Called-His-Wife-Has-Many-People-Talking)

To address yet another statement of yours. You appear to think you know what I am aware of. Yet another presumption by you.

Yes, I know all about Obama and Larry Sinclair. That includes how Joe Biden's son Beau the Attorney General for the State of Delaware had Larry arrested on some trumped-up (no pun intended) charges in order to derail Larry's press conference. How Larry Sinclair (supposedly) attempted suicide. I have read Larry's book http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/10/17/910867/- You should read it, if you haven't already. I tend to believe what Larry Sinclair has said and written. I believed back then and I still believe it.

I'll be honest. I thought the whole premise of the thread was distasteful, and I found myself getting agitated and preparing to post a negative response to the thread without checking the links that were provided. I paused and checked the links and there was some really crazy information there. First and foremost was the whole deal with Obamma's church parish, accusations that three of his homosexual lovers were killed within sixty days of one another in the last months of 2007, right as his campaign was generating a buzz.

Two members of Obama's church who were suspected gay lovers of Obamma killed execution style within six weeks of one another in November and December of 2007, right before Obama's campaign really took off. (http://gopthedailydose.com/2013/05/26/mom-of-murdered-obama-gay-lover-speaks-up/)

Hopefully you can see, I am not some idiot who blindly follows and believes what the MSM puts out.

For you to insinuate that I do, IMO is not only presumptuous but also insulting.

I came to Project Avalon to learn about information that is not presented in the MSM, and to debate the veracity of the information available.

I think that I am like many members here, I am a truth seeker.

If you would like to know more about me, I am happy to send you a PM with some details that may help you to understand me better.


Well that was an excellent retort. I stand corrected on a couple of things.
Good to know these things, especially that you have actually read the Larry Sinclar book that I didn't even know existed.
I look for good things from you

[AutumnW]

DNA,

I am aware of all of the Larry Sinclair stuff too. I am not sure if it is part of a smear campaign or not. There is no way for me to judge, just like there is no way I can properly evaluate what appear to be smear campaigns against Trump.

For example, his pulling Ivanya's hair out and then raping her? Seriously, I would have to know for sure, by seeing a police report to believe that. I don't like him but know that smear campaigns generally involve weird claims of extreme violence, perversion, all the way to cannibalism.

People can make all the claims they want. When it comes to fingering someone for sometching atrocious, I need clear cut proof.

[abmqa]

Well, it's all pretty appalling and yet still many people preferred the overt third world style pig over a slick Willie type. Clinton was as bad or worse.

I am not personally offended by Trump's escapades. I find them creepy but I just don't care what he does and with who as long as nobody is being assaulted.

I am far more concerned about him molesting entire countries.

It can be considered assault if the person being sexually harassed is touched.

As for molesting entire countries, I think we are going to war with North Korea soon. I think it would be a huge mistake to provoke a war with them. They are not a threat to the US, however it could prove disastrous for Japan and South Korea



You only care about what the main stream media make it easy for you to understand.

I'm sorry, do you know me??

From your statement above it appears that not only that you know me, but you also know what I care about. I feel that is very presumptuous of you.

From your statement one would think that I get my information only from the the MSM. If you are not sure where I get my information from please feel free to ask. I would be happy to share many of my sources of information.



What would you think of Obama if you knew he had gay lovers in his church and that those gay lovers all mysteriously died within two months of each other at the end of 2007 right before Obama's campaign took off?
How would Trump's accusations of "assault" look compared with Obama saying okay to the murder of his former lovers as long as he got to be president?
I learned a lot from this whole Obamma thing from MichaelV's thread here. What Obamma called his wife has people talking. (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?73420-What-Obama-Called-His-Wife-Has-Many-People-Talking)

To address yet another statement of yours. You appear to think you know what I am aware of. Yet another presumption by you.

Yes, I know all about Obama and Larry Sinclair. That includes how Joe Biden's son Beau the Attorney General for the State of Delaware had Larry arrested on some trumped-up (no pun intended) charges in order to derail Larry's press conference. How Larry Sinclair (supposedly) attempted suicide. I have read Larry's book http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/10/17/910867/- You should read it, if you haven't already. I tend to believe what Larry Sinclair has said and written. I believed back then and I still believe it.

I'll be honest. I thought the whole premise of the thread was distasteful, and I found myself getting agitated and preparing to post a negative response to the thread without checking the links that were provided. I paused and checked the links and there was some really crazy information there. First and foremost was the whole deal with Obamma's church parish, accusations that three of his homosexual lovers were killed within sixty days of one another in the last months of 2007, right as his campaign was generating a buzz.

Two members of Obama's church who were suspected gay lovers of Obamma killed execution style within six weeks of one another in November and December of 2007, right before Obama's campaign really took off. (http://gopthedailydose.com/2013/05/26/mom-of-murdered-obama-gay-lover-speaks-up/)

Hopefully you can see, I am not some idiot who blindly follows and believes what the MSM puts out.

For you to insinuate that I do, IMO is not only presumptuous but also insulting.

I came to Project Avalon to learn about information that is not presented in the MSM, and to debate the veracity of the information available.

I think that I am like many members here, I am a truth seeker.

If you would like to know more about me, I am happy to send you a PM with some details that may help you to understand me better.


Well that was an excellent retort. I stand corrected on a couple of things.
Good to know these things, especially that you have actually read the Larry Sinclar book that I didn't even know existed.
I look for good things from you

DNA - I believe most of us are here are very much "awake". Although I have been a PA member for only a couple of years, I had been a "lurker" at Project Camelot from it's inception. When the split happened, I felt more comfortable with Bill and PA, versus Kerry and PC, who I deeply admire, but I feel was going more "esoteric" than I liked. I still visit PC as lurker and try to view her live-streams if I see something of interest.

Project Avalon has some of smartest and deepest thinkers I have ever encountered and like many here I seek truth no matter where it leads.

Best regards

[awakeningmom]

I thought I would revive this thread as I am just so appalled at the latest misogynistic tweet by DJT regarding Mika Brezinski. And I am so horrified and saddened that this forum, which hosts at least three sycophantic pro-Trump threads, continues to ignore or justify behavior in DJT that is clearly not appropriate for anyone, let alone the "leader" of our country. I was never a HRC fan, and know what she and her husband have done to degrade and abuse women, but Trump is so blatantly awful and offensive and un-Presidential that I can no longer remain silent. I share this writer's perspective, and particularly this line:

"I’m not sure that even well-intentioned men understand how relentlessly degrading this presidency is for many women. Having a man who does not recognize the humanity of more than half the population in a position of such power is a daily insult; it never really goes away."

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2017/06/29/trump_s_misogynist_tweets_about_mika_brzezinski.html

We have already lost really good members who have expressed concern and discomfort that this forum was tolerating racism and xenophobia, and now I fear it has become insensitive to misogyny. Stop the justifications for DJT. He is just so far beneath the Office of President that I am now counting the days until he is gone.

I truly hope I am not the only one who feels despair at what is happening to our country as a result of the bully in chief.

[TargeT]

We have already lost really good members who have expressed concern and discomfort that this forum was tolerating racism and xenophobia, and now I fear it has become insensitive to misogyny.

Thats MORE than a bit dramatic, wouldn't you say?

Racism, Xenophobia, and Misogyny have definitions, you pervert and debase those who actually face these travesties through your exaggerated statements.

I have seen Xenophobia up close, and it's written in piles of bodies and burned villages.... not tweets.

Tolerance for something that cannot be changed is not the same as endorsement nor does it exclude condemnation.

You seem a bit hyperbolic on this topic.. don't let it affect you so.

[turiya]

Rebuttal...#1


https://grrrgraphics.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/ship_of_fools_ben_garrison1.jpg?w=640

___________________________

Rebuttal...#2


Trump's 'Morning Joe' tweets are just
the latest step in a years-long feud
(Published on Jun 29, 2017)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlUpBWSGSTw___________________________

Rebuttal...#3


Gingrich: Trump is a gut-fighter, it's instinctual
(Published on Jun 29, 2017)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_TNqlZ0sIY___________________________

Rebuttal...#4


Trump tweets on Mika Brzezinski
were ‘fantastic,’ says Anne Coulter (https://youtu.be/v0z5cCe70KI)
(Published on Jun 30, 2017)
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v0z5cCe70KI/hqdefault.jpg
VIDEO (https://youtu.be/v0z5cCe70KI)

___________________________

Rebuttal...#5


HANNITY - THURSDAY (FULL SHOW) 6/29/17 (https://youtu.be/YVzyRR1Y8KU)
(Published on Jun 29, 2017)
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YVzyRR1Y8KU/hqdefault.jpg
VIDEO (https://youtu.be/YVzyRR1Y8KU)

___________________________

[awakeningmom]

Oh no, here go the Trump sycophants....can't tolerate any criticism of their Demigod....Please, if you would, allow a thread where your right wing youtube videos aren't posted in lieu of intelligent responses.

Target, you have unfortunately already shown your true colors when it comes to women/misogyny. I can't bother getting into it with you. But let's just say you might benefit from some sensitivity training, particularly since you have daughters.

[Flash]

Whatever words were used by whomever in this forum about your quite often expressed statements about woman and many other topics linked to conscious or unconscious debasing of others (women, blacks, gai, etc) for which you have no single cue about their lived experience, and do not wish to listen from those who do, without even reading the post of the accused member, i have no problem in thinking that once again, you have been the one who transvesties the Truth. Once again





We have already lost really good members who have expressed concern and discomfort that this forum was tolerating racism and xenophobia, and now I fear it has become insensitive to misogyny.

Thats MORE than a bit dramatic, wouldn't you say?

Racism, Xenophobia, and Misogyny have definitions, you pervert and debase those who actually face these travesties through your exaggerated statements.

I have seen Xenophobia up close, and it's written in piles of bodies and burned villages.... not tweets.

Tolerance for something that cannot be changed is not the same as endorsement nor does it exclude condemnation.

You seem a bit hyperbolic on this topic.. don't let it affect you so.

[Helene West]

I care not if a snake is a male or female.
Females have a card to play that males do not. If you attack a cold-blooded female snake you will be called a misogynist the same if you attacked little red riding hood.

The propagandists, formerly newscasters, will act as if the whole world gives a crap that trump ranked-out poor little rich girl from her left wing politician family. The world doesn't care. The only ones who care are those who already hysterically hate him.

And ditch the meme that he's not presidential. A snake-pit doesn't deserve presidential. There shouldn't even be these daily white house briefings. They should be given the cold-shoulder altogether.

I find it more interesting that anderson cooper, another silver spooned (from the Vanderbilt clan) left winger interned at the CIA. Journalists and Intel, a marriage as deadly as that of church and state. But I guess the malice spewing from mika's botoxed lips and fake face is far more important.

[awakeningmom]

Sorry, Helene, but I am not sure what alternative universe you live in that you can put "Vanderbilt" and "left winger" together. Seriously? Do you really believe in such manufactured left-right paradigms? Do you really believe that Gloria Vanderbilt's son Anderson Cooper believes in a living minimum wage, equal pay for equal work, and a safety net for the sick/poorest among us? If so, we seem to have a vast difference of world view here. In my opinion, there is the elite, and there is the rest of us, and there is an entire manufactured divide so that poor/middle class/working class people fight over ridiculous things while the elite steal the world and enslave the rest of us. And as a woman (Not sure, but I guess I just assume from your call sign/user name that you are also female), I find it depressing that you need to refer to Mika's looks to devalue/degrade her. Call her a bad journalist, a hack, a NWO enabler, her father's daughter, whatever, but really? Ad hominem attacks on her looks is just so misogynistic -- and yes, Target, I actually do know what the word means. And how presumptuous of you to suggest you know what I have and have not experienced in my life with respect to racism, xenophobia, or misogyny.

It's un-presidential for a man holding the highest office in the U.S. to suggest that a woman who challenges him is doing so because she is menstruating. Trump's an embarrassment to this Nation on so many levels, and Ann Coulter's (the woman who suggested that the Jersey Girls, the brave women/widows who demanded a real 9-11 commission be formed to investigate what really happened to their dead husbands in the WTC, just "shut up and go home") and thrice married Newt Gingrich's pathetic support of Trump's s misogyny only reinforces my view that the tone of this Nation has taken a major turn for the worse since DJT's inauguration.

But maybe I'm being "hyberbolic"--- or, hysterical, and need to go take some valium or a rest by the sea to deal with my female nerves....shouldn't affect me too much that the man ostensibly running this country likes to grab women by their privates, would date his daughter if he could, hangs with pedos, and discusses women as if they are pieces of property or valueless unless they are good looking (in his opinion).

Mika is a journalist. Her "job" is to criticize public figures -- and DJT has willingly inserted himself into the public sphere and is a public figure. Conversely, DJT is the "leader" of this country, he should be above tweeting like a hostile schoolboy in retaliation.

[Helene West]

'...mom'
I don't agree with you so therefore I'm in an 'alternative universe' of course.
I mentioned how I feel regarding most of your points so I'm not going in an endless cycle with you. Re cooper, if you want to believe that those coming from the privileged families from the 'captains of industry' era are not shills for the ruling class, fine. But interning at the CIA is very interesting and if I were a journalist it's connections like that I'd pursue.

I've addressed the tired, now metaphor, of the grabbing 'private parts' way back in another post and what kind of women throw themselves at young, billionaire men for the specific purpose of getting their 'private parts' grabbed.

Mika as a journalist - now there's an 'alternative universe' statement. Someone who is dedicated every day, day in and day out, to the disparagement of one individual. That is her purpose in life. You can now call that a career but it's not journalism.

I happen to believe that much of the legacy news industry is not about news at all today. It is about Culture Creation. What they are dedicated to creating and why is for its own thread.

[A Voice from the Mountains]

I thought I would revive this thread as I am just so appalled at the latest misogynistic tweet by DJT regarding Mika Brezinski.

Which part was sexist? The "low I.Q." part or the face lift part?

Because men get plastic surgery too believe it or not, so plastic surgery is not a gender thing, and associating "low I.Q." strictly with women would be sexist in itself. So I don't see where misogyny comes in anywhere.

This pattern of accusing everyone of sexism and racism just because you don't like them or don't agree with their politics is not working well for the left. Everybody else gets it, and "everybody else" is growing in numbers by the day as people get tired of constant tantrums and uncontrolled emotional outbursts. You are painting a very dark picture for yourselves that does not in reality exist. This is why race and gender relations in the US have worsened under eight years of liberal policies.

[Flash]

Please give me a break. When have we heard anyone, and I mean anyone, mention the plastic surgery or face lift of a man in a despising manner. It is clearly never used on man unless they are queer (yes, the word queer is despising too and goes with face lift when mentioned in conjunction).

But, how often have I heard it about women.

Don't take it wrong, I totally dislike this Brzinski, just because she is the daughter of her father to start with and most probably got her job through her contacts. However, name this or her true actions/comments that were stupid, not her face lift or her IQ - this is typical low level lashing at woman - like: she has slept with the boss this is why she had a promotion - that I heard on exceptionally bright, intelligent and competent woman. Never heard it about a man either.

Where have you been? in the bush for the last 40 years???

You defintely have far from rosy pants when it comes to woman, you think you do, but f.. how far from reality you are is astonishing.
"
AND YOU AND TARGET: HOW SUCCESSFUL AFE YOU ON DERAILING A THREAD on "NOT FOR TRUMP", FOR ONCE, BY TRYING TO INSTILL DEBATE ON A WOMAN AND MYSOGINISM TOPIC INSTEAD.

The guy (Trump) is certainly as bad as a businessman as many businessman are, as bad as most politicians at a minimum, maybe a tiny less bad than Clinton or Obama. And this is yet to be proven.

My take: he is just representing an opposing force to the actual cabal, but on the same overall pyramidal structure - in other words, same old sh t. As soon as he named his cabinet, it was obvious.

So.... what is the fuss about not wanting a thread to talk about how bad Trump can be on this forum? Why the derailment?




I thought I would revive this thread as I am just so appalled at the latest misogynistic tweet by DJT regarding Mika Brezinski.

Which part was sexist? The "low I.Q." part or the face lift part?

Because men get plastic surgery too believe it or not, so plastic surgery is not a gender thing, and associating "low I.Q." strictly with women would be sexist in itself. So I don't see where misogyny comes in anywhere.

This pattern of accusing everyone of sexism and racism just because you don't like them or don't agree with their politics is not working well for the left. Everybody else gets it, and "everybody else" is growing in numbers by the day as people get tired of constant tantrums and uncontrolled emotional outbursts. You are painting a very dark picture for yourselves that does not in reality exist. This is why race and gender relations in the US have worsened under eight years of liberal policies.

[thunder24]

I find it more interesting that anderson cooper, another silver spooned (from the Vanderbilt clan) left winger interned at the CIA. Journalists and Intel, a marriage as deadly as that of church and state. But I guess the malice spewing from mika's botoxed lips and fake face is far more important.

side note... he is also skull and bones

[turiya]

Plastic Surgery for Men...


Men in Hollywood Getting Plastic Surgery (https://youtu.be/U58ADVQ9t2Y)
(Published on Aug 9, 2010)
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/U58ADVQ9t2Y/hqdefault.jpg
VIDEO (https://youtu.be/U58ADVQ9t2Y)

______________________________

[Chester]

First, I, personally would prefer Trump not make the tweets he makes like the "face lift" tweet. On a side note, back in 2000, a good friend of mine flew to Venezuela for a face lift. When he came back, and after dealing with several bleeding complications, as his face finally healed enough from the surgery, I and most of the rest of his friends thought he looked worse and... we not only told him, we kidded him about it. In some cases some of the kidding seemed a little cruel.

Second, for me, Trump, was never "an answer." Trump was a key component to a potential "doing." In this case (for me), what was to be done and is to be done - is what had become known as, "The Trump agenda."

So Trump is NOT the answer, Trump's agenda is.

Thankfully many, many components of this agenda have been implemented, are being implemented and are being positioned to get implemented.

Can we say.... "Winning"?

Yes, we can all say (daily by the way) "Winning."

[awakeningmom]

'...mom'
I don't agree with you so therefore I'm in an 'alternative universe' of course.
I mentioned how I feel regarding most of your points so I'm not going in an endless cycle with you. Re cooper, if you want to believe that those coming from the privileged families from the 'captains of industry' era are not shills for the ruling class, fine. But interning at the CIA is very interesting and if I were a journalist it's connections like that I'd pursue.

I've addressed the tired, now metaphor, of the grabbing 'private parts' way back in another post and what kind of women throw themselves at young, billionaire men for the specific purpose of getting their 'private parts' grabbed.

Mika as a journalist - now there's an 'alternative universe' statement. Someone who is dedicated every day, day in and day out, to the disparagement of one individual. That is her purpose in life. You can now call that a career but it's not journalism.

I happen to believe that much of the legacy news industry is not about news at all today. It is about Culture Creation. What they are dedicated to creating and why is for its own thread.

Helene, I agree with you entirely that Anderson Cooper is "shilling for the ruling class" -- what I disagree with is that he's a "left winger" -- as I understand true "liberalism," although I agree with Chris Hedges in his fantastic book "The Death of the Liberal Class" that the liberal class has been hijacked by the corporate elite and no longer stands for safety nets for the poor, living wages for all, clean air and water and food, etc. Things I think are important and necessary. Not building stupid walls, not dismantling regulatory agencies instead of trying to rid them of industry capture. Not allowing Monsanto and its ilk to continue to operate unfettered by any restraints whatsoever.

My points on Mika are twofold: First, journalist or no true journalist, she's part of the media -- they get to criticize politicians -- they are expected to. Trump responds like a spoiled, unhinged child. And Trump is, for better or worse (and in my opinion, worse) President of the "Free World" for crying out loud. He should try to start acting like one. There are far more legitimate and less offensive ways to criticize someone who happens to be female. But Trump goes for the crassest, most offensive, classless ways to speak to and about them. Let's consider some of them here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/donald-trump-sexism-tracker-every-offensive-comment-in-one-place/

This may be someone you admire, this may be your idea of an honorable man. I think he's despicable.

[awakeningmom]

Please, Turiya, Sam Hunter, Voice from the Mountains, Target, and all of the usual pro-Trump sycophants: you have at least three pro-Trump threads on this forum, which you generally update daily. You certainly have more than adequate space to post your right wing views and youtube videos and your puzzling, evidence-free claims of "winning!" Must you troll/stalk every thread for whiffs of Trump criticism and post there and then circle jerk thank each other? Can you please go play in your own sandboxes again and allow alternative voices to be expressed?

And Flash, thank you for saying what I wanted to say: Public Figure Men are RARELY attacked for their looks, or called out for their plastic surgery. And I haven't heard Trump criticize men for their "face bleeds" at all.... We all know it's a major double standard, but highly telling that the men responding to my post find little or no issue with their President's horrid words and actions towards women.

[ThePythonicCow]

And the beat goes on, and the beat goes on :).

In this important thread, Myron Fagan Exposes Luciferian Rothschild Illuminati Agenda (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?98578-Myron-Fagan-Exposes-Luciferian-Rothschild-Illuminati-Agenda), some fellow I had never heard of before, but who seems very well informed on how the elite are playing us, and have been for centuries, Myron Fagan, said back in 1967 (transcript here (https://archive.is/sWN4L)):

That objective was to be reached by dividing the masses of people whom he, Weishaupt, termed 'goyim', or 'human cattle', into opposing camps in ever increasing numbers on political, social, economic, and other issues— the very conditions we have in our country today.
The divisions are real, very real, and cut through the fabric of our culture, families, communities, ... six ways from Sunday. Trump's asinine tweats are yet just another sharp burr on this giant cutting and grinding machine that is tearing human civilization, and individual humans, asunder.

I know not what course others may take; but as for me (apologies to Patrick Henry), I stand where I will, and respect others of integrity and passion, who will stand where they will, ofttimes in seeming opposition to my position.

(Correction: this cuts all seven ways, meaning even on the Sabbath day, dividing the great monotheistic religions in bloody conflict even as it divides the great nations and cultures, the races, genders, generations, classes, etc.)

[awakeningmom]

I agree much of the divisions between us are often manufactured, or at least heightened, highlighted, and encouraged by the elite/Rothschild Agenda -- all to keep us from uniting and looking at who is really pulling the strings and accumulating all the wealth/power/etc.

But unfortunately, the divisions are very real, there IS much hatred and sexism and racism and greed and ugliness in this world, even without the string pulling of the Puppet Masters, and the “asinine tweets” are quite hurtful to those in some ways identifying with them, particularly when they are coming from the very person who is supposed to set the national tone. And particularly when his apologists suggest that the comments are justified, or that the reactions to them are somehow overblown, exaggerated by the “left,” etc….

As a woman, I have experienced sexism and misogyny up close and personal. I have had jobs where women are blatantly paid less for the same work (I once had a male assistant who was paid more than I was). I have had to endure catcalls simply walking down a NYC street that were really scary and hostile sexual threats. Once, a while back, when picking up some take out at a local restaurant, I had a very drunk man sitting at his outside table scream out demanding that I show him my “T$%s”…. His friend looked slightly embarrassed but laughed along with him and did nothing. I was horrified and terrified. They were large men. I am thin, much smaller than they were, and had my three year old daughter with me. I had mom jeans and a mom shirt on, for anyone obnoxious enough to think I provoked such a request.

I have never wanted a rich man to grope me by the privates and I find it horrifying that our President thinks that’s an ok thing to do. Instead, as a young woman trying to build a career, more than one man told me patronizingly that I was “too pretty to also be smart” and that I should “smile more” and that “women shouldn’t do this, that, or the other thing….” I have been asked to make coffee and copies more times than you can imagine in a roomful of “peers” -- and I have actually been barred from certain places in Texas because they were “Men Only” Good Old Boy Private Dining establishments, even though these were the places where the deals were getting done, so excluding all the women naturally meant the women were not getting in on the deals. I know I am not alone in many of these experiences.

There’s so much more personal and more painful that I won’t discuss here. But Boo hoo, right? Point out Trump’s misogyny and the response is that the public is getting sick of these overblown calls of racism and sexism just because “we” don’t like what is said. Yes, I admit it. I don’t LIKE when the President of the United States suggests a woman is on her period simply because she’s asking questions he doesn’t like. I don’t LIKE when he suggests a woman who criticizes him is ugly, fat, a bimbo, bleeding from wherever, etc… Call me CRAZY, but I find those things offensive and misogynistic. And I’m WHITE, but guess what, if Trump started tweeting racial slurs I’d find that extremely offensive and horrifically RACIST too. Guess I’m just oversensitive to Bullies and Unhinged Misogynists, particularly when they hold the highest office in the nation.

You would think, no matter one’s politics, that treating women in a degrading, overtly hostile and sexual way would not be tolerated or condoned. That it would be universally condemned. But one member asks what was “sexist” about Trump’s latest remarks and suggests men get plastic surgery too. Another suggests I’m being hyperbolic for pointing out that some members have left or took themselves out of active participation because of concerns over tolerating racist and xenophobic remarks on the forum– when this is a FACT and anyone can find those older thread(s) if they so choose. They are painful to read for anyone with any sense of decency, in my opinion, mostly due to the insensitive responses from some of the same insensitive cast of characters.

But ok, let’s allow PA to devolve into a right wing forum for misogynists and white supremacists. Let’s not allow a real conversation about the very disturbing tweets of our Commander in Chief because the Trump Trolls simply won’t allow it. Let’s see how many more smart and sensitive members leave or stop participating at all. I have seen so much in the three years I’ve been here. And I miss so many thoughtful posters already.

[onawah]

Sexism has long been part of the Reptilian agenda and goes much further back than the current left/right divide.
And this is far from the first time when things began to become more balanced re gender equality, and then patriarchy reared its ugly head again to squash it.
Whether one is in a female or a male body isn't as significant as how one has been programmed lifetime over lifetime.
There are female misogynists just as there are males who champion the feminine principle.
The whole argument devolves into childish reactionary bickering until we realize how we have ALL been controlled and subverted for eons by forces which are not human at all.
Why can we not, as human beings, realize that we all have common enemies who profit from our division?
That is the only way out of the mess this planet is currently in.

[ThePythonicCow]

Let’s not allow a real conversation about the very disturbing tweets of our Commander in Chief because the Trump Trolls simply won’t allow it.
This is an untrue allegation.

Also, you perhaps missed the point of my (admittedly a bit obtuse) post. I agree that the edges are sharp, that they do cut. I was not denying the substance of your protests (except for denying the implication that they aren't allowed here.) For most of us, most of the time, these issues are very real, very "cutting edge."

All as intended by the elite bastards, all playing the flaws of the human psyche like a fine harp.

Let us not too eagerly assist the bastards in their sowing of divisions between us.

[Flash]

The beat does mot go on Paul if every time we write something we are just f ck ng feminists or every time we give our genuine life experience we are discarded and certainly not heard. How often i witheld my opinion or even facts I knew because of a few "big mouth despising know it all about women" males, on this forum. If we were to write only half of what i read on women on this forum, by a handful of males only, you would have thrown me out

Now, regarding Trump, when i saw him pushing the prime minister of -don't renember which country-in order to be in front ofthe pic, i found it so profoundly childish and bulky like! Such spontaneous unfiltered behaviors (because Trump has little self control when something relates to his ego) describe the real person more than any planned organised behavior. And it ain't pretty.

E
I agree much of the divisions between us are often manufactured, or at least heightened, highlighted, and encouraged by the elite/Rothschild Agenda -- all to keep us from uniting and looking at who is really pulling the strings and accumulating all the wealth/power/etc.

But unfortunately, the divisions are very real, there IS much hatred and sexism and racism and greed and ugliness in this world, even without the string pulling of the Puppet Masters, and the “asinine tweets” are quite hurtful to those in some ways identifying with them, particularly when they are coming from the very person who is supposed to set the national tone. And particularly when his apologists suggest that the comments are justified, or that the reactions to them are somehow overblown, exaggerated by the “left,” etc….

As a woman, I have experienced sexism and misogyny up close and personal. I have had jobs where women are blatantly paid less for the same work (I once had a male assistant who was paid more than I was). I have had to endure catcalls simply walking down a NYC street that were really scary and hostile sexual threats. Once, a while back, when picking up some take out at a local restaurant, I had a very drunk man sitting at his outside table scream out demanding that I show him my “T$%s”…. His friend looked slightly embarrassed but laughed along with him and did nothing. I was horrified and terrified. They were large men. I am thin, much smaller than they were, and had my three year old daughter with me. I had mom jeans and a mom shirt on, for anyone obnoxious enough to think I provoked such a request.

I have never wanted a rich man to grope me by the privates and I find it horrifying that our President thinks that’s an ok thing to do. Instead, as a young woman trying to build a career, more than one man told me patronizingly that I was “too pretty to also be smart” and that I should “smile more” and that “women shouldn’t do this, that, or the other thing….” I have been asked to make coffee and copies more times than you can imagine in a roomful of “peers” -- and I have actually been barred from certain places in Texas because they were “Men Only” Good Old Boy Private Dining establishments, even though these were the places where the deals were getting done, so excluding all the women naturally meant the women were not getting in on the deals. I know I am not alone in many of these experiences.

There’s so much more personal and more painful that I won’t discuss here. But Boo hoo, right? Point out Trump’s misogyny and the response is that the public is getting sick of these overblown calls of racism and sexism just because “we” don’t like what is said. Yes, I admit it. I don’t LIKE when the President of the United States suggests a woman is on her period simply because she’s asking questions he doesn’t like. I don’t LIKE when he suggests a woman who criticizes him is ugly, fat, a bimbo, bleeding from wherever, etc… Call me CRAZY, but I find those things offensive and misogynistic. And I’m WHITE, but guess what, if Trump started tweeting racial slurs I’d find that extremely offensive and horrifically RACIST too. Guess I’m just oversensitive to Bullies and Unhinged Misogynists, particularly when they hold the highest office in the nation.

You would think, no matter one’s politics, that treating women in a degrading, overtly hostile and sexual way would not be tolerated or condoned. That it would be universally condemned. But one member asks what was “sexist” about Trump’s latest remarks and suggests men get plastic surgery too. Another suggests I’m being hyperbolic for pointing out that some members have left or took themselves out of active participation because of concerns over tolerating racist and xenophobic remarks on the forum– when this is a FACT and anyone can find those older thread(s) if they so choose. They are painful to read for anyone with any sense of decency, in my opinion, mostly due to the insensitive responses from some of the same insensitive cast of characters.

But ok, let’s allow PA to devolve into a right wing forum for misogynists and white supremacists. Let’s not allow a real conversation about the very disturbing tweets of our Commander in Chief because the Trump Trolls simply won’t allow it. Let’s see how many more smart and sensitive members leave or stop participating at all. I have seen so much in the three years I’ve been here. And I miss so many thoughtful posters already.

[Wizard Of Ozark]

I agree much of the divisions between us are often manufactured, or at least heightened, highlighted, and encouraged by the elite/Rothschild Agenda -- all to keep us from uniting and looking at who is really pulling the strings and accumulating all the wealth/power/etc.

But unfortunately, the divisions are very real, there IS much hatred and sexism and racism and greed and ugliness in this world, even without the string pulling of the Puppet Masters, and the “asinine tweets” are quite hurtful to those in some ways identifying with them, particularly when they are coming from the very person who is supposed to set the national tone. And particularly when his apologists suggest that the comments are justified, or that the reactions to them are somehow overblown, exaggerated by the “left,” etc….

As a woman, I have experienced sexism and misogyny up close and personal. I have had jobs where women are blatantly paid less for the same work (I once had a male assistant who was paid more than I was). I have had to endure catcalls simply walking down a NYC street that were really scary and hostile sexual threats. Once, a while back, when picking up some take out at a local restaurant, I had a very drunk man sitting at his outside table scream out demanding that I show him my “T$%s”…. His friend looked slightly embarrassed but laughed along with him and did nothing. I was horrified and terrified. They were large men. I am thin, much smaller than they were, and had my three year old daughter with me. I had mom jeans and a mom shirt on, for anyone obnoxious enough to think I provoked such a request.

I have never wanted a rich man to grope me by the privates and I find it horrifying that our President thinks that’s an ok thing to do. Instead, as a young woman trying to build a career, more than one man told me patronizingly that I was “too pretty to also be smart” and that I should “smile more” and that “women shouldn’t do this, that, or the other thing….” I have been asked to make coffee and copies more times than you can imagine in a roomful of “peers” -- and I have actually been barred from certain places in Texas because they were “Men Only” Good Old Boy Private Dining establishments, even though these were the places where the deals were getting done, so excluding all the women naturally meant the women were not getting in on the deals. I know I am not alone in many of these experiences.

There’s so much more personal and more painful that I won’t discuss here. But Boo hoo, right? Point out Trump’s misogyny and the response is that the public is getting sick of these overblown calls of racism and sexism just because “we” don’t like what is said. Yes, I admit it. I don’t LIKE when the President of the United States suggests a woman is on her period simply because she’s asking questions he doesn’t like. I don’t LIKE when he suggests a woman who criticizes him is ugly, fat, a bimbo, bleeding from wherever, etc… Call me CRAZY, but I find those things offensive and misogynistic. And I’m WHITE, but guess what, if Trump started tweeting racial slurs I’d find that extremely offensive and horrifically RACIST too. Guess I’m just oversensitive to Bullies and Unhinged Misogynists, particularly when they hold the highest office in the nation.

You would think, no matter one’s politics, that treating women in a degrading, overtly hostile and sexual way would not be tolerated or condoned. That it would be universally condemned. But one member asks what was “sexist” about Trump’s latest remarks and suggests men get plastic surgery too. Another suggests I’m being hyperbolic for pointing out that some members have left or took themselves out of active participation because of concerns over tolerating racist and xenophobic remarks on the forum– when this is a FACT and anyone can find those older thread(s) if they so choose. They are painful to read for anyone with any sense of decency, in my opinion, mostly due to the insensitive responses from some of the same insensitive cast of characters.

But ok, let’s allow PA to devolve into a right wing forum for misogynists and white supremacists. Let’s not allow a real conversation about the very disturbing tweets of our Commander in Chief because the Trump Trolls simply won’t allow it. Let’s see how many more smart and sensitive members leave or stop participating at all. I have seen so much in the three years I’ve been here. And I miss so many thoughtful posters already.

I'm a white male and I absolutely agree with you. These Trump voters who call themselves "Christians" and give him a pass on a multitude of sins... well, they've lost what little respect I still had for them. I'm also embarrassed for all the Trump enthusiasts on this site. I don't see anything he's doing as anything other than the other side of a coin forged of sh*t. Money and power are the driving forces of either a Trump "businessman" and his cronies or the NWO/globalists. And it's becoming increasingly difficult to see a difference between the two of them. Power to the people. Not to the usual "a billion dollar personal fortune is not enough" assclowns.

[ThePythonicCow]

... and the beat does go on ... as well intended people throw inflammatory rhetoric back and forth :).

We humans are being divided, so many ways, each side intensely certain that they are right in attacking some other side, each side firm in the view that "If you not with us, you're against us."

I should hesitate to even suggest toning down the inflammatory rhetoric, because such a suggestion will be immediately taken as defending the crimes and words of the opposition and as censoring the cries for justice here.

But I shall take that risk. Please tone down the inflammatory rhetoric against other well meaning members of this forum who are viewing this mess from a quite different perspective.

[onawah]

Trump fans might want to visit this thread http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?98582-Jim-Marrs-Interviewed-by-Veritas-Radio&p=1163816#post1163816
and listen to Jim Marrs, who goes back to how the patterns we still see today started back in Sumer and he goes through the ages to the present to show how those patterns still remain and have only become a tighter noose for humanity over time.

[Wizard Of Ozark]

... and the beat does go on ... as well intended people throw inflammatory rhetoric back and forth :).

We humans are being divided, so many ways, each side intensely certain that they are right in attacking some other side, each side firm in the view that "If you not with us, you're against us."

I should hesitate to even suggest toning down the inflammatory rhetoric, because such a suggestion will be immediately taken as defending the crimes and words of the opposition and as censoring the cries for justice here.

But I shall take that risk. Please tone down the inflammatory rhetoric against other well meaning members of this forum who are viewing this mess from a quite different perspective.

Well, I may no longer belong here, then. There doesn't seem to be a lot of balance here on the topic of Trump. I read a lot of news from The Daily Kos to Breitbart. I'm open to "sides" but to me, there is a bit of willful blindness here when it comes to Trump. I see shenanagins happening on both sides of the political aisle. I will continue to point it out as I see it or you can boot me. I will refrain from anything that could appear as personal attack, though. That is fair.

[ThePythonicCow]

There doesn't seem to be a lot of balance here on the topic of Trump. I read a lot of news from The Daily Kos to Breitbart. I'm open to "sides" but to me, there is a bit of willful blindness here when it comes to Trump. I see shenanagins happening on both sides of the political aisle.
I'm quite sure that there are serious shenanagins happening on both sides of the political aisle, yes.

I also presume that some members are blind on some topics, no doubt including myself. Whether it's willful or not is usually hard to know. We're each responsible for our own blind spots (though mass psyops seem to be doing a pretty good job of encouraging blindness.)

Whether or not there's balance on any given topic is not something I put much value in. Perhaps if I were of the view that the truth usually lies somewhere near the middle, between the two sides of any particular issue, then I would seek balance, as usually being closer to the truth than either apparent extreme.

However I am not of that view. Rather it would seem presumptuous for me to encourage "balance" between whatever are two sides of some controversy of the moment. It's my experience that usually both sides of any hot controversy are over blown, often intentionally so by some hidden hands of the elite. The truth - in layers - lies elsewhere.

[turiya]

The Fourth Turning’s Neil Howe Warns: (https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/05/27/the-fourth-turnings-neil-howe-warns-we-are-in-the-1930s-winter-is-coming/)
We Are In The 1930s, “Winter Is Coming” (https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/05/27/the-fourth-turnings-neil-howe-warns-we-are-in-the-1930s-winter-is-coming/)

Via Mauldin Economics, (http://www.mauldineconomics.com/go/v34kvl/MEC)


From the Balkans to the US, walls are going up, not down, according to demographer and The Fourth Turning (https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Turning-American-Prophecy-Rendezvous/dp/0767900464) author Neil Howe.

Speaking to a packed crowd at Mauldin Economics’ Strategic Investment Conference (http://www.mauldineconomics.com/go/v34kvl/MEC) in Orlando, Howe said we are reliving many of the same trends and changes of the 1930s.


Faith in Democracy Is Fading



“Worldwide, people are losing trust in institutions,” he said. “Trust in the military, small business, and police is still there. But trust in democracies, media, and politicians is dropping.”

“When was the last time we saw these changes and the rise of right-wing populism?” he asked. “The 1930s.”
Howe’s statement is borne out of a June 2016 Gallup poll. When poll takers were asked how much confidence they had in institutions in American society, the results were troubling.

Just 15% said they had a “great deal” of confidence in the US Supreme Court. Banks trailed behind at 11%, followed by the criminal justice system (9%), newspapers (8%), and big business (6%).

Meanwhile, just 16% expressed a “great deal” of confidence in the presidency, with that number plummeting to 3% for Congress.

What Does This Mean for the Future of the West?

In his keynote, Howe shared his forecasting logic:


“My method is to step back and realize one thing: There is something we know about the world in 20 years’ time. The people who live there will be all of us, 20 years older and playing a different role. I call this ‘looking along the generational diagonal.’”The critical thing to remember about the current crisis period is that what comes next will be an era in which there is a new order.

According to the Strauss-Howe generational theory, as this new order takes root, individualism declines and institutions are strengthened.


“History is seasonal, and winter is coming,” Howe has said. But after winter, comes spring.
As the American Revolution was followed by calm, as the Civil War was followed by reconstruction and a gilded age, and as the Great Depression and World War II were followed by an age of peace and prosperity, so too will this crisis period be followed by a calm, stable era.

It’s simply a matter of time.

Source (https://www.theburningplatform.com/tag/fourth-turning/)

[Chester]

If I am to comment further, it seems the correct place to start is to start with what caught my attention back to this thread... with the following word popping up -

sycophant

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/sycophant


a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.

[A Voice from the Mountains]

Please give me a break. When have we heard anyone, and I mean anyone, mention the plastic surgery or face lift of a man in a despising manner.

I don't hear people mocking their plastic surgeries much in general, so all of this is absolutely ridiculous to me and reaching for anything. I don't understand why some people seem to require feeling victimized by every little thing. You aren't going to get anything special for it.

I guess now if anyone makes fun of a plumber's butt crack hanging out then that's sexist against men. Why not? The logic is equally stupid. This is all so stupid that all I can do is facepalm.

[awakeningmom]

If I am to comment further, it seems the correct place to start is to start with what caught my attention back to this thread... with the following word popping up -

sycophant

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/sycophant


a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.

Actually, Sam, I specifically would prefer if you NOT comment in this thread. There are at least three pro-Trump threads on this forum. Almost everyone is aware that you think having Trump at the helm is all of us "winning." You, Turiya, Voice, etc...all have plenty of space to rally behind your guy elsewhere. How about just not stalking and commenting in a thread that is specifically geared to those with opposing views on DJT? Clearly we aren't going to persuade one another....

[awakeningmom]

Please give me a break. When have we heard anyone, and I mean anyone, mention the plastic surgery or face lift of a man in a despising manner.

I don't hear people mocking their plastic surgeries much in general, so all of this is absolutely ridiculous to me and reaching for anything. I don't understand why some people seem to require feeling victimized by every little thing. You aren't going to get anything special for it.

I guess now if anyone makes fun of a plumber's butt crack hanging out then that's sexist against men. Why not? The logic is equally stupid. This is all so stupid that all I can do is facepalm.

Voice, OMG, you are truly (wilfully?) clueless/hostile about what it feels like to have a President like DJT publicly comment on women's looks, privates, etc. as our #$%^ PRESIDENT. Not remotely the same as plumber jokes. Disgusted facepalm right back at you.

[Chester]

If I am to comment further, it seems the correct place to start is to start with what caught my attention back to this thread... with the following word popping up -

sycophant

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/sycophant


a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.

Actually, Sam, I specifically would prefer if you NOT comment in this thread. There are at least three pro-Trump threads on this forum. Almost everyone is aware that you think having Trump at the helm is all of us "winning." You, Turiya, Voice, etc...all have plenty of space to rally behind your guy elsewhere. How about just not stalking and commenting in a thread that is specifically geared to those with opposing views on DJT? Clearly we aren't going to persuade one another....

Thanks for a straight forward request without the use of ad hominems as that is what played a roll in making my post and so I am glad to honor your request.

I might also add that I thought the Mika tweet was exactly as you described. I just see more important matters at stake... far more important. But I am right with you as to that tweet as well as a few others I feel are senseless and needless to make.

[A Voice from the Mountains]

Voice, OMG, you are truly (wilfully?) clueless/hostile about what it feels like to have a President like DJT publicly comment on women's looks, privates, etc. as our #$%^ PRESIDENT. Not remotely the same as plumber jokes. Disgusted facepalm right back at you.

If you and your very traditional American values were under endless obscene assault by religionless communists, for years upon years on end, and you finally got a president who actually fights for those exact same traditional American values, you wouldn't give a damn what he says about the fake communist media either.

I think they all deserve prison to be quite frank, so getting "bullied" is getting off too easy. They have been calling for a coup for months on end. They need Guantanamo. And if people don't stop trying to initiate an illegal coup against our president then I hope he ratchets up the rhetoric even more until all of it is stomped out. Freedom of speech and protest is one thing but world networks openly plotting clear treason every single day is not acceptable. Media pundits are far from innocent; they are among the most guilty in my book.



Just one recent example of the kind of obscenity Trump is the target of.

http://dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/kathygriffin-trumphead_IG-1-e1496344047783.jpg


So am I upset that he is dishing it back out?

You already know the answer.

[onawah]

I think the problem is not so much lack of balance, it's that most members probably just don't care to get involved in these discussions, since the middle ground (much less any anti-Trump comments) in any Trump discussion is seldom allowed to just be and to develop without harassment.
Not to say that it's all because of the Trump threads, but when politics becomes the main concern of a conspiracy theory forum, it's really kind of sad.
Perhaps forum members just don't have enough interest in politics since it's been proven over and over again to be a game that has been controlled by the same players for time out of mind.
Politics are never what they seem, and the only way to understand what's really going on behind the scenes is to drill much deeper than what the political pundits on either side of the polarity are saying.
It's short-sighted and arrogant for anyone to think they are so all-seeing, so certain, so CLEAR about what's really going on that they feel justified in insulting and denigrating those who do not agree or are simply waiting for something conclusive to materialize before deciding if there is even a stance worth taking.
But so many politicians are arrogant and oblivious to the truth, and so it's easy to see why those who elevate them to heroic status would be arrogant and rather oblivious as well.
Personally, I have no heroes who are politicians; in the realm of politics, it's seldom anything but a question of the lesser evil.
It's hard to get passionate about that, once you understand the reality.

[onawah]

I think that according to forum rules, it would be Autumn's call as to what shape she would like to see this thread take as she is the one who started it, and hopefully she will make her wishes known.



Please give me a break. When have we heard anyone, and I mean anyone, mention the plastic surgery or face lift of a man in a despising manner.

I don't hear people mocking their plastic surgeries much in general, so all of this is absolutely ridiculous to me and reaching for anything. I don't understand why some people seem to require feeling victimized by every little thing. You aren't going to get anything special for it.

I guess now if anyone makes fun of a plumber's butt crack hanging out then that's sexist against men. Why not? The logic is equally stupid. This is all so stupid that all I can do is facepalm.

Voice, OMG, you are truly (wilfully?) clueless/hostile about what it feels like to have a President like DJT publicly comment on women's looks, privates, etc. as our #$%^ PRESIDENT. Not remotely the same as plumber jokes. Disgusted facepalm right back at you.

[onawah]

How CNN boss Jeff Zucker helped elect a US president and a governor of California
7/1/167 by Jon Rappoport
https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2...of-california/
I posted this here as well: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?95893-Trump-The-Great-American-Reset&p=1163805&viewfull=1#post1163805
But perhaps it belongs here more. I would just add that although Zucker certainly may have had a hand in Trump's success and in helping to commercialize US elections, ironically, it seems to me it was more Julian Assange and Wikileaks who gave Trump the winning hand, in part by exposing the dishonesty of the MSM.

One thing you have to understand about Mr. Zucker. What he does, he does for show. For ratings. If he could get away with claiming Trump met with Putin on the dark side of the moon to concoct a way to beat Hillary Clinton, he would run with it. If he could get away with claiming Arnold Schwarzenegger was the love child of Joseph Stalin and Greta Garbo, he would lead the evening newscast with it. He keeps selling the CNN Trump-Russia “investigation” because he’s (barely) getting away with it and he thinks it’ll keep drawing an audience.

In April, CNN boss Jeff Zucker told the New York Times, “The idea that politics is sport is undeniable, and we understood that and approached it that way.” The “it” was certainly the 2016 presidential campaign.

Zucker always has understood politics in this corrupt way—and in the process, he helped elect a US president and a California governor.

Who is Trump’s most consistent media enemy now? CNN is right up there.

But Jeff Zucker, CNN’s boss, was the man who launched The Apprentice, starring Donald Trump, at NBC, in 2004.

In other words, Zucker happened to play a major role in electing Donald Trump. There is no getting around it.

Washington Post, October 2, 2016: “Looking for someone specific to hold responsible for the improbable rise of Donald Trump?”

“Although there are many options, you could do worse than to take a hard look at Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide.”

“It was Zucker, after all, who as the new head of NBC Entertainment gave Trump his start in reality TV with ‘The Apprentice’ and then milked the real estate developer’s uncanny knack for success for all it was worth in ratings and profits.”

“And it succeeded wildly — boosting the network’s ratings, as well as Zucker’s [and Trump’s] meteoric career. In turn, under Zucker, the show gave rise to ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ another Trump extravaganza. And, in turn, Zucker became the head of NBC overall.”

“The show [The Apprentice] was built as a virtually nonstop advertisement for the Trump empire and lifestyle,” according to the book ‘Trump Revealed,’ by Washington Post journalists Marc Fisher and Michael Kranish.”

“The executive [Jeff Zucker] rode the Trump steed hard. When the reality-TV star was preparing to marry Melania Knauss in 2005, Zucker wanted to broadcast the wedding live. (Trump, uncharacteristically, declined.)”

“But make no mistake: There would be no Trump-the-politician without Trump-the-TV-star. One begot the other.”

POLITICS IS TELEVISION, AND TELEVISION IS POLITICS.

If you’re looking for a person who embodies that fake version of reality most purely, you need look no further than Jeff Zucker.

Despite his network’s present hatred of Trump, Zucker would give Trump his own show right now if he wanted one.

For ratings and ad revenues.

Let’s go back in time and consider another event, one which I’ve analyzed in great detail. It took place on NBC in 2003, when Zucker was the head of the network’s entertainment division. Keep in mind that The Tonight Show, with Jeno Leno, was a prime piece of the entertainment division then. What Leno pulled off in 2003 had to have the OK from Zucker, because it was a highly unusual move, a distinctly unethical move.

What happened when an actor wanted to launch a political career and become a governor? The whole news division of a major network surrendered itself, for one ratings-busting night, to a talk show.

This is how Arnold Schwarzenegger won the California governor’s race. It all came down to his famous appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where he announced that he was going to run.

I obtained a copy of show, watched it many times, transcribed the dialogue, and noted the audience reactions.

Breaking down the segments revealed what happens when news and entertainment and PR and political advocacy all blur together in a single wave.

The show had been hyped as the moment when Arnold would announce whether he was going to run in the recall election against California Governor Gray Davis.

The public anticipation was sky-high. No one seemed concerned that NBC was turning over its news division, for one night, to its entertainment division. Jeff Zucker, head of NBC entertainment, was all in.

Turning over network news to network entertainment was precisely the subject of the best movie ever made about television, Paddy Chayefsky’s Network. That didn’t register with the national media.

If Arnold decided to run for governor, he wouldn’t be announcing it at a stale press conference at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, after a brief introduction from The Snoozer, LA Mayor Richard Riordan. No, Arnold would obtain a rocket boost from Jay Leno.

Keep in mind that talk shows warm up and prep their studio audiences to act and respond with amphetamine-like enthusiasm.

And then that audience transmits its glow and howling racket to the wider television audience, thereby blowing an artificially enhanced event across the landscape.

On the night of August 6, 2003, Tonight Show host Jay Leno devoted two six-minute segments to The Arnold.

Of course, it was more than an interview. Jay had been touting this night as the occasion for a key revelation in the comic play called The California Recall Election.

Arnold would say yes or Arnold would say no. He would run for governor or he would decline.

Bigger than conventional news, Arnold strode out on to Jay’s stage. A Tonight Show camera picked him up from a grossly complimentary low angle, making him appear even larger and more physically imposing than he is. Jay was positioned standing behind him, applauding, lending an affirmative gloss to the entrance. Already, it looked and felt political.

This was not a beginning; the impression was of something already in motion, a train to catch up with.

As the man of the hour sat down next to Jay, he commented that there was a big audience in the house (“Can you believe all these people here?”) and, capping his first gambit, he stated that every one of them was running for governor of California. Ha-ha. (At one point, there were 135 gubernatorial candidates.)

Quickly, Jay gets down to business. The business of making the evening extra-special: “Now, I don’t think we’ve ever had this much press at The Tonight Show for any—[let’s look at] our press room—normally [the press] sit in the audience.”

Cut to a stark room, shot from above. About 40 reporters doing almost nothing at tables. Obviously, the room was set up for this event.

Jay cracks a couple of jokes about the press gaggle, lowers his voice and turns his full attention to Arnold: “…it’s been weeks…and people going back and forth…taken you awhile, and you said you would come here tonight and tell us your decision. So what is your decision?”

Arnold replies, “Well, Jay, after thinking for a long time, my decision is…”

The sound cuts off, and the TV screen displays an old PLEASE STAND BY notice. Thick white letters against a background of an ancient station test pattern from the 1950s. A mechanical tone plays for several seconds.

The audience laughs. There is applause, too.

Cut back to Jay and Arnold. Arnold says, “That’s why I decided that way.” Big audience laughter.

Jay, going along—as if Arnold had spilled the beans during a momentary technical malfunction—shouts, “Right, good, right! I tell you I am shocked! I can’t believe it! I can’t believe it!”

Jay then starts out from the bottom again. “[Whether you’re going to run has been] in my monologue…it’s been good for, like, a thousand jokes over the last couple of weeks…”

Once more, he gently poses the question. “What are you going to do?” It’s still too early for an answer, and Jay knows it.

Arnold wants another false start. He’s planned it.

“Well, my decision obviously is a very difficult decision to make, you know…it was the [most] difficult decision that I’ve made in my entire life, except the one in 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax.”

Laughter, applause, whistles.

The studio audience warms to the fact that Arnold glimpses an absurdity about the whole proceeding.

“He’s our Arnie, laughing the way we laugh. Hell, all we’ve got are laughs in this life, and our boy isn’t going to go stuffed-shirt on us.”

Arnold then gives his rehearsed political speech.

He reflects that California was a grand land of opportunity when he arrived in 1968. It was the greatest state in the greatest nation.

However, now the atmosphere in California is “disastrous,” he says. There is a “disconnect” (thank you, pop psych 101) between the people and the politicians.

“The politicians are fiddling, fumbling, and failing.”

Very big applause follows. The audience is doing its job.

Close by, off camera, we hear Jay thumping his own personal hand claps. The host is pumping his studio crowd and giving his seal of approval to a remark whose veracity is supposed to be tested by the recall election itself.

And there is a phalanx of teen-age girls screaming at a very high pitch in the studio. They’re adding a major element of hysterical enthusiasm. Where did they come from? Are they a legitimate Arnold demographic? Were they pulled out of a Valley mall to paper the crowd? Do they migrate from talk show to talk show? From this point forward, they’ll play a huge role in every audience outburst.

Arnold gathers steam. He tells one and all that the people of California are doing their job.

They’re working hard.

Paying their taxes.

Raising their families.

But the politicians are not doing their job.

Now he executes a blend around the far turn: “And the man that is failing the people more than anyone is [Governor] Gray Davis!”

The crowd goes wild. The girls scream as if they’re at a kiddie rock concert in the magic presence of four sixteen-year-old pretty boys. It’s eerie.

And now the audience is suddenly on edge.

They can handle the juice. The longed-for result.

Arnold senses it.

He lets the audience-hysteria roller coaster die down and then, taking it up to heaven, announces that, he, Arnold is…

Yes…

GOING TO RUN FOR GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA.

Boom. Bang. Pow. Zow.

The studio audience cracks the ceiling. Wilder than wild. The girls are shrieking walls of sound way above high C. Undoubtedly, the show is flashing applause signs.

Jay shakes his head and grins like a pro hypster who’s just witnessed a very, very good variation on bait and switch. As if Arnold was supposed to say no, but now he’s saying yes.

The Tonight Show band lays down some heavy chords.

Jay shouts, “There you go! There you go! That woke ‘em up! That woke ‘em up!” We cut to the press room, and sure enough, the reporters are now on phones, typing at their keyboards. The story is live and good to go. A global event is underway.

Amid the roar and the music, Jay, smiling broadly and wisely, shakes his finger at Arnold and says to him, “You know something?”

It seems Jay’s about to utter, “That’s the best damn switcheroo I ever saw!” But he doesn’t do it. Instead, as the noise abates, he says it’s a good time to go to a break.

The band plows into a funk riff, under the applause, and the show cuts to commercial.

The sea has parted. The consecration has been performed.

The ax felled the tree in the forest, and everyone heard it.

Marshall McLuhan rolled over in his grave, sat up, grinned, lit a cigar, and sipped a little brandy.

After the commercials, in the next six-minute segment, Jay and Arnold attain a few more highs of audience madness.

High one: Arnold mentions that 1.6 million Californians have signed the recall petition and are saying, “We are mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore!” Wowee.

No one notices or remembers this line was made massively famous in Network, the bitter satire on news as entertainment.

Is it remotely possible Arnold recalls the 1976 Paddy Chayefsky film and its newsman, Howard Beale, who survives a ratings dive by delivering a delirious populist message on air, and becomes, for a short time, the most revered man in America?

Is it possible Arnold knows the TV network portrayed in the film gave its news division to its entertainment division—exactly what’s transpiring right there, for the moment, on The Tonight Show?

High two: Arnold clarifies his message to all politicians everywhere. “Do your job for the people and do it well, or otherwise you’re out. Hasta la vista, baby!” Zowee.

High three: After telling the crowd they all know Gray Davis can run a dirty campaign “better than anyone”—and that Davis has been selling off pieces of California to special interests—Arnold says with conviction and confidence, “I do not have to bow to any special interests; I have plenty of money; no one can pay me off; trust me, no one.” Audience hysteria. They love that he’s rich.

High four: Arnold says of Davis, “Everyone knows this man has to go!” Huge roar.

High five: Arnold plays a final pun card. “I will pump up Sacramento!” Yet another roar.

The band takes it out with more funk. Jay stands up and goes over and hugs Arnold, in profile, near his desk, and follows him closely toward an exit at stage left. Jay starts to whisper something in Arnold’s ear, but pulls back and smiles and, still on camera, applauds Arnold along with the audience.

It’s show biz in a bottle. Jay, Arnold, the crowd, the band, bouncing off one another and yielding the effect of absolute (synthetic) thrill.

The Tonight Show provided the moment for a globally famous actor to decide to run for office in the same state where the show originates. In the entertainment capital of the world. In front of the clear prime-cut admiration of the host.

And the studio audience, that specialized creature from whose maw instant credibility can be coaxed and birthed in seconds—was very, very ready to go. All along.

Imagine an advance man pre-selling this kind of PR stunt:

“I know a guy who can introduce your message to the softest, wildest, water-cooler crowd this side of paradise.”

“Oh yeah? How big a crowd?”

“Only a thousand or two. But they’re instantly hooked up to, say, ten million people in the target area. It’s as infectious as Ebola.”

“Come on.”

“And that’s not all. I’ve got a host for that softest, wildest audience, and he has the whole world in the palm of his hand. When he exposes your message—for the first time anywhere—and when his audience goes nuts with glee, nothing will stand in your way. Your opponents will go down like bowling pins.”

“Too good to be true.”

“Wrong. And let me point out what I’m saving you from. If you tried to launch your message at a shopping center or a press club or a hotel ballroom or construction site or on a movie-studio sound stage, you could get laughed right out of town. Really. Because, let’s face it, you do have a pretty vapid message when you boil it down. You need a unique venue, where the joke and the camp and the craziness are all folded into the event itself, and the shock and surprise and hoopla are integrated. You need an audience that celebrates bad and good jokes as all good, and the host has the ability to marry up every shred of this bizarre happening and take his crowd to orgasm.”

“And the contagion factor?”

“The audience in the television studio and the viewing audience at home are One. My boy, what stuns and delights the former incorporates itself into the living cells of the latter. The home audience is terrified of being left out. The host and his in-studio crowd give instant universal legitimacy to the moment. Believe me, it’s irresistible.”

“Like that McLuhan thing. The audience becomes the actor.”

“Precisely.”

That is how it happened. That is how Arnold Schwarzenegger obtained his billion-dollar ad on Jay Leno, on August 6, 2003, and that was when he won the recall election. There was no counter-strategy for it.

Governor Gray Davis was left out in the cold.

The announcement of Arnold’s candidacy was the end of the election.

In the aftermath, media pundits did not punch up this piece of mind control with any serious heat; nor did they immediately seek a heavy investigation of NBC’s ethics in allowing the Leno-Arnold event to take place.

The Tonight Show was a perfect killing ground: Arnold, the earnest and powerful and Germanically jolly and occasionally self-deprecating soul, aware of the comic-book component of his success; Jay, the jokester, who can work as a homer and straight man at the drop of a hat; and Jay’s audience, willingly propelled into the late-night nexus of “we’ll laugh so hard at any old damn thing we’ll make a cosmic celebration out of it.”

Something out of nothing.

GE (then the owner of NBC): “We bring good things to life.”

An election campaign message was passed, hand to hand, mind to mind, adrenal gland to adrenal gland, from a concocted, groomed, cultivated, prepackaged television studio audience to every voter-district in California, and out to the whole world.

When people show up in the studio to see Leno in person, they soon understand the game. They’re not just there as happy onlookers. They’re drawn into the process. They’re offered a trade-off.

If they become active shills for the show right there in the studio, they’ll become part of the story. They’ll attain new status. Their laughs and squeals and shrieks and rebound guffaws, their revved-up salvational applause, at those moments when a guest segment or a joke is falling flat, will provide key segue and filler and affirmation and speed candy for the larger audience at home. It’s a group collaboration.

Who cares—except when a fading movie action hero suddenly says he’s going to take over the reins of California?

In the television studio, and in millions of homes, the audience roared and helped Arnold go for his coronation. They experienced a reasonable facsimile of emotional torque and busted a move that showered sparks around Arnold’s head and pushed him through a porthole into an ozone that just might have been the closest thing they’d ever find to immortality.

On October 10, three days after Arnold scored number one in the recall vote count, The NY Times ran a piece by Bill Carter headlined, “NBC Supports the Politically Partisan Leno.”

But Carter’s story was merely about Jay, on the night of October 7, taking the stage in Los Angeles to introduce Arnold as the recall election winner.

THIS was the issue? This was the barrier that Leno had crossed? Carter mentioned nothing about those 12 minutes on August 6th, on The Tonight Show, when Arnold announced he was running and thereby sewed up the election.

Jeff Zucker, then the head of entertainment at NBC (NOW THE BOSS AT CNN), told Carter he was aware Jay was going to introduce Arnold at the victory celebration. “I did not and do not have a problem with it,” he said.

Zucker noted that Jay was a private citizen with all the accruing rights of same.

Not a word from Zucker either, about the propriety of Leno hosting Arnold’s campaign launch on August 6, on The Tonight Show.

The Studio Audience, on the night of August 6, 2003, fingered and chose and elected a governor of California.

Jay Leno has gone on to thousands of other jokes.

But he’ll never forget that one.

And neither will Zucker.

He helped elect Arnold. And he made Trump a global star of the first magnitude on The Apprentice, and thereby helped him win the presidency.

If you like interesting coincidences, both the Leno Moment and launch of The Apprentice happened in 2004. And when Donald Trump left The Apprentice in 2015, who took over as the host?

Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course.

[awakeningmom]

If I am to comment further, it seems the correct place to start is to start with what caught my attention back to this thread... with the following word popping up -

sycophant

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/sycophant


a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.

Actually, Sam, I specifically would prefer if you NOT comment in this thread. There are at least three pro-Trump threads on this forum. Almost everyone is aware that you think having Trump at the helm is all of us "winning." You, Turiya, Voice, etc...all have plenty of space to rally behind your guy elsewhere. How about just not stalking and commenting in a thread that is specifically geared to those with opposing views on DJT? Clearly we aren't going to persuade one another....

Thanks for a straight forward request without the use of ad hominems as that is what played a roll in making my post and so I am glad to honor your request.

I might also add that I thought the Mika tweet was exactly as you described. I just see more important matters at stake... far more important. But I am right with you as to that tweet as well as a few others I feel are senseless and needless to make.

Thanks, Sam. I appreciate your civilized response.

I think this "conversation" has run its course. The viewpoint divide appears too great and the emotions run high for me on this one.

[AutumnW]

Hi fellow posters,

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to this thread! I appreciate all of the responses. I have a couple of suggestions. Understand that that 'libtard' anxieties about Trump are very real and not without merit. Another is to understand that being anti-Trump shouldn't be subject to grosse caricatures that misrepresent who we are. Being anti-Trump doesn't mean pro-Democrat.

And for those who are anti-Trump -- work doubly hard to understand why those stuck in the rust belt or former coal mining towns, watching Alex Jones and Breitbart videos, need hope and a hero.

For my part, I am trying to follow the money. I have been on a forum for former prisoners and their loved ones, where I am trying to get a fix on how much manufacturing is currently being done within the prison system.

In the last day or two, Trump has revived the 'bringing jobs home' meme. I feel very strongly that the only way this can be accomplished without prices going through the roof, is to have even more manufacturing done in prisons. Economists are overlooking this sad fact, but I am almost certain this is going to happen. And newly revived manufacturing base in the U.S. in the prisons will be complemented, on the outside by automation.

Not to say there won't be any jobs created on the outside. There will be. But the punitive atmosphere of the incarceration system, and the lack of fairness is going to be ramped up to an alarming degree.

These are my thoughts. I am scared. You could say that those who voted for Trump, no matter the reasons are vulnerable to being hung by a rope of hope.

As far as his recent tweets, I don't pay attention to them as they are perfect distractions. I want to know what is simmering away beneath the surface, not in Trump's mind but the actual infrastructure being laid down for more wars and the potential for a true prison planet.

[onawah]

Trump Administration takes aim at our dying oceans
(This article is from June, but Oceana sent an action alert out today so they are obviously concerned it's a critical moment now, and are asking people to take action)
http://oceana.org/press-center/press-releases/trump-administation-gets-one-step-closer-approving-seismic-airgun?utm_campaign=enews&utm_content=201706enewsUS&utm_source=en&utm_medium=email

Trump Administation Gets One Step Closer to Approving Seismic Airgun Blasting off East Coast
Oceana Warns Dangerous Blasts Threaten Marine Life, Could Industrialize Atlantic Coast and Lead to BP-Like Disaster
Monday, June 5, 2017

WASHINGTON – Today, the Trump administration issued draft Incidental Harassment Authorizations (IHAs) for seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean, an extremely loud and dangerous process used to search for oil and gas deposits deep below the ocean’s surface. By issuing these draft IHAs for public comment, Oceana says the federal government is giving another gift to the oil industry—moving forward with the permitting process that gives geophysical companies permission to harm or disturb marine life in the pursuit of offshore oil.

According to the government’s own estimates, seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic could injure as many as 138,000 marine mammals like dolphins and whales, while disturbing the vital activities of millions more.

“This threat is real and it’s coming fast,” said Nancy Pyne, campaign director at Oceana. “Coastal communities have the most to lose, but unfortunately their overwhelming opposition may be ignored by the Trump administration. The threats of seismic airgun blasting alone are bad enough, but it’s also the first step to offshore drilling, which could lead to the industrialization of coastal communities and the risk of another BP Deepwater Horizon-like disaster. The time to protect our coast is now.”

In late April, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at expanding offshore drilling and exploration in U.S. waters. Specifically, the order calls for a review of the Five-Year Program (2017-2022) for oil and gas development on the Outer Continental Shelf , and directs the administration to fast-track the permitting process for seismic airgun blasting. Following that directive, the Trump administration re-initiated the permitting process for seismic airgun blasting in an area twice the size of California, stretching from Delaware to Florida, reversing a decision by the Obama administration to deny these permits.

As of today, 125 East Coast municipalities, over 1,200 elected officials, numerous commercial and recreational fishing interests, and an alliance representing over 41,000 businesses and 500,000 fishing families have publicly opposed offshore drilling and/or seismic airgun blasting. An Oceana report in 2015 found that offshore oil and gas development in the Atlantic could jeopardize the nearly 1.4 million jobs and over $95 billion in gross domestic product that rely on healthy ocean ecosystems, mainly through fishing, tourism and recreation.

“Seismic airguns create one of the loudest manmade sounds in the ocean,” said Dr. Ingrid Biedron, marine scientist and campaign manager at Oceana. “Seismic airguns fire intense blasts of compressed air every 10 to 12 seconds, 24 hours a day, for weeks to months on end. The noise from these blasts is so loud that it can be heard up to 2,500 miles from the source, which is approximately the distance of a flight from New York City to Los Angeles.

“In addition to being extremely loud, these blasts are of special concern to marine life, including fish, turtles and whales, which depend on sound for communication and survival,” said Biedron. “Numerous studies demonstrate the impacts that seismic airgun noise has on ocean ecosystems, including reduced catch rates of commercially valuable fish and silencing bowhead whales.”

In 2015, 75 leading marine scientists sent a letter to President Obama on the impacts of seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean, stating that ‘the magnitude of the proposed seismic activity is likely to have significant, long-lasting, and widespread impacts on the reproduction and survival of fish and marine mammal populations in the region, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, of which only about 500 remain.”

While there is now a mandatory 30-day comment period for the draft IHAs, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management could approve seismic airgun blasting permits any day.

You can take action here: https://act.oceana.org/page/10826/action/1?ea.tracking.id=enews&utm_medium=email&utm_source=en&utm_campaign=062017enews&utm_content=June+2017+eNews+//+US+-+ND&ea.url.id=972479&forwarded=true

Trump Administration Withdraws Rule to Protect Endangered Species
Fisheries Service Reverses Course to Save Whales, Sea Turtles, and Dolphins
http://oceana.org/press-center/press-releases/trump-administration-withdraws-rule-protect-endangered-species?
utm_campaign=enews&utm_content=201706enewsUS&utm_source=en&utm_medium=email


Monday, June 12, 2017

Today, the new federal administration withdrew a proposed rule that would have protected endangered species—including whales, dolphins, and sea turtles—caught and killed in the drift gillnet fishery targeting swordfish off California. Today’s decision demonstrates the Administration’s blatant disregard for recommendations of its own fishery advisors and reverses course on commitments made by the previous administration.

In September 2015, after a years-long process incorporating input from fishery stakeholders, the Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended that the National Marine Fisheries Service set hard caps on the incidental catch of nine endangered species most at risk from entanglement, injury, and death in mile-long drift gillnets that target swordfish off California. The hard caps would have applied to endangered fin, humpback, and sperm whales, short-fin pilot whales, and common bottlenose dolphins; as well as endangered leatherback, loggerhead, olive ridley, and green sea turtles. The swordfish drift gillnet fishery is the only Category I fishery off the entire U.S. West Coast—a designation reserved for fisheries with high mortality to marine mammals.

Geoff Shester, Oceana’s California campaign director and senior scientist, released the following statement in response to today’s announcement:

“The Trump administration has determined not to issue regulations implementing a decision made by federal fishery managers more than a year ago to protect some of the ocean’s most iconic and endangered marine animals. In doing so, the National Marine Fisheries Service ignores the will of its federal fishery advisors, the State of California, California State and Congressional members, and the more than 22,000 members of the public who weighed in to support these caps. Rather than taking the opportunity to improve the swordfish drift gillnet fishery, the Administration is side-stepping its obligation under the nation’s fisheries law to reduce the unintended catch (bycatch) of dozens of marine wildlife species, including those most vulnerable to entanglement and death in swordfish drift gillnets. Today’s rule provides further evidence that fishery managers must phase out the use of harmful drift gillnets and expedite authorization of deep set buoy gear to catch swordfish—a gear type that has proven to profitably catch swordfish without catching endangered species.”

[onawah]

Trump and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt want to go back to 35 year old standards for how much toxic sludge coal plants can dump into our water.
(This came in the Sierra Club's email update today)


Ahhhh. . . 1982. Seems like everyone is nostalgic for the big hairstyles, big hits of 35 years ago. . . but not the big pollution.

Trump and his EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt want to take us back to water pollution standards set in 1982, undoing the major progress we made to limit the amount of toxic sludge filled with arsenic, mercury, and other heavy metals coal plants can dump into our water. This would mean 1.4 billion pounds more of toxic metals, nutrients, and other harmful pollutants being dumped into our water resources every year.

With only a short window until they close public comments on this issue, the time is now to let EPA know that you oppose any increase in water pollution from coal plants. Take 30 seconds and submit your official comment in to EPA now!

Power plants have been treating our water bodies like an open sewer. Every year, these plants dump 2.2 billion pounds of pollution directly into our rivers, lakes and bays - that's over 250,000 pounds an hour. No other industry comes even close to polluting our nation's waters like the coal power plant industry. It is by far the largest toxic water polluter in the country, responsible for 30% of all toxic pollutants discharged into surface waters by all industrial water polluters regulated under the Clean Water Act.

It is unsafe to drink or eat fish from at least 94 water bodies across the country. 45% of waterways that receive coal plant wastewater are contaminated with high levels of heavy metals or other harmful pollutants. 4,000 miles of rivers and streams are so contaminated by these discharges that they cannot be used for drinking water, and 6,000 miles are unsafe for children to fish in. A third of all coal plants discharge toxic pollution within 5 miles of a downstream community's drinking water intake and 81% of all coal plants discharge within 5 miles of a public drinking water well.

Exposure to these toxic chemicals through swimming in or drinking contaminated water or through eating contaminated fish can cause skin lesions, birth defects, cancer, and other health problems. It also harms recreational fishing and tourism, which are huge job creators in most states.

Don't let the Trump Administration take us backwards. Send in your comment opposing these rollbacks today.

Not only do Trump and Pruitt want to let more poison in your water, they want to pick your pocket to do it. Affordable technologies exist today that can eliminate nearly all of this pollution, but the big coal polluters and President Trump want to put profits ahead of public health protections.

When coal plants dump their toxic sludge into our water, we pay to clean it up and get rid of all of the pollution before it reaches your tap. If you get your water downstream from a coal plant, you're footing the cost instead of the polluters.

And even worse, they're trying to rush through this process with little public input. With less than a week left before EPA closes public comments on this issue, the time is now to stand up for clean water. Send in your comment now!

Thanks for everything you do to protect the climate, our health, and clean air,

Dalal Aboulhosn
Deputy Legislative Director
Sierra Club

You can take action here:
The Trump Administration's first attack on our water is a giant giveaway to coal plant polluters.
https://sierra.secure.force.com/actions/National?actionId=AR0082571&id=70131000001Lp1FAAS&utm_medium=recruit&utm_campaign=addthis&utm_source=facebook#.WVlOMSfp-AM.facebook

In 2015, the EPA updated its standards for how much toxic mercury, arsenic, and other toxic waste can be dumped by coal plants into nearby rivers, streams, and lakes. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is attempting to delay this rule-- the first step to rolling it back. The last time the rule was updated was 1982. This is one 80's throwback no one is excited about-- except maybe the coal industry.

Power plants have been treating our water bodies like an open sewer. Every year, these plants dump 2.2 billion pounds of contaminated wastewater directly into our rivers, lakes and bays – that’s over 250,000 pounds of pollution an hour. No other industry comes even close to polluting our nation’s waters like the coal power plant industry. It is by far the largest toxic water polluter in the country, responsible for 30% of all toxic pollutants discharged into surface waters by all industrial water polluters regulated under the Clean Water Act.

Because of this reckless practice:
It is unsafe to drink or eat fish from at least 94 water bodies across the country.
45% of waterways that receive coal plant wastewater are contaminated with high levels of heavy metals or other harmful pollutants.
23,000 miles of rivers and streams are contaminated because of these discharges, including water bodies used as drinking water sources. Nearly 35% of all coal plants discharge toxic pollution within 5 miles of a downstream community’s drinking water intake and 81% of all coal plants discharge within 5 miles of a public drinking water well.
Toxic chemicals in coal plant wastewater such as mercury, lead, and arsenic can cause cancer and other health problems.
These chemicals concentrate up the food chain resulting in long-term damage to aquatic ecosystems.
Public Water System (PWS) customers may face higher bills because PWS must clean up this mess before delivering drinking water to residents.
Submit your public comment to the EPA now and tell them to protect our water from coal plant pollution.

[AutumnW]

This is just the beginning. The oceans have already been impacted in a very negative way. It's beyond bad. New jobs should be created cleaning up the oceans, not the other way around. The U.S. Is becoming Mordor. Thanks for the links, Onawah.

[onawah]

Most welcome Autumn. I'd about given up posting anything about what the Trump Administration is doing and likely to do to the environment, but Awakeningmom (and others) deserve support, so I hope to resume when I have time.
Interesting astrological report for this week here that many will relate to, I think:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?91348-AngStoic-astrology-prediction-for-the-next-3-months-and-next-10-years&p=1164007&viewfull=1#post1164007

[Tinman]

Please, Turiya, Sam Hunter, Voice from the Mountains, Target, and all of the usual pro-Trump sycophants: you have at least three pro-Trump threads on this forum, which you generally update daily. You certainly have more than adequate space to post your right wing views and youtube videos and your puzzling, evidence-free claims of "winning!" Must you troll/stalk every thread for whiffs of Trump criticism and post there and then circle jerk thank each other? Can you please go play in your own sandboxes again and allow alternative voices to be expressed?

And Flash, thank you for saying what I wanted to say: Public Figure Men are RARELY attacked for their looks, or called out for their plastic surgery. And I haven't heard Trump criticize men for their "face bleeds" at all.... We all know it's a major double standard, but highly telling that the men responding to my post find little or no issue with their President's horrid words and actions towards women.

Finally, someone calling them out for derailing every conversation that doesn't support Trump.

[AutumnW]

Special thanks to Awakening Mom. Almost all of her ideas echo my own. There's not much separating many enlightened Trump supporters ( that's not an oxymoron!). Their values, on many issues, are similar.

Here is the difference-- those who are anti-Trump see him as a a continuation of the same old pack of lies and subterfuge, but even worse.

For those who still support him, it may take even more jaw dropping awfulness for this to resonate with you. Or -- your belief system, built around Trump will be resilient enough to absorb and explain (away) anything he does.

And yes, it is pretty appalling that instead of leading the country, he appears to watch tv all day. And then responds as if he's in middle school.

[AutumnW]

The Fourth Turning’s Neil Howe Warns: (https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/05/27/the-fourth-turnings-neil-howe-warns-we-are-in-the-1930s-winter-is-coming/)
We Are In The 1930s, “Winter Is Coming” (https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/05/27/the-fourth-turnings-neil-howe-warns-we-are-in-the-1930s-winter-is-coming/)

Via Mauldin Economics, (http://www.mauldineconomics.com/go/v34kvl/MEC)


From the Balkans to the US, walls are going up, not down, according to demographer and The Fourth Turning (https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Turning-American-Prophecy-Rendezvous/dp/0767900464) author Neil Howe.

Speaking to a packed crowd at Mauldin Economics’ Strategic Investment Conference (http://www.mauldineconomics.com/go/v34kvl/MEC) in Orlando, Howe said we are reliving many of the same trends and changes of the 1930s.


Faith in Democracy Is Fading



“Worldwide, people are losing trust in institutions,” he said. “Trust in the military, small business, and police is still there. But trust in democracies, media, and politicians is dropping.”

“When was the last time we saw these changes and the rise of right-wing populism?” he asked. “The 1930s.”
Howe’s statement is borne out of a June 2016 Gallup poll. When poll takers were asked how much confidence they had in institutions in American society, the results were troubling.

Just 15% said they had a “great deal” of confidence in the US Supreme Court. Banks trailed behind at 11%, followed by the criminal justice system (9%), newspapers (8%), and big business (6%).

Meanwhile, just 16% expressed a “great deal” of confidence in the presidency, with that number plummeting to 3% for Congress.

What Does This Mean for the Future of the West?

In his keynote, Howe shared his forecasting logic:


“My method is to step back and realize one thing: There is something we know about the world in 20 years’ time. The people who live there will be all of us, 20 years older and playing a different role. I call this ‘looking along the generational diagonal.’”The critical thing to remember about the current crisis period is that what comes next will be an era in which there is a new order.

According to the Strauss-Howe generational theory, as this new order takes root, individualism declines and institutions are strengthened.


“History is seasonal, and winter is coming,” Howe has said. But after winter, comes spring.
As the American Revolution was followed by calm, as the Civil War was followed by reconstruction and a gilded age, and as the Great Depression and World War II were followed by an age of peace and prosperity, so too will this crisis period be followed by a calm, stable era.

It’s simply a matter of time.

Source (https://www.theburningplatform.com/tag/fourth-turning/)

Turiya,

I agree with what you have posted here. And I think that, on an individual level, we have to fight the kind of fascism that takes hold in our hearts.

It is a difficult tightrope to walk when you are directly effected by economic displacement. I think I would be quite bitter, if it happened to me. I'm not sure of your exact situation but I know you might be one of millions who are underemployed or forced to work at a job that in no way capitalizes on your potential.

I feel grief when I see what is happening all around me, in Canada, too. And revolution offers people identity, anchors them in a disorienting reality. Gives them something to rally around.

I feel a peaceful revolution is necessary. But, I feel all that energy for change, could easily end up giving Christian fundamentalists, a truly dangerous lot, a LOT of power. This scares me.

[onawah]

Trump Administration takes aim at National Monuments
This just came in the email newsletter from NRDC: ( Natural Resources Defense Council)


Our national monuments and public lands tell a special story of who we are as Americans — a story that is under threat by President Trump. And there's no better day to celebrate our natural heritage than the Fourth of July — and no more important time to help save it.

The Interior Department's deadline for public comment on this crucial issue is July 10. So, it's critical that they hear from as many people as possible before then.

Help us spread the word: Urge your friends and family to take action to defend America's greatest national treasures.

And then watch and share this informative video about President Trump's reckless assault on our national monuments and public lands.

Watch the video:
https://www.facebook.com/nrdc.org/videos/10155277477639454/

As you know, President Trump wants to strip away protections for some of America's most cherished national treasures, including the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, Grand Staircase-Escalante, also in Utah, and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts off the coast of Cape Cod.

This move will open them up to oil and gas drilling, uranium and coal mining, tar sands extraction and other industrial dangers. It's an unprecedented assault on our natural heritage and the Antiquities Act itself — and we can't allow it to happen.

Please tell your friends and family to follow your lead and make their voices heard before July 10!

Trump's executive order requires Secretary Zinke to review all monuments created since 1996 — a clear signal that the president's ultimate goal is to open them up to dirty, dangerous drilling and mining operations for profit.

In addition to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, other monuments at risk include Berryessa Snow Mountain, Carrizo Plain and Giant Sequoia in California; Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks in New Mexico; Basin and Range in Nevada; Vermilion Cliffs and Grand Canyon-Parashant in Arizona, and many more.

Make sure that everyone you know demands that Secretary Zinke steps up for our national monuments and public lands.

Millions of people visit our beloved national monuments, bringing them joy, peace and adventure. But they also protect some of the Earth's most threatened wildlife, protect sources of drinking water for millions of Americans and preserve sacred tribal lands and cultural sites that are fundamental to indigenous communities who have lived here for thousands of years.

NRDC is prepared to fight the Trump administration's attacks on our national monuments and public lands — in and out of court — for as long as it takes to win. We can't thank you enough for standing by our side every step of the way.

Wishing you a safe and restful Fourth of July with the ones you love.

Sincerely,
Rhea Suh
President, NRDC
The mission of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.
You can take action here:
https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=4267&s_src=FBOLEGPET&utm_source=fb&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=ProtectMonuments

[turiya]

Turiya,...you might be one of millions who are underemployed or forced to work at a job that in no way capitalizes on your potential....

Thanks, AutumnW

On the contrary, I've been self-employed most all my life... mostly taxicab as an independent contractor. These days I have my own limousine that I work as a taxi - mostly airport trips, but I do the in-town runs when I'm available, or feel like doing so.

This morning I had a call that got me out of bed... took a ~45 year-old guy out to the local airport. Talked a bit with the man, and he let it be known that he was ready for an eminent conflict with the government... I agreed with alot of the 'conspiracy' stuff he was laying out... only because I know who & what the previous 'puppet' administrations were really working for - their bosses, and not 'we the people.' He is expecting Trump to be the same...

I live in a Liberal town - 70% voted for Hillary. Alot of my clients are University faculty. Needless to say, University faculty are 90-95% liberal. So, if I want to keep my clients calm & enjoying the ride to the airport, mostly I stay away from conversations that involve the following 2 subjects - religion & politics. However, I do allow clients to talk about these things, if they choose to do so. I stick to statements that are quite general in nature - but just say its quite an entertaining political scene. But anybody with any awareness could easily see by the words I choose to use where it is that I stand.

I've considered myself liberal-minded person most all my life. To me, 'liberal' in the sense that I considered myself 'open-minded', open to other views & opinions, other people... Previously, 'conservative' meant, clinging to cultural traditions, like in 'red-neck' kind of connotation. But it appears to me that these terms have somewhat morphed into having different meanings than what they used to have - Or, maybe its me that has done the morphing...

:)

According the Neil Howe, Fourth Turnings usually involved war breaking out... Now, this doesn't mean that we will be entering a war with other nations, but civil war may be more likely. Still not a guaranteed & predictable thing that will happen...

But with this taxi ride with this guy this morning - he is more than ready for a civil war. Certainly, for him - Trump is NOT the answer.

I finishe this reply with another quote from Strauss and Howe's booke, The Fourth Turning (https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Turning-American-Prophecy-Rendezvous/dp/0767900464):




“Americans have always been blind to the next turning until after it fully arrives.

Most of today’s adult Americans grew up in a society whose citizens dreamed of perpetually improving outcomes: better jobs, fatter wallets, stronger government, finer culture, nicer families, smarter kids, all the usual fruits of progress. Today, deep into the Third Turning, these goals feel like they are slipping away. Many of us wish we could rewind time, but we know we can’t – and we fear for our children and grandchildren.

Many Americans wish that, somehow, they could bring back a saecular spring now. But seasons don’t work that way. As in nature, a saecular autumn can be warm or cool, long or short, but the leaves will surely fall. The saecular winter can hurry or wait, but history warns that it will surely be upon us.

We may not wish the Grey Champion to come again – but come he must, and come he will!” – The Fourth Turning (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0767900464?tag=thebur01-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0767900464&adid=0VTFPQQFCAV7FYWEMDZT&) – Strauss & Howe


Turiya,

I agree with what you have posted here. And I think that, on an individual level, we have to fight the kind of fascism that takes hold in our hearts.

It is a difficult tightrope to walk when you are directly effected by economic displacement. I think I would be quite bitter, if it happened to me. I'm not sure of your exact situation but I know you might be one of millions who are underemployed or forced to work at a job that in no way capitalizes on your potential.

I feel grief when I see what is happening all around me, in Canada, too. And revolution offers people identity, anchors them in a disorienting reality. Gives them something to rally around.

I feel a peaceful revolution is necessary. But, I feel all that energy for change, could easily end up giving Christian fundamentalists, a truly dangerous lot, a LOT of power. This scares me.

[onawah]

TRUMP AND ZINKE MOVE TO EXPAND DRILLING OFF AMERICA’S COASTS
(There are many things that can be laid at the door of the previous administration, but when it came to the environment, they did a lot of things right. Unfortunately, the current one seems hellbent on undoing most of that. I hope the citizenry (and whoever else can help) will not allow that to happen.

Decision Ignores Millions of Americans Who Weighed In On Current Five-Year Plan
Thursday, June 29, 2017


http://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2017/06/trump-and-zinke-move-expand-drilling-america-s-coasts

Washington, DC -- Today, the Department of Interior announced that it will move on Monday to take the first step towards re-doing its five-year offshore drilling plan, with the goal of expanding drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf and to include parts of the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Arctic.

The current plan was finalized by the Obama administration just seven months ago, after a multi-year process during which millions of Americans weighed in.

In response, Lena Moffitt, Senior Director of the Sierra Club’s Our Wild America Campaign, released the following statement:

“It is disappointing but not surprising that Donald Trump and Ryan Zinke are reopening the five-year planning process, which was just completed with input from millions of Americans who said, loud and clear, that we do not want offshore drilling off our coasts.

“Expanding drilling off our shores would put our coastal communities’ health, economic well-being, and environment at risk, and continue to ignore the impacts of climate change across the nation. Opposition to this administration’s polluter-friendly agenda will only grow as they take yet another step to prioritize oil and gas industry profits over the health and safety of the American people.”
http://www.sierraclub.org/take-action

And this message came from the Sierra Club today:

The Trump administration just announced they're making new plans to expand drilling off America's coasts.

The announcement that this administration will develop a new Five Year Plan for offshore drilling, made today by Secretary Zinke, reopens plans to drill off our coasts, creating a potential for wide-scale disaster in our oceans. It also brazenly ignores permanent protections put in place for the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, and hits reset on the plan the Obama administration completed only 6 months ago.

Disaster after disaster has shown that Big Oil and Gas cannot be trusted. Their track record includes the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, a failed attempt by Shell to drill in the Arctic Ocean, the Deepwater Horizon tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico, a major oil spill off the Santa Barbara coast, and the oil spill and leak of gas in Alaska's Cook Inlet. These tragedies can not be allowed to happen again.

We will not allow this administration to jeopardize our communities, waters, and wildlife! Take action now to tell Zinke the people have spoken -- no drilling off our coasts!

Offshore oil spills happen frequently, devastating marine environments, commercial fishing industry, and tourism businesses. Even without spills, offshore oil causes pollution. The Department of the Interior should be protecting our coasts not handing them over so Big Oil can profit at the expense of coastal communities!

After more than 3.3 million public comments and 36 public meetings, the Obama administration's recent 5-year lease plan excluded drilling in the Pacific, the Arctic, and the Atlantic. We cannot go backwards now and allow Trump, Zinke and the rest of this dirty fuel-hungry administration to put our vulnerable coasts in jeopardy.
This planning process is an incredible waste of public resources and a deliberate attack on our oceans. Tell Zinke: The public has spoken, no more offshore drilling!

Your persistence is the reason why President Obama used his authority to protect the Arctic and Atlantic oceans from drilling. Now is the time to resist the Trump administration's effort to roll back progress -- take action today!
Thanks for all that you do to protect our oceans,

Lena Moffitt
Senior Director, Our Wild America Campaign
Sierra Club


http://view.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=01a6ec3702cd01902cc844ce900b7e4658cb40cd9cd94d90c65dfc6003997e7ad9e7697fbef28940a23fe1ffbffd95ab fe65b1b0d5b80b0e37050299e17f0b4c727013ff427edc4b

[onawah]

How Trump’s EPA Just Threatened the Clean Drinking Water of 117 Million Americans
July 14, 2017
https://foodrevolution.org/blog/drinking-water-america/



The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for ensuring public water supplies within the United States are safe. And as one of his first executive orders, incoming president Trump promised “crystal clear, clean drinking water.”

But the EPA just took an action which would negatively impact the drinking water of more than one-third of all people in the U.S. On June 27th, 2017, the EPA moved to repeal the Clean Water Rule, which was established to protect streams from industrial and agricultural pollution.

If the Clean Water Rule is abolished, 60% of the streams in the lower 48 states would lose pollution protection, and countless wetlands could lose protection as well.

According to an analysis by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), about 117 million people get at least some of their drinking water from streams.

The Clean Water Rule was the result of more than 400 meetings with stakeholders and a review of more than 1 million public comments. But ever since it was enacted, industry and agribusiness corporations have been pushing to roll back the rule so that it would only protect the biggest streams and rivers. And now, it looks like they could be getting what they want.

According to EWG senior vice president of government affairs, Scott Faber:

“With the rollback of the Clean Water Rule, Scott Pruitt and President Trump are poised to let industry and agriculture treat much of the nation’s drinking water supply like an ashtray, instead of a vital natural resource every single American relies on.”

Concern about unsafe drinking water is high and for good reason
Unfortunately, the anticipated repeal of the Clean Water Rule is only one issue when it comes to the concern for safe drinking water in the U.S. Most Americans are worried about the pollution of drinking water — more worried than any time in the last 17 years, according to a Gallup survey. And, while it’s generally considered safe to drink tap water in America (unlike some areas of the world where boiling water is required), there’s a lot of reason for concern.

Dramatic cuts to the EPA are anticipated, and this could mean even more people will be drinking polluted water. According to Erik Olson, Health Program Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, America is facing a nationwide drinking water crisis. He says:

“We take it for granted that when we turn on our kitchen tap, the water will be safe and healthy, but we have a long way to go before that is reality across our country.”

Here are a few of the contaminants that are currently found in the drinking water in the U.S.:

Lead. Think the problem of lead in drinking water is only in Flint, Michigan? Hardly. According to EPA’s own records, an estimated 20% of the water systems in the U.S. have been found to have unsafe lead levels.
Chromium-6. This cancer-causing chemical was made famous in the movie Erin Brockovich, but 17 years later, this dangerous chemical is still contaminating the water supplies of more than 75% of all Americans.
Polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). These industrials chemicals are linked with cancer, hormone disruption, and other health problems. A Harvard study found PFASs in the drinking water of 33 states, affecting 6 million Americans.
Pharmaceuticals. Drug residues, including antibiotics, antidepressants, hormones from birth control pills, and painkillers, have been found in tap water. An Associated Press report says that the drinking water of 41 million Americans is contaminated with trace amounts of pharmaceuticals.
Chlorine. Chlorine is added to municipal water supplies to kill dangerous pathogens, and it works well. But if it’s not filtered out, we drink it in our water. Many studies have linked chlorine to certain types of cancer, as well as to asthma, eczema, heart disease and higher miscarriage and birth defect rates. Growing evidence also shows that chlorine damages our microbiome, which is essential to digestive and overall health. Further, the presence of chlorine in water virtually guarantees that nasty and carcinogenic compounds called trihalomethanes will also be present.
Fluoride. Fluoride is added to municipal water supplies to reduce tooth decay, but there is a lot of concern that fluoride impacts a lot more than our teeth. A safety review by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that fluoride was an endocrine disruptor and can affect many organs and systems in the body, including the bones, the brain, the thyroid gland, the pineal gland, and even blood sugar levels.
How to tell if your drinking water is safe
After hearing about all these problems associated with drinking water, you’re probably wondering about your own tap water. Is it safe? How can you find out?

If you’re connected to a municipal water system, one way you can check your water safety is by getting your annual water quality report from your water utility company. Every year, your water agency is required by the EPA to provide a Consumer Confidence Report, or CCR, that details any contaminants that may be present in your water and alerts you to any health risks.

Every water agency must supply this report to customers by July 1 each year. You should get the report with your bill, or if you pay online, you should get an announcement to download the report as a PDF. You can also try going directly to your water company’s website. You may find this tool from the EPA useful in finding your Consumer Confidence Report.

If you get your water from a private well, it’s up to you to make sure your water is safe. You can contact your local health department and ask if they will test your private well water for free. Or you can get it tested by a certified water testing lab. Testing every year is generally recommended.

No matter where your drinking water comes from, the best way to find out about the quality is to test it. Do-it-yourself water testing kits can be found in some stores and online, but they can be unreliable and can’t test for everything.

That’s why using a certified testing lab is often the only way to get an accurate assessment of your water quality. To find a certified water testing lab in your state, use this tool from the EPA. These laboratories can test for single chemicals or for a range of chemicals. You can also call the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791 to ask for water testing labs in your area. Unfortunately, inclusive water tests are not cheap. You can expect to pay anywhere from $15 for a single contaminant up to $500 for more comprehensive testing.

[onawah]

Student loan servicers are engaged in economic terrorism, and DeVos is only making it worse.
By Binta Baxter / AlterNet June 28, 2017
http://www.alternet.org/economy/untold-story-student-loan-destroy-american-democracy

How the Student Loan Industry Is Helping Trump Destroy American Democracy

Most of the discussion about student debt in the United States has centered on its excessiveness, the negative impact it has on home-buying for the next generation, various refinancing schemes, and (for the grossly uninformed) how borrowers simply need to “pay what they owe.” However, the untold story of student loan debt in the United States is that it is being used as a form of economic terrorism designed not only to redistribute wealth from everyday Americans to the elite, but to undermine and degrade American democracy as a whole.

Up until her confirmation as Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos had financial ties to a large student loan servicer in contract negotiations with the Department of Education. PRWatch reported in January that one of the firms DeVos divested from, LMF WF Portfolio, helped finance a $147 million loan to a student debt collection agency called Performant, which had more than 346 complaints brought against it with the Better Business Bureau. The student loan industry is said to be worth $1.3 trillion in total debt owed according to Forbes. While some might chalk this up to successful business management, it’s important to evaluate just exactly how the student loan industry works.

Contrary to what most students believe, many loans supposedly from the U.S. Department of Education are actually owned by big private banks. Although Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans were a public-private partnership offered between 1965 and 2010, many federal loans are actually private loans dressed up in U.S. Department of Education attire.

During the 1990s, the U.S. government began offering Stafford loans without a private middleman through the Direct Loan program. But according to a 2014 Brookings Institution report, private lenders continued offering Stafford loans side-by-side with the new direct loan program.

"Which program a student borrowed from depended on the college she attended [not the wishes of the borrower] since colleges opted into direct loans," the study read.

The securitization of FFELP loans began in 2008, when the Federal Reserve allowed these loans to be bundled with other forms of debt in the form of Asset-Backed Securities (ABS). This program continued through 2014. Similar to the mortgage crisis, many borrowers were unaware that their federal student loans had been securitized and sold to big banks.

Student Loan Servicers Are Engaging in Economic Terrorism

In a lecture delivered at Carleton University in Ottawa 2011, famed MIT professor and linguist Noam Chomsky argued that the American student debt system fosters fear and insecurity among people who, burdened by financial stress, anxious for their jobs or stuck in low-paying jobs, are afraid to question or challenge the system.

"When you trap people in a system of debt, they can't afford the time to think," Chomsky said.

One indebted borrower, Denise, whose fiancee, Kevin, spoke to AlterNet on condition of anonymity, is living proof of the dilemma Chomsky presented.

"I’ve wanted to marry Denise for years now," Kevin said. "But after seeing what she’s been put through with these student loan companies, I honestly don't want to risk having a bunch of crooks stealing my paycheck or my tax refund."

According to Kevin, the student debt Denise acquired for four years of higher education totaled approximately $35,000. Under the management of student loan servicer Navient (which broke off from Sallie Mae), her student loan debt quickly swelled to more than $75,000 in less than 10 years following her graduation from the University of Arizona. According to Kevin, loan fees and high interest rates quickly snowballed as a penalty for Denise not having enough money. (Multiple requests to reach Navient executives by phone or email were not returned.)

“The monthly payment they demanded was three times what Denise paid for her rent. She would send what she could afford, but it would end up being a fraction of the penalty fee they’d add to her loan balance for not having enough money to pay. They would then charge her interest on the penalty fee as though it were money she actually received for school," Kevin said.

Kevin’s account of what happened to Denise could be happening to millions of other distressed borrowers. A March 20 report from Bloomberg detailed how Secretary DeVos is now green-lighting punishing new fees on student borrowers even if they agree to make good on their outstanding debt. In a memo to the student loan industry, DeVos’ agency is allowing companies to charge struggling borrowers as much as 16 percent more of a debtor’s total loan balance in additional fees.

“It’s a con game that caused Denise so much stress that it began affecting her health and even made her fantasize about taking her own life as a means of getting out from crippling debt,” Kevin said. “These companies use the authority of the government to extort money from people who took out loans they thought were from the government and not just some crooked bank.”

In some instances, the tax refunds Denise counted on each year would be confiscated as penalty for not having enough money to pay her loans. According to Kevin, Denise earned a social sciences degree with the specific intent of pursuing a career that involved helping people and supporting positive change in society.

“Instead of doing that good work, she was forced to cling to whatever low-wage position she could find,” Kevin continued. “Even after I used my savings to help pay off the remainder of her student debt, the loan servicer, Navient, kept refusing to credit her account for the payment and continues to damage her credit.”

“It has taken such a huge toll on us,” he added. "I guess now we’ll have to gather more money to file a lawsuit to get them to acknowledge that they received payment in full. In the meantime, they can still take her tax refunds even though she doesn’t owe them money anymore.”

“This should be criminal. They’re just awful, awful human beings,” Kevin said.

Ironically, the Federal Student Loan Program was intended to make higher education affordable for students and families who lack the ability to pursue higher education without funding support. With the insertion of predatory banks and student loan shark servicer companies like Navient, Strada Education Network (formerly known as USA Funds), and others, the soul of the Federal Student Loan Program has shifted from that of opportunity and advancement to profit and subjugation.

Recently, Secretary DeVos announced that the Public Service Loan Forgiveness agreements the Department of Education made with borrowers who agreed to work in the public service field for at least 10 years might not be honored. The New York Times reported in March that students who signed up when the program began in 2007 may now be on the hook for those loans after all. A recent legal filing from the Department of Education argues that FedLoan Servicing's approval letters for the loan forgiveness program are non-binding and can be rescinded at any time.

This means borrowers, who chose professions in public service that are routinely paid less than those with jobs in other sectors, could now not only have forgone a much higher salary for over a decade, but could also find themselves on the hook for loans that the Department of Education agreed to forgive in exchange for their service.

Denise is not alone—the New York Fed reported earlier this year that 44 percent of student loan borrowers are underemployed. This means seemingly benign decisions when it comes to student loan policy ensure that a vast net of stress, fear, and insecurity is cast upon an entire generation. The lasting impact will, by default, stifle and root out any inclinations of challenge to the current political and economic system. In this way, the student loan industry is suppressing resistance to societal change by poor Americans, ensuring that whatever steps are taken in the name of neoliberalism to tighten the corporate grip on American society will be met with little to no resistance.

Who Has the Moral High Ground?

President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget includes a provision requiring already cash-strapped student loan borrowers to pay higher monthly fees on income-based repayment plans. While there is no evidence showing how an increase in payment requirements is needed for an already grossly lucrative industry, the Trump budget prioritized steep cuts to Medicaid, Food Stamps, Social Security and Disability Insurance, while also raising monthly payments for student loan borrowers. The combination of these two policies is a crushing blow for underemployed student debtors.

The Republican Party often campaigns on being the morally superior party based on its stance on issues like abortion and contraception. However, the student loan industry’s pillaging of the next generation of Americans has been met with deafening silence by the GOP. One would think that a majority in the House, the Senate and control of the White House would motivate the GOP to address an issue that affects 44 million Americans, but instead, Republicans choose to look the other way.

Democrats aren't entirely blameless in the student loan debacle. While a recent effort to address the greed and usurious practices of the student loan industry was championed by progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), Patty Murray (D-Washington) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), other neoliberal Democrats like Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) have joined the GOP's morality farce by teaming up with the private sector to ransack public schools and gut teacher’s unions in the name of “school choice” and “teacher accountability.”

If Republicans and Democrats alike hope to hold on to any credibility when it comes to ethics, they must take steps to address the student loan industry in favor of the hardworking Americans who put them in office, not their corporate masters.

[onawah]

Stop the Trump-McConnell dirty energy bill
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/dirty_energy?t=6&akid=24019.1968103.HS09yL
7/15/17
(If you still think fracking is a good idea, you obviously haven't been watching Dutchsinse's youtube channel.)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHE92x768p8h-fMrqhsnE1Q

While the public and the media are distracted by Donald Trump's latest tweet, Mitch McConnell is quietly — and quickly — moving a dangerous and dirty energy bill through the Senate that would line the pockets of the fossil fuel industry and could lock in our dependence on fossil fuels for decades to come.

The so-called "Energy and Natural Resources Act of 2017" would increase fracking, allow the government to more easily approve dirty oil and gas pipelines and exacerbate the climate crisis even more. Mitch McConnell knows how unpopular this legislation is – so he's fast-tracking the bill without a single public hearing.

The oil and gas lobby wants nothing more than to see this bill slip by without the public's knowledge or input. We must sound the alarm immediately and pressure the Senate to reject this disastrous dirty energy bill.

Tell the Senate: Reject the Trump-McConnell dirty energy bill. Click here to sign the petition:
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/dirty_energy?t=6&akid=24019.1968103.HS09yL

The Trump-McConnell dirty energy bill is one of the worst energy bills ever introduced in the Senate. Specifically, it would:

Speed up the approval of liquefied natural gas export terminals, which would increase domestic fracking;
Give significantly more power to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a largely unaccountable federal energy agency, to sanction new natural gas projects; and
Authorize hundreds of millions of dollars for research and development into extracting methane hydrates, known as "flammable ice," which are frozen fossil fuel deposits under the ocean floor and are potent greenhouse gasses.1,2
Incredibly, the bill even contains a "renewables" section that fails to make any mention of solar or wind power. At a time when our country must embrace clean, renewable sources of energy to create a more sustainable future, this bill doubles down on extracting the very dirty fossil fuels causing the climate change catastrophe.

With Trump occupying the White House and an administration filled with climate deniers, Mitch McConnell sees a perfect opportunity to pay back his friends and donors in the oil and gas industry. As our allies at Friends of the Earth put it,

Donald Trump has done everything in his power to put our government in the hands of the fossil fuel industry. At a time when the world has already leased more fossil fuels than can be burned, the Senate energy bill will increase fracking and pave the way for new fossil fuel extraction.3

A vote in the Senate could be coming any day now. We must act immediately to ramp up pressure on lawmakers to reject this dirty energy bill before it's too late.

Tell the Senate: Reject the Trump-McConnell dirty energy bill. Click the link below to sign the petition:

https://act.credoaction.com/sign/dirty_energy?t=6&akid=24019.1968103.HS09yL

Thanks for all you do.

Josh Nelson, Deputy Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets
References

Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth and Center for Biological Diversity, "Organizational Sign-on Letter: Oppose Senate Bill 1460, The Energy and Natural Resources Act of 2017," accessed July 7, 2017.
Oil Change International, "The Madness of Exploiting Methane Hydrates," March 13, 2013.
Friends of the Earth, "Senator Cantwell resuscitates dirty energy bill," June 29, 2017.

[onawah]

Daniel Estulin on Jeff Rense 5/22/17
"Trump is not one of us, Trump works for his own paymasters"
Estulin has written an impressive number of books on the Bilderbergers, many of them bestsellers
See:https://www.amazon.com/Daniel-Estulin/e/B002O0C8D6

1PtSBt9EDmA

[onawah]

Trump administration suddenly pulls plug on teen pregnancy programs
Jane Kay
7/14/17
https://www.revealnews.org/article/trump-administration-suddenly-pulls-plug-on-teen-pregnancy-programs/amp/
https://www.revealnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/AP_17172674448622-1013x675.jpg
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, shown at the White House in June, has been vehemently opposed to federal programs involving contraception.
( I'd really like to see that guy hooked up to a labor simulator. See the end of my post here: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?98785-New-Age-Annoyances&p=1166639&viewfull=1#post1166639 )


Credit: Alex Brandon/Associated Press

Trump administration suddenly pulls plug on teen pregnancy programs

The Trump administration has quietly axed $213.6 million in teen pregnancy prevention programs and research at more than 80 institutions around the country, including Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and Johns Hopkins University.

The decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will end five-year grants awarded by the Obama administration that were designed to find scientifically valid ways to help teenagers make healthy decisions that avoid unwanted pregnancies.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and other top Trump appointees are outspoken opponents of federal funding for birth control, advocating abstinence rather than contraceptives to control teen pregnancies.

Among the programs that lost their funding: the Choctaw Nation’s efforts to combat teen pregnancy in Oklahoma, Johns Hopkins’ work with adolescent Apaches in Arizona, the University of Texas’ guidance for youth in foster care, the Chicago Department of Public Health’s counseling and testing for sexually transmitted infections and the University of Southern California’s workshops for teaching parents how to talk to middle school kids about delaying sexual activity.

The elimination of two years of funding for the five-year projects shocked the professors and community health officials around the country who run them.

Health officials say cutting off money midway through multiyear research projects is highly unusual and wasteful because it means there can be no scientifically valid findings. The researchers will not have the funds to analyze data they have spent the past two years collecting or incorporate their findings into assistance for teens and their families.

“We are just reeling. We’re not sure how we’ll adapt,” said Jennifer Hettema, an associate research professor at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, which was finding ways to help doctors talk to Native American and Latino teens about avoiding pregnancy.

More than a quarter of U.S. girls become pregnant by 20. The teen birth rate has continually declined over the past 20 years, but it remains high compared with other industrialized nations, particularly among poor and minority girls.

Under the Trump administration, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program had two strikes against it: Former President Barack Obama started it, and social conservatives don’t want to give teens access to birth control.

Eighty-one projects were awarded five-year grants in 2015. But last week, they received annual grant award letters from the Office of Adolescent Health, which were obtained by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. Included was this sentence: “This award also shortens the project period to end June 30, 2018, at the end of this budget year.” In years past, the award letters said the project period would end June 30, 2020.

In addition, a $2.9 million annual grant split among Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, the University of Michigan, the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute, EngenderHealth in New York and Youth Catalytics in Vermont was eliminated immediately.

These five groups were unfunded after one year of their five-year projects. They were responsible for providing resources, such as training for recruiting and communication, to the other grant holders. The five groups received letters saying that the cut was due to changing program priorities and that the projects were no longer in the federal government’s best interest.

The elimination of funding was done outside the traditional federal budget process. Congress has begun negotiations on the spending bill, and on Wednesday, an appropriations subcommittee cut money for teen pregnancy prevention.

Pat Paluzzi of the Healthy Teen Network in Baltimore said the axing of the program, including her project to develop an app to answer teen girls’ health questions, is “part and parcel of the shift to abstinence-only dollars.”

“They don’t like to deal with the sexual reproductive health of teens,” Paluzzi said. “They frame it in this country as moral issues. Public health issues shouldn’t be political issues.”

Several grantees were told by officials at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Adolescent Health that the decision to eliminate funding came from the office of the assistant secretary for health. Last month, President Donald Trump appointed a new chief of staff there, Valerie Huber, who favors abstinence as the solution to teen pregnancy.

The office of the assistant secretary for health on Thursday confirmed eliminating the final two years of funding for the 81 programs but declined to answer questions.

“All of these grantees were given a project end date of June 30, 2018, allowing the grantees an opportunity to adjust their program and plan for an orderly close out,” a Health and Human Services Department spokesman said.

The funded programs were exclusively involved in preventing youth pregnancies; no abortion counseling was provided.

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Some grant holders were unaware that their final two years of funding was eliminated until they were contacted by Reveal this week. They had thought the letters were a routine authorization of 2017-18 funds and hadn’t noticed the line saying it was the final year of funding.

When Hettema contacted the Department of Health and Human Services for an explanation, staff in the Office of Adolescent Health “were extremely shocked and still trying to find out who made the decision and how this came about,” she said.

The University of New Mexico had been recruiting for a randomized study of 1,000 participants in a program created for doctors’ offices to help low-income Latino and Native American teens. Now they’ll probably end up with half that number, which would turn it into a pilot study with much less value for health providers, Hettema said.

“It’s kind of like building half a skyscraper and then saying, ‘Never mind,’ ” Hettema said. “And there are thousands of health care providers in this country who are winging it in terms of how to talk to teens about unintended pregnancies.”

Luanne Rohrbach, an associate professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, said the eliminated programs, including the one she directed, are scientifically based.

“We took decades of research on how to effectively approach prevention and have applied it on a large scale nationally,” she said. “We’re not out there doing what feels good. We’re doing what we know is effective. There are a lot of data from the program to show that it works.”

The USC program supports a sexual health education program in middle schools in the Los Angeles and Compton unified school districts and in an alternative high school system. Included are workshops that teach parents how to talk to kids about delaying sexual activity and where to find health services for preventing disease and pregnancy.

In the San Antonio area, Healthy Futures of Texas provides education on preventing teen pregnancies and uses a control group to assess the effectiveness of the program.

“Our research design is to follow young people for a year and see if the program is making a difference,” said Dr. Janet Realini, associate vice president of Healthy Futures of Texas. Without the funds, “it’s going to be very difficult for us.”

“The folks I’ve talked to who have had many federal grants say they would normally have had some notice,” she said.

In May, Congress approved $101 million for the third year of the 81 grants. But Trump’s proposed budget did not include any funding for fiscal year 2018.

Huber, the new chief of staff for the office of the assistant secretary for health, previously was the president of Ascend, which used to be named the National Abstinence Education Association.

In a 2014 paper on the history of sex education, Huber criticized Obama for creating comprehensive sex education programs at the expense of focusing on abstinence.

“Pro-sex organizations used every opportunity to attack abstinence education,” Huber wrote with co-author Michael Firmin. “This agenda was (and is) at least as much about destroying abstinence education as it is about supporting ‘comprehensive’ sex education. … The current Obama administration has used its fiscal scalpel to eliminate the growth of abstinence education within America’s school systems.”

Tom Price, an orthopedic surgeon who was a U.S. representative from Georgia, was confirmed by Congress as health secretary in February. He has been vehemently opposed to federal programs involving contraception.

In Congress, he voted to eliminate Title X, which subsidizes contraception for low-income women. He opposed an Affordable Care Act provision that requires insurance plans to cover contraception.

“Bring me one woman who has been left behind. Bring me one. There’s not one,” Price told a ThinkProgress reporter when asked about the provision in 2012. “The fact of the matter is this is a trampling on religious freedom and religious liberty in this country.”

The U.S. teen birth rate remains higher than many other developed nations despite a continuing decline.

In 1991, 62 out of every 1,000 females ages 15 to 19 gave birth, according to federal data. By 2014, it had dropped to 24. Health officials say the primary reason for the decline is more access to birth control because sexual activity has remained constant over the years.

Rohrbach and other grantees said they have evidence that certain programs are successful in reaching teens to prevent pregnancies.

Teen parents tend to have less education and are more likely to live in poverty and have chronic medical conditions. Thirty percent of teen girls who have dropped out of high school cite pregnancy or parenthood as a reason, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The unfunded programs are designed to focus on the highest-risk communities in the country.

“Yes, the teen pregnancy rate has gone down,” Rohrbach said. But “if you look at the kids that live in disadvantaged neighborhoods, you see that the decline in teen pregnancies is not as steep as it is nationwide. The rates of teen pregnancies are still relatively high.”

Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore
Annual funding: $880,072
Website http://caih.jhu.edu
Program summary
Project overview: Johns Hopkins University will scientifically evaluate the effectiveness of a program designed to reduce sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy among American Indian teens. The program includes education related to condom use and negotiation skills related to sex and substance use. Read the evaluation abstract here.
Target population: American Indians ages 13 to 19 living on a tribal reservation
Geographic area served: Apache reservation, Arizona
Target number of youth served (per year): 189
UC San Francisco

San Francisco
Annual funding: $995,321
Website http://www.ucsf.edu
Program summary
Project overview: The University of California Board of Regents intend to increase use of long-acting, reversible contraceptives across California’s Central Valley, Bay Area and Los Angeles regions. The regents implement a program called SpeakOut through UC San Francisco that encourages teenage girls to share their contraceptive experiences with their peers. Read the evaluation abstract here.
Target population: Females ages 15 to 19
Geographic area served: Alameda, Monterey, Orange, San Joaquin, Solano and Stanislaus counties
Teen birth rate in area served (per 1,000): 19.4; 44.6; 20.5; 33.7; 24.2; 35.8 (respectively)
Target number of youth served (per year): 500
Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands

Seattle
Annual funding: $1,000,000
Website http://www.plannedparenthood.org
Program summary
Project overview: This grantee intends to reduce teen pregnancy rates, increase use of contraceptives and delay initiation of sexual activity among ninth- to 12th-grade youth in rural Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Hawaii. It would implement LiFT, which brings rural youths and parents together to share family values, strengthen family bonds, and talk about healthy relationships and sexual health. Read the evaluation abstract here.
Target population: Rural youth and their parents
Geographic area served: Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Alaska and Hawaii
Target number of youth served (per year): 500
Reveal reporter Trey Bundy contributed to this story. It was edited by Marla Cone and Andrew Donohue and copy edited by Nikki Frick.

[Foxie Loxie]

Daniel Estulin....Thanks SO MUCH, Onawah. He really puts things down concisely so one can understand! Happy Sabbatical!! :Party:

[onawah]

Yep, I think he really nailed it right on the head. Thanks Foxie.

Daniel Estulin....Thanks SO MUCH, Onawah. He really puts things down concisely so one can understand! Happy Sabbatical!! :Party:

[onawah]

Trump's plan to boost economy-rob Peter to pay Paul
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/millennium_coal_comments?t=3&akid=24076.1968103.dWsA9W


In complete disregard of science, the environment, public health and runaway climate change, Donald Trump has promised to revive the dying coal industry — and he just might get to fulfill that promise if Washington state allows for construction of the largest and dirtiest coal export terminal in North America.

The Millennium Bulk Terminals’ proposed coal export terminal in Longview, Washington would ship 44 million tons of coal each year from mines in Montana and Wyoming overseas, boosting U.S. coal exports by a stunning 40 percent.1 The terminal and trains transporting coal would destroy wildlife habitats and pollute waterways, adversely affect Native fishing areas and exacerbate runaway climate change.

The Washington Department of Ecology is currently accepting public comments for Millennium's water quality certification – but only for the next few days. Now is our chance to pressure regulators to reject this permit application and stop this dangerous and dirty project for good.

Tell Washington state: Stop the largest coal export terminal in North America:
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/millennium_coal_comments?t=3&akid=24076.1968103.dWsA9W

If completed, the project would spread toxic coal dust throughout communities in the Northwest, directly threatening the health of residents through toxic air and water pollution, and the terminal, if built, would be one of the biggest greenhouse-gas emitters in Washington. Public health would be severely at risk, and local communities, including Native tribes, would be adversely affected. According to Washington state's own environmental study, the effects on Native Northwestern tribal fishing could be enormous.2

Donald Trump wants nothing more than to revive the flailing coal industry, but in reality, it's nothing more than a cheap political ploy to benefit his friends and donors in the fossil fuel industry. Completion of this dirty coal terminal would be a massive giveaway to dirty polluters and do nothing to ensure our country's so-called "energy independence" since this coal would be shipped overseas to energy-hungry Asian countries.

Last year, more than 250,000 public comments flooded Washington state regulators — including more than 85,000 comments from CREDO activists — after Washington issued its environmental impact study. Our allies and activists on the ground have been packing hearings and protests in huge numbers, but the coal industry and its lobby are well funded — especially with Donald Trump behind them — and they aren't giving up the fight.

Let's make sure Washington regulators know that we're not giving up either. The public comment period ends on July 27, so we must act immediately. This dirty coal terminal is far too dangerous to our environment, climate and health to allow it to move ahead any further.

Thanks for all you do.

References

Marissa Luck, "Longview coal: Ecology to make water decision by September," The Daily Online News, June 29, 2017.
Cowlitz County & Washington State Department of Ecology, "3.5 Tribal Resources, Millennium Bulk Terminals-Longview SEPA Draft Environmental Impact Statement," April 2016.

[A Voice from the Mountains]

Trump's executive order requires Secretary Zinke to review all monuments created since 1996 — a clear signal that the president's ultimate goal is to open them up to dirty, dangerous drilling and mining operations for profit.

This tells you everything you need to know in this one sentence.

Politicians since the 1990's have been using the pretext of "national monuments" to prevent the expansion of domestic energy production. They have been using similar pretexts to take land from ranchers such as the Bundy's, who Trump actually supports, contrary to this fake news article above.

Trump is fixing that.

If your moral outrage to protect every square foot of ground from someone getting oil is so high, I would find it very hypocritical unless you paid out of your pocket to make your entire house run on renewable energy (solar, wind, etc.). Of course this would be extremely expensive and totally impractical for most people to do, and even wind and solar requires coal in the end for days that are not windy or not very bright. Fossil fuels are actually used to start wind turbines in the first place. Yet liberals think the country as a whole should apparently stop all oil production (relying on foreign countries to do that) and try to make everything solar and wind. Makes total sense. Totally possible and useful. (Sarcasm here.)

[onawah]

More environmental "collateral damage" thanks to the Trump Administration
From:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?93274-Standing-Rock-Dakota-Pipeline-Protests...Who-s-gonna-participate&p=1166961&viewfull=1#post1166961

Apparently even buried pipelines are not safe from leakage and/or damage. Some residents of a suburb of Austin Texas found that out.
BASTROP, Texas (AP is the source for this material below)
Authorities have now allowed residents to return to homes evacuated after about 50,000 gallons (189,000 liters) of crude oil spilled from a cut underground pipeline in Central Texas.
Cleanup crews worked all day Thursday to clean up the oil spilled after a contractor accidentally cut the Longhorn pipeline near Bastrop. That's about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Austin.
A spokesman for Magellan Midstream Partners of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Bruce Heine (hyn), says no one was injured by in the spill.
About 15 households were displaced by the spill.
Getting back to the DAPL, the ND governor requested a "disaster" fund relief payment from the Federal government to help the State pay for the 38 MILLION $ in costs incurred by Police to deal with the DAPL protesters' activities. Trump said no.

What happens to coal ash, which we will have plenty more of now, thanks to Trump's new policies?
From:http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?98716-GeoengineeringWatch.org-Updates&p=1165956&viewfull=1#post1165956

From my research I would say that the raw material for Chemtrails comes from ‘Fly Ash’ a bye product of combustion from coal fired power stations which is a similar composition to what we see analyzed, and, there's plenty of it around.

[A Voice from the Mountains]

So... how is it Trump's fault that a private contractor accidentally cut a private oil pipeline in Texas? Because he hasn't eradicated oil production off the face of the planet yet? What exactly is the agenda here, or is there one?

[AutumnW]

Onawah,

Thank you for highlighting the disasters that a loose regulatory environment can produce. It is super wise to follow what is currently happening as a prelude to disasters that yet might come.

Personally, I kind of agree with CAFitts, in that, the bureaucracy can be unwieldy and impossible to navigate. Many progressives, (often govt. employees or employed by large corporations) are not aware of how ridiculous it can be, because they don't have to deal with it.

As far as energy goes, the major refiners are the ones who arranged for the most regulation of all kinds be imposed on their industry. They used government to get rid of small competitors and set a high barrier to entry for newcomers. Many of the rules were wrapped in a cloak of environmentalism, but were not necessarily about saving the environment -- at all.

There's a lot of smoke and mirrors in the food industry and the energy industry. It is very hard for anybody trying to gain traction as a sole proprietor or as a small privately held corporation.

However, into this buzz saw of backlash against the status quo, Americans may have to march. And, the new deregulated environment might be very very different than anything we are currently familiar with.

Again, thank you for keeping up on the environmental issues here, be they a side issue or directly related to Trump and his executive branch!

[onawah]

ALEC unveils Const. Amendment to let Gov’s, Legislatures pick US Senators; DeVos, Kochs and others to discuss at ALEC conference this week
http://progressnownm.org/2017/07/20/alec-unveils-const-amendment-to-let-govs-legislatures-pick-us-senators-devos-kochs-and-others-to-discuss-at-alec-conference-this-week/



7/20/17

Republicans control 32 of 50 state legislatures and 33 governors’ mansions. Now they want to lock in control of the US Senate, too.

The Center for Media and Democracy has been one of the nation’s foremost critics of the secretive corporate dating service for legislators: ALEC. The bill factory brings corporations and state legislators together at posh retreats to write “model bills” helping corporations’ bottom lines and, in return, ALEC works to help conservative legislators maintain majorities in state legislatures.

With a majority of state legislatures in Republican hands in 2010, the GOP redrew the lines giving them huge advantages in Congressional and state legislative races, but a new Democratic surge in response to President Trump threatens to reduce their majorities in several swing states.

To get ahead of that, Betsy DeVos, one of the Trump administration’s best-known cabinet members, will join the Koch brothers this week at ALEC’s conference to pitch a new Constitutional amendment to state legislators: repeal the 17th amendment allowing voters, not governors or state legislatures, to pick their US Senators.

CMD’s first reported on the meeting and the debate:

Now that GOP state legislators have control over 32 state legislatures (both chambers), thanks in large part to partisan gerrymandering, some extremists are preparing to use their clout to gerrymander the U.S. Senate.

This week in Denver, July 19-21, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) will welcome Republican state legislators and its corporate funders, including Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, K12 Inc., Peabody Energy, and PhRMA, to vote on corporate legislative priorities and create cookie cutter “model” bills in task force meetings that are still closed to the press.

ALEC will welcome U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, Newt Gingrich and other Trump loyalists to the meeting.

On the agenda for debate and discussion? A model bill to repeal the 17th Amendment, which established the popular election of United States Senators in 1913.

Previously, U.S. Senators were selected by state legislatures and political party bosses beholden to powerful industries. The corruption scandals erupting from the wheeling and dealing fueled some of the great muckraking investigative journalism of the early 20th Century. In 1912, progressive Republican U.S. Senator Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette campaigned for the popular election of U.S. Senators as a means of cracking down on political corruption and corporate control of the democracy. Reformers introduced direct primary elections, ballot initiatives, and recall votes, in the same time period.

Now right-wing extremists want to roll back the clock to enable Republican state houses and Republican governors to hijack at least 10 U.S. Senate Seats held by Democrats in Republican trifecta states, and force an ever more extreme agenda through Congress.

ALEC’S MODEL BILL TO REPEAL 17TH AMENDMENT

The “Draft Resolution Recommending Constitutional Amendment Restoring Election Of U.S. Senators To The Legislatures Of The Sovereign States” is scheduled to be debated by ALEC’s Federalism and International Relations Task Force in Denver.

The resolution reads in part:

Section 1. The seventeenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2. Senators shall be elected exclusively by the State legislature, upon a majority vote of legislators present and voting in a joint session. If a vacancy shall exist for more than one hundred-eighty days, then the Governor shall appoint the Senator to serve the remainder of the vacant term. This procedure may not be modified by state initiative or referendum.

One only needs to examine the electoral map to understand why ALEC is pushing for a repeal of the 17th Amendment now.

With the majority of states under GOP control, Republicans could snatch some 17 U.S. Senate seats from Democrats if the state legislatures are given the right to pick Senators.

ALEC politicians know that their extreme agenda of rolling back renewables, busting unions, and privatizing schools is not popular with the American public and doesn’t fly at the ballot box. No state, for instance, has approved school vouchers via the ballot box, education expert Diane Ravitch tell us.

It is not easy to pass a Constitutional Amendment or repeal one. Only Utah has passed a resolution urging the repeal of the 17th Amendment. But a repeal would give the GOP a supermajority in the U.S. Senate and a greatly enhanced ability to advance extremist policies.

Read more at exposedbycmd.org
http://www.exposedbycmd.org/2017/07/17/trump-alec-debate-gerrymandering-senate-denver/

TRUMP TEAM, ALEC, KOCH INDUSTRIES DEBATE GERRYMANDERING THE U.S. SENATE IN DENVER
By Mary Bottari and David Armiak | July 17th, 2017 at 2:55 PM (CDT)





Now that GOP state legislators have control over 32 state legislatures (both chambers), thanks in large part to partisan gerrymandering, some extremists are preparing to use their clout to gerrymander the U.S. Senate.

This week in Denver, July 19-21, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) will welcome Republican state legislators and its corporate funders, including Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, K12 Inc., Peabody Energy, and PhRMA, to vote on corporate legislative priorities and create cookie cutter “model” bills in task force meetings that are still closed to the press.

ALEC will welcome U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, Newt Gingrich and other Trump loyalists to the meeting.

On the agenda for debate and discussion? A model bill to repeal the 17th Amendment, which established the popular election of United States Senators in 1913.

Previously, U.S. Senators were selected by state legislatures and political party bosses beholden to powerful industries. The corruption scandals erupting from the wheeling and dealing fueled some of the great muckraking investigative journalism of the early 20th Century. In 1912, progressive Republican U.S. Senator Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette campaigned for the popular election of U.S. Senators as a means of cracking down on political corruption and corporate control of the democracy. Reformers introduced direct primary elections, ballot initiatives, and recall votes, in the same time period.

Now right-wing extremists want to roll back the clock to enable Republican state houses and Republican governors to hijack at least 10 U.S. Senate Seats held by Democrats in Republican trifecta states, and force an ever more extreme agenda through Congress.

ALEC’S MODEL BILL TO REPEAL 17TH AMENDMENT
The “Draft Resolution Recommending Constitutional Amendment Restoring Election Of U.S. Senators To The Legislatures Of The Sovereign States” is scheduled to be debated by ALEC’s Federalism and International Relations Task Force in Denver.

The resolution reads in part:

Section 1. The seventeenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2. Senators shall be elected exclusively by the State legislature, upon a majority vote of legislators present and voting in a joint session. If a vacancy shall exist for more than one hundred-eighty days, then the Governor shall appoint the Senator to serve the remainder of the vacant term. This procedure may not be modified by state initiative or referendum.

One only needs to examine the electoral map to understand why ALEC is pushing for a repeal of the 17th Amendment now.

With the majority of states under GOP control, Republicans could snatch some 17 U.S. Senate seats from Democrats if the state legislatures are given the right to pick Senators.

ALEC politicians know that their extreme agenda of rolling back renewables, busting unions, and privatizing schools is not popular with the American public and doesn’t fly at the ballot box. No state, for instance, has approved school vouchers via the ballot box, education expert Diane Ravitch tell us.

It is not easy to pass a Constitutional Amendment or repeal one. Only Utah has passed a resolution urging the repeal of the 17th Amendment. But a repeal would give the GOP a supermajority in the U.S. Senate and a greatly enhanced ability to advance extremist policies.

RATIONALES DON’T HOLD WATER
This bill should be seen as the latest in a long line of ALEC bills to rig the system and rein in popular democracy. ALEC had a model resolution supporting the electoral college; ALEC wanted to limit ballot initiatives and referendums put on the ballot by voters; ALEC stood behind the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision, and ALEC wanted to stomp on traditionally Democratic voters with voter ID requirements and more.

In 2012, the Center for Media and Democracy revealed that ALEC was involved in the Red Map redistricting effort, based on emails obtained through open records requests to Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. ALEC had pushed redistricting approaches spearheaded by the former lawyer for the national Republican Party, Mark Braden, and hosted a special conference call with that partisan lawyer to advise ALEC legislators on redistricting. The result? Wisconsin’s maps were so egregiously gerrymandered to lock down GOP control of seats that a landmark case challenging the hyper-partisan effort is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

ALEC has debated the repeal of the 17th Amendment before at the 2013 States and Nation Policy Summit. In the “Equal State’s Enfranchisement Act (ESEA),” ALEC required State Legislatures to choose a candidate for U.S. Senator that will be placed on the ballot alongside other candidates for the general public to vote on. The Act did not call for a repeal of the 17th Amendment, but gave a leg up to a favored candidate. That draft did not become a model bill.

This latest iteration, is a virtual copy of a bill on the site of a group called the Equal Justice Coalition, a small 501(c)3 nonprofit based out of Long Beach, California run by a retired real estate developer: J. Jay Feinberg. IRS filings for the group show that it was founded in 2015 and did not report revenue until 2016 when it stated receiving $46,000.

Feinberg held a workshop on EJC’s repeal of the 17th Amendment that included John C. Eastman, Founding Director of the Claremont Institute‘s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence and Trent England, Executive VP of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs at ALEC’s States and Nation Policy Meeting in Washington, D.C in November 2016. Earlier, the trio held a “telepanel” on the subject hosted on the Claremont Institute’s site. (View the slideshow here.)

In the Claremont panel and the ALEC workshop, Feinberg, Eastman, and England argue that the power and sovereignty of the states has been eroded by direct election of the Senate and that the costs of U.S. Senate elections have spun out of control.

Although the trio appears to quote a MapLight analysis stating that it now costs $10.5 million to win a U.S. Senate seat on average, they fail to note that MapLight President Daniel Newman attributes the high cost to the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. FEC, which opened the door to an unlimited flow of corporate money into campaigns and elections.

Perhaps the Equal Justice Coalition should be promoting a Constitutional Amendment to roll back Citizens United instead.

Stay tuned and follow @ALECexposed for updates on ALEC.

[onawah]

President Trump wants to sell off our nation’s natural heritage to the fossil fuel industry.
(Message from Robert Redford and the Natural Resources Defense Council)
7/21/17


In all 50 years of environmental activism, I can't think of a bigger do-or-die moment for our environment than the one we're facing right now.

In just his first six months in office, President Trump has attempted to roll back the ban on drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans and has taken the first step toward shrinking or abolishing dozens of spectacular national monuments. His administration has also issued a cross-border permit for the climate-wrecking Keystone XL pipeline.

Now more than ever, we are counting on the power of NRDC's legal team to turn back these assaults on our environment. And that means we're going to need your help.

NRDC must raise $250,000 by July 31 to defend our environment on all fronts and build a legal firewall against the Trump administration. Please stand with me and NRDC by lending your support today.

I joined NRDC as a Trustee 43 years ago because they had the power to go to court. I believed in their approach of using science and litigation to protect our land, our water and our air.

I felt that way 43 years ago, and I feel even more strongly about NRDC's work today.

That's because the Trump administration is doing everything in its power to dismantle and destroy President Obama's legacy of climate action and public lands protection.

President Trump has even lifted the moratorium on new coal leasing across millions of acres of public lands, which opens the door for coal companies to mine near the gateway to Bryce Canyon National Park and other national treasures.

We're not going to let him take away places like these without a strong fight.

Please donate generously to support NRDC today. Your tax-deductible gift will power their work in the courts and on the ground
https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Donation2?idb=239055414&df_id=16978&mfc_pref=T&16978.donation=form1&df_id=16978&idb=1756579305&16978.donation=root&mfc_pref=T
Sincerely,
Robert Redford
Trustee, NRDC

[onawah]

Trump Republicans plan to gut Wall Street reform
(From Credo Action 7/21/17)
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Keep_big_bank_regulation?t=3&akid=24162%2E1968103%2E2lNSs1

Seven years ago this month, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act became law. But now, Republicans are planning to gut it beyond all recognition.

For the last seven years, the Dodd-Frank Act reined in the biggest banks and imposed new limits on the risky speculation that caused the disastrous Wall Street crash of 2008. The law created Sen. Warren’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has saved Americans millions of dollars and tipped the scales toward working people instead of financial scam artists.1

But last month, the House passed the Financial Choice Act 2.0, a nearly 600-page package that would blow up the Dodd-Frank Act and cripple the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Now the bill is with the Senate, where Republicans need 60 votes to pass it – but corporate Democrats often make noises about helping gut financial reform.2,3 We must ramp up pressure now to make sure Democrats hold the line.

Tell Senate Democrats: Don’t let Trump Republicans gut Wall Street reform.

We cannot assume Senate Democrats will maintain a unified front against this legislation. A number of Democrats – including Sen. Heidi Heitkamp – have previously admitted to meeting with bank lobbyists.4 They seem too willing to follow the lead of Trump Republicans in Congress who have spent recent years laser-focused on helping big banks.

This new bill is a more-radical version of plans that Republicans introduced in prior years. The new Wall Street handout would:5

Undermine Sen. Warren’s consumer protection agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, by replacing its strong director, limiting its funding and putting new restrictions on rules it issues to protect the public.
Dismantle a half-century of financial rules by allowing banks that hold a certain amount of capital to bypass financial regulations that go back to least the 1950s, leaving us even more at risk of a massive crash than we were before 2008.
Eliminate the Volcker rule, a straightforward bipartisan protection that says that banks who are backed by the taxpayers cannot make risky speculative trades to drive up profits.
The Senate is the only thing stopping a puppet of the big banks in the White House, an administration full of Goldman Sachs alums and Wall Street’s Republican cronies in Congress from dismantling the rules put in place to keep big-banker greed in check. Democrats must block and resist this bill.

Tell Senate Democrats: Don’t let Trump Republicans gut Wall Street reform.

Much like the Affordable Care Act, the consumer regulations passed under President Obama were imperfect, but their repeal would be disastrous for millions. Not a single Democrat should spend a split second considering supporting these changes, especially when the Democrats have the leverage to block this legislation that needs 60 votes to pass the Senate.

That is why we need to speak out now and show Senate Democrats that no amount of arm-twisting from Wall Street lobbyists can change this simple fact: Rolling back Wall Street reform is simply unacceptable.

Thank you for your activism.

References:

Donna Borak, “House votes to kill Dodd-Frank. Now what?” CNN, June 8, 2017.
Geoff Bennett, “House Passes Bill Aimed At Reversing Dodd-Frank Financial Regulations,” NPR, June 8, 2017.
Ryan Rainey, “Bankers Meet With Democrats to Push for Bipartisan CFPB Commission,” Morning Consult, Feb. 7, 2017.
Ibid.
Renae Merle and Jonnelle Marte, “GOP plan to erase Obama-era Wall Street rules is more generous than even banks asked for,” The Washington Post, April 20, 2017.

[AutumnW]

Thanks Onawah,

Nice to be able to create jobs and reduce red tape wherever possible, but turning the U.S. into a deregulated smoke stack Hell isn't the way to go about it!

The Trump crowd is NOT going to be able to accomplish many of their objectives, for MANY reasons. The main reason being they will run into the good old 'states versus the fed' barrier. Already, foreign countries are working around the fed, whenever possible and dealing directly with individual states.

As a side issue, unless they are able to repeal Obama care they won't be able to fulfill Israel's dictate of destroying Iran. Should they try, they will destroy the dollar. So, that keeps us somewhat safe -- for now. And the Persian people must be breathing a sigh of relief.

The midterms will be interesting. Whole swing areas, faced with the reality of a gutting of Medicare, will vote in moderates and give tea party candidates the boot.

The only positive thing he has done so far, in my estimation, is rip up the TPP.

[onawah]

Agreed.
What still also concerns me is the pro-Trump faction who seem to think that all we could have possibly hoped for at this point is something like the Trump administration, since Clintons in the White House would no doubt have been an even worse disaster.
They seem to be, in their own way, almost as stubborn to admit there is a lot more to the equation as are the liberals who are still grousing about Hillary's defeat and the events that have followed it.
If all we are focusing on is the very least evil that could befall us, we lose all sight of the great strides that need to be made, and quickly, if life on this planet is to continue to be at all livable for the majority and not just the elite.


Thanks Onawah,

Nice to be able to create jobs and reduce red tape wherever possible, but turning the U.S. into a deregulated smoke stack Hell isn't the way to go about it!

The Trump crowd is NOT going to be able to accomplish many of their objectives, for MANY reasons. The main reason being they will run into the good old 'states versus the fed' barrier. Already, foreign countries are working around the fed, whenever possible and dealing directly with individual states.

As a side issue, unless they are able to repeal Obama care they won't be able to fulfill Israel's dictate of destroying Iran. Should they try, they will destroy the dollar. So, that keeps us somewhat safe -- for now. And the Persian people must be breathing a sigh of relief.

The midterms will be interesting. Whole swing areas, faced with the reality of a gutting of Medicare, will vote in moderates and give tea party candidates the boot.

The only positive thing he has done so far, in my estimation, is rip up the TPP.

[onawah]

Colorado’s West Elk Wilderness to be bulldozed for coal profits
(From the Sierra Club today)
iYzrJqdMsV0


Please submit a public comment to the Forest Service urging them to protect the beautiful West Elk Wilderness area in Colorado from Arch Coal's proposed mine expansion. So far the response from the public has been overwhelming. Thankfully, people like you understand the impacts coal mining has not only on beautiful places like West Elk, but on our health and the future of our economy.
Take action here:
https://sierra.secure.force.com/actions/National?actionId=AR0082788&id=70131000001iOuIAAU
The agency will stop collecting public comments on Monday. Until then, we want to continue driving in as many comments as we can about the project to demonstrate that the public wants this coal to stay in the ground.

You can help by using your Facebook account to share this video which shows what's at stake, and asking your friends to take action:

Thanks for all you do!

Cesia Kearns
Deputy Regional Campaign Director
Sierra Club Beyond Coal


Don't let Colorado's magnificent National Forest be bulldozed for coal profits!

The U.S. Forest Service is taking public comments through July 24th. Tell them to do the right thing by continuing to protect this land.

Take action!
https://sierra.secure.force.com/actions/National?actionId=AR0082788&id=70131000001iOuIAAU

At the Sierra Club, we're lucky. I get to do meaningful work on behalf of passionate and engaged members. We stand up for clean air, a healthy environment, and a livable planet. And every so often we're rewarded with fresh and vibrant reminders of why we do this work. For me, this week was one of those moments.

On Monday and Tuesday, I had the good fortune to hike through the Sunset Roadless Area on Colorado's Western Slope. This area has been under federal protection since 1964, and it's not hard to see why. This is a spectacular expanse of peaks and valleys; stands of aspen and spruce forest climb and fall with the ridge-line. Over the course of a 7-8 mile hike we saw deer and a half a dozen beaver dams, elk prints, abundant evidence of black bears, and one reluctant coyote. Protected lands like these are part of what makes America great.

Sadly, the panoramic views from our hike also exposed the pockmarked remnants of coal exploration. And now, Trump's Interior Department and Forest Service are prepared to let Arch Coal, the second largest coal producer in the U.S., further devastate these lands -- unless we can stop them.

The Forest Service public comment period on Arch's proposal is open until July 24th. Let's make sure the official record shows the truth -- the American public wants to protect our public lands, not sacrifice them to the coal industry.

Spurred by a Trump Administration intent on trading away our public lands, today Arch Coal wants to expand its West Elk underground mine into this breathtaking area used by day-hikers, backpackers, and hunters. If Arch Coal's permit is granted, the company will be allowed to rip out 17 million tons of coal from this iconic National Forest.

Not only is Arch's plan undeniably bad for the climate -- it would also needlessly cut through towering canopies of white-barked aspen that offer postcard-ready views of Mount Gunnison (pictured below). See the aspen trees the above photo? I took that on Tuesday afternoon, but those trees are in an area marked for clearing, already tabbed as the future home of one of Arch's methane vents.

To get at the coal, Arch has to drill methane venting wells above its mine workings, effectively turning the lands above the mine into a gas well field, and spewing a pollutant 80 times more heat-trapping than carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. Arch's plan would cut miles of switchback roads and level acre-sized clearings, spew hundreds of millions of cubic feet of methane into the air each year and worsen climate change -- threatening Colorado's tourism industry, and impacting people worldwide.

Here's the good news: it doesn't have to be that way. These are public lands and we all get a say in how they're used.

Submit your comment opposing this wasteful destruction of our public lands and climate today here:
https://sierra.secure.force.com/actions/National?actionId=AR0082788&id=70131000001iOuIAAU

Sierra Club and our allies at Earthjustice, WildEarth Guardians, and High Country Conservation Advocates already beat back this proposal once. In 2014, we won a landmark lawsuit overturning Arch's plans to expand its mine, in which the federal court ruled that the Interior Department and Forest Service illegally ignored the climate impacts of more fossil fuel production.

The Trump administration already has a terrible track record on climate, from misrepresenting and suppressing science to beginning the process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. President Trump's zeal for coal has emboldened companies like Arch to make the grab for more land. It's important to drive home to government and corporate decision-makers that most Americans oppose putting cheap coal on the market at the expense of our protected lands and our climate.

Now is the time to stand up and be counted. Add your voice. Tell the Forest Service to keep Arch out of our public lands and to keep this coal where it belongs -- in the ground.

We beat back this proposal once. We can do it again. Join us.

Say no to Trump's dirty energy agenda. Your actions in the past have helped stall Arch Coal's plans to expand; this is the next step in our fight. Tell the Forest Service to protect Colorado's beautiful forest and stop the West Elk mine lease expansion!

Thanks for all you do,

Nathaniel Shoaff
Senior Attorney
Sierra Club Environmental Law Program

[AutumnW]

Hi Onawah,

I agree with you about the environment destruction that could happen, if his boys get their way. I will say this for those who support Trump though. Our ideals and their ideals are very very close. That is something we all have to remember. Our values are similar. We are separated mainly by the idea that we feel Trump is part of deception using those values against us. They don't. They think Trump is genuine.

Catherine Austin Fitts said this in one of her interviews. She said if you put Sanders and Trump supporters together and had them working on a local level, they would do just find and work things out. They are NOT natural enemies. They all want a clean environment, jobs, safe places for kids to play and money ploughed back into their neighbourhoods rather than disappearing into a rathole of unaccountable secret govt spending.

The differences between these two groups has been exaggerated and highlighted....and they do it to themselves, in shouting matches.

For what its worth. Trump supporters are still crowing because their boy won. I still feel it is important that they talk,not shout, with others who don't share their love of this president

[onawah]

I agree, Autumn. It's the division that concerns me too; I'm really not into taking sides.
But the hero-worship of Trump is blinding some, and it's very difficult to get through to them that we deserve and can have something better.
I don't engage in emotional discussions for the most part--it just feeds the virus, but it might at least be sobering to have it pointed out again and again where Trump's policies are failing.
What it will take to wake up those who think the Clintons were heroes I cannot say, and wouldn't know where to begin.
At least with Trump supporters, there may be hope.
But there are also some hopeless cases on both sides who don't give a damn about the environment or anyone else as long as they are getting their own little piece of the pie.
Those I ignore, for the most part.

[onawah]

Replace NAFTA: No more pro-corporate trade deals
Petition to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer:
( Email from Credo/ Working Assets/Public Citizen today)


"Do not use the pro-corporate Trans-Pacific Partnership as a starting point in your efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. In an open and transparent negotiating process, eliminate the investor-state dispute settlement system that surrenders sovereignty to corporate power, include strong and enforceable labor and environmental standards, require all imports to meet the strongest domestic safety standards, reinforce Buy American and Buy Local policies, and remove rules that drive up drug prices by allowing pharmaceutical monopolies."

Sign the petition:
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Replace_NAFTA?t=3&akid=24157%2E1968103%2ETH6Vx8


Replace NAFTA
Team Trump just announced its plans for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, commonly known as NAFTA, which will begin next month.

But like most Trump gambits, this could be another chance to hand over more power to wealthy investors and out-of-control mega-corporations. The Trump administration plan seems to be to use populist rhetoric as a cover while using the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as a template to incorporate additional job-destroying and environment-trashing provisions into NAFTA..

Time to call the administration's bluff. That is why we are teaming up with our friends at Public Citizen to make it absolutely clear what a renegotiated NAFTA should look like – and dare the Trump team to either produce a good deal or betray their pro-corporate interests.

Tell Trump administration: Don’t turn NAFTA into the TPP. Click here to sign the petition.
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Replace_NAFTA?t=3&akid=24157%2E1968103%2ETH6Vx8

So far, the Trump administration is being secretive and opaque, revealing little about its plans or who will benefit. What Americans want is a trade deal that stops the ongoing bleeding from NAFTA while also adding new protections for our environment, creating jobs and raising wages. Any NAFTA renegotiation must:

Institute a democratic, accountable and transparent negotiating process that doesn’t give corporate interests special access or seats at the table.
Eliminate the investor-state dispute settlement system, which surrenders U.S. sovereignty to multinational corporations that can sue our government before a tribunal of three corporate lawyers – ordering taxpayers to pay corporations unlimited sums of money for the loss of expected future profits, especially if they think protections for workers or the environment might undermine corporate NAFTA privileges.
Include strong and enforceable environmental and labor standards – not the useless rules in deals like the TPP.
Require all imports meet our safety rules, including environmental and labor protections on imported food, goods and services.
Preserve Buy American and Buy Local policies, eliminating NAFTA’s waivers that allow companies to offshore our tax dollars instead of reinvesting them to create jobs here.
Remove rules that drive up drug prices by allowing pharmaceutical companies extended monopolies on drug patents.
If the Trump administration fails to meet these standards, then their much-ballyhooed NAFTA renegotiation is just another example of using phony populism to cover corporate power grabs.

Tell Trump administration: Don’t turn NAFTA into the TPP. Click here to sign the petition.
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Replace_NAFTA?t=3&akid=24157%2E1968103%2ETH6Vx8

Already, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross is claiming that the disastrous TPP is the “starting point” for talks with Mexico and Canada.2 The Trump administration has been reassuring business leaders that their NAFTA renegotiation will not hurt industry – a worrisome sign that Trump is once again trying to hide a corporate power grab behind populist rhetoric.

If the Trump administration follows through on the principles we laid out above it will result in a progressive trade treaty that represents a big win for workers, the environment and all Americans. The likely scenario is that it abandons workers, consumers, and environment in our local communities in favor of big corporations and Wall Street, we will be able to expose Trump and his administration as craven crony capitalists masquerading as faux populists.

Tell Trump administration: Don’t turn NAFTA into the TPP. Click the link below to add your name:

https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Replace_NAFTA?t=8&akid=24157%2E1968103%2ETH6Vx8

Thank you for speaking out. Your activism matters.

Murshed Zaheed, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets


Trump’s Renegotiation of NAFTA Is Starting to Look a Lot Like the TPP
What happened to his campaign promise to write better rules for trade?
By David Dayen JULY 18, 2017
https://www.thenation.com/article/trumps-renegotiation-of-nafta-is-starting-to-look-a-lot-like-the-tpp/


On the same day the Republican bid to overturn Obamacare began to fade into oblivion, the Trump administration embarked on a bigger quest: resetting a global trade consensus that has persevered for over four decades. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer released a set of negotiating objectives for the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. Under fast-track rules adopted in 2015, the administration must present these non-binding objectives to Congress before it can enter into negotiations, and the talks with Mexico and Canada to refashion NAFTA will preview how the White House wants to handle trade around the world.

This was one of Trump’s major campaign promises, to write better rules for trade. And it’s a promise lots of Democrats might support. “People I represent were glad to hear that President Trump would renegotiate NAFTA,” said Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI) on a conference call previewing yesterday’s NAFTA release. “He’s got to deliver on those promises he made to my constituents.”

At first glance, it’s a very mixed bag. The negotiating objectives for NAFTA are mostly vague, and in parts revisit the well-worn tactic of using trade rules to guarantee corporate profits. In fact, several provisions are ripped directly from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the corporate-friendly deal Trump loudly rejected in January. “This document does not describe the promised transformation of NAFTA to prioritize working people,” said Public Citizen trade expert Lori Wallach in a statement. It looks like another case of Trump’s rhetoric’s being submerged in the swamp.

There are a few advances in the document, but even those suffer from lack of specifics. The administration wants to add assurances that NAFTA countries “avoid manipulating exchange rates” to make their goods cheaper and gain unfair advantage. While Canada and Mexico are not seen as currency manipulators, this inclusion of a currency chapter in NAFTA would be a first for a trade deal, setting a standard for future talks with potential currency cheaters like South Korea. However, enforcement would come only through “an appropriate mechanism,” with no explanation of what that mechanism would be. We already have a mechanism to fight currency manipulation: sanctions through the Treasury Department. Unless currency chapters are enforceable in trade agreements with tariffs or monetary awards they don’t advance anything.


The White House wants to put labor and environmental standards within NAFTA rather than in a side agreement, and it subjects violations to the same dispute-resolution process as violations of trade and investment standards. But while labor and environmental groups would have more ability to raise concerns, ultimately it would still be up to a government to dispute labor violations from another party to the agreement. The administration only promises “increased monitoring” to combat illegal activities.

Governments always claim that they’ll enforce labor and environmental standards: In 1993, Ron Wyden called a vote for NAFTA “a vote for less pollution.” But in this case workers or green groups would have to rely on a notoriously anti-labor, anti-environment regime in Washington to police violations by foreign exporters. They could not sue over NAFTA breaches directly.

Investors, however, would still have that ability under the controversial investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system, a secret extra-judicial court that gives corporations monetary awards for lost profits due to changes in law that run counter to trade agreements. While the document states that ISDS would have to be more transparent (hearings and judgments would be public) and “consistent with U.S. legal principles and practice,” it still exists, meaning corporations could still functionally overturn sovereign laws outside of the court system, and win billions of damages when governments try to write rules in the public interest.

In fact, much of the document seeks to achieve regulatory harmony between the participating countries. There are lines about “greater regulatory compatibility” and removing “unnecessary differences in regulation” in industrial and agricultural goods and “promot[ing] greater compatibility among US, Canadian, and Mexican regulations.” This is much like how the TPP would enable the blockage of regulatory improvements by tying them to a ceiling or international prohibition. I don’t think most Americans want our regulatory structure to be perfectly compatible with Mexico’s, particularly if “harmonization” means a race to the bottom to get industry-friendly regulatory ceilings imposed. This subordinates US law to another country’s standards.

The trade-in-services section is even worse. The administration aims to “prohibit discrimination” against foreign-services suppliers, including financial-services and telecom companies, while encouraging “fairer and more open conditions.” The goal is to force open state-owned enterprises (there’s a phrase about supporting state-owned enterprises “providing domestic public services,” but it doesn’t define what those are) and assume corporate control. And remember, this NAFTA renegotiation will serve as a template document, so it’s not necessarily about the impacts on just Canada and Mexico but also on the entire world.

This mirrors the entirely scary Trade in Services Agreement, a 51-nation pact currently being negotiated, as well as the TPP. One section serves as a good example. On a few occasions, the administration highlights a negotiating objective of rejecting measures that “restrict cross-border data flows.” This means that financial services or other countries could transfer personal data outside a host country, with no “localization” requirement that computer servers holding the data must stay within national borders. This breaks with thousands of years of precedent on locally kept business records, and has privacy advocates alarmed.

Back in 2013, an IBM lobbyist planted questions from an Obama USTR official in a public hearing about this very issue—preventing cross-border data restrictions. Trump is continuing a tradition of giving high-tech and Wall Street firms what they want, the ability to profit off acquiring and manipulating personal data from anywhere in the world.

Surprisingly, these issues of regulatory ceilings and data liberalization and enforcing intellectual-property rules (in other words, backing Hollywood and the pharmaceutical industry) are far more prevalent in the document than any strong benefits for workers. The administration does want to update “rule of origin” requirements in NAFTA so only products made in North America obtain duty-free benefits. And the document lays out the desire to “reduce the trade deficit” with Canada and Mexico, creating jobs and opportunity in the United States (I wonder what negotiating partners Canada and Mexico think of that!). But actually helping US workers is far more in the background than the rhetoric would suggest. On the job=offshoring incentives currently in NAFTA, or the ban on Buy American procurement policies, the document is mostly silent. “Much of the text repeats the negotiating objectives of the 2015 Fast Track bill, which GOP leaders and the corporate lobby loved,” said Public Citizen’s Lori Wallach.

It does appear that the globalists in the administration won this round before NAFTA negotiations even had a chance to begin. Some of the most ardent free-traders in the Republican caucus praised the contents of the draft. As Richard Neal, top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, put it, “the ‘new’ NAFTA might not be new at all.”

NAFTA negotiations can now begin within 30 days. The biggest thing needed to truly assess whether the administration actually wants to fix NAFTA’s problems or further entrench corporate control is transparency. The European Union posts its formal proposals on the Internet for all to see before entering negotiations. Trump needs to do the same; otherwise we can assume he has something to hide from the working-class supporters who were promised a revitalization of US manufacturing. Workers have already seen those promises broken: Just look at Carrier, whose parent company received 15 government contracts after the company moved jobs to Mexico it said it would keep in the United States. They shouldn’t have to brace for being deceived again.

David Dayen is the author of Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud, which won the Studs and Ida Terkel Prize.



The only positive thing he has done so far, in my estimation, is rip up the TPP.

[onawah]

Trump's EPA to put a two-year delay on methane pollution standards
LAST CHANCE TO ACT: Take Action: Tell Trump's EPA that they're supposed to protect people, not polluters.
(From the Sierra Club today)
http://view.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=bf34a726901e4535e810fcc3fca43a6d529540654544ee2b7c679610b6308d85a7c34bf47dd6caf8d897179f07d3fcd9 b16be905c6ff9971797d9cb3c557331e1392e2f2eacd7fac



Trump and his EPA administrator Scott Pruitt are lending the oil and gas industry a hand by trying to delay key methane pollution protections for two years. A two-year delay of methane protections means two more years of increased asthma attacks and two more years of cancerous chemicals and climate-warming gases leaking into our air. Our communities shouldn't have to take that risk so Trump can help his oil and gas industry buddies. That's why I wanted to make sure you didn't miss your chance to submit a public comment before the August deadline. Tell Trump and Pruitt to do their jobs and protect the environment.

Last week in D.C., parents, health experts, faith leaders, students, and business executives from all over the country urged Trump's EPA to do the right thing and keep these essential protections in place -- and the stories were heartbreaking from coast to coast:

A Virginian testified that his inhalers cost him $3,000 every year!
A rancher from New Mexico said the delay would put the health of his children and grandchildren at risk.
A faith leader revealed that children in Pennsylvania miss an astonishing 22,000 days of school each year because of methane pollution.
A Texan shared that 2.3 million people in Texas live within the threat radius of oil and gas facilities!
An Ohioan shared that 30,000 children in Ohio will suffer an asthma attack due to pollution from the oil and gas industry.
These people and millions more around the country are counting on the EPA to protect them. This delay is unacceptable! Tell Trump and EPA Administrator Pruitt that they're supposed to protect our communities, not help the oil and gas industry pollute them.

The EPA knows that putting a hold on standards that cut oil and gas methane pollution puts our kids in danger -- they even admitted it. The official notice from the EPA states, "EPA believes that the environmental health or safety risk addressed by this action may have a disproportionate effect on children." It goes on to say that, "any impacts on children's health caused by the delay in the rule will be limited because the length of the proposed stay is limited."

There is no acceptable amount of time for exposing kids to air pollution from the oil and gas industry.
Submit your comment before the August deadline: Tell Trump and Pruitt that they need to protect our kids, not the oil and gas industry!
http://view.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=bf34a726901e4535e810fcc3fca43a6d529540654544ee2b7c679610b6308d85a7c34bf47dd6caf8d897179f07d3fcd9 b16be905c6ff9971797d9cb3c557331e1392e2f2eacd7fac
Thanks for protecting our climate and communities,

Matthew Gravatt
Associate Legislative Director
Sierra Club

[AutumnW]

Hi again, Onawah

There is a huge war going on between environmentalists and the Trump administration -- and rightfully so. The Sierra club is likely making a bad story worse here though. That is just what happens in war. I think it is really valuable to pay attention to what Sierra Club is saying but to bare in mind, it too, is propaganda. I am sympathetic to their cause but I know propaganda when I see it.

[onawah]

No doubt the Sierra Club and other non-profits are engaging in whatever warfare works best.
They probably reason that it's better to go on the offensive, knowing what's likely to come, than waiting around for it to actualize.
Which I can certainly understand.
Given the proven nature of Trump's administration, anything less aggressive would probably just be naive.


Hi again, Onawah

There is a huge war going on between environmentalists and the Trump administration -- and rightfully so. The Sierra club is likely making a bad story worse here though. That is just what happens in war. I think it is really valuable to pay attention to what Sierra Club is saying but to bare in mind, it too, is propaganda. I am sympathetic to their cause but I know propaganda when I see it.

[AutumnW]

I agree, Autumn. It's the division that concerns me too; I'm really not into taking sides.
But the hero-worship of Trump is blinding some, and it's very difficult to get through to them that we deserve and can have something better.
I don't engage in emotional discussions for the most part--it just feeds the virus, but it might at least be sobering to have it pointed out again and again where Trump's policies are failing.
What it will take to wake up those who think the Clintons were heroes I cannot say, and wouldn't know where to begin.
At least with Trump supporters, there may be hope.
But there are also some hopeless cases on both sides who don't give a damn about the environment or anyone else as long as they are getting their own little piece of the pie.
Those I ignore, for the most part.

I subscribed online to the Daily Beast when it first came out. At some point I read they were going to have either Dick Cheney or Carl Rove contribute articles! Strange bedfellows! So I in subscribed...with prejudice.

About a year befor the election they started sending their rag to me again, unrequested. I looked at it a few times. It predictably glorified Hillary and described Obama and his handler, Michele as saints. I got that big 'eeeeewwwww grosse' feeling. Seriously, this kind of thing makes me almost want to wretch.

I use those feelings as an internal guide that explains why people voted for Trump. And I think when there is that kind of visceral reaction to a party and their leaders, nothing about the environment or what his supporters 'feel' are secondary issues matter.

People believe what they are living and until they themselves are gasping for breath, no facts or figures will move them, particularly if they feel that the rules and regulations get in the way of real solid jobs with solid wages.

Like you, I think Trump's promises were (almost literally) smoke and mirrors designed to capture protest votes of all kinds. But it has to play out. There is nothing you or I can really say to override the revulsion people feel about politics as usual.

But we can and hopefully they can, find common ground wherever and however possible!

[AutumnW]

No doubt the Sierra Club and other non-profits are engaging in whatever warfare works best.
They probably reason that it's better to go on the offensive, knowing what's likely to come, than waiting around for it to actualize.
Which I can certainly understand.
Given the proven nature of Trump's administration, anything less aggressive would probably just be naive.


Hi again, Onawah

There is a huge war going on between environmentalists and the Trump administration -- and rightfully so. The Sierra club is likely making a bad story worse here though. That is just what happens in war. I think it is really valuable to pay attention to what Sierra Club is saying but to bare in mind, it too, is propaganda. I am sympathetic to their cause but I know propaganda when I see it.

There are so many ways of looking at it. I don't know enough about the methane emissions problem to get a fix on how much they are exaggerating to make their point. I do know that propaganda can backfire though.

[onawah]

Anything written by Cheney or Rove would definitely make me retch!
I keep hoping something will come of the exposure of Obama re his phony birth certificate, etc., but realistically, it seems like it will just continue getting buried.
(I haven't quite given up on Pizzagate though.)
It seems to me that Clinton supporters are stuck in their heads with no connection to the ground ( or just have their heads up their butts) while Trump supporters think (react) solely with their guts.
We have to be able to think, reason, feel and use our instincts and intuition to get the full picture.

People believe what they are living and until they themselves are gasping for breath, no facts or figures will move them, particularly if they feel that the rules and regulations get in the way of real solid jobs with solid wages.


The problem with that is the boiling frog meme--people often don't notice they are gasping for breath until they're too far gone to do much about it; real jobs and wages won't fix that, and what passes for "health care" in the US certainly won't either.

[QUOTE=AutumnW;1168259

I subscribed online to the Daily Beast when it first came out. At some point I read they were going to have either Dick Cheney or Carl Rove contribute articles! Strange bedfellows! So I in subscribed...with prejudice.

About a year befor the election they started sending their rag to me again, unrequested. I looked at it a few times. It predictably glorified Hillary and described Obama and his handler, Michele as saints. I got that big 'eeeeewwwww grosse' feeling. Seriously, this kind of thing makes me almost want to wretch.

I use those feelings as an internal guide that explains why people voted for Trump. And I think when there is that kind of visceral reaction to a party and their leaders, nothing about the environment or what his supporters 'feel' are secondary issues matter.

People believe what they are living and until they themselves are gasping for breath, no facts or figures will move them, particularly if they feel that the rules and regulations get in the way of real solid jobs with solid wages.

Like you, I think Trump's promises were (almost literally) smoke and mirrors designed to capture protest votes of all kinds. But it has to play out. There is nothing you or I can really say to override the revulsion people feel about politics as usual.

But we can and hopefully they can, find common ground wherever and however possible![/QUOTE]

[AutumnW]

I think that Clinton drew support from the professional and managerial class--people with financial security who benefit disproportionately from illegal immigration. After all, they aren't competing with illegals who put downward pressure on wages. I understand that but don't agree with Trump's prescriptions for it. It is sad to me that there is so much suffering in the U.S. now among the white population that those who are so stressed have lost empathy for blacks who are incarcerated en masse and those from central America and Mexico who are trying to escape their own Hells. From a psychological perspective though, it's predictable. Empathy dies first. And it does with everybody. It's human nature.

It's a no brainer to me why so many voted for him, based on their practical needs. The greater moral issues will take another leader and from where, who knows?

And I totally hear you about the environment and completely agree with the boiled frog analogy. So true.

[onawah]

I think it goes much deeper than that, and the economic concerns being addressed are pretty much cosmetic at this point, used by policy makers to put a pretty face on what is at heart an increasingly terrible, and totally orchestrated situation.
They may differ on ways and means, but it appears elites agree about their basic agendas, which are to create as much suffering and chaos as they can get away with, destroy cultural wealth and spiritual values in favor of a homogeneous global cultural wasteland such as we see now in "pop culture", reduce the global population to what is a comfortable fit for them, and finally, CONTROL everything.
When we lose sight of those broad agendas they are willing to cooperate to achieve, we get lost in the details.
Most will never see the full picture, but it seems to me that for those of us who do, we need constant reminding of how vital it is that we keep our eyes wide open, and avoid missing the forest for the trees.


I think that Clinton drew support from the professional and managerial class--people with financial security who benefit disproportionately from illegal immigration. After all, they aren't competing with illegals who put downward pressure on wages. I understand that but don't agree with Trump's prescriptions for it. It is sad to me that there is so much suffering in the U.S. now among the white population that those who are so stressed have lost empathy for blacks who are incarcerated en masse and those from central America and Mexico who are trying to escape their own Hells. From a psychological perspective though, it's predictable. Empathy dies first. And it does with everybody. It's human nature.

It's a no brainer to me why so many voted for him, based on their practical needs. The greater moral issues will take another leader and from where, who knows?

And I totally hear you about the environment and completely agree with the boiled frog analogy. So true.

[AutumnW]

Onawah, I think you may be right. CAFitts indicates she thinks this might be the future scenario. Its about complete control.

[onawah]

Yes, if you read on David Wilcock's site Divine Cosmos re the Illuminati's plans, it's all spelled out.
http://www.divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/1023-financial-tyranny?start=1
( He may be in hot water now with Gaia.com, but his research before all that was solid.)
What we need now is the counter plan!

[onawah]

Remarkable interview with the formidable Catherine Austin Fitts , also posted here, with details:

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?98889-WHAT-Robert-David-Steele-interviews-Kerry-Cassidy-Holy-Cow-&p=1168519&viewfull=1#post1168519

0TkYa34hEpk

[onawah]

U.S. Lawmakers Seek to Criminally Outlaw Support for Boycott Campaign Against Israel
https://theintercept.com/2017/07/19/u-s-lawmakers-seek-to-criminally-outlaw-support-for-boycott-campaign-against-israel/
(It will be interesting to see how the Trump Admin responds to this)
Ryan Grim
July 19 2017

THE CRIMINALIZATION OF political speech and activism against Israel has become one of the gravest threats to free speech in the West. In France, activists have been arrested and prosecuted for wearing T-shirts advocating a boycott of Israel. The U.K. has enacted a series of measures designed to outlaw such activism. In the U.S., governors compete with one another over who can implement the most extreme regulations to bar businesses from participating in any boycotts aimed even at Israeli settlements, which the world regards as illegal. On U.S. campuses, punishment of pro-Palestinian students for expressing criticisms of Israel is so commonplace that the Center for Constitutional Rights refers to it as “the Palestine Exception” to free speech.

But now, a group of 43 senators — 29 Republicans and 14 Democrats — wants to implement a law that would make it a felony for Americans to support the international boycott against Israel, which was launched in protest of that country’s decades-old occupation of Palestine. The two primary sponsors of the bill are Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland and Republican Rob Portman of Ohio. Perhaps the most shocking aspect is the punishment: Anyone guilty of violating the prohibitions will face a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison.

The proposed measure, called the Israel Anti-Boycott Act (S. 720), was introduced by Cardin on March 23. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that the bill “was drafted with the assistance of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.” Indeed, AIPAC, in its 2017 lobbying agenda, identified passage of this bill as one of its top lobbying priorities for the year:
https://cdn01.theintercept.com/wp-uploads/sites/1/2017/07/aipac2-1500472315-540x459.png
https://cdn01.theintercept.com/wp-uploads/sites/1/2017/07/aipac1-1500471970-1000x314.png

The bill’s co-sponsors include the senior Democrat in Washington, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, his New York colleague Kirsten Gillibrand, and several of the Senate’s more liberal members, such as Ron Wyden of Oregon, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, and Maria Cantwell of Washington. Illustrating the bipartisanship that AIPAC typically summons, it also includes several of the most right-wing senators such as Ted Cruz of Texas, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Marco Rubio of Florida.

[Update – July 20, 2017: Glen Caplin, senior advisor to Gillibrand, sends along the following statement: “We have a different read of the specific bill language, however, due to the ACLU’s concerns, the Senator has extended an invitation to them to meet with her and discuss their concerns.”]

A similar measure was introduced in the House on the same date by two Republicans and one Democrat. It has already amassed 234 co-sponsors: 63 Democrats and 174 Republicans. As in the Senate, AIPAC has assembled an impressive ideological diversity among supporters, predictably including many of the most right-wing House members — Jason Chaffetz, Liz Cheney, Peter King — along with the second-ranking Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer.

Among the co-sponsors of the bill are several of the politicians who have become political celebrities by positioning themselves as media leaders of the anti-Trump #Resistance, including three California House members who have become heroes to Democrats and staples of the cable news circuit: Ted Lieu, Adam Schiff, and Eric Swalwell. These politicians, who have built a wide public following by posturing as opponents of authoritarianism, are sponsoring one of the most oppressive and authoritarian bills that has pended before Congress in quite some time.



LAST NIGHT, THE ACLU posted a letter it sent to all members of the Senate urging them to oppose this bill. Warning that “proponents of the bill are seeking additional co-sponsors,” the civil liberties group explained that “it would punish individuals for no reason other than their political beliefs.” The letter detailed what makes this bill so particularly threatening to basic civic freedoms:
https://cdn01.theintercept.com/wp-uploads/sites/1/2017/07/aclu3-1500467823-540x315.png
It is no small thing for the ACLU to insert itself into this controversy. One of the most traumatic events in the organization’s history was when it lost large numbers of donors and supporters in the late 1970s after it defended the free speech rights of neo-Nazis to march through Skokie, Illinois, a town with a large community of Holocaust survivors.

Even the bravest of organizations often steadfastly avoid any controversies relating to Israel. Yet here, while appropriately pointing out that the ACLU “takes no position for or against the effort to boycott Israel or any foreign country,” the group categorically denounces this AIPAC-sponsored proposal for what it is: a bill that “seeks only to punish the exercise of constitutional rights.”

The ACLU has similarly opposed bipartisan efforts at the state level to punish businesses that participate in the boycott, pointing out that “boycotts to achieve political goals are a form of expression that the Supreme Court has ruled are protected by the First Amendment’s protections of freedom of speech, assembly, and petition,” and that such bills “place unconstitutional conditions on the exercise of constitutional rights.” The bill now co-sponsored in Congress by more than half of the House and close to half of the Senate is far more extreme than those.



THUS FAR, NOT a single member of Congress has joined the ACLU in denouncing this bill. The Intercept this morning sent inquiries to numerous non-committed members of the Senate and House who have yet to speak on this bill. We also sent inquiries to several co-sponsors of the bill — such as Rep. Lieu — who have positioned themselves as civil liberties champions and opponents of authoritarianism, asking:

Congressman Lieu: Last night, the ACLU vehemently denounced a bill that you are co-sponsoring — to criminalize support for a boycott of Israel — as a grave attack on free speech. Do you have any comment on the ACLU’s denunciation? You’ve been an outspoken champion for civil liberties; how can you reconcile that record with an effort to make it a felony for Americans to engage in activism that protests a foreign government’s actions? We’re writing about this today; any statement would be appreciated.

This morning, Lieu responded: “Thank you for sharing the letter. The bill has been around since March and this is the first time I have seen this issue raised. We will look into it.” (The Intercept will post any response from Rep. Lieu, or any late responses from others, as soon as they are received.)

Sen. Cantwell told The Intercept she is “a strong supporter of free speech rights” and will be reviewing the bill for First Amendment concerns in light of the ACLU statement.

Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, when asked by The Intercept about the ACLU’s warning that the bill he is co-sponsoring criminalizes free speech, affirmed his support for the bill by responding: “I continue to support a strong U.S./Israel relationship.”

Meanwhile, some co-sponsors seemed not to have any idea what they co-sponsored — almost as though they reflexively sign whatever comes from AIPAC without having any idea what’s in it. Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, for instance, seemed genuinely bewildered when told of the ACLU’s letter, saying, “What’s the Act? You’ll have to get back to me on that.”

A similar exchange took place with another co-sponsor, one of AIPAC’s most reliable allies, Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, who said: “I’d want to read it. … I’d really have to look at it.”

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., a co-sponsor, said she hadn’t seen the ACLU letter but would give it a look. “I certainly will take their position into consideration, just like I take everybody’s position into consideration,” she said.

Gillibrand, the only senator in the 2020 presidential mix to co-sponsor the bill, told The Intercept she would have a statement to provide, which we’ll add as soon as it’s provided.

Perhaps most stunning is our interview with the primary sponsor of the bill, Democratic Sen. Benjamin Cardin, who seemed to have no idea what was in his bill, particularly insisting that it contains no criminal penalties.

https://soundcloud.com/the-intercept/ben-cardin

But as the ACLU put it, “Violations would be subject to a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison.”

That’s because, as Josh Ruebner expertly detailed when the bill was first unveiled, “the bill seeks to amend two laws — the Export Administration Act of 1979 and the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945,” and “the potential penalties for violating this bill are steep: a minimum $250,000 civil penalty and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years imprisonment, as stipulated in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.”

Indeed, to see how serious the penalties are, and how clear it is that those penalties are imposed by this bill, one can just compare the bill’s text in Section 8(a), which provides that violators will be “fined in accordance with Section 206 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705),” to the penalty provisions of that law, which state:
https://cdn01.theintercept.com/wp-uploads/sites/1/2017/07/penlty-1500483306-1000x177.png

That the bill refers to the fine, but not the prison sentence, is not enough to prevent a judge from applying the statute’s prison term, because the bill brings the statute into play, said Faiz Shakir, the ACLU’s political director, who authored the letter to the Senate. “The referral to the statute keeps criminal penalties in play, regardless of what their preference for punishment might be,” said Shakir.

The bill also extends the current prohibition on participating in boycotts sponsored by foreign governments to cover boycotts from international organizations such as the U.N. and the European Union. It also explicitly extends the boycott ban from Israel generally to any parts of Israel, including the settlements. For that reason, Ruebner explains, the bill — by design — would outlaw “campaigns by the Palestine solidarity movement to pressure corporations to cut ties to Israel or even with Israeli settlements.”



THIS PERNICIOUS BILL highlights many vital yet typically ignored dynamics in Washington. First, journalists love to lament the lack of bipartisanship in Washington, yet the very mention of the word “Israel” causes most members of both parties to quickly snap into line in a show of unanimity that would make the regime of North Korea blush with envy. Even when virtually the entire world condemns Israeli aggression, or declares settlements illegal, the U.S. Congress — across party and ideological lines — finds virtually complete harmony in uniting against the world consensus and in defense of the Israeli government.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., speaks to reporters following a briefing on Syria on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, April 7, 2017. Amid measured support for the U.S. cruise missile attack on a Syrian air base, some vocal Republicans and Democrats are reprimanding the White House for launching the strike without first getting congressional approval.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. Photo: Susan Walsh/APSecond, the free speech debate in the U.S. is incredibly selective and warped. Pundits and political officials love to crusade as free speech champions — when doing so involves defending mainstream ideas or attacking marginalized, powerless groups such as minority college students. But when it comes to one of the most systemic, powerful, and dangerous assaults on free speech in the U.S. and the West generally — the growing attempt to literally criminalize speech and activism aimed at the Israeli government’s occupation — these free speech warriors typically fall silent.
Third, AIPAC continues to be one of the most powerful, and pernicious, lobbying forces in the country. In what conceivable sense is it of benefit to Americans to turn them into felons for the crime of engaging in political activism in protest of a foreign nation’s government? And this is hardly the first time they have attempted to do this through their most devoted congressional loyalists; Cardin, for instance, had previously succeeded in inserting into trade bills provisions that would disfavor anyone who supports a boycott of Israel.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/josh-ruebner/new-us-bill-would-punish-settlement-boycotters
https://cdn01.theintercept.com/wp-uploads/sites/1/2017/07/AP_17097703512690-1500480341-440x440.jpg

Finally, it is hard to put into words the irony of watching many of the most celebrated and beloved congressional leaders of the anti-authoritarian Resistance — Gillibrand, Schiff, Swalwell, and Lieu — sponsor one of the most oppressive and authoritarian bills to appear in Congress in many years. How can one credibly inveigh against “authoritarianism” while sponsoring a bill that dictates to American citizens what political views they are and are not allowed to espouse under threat of criminal prosecution? Whatever labels one might want to apply to the sponsors of this bill, “anti-authoritarianism” should not be among them.

[onawah]

NAFTA Objectives Confirm Intent for Unfair Trade


Last week the Trump administration released their initial objectives for the renegotiation of NAFTA. As suspected, their goals look like more corporate-friendly business as usual. There's no plan to include groups representing farmers, workers, environmental or public health interests. Instead, the objectives released point towards more secretive negotiations, the expansion of more corporate power, and a regulatory race to the bottom.

NAFTA Renegotiation Needs to Put People Before Corporate Profits

The objectives released for the renegotiation of NAFTA make clear that Trump is not keeping his promise for better trade deals. Let's keep the heat on the president and Congress to let them know that secret negotiations and corporate-driven priorities won't make trade better for the millions of farmers, workers, and families trying to make a living on both sides of the border.
Take action here:
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/2002/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=19876


What Happened to Trump's Campaign Promise for Better Trade Rules?
http://fairworldproject.org/blogs/nafta-objectives-confirm-intent-for-unfair-trade/


On Monday the U.S. Trade Representative’s office released initial trade objectives for the Trump Administration’s NAFTA renegotiation.

Rather than accounting for the calls from public health, labor, and sustainable agriculture groups to make NAFTA a truly fair agreement, the goals reflect elements of recent poorly crafted trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Specifically, they lack objectives to conduct negotiations through an inclusive and transparent process, which is the only way to ensure farmers, working families, environment, and public health benefit from the trade agreement, rather than large corporations out to protect the bottom line.

The objectives also indicate that Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) will be expanded, rather than ended. This is the mechanism that allows corporations to sue governments if regulations interfere with profits, undermining environmental, health, and labor regulations local or national governments attempt to set and enforce.

Renegotiating NAFTA can be an opportunity to mitigate and reverse the damage done to millions of farmers and working families in all three countries over the last two decades. Unfortunately, the recently-released objectives indicate the Trump Administration instead intends to double down on provisions that keep working families and small-scale farmers marginalized and instead use NAFTA to boost the profits of the wealthiest individuals and corporations.

Top objectives for any new or revised trade policies should be inclusion of all stakeholders, transparency of negotiations, building sustainable agriculture systems, ensuring dignified livelihoods for all, and meaningfully addressing the climate crisis. Unfortunately the new trade objectives include none of these priorities.

It is urgent and essential that Congress and the President hear from all of us demanding truly fair trade through the NAFTA negotiation!

Posted on: July 18th 2017




The only positive thing he has done so far, in my estimation, is rip up the TPP.
But NAFTA might be even worse.

[onawah]

Stop legislation to criminalize boycotts
From American Friends Service Committee (Quakers)
7/26/17
https://www.afsc.org/get-involved

Congress is seeking to criminalize people who support the Palestinian-initiated Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and we need your help to stop them.

Draft bills in the Senate and the House (S. 720 and H.R. 1697) known as the “Israel Anti-Boycott Act” are gaining traction. The bills – sponsored by 45 senators and 237 representatives respectively – would make supporting some boycott actions targeting Israel or Israeli settlements a felony punishable by up to a $1 million fine and 20 years in prison.

Both versions of the bill also include clauses making it illegal for companies or individuals to boycott illegal Israeli settlements based on calls made by bodies at the United Nations, European Union, or other international institutions.

Contact your representative and senators today to tell them to oppose these bills.

The Israel Anti-Boycott Act is part of a growing effort to outlaw BDS. Since 2014 dozens of anti-BDS measures have been introduced in states across the U.S., and 19 states have enacted anti-BDS laws.

Despite millions of dollars of investment to counter BDS campaigns, the BDS movement has been succeeding. In just the last month the United Church of Christ voted in support of targeted sanctions in the form of cuts in military aid to Israel, and the Mennonite Church took steps to support institutional divestment from companies complicit in Israel’s occupation and human rights violations. Because they have been unable to stop this grassroots momentum, those opposed to BDS are moving to change the laws to make BDS illegal.

But their efforts run counter to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., which concluded that boycotts constitute a political form of expression that “occupies the highest rung of the hierarchy of First Amendment values.”

Should the “Israel Anti-Boycott Act” become law, it would chill and deter constitutionally protected speech by intimidating people from engaging in political actions for fear of being criminally sanctioned.

Help us send Congress a message that our First Amendment rights are not to be compromised.

This law and others like it would be dangerous and likely unconstitutional. No legislation should restrict people’s rights to engage in efforts to end human rights abuses. That’s why such a diverse coalition of organizations have come together in opposition, including groups strongly opposed to BDS, such as J-Street; neutral advocates of civil rights such as the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights; and Palestine activist networks.

Regardless of your personal position regarding the use of boycott, divestment, and sanctions tactics in the context of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, we ask you to act now to ensure the protection of the First Amendment to the Constitution by defending free speech and the rights of U.S. citizens to engage in peaceful efforts to change policies.

Contact your senators and representative today to tell them to oppose this draconian piece of legislation.

We are counting on you to defend free speech and reject this new version of McCarthyism.

With appreciation,

Mike Merryman-Lotze
Middle East Program Director
AFSC

[onawah]

SESSIONS REINSTATES ASSET FORFEITURE AT JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
JOSEPH P. FARRELL (from his blog)
JULY 27, 2017
https://gizadeathstar.com/2017/07/sessions-reinstates-asset-forfeiture-justice-department/


This has been a tough week for blogs, because I've wanted to blog about many stories concerning space, some recent discoveries of gravitational anomalies in Weyl crystals or Weyl materials, and so on, but the cultural news has, again, taken precedence, because the assault on fundamental liberties continues. More recently, I've been complaining that the Republithug party has been - for a very long time - the party of "fake opposition" to progressivism and statism.

Well, once again, it has stepped forward, and proven me to be correct, as Attorney General Jess Sessions has decided it's "ok" for assets to be seized, effectively nullifying at the federal level the efforts of states to curtail the practice, according to this article shared by Mr. M.D., and citing, let it be noted, a lamestream media report from See B.S. News:

Sessions reinstates asset forfeiture policy at Justice Department

Note the opening three paragraphs:

The Justice Department announced their plans to reinstate the use of asset forfeiture, especially for drug suspects -- making it easier for local law enforcement to seize cash and property from crime suspects and reap the proceeds.

The practice has been criticized because it allows law enforcement to take possessions -- such as cars and money -- without indictments or evidence a crime has been committed.

"Civil asset forfeiture is a key tool that helps law enforcement help defund organized crime, prevents new crime from committed and weakens the criminals and cartels," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Wednesday announcing the revived DOJ policy.

The problem, of course, is that one only has to be suspected of criminality, in order to lose all one's assets. It's a wonderful way to deal with potential political enemies: trump up a suspicion of criminal activity against an individual who is really a political enemy, and voila, problem solved.

And it has happened. There have been cases of Christian music groups touring the country whose assets, including some thousands of dollars of cash, were "forfeited" on the mere suspicion of criminal activity.

This can happen to you, to your children, to your friends, to me... to anyone deemed an enemy of the state. And don't put it past the "authorities" to plant evidence in order to achieve it.

The problem, of course, is that it is wholly unconstitutional. When the oligarchs met in Philadelphia to give us the current American constitution, the anti-federalists insisted upon a Bill of Rights, sensing that without it, all the vehicles of repression were still in place. One of the articles - the sixth - of that Bill of Rights, clearly states:

Article the sixth... The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Asset forfeiture of course, by any normal person's standards of language, customary usage, or understanding, an unreasonable search and seizure. Of course, there will be plenty of lawyers and so on to argue this case or that case, this precedent, or that precedent, to say otherwise, and that it is all "perfectly legal and constitutional."

And that is America's problem: the willingness to believe authority and clever sophistical arguments, over the clear - and regrettably unenforced - language and provisions of the Constitution. Does this mean the drug dealer gets to travel down the interstate free from unreasonable search and seizure? Yes it does, because that protects the freedom of all.

What is intriguing, however, is that the practice has been challenged by states:

CBS News' Paula Reid reports that 24 states have passed laws limiting the practice, but local law enforcement can get around those restrictions by giving seized assets to the federal government instead of returning them to their owners. This practice is called "adoption" and it's been used to seize almost $1 billion in assets over the last decade.

Think about that for a moment: twenty-four states, just one shy of half the states in the union. What this means is that the federal government is now acting in opposition to almost half the state governments in the country, effectively nullifying their own wishes and their own attempt to curtail abuses, and those state governments have acted because their angry and frustrated citizenry have seen enough of the abuses of the federal Robespierres blathering about virtue and fighting crime and so on. Robespierre, of course, had his own way of cutting away the difficulties of independently thinking people. Regrettably, the comparison becomes more and more apt, because the policies of the federal government more and more resemble those, not of constitutional government, but of a Committee of Public Safety, the wet dream of every progressive, and a National Convention issuing more and more assignats (federal reserve notes), while Europe looks on in disbelief at the growing instability of a neighbor...

See you on the flip side...

[onawah]

Tell Congress: Do not criminalize free speech
his:https://act.credoaction.com/sign/S720/?source=tw1

Imagine a law that would make it illegal to boycott companies from certain countries for political reasons – a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

If this sounds too extreme even for today's far-right Congress, you may be surprised to learn that a quietly moving bill, the Israel Anti-Boycott Act (S. 720/H.R. 1697), would do just that. Even more concerning, the bill has 43 co-sponsors in the Senate – including more than a dozen Democrats – and a majority of the House has signed on.1

Tell Congress: Oppose S. 720/H.R. H.R.1697 and any other bill that would criminalize free speech.

The bill is so broad that if the government claims that your decision to boycott a company "furthers or supports" a boycott issued by a group like the United Nations Human Rights Commission, prosecutors could charge you with a felony. If you were convicted, courts could levy fines from $250,000 to $1 million and prison sentences up to 20 years.

Under current law it is already illegal for U.S. residents and companies to join a boycott of any country friendly to the United States if that boycott was launched by a foreign country.2 The Israel Anti-Boycott Act would expand this law to criminalize participation in boycotts launched by intergovernmental organizations, such as the European Union or United Nations.

This direction is dangerous, and it has nothing to do with your stance on Israel's policies – this is about the fundamental right to free speech and political dissent. J Street, a prominent Jewish advocacy group and an ally of CREDO, is opposing this bill in part due to First Amendment concerns.3 Our friends at the ACLU have called on Congress to reject the bill because it "would impose civil and criminal punishment on individuals solely because of their political beliefs..."4

Tell Congress: Oppose S. 720/H.R. 1697 and any other bill that would criminalize free speech.

Restricting our freedom of expression and imposing criminal penalties for holding specific political views is unconstitutional. Unfortunately, reporters covering the Israel Anti-Boycott Act have found that many senators – including co-sponsors of the bill – do not seem aware of this bill's dangerous implications.5

Thanks to widespread public backlash, bill sponsors have now said they are willing to amend the bill to remove prison sentencing and address free speech concerns.6 But any version of this bill that restricts Americans' rights to boycott and express dissent is unacceptable. We need to stand with our friends at ACLU and J Street to make sure that Congress forcefully rejects this bill and any other legislation that would limit our First Amendment rights.

Tell Congress: Oppose S. 720/H.R.1697 and any other bill that would criminalize free speech.

References:

Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, "Israel Anti-Boycott Act," 115th Congress, introduced March 23, 2017.
United States Code, "50 USC 4607: Foreign boycotts," accessed July 26, 2017.
Zaid Jilani, "J Street, a reliable foe of BDS, urges Congress to oppose Israel anti-boycott act for now, The Intercept, July 20, 2017.
Faiz Shakir, "ACLU letter to the Senate opposing Israel Anti-Boycott Act," ACLU, July 17, 2017.
Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Grim, "U.S. lawmakers seek to criminally outlaw support for boycott campaign against Israel," The Intercept, July 19, 2017.
Ryan Grim, "Senators promise to amend Israel boycott bill after backlash," The Intercept, July 25, 2017.

[onawah]

Smoggy Skies Act
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/smoggy_skies?sp_ref=324585454.4.182367.f.582409.2&referring_akid=.1968103.gcyNvP&source=fb_share_sp


If you know someone who suffers from asthma, heart disease or respiratory problems — or is simply elderly or a child — you should be very worried. A dangerous bill that quietly passed the House of Representatives could make life much worse for you or your loved ones, and it could even be deadly.

The "Smoggy Skies Act" would reverse decades of progress to reduce smog and ozone levels and permanently weaken the Clean Air Act. It's a massive and appalling giveaway to big polluters at the expense of public health and the environment.

The bill is currently under consideration in the Senate where the oil and gas lobby have a stranglehold over many lawmakers. We must pressure every senator to protect public health and prevent this bill from ever seeing the light of day.

Tell the Senate: Reject the Smoggy Skies Act.

The Smoggy Skies Act would delay for nearly a decade critical clean air regulations set by the Obama administration for acceptable levels of ground ozone, the leading cause of smog. The bill also permanently lengthens the required review period of ozone standards and other pollutants from every five years to every 10 years.

While industry-backed supporters of the bill claim slashing regulations will be good for business, the legislation would be a disaster for at-risk communities including children, the elderly and people with health issues. An analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency found that stronger smog standards would save thousands of lives and lead to better outcomes for people with asthma and heart or respiratory problems. In fact, stricter standards could save the country between $2.9 billion and $5.9 billion annually in health care spending by 2025.1

Dozens of health and medical groups, including the American Lung Association, the National Health Association and the American Public Health Association oppose this legislation, and polls show that the American public — by a 2-to-1 margin — believe the EPA should leave current ozone standards in place.2

But despite the widespread public opposition, Big Oil is doing everything it can to get this bill on Donald Trump's desk and has spent millions in campaign contributions to convince lawmakers to ignore decades of science and research in order to line their pockets with dirty fossil fuel profits.3

If this bill passes the Senate, thousands could die each year prematurely and millions more will suffer. We must speak out now in full force to protect public health and the environment before it's too late.

Tell the Senate: Reject the Smoggy Skies Act.

Thanks for all you do.

References

Brad Plumer, "The EPA's big crackdown on smog, explained," Vox, Oct. 1. 2015.
Matthew Weis, "Oil, Gas, and Chemical Money Boosts House Members Pushing to Weaken Clean Air Act," MapLight, July 18, 2017.
American Lung Association et al., "Coalition letter in opposition to H.R. 806," March 21, 2017.

CREDO Action is a publication of Working Assets | credomobile.com

[onawah]

National Monuments Review Threatens Wilderness Warning from Wilderness Watch
8/4/17
https://wildernesswatch.org/keeping-wilderness-wild-blog-post/national-monument-review-threatens-wilderness-too
by George Nickas, Executive Director, Wilderness Watch


President Trump’s executive order demanding a review of all national monuments larger than 100,000 acres and established since 1996 portends serious consequences for the National Wilderness Preservation System.

For starters, within those 27 monuments are 29 Wildernesses in six western states. While the president can’t undo the Wilderness designations—that would require an act of Congress—the protections national monument status affords to the lands surrounding these Wildernesses undoubtedly help preserve the conditions within them. Healthy wildlife habitat and populations, biodiversity, water quality, scenic vistas, silence, solitude, remoteness, and dark skies are all values within these Wildernesses that benefit from the surrounding national monuments.

Consider the Dark Canyon Wilderness, as just one example. This relatively small 45,000-acre Wilderness on the Manti-LaSal National Forest in southeastern Utah lies near the geographic center of the new 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument. Prior to establishment of the national monument, much of the land around Dark Canyon was open to logging, mining, oil and gas development, and off-road motorized and mechanized vehicle use. But because of the monument proclamation the lands surrounding Dark Canyon Wilderness are largely protected from industrial uses, and vehicles are limited to roads and trails designated for their use. If Bears Ears National Monument is rescinded, the Dark Canyon Wilderness could eventually be ringed with development and ORV use.

But there is an even greater threat to Wilderness from President Trump’s monument repeal effort: it is the first shot across the bow of the Administration and Congress to undo many of our nation’s greatest conservation laws. There are all ready more than a dozen bills introduced in Congress to weaken the Endangered Species Act. And as I write this the House of Representatives has an oversight hearing scheduled to discuss the “overreach” of the Wilderness Act and Federal Land Policy Management Act, which they claim have “gone astray.” Any day we expect to see the latest incarnation of the “Sportsmen’s Heritage Act,” legislation that would effectively repeal the Wilderness Act. Previous versions have passed the House, but stalled in the Senate, partly due to the Administration’s opposition. That opposition has likely vanished.

While the national media and public attention is focused on issues like the health care debate, tax reform, and Russian meddling in our elections, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking the Trump Administration is failing and its agenda is stalled. To those involved in protecting our endangered wildlands, threatened wildlife, and our nation’s natural legacy, the Trump agenda is anything but stalled. It’s full speed ahead.

This is why every wildlands and wildlife conservationist should be alarmed and ready to do battle over the Administration’s efforts to repeal any of our nation’s national monuments. Should Trump, Secretary Zinke, and their allies in Congress succeed, the monuments will be only the first to fall.

[avid]

Will this fiasco transfer to the UK? The 'grovelling minions' in my eyes these days, praying no agricultural trade agreements, no massive compulsory anything, vaccinations, dietary components, researching topics being banned, in fact - constriction of sovereign freedoms, the wrench is being turned by the corporate analysts. It's time the UK withdrew from being a pathetic corporate puppet, this is not what my olde family sacrificed themselves for, a duplicity for hundreds of years, their pathetic ignorance and the lack of empathy by the procreationists of these vile historical atrocities, we return to our family trees in our older ages and discover such repetition of annihilation.
Surely, we should be awake enough now to withdraw from immoral and degrading behaviours, stop supporting the banksters via duplicitous politicisations, let common sense prevail, and love and care for each other? Surely, it's not impossible..?

[onawah]

Fight over right to sue nursing homes heats up
BY LYDIA WHEELER - 08/06/17 08:30 AM
http://thehill.com/regulation/healthcare/345411-fight-over-right-to-sue-nursing-homes-heats-up

Consumer groups are making a last ditch effort to stop the Trump administration from stripping nursing home residents and their families of the right to take facilities to court over alleged abuse, neglect or sexual assault.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) announced plans in June to do away with an Obama-era rule that prohibited nursing homes that accept Medicare or Medicaid funds from including language in their resident contracts requiring that disputes be settled by a third party rather than a court.

Public comments on the CMS proposal to do away with that rule are due Monday and groups are urging the agency to reconsider.

More than 75 consumer, health and advocacy groups have come together to form the Fair Arbitration Now (FAN) Coalition to stop CMS from reversing what they claim is a critical protection for the elderly.

Remington Gregg, counsel for civil justice and consumer rights at Public Citizen, said the rule change is not only unnecessary, but shameful.

Gregg said the provisions, known to lawyers as pre-dispute arbitration agreements, create an unequal balance of power between the nursing home and its elderly patients or the family members caring for them.

“When you are trying to get someone in a nursing home, often time it's stressful or an emotional time. Often times loved ones can’t take care of themselves, so for a nursing home to say in order to get in you have to waive your right is shameful,” he said.

“We’re talking about everything you may have a problem with – abuse, neglect, sexual assault, a wide variety of things – they are now saying you are waiving your right to full justice.”

CMS said it decided to reconsider the Obama rule after a federal district court judge in Mississippi issued an order in November temporarily blocking the rule from taking effect.

The American Health Care Association (AHCA) and a group of nursing homes had sued CMS and the Department of Health and Human Services in October, claiming that the rule violated the Federal Arbitration Act, and that the agencies had overstepped their statutory authority in issuing the law. The AHCA said Congress has repeatedly rejected legislation to invalidate arbitration agreements.

In June, the federal judge agreed to the parties’ joint request to put the case on hold while CMS revises the rule.

Under its proposed revisions, CMS said nursing homes would be required to write the arbitration agreements in plain language and explain the agreement to the prospective resident or his or her representative. Residents would also be required to acknowledge they understand the agreement.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is also backing the rule change. The nation’s leading business group fought back against the original rule, claiming that restricting arbitration would raise the cost of nursing home care and make it harder, and more costly, for residents to resolve disputes.

“For many individual disputes, litigation in court is simply impractical. Litigation in court is procedurally complex, which means that non-lawyers need legal representation to have any hope of successfully navigating the system,” the chamber said in 2015 comments to the agency it provided The Hill.

“But many plaintiffs’ claims are too small to justify paying a lawyer to handle the matter and, in any event, most people do not have the resources to do so.”

AHCA did not comment, but provided a fact sheet outlining its position, which said arbitration is faster and cheaper than litigation. It also claimed there's no limit on the monetary award that residents can receive.

The Fair Arbitration Now Coalition, though, is making a full court press to save the rule.

AARP, which is part of the coalition, argued in comments it submitted to CMS on Thursday that the agency lacks the statutory authority to eliminate a protection that was properly written.

“To the extent that CMS may be relying on the authority to promulgate regulations ‘to promote the effective and efficient use of public moneys’ the regulations still need to be for the benefit of Medicare and Medicaid nursing facility residents and not to their detriment,” wrote the nonprofit group for Americans 50 years and older.

In its proposal to revise the rule, CMS said “upon reconsideration,” it believes “that arbitration agreements are, in fact, advantageous to both providers and beneficiaries because they allow for the expeditious resolution of claims without the costs and expense of litigation.”

But AARP claims that statement contradicts evidence the agency cited in 2016 when it issued the rule.

Carolina Fortin-Garcia, a CMS spokesperson, said the agency will respond to public comments received when it issues the final rule.

Opponents of the rule change are also weighing legal action.

Gregg said it’s never a good idea to threaten litigation, but that Public Citizen will explore all of its options if CMS ultimately decides to allow arbitration agreements in nursing home contracts.

“Any agency action must meet a high bar for ensuring the action taken isn’t arbitrary and capricious,” he said.

“Simply making the argument that we are a new administration and want to make sure corporations don’t have regulations that are forcing them to be accountable is not a good enough reason to change a rule that underwent extensive review."

[onawah]

Don’t Let #DirtyEnergy TRUMP the Climate!
Stop the $100+ Billion Nuclear and Coal Bailout
http://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5502/p/dia/acti
on4/common/public/?action_KEY=25145
From:
Nuclear Information and Resource Service


he Trump administration is planning radical actions to advance a dirty energy agenda. Pulling America out of the Global Climate Agreement and ditching the Clean Power Plan are not enough for President Trump. He and his administration want to promote fossil fuels and nuclear power—and to block solar, wind, and the clean energy revolution Americans want and need.

The Department of Energy wants to expand coal and nuclear power, keeping us tied to two of the dirtiest and most poisonous energy sources ever created. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has issued a report absurdly stating that nuclear and coal are vital to national security. President Trump and Secretary Perry are pushing for a massive coal and nuclear bailout as part of a new policy for “Energy Dominance”.

This would be a farce if they weren’t serious about it. For decades, dirty energy promoters have tried to sell their poison power under the banner of “energy independence”. But we can’t get more truly independent than generating power from the free sun shining on our rooftops and winds blowing through the fields—not to mention the vast amount of free “negawatts” we never use with smart energy efficiency and conservation.

No—President Trump’s plan is to make Americans pay more for dirty, dangerous coal and nuclear power plants. A nuclear and coal bailout will likely cost hundreds of billions of dollars—dollars that could be used to create a 100% clean energy transition. President Trump refuses to spend a fraction of that amount to support global climate action, but he can’t wait to give mountains of our hard-earned cash to dirty energy executives who have created global warming and nuclear waste.

We have to stop it!

The 2016 election was not a referendum for climate denial and dirty energy. Americans want good jobs and clean air and water and healthy food and communities.

If the president really wants to revive our economy, create jobs, revitalize local communities, and boost small businesses—then clean energy is the only way to go. Our green energy economy can create millions more jobs than dirty energy could ever provide again. Solar and wind are already creating ten times as many jobs as coal and nuclear for the amount of energy generated.

The time is now to stop Trump’s dirty energy agenda. Please join us—sign the petition opposing the nuclear and coal bailout.
http://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5502/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=25145
And after that, pass it on to your friends and to your contacts on facebook, twitter, Instagram, etc.

Stay tuned for more actions to take as we build this campaign to save our 100% Clean Energy Future!

President Trump and Energy Secretary Perry:

Call off your plans to promote coal and nuclear power, and commit to a transition to 100% clean, efficient, renewable energy. Nuclear and coal are two of the dirtiest, most polluting, dangerous, and uneconomical energy sources in the world.

If you really want to revive our economy, create jobs, revitalize local communities, and boost small businesses—then clean energy is the only way to go. Our green energy economy can keep the lights on and create millions more jobs than dirty energy could ever provide. Solar and wind are already creating twice as many jobs as coal and nuclear combined—that is ten times as many for the amount of energy generated, and at lower cost.

Renewable energy is now providing more electricity than nuclear power. Wind and solar are growing by leaps and bounds, are already cheaper than coal and nuclear, and will soon be the cheapest sources of power available.

America needs to get off of dirty sources of energy, not spend billions of dollars propping them up. No coal and nuclear bailout—invest in our clean energy future.

[onawah]

The Trump Administration is Escalating its Assault on our Oceans
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council)

(Aside from the ever present environmental dangers of catastrophic oil spills, increasing earthquake and volcanic activity around the world, very often in evidence at all varieties of drilling, mining and fracking sites are warnings of the clear and present dangers of penetrating the earth's crust. See: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?98526-Dutchsinse-s-Earthquake-Reports-and-Forecasts)


Take Action here: https://act.nrdc.org/letter/ocs-5-yr-zinke?source=EMOOCSPET&utm_source=alert&utm_medium=actr&utm_campaign=email

We must mobilize immediately to fight back — before Trump and his big polluter allies decimate our coasts for more oil industry profits. Make your voice heard now.

It's happening again.

The Trump administration is ignoring public opinion, science, safety and the planet's future — this time to open huge swaths of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans to offshore drilling. And they may even push to open up the Pacific and the eastern Gulf Coast to drilling.

These are the exact same areas that President Obama put off-limits to drilling just last year. Neither public opinion nor scientific facts have changed since then — the only difference is who's in the White House.

Enough is enough: Add your voice now to say No to offshore drilling in these areas!

The Interior Department is accepting public comments on this reckless move until August 17 — in just one week. We need your help to mobilize an immediate, massive public outcry that Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke can't ignore.

Tell Secretary Zinke that the American people want our oceans, coastlines and communities protected from dangerous oil and gas drilling.

Only someone with a whole lot of friends in the oil industry could ignore the dangers of drilling off our coasts. In the Arctic's Chukchi Sea, for example, the federal government itself has estimated a 75% chance of a major oil spill from just a single lease sale.

I'm sure you agree: These risks are simply unacceptable — and we must fight until we can be sure that our coasts are permanently off-limits to the oil giants.

With the future of our marine life, our coastal communities and our climate at stake, please stand with us and add your voice now to turn up the pressure on Secretary Zinke and stop drilling off our coasts for good.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Rhea
Rhea Suh
President, NRDC

[onawah]

Trump wants to drill in the Gulf of Mexico. We must stop him.
Submit your public comment to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management:
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/trump_gulf_drilling?t=9&akid=24468%2E1968103%2Ew_BDq5
"Any new oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and waters across the country threatens our ocean and coastal regions with dangerous and deadly oil spills and worsens the climate crisis. I urge you halt the expansion of offshore oil and gas leasing in any and all of our oceans."


It could be the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill all over again.

Donald Trump is making good on his dangerous campaign promise to the fossil fuel industry to open up wide swaths of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas exploration and drilling.

Trump’s plan to aggressively expand offshore drilling threatens our ocean and coastal regions with oil spills, pipelines and a worsening of the climate crisis.

But we can stop it. The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is accepting public comments for the next few days regarding these oil and gas leases in the Gulf, so we must speak out now to stop these reckless attacks on our climate and environment.

Tell the BOEM: No more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Click here to submit your comment.
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/trump_gulf_drilling?t=9&akid=24468%2E1968103%2Ew_BDq5

Part of Trump’s offshore drilling includes and oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf totaling nearly 76 million acres. It's a massive giveaway to Trump's friends and donors in the fossil fuel industry and another in a long line of attempts to roll back important environmental and climate progress.

Making matters worse, this request for information by the Department of the Interior also launches the process of creating a new nationwide offshore drilling plan that could open even more U.S. waters to dangerous drilling, replacing an existing plan finalized under the Obama administration that protects the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans.1

Dangerous and deadly oil spills are all too common, and this free-for-all in the Gulf of Mexico — and in waters across the country — will surely end in disaster again. The BOEM itself has concluded that there would be a 75 percent chance of a major oil spill if development and production in the Chukchi sea moved forward under even a single large lease sale.2 And we will never forget how the Deepwater Horizon explosion killed 11 people, spilled over 4 million gallons of oil, wiped out animal and plant populations and devastated the economy of Gulf communities.

With the global price of oil hitting record lows and the effects of climate change worsening by the day, we should be investing in renewable energy to slow the climate crisis and wean ourselves off fossil fuels. The Department of the Interior is accepting comments until Aug. 17, so we must act now to halt these oil and gas leases for good.

Tell the BOEM: No more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Click the link below to submit your comment:

https://act.credoaction.com/sign/trump_gulf_drilling?t=7&akid=24468%2E1968103%2Ew_BDq5

Thanks for all you do.

Josh Nelson, Deputy Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets
References

Center for Biological Diversity, "Trump Offshore Oil Leasing Plan Threatens Every U.S. Ocean, Coastline," June 29, 2017.
Krista Langlois, "Drilling the Arctic comes with a 75 percent chance of a large oil spill," High Country News, Dec. 10, 2015.

[onawah]

You might want to sign this petition!
Trump threatens with "Fire and fury like the world has never seen."
Stop Trump from starting a nuclear war
From Credo Action


94% We've reached 284,097 of our goal of 300,000.
Sign the petition:
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/restrict_nuclear_war?sp_ref=326443186.4.178817.f.568139.2&referring_akid=.1968103.gcyNvP&source=fb_share_sp
The petition to Congress reads:

Donald Trump currently has unrestricted power to launch thousands of nuclear weapons at will. Support H.R. 669, the Restricting the First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act, to stop him from starting a nuclear war.
He’s at it again … (emphasis ours)

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”1
That’s what Donald Trump said on Tuesday, following tweets bragging about how much he has increased the U.S. nuclear arsenal since the election.2

Some days it’s hard to tell if he is acting out of incompetence or a true desire to drive us towards nuclear war, but the effect is the same either way. Trump is provoking Kim Jun Un, and it’s working. Following Trump’s statements, a North Korean official said that they are “carefully examining” plans to launch missiles at the U.S. island territory of Guam.3

This behavior is not rational or safe. Trump could start a nuclear war today. And frankly, he might. Right now, Trump has unrestricted power to launch thousands of nuclear weapons at will. Fortunately, Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Ted Lieu have now introduced legislation – the Restricting the First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act – that would limit Trump’s ability to launch nuclear weapons without an act of Congress.4 We need to let Congress know with a massive showing of public support that we are counting on them to support this legislation before it’s too late.

Tell Congress: Stop Trump from starting a nuclear war.

The Restricting the First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act would require a congressional declaration of war in order to use nuclear weapons, except in response to an incoming nuclear attack, effectively blocking Trump from starting a nuclear war on a whim or because someone hurts his feelings on Twitter.

Under the current system, the president has unchecked authority to use the thousands of nuclear weapons at his command - a process that takes less than five minutes. Trump has already expressed his dangerous views on the use of nuclear weapons, including a complete lack of understanding of the nuclear triad, casual threats regarding using nuclear weapons on the battlefield or to combat terrorists and a desire to be “unpredictable” in his use of nuclear weapons.5

Trump’s time in office has been a series of horrifying demonstrations of this administration’s recklessness and incompetence. Earlier this year, he publicly handled classified information about North Korea’s missile launch at his Mar-a-Largo hotel.6 and multiple top officials and family members, including his son, are currently involved in an investigation into their countless lies throughout the campaign and presidency about their inappropriate ties with the Russian government.7

We cannot trust Trump to make rational or informed decisions about the safety of our country and the world. That’s why we’re joining with our friends at Win Without War, Daily Kos and other progressive allies to tell Congress that they must keep us safe by supporting the Restricting the First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act.

Tell Congress: Stop Trump from starting a nuclear war.

Trump has proven his shocking lack of judgment. He has filled the White House with cronies who are equally dangerous or simply spineless. He is incapable of making good decisions, so we must pressure Congress to stop him from making the worst decision of all. It is time to take the “nuclear football” away from Trump.

Thank you for everything that you do.

References:

Ali Vitali, "Trump Vows North Korea Threat Will Be Met With ‘Fire and Fury’," NBC News, Aug. 9, 2017.
"North Korea seriously considering strike on Guam, state media outlet says," CNBC, REUTERS, Aug. 8,2017.
Kathleen Parker, “America, meet the nuclear ‘football,” The Washington Post, Feb. 14, 2017.
Emily Tamkin, “Lawmakers Introduce Bill Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons,” Foreign Policy, Jan. 24, 2017.
Ibid
Michael D. Shear and Maggie Haberman, “From Trump’s Mar-a-Lago to Facebook, a National Security Crisis in the Open,” The New York Times, Feb. 13, 2017.
Maggie Haberman, Matthew Rosenberg, Matt Apuzzo, and Glenn Thrush, “Michael Flynn Resigns as National Security Adviser,” The New York Times, Feb. 13, 2017.

[AutumnW]

Well, it's been over a year now. Other than tax cuts for the rich, I am not seeing much in the way of change. Very status quo, very mirroring the warmongering of past administrations, like the Clintons and Obama. Looks like the Palestinians are truly f'd now, too.

Trump and the people behind him will NOT be liberators. Not at all. The purpose is to further deceive, extract more from the poor and destroy your country environmentally while doing it. Trump is America's Yeltsin. Be prepared for more of the same -- only more extreme.

[turiya]

Lol!!! Welcome back, AutumnW... I was kind of expecting that you would show up just about now...
You know it's the ol' Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis thingy...

In other words, you are very much needed in order for the coming Synthesis to be completed...

Be good.... and bad... and everything in between... :)

[onawah]

Welcome back Autumn.
I was on sabbatical for quite a while and only returned recently to the forum myself.
I am still horrified by the things Trump is doing that his fans are ignoring, but have not had the energy to go up against all the pro-Trump energy. Trump's latest moves against the Palestinians certainly have verified his ties to the Vatican.
Perhaps your return will inspire me and hopefully the attention span for many will improve so the mopping up can begin soon, after we know whether the FISA document thing is actually going to make any difference...


Well, it's been over a year now. Other than tax cuts for the rich, I am not seeing much in the way of change. Very status quo, very mirroring the warmongering of past administrations, like the Clintons and Obama. Looks like the Palestinians are truly f'd now, too.

Trump and the people behind him will NOT be liberators. Not at all. The purpose is to further deceive, extract more from the poor and destroy your country environmentally while doing it. Trump is America's Yeltsin. Be prepared for more of the same -- only more extreme.

[AutumnW]

Hi Onawah, nice to see you here. I get the impression that moving the embassy to Jerusalem appeases radical fundamentalist Israelis in Jerusalem and the brain dead evangelical mouth breathers who want to go along for the ride.

¤=[Post Update]=¤


Lol!!! Welcome back, AutumnW... I was kind of expecting that you would show up just about now...
You know it's the ol' Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis thingy...

In other words, you are very much needed in order for the coming Synthesis to be completed...

Be good.... and bad... and everything in between... :)

Thanks Turiya! Hate the sin, not the sinner!😀

[jagman]

Wow, I think im in an echo chamber lol👀

[jagman]

I have a secret. I know of a Democrat that could defeat. Donald in 2020...lol She is beautiful and she is sharp very smart alot of charisma. She is a very strong woman too! But the DNC is to stupid to reconize a star! And i defiantly wont tell them so sorry i cant say her name. Im a trumpian for god sake! Lol

[onawah]

ALEX JONES ADMITS TRUMP A PRODUCT OF ARMY INTELLIGENCE
Brendon O'Connell
Published on Jan 26, 2018
_Hmg9geOzM0

Brendon O'Connell
Published on Jan 26, 2018


Jones also does a whole pile of hand signals - I mean REALLY blatant. What does it all mean?

Trump is specifically a product of Israeli Military Intelligence.

I gathered some exacting sequences from "Kay Griggs Talks" to remind people of what Army Intelligence is.

[onawah]

What has happened in the last year to our nation’s State of the Plate?
The executive branch has tremendous power to reshape food policy through political appointments, executive orders, and regulatory reform.
http://foodpolicyaction.org/state-of-the-plate/


Nutrition & Health
We support policies that:
Reduce hunger at home and abroad
Improve food access and affordability
Promote safe, healthy, and nutritious diets for all Americans
Farming Better

Healthier Farming & Fishing
We support policies that:
Foster sustainable production across the food system
Protect responsible fisheries management
Treat animals humanely and curb the overuse of antibiotics
Reduce the environmental and human health impact of farming and food production

Fairness & Competition
We support policies that:
Level the playing field for producers
Respect the rights of food and farm workers
Promote the economic growth of local and regional food systems

Here are some of the ways that this Administration’s regulatory rollbacks have affected everyone within our food system—from workers to producers to consumers.
Nutrition & Health

Access to safe and healthy food is under attack.
Federal actions have lowered school nutrition standards, removed important food safety protections, endangered nutrition assistance programs, and delayed progress on food labeling transparency.
Rollbacks of nutrition standards in the National School Breakfast and School Lunch Program will allow more sodium, more sugar, and fewer whole grains on kids’ plates.
The Administration’s proposed budget endangers successful, vital food assistance programs through funding cuts and false stories about SNAP beneficiaries.
The Administration’s delay in requiring an updated Nutrition Facts label keeps consumers in the dark about critical information on the food they are buying, including added sugar and sodium, chemicals and dyes, and serving recommendations.
"We can’t put off paying my mom’s medical bills and her oxygen, so we struggle to get enough to eat – especially since losing our food stamps the last time my mom was in the hospital. She couldn’t get the paperwork in on time and every time she tries to reapply, something goes wrong."
— Rhonda, Louisiana. Courtesy of MAZON's Stories:
Read More as follows from:
http://foodpolicyaction.org/state-of-the-plate/
[QUOTE]
Access to safe and healthy food is under attack
http://foodpolicyaction.org/state-of-the-plate/
Federal actions have lowered school nutrition standards, removed important food safety protections, and delayed progress on labeling transparency. This Administration has proposed cuts to vital nutrition assistance programs and signaled its intent to get beneficiaries off the rolls by any means necessary. Below are a few of the most egregious changes.
Federal rollbacks of school meal nutrition standards allow more sodium, more sugar, and fewer whole grains on kids’ plates as part of the National School Breakfast and School Lunch Program. Despite the fact that the vast majority of schools have successfully met the phased-in nutrition standards set in 2010 -- the first nutrition standard update to school meals since 2005 -- USDA has congratulated itself on loosening this rule, rather than providing technical assistance to schools who are having challenges. Read more about this rollback and learn what you can do about it at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Food assistance programs are in danger of being weakened or cut, as indicated by The Administration’s proposed budget in May of 2017 that would have slashed USDA programs and USDA administrators reiterating common myths about SNAP. The USDA's Food and Nutrition Services administrator even penned a disturbing memo calling for greater focus on self-sufficiency and opened comments to the public about limiting the program, despite USDA's own data that show that the vast majority of SNAP recipients who can work already do. Read more about these potential changes from Mother Jones or National Public Radio.
The Administration’s delay in requiring an updated Nutrition Facts label keeps consumers in the dark about information like added sugar in the food they are buying. This rule was supposed to go into effect in July 2018, and has been delayed by an additional two years despite growing consumer concern about added sugars in their food. Read more about this delay from the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Forbes magazine.
The USDA is considering increasing the speed allowed in poultry and pork packing plants. They have made comments supporting the increased speed of processing lines, which would make workers process more birds per minute in an already hazardous job environment. These breakneck speeds are unsafe for workers, increase the risk of foodborne illness, and encourage inhumane practices. Read more about this change from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Consumer Federation of America, and National Public Radio.
The USDA has begun the process to allow chicken imported from China to be sold in the United States as having undergone “equivalent” food safety controls as poultry plants in the U.S., despite food safety advocates urging that agricultural trade agreements with China should not inappropriately influence the Food Safety Inspection Service’s objective assessment of safety. Read more about the change from the Consumer Federation of America, Washington Post, or National Public Radio.
The FDA announced that it will disband the Food Advisory Committee, which provides scientific advice as needed on food safety and pathogens, risks to the population, and emerging hazards. This was the only advisory committee on food among the many advisory committees commissioned by FDA, which speaks poorly of the FDA’s priorities. Read more about this change from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
The USDA shifted an office working on international food safety into its trade mission area. The Agriculture Department moved the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which works with international agencies to set standards for food safety and purity, out of the Food Safety Inspection Service into the new Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs office. Outside advocates and even Food and Drug Administration officials expressed alarm at whether this new department would be able to successfully protect international standards under the direction of Undersecretary Ted McKinney, who previously worked for a veterinary pharmaceutical company. Read more about this move from the Safe Food Coalition https://consumerfed.org/testimonial/safe-food-coalition-asks-agricultural-secretary-rethink-u-s-codex-office-move/and Politico:https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/02/food-safety-agriculture-usda-fda-243351


http://foodpolicyaction.org/state-of-the-plate/healthier-farming-fishing/
Healthier Farming & Fishing
Decades of progress in sustainable farming, fisheries management, and clean water protections are being unraveled.
The Administration has enacted sweeping measures to eliminate rules that protect human health and the long-term viability of our soil, water, and oceans.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reversed a ban on a dangerous pesticide that has lifelong effects of brain development in children despite deep concern from scientists and physicians.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) withdrew a proposed rule to improve standards for humane production of organic eggs, despite protests from organic producers and consumers that this withdrawal severely weakens the integrity of the organic program.
A Presidential executive order directed the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to repeal a pollution prevention rule, exposing upstream water sources to toxic contaminants that flow into larger bodies and sources of our drinking water.
"It makes no sense that the Trump Administration would pursue actions that could damage a marketplace that is giving American farmers a profitable alternative, creating jobs, and improving the economies of our rural areas."
— Organic Trade Association Read More: http://foodpolicyaction.org/state-of-the-plate/healthier-farming-fishing/


http://foodpolicyaction.org/state-of-the-plate/healthier-farming-fishing/The federal government should support policies that help farmers, fishermen, and other food producers make a sustainable living that doesn’t hurt the environment or endanger consumers. Unfortunately, this Administration has chosen sweeping measures to eliminate protections and put agribusiness interests ahead of the health of workers and consumers.
The EPA reversed a planned ban on the highly toxic insecticide chlorpyrifos. This pesticide, commonly sprayed on fruit and vegetable crops, can harm children’s brain development even at low levels. The EPA had previously noted that chlorpyrifos levels in food and water routinely exceed safe levels, and pose an even greater risk to agricultural workers and their families. This reversal came after EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt met with a Dow Chemical executive, and despite urging from the American Academy of Pediatrics for a ban. Read more from the Environmental Working Group, Natural Resources Defense Council, and The New York Times.
The USDA withdrew a requirement for organic livestock and poultry producers to give animals more room and access to the outdoors. These National Organic Program rules have been in development for ten years, and were welcomed by many organic producers to enforce higher standards of animal welfare. Consumers are increasingly concerned about animal welfare, and believe that when they buy organic they can trust that these animals were treated well. Weakening organic standards misleads consumers and hurts producers who put the time and money into getting that USDA Organic certification. Read more about this rule from the Organic Trade Association, the Humane Society, and Civil Eats.
The Administration issued an executive order directing EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw a Clean Water Rule that would limit pollution in smaller streams feeding into larger waterways. This repeal could deny clean water protections for over 100 million Americans, and will especially harm rural residents who rely on individual wells for their water supply. Read more about this rule from the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Harvard University Law School Environmental Law Program.
The Administration has taken unprecedented steps to get involved in rolling back fisheries protections, including the decision by the Commerce Department to ignore its own Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s recommendations on catch limits for declining fish stocks. This and other changes to catch limits and protections signal the administration’s commitment to putting big business interests ahead of small fishermen and long-term viability of fisheries. Read more about this intervention from the Boston Globe.
The Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service withdrew a proposed rule to limit “bycatch” killing of whales, dolphins, and turtles in Pacific fisheries. Without proper precautions, swordfish nets can entangle and kill these larger species, whose populations are small and who play a crucial role in the sustainability of the fisheries ecosystem. Read about this rule from the Harvard University Law School Environmental Law Program, or in the Los Angeles Times.
The Administration repealed a rule that would keep mining companies from dumping rubble and industrial by-products into valleys and waterways. Known as the Stream Protection Rule, it aimed to protect human and environmental health from exposure to heavy metals like selenium, mercury, and arsenic, that can result from the wholesale demolition and dumping done by mountaintop removal mining. Read more about this repeal from the Natural Resources Defense Council or in The Hill.
The Administration’s choice to head the EPA, Scott Pruitt, has opposed the mission of the agency since his time as Attorney General of Oklahoma. He now estimates that during this Administration, the EPA staff will be cut by nearly 50 percent. This reckless reduction includes scientists, researchers, and staff providing technical assistance to protect human and environmental health. Read more from Environmental Working Group.
The Administration plans to open nearly 90 percent of federal waters to oil and gas drilling by private energy companies. Coastal communities, fishermen, environmental groups, and state governors from both parties oppose drilling off of their coasts. Potential oil spills put our food chain at risk and endanger coastal businesses and families that rely on these waters for their livelihoods. Read more from the Natural Resources Defense Council and the New York Times.


Food Production, Markets, and Economic Impact http://foodpolicyaction.org/state-of-the-plate/fairness-competition/
Farmers and food workers deserve a level playing field, a safe work environment, and the opportunity to sell at a fair price. The Administration has scorned these basic rights for farmers and ignored the vital role that food and farm workers play in our economy. Instead, the repealed rules have benefited a handful of the largest meat and poultry companies, made it more difficult for restaurant workers to protect their rights, and delayed sensible safeguards for farmworkers applying pesticides. The President and his senior leaders have expanded the push to deport as many immigrants as possible leaving many food and farm workers in immigration limbo not knowing if or when they might be deported. These policies have left unpicked food rotting in fields and restaurants short-handed.
Secretary of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue withdrew new rules that would give smaller livestock farmers and contract poultry growers power under the Packers and Stockyards Act. As it currently stands, a handful of large meat and poultry processors have overwhelming economic power to set prices and contract terms, and to retaliate against farmers who speak out. These abuses, and farmers’ limited legal options for protecting their livelihoods, are severe and well-documented. Additionally, Secretary Perdue has chosen to abolish the Grain Inspectors, Packers, and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) and entrust the Agricultural Marketing Service with enforcement. AMS officials are charged with promoting and often go on to work for multinational poultry and livestock processors, creating a direct conflict of interest with GIPSA’s role as a watchdog for industry abuses. Read more about this rule from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Organization for Competitive Markets, and Politico.
The impact of the Administration's immigration policies has been felt deeply in immigrant communities by food workers. The Administration's indiscriminate and sweeping crackdowns have terrorized immigrant communities and negatively impacted many producers who rely on them. In part because of this enforcement, the H-2A guest worker visa program has grown rapidly, without any increase in resources or oversight to keep up the program's modest worker protections. Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, are a key part of the food system, particularly on farms. Any solution to immigration policy should recognize the rights and dignity of the workers and their families who help put food on Americans’ tables. Read more about this problem from the International Business Times, National Public Radio, Newsweek, and Mother Jones.
The EPA delayed the implementation of a revised rule that includes worker protections from pesticide exposure. This rule was created under the previous administration in response to incidents where poor training led to toxic pesticide exposure for workers. The EPA is also preparing to roll back other crucial protections from pesticide exposure, including rules for children handling pesticides, the right to information on pesticide exposure, and safety measures for surrounding residents. and the lack of any restriction preventing children under 18 from applying these chemicals. Some pesticides, such as chlorpyrifos, can cause lifelong neurological problems from improper exposure. Read more about this reversal from Farmworker Justice, Environmental Working Group, EarthJustice, and the Huffington Post.
The Administration’s Department of Labor is promoting a new rule that would allow restaurants to take ownership of employee tips and decide their distribution or even keep them. This reverses a forty-year-old precedent that tips are the property of the employee who earned them, unless there is a documented agreement in place on how they will be distributed. While some restaurants claim they need this practice to increase wages for kitchen staff, giving owners control of over $5 billion annually is an opening for abuse against workers. Read more about this change from the Washington Post, National Public Radio, and MarketWatch.
The Administration implemented new rules that restrict workers’ ability to file complaints against fast-food chain employers. Many large companies, particularly restaurant chains, use franchise ownership or contractors as a key part of their business. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) had previously considered these corporations and their franchises to be “joint employers,” because the corporation dictates standards for the independent owners and by extension all of their employees. The new ruling states that NLRB will no longer consider operations like fast-food franchise restaurants to be joint employers, making it possible for massive companies to benefit from a standardized workforce without having the responsibility to bargain or live up to agreements with these employees. Read more about this change from Oxfam America and in the New York Times.
The Administration’s Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue implemented a reorganization of USDA offices that abolishes the position of Undersecretary for Rural Development and eliminates rural development issues as a key mission area within USDA. After vocal pushback from rural development advocates, Secretary Perdue created an Assistant Secretary position reporting directly to the Secretary. Eliminating rural development as a mission area and shifting these resources to export trade to benefit the largest agribusinesses is the wrong direction for USDA. Read more about this reorganization from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and Harvest Public Media.
The Administration has failed to fill crucial Senate-confirmed leadership positions at the Department of Agriculture after a year in office. Of the 13 positions, only four have been confirmed, seven have no submitted nominee, and two more have been delayed due to concerns over nominees’ lack of qualification, positions, and ethical issues. Sam Clovis, a nominee for USDA’s chief scientist, withdrew after a vocal outcry about his lack of scientific background, a history of racist comments, and involvement in questionable campaign practices in 2016. Read more from the Partnership for Public Service and the Washington Post.

Standards for workers’ rights and fair competition for farmers have been weakened.
Farmers and food workers rely on a level playing field, safe working conditions, and diverse opportunities to survive and prosper, but this Administration has scorned these basic rights for farmers and ignored the vital role that food and farm workers play in our economy.
The USDA sided with the largest meatpacking companies at the expense of small producers by withdrawing rules to enforce fair competition and by eliminating the agency that polices deceptive and anti-competitive practices.
Immigration crackdowns and divisive rhetoric from the Administration have inspired fear and uncertainty among food and farm workers.
The EPA is delaying the implementation of a new rule that includes worker protections from pesticide exposure.
"The abuses occur every day. These companies are shameful."
— Mike Weaver, West Virginia poultry farmer and president of the Organization of Competitive Markets
Read more: http://foodpolicyaction.org/state-of-the-plate/fairness-competition/

Food Production, Markets, and Economic Impact
Farmers and food workers deserve a level playing field, a safe work environment, and the opportunity to sell at a fair price. The Administration has scorned these basic rights for farmers and ignored the vital role that food and farm workers play in our economy. Instead, the repealed rules have benefited a handful of the largest meat and poultry companies, made it more difficult for restaurant workers to protect their rights, and delayed sensible safeguards for farmworkers applying pesticides. The President and his senior leaders have expanded the push to deport as many immigrants as possible leaving many food and farm workers in immigration limbo not knowing if or when they might be deported. These policies have left unpicked food rotting in fields and restaurants short-handed.
Secretary of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue withdrew new rules that would give smaller livestock farmers and contract poultry growers power under the Packers and Stockyards Act. As it currently stands, a handful of large meat and poultry processors have overwhelming economic power to set prices and contract terms, and to retaliate against farmers who speak out. These abuses, and farmers’ limited legal options for protecting their livelihoods, are severe and well-documented. Additionally, Secretary Perdue has chosen to abolish the Grain Inspectors, Packers, and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) and entrust the Agricultural Marketing Service with enforcement. AMS officials are charged with promoting and often go on to work for multinational poultry and livestock processors, creating a direct conflict of interest with GIPSA’s role as a watchdog for industry abuses. Read more about this rule from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Organization for Competitive Markets, and Politico.
The impact of the Administration's immigration policies has been felt deeply in immigrant communities by food workers. The Administration's indiscriminate and sweeping crackdowns have terrorized immigrant communities and negatively impacted many producers who rely on them. In part because of this enforcement, the H-2A guest worker visa program has grown rapidly, without any increase in resources or oversight to keep up the program's modest worker protections. Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, are a key part of the food system, particularly on farms. Any solution to immigration policy should recognize the rights and dignity of the workers and their families who help put food on Americans’ tables. Read more about this problem from the International Business Times, National Public Radio, Newsweek, and Mother Jones.
The EPA delayed the implementation of a revised rule that includes worker protections from pesticide exposure. This rule was created under the previous administration in response to incidents where poor training led to toxic pesticide exposure for workers. The EPA is also preparing to roll back other crucial protections from pesticide exposure, including rules for children handling pesticides, the right to information on pesticide exposure, and safety measures for surrounding residents. and the lack of any restriction preventing children under 18 from applying these chemicals. Some pesticides, such as chlorpyrifos, can cause lifelong neurological problems from improper exposure. Read more about this reversal from Farmworker Justice, Environmental Working Group, EarthJustice, and the Huffington Post.
The Administration’s Department of Labor is promoting a new rule that would allow restaurants to take ownership of employee tips and decide their distribution or even keep them. This reverses a forty-year-old precedent that tips are the property of the employee who earned them, unless there is a documented agreement in place on how they will be distributed. While some restaurants claim they need this practice to increase wages for kitchen staff, giving owners control of over $5 billion annually is an opening for abuse against workers. Read more about this change from the Washington Post, National Public Radio, and MarketWatch.
The Administration implemented new rules that restrict workers’ ability to file complaints against fast-food chain employers. Many large companies, particularly restaurant chains, use franchise ownership or contractors as a key part of their business. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) had previously considered these corporations and their franchises to be “joint employers,” because the corporation dictates standards for the independent owners and by extension all of their employees. The new ruling states that NLRB will no longer consider operations like fast-food franchise restaurants to be joint employers, making it possible for massive companies to benefit from a standardized workforce without having the responsibility to bargain or live up to agreements with these employees. Read more about this change from Oxfam America and in the New York Times.
The Administration’s Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue implemented a reorganization of USDA offices that abolishes the position of Undersecretary for Rural Development and eliminates rural development issues as a key mission area within USDA. After vocal pushback from rural development advocates, Secretary Perdue created an Assistant Secretary position reporting directly to the Secretary. Eliminating rural development as a mission area and shifting these resources to export trade to benefit the largest agribusinesses is the wrong direction for USDA. Read more about this reorganization from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and Harvest Public Media.
The Administration has failed to fill crucial Senate-confirmed leadership positions at the Department of Agriculture after a year in office. Of the 13 positions, only four have been confirmed, seven have no submitted nominee, and two more have been delayed due to concerns over nominees’ lack of qualification, positions, and ethical issues. Sam Clovis, a nominee for USDA’s chief scientist, withdrew after a vocal outcry about his lack of scientific background, a history of racist comments, and involvement in questionable campaign practices in 2016. Read more from the Partnership for Public Service and the Washington Post:

[thunder24]

ALEX JONES ADMITS TRUMP A PRODUCT OF ARMY INTELLIGENCE
Brendon O'Connell
Published on Jan 26, 2018
_Hmg9geOzM0

Brendon O'Connell
Published on Jan 26, 2018


Jones also does a whole pile of hand signals - I mean REALLY blatant. What does it all mean?

Trump is specifically a product of Israeli Military Intelligence.

I gathered some exacting sequences from "Kay Griggs Talks" to remind people of what Army Intelligence is.

damn, excellent video explaining loosely the connections of mafia, money and intelligence networks... see this is my problem with the trump thing...

The E.T. part of me says that either the boss is back and he didn't like how things were run, or theres a new boss.
The Conspiracy part of me says, this video is a doorway to the beginning of understanding what is going on in the human aspect down here as far as what is not being talked about with the connections of intelligence groups networked world wide, funneling and washing money... Same game, some new players?

[onawah]

Agreed! Plenty of expert bait and switch going on, imho. (And not many catching on to it...)


The Conspiracy part of me says, this video is a doorway to the beginning of understanding what is going on in the human aspect down here as far as what is not being talked about with the connections of intelligence groups networked world wide, funneling and washing money... Same game, some new players?

[onawah]

NRDC (National Resources Defense Council)
Exclusive Member Teleconference:
President Trump's State of the Union Address & Environmental Fights Ahead


Thursday, February 1, 2018
4:00 p.m. Eastern; 3:00 p.m. Central; 2:00 p.m. Mountain; 1:00 p.m. Pacific
RSVP now for this exclusive teleconference call.
President Trump's first official State of the Union Address is tonight — and we'll be watching, fresh from bitter first-year fights over the administration's attempts to ramp up oil and gas drilling, roll back progress on climate change, and push massive budget cuts to the EPA and other agencies that protect our environment and health.

So, join NRDC's policy and legal experts this Thursday, February 1, in the aftermath of Trump's address, for an in-depth teleconference dissecting the president's speech and what it may mean for his dangerous anti-environment agenda in the year ahead.

This exclusive member teleconference will cover:

The fight in Congress over big EPA budget cuts and anti-environment riders in the proposed spending bill.
How NRDC will fight big polluter schemes to use a disastrous infrastructure bill to roll back environmental and health safeguards and push massive new fossil fuel projects.
How you can help with our campaign to stop Trump's outrageous plans to auction off nearly our entire coast to offshore drilling.
How NRDC is fighting — in and out of court — for our national monuments and public lands like Bears Ears and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Please join us Thursday for this in-depth Member Briefing featuring Chief Program Officer Susan Casey Lefkowitz, Chief Legal Counsel Mitch Bernard, Legislative Director Scott Schlesinger, and NRDC Action Fund Executive Director Kevin Curtis.

You will have an opportunity to ask questions.

We hope you can join us.

RSVP now for this exclusive teleconference call. https://act.nrdc.org/sign/sotu-teleconf-rsvp-180130?source=EMOSTUTEL&utm_source=alert&utm_medium=text1&utm_campaign=email&t=4&akid=370%2E315001%2EDyi9w8

[onawah]

More environmental havoc under the Trump Administration can be prevented
Help stop the Industrialization of wild Alaska
Wilderness Watch 1/30/18

Urgent action needed to keep a 211-mile long industrial road from jeopardizing wildlife and wilderness in the southern Brooks Range in Alaska!
Your comments are needed by Wednesday, January 31
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), an Alaska state agency, has proposed building a road through the Gates of the Arctic National Preserve (and adjacent to the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Gates of the Arctic Wilderness) to the so-called Ambler Mining District in order to facilitate hard rock mining. The road would benefit a private Canadian company at the expense of wildlife habitat and Wilderness.

Please tell the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service that you are opposed to this potentially destructive (and unnecessary) road.

The proposed 211-mile road would stretch west from the Dalton Highway (aka the Haul Road to the North Slope) to the mining claims. Along the way it would cross Gates of the Arctic National Preserve and the Kobuk Wild and Scenic River, both ecologically significant public lands. The road would also bisect a wide swath of the southern Brooks Range, which is home to grizzly bears, wolves, Dall sheep, moose, wolverines, and three different caribou herds.

Wildernesses in Alaska, even those as large as Gates of the Arctic, derive much of their extraordinary values from the expanse of wildlands surrounding them. They are islands of Wilderness, albeit large ones surrounded by a sea of equally wild and spectacular landscapes that are critical to maintaining the integrity of these great places.

The route would cross nearly 3,000 streams, 11 major rivers, and 1,700 acres of wetlands, impacting habitat that is vital to the health of whitefish, sheefish, salmon and other species, which are in turn vital subsistence and cultural resources for local or downriver communities.
https://wildernesswatch.salsalabs.org/6c31103b-fc8a-4f58-8b83-650973bb25d6/77a49dc1-b418-4928-bee3-5e5a472b377f.jpg
AIDEA estimates the total cost of building, operating and maintaining the proposed road will be $844 to $906 million, though the actual cost will likely be much higher. Although the plan designates it as a private toll road, after the road is built pressure would surely mount to open it to the public, compounding the negative impacts to this great wild expanse.

Analysis of the road project's environmental impact is just beginning. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to consider all the environmental and social impacts of a proposal before issuing a permit. The Bureau of Land Management is now in the process of preparing an Environmental Impact Statement analyzing the proposed road. Currently the project is in the "scoping" stage, the first step in the NEPA process, in which BLM will collect information to analyze in its environmental impact statement.

For more information:

• BLM website

• The National Park Service Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project Environmental and Economic Analysis

• The Trustees for Alaska website

Please tell the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service that you are opposed to this potentially destructive (and unnecessary) road. https://wildernesswatch.salsalabs.org/no_ambler_road/index.html?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=61828ae0-df7c-4e0b-b471-7278b969933e

[KiwiElf]

President Trump's State of the Union Address

J4FmQtOPbF4

[onawah]

Don't Stand for Drilling in our Oceans
Sierra Club
https://sierra.secure.force.com/actions/National?actionId=AR0101303&id=7010Z000001P7cdQAC&data=137f06168b7f6a2654b4c2690c573bf830c250bc91ec054ac73dad80a137eb66c3f19fa60fe627eb21c75bc4d4e139c 7&utm_source=insider&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Trump’s Department of the Interior has proposed opening 90% of US coasts to offshore drilling -- even in states that don't want it. At the same time, Congress is moving to dismantle safety regulations that were enacted after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. They also failed to renew a longstanding oil tax that funds cleanup efforts for oil spills.

It almost sounds too sinister to be true -- they want to open 90% of our coasts to drilling but won't enforce basic safety standards or fund programs to clean up the inevitable spills.

If Trump's plan becomes reality, spills will be inevitable -- and devastating. In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill damaged 1,313 miles of coastline. That's more than the entire length of California, or half the Atlantic coast. Offshore oil spills happen frequently, devastating marine environments, commercial fishing industries, and tourism businesses. Even without spills, offshore oil causes pollution.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is accepting comments on the proposed plan through March 9th. Submit your comment and tell them to keep oil rigs away from our coasts!
https://sierra.secure.force.com/actions/National?actionId=AR0101303&id=7010Z000001P7cdQAC&data=137f06168b7f6a2654b4c2690c573bf830c250bc91ec054ac73dad80a137eb66c3f19fa60fe627eb21c75bc4d4e139c 7&utm_source=insider&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

[DNA]

Onawah, you and I agree on quite a few matters.
My love affair for the Trump administration appears to be an area we are not in agreement.
I see a lot of nit-picky posts on this thread.
Where folks would like to see their own personal agendas given attention because these agendas are near and dear to their heart.
But in my mind there is really only one agenda we have to worry about if immanent depopulation of the planet is to be avoided, and that is globalism.
Globalism = One World Government
Globalism = Depopulation agendas using war, disease and internment camps. Possibly AI terminators and cloned super soldiers.
Globalism = Pedophilia and child sacrifice
Globalism = Worshiping ET's as dark gods and a return to multi-God worship as we see in Greek and Roman cultures.
Globalism = World War III and unleashing technology not known to exist by the main stream including earth quake technology
Globalism = Unleashing earthquake technology on multiple fronts. USA, RUSSIA, CHINA and probably others. A breaking of the world. Edgar Cayce's prophecy of the shifting of the axis. Massive flooding, continents rising out of the ocean, and sinking into the ocean, civilization as we know it ending.

So with all of this in mind, I care not for matters that may be deemed a distraction to the elephant in the room, which is globalism.
Nothing else matters right now.
Just my opinion.

[KiwiElf]

You can add me to that opinion, DNA :highfive: - (gee, what a lonely thread this is... I wonder why? ) :idea:

[Praxis]

Do you hear that people?

The wars in Afghanistan IRaq and Syria are nit picky.

Expanding Gauntanamo Bay and changing the rules of engagement in those theaters are nit picky.

Maybe if someone in their families is put in Guantanomo Bay, then they may care.
Maybe if someone in their family becomes collateral damage from a drone strike, they may care.

This SOTU was trump owning the wars and becoming the deep state out in the open.

[Helene West]

Do you hear that people?

The wars in Afghanistan IRaq and Syria are nit picky.

Expanding Gauntanamo Bay and changing the rules of engagement in those theaters are nit picky.

Maybe if someone in their families is put in Guantanomo Bay, then they may care.
Maybe if someone in their family becomes collateral damage from a drone strike, they may care.

This SOTU was trump owning the wars and becoming the deep state out in the open.


DNA is describing the people that have caused all the wars, WWI & II, etc AND have funded both sides, every side of each of the wars. H-E-L-L-OOOOO

[onawah]

I don't look in the ranks of politicians for my heroes, and I don't look for agreement from others.
I think much pro-Trump opinion is being created and promoted in an ever more skillful way (trumping even the Obama Admin, and that's saying a lot) by one faction of the elite that has currently gained the edge over the other leading faction.
And people are being just as hoodwinked now as they ever were, just in a different way.
But I see nothing nitpicky about this video:
_Hmg9geOzM0
...or about the fact that Trump's Admin is paving the way for destroying much more of the environment via fracking and off-shore drilling, that they are destroying the hard won standards for infrastructure, food production and organic standards, farming and fishing, that they are cutting back benefits for the elderly, sick and starving, many children among them, and rattling sabers the waypoliticians always do.
Trump's Admin is doing some good things, they have to, if only to save their own skins.
It doesn't mean all that other stuff isn't happening too, and won't continue to happen as long as enough people remain silent.


Onawah, you and I agree on quite a few matters.
My love affair for the Trump administration appears to be an area we are not in agreement.
I see a lot of nit-picky posts on this thread.
Where folks would like to see their own personal agendas given attention because these agendas are near and dear to their heart.
But in my mind there is really only one agenda we have to worry about if immanent depopulation of the planet is to be avoided, and that is globalism.
Globalism = One World Government
Globalism = Depopulation agendas using war, disease and internment camps. Possibly AI terminators and cloned super soldiers.
Globalism = Pedophilia and child sacrifice
Globalism = Worshiping ET's as dark gods and a return to multi-God worship as we see in Greek and Roman cultures.
Globalism = World War III and unleashing technology not known to exist by the main stream including earth quake technology
Globalism = Unleashing earthquake technology on multiple fronts. USA, RUSSIA, CHINA and probably others. A breaking of the world. Edgar Cayce's prophecy of the shifting of the axis. Massive flooding, continents rising out of the ocean, and sinking into the ocean, civilization as we know it ending.

So with all of this in mind, I care not for matters that may be deemed a distraction to the elephant in the room, which is globalism.
Nothing else matters right now.
Just my opinion.

[Charles Harris]

@ onawah & DNA, Man I love you guys!

[DNA]

I think much pro-Trump opinion is being created and promoted in an ever more skillful way (trumping even the Obama Admin, and that's saying a lot) by one faction of the elite that has currently gained the edge over the other leading faction.
And people are being just as hoodwinked now as they ever were, just in a different way.
But I see nothing nitpicky about this video:
I listen to Alex Jones everyday, literally everyday.
I think I'm pretty aware of Alex's opinion regardless of what your hit piece says.
People pick and choose things he says and place them out of context.
I'm much more concerned with what I hear from Alex on a day to day basis versus some cut and paste job.

You talk about one leading faction over another.
I don't think you get it.
I repeated Globalism over and over again to make a singular point.
Dare I say Globalism again.
Trump is fighting Globalism.
You will never understand the truth until you understand the goals of the elite.
They have ALL the money.
They have ALL the land.
Now they have the technology to increase their life spans.
They want the earth for themselves and their descendants.

Some of the elite are vampire satanists.
Others are environmentalists concerned about the human race and the planet earth.
They do not care about more money and power.
They care about one thing right now.
Depopulation.
These elite are convinced that the earth will not be habitable in a few generations if something isn't done about the ever increasing human population.
They are going to kill 95% of the people on the planet and rule the remaining five percent in some kind of technological mind controlled Aldous Huxley "brave new world" way.

You do not get it.
I'll say it ten thousand times.
You will never get it until you understand the depopulation agenda.
Everything else you have mentioned is absolutely pointless if you do not understand this.
Bill and Kerry's research has pointed to this all along.
No one wants to hear it.
Bill is so sure this is about to take place he is kicking it on a mountain top in Ecuador.
You think he is living there for the weather? Bill please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here.

Pipelines running through North Dakota don't matter.
Drilling for oil in the ocean doesn't matter.
Sleeping with porn stars at the age of 60, guess what? It doesn't matter.

When I see folks in the alternative side exposed to the information we have been exposed to I'm lost for how and why they are some how so impervious to the obvious.
I will not give any response on this thread again, the title is something I disagree with so much I see no reason to give this title a viewing by having responded on it.

[KiwiElf]

PRIORITIES: "When a fire starts in my kitchen, I'm not going to worry about swatting a fly..."

[onawah]

I have no interest whatever in debating with Trump fans.

[KiwiElf]

I have no interest whatever in debating with Trump fans.

...And I have EXACTLY the same sentiments towards Trump haters & snowflakes #MAGA :bigsmile:

[thunder24]

I think much pro-Trump opinion is being created and promoted in an ever more skillful way (trumping even the Obama Admin, and that's saying a lot) by one faction of the elite that has currently gained the edge over the other leading faction.
And people are being just as hoodwinked now as they ever were, just in a different way.
But I see nothing nitpicky about this video:
I listen to Alex Jones everyday, literally everyday.
I think I'm pretty aware of Alex's opinion regardless of what your hit piece says.
People pick and choose things he says and place them out of context.
I'm much more concerned with what I hear from Alex on a day to day basis versus some cut and paste job.

You talk about one leading faction over another.
I don't think you get it.
I repeated Globalism over and over again to make a singular point.
Dare I say Globalism again.
Trump is fighting Globalism.
You will never understand the truth until you understand the goals of the elite.
They have ALL the money.
They have ALL the land.
Now they have the technology to increase their life spans.
They want the earth for themselves and their descendants.

Some of the elite are vampire satanists.
Others are environmentalists concerned about the human race and the planet earth.
They do not care about more money and power.
They care about one thing right now.
Depopulation.
These elite are convinced that the earth will not be habitable in a few generations if something isn't done about the ever increasing human population.
They are going to kill 95% of the people on the planet and rule the remaining five percent in some kind of technological mind controlled Aldous Huxley "brave new world" way.

You do not get it.
I'll say it ten thousand times.
You will never get it until you understand the depopulation agenda.
Everything else you have mentioned is absolutely pointless if you do not understand this.
Bill and Kerry's research has pointed to this all along.
No one wants to hear it.
Bill is so sure this is about to take place he is kicking it on a mountain top in Ecuador.
You think he is living there for the weather? Bill please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here.

Pipelines running through North Dakota don't matter.
Drilling for oil in the ocean doesn't matter.
Sleeping with porn stars at the age of 60, guess what? It doesn't matter.

When I see folks in the alternative side exposed to the information we have been exposed to I'm lost for how and why they are some how so impervious to the obvious.
I will not give any response on this thread again, the title is something I disagree with so much I see no reason to give this title a viewing by having responded on it.

ok, but hit peace or not, he says that trump was picked by military intelligence, the video makes connections of this... can you talk about that instead of back and forth ...not just to you dna...but to er body in general

[Flash]

As long as partisan politics exist, there will be no real progress on this planet. Going through all this manufactured hatred and wars system towards an evolved humanity needs to let go of partisanship.

Trump versus Clinton or Democrats versus Republicans is partisan politics. For the people. Because in fact, the world is controlled by a single source or earthly power with very few people in it. And all political camps are underneath it, including Trump.

On average, I find this forum very partisan oriented towards Republicans and Trump. It is very difficult to bring anything that is opening eyes on Trump without being torn apart in pieces here on this forum.

For me, this is a sad state of things. Because the raison d'être of this forum is precisely openness to all possibilities and all states of affairs. Isn't it possible that Trump is just part of the same, but from another faction fighting the Clintons faction, not for fighting for the people. A new faction taking power over us, not for us???

[onawah]

Using those labels and assuming that you know what is motivating another is buying into all the divisive tactics that the elite have used all along to create the kind of chaos that they savor.
I appreciate the good things that Trump is doing, but like any politician, he is not blameless nor is he immune to corruption.
I will be as happy as anyone if the Clinton/Obama crime ring is busted for good.



I have no interest whatever in debating with Trump fans.

...And I have EXACTLY the same sentiments towards Trump haters & snowflakes #MAGA :bigsmile:

[onawah]

Degeneration Nation 2018: The Darkest Hour
From: Organic Consumers Association 2/1/18
https://www.organicconsumers.org/essays/degeneration-nation-2018-darkest-hour

Welcome to Degeneration Nation 2018. The frightening truth is that our “profit-at-any-cost” economy and global empire, run by and for the one percent and multi-national corporations, aided and abetted by an out-of-control Congress and White House, is threatening our very survival.

Our system of democracy, global co-existence, our physical and mental health, and the health of the living Earth—our climate, soils, forests, wetlands, watersheds, and oceans—is rapidly degenerating. The rhythms of nature—the atmosphere, the soil carbon cycle, the water cycle and the climate—are unraveling.

Which is more frightening? The destruction of the environment and the climate that sustain human civilization as we have known it? Or the collapse of democracy and the rise of endless war and fascism?

Even though many are still either in denial or preoccupied by the daily struggle for survival, the most serious threat that humans have ever encountered in our 150,000-year evolution is global warming and severe climate change.

A growing corps of climate experts have warned us repeatedly that we must stop burning fossil fuels. We must eliminate destructive food, farming and land-use practices. And we must draw down enough carbon dioxide (CO2) from the Earth's atmosphere through enhanced natural photosynthesis (regenerative food, farming, and land use), to return us to 350 parts-per-million (ppm), or better yet to pre-industrial levels of 280 ppm.

According to the majority of climate scientists we are fast approaching the point of no return, whereby global warming and climate change will morph into runaway global warming, melting of the polar ice-caps, catastrophic sea rise, evermore deadly forest fires, climate chaos, global crop failures, famine, and societal disintegration. This point of no return could arrive as soon as 25 years from now—that is if we don’t stop releasing greenhouse gases and start drawing down “legacy” CO2 from the atmosphere into our soils through regenerative food, farming and land use.

As world-renowned climate scientist Dr. James Hansen wrote:

“If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current levels to at most 350 ppm…”

Global warming you ask? But what about the threat of nuclear war with North Korea or Iran? What about Trump’s recently reported statement that a strategic terrorist attack in the U.S would likely enable the Republicans to maintain control of Congress in 2018?

What about the fact that 62 million Americans actually voted for Donald Trump in November 2016 (65 million voted for Hillary and 92 million were too disgusted or demoralized to vote at all), and that most of these 62 million people still support him?

Or how about the Harvard-University of Melbourne study that found “the share of Americans who think that rule by the armed forces would be a ‘good’ or ‘very good’ thing rose from one in 16 in 1995 to one in six in 2014?”

What about increasing police brutality, misogyny, homophobia, racism, threats against immigrants, mass deportations, drug addiction, a crumbling infrastructure, and rampant unemployment and poverty?

And what about public health? A recent Rand Corporation study that found that 60 percent of Americans suffer from at least one chronic health condition such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and arthritis; 42 percent have two or more of these illnesses; and that these chronic diseases now account for more than 40 percent of the $3.5 trillion that people are handing over to Big Pharma and the medical industrial complex?

What about the U.S.’s endless, now trillion-dollar wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and a dozen other countries?

It’s not just the U.S. and North America that have degenerated to unprecedented levels.

Up until now most of global civil society, rather than united in a common global campaign to reverse climate change, deteriorating public health, poverty, forced migration and war, remains divided by national borders, ethnic identities, single- or limited-issue organizing, and class and gender divisions.

The rise of authoritarian and fascist regimes, and the weakening of a common sense of purpose, cooperation and solidarity have brought us to a dangerous precipice.

Will global civil society wake up in time, break down the walls and issue silos that divide us, connect the dots between all of our burning issues, and unite across borders in a common global campaign for survival and regeneration?

Beyond the darkest hour: regeneration

The good news is that there are a number of positive signs that people in the Americas, and all over the world, especially the youth, are waking up. These signs include:

• An emerging world view or ideology is replacing the traditional paradigms of “unlimited growth” or “sustainability.” It’s called "Regeneration." This new paradigm, unlike the outdated ideologies of corporate capitalism or state socialism, has the power to unite the global grassroots—farmers, consumers, businesses and policymakers—in a joint campaign to reverse climate change and restore the environment. Regenerative food, farming and land use, coupled with 100-percent renewable energy, scaled up globally on the Earth’s 22 billion acres of farmland, rangeland, wetlands and forests, has the potential to not only mitigate, but to actually reverse global warming. Regenerative farming and land use can do this by drawing down through enhanced photosynthesis the 200 billion tons of excess carbon lodged in the atmosphere and sequestering it in our living soils and biota. At the same time, this global regeneration can dramatically reduce conflict and rural poverty among the world’s 3.5 billion small farmers and rural villagers. Regenerative food and farming, focused on revitalizing soil and plant health, and on improving the economic situation of the world’s small farmers and rural villagers, also has the power to clean up the environment and qualitatively improve the nutritional density and quality of our foods, thereby eliminating the major causes of malnutrition, chronic disease and toxic exposure.

• Every nation in the world, except for the Trump administration in Washington, D.C., has signed onto the Paris Climate Treaty to move to zero fossil fuel emissions by 2050. Many nations have also signed on to the “4 for 1000: Soils for Food Security and Climate Initiative, a bold international policy initiative to draw down enough excess atmospheric carbon through regenerative food, farming and land-use practices to not only mitigate, but actually reverse, global warming.

• Renewable energy has begun to replace fossil fuels. It is now cheaper to invest in wind and solar than to build new coal plants. Soon it will be more profitable to install solar and wind power than to keep existing fossil fuel plants running. Electric cars and trucks will likely replace gas-powered vehicles within the next few decades. Investors and public institutions are starting to divest billions, and eventually trillions, of dollars from the fossil fuel industry.

• A critical mass of the global grassroots is starting to wake up and resist—North, South, East, and West—organizing politically, slowly but surely developing climate-friendly and equitable solutions to our most pressing problems: climate, poverty, war, deteriorating public health, forced migration, unemployment and political corruption. In the U.S., progressive and radical forces, led by youth, women and minorities, will likely soon sweep the majority of corrupt politicians from office, not only in the nation’s 40,000 cities, towns and counties, but at the federal level as well. Similar trends are emerging in dozens of other countries as well, even in repressive dictatorships such as China, Russia and Iran. The bottom line is that people all over the world are fed up with corrupt politicians and greedy businessmen. There is no future for the youth, nor for any of us without fundamental change and regeneration.

• Polls now indicate that the most popular national politician in the U.S. today is democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, who will likely run and be elected President of the U.S. in 2020. Similarly polls indicate that Lopez Obrador, with politics similar to Sanders, will be elected President of Mexico in July 2018. Similar progressive leaders are emerging in many countries, many of them youth, women, and minorities.

The darkest hour is indeed before the dawn. We’ve hit bottom here in the U.S., and in most of the countries of the world. The situation is dire. Time is short. But there’s still time to turn things around. For information on the emerging Regeneration International movement click here.
http://action.organicconsumers.org/o/50865/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=10633

[AutumnW]

I found it really interesting in state of the Union speech that Trump happened to mention he wanted to guarantee those with a prison record the right to secure employment. Totally agree with that.

He also speechified about vast infrastructure projects he wants to initiate. Sounds good too. I couldn't help but think it's no coincidence that 'securing work' for 'former' prisoners might somehow have to do with creating a labor force for infrastructure projects. There's a lot of strong bodies pumping iron in prisons.

And it's very possible something like 'apprenticeship' programs using inmates will be used on these projects. So, it could end up being a slave labour type of situation that takes place under the domain of the incarceration system.

[thunder24]

as long as partisan politics exist, there will be no real progress on this planet. Going through all this manufactured hatred and wars system towards an evolved humanity needs to let go of partisanship.

Trump versus clinton or democrats versus republicans is partisan politics. For the people. Because in fact, the world is controlled by a single source or earthly power with very few people in it. And all political camps are underneath it, including trump.

On average, i find this forum very partisan oriented towards republicans and trump. It is very difficult to bring anything that is opening eyes on trump without being torn apart in pieces here on this forum.

For me, this is a sad state of things. Because the raison d'être of this forum is precisely openness to all possibilities and all states of affairs. Isn't it possible that trump is just part of the same, but from another faction fighting the clintons faction, not for fighting for the people. A new faction taking power over us, not for us???

exactly...

[Wind]

No matter which clown happens to be in the office, nothing ever changes. For the better.

[turiya]

Jerome Corsi advises that everyone listen to the video link in his most recent tweet (below).... which is also posted below the Corsi tweet...

In this video, you may just happen to learn what is meant when Alex Jones says that the U.S. military is backing Donald Trump... Corsi says it himself @ ~ 2:15... No, its not the Israeli Mossad... no, no... its our own pro-Constitutional forces that are very adamant about standing up for the Constitution.... and preserving the principles of this Republic...









https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/939227593676529664/GAnTjUda_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/jerome_corsi)
Jerome Corsi
@jerome_corsi (https://twitter.com/jerome_corsi)

I encourage you to listen to this YouTube broadcast youtube.com/watch?v=sGtOMWYJ|TY… (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGtOMWYJlTY) excellent synopsis of #QAnon (https://twitter.com/hashtag/QAnon?src=hashtag_click) #Qanon8chan (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Qanon8chan?src=hashtag_click) understands the various DECODES I have published scribd.com/document/37042… (https://t.co/UVYA65Pai2?amp=1) (scroll to bottom of scribd doc to see additional @jerome_corsi (https://twitter.com/jerome_corsi) DECODES

https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/958715481871077378/06kr1cVU?format=jpg&name=120x120

Qanon Decode Multiple Posts Mon Tues Jan 29 & 30 Vers 15.0 Narrative Shifts completed Jan. 31, 2018...
scribd.com (https://t.co/UVYA65Pai2?amp=1)

12:47 PM · Feb 1, 2018 (https://twitter.com/jerome_corsi/status/959121029410017280)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGtOMWYJlTY

[Foxie Loxie]

I would say it's not about a "clown", but about a grassroots movement that has been in the works for a long time. It's called Rule of Law....that's what this is about;

upholding The Constitution. ;)

[we-R-one]

Don't Stand for Drilling in our Oceans
Sierra Club
https://sierra.secure.force.com/actions/National?actionId=AR0101303&id=7010Z000001P7cdQAC&data=137f06168b7f6a2654b4c2690c573bf830c250bc91ec054ac73dad80a137eb66c3f19fa60fe627eb21c75bc4d4e139c 7&utm_source=insider&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Trump’s Department of the Interior has proposed opening 90% of US coasts to offshore drilling -- even in states that don't want it. At the same time, Congress is moving to dismantle safety regulations that were enacted after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. They also failed to renew a longstanding oil tax that funds cleanup efforts for oil spills.

It almost sounds too sinister to be true -- they want to open 90% of our coasts to drilling but won't enforce basic safety standards or fund programs to clean up the inevitable spills.

If Trump's plan becomes reality, spills will be inevitable -- and devastating. In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill damaged 1,313 miles of coastline. That's more than the entire length of California, or half the Atlantic coast. Offshore oil spills happen frequently, devastating marine environments, commercial fishing industries, and tourism businesses. Even without spills, offshore oil causes pollution.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is accepting comments on the proposed plan through March 9th. Submit your comment and tell them to keep oil rigs away from our coasts!
https://sierra.secure.force.com/actions/National?actionId=AR0101303&id=7010Z000001P7cdQAC&data=137f06168b7f6a2654b4c2690c573bf830c250bc91ec054ac73dad80a137eb66c3f19fa60fe627eb21c75bc4d4e139c 7&utm_source=insider&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

I'm not a fan of Sierra Club as their policies promote and support the Globalist agenda. I don't like oil spills either, however I don't feel Sierra Club's agendas promote the interests of the people long term. This article is pretty eye opening for those unfamiliar with Sierra Club's activities and intentions.

Source: https://www.activistfacts.com/organizations/194-sierra-club/

"Founded in 1892 by John Muir to “make the mountains glad,” the Sierra Club is the oldest and arguably the most powerful environmental group in the nation. But its concerns are no longer limited to the happiness of the highlands. Once dedicated to conserving wilderness for future human enjoyment, the Sierra Club has become an anti-growth, anti-technology, anti-energy group that puts its utopian environmentalist vision before the well-being of humans.

Some of its leadership positions are held by activists with radical ties and even violent criminals. The Club has done well preserving a “mainstream” image, despite its increasingly radical bent. And with an annual budget of roughly $100 million, the organization has the money and power to push that radical agenda.

The Sierra Club advocates a number of extremist policies that put the organization odds with the scientific community. For instance, the organization advocates an end to obtaining energy from ANY fossil fuel sources, nuclear power, or large-scale hydroelectric projects even though leading climate change scientists note that wind and solar aren’t enough to meet our energy needs. The Sierra Club also stirs up controversy regarding genetically modified foods, though the scientific consensus is that there’s no evidence GMOs are harmful.

To fund its radical activist agenda, the Sierra Club gathers funding from a suspicious maze of donations, including funding from an off-shore shell company based in Bermuda. Even more alarmingly, U.S. taxpayers are funding a portion of the Sierra Club’s extremist activities—the organization’s lawsuits against the EPA have netted the organization almost a million dollars in attorneys’ fees paid by the Department of Justice.

Now that the Sierra Club has joined with a coalition of environmental activist groups, labor unions, and other left-liberal groups to form the Democracy Initiative, the Sierra Club has an even more powerful platform to promote its radical agenda."


And this...wow, just wow is all I can say....

"Suing for Profit

The Sierra Club is no stranger to the courtroom. It’s one of many environmental groups that have colluded with federal agencies in “sue and settle” lawsuits.

In these cases, environmental activists sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), arguing that the agency is taking too long to issue a particular regulation or that the agency isn’t meeting a specific legal requirement. The EPA can then either defend itself in court or settle with the environmentalists. In several cases the EPA issued a consent agreement to settle cases the very same day activists filed their lawsuits.

In many cases, if the environmentalists are successful in suing the EPA, the groups’ attorneys’ fees are paid by the federal government. According to a 2011 report from the Government Accountability Office, between 1995 and 2010, taxpayers reimbursed the Sierra Club to the tune of $966,687."

EDIT TO ADD and from the same article:

“Beyond” Energy Campaigns

“They’re cheating themselves if they keep believing this fiction that all we need is renewable energy such as wind and solar.”
– James Hansen, former NASA climate change scientist to the Associated Press

One of the Sierra Club’s primary goals is to shrink our energy portfolio to only include renewable resources such as wind and solar. The Club runs campaigns aimed at eliminating the use of fossil fuels, including “Beyond Coal,” “Beyond Natural Gas,” and “Beyond Oil.” Ending the use of fossil fuels isn’t enough for the Club, however. The Sierra Club also opposes the use of nuclear power and large-scale hydropower. Currently, “Sierra Club-approved” energy sources contribute less than 5% of the power in the United States and adoption of their unrealistic energy policy would mean disaster for family budgets and the economy."

[onawah]

Center for Biological Diversity
Trump's Offshore Plan Could Cause More Than 5,500 Oil Spills
2/1/18


The Center for Biological Diversity has crunched the numbers:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/offshore-drilling-01-31-2018.php/?utm_source=eeo&utm_medium=email
Trump's proposal to dramatically ramp up offshore drilling could lead to 5,571 oil spills dumping 34.4 million gallons of oil into ocean waters off Alaska, the West and East coasts, and the Gulf of Mexico through the span of oil production.

This estimate is more than 10 times what was expected in the worst-case scenario for the offshore leasing plan approved by the Obama administration, which only included leases in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska's Cook Inlet.

"Trump's plan will be a long, oil-soaked nightmare for our coasts and wildlife," said Dr. Abel Valdivia, the Center scientist who conducted the analysis. "No president has ever pushed a drilling plan that would do so much damage along so many American coastlines. It's really astonishing."

Outraged? Join us at a series of hearings and public protests in the coming weeks:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/offshore-drilling-01-31-2018.php/?utm_source=eeo&utm_medium=email


For Immediate Release, January 31, 2018

Contact: Abel Valdivia, (510) 844-7103, avaldivia@biologicaldiversity.org

Analysis: Trump Offshore Plan Could Cause More Than 5,000 Oil Spills

More Than 34 Million Gallons Could Be Dumped Along America's Coasts

WASHINGTON— The Trump administration’s proposal to dramatically ramp up offshore drilling could lead to 5,571 oil spills dumping 34.4 million gallons of oil into ocean waters off Alaska, the West Coast, East Coast and Gulf of Mexico, according to a new Center for Biological Diversity analysis.

The estimated number of oil spills over the leases’ lifespan could be more than 10 times what was expected in the worst-case scenario from the offshore leasing plan approved by the Obama administration, which only included leases in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Cook Inlet.

“Trump’s plan will be a long, oil-soaked nightmare for our coasts and wildlife,” said Abel Valdivia, the Center ocean scientist who conducted the analysis. “No president has ever pushed a drilling plan that would do so much damage along so many American coastlines. It’s really astonishing.”

The Center’s spill analysis of Trump’s draft 2019-2024 leasing plan is based on historical data and federal records. It assumes average spill rates for platforms and pipelines based on 1974-2015 data, but it doesn’t include catastrophic events like the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, which released more than 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The Trump administration’s efforts to roll back drilling safety regulations and expand drilling into treacherous Arctic waters could also drive those estimates even higher.

According to the Center’s analysis:

About 53 percent of the spills would likely occur in the Gulf of Mexico (mostly in the Central and Western Gulf);
About 28 percent would happen in northern Alaska (mostly in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas);
About 12 percent of spills would be along the West Coast (mostly in Southern California);
About 7 percent would be off the East Coast, mostly in the north and mid- Atlantic;
Catastrophic events like the Deepwater Horizon spill could dramatically increase the total oil spilled, given the Trump administration’s proposed rollback of safety rules.
“Oil spills do long-lasting damage to marine ecosystems and wildlife, from the smallest plankton to sea turtles and dolphins,” Valdivia said. “Marine organisms are already under significant stress from overfishing, pollution and climate change, and toxic oil spills are the last thing they need.”

An oil spill in the Arctic would be impossible to clean up, threatening endangered polar bears, walruses and whales. The Chukchi Sea is very remote, with no infrastructure, and the nearest oil-spill response Coast Guard station is more than 1,000 miles away. President Obama extended protections to the Arctic Ocean to prevent such a disaster.

On the West Coast alone, carrying out Trump’s plan is expected to cause 657 spills, dumping more than 4 million gallons of oil into coastal waters of the Pacific. The plan will be the subject of large protests in six California coastal cities on Feb. 3 and official public hearings on Feb. 5 in Tacoma, Wash.; Feb. 6 in Salem, Ore.; and Feb. 8 in Sacramento, Calif., each preceded by protests. Details are at www.endangeredoceans.org.

Background
The Trump administration has yet to release any of its own estimates on how many oil spills could result from its five-year plan. The Center’s analysis is conservative. It was broken into large spills (over 1,000 barrels, or 42,000 gallons), with assumed volumes based on historic median oil-spill size, and the average volumes and frequency for spills of under 1,000 barrels. Spill estimates were based on undiscovered, economically recoverable oil in the planning areas and could rise or fall depending on the anticipated productivity of offshore wells and factors such as the price of oil.

Under Obama’s 2017-2022 leasing plan, the federal government estimated a maximum of 546 spills containing about 4 million gallons of oil. Trump’s new proposal will replace that plan and significantly increase the threat of oil spills. Both plans offered leases that can last for decades, with oil production usually peaking within 20 years of the lease sale.

The Center’s oil spill calculations and estimates for each planning area are available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1msWFqrdcnBLWFsRkGw32A4grVBUTM7w0/view

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.6 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

[we-R-one]

Center for Biological Diversity
Trump's Offshore Plan Could Cause More Than 5,500 Oil Spills
2/1/18

Key word, 'could'.......

Who is Center for Biological Diversity? Oh that's right....another NGO created for the implementation of the AGENDA 21/AGENDA 2030/FUTURE EARTH blueprint. Great organization to bring up, as it proves what other members are suggesting...population control as part of the agenda. Are you willing to be the first to stand in line Onawah? I like to ask people this question, not to be mean, but if you're going to promote the 'anti-population' movement of the globalist, than it says to me you have no problem giving up your life and that of your family to practice what's being preached in your posts by support of organizations who stand for depopulation agendas..But I find most aren't even aware that ultimately, this is what they're promoting.

And many of us do understand, which is why we are against movements and organizations clearly supported by the globalists promoting their nefarious agendas.


"The Sustainable Development Goal 15 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is devoted to “protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”.

At the Rio+20 Conference, Member States reaffirmed, through paragraphs 197- 204 of the outcome document, the Future We Want, that “intrinsic value of biological diversity, as well as the ecological, genetic, social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic values of biological diversity and its critical role in maintaining ecosystems that provide essential services, which are critical foundations for sustainable development and human well-being”. Member States also recognized “the severity of global biodiversity loss and degradation of ecosystems” and stress the negative impact that this situation has on food security, nutrition, access to water, health of the rural poor and people worldwide”.

Furthermore, the Future We Want reiterated the importance of implementing the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, and achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets adopted at the Tenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention.

Biodiversity was discussed by the Commission on Sustainable Development on several occasions, and was one of the themes of the 2012/2013 two-year cycle.

At the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg 2002, biological diversity was addressed in Chapter IV, paragraph 44, of the outcome of the Summit, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. The Summit also endorsed the target to achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction of the rate of biodiversity loss at global, regional and national levels as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on earth, which had some months earlier been adopted by the sixth meeting of the CBD Conference of Parties (COP).

Conservation of biological diversity is the subject of Chapter 15 of Agenda 21 which was adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, in 1992, in Rio de Janeiro. On the same occasion, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), was opened for signature and remained open for signature until 4 June 1993. By that time, it had received 168 signatures. The Convention entered into force on 29 December 1993, 90 days after the 30th ratification. The first session of the Conference of the Parties was scheduled for 28 November – 9 December 1994 in the Bahamas."

Source: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/biodiversityandecosystems


Environmentalist Group To Hand Out "Endangered Species Condoms"
https://www.infowars.com/environmentalist-group-to-hand-out-endangered-species-condoms/

"Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity to hand out so-called “endangered species condoms” to college health centers, nightclub owners, environmental activists across the US, depicting, among other things, polar bears to highlight “the connection between unsustainable human population growth and the ongoing extinction crisis for plants and animals around the world.”

"The group’s website boasts that “it is the only environmental group with a full-time campaign highlighting the connection between unsustainable human population growth and the ongoing extinction crisis for plants and animals around the world.”The website goes on to say that this latest initiative is part of a “full-time population campaign launched in 2009”


But wait there's more!!!! Continuing from the same article:

"In a 2010 article on the corporate funders of environmentalist organizations across the United States, Michael Barker notes that the Center for Biological Diversity has been on the receiving end of cash-flows from all the major elites in the Anglo-American world. Quoting from a study examining which organizations are supported by which elites, Barker writes:

“One of the primary groups examined in Bevington’s study was the Center for Biological Diversity (formed in 1989), [22] and which in 2008 received support from elite philanthropic bodies that included the Foundation for Deep Ecology, the Environment Now Foundation, Tides Foundation, ExxonMobil Foundation, The New York Times Company Foundation, and even the “big green” environmental outfit, The Wilderness Society. Corporate funders of the “grassroots” Center for Biological Diversity included the likes of Goldman Sachs, the Bank of America, and Microsoft.”

Interesting to note here that the Center received all these major fundings in 2008, upon which it launched a major population control campaign the year after. This suggests that the same old foundations headed by the same old elites are continuing to push their vision of a depopulated world."


WOW, case in point just demonstrated.

[we-R-one]

Here's another article:

"Extreme greens, such as Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club, espouse an agenda that, if implemented, would minimize economic expansion, decrease human population growth, and centralize control of energy and related economic activities, in a global government, all the while stuffing their pockets with cash through green-energy crony schemes (think Solyndra). This is bolstered by the fact that they refuse to acknowledge or offer solutions to increasingly large and dangerous wildfires in federally controlled forests, range lands, and national parks and monuments. It’s apparent to everyone with neural activity that these extremist greens are not about saving the planet from ‘climate change’ or protecting the environment. They’re about debasing Western Civilization by relegating the energy sources that makes civilization possible to the past."

Source: http://reagangirl.com/hypocritical-extreme-greens-attack-domestic-energy-ignore-pollution-from-wildfires/


Many of us agree on certain green solutions, but not by these type of buffoons who clearly aren't doing it with 'we the people' in mind.

[onawah]

How Public Schools Became The Koch Brothers’ ‘Lowest Hanging Fruit’
2/1/18 Jeff Bryant , Education Opportunity Network
http://educationopportunitynetwork.org/how-public-schools-became-the-koch-brothers-lowest-hanging-fruit/?link_id=2&can_id=4870e31ee9d2b4c95e94bdd1b8471b48&source=email-how-public-schools-became-the-koch-brothers-lowest-hanging-fruit&email_referrer=email_295269&email_subject=how-public-schools-became-the-koch-brothers-lowest-hanging-fruit


Despite his campaign promises to transform American education, President Donald Trump had almost nothing to say about the subject in his first State of the Union speech, and his controversial education secretary Betsy DeVos has not made national headlines for some time. But that doesn’t mean Republicans are pausing their assault on the nation’s public schools.

As James Hohmann of the Washington Post reports, GOP fat cats who make up the powerful donor network led by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch recently met in California and declared their intention to “fundamentally transform America’s education system,” including the K-12 sector.

“The lowest hanging fruit for policy change in the United States today is K-12,” said one of the attendees, a wealthy Texan who co-founded Texans for Educational Opportunity, a lobbying group behind the effort in the Lone Star State to create vouchers that let parents use taxpayer dollars to send their kids to private or religious schools. “I think [K-12] is the area that is most glaringly obvious.”

“The vast network has pledged to devote around $400 million” to influencing political campaigns in the upcoming November elections, reports Annie Linskey of the Boston Globe, who also dropped in on the affair. “That’s 60 percent more than the network spent in 2014, when Republicans picked up nine seats in the Senate and 13 seats in the House of Representatives.”

A “major focus” for those pledging these staggering sums, according to Linskey: referendums and new state laws “to remake the nation’s education system.”

The revelation of a huge, influential network of wealthy conservatives determined to remake public schools into their own vision should not surprise anyone who has been paying attention. Leading scholars of the conservative movement have been warning for years that radical factions in the Republican party have made public schools one of their top targets, a progressive plum at least as important, if not more so, as Medicare and Social Security.

What’s not certain though is whether Democrats will recognize the onslaught and rise to the challenge of defending public schools and public school educators.

What the Right Wing Wants

Participants at the Koch Network gathering spoke of “disrupting the status quo” in education in order to remake the system around policies that enable more of what they call “choice.”

“The Kochs are particularly enthusiastic about education savings accounts,” Linskey writes, “a mechanism that upends traditional K-12 education by, in some cases, giving parents lump sums they can use to pay private schools or even online institutions to educate their children.”

Currently, five states allow for Education Savings Accounts: Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Arizona, and Tennessee. But legislation to create new ESA programs is pending in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Missouri, Iowa, Texas, Georgia, and elsewhere.

ESAs have been called “the next generation of school vouchers,” and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has called ESAs “the driver behind school choice of the future.”

The programs vary somewhat from state to state, but generally the programs allow qualifying parents who withdraw their children from public schools to get a proportion of the money the state would otherwise have spent to educate their children deposited into an account. The accounts come with debit cards families can use to pay for education products and services such as private schools, home schooling, online courses, private lessons and therapists, and tutoring services.

The programs tend to pose significant risks to parents, as states release funds to parents in exchange for the parents agreeing to forego their right to a public education.

Advocates for these programs often begin by targeting ESAs to disadvantaged student groups, such as those from low-income households or those with special needs. But then, invariably, ESA proponents want to expand the program to entice other families to leave the public school system.

Participants at the Koch Network gathering, Hohmann reports, spoke of ESAs being instrumental in redirecting public school funding to an array of privately-controlled alternatives to public schools, including “technologies” that let parents pick and choose private classes or tutors, teacher-less computer based instructional programs often called “personalized” or “customized” learning, and “micro-schools” that substitute computer software platforms for the traditional shared-space of a public school led by professional educators.

ESAs further the conservative cause to transform collectivist endeavors, like public education, into consumer enterprises that give the wealthy the upper hand in maintaining their privileges. The amount of money ESAs provide per student rarely covers the full cost of tuition, fees, uniforms, books, transportation, and other expenses at private and religious schools.

During one session at the Koch Network meeting, the audience was harangued by Doug Ducey, a Koch acolyte and former chief executive of Cold Stone Creamery who now serves as governor of Arizona. Ducey offered his state as a model for how to remake public schools.

Last year, Arizona enacted a universal, statewide ESA program that is now being threatened by a citizen-led repeal effort, which voters will decide in November. The Koch Brothers, through their Americans for Prosperity and Libre Initiative organizations, have already spent millions to derail the recall effort in the public forum and in the state courts. A Superior Court Judge recently tossed out their effort to stop the referendum, so now the Koch Network is drumming up more money to defeat the recall at the ballot box.

In his reporting of the discussion, Hohmann incorrectly cites “teacher unions” as the leaders in the decidedly broad-based effort to collect signatures and put the statewide ESA recall to voters. Nevertheless, participants in the Koch Network called “breaking the teacher unions” an essential to getting their education ideas enacted.

The Right Wing’s Long Game

The group gathered at the Koch Network event are not your run-of-the-mill right-wing conspirators. Members of the network, some 700 of them, have to contribute a minimum of $100,000 annually, and they hold huge sway with Republican candidates and elected officials.

They’ve been working on building this influence for a long time.

As Jane Mayer recounts in her book Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, Charles and David Koch and other conservative billionaire families have orchestrated a decades-long effort to influence U.S. politics. She makes a convincing case that, after years of careful planning and generous funding, the Kochs have succeeded in spreading their antipathy toward government and progressivism and establishing themselves at the center of conservative Republican politics.

While Trump may have initially distanced his presidential campaign from the Kochs and their network, once in office, he quickly hired Koch allies, like DeVos, and pushed new legislation, such as the recently enacted tax plan that the Kochs now pledge $20 million to “sell” to the American public.

Trump also continues to be, as he was in his presidential campaign, an ardent proponent of the Koch network’s top education initiative: school choice.

in David Koch’s losing run for political office in 1980, Mayer recounts, he campaigned on a platform that called for ending an array of federal programs that make up the social-economic safety net, including welfare, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security; closing numerous federal agencies, including the EPA, SEC, and FBI; and getting rid of public schools.

Mayer calls attention to other wealthy, influential right-wing donors who have targeted public education for transformation, including John M. Olin, Art Pope, Richard Mellon Scaife, Harry and Lynde Bradley, and Richard and Betsy DeVos (yes, that Betsy DeVos).

Among the many campaigns waged by these wealthy individuals and their foundations, Mayer describes numerous examples of their support for “the early national ‘school choice’ movement” and their desires to dismantle teachers’ unions and traditional public schools. The effort aims to “‘wean’ Americans from government” by making it easier for parents to use public funds to send their children to private and parochial schools.

Similarly, Nancy MacLean, in her book Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, details how the right’s vast network, including the Kochs and the academic institutions they’ve sponsored, erected a formidable campaign to dismantle government, with public education being among their chief targets. Their hatred for all collective endeavors – including schools, Social Security, voting rights, taxation, and government supported healthcare – drove them to propose the most radical ideas by using prosaic, positive language of “choice” and “reform.”

MacLean sources much of her documentation of the radical right’s ascension to the “school crisis” in the South, principally Virginia, where court-ordered desegregation sent wealthy white Southerners into a panic over the prospect of seeing their children in the same classrooms with black students.

With the Koch Network’s announcement remaking public education is now a chief cause of the right wing political machine, we are seeing the fruition of the decades-long campaign carefully planned and crafted by wealthy conservatives.

Will Democrats Fight Back?

How much money are wealthy Republicans in the Koch Network planning to spend on their education initiative?

“The network declined to offer exact figures,” according to Hohmann, “but said it will double investment in K-12 this year, with much more planned down the road.”

What is even less clear is how Democrats intend to respond.

Democrats, over the years, have pulled away from their historical support for public schools and classroom teachers and have gradually embraced the language of “reform” and “choice” Republicans use. Many Democrats have turned against teachers union, joined the Republican chorus to “bust” the public school “monopoly,” and embraced numerous alternatives to traditional public schools that sap the system of its resources.

“To begin to chronicle the origin of the Democrats’ war on their own—the public school teachers and their unions that provide the troops and the dough in each new campaign cycle to elect the Democrats—is to enter murky territory,” writes Jennifer Berkshire for The Baffler.

Berkshire traces the Democrats’ turn against public schools back to the Clinton administration and up through Obama. But the course mainstream Democrats chose to follow when talking about public schools sounds not much different from what the Kochs and their kind have been selling, Berkshire argues. “Teachers unions, regulation, and government schools are the problem, Democrats continue insisting into the void; deregulation, market competition and school choice are the fix.”

With the deeply unpopular duo of Trump and DeVos leading the Republicans’ campaign to dismantle public schools, Democrats have an an opportunity this November to offer a very different message and policy choice for education that turns it into an effective wedge issue for the vast audience of voters who genuinely want support for education to be on the ballot.

As Republicans are poised to go after public schools as “the lowest hanging fruit,” it would be a shame, and ultimately a tragedy, if Democrats let them pick it.

[onawah]

People's Action Network
Making life harder for workers
2/1/18



Trump campaigned on “more jobs and better wages.” But at every turn, he’s making life harder for working people.

Now Trump wants to make workers hand their tips over to their boss.

Yup, you read that right. Trump’s Secretary of Labor, Alex Acosta, has been working with the National Restaurant Association (the other NRA) to introduce a new rule that would make tips the property of employers rather than workers.

Two out of three tipped workers are women. They already earn a sub-minimum wage of just $2.13 an hour. And they are more vulnerable to wage theft -- and more likely to endure poverty, discrimination and sexual harassment.

For Donald Trump and Alex Acosta, that’s apparently not enough. In fact, Bloomberg just reported today that the Department of Labor’s own internal study showed that tipped workers could lose billions of dollars in income because of the rule.

Tipped workers have been organizing for years to demand better wages and working conditions. Whether you’re a tipped worker or not, it’s vital that we stand together to oppose this assault on working people.

We’re partnering with Daily Kos, Jobs with Justice, and other allies to tell President Trump and Labor Secretary Acosta that we won’t let workers get robbed by their employers. We’re on our way to a victory—over 300,000 people have already expressed their outrage through public comments.

The Department of Labor will be deciding TOMORROW. Join us in protecting workers across the nation. Make your voice heard loud and clear by leaving a public comment:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/add-your-name-to-tell-department-of-labor-we-wont-let-you-take-workers-tips?source=TipTheft2017PA&referrer=group-peoples-action&link_id=1&can_id=4870e31ee9d2b4c95e94bdd1b8471b48&email_referrer=email_295524___subject_364874&email_subject=every-bad-boss-in-america-loves-trumps-plan

Jacob Swenson-Lengyel
People’s Action

[East Sun]

You're looking to a politician for answers. Please, give me a break. The answer?

There is no answer. Period! Not where politicians are concerned.

Look elsewhere............

[onawah]

Food Integrity Campaign
https://www.foodwhistleblower.org/


Protecting Food. Empowering Whistleblowers.Winter 2018: "Planning"

TRUMP PROPOSES "MODERN" PORK SLAUGHTER RULE

We need your help to win this food fight. Whistleblowing meat inspectors have been warning us this day would come for years, but Trump recently made it a reality. Much to our dismay, but not surprise, Trump’s USDA proposed the New Swine Slaughter Inspection System (NSIS) rule.

The USDA says this rule will modernize pork inspection, but there is nothing modern about toenails and feces in food. This new rule will allow pork manufacturers to “determine their own evisceration line speeds”—in other words, speed them up past the point of safety for anyone involved.

A federal meat inspector told us,"It seems like the USDA is doing all it can to make sure the program succeeds...even if it means betraying consumers by hiding the truth about their food." That truth includes contaminated meat, dangerous conditions for workers, and inhumane treatment of animals. Speeding up the lines really only helps companies profit—we’re not having it!

In the coming weeks, FIC will be sending more information about ways to take action and spread the word about this unappetizing plan. We don't want to eat what this administration is serving, and we’re counting on you to help us put a stop to it.

VICTORY OVER AG-GAG

Good news for all those who care about animal welfare, worker safety, and the environment:

A federal court struck down Idaho’s unconstitutional AgGag law!

These appalling industry-backed laws stifle whistleblowers who expose animal abuse and other wrongdoing on factory farms. Producers wanted to keep their practices a secret, even if they had to trample on the First Amendment to do it, but the courts said NO.

Thanks to your support, we contributed vital research and documentation to this legal case—and we’re pushing forward as plaintiffs in a case to take down an AgGag law in North Carolina. This month, FIC sat in the courtroom to hear oral arguments from our lawyers in the North Carolina case—check out our blog for more details.

» Read more on our blog https://www.foodwhistleblower.org/north-carolina-aggag-the-fight-continues/

We won’t stop fighting for the brave whistleblowers we rely on to report abuse in a secretive industry and make our food system more transparent. It should never be a crime to report a crime—you have a right to know what’s in your food.

KEEPING AN EYE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Trump’s ridiculous antics are undermining our democracy and are too numerous to count, but here’s a short list of what our whistleblowers are concerned about in 2018:

Unsafe Chemicals in Packing Plants: Several FIC whistleblowers reported terrible health problems from exposure to a chemical sprayed on raw meat and poultry in packing plants. Companies routinely use antimicrobial sprays to prevent the spread of foodborne pathogens. While government agencies have ruled the sprays safe for consumers, no agency has evaluated the safety of these chemicals for workers exposed to them every day.

Unsafe Poultry Speeds: This fall, the National Chicken Council (NCC) petitioned Trump's USDA to let plants speed up their lines. Whistleblowing inspectors in trial plants told FIC that meat from these plants is not “wholesome or safe to consume.” Faster line speeds also put workers at higher risk of injuries, and FIC joined a national coalition to protect workers from such injustices.

While these issues top our list, we also see weakened regulations for pesticide use, key posts at USDA left unfilled, and communication suppressed about climate change. We know there must be stories yet untold, and we’re ready to protect the brave people willing to tell those stories and protect the food system for all of us.

WHISTLEBLOWER SPOTLIGHT: PHYLLIS MCKELVEY

In 2012, FIC fought to stop poultry line speed increases. One of the fight’s biggest champions was Phyllis McKelvey. Recently, Phyllis stepped back into the ring when the USDA was poised to increase speeds from 140 birds per minute to 175.

Phyllis McKelvey is a retired USDA Food Safety Inspection Service inspector with 44 years of experience working for the government and private industry in the poultry sector. Before leaving the USDA in 2010, Phyllis witnessed firsthand the damage that the agency’s pilot high-speed poultry inspection program (HIMP) created. She brought food and worker safety concerns to the Government Accountability Project after the USDA’s 2012 announcement of its plan to expand the HIMP program. To hear more about Phyllis’s story and the danger of line speed, watch this video and others like it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUKZxGJY7qM.
PUKZxGJY7qM

RURAL OUTREACH IN AGRICULTURAL NORTH CAROLINA

One of FIC’s big New Year’s plans is to increase its outreach to rural communities. Specifically, we are cooperating with our friends at the Rachel Carson Council and RAFI to build relationships in North Carolina. Together, with our peer organizations, FIC will tell the stories of the farmers who have fallen victim to corporate influence and the people in the communities who are impacted by agricultural waste.

Most people don’t realize it, but the same flimsy loans that gave rise to the 2008 housing crises are the same loans being used to prop up modern industrial farming. This is a veritable house of cards wherein farmers can barely eke out a living. Pitted against each other, retaliated against for speaking out, and kept in a perpetual debt cycle, America’s farmers are being reduced to nothing more than serfs with mortgages.

But the damage doesn’t end there. It sounds unbelievable, but FIC has met with neighboring community members who have been assaulted by industrial agriculture’s waste. Animal feces are literally being sprayed on their homes, cars, and clotheslines. Just imagine the smell.

We have a few events planned this year in North Carolina. It is our hope that we can build partnerships, encourage action, and most importantly, listen and learn. We will keep you informed of where we will be and what we are doing. Stay tuned!
Regards,
Amanda Hitt, Director
The Food Integrity Campaign

[turiya]

Tips??? What are they?

http://viralpirate.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/maxresdefault-2-600x338.jpg

[onawah]

It's time for a serious reformer at the CDC


US Take Action: http://autismactionnetwork.org/
Now that his appointee to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has resigned under a cloud, it is well past time for the President to appoint a serious reformer to run the embattled agency. Yesterday Brenda Fitzgerald, MD, resigned after Politico revealed she was trading Merck and other drug company stocks, which are regulated by CDC, and Japanese tobacco company stock, after she was appointed to head the agency. Fitzgerald was a political and public health insider not likely to rock any boats.

Please send an email to the White House http://autismactionnetwork.org and please call the White House, and let the staffer know that you want the President to appoint a serious reformer who will begin to drain the swamp at the CDC.

White House: (202) 456-1111

The CDC is a mess of conflicts of interest, scandal, and ineptitude that seriously undermines confidence in the agency and achieving vitally important public health goals. Among the many issues the new head of the CDC needs to tackle:

Why does an agency that generates screaming headlines nationally over a handful of mumps or measles cases offer complete silence on the skyrocketing numbers of children with autism?
Why are eight-year old data used in the CDC's main autism epidemiology project, the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network?
The CDC sells billions of dollars worth of vaccines every year through the Vaccines for Children program. An agency can't regulate a product they sell.
The CDC owns dozens of vaccine patents. An agency can't regulate a product they own. The federal government needs to divest these patents.
The CDC is an old-fashioned federal agency that has the mutually contradictory tasks of both regulating vaccine safety and maximizing consumption of these highly profitable products. One agency can't do both. That's why the old Atomic Energy Commission was split into the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the National Transportation Safety Board was split away from the Federal Aviation Administration. Obviously, an agency can't investigate it's own failures. Vaccine safety evaluation must be split away to a new agency like the NRC or NTSB outside the control of the existing vaccine industry apparatus.
Why after 8 years is indicted embezzler and CDC autism researcher Poul Thorsen still living openly in Denmark? And why are the obviously fabricated studies conducted under his direction still used as a basis for US autism policy?
We need a serious public investigation of the allegations made by CDC scientist William Thompson of an internal cover-up of findings of significantly higher autism among different groups of children, including African-American boys, who got the MMR.
The CDC Foundation solicits "donations" to subsidize CDC operations from the very corporations the CDC is supposed to regulate. Imagine if the Securities and Exchange Commission took private "donations" from Wall Street banks via a "foundation." Institutional bribery and the CDC foundation must go.
The deficits at the CDC go on and on. We don’t have space to list them all here.

[KiwiElf]

Using those labels and assuming that you know what is motivating another is buying into all the divisive tactics that the elite have used all along to create the kind of chaos that they savor.
I appreciate the good things that Trump is doing, but like any politician, he is not blameless nor is he immune to corruption.
I will be as happy as anyone if the Clinton/Obama crime ring is busted for good.



I have no interest whatever in debating with Trump fans.

...And I have EXACTLY the same sentiments towards Trump haters & snowflakes #MAGA :bigsmile:

I don't "assume" to know anything. "Knowing" is relative. I could say EXACTLY the same thing from the other side of the fence... BOTH POV are "true" to the individual :) - not necessarily correct in the bigger picture ... Hegelian dialectic, cognitive dissonance, programming, psychological projection & selective perception.

It works both ways. That's the "trick"... Yin & Yang. ;)

[Baby Steps]

Whatever we think about Trump, his agenda, who he owes his loyalties to, and whether he will get us all killed....

It has to be recognised that He, his family, various military, security & politicians including Trey Gowdy, are currently tangling with a malign force that is ruthless and deadly. For that we all should be grateful.

[onawah]

ANTIQUITIES Act Protects National Monuments from Trump Administration’s Attempts to Roll Back Protections
https://www.tomudall.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-introduce-antiquities-act-to-protect-national-monuments-from-trump-administrations-attempts-to-roll-back-protections
1/31/18


Bill reinforces that only Congress can alter national monuments; directs new resources to enhance existing monuments
WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) led a group of 18 Democratic senators in introducing legislation to enhance protections for national monuments against the Trump administration’s unprecedented attacks on public lands. The America’s Natural Treasures of Immeasurable Quality Unite, Inspire, and Together Improve the Economies of States (ANTIQUITIES) Act of 2018 reinforces Congress’ intent in the Antiquities Act of 1906: only Congress has the authority to modify a national monument designation.

S. 2354, the ANTIQUITIES Act of 2018, protects and enhances national monuments in three main provisions:
-It officially declares Congress’ support for the 51 national monuments established by presidents in both parties between January 1996 and April 2017 under their authority established by the Antiquities Act of 1906.
-It reinforces that existing law clearly states that presidential proclamations designating national monuments are valid and cannot be reduced or diminished, except by an act of Congress.
-It further enhances protections for the presidentially designated national monuments by 1) requiring that they be surveyed, mapped and that management plans be completed in two years—in the same manner as congressionally designated national monuments—and 2) that they receive additional resources to ensure that they will continue to meet their full potential of providing unmatched economic, recreational, and cultural benefits to their states and to the nation.

A summary of the ANTIQUITIES Act of 2018 can be found here.

The ANTIQUITIES Act comes in response to President Trump’s announcement that he will eliminate 2 million acres of protections for Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments — the largest rollback of federally protected lands in American history. Trump took this action despite the fact that Americans across the country overwhelmingly voiced support for keeping the monuments intact. During the administration’s public comment process, over 99 percent of the 2.8 million comments received were in favor of maintaining existing protections for our national monuments.

National monuments and America’s protected public lands help fuel an $887 billion outdoor recreation industry, which sustains 7.6 million jobs and creates $65.3 billion in federal tax revenue and $59.2 billion in local and state tax revenue.

“President Trump’s unprecedented attack on public lands is not just an affront to the overwhelming majority of Americans who cherish these precious places — it’s also illegal. This legislation makes it crystal clear that monuments designated through the Antiquities Act of 1906 may not be altered by future presidents because only Congress has the authority to change a national monument designation,” Udall said. "From Rio Grande del Norte, to Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase, our national monuments enjoy broad support and provide unmatched economic, recreational, and cultural value to New Mexico and the nation. The ANTIQUITIES Act builds upon these existing protections, ensuring that we keep our public lands in public hands and stop the president’s politically motivated attempts to sell off our public lands to the highest-bidding special interests.”

In addition to Udall, the ANTIQUITIES Act is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).

In addition, the five Bears Ears Coalition Tribes (Hopi, Navajo, Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, and Zuni) support the ANTIQUITIES Act of 2018.

“President Trump’s decision to dramatically shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah puts the future of these treasures in jeopardy and threatens our culture, history, and heritage,” said Durbin. “The ANTIQUITIES Act protects our country’s unique public lands and reinforces the fact that no president has the authority to reduce or diminish national monuments designated by their predecessors. Our national monuments are for all of us – Americans and visitors alike – and we must ensure that they remain in their natural condition for current and future generations to enjoy.”

“This critically urgent bill ensures that public lands and waters, from the Marine National Monument off the coast of New England, to Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, are protected for generations to come,” said Blumenthal. “President Trump’s reckless reduction of national monuments exposes our protected lands to environmental and economic destruction. This legislation will safeguard New England’s pristine marine monument from actions that would jeopardize scientific research, the health of our oceans, and Connecticut’s economy. It will also thwart the Trump Administration’s attempted sellout to industries that prioritize profit over environmental wellbeing.”

“Iconic monuments like Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou earned their well-deserved designation after significant public process and with deep community support. The unilateral decision by the Trump administration to target these designations runs completely counter to the very idea of local input,” said Wyden. “This bill builds on the existing national monuments designations under attack by this administration and sends a very clear message to Secretary Zinke that local voices will not be ignored.”

“The Trump administration has shown a blatant disregard for the Antiquities Act, which has protected so many iconic places that we all treasure and are integral parts of who we are as Americans,” said Heinrich. “The President’s unprecedented actions to drastically shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in southern Utah—and his looming threats to other national monuments like Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks and Rio Grande del Norte in New Mexico—tear at the heart of America’s conservation legacy and are a direct assault on sacred lands and tribal sovereignty. We must do everything we can to prevent the President from rolling back protections for the public lands we all own and love. Conserving our natural and cultural heritage for our children and all future generations of Americans is a moral responsibility.”

“Congress passed the original Antiquities Act to give presidents the power to create, not tear down, national monuments,” said Feinstein. “In California, that power has helped protect millions of acres of iconic landscapes and historic landmarks. Our bill ensures that all monuments designated by previous administrations will continue to be protected, regardless of which party controls the White House.”

“National monuments are part of who we are as a nation of good stewards and good citizens,” said Schatz. “They preserve our resources. They memorialize the people and places that are part of the American story. That’s why this legislation is so important, particularly as this administration tries to strip these treasures from the American public. This bill reasserts Congressional authority to protect our national monuments and preserve our history and natural resources for future generations.”

“It is our duty to protect our national monuments from this Administration’s attempts to diminish and open them to drilling and logging,” said Harris. “This is about rejecting the false choice that you’re either in favor of the economy or you’re in favor of the environment. We can do both, while ensuring that our future generations have a chance to experience the beauty of our public lands and oceans, too.”

“No president in history has called into question the legal validity of any national monument protected under the Antiquities Act until President Trump,” said Cortez Masto. “His unwelcome interference with the protection of our public lands shows blatant disregard for our natural history and ignorance to the economic benefits that national monuments bring to states like Nevada. I am proud to cosponsor a bill that protects presidential proclamations made under the Antiquities Act so that no one can jeopardize decades’ worth of conservation efforts.”

“When the President and the Secretary of Interior abdicate their responsibility for protecting our public lands, it’s up to Congress to act,” said Hirono. “Monuments like the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument and Honouliuli National Monument were established after years of review, and the national monument designation assists efforts to combat climate change, preserves biodiversity, honors cultural traditions, and recognizes our nation’s history. Mahalo to Senator Udall for his leadership in upholding the Antiquities Act of 1906.”

“The Trump administration’s reckless attack on the future of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument’s irreplaceable biodiversity is legally dubious and unprecedented in American history,” Merkley said. “This legislation would protect Oregon’s national treasure and other public lands that are deeply cherished by the American people.”

“Since its enactment, 16 presidents from both parties have utilized the authority of the Act to preserve and protect national monuments and neighboring lands, including the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore City and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Until now, no president has ordered such a broad ‘review’ of existing monuments. President Trump’s actions threaten our very national heritage,” said Cardin. “The unprecedented scale of the attacks comes as the Trump Administration pushes to expand extractive industries on public lands. Our public lands belong to us all. We are taking action to ensure they exist for generations.”

“Over the past year, President Trump has willfully ignored the fact that our public lands belong to all of us," said Booker. "This bill is an important protection that will make it clear that President Trump does not have the authority to undo Antiquities Act protections put in place by past presidents for our shared national treasures."

“Maryland has a rich heritage and is home to several national monuments like Fort McHenry and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad. These sites provide important cultural, historical, and environmental lessons to people across our state,” said Van Hollen. “Never before have our national treasures been under such a direct threat – this Administration’s actions go against decades of precedent and respect surrounding the Antiquities Act. I’m proud to join Senator Udall in ensuring our national treasures remain protected and public, and I urge the Senate to take up this bill without delay.”

“The designation of Bears Ears National Monument protected sacred land, gave local tribes a voice in its management, and reflected the wishes of communities whose cultures and economies are grounded in this area. The President’s attempt over the past year to remove protections for Bears Ears and other national monuments is unprecedented, and a shameful addition to our nation’s long and tragic history of broken promises to our tribes,” Bennet said. “With my colleagues, I will work to advance this bill to enhance protections for Bears Ears, Canyons of the Ancients, and other existing national monuments – putting an end to this administration’s continuous attempts to tear down our country’s legacy of protecting wild and sacred places.”

“Patagonia is pleased that Senator Udall has harnessed the millions of Americans that support these special places in an effort to provide the ironclad protection they warrant. Patagonia knows that the spirit of conservation is alive and well and we salute Senator Udall’s leadership,” said Lisa Pike Sheehy, vice president of Environmental Activism for Patagonia. “Hundreds of businesses from the outdoor industry are in the support for keeping these lands open to all Americans, and we aren’t going away until they are protected.”

“President Trump and Secretary Zinke are trying to sell out our public lands and waters—magnificent landscapes and sacred sites of historic significance—to the highest bidder,” said League of Conservation Voters Deputy Legislative Director Alex Taurel. “This bill echoes the millions of public comments in support of keeping existing protections in place and emphasizes that only Congress has the authority to diminish national monuments.”

“This legislation reflects the views of the millions of Americans who opposed President Trump’s illegal and unprecedented assault on our national monuments and ensures the protection of these treasures for future generations,” said Sharon Buccino, director of Natural Resources Defense Council’s Public Lands Program. “It also recognizes the critical role of tribes in managing their ancestral lands.”

“We thank Senator Udall and all those Senators who have taken a stand with millions of Americans who spoke up in support of our national monuments and the cultural, natural and historic wonders they protect,” said Dan Hartinger, National Monuments Campaign Director for the Wilderness Society. “President Trump’s elimination of over two million acres of national monuments last month was illegal and directly against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Americans. Rather than unprecedented, misguided, and unpopular attacks on our national monuments and public lands, the ANTIQUITIES Act of 2018 recognizes that we should continue to protect these precious places for future generations.”

"Our veterans sacrificed to defend the lands-of-the-free. There is no better representation of free lands, than our public lands,” said Garett Reppenhagen, an Iraq War veteran with Vet Voice Foundation. “In light of this unprecedented attack, this bill provides an added layer of insurance to ward off future attacks on national monuments and affirms the nation’s commitment to keeping public lands in public hands."

“We are grateful to Senator Udall and the co-sponsors of this legislation for standing up to President Trump’s ongoing assault against America’s public lands,” said Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Executive Director Scott Groene. “Trump’s illegal evisceration of Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments will not withstand the scrutiny of either the courts or history, and we support this legislation as it would affirm the love Americans share for our Monuments and provide the funding needed to protect these lands.”

[onawah]

Trump Administration Announces Plans to Open Nearly All U.S. Waters to Offshore Drilling
From Oceana International
Oceana Says Radical Offshore Drilling “Free-For-All” Ignores State and Local Opposition
Thursday, January 4, 2018
http://oceana.org/press-center/press-releases/trump-administration-announces-plans-open-nearly-all-us-waters-offshore?utm_campaign=enews&utm_content=201801enewsUS&utm_source=en&utm_medium=email&utm_id=BB4TuiKq3mtKwJ

Today, the Trump administration announced its plans to open nearly all U.S. federal waters to offshore drilling activities. In a new draft five-year program (2019-2024) for oil and gas development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), the Department of the Interior (DOI) outlined its plans to expand future oil and gas leasing to the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans, as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico. This is the largest number of potential offshore lease sales ever proposed.

In response to the newly proposed plan, Oceana campaign director Diane Hoskins released the following statement:

“This plan opens the floodgates to dirty and dangerous offshore drilling, threatening coastal economies that rely on clean and healthy oceans.

This radical offshore drilling free-for-all is a clear example of politics over people, ignoring widespread local and state opposition. Consider the West Coast, where all three governors are adamantly opposed to expanded offshore drilling. Or the Atlantic, where over 140 East Coast municipalities have publicly opposed offshore drilling activities. Along Florida’s Gulf Coast, there is a moratorium on offshore drilling until June 30, 2022, and the Department of Defense (DOD) has made it clear they need uninhibited access to the area for training, free from oil and gas activities.

Past attempts to drill in the remote and unforgiving Arctic waters resulted in the abandoned drill rig Kulluk grounded near Kodiak Island while the crew were hoisted to safety. There is still extreme weather, no way to clean up an oil spill in sea ice, and very limited infrastructure to deal with any kind of emergency.

The Trump administration’s plan not only ignores the risky nature of dirty and dangerous drilling, but also the people and coastal businesses who would be most affected. The administration’s proposal would put large multi-national corporations ahead of coastal residents and healthy ocean-dependent economies.

Americans have seen the devastation that comes from offshore drilling. Seven years after the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout, the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, the Gulf is still recovering. Will we allow Florida’s white beaches or the popular and pristine Outer Banks to share a similar fate? What about the scenic Pacific coast or even remote Arctic waters?

Giving the oil industry unfettered access to our nation’s oceans is a recipe for disaster. From ocean views scattered with drilling platforms, to the industrialization of our coastal communities, to the unacceptable risk of more BP Deepwater Horizon-like disasters – expanding offshore drilling to new areas threatens thriving coastal economies and already thriving industries like tourism, recreation and fishing that rely on healthy oceans. According to the National Ocean Economics Program’s 2016 report, in U.S. coastal states, 2.2 million American jobs and $108.37 billion in GDP depend on healthy ocean ecosystems.

It’s time for Washington to listen to the communities that have the most to lose and nothing to gain from dirty and dangerous offshore drilling. Secretary Zinke needs to protect our coast, not sell it out to the highest bidder.”

As of today, opposition and concern over offshore drilling activities includes:

Governors of Florida, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Oregon and Washington
More than 150 East and West Coast municipalities
Over 1,200 local, state and federal bipartisan officials
An alliance representing over 41,000 businesses and 500,000 fishing families
The North, South and Mid-Atlantic fishery management councils
Commercial and recreational fishing interests such as the Southeastern Fisheries Association, Fisheries Survival Fund, Southern Shrimp Alliance, The Billfish Foundation and the International Game Fish Association
California Fish and Game Commission, California Coastal Commission, California State Lands Commission and California Senate
DOD and the Florida Defense Support Task Force
Today’s draft plan is the result of President Trump’s April 28 executive order on offshore energy, which directed DOI to encourage offshore drilling. The public has 60-days to comment on the draft proposed program, which is the first of two opportunities for public comment on the plan.

To learn more about Oceana’s campaign to stop the expansion of offshore drilling activities, please click here:
http://usa.oceana.org/our-campaigns/climate_and_energy/campaign?_ga=2.136081523.317764054.1517591580-2047930241.1515694791

[we-R-one]

In reference to post #462


“President Trump’s decision to dramatically shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah puts the future of these treasures in jeopardy and threatens our culture, history, and heritage,” said Durbin. “The ANTIQUITIES Act protects our country’s unique public lands and reinforces the fact that no president has the authority to reduce or diminish national monuments designated by their predecessors. Our national monuments are for all of us – Americans and visitors alike – and we must ensure that they remain in their natural condition for current and future generations to enjoy.”

Yes Senator ‘Dicky’ Durbin reveals his alignment with ‘deep state’ and one world government. What people don’t understand, are your National Monuments are being given to the UNITED NATIONS via UNESCO, an extension of the policy and procedures of THE UNITED NATIONS, hence the uproar by individuals who are watching Trump dismantle their ‘plans’ for globalist rule. And 'Dicky' Durbin couldn't give two rips about the people 'enjoying' our land now or in the future. The point being... the Agenda 21 plan is to kick you off the land, permanently, hence in pure nut job fashion, what they say and what they mean are two different things. Please see underlined.


“Americans may think we have complete sovereignty over National Parks, Monuments, and other places of historical or geographical value within our own borders. The truth is shocking. In 1972 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) drew up a treaty called The Convention Concerning Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. UNESCO's official website says, "World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located." Under Carter, Reagan, the first Bush, and Clinton, the following U.S. National and State Parks were put on the World Heritage list: Mesa Verde; Yellowstone; Everglades; Grand Canyon; Redwood;
Mammoth Cave; Olympic; Great Smoky Mountains; Yosemite; Hawaii Volcanoes;
Carlsbad Caverns; and Kluane/Wrangell-St.Elias/Glacier Bay/ Tatshenshini-Alsek. Also listed were these historic sites: Independence Hall; Statue of Liberty; Native American culture sites; Monticello and University of Virginia; Waterton Glacier International Peace Park.

By signing onto UNESCO's Convention in 1973 under Nixon, the U.S. agreed to manage our parks according to standards set by UNESCO, giving up sovereignty over our territory and submitting to the U.N.'s agenda.”

Source: http://www.appindie.org/index.php/our-blue-earth/89-our-blue-earth/557-who-really-owns-our-national-parks



“During a meeting in 2009, Mr. Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yai, Chair of UNESCO’s executive board, admitted the organization was created to “think global governance”

Source: https://www.infowars.com/unesco-chair-admits-organization-was-founded-to-push-global-governance/


Thank goodness the UNITED STATES pulled out of UNESCO:

"UNESCO has a dismal track record. It has advanced the agendas of numerous dictatorships, indulged in virulent anti-Israel bias and offered textbook lessons in bad management."

Trump Is Right The US Should Leave UNESCO
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/10/20/trump-is-right-the-u-s-should-leave-unesco/?utm_term=.5fc3cc405efe

[AutumnW]

Onawah,

The really appalling thing about environmental deregulation is the fact that so many people feel it will provide jobs that pay well. Amd initially, they are correct, but in the long run, not that many. It will benefit those who are already rich.

At the same time, as I have mentioned, I live in a place where environmental issues provoke hysteria in some people and you can't get past that to persuade them that not all environmental regulations make sense.

[onawah]

These will be hard lessons for many to learn, on both sides of the political/economic divide.
What is concerning me a lot currently is the prevailing lack of awareness about the relation between fracking and offshore drilling, and the increasing rates of earthquake and volcanic activity. One only has to tune in to a few of Dutchsinse's latest reports ( see: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?98526-Dutchsinse-s-Earthquake-Reports-and-Forecasts&p=1205576#post1205576 ) ...to see these are not minor issues, and are becoming more serious by the day.

Onawah,

The really appalling thing about environmental deregulation is the fact that so many people feel it will provide jobs that pay well. Amd initially, they are correct, but in the long run, not that many. It will benefit those who are already rich.

At the same time, as I have mentioned, I live in a place where environmental issues provoke hysteria in some people and you can't get past that to persuade them that not all environmental regulations make sense.

[onawah]

What To Expect In 2018 - With Special Guest Gerald Celente
RonPaulLibertyReport
Streamed live on Jan 18, 2018
_jXPzPbQN3Q

[AutumnW]

Thanks for link, Onawah. I listened to this one a while back, I think. I LOVE Celente. I still haven't listened to the one you posted the other day. Just too distracted.

As far as declaring different areas world heritage sites with the mandate of protecting them for everybody, I don't see the harm. Some global ventures go too far and undercut national governments in ways they shouldn't. But I see nothing in one of the above post that would scare me much. There is rampant hysteria on both sides of the environmental "globalist agenda" divide, that has to be taken down a notch.

I believe the definition of a populist leader is one who appeals to the animal spirits in a large segment of the population (usually with reason and way past due, in many regards) What ends up happening, (Arab Spring, Russia under Yeltsin)
is the downtrodden, once again, are taken advantage of, like REALLY screwed over. By that time, it's too late and dictatorial powers become entrenched.

The military, represented by Trump's cabinet, currently appear to be restraining him. So, they will end up looking like the lesser of two evils, when all is said and done. And some people will be okay with a military dictatorship, because what precedes it might be seen to be scary scary.

[we-R-one]

As far as declaring different areas world heritage sites with the mandate of protecting them for everybody, I don't see the harm. Some global ventures go too far and undercut national governments in ways they shouldn't. But I see nothing in one of the above post that would scare me much. There is rampant hysteria on both sides of the environmental "globalist agenda" divide, that has to be taken down a notch.

Well you don’t see the harm because you either do not understand or choose not to recognize the intention of THE UNITED NATIONS who’s nefarious plans have been clearly laid out in a document known as Agenda 21. Please see www.democratsagainstagenda21.com for research and information. Here’s the ‘end game’ taken from the above link and written in bold red writing on the website, you can’t miss it:

UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development is the action plan implemented worldwide to inventory and control all land, all water, all minerals, all plants, all animals, all construction, all means of production, all energy, all education, all information, and all human beings in the world. INVENTORY AND CONTROL.----Rosa Koire

This isn’t a joke or some convulted conspiracy. The plan was implemented in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA via Executive Order 12852 minus congressional approval. The purpose of the executive order was to create an organized means of implementing the plan by forming the Presidential Council on Sustainable Development(PCSD). The PCSD consisted of every Federal Branch of our government with the point being to make each agency adhere to the policies of this agenda and incorporate on local levels. Through the process, the individual(we the people) is being forced into policies that will have a drastic affect on our quality of life. Additionally, further implementation continues by the assistance of NGO's such as Sierra Club and The Center for Biological Diversity used to promote eco-terrorism in order to force their plan/viewpoint on the American public.

Why does THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA need an organization such as UNESCO dictating how we should manage our national parks and monuments? We don’t! Their intention is to chip away at our sovereignty through treaty after treaty until eventually we have given away our control to a well known dictatorship THE UNITED NATIONS. Again, to understand you need to be familiar with the policy and procedures of Agenda 21 and how it’s being implemented in every country via signed Treaty agreements.

Trump understands the significance of being a sovereign nation; proven in his recent actions of pulling out of disasterous treaties that only promote the interests of the controllers. And it’s why individuals tied to ‘deep state’ activities are in an uproar doing everything they can to discredit Trump’s efforts because he’s systematically dismantling the obvious planned takeover by an organization who promotes ruling via dictatorship and not in the best interest of the people.

My opinion is based on what the research shows and documented actions of said individuals and organizations involved. If you do not read or do further research on the topic you will not have the same understanding. I gave you a great link, a one stop shop, for further exploration. If you live in a country where your sovereignty has already been over-run, chances are the information you’re being exposed to in regards to the situation in THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is likely skewed and misleading. Again, my opinion is based on ‘documented actions of said individuals and organizations involved’. Treaties and executive orders are ‘documented actions’, not pie in the sky fantasies of delusion or paranoia.

[AutumnW]

Onawah,

So far there are three issues where the Feds are going to lock horns with state's rights:

--sanctuary cities
--any attempts to interfere with the states that have legalized pot
--Drilling offshore. Washington, Oregon, California will put up tremendous obstacles.

And you never know. Maybe Unesco or some other trustworthy organization can help in the struggle with offshore drilling. Ridiculous to contemplate ever more infrastructure being implemented to prop up petroleum in its twilight years.

[we-R-one]

Maybe Unesco or some other trustworthy organization can help in the struggle with offshore drilling.

As already mentioned, UNESCO no longer has jurisdiction in THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA a link provided earlier explains. You can also google the topic for further explanation. One of the means to destabilize and shut down the economy of a country is to make sure they have no access to their own resources. The point of opening up offshore drilling is to bolster domestic energy production rather than relying on other countries for our oil. Taking over natural resources and shutting down production via Eco-terrorism is part of the Agenda 21 plan.

[AutumnW]

Whatever we think about Trump, his agenda, who he owes his loyalties to, and whether he will get us all killed....

It has to be recognised that He, his family, various military, security & politicians including Trey Gowdy, are currently tangling with a malign force that is ruthless and deadly. For that we all should be grateful.

Not to worry. He is being protected by Israel and the military...and we all know what good guys they are!

[onawah]

National monuments slashed by Trump will officially be open to mining on Friday
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-national-monuments-mining-bc92ca54db29/
JENNY ROWLAND
FEB 1, 2018

Trump's unprecedented attack on public lands is already benefiting extractive industry.

At 9 a.m. EST Friday, the extractive industry will gain drilling and mining access to previously protected American land, according to an order issued by President Donald Trump late last year.

Trump took an unprecedented step for a U.S. president in December — signing a proclamation that dramatically reduced the size of two national monuments. Bears Ears National Monument was cut by more than 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was reduced by half. This resulted in the largest elimination of protected areas in U.S. history. The move put tens of thousands of Native American sacred sites at risk, along with key wildlife habitat, and areas used for outdoor recreation.

While the longer-term fate of Trump’s likely illegal action will play out in the courts, also buried in his December proclamation was a provision that on February 2, 2018, the areas excluded from the monuments would become open to private mineral companies to begin staking mining and drilling claims.

“We’re working on getting information and new monument maps ready for people interested in claims,” Utah Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spokesman Michael Richardson confirmed to Reuters.

Uranium firm lobbied Trump administration to scale back Bears Ears National Monument
Trump recently announced his decision to shrink the national monument by more than 1 million acres.

Staking a mining claim on public lands gives an individual or company the exclusive right to extract minerals from a specific area of that land. Under the nearly 150-year-old 1872 Mining Law, staking a claim still involves literally putting stakes into the ground at the four corners of the boundary of your claim. This is then followed up within 90 days by recording the claim with the local BLM office and paying a modest annual fee.

Though Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and some supporters of Trump’s cuts, like Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT), have denied that the goal of the reductions was for mineral development, both monuments sit above known coal and mineral deposits.

Bears Ears in particular, has proven deposits of uranium and other minerals within it’s original boundaries. One company, Energy Fuels Resources, owns and operates a uranium mine just outside the boundaries of the original monument. In May, the company submitted a letter to Interior requesting reductions to the monument and noted “there are also many other known uranium and vanadium deposits located within the [original boundaries] that could provide valuable energy and mineral resources in the future.”

House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), along with 11 other Democrats on the committee, sent a letter to Zinke on Wednesday asking him to prevent mining and development claims inside the original borders of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. The letter requested that the secretary issue an “emergency withdrawal” under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) due to the clear threat that “eager” mining companies pose.

The potential destruction to Bears Ears is also gaining attention from conservation observers outside of the U.S.; earlier this week an arm of the United Nations asked the president to reverse his action, writing that the reduction to Bears Ears could cause irreparable damage to historical artifacts.

#USA: The decision to reduce the area included in #BearsEarsNationalMonument in Utah by 85 percent is a huge setback for the protection of the rights of #indigenouspeoples. http://ow.ly/cZ5Y30i6Cy0

“The decision to reduce the area included in the national monument by 85 percent is a huge setback for the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples,” said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a special rapporteur for the United Nation’s Human Rights Council. “It exposes thousands of acres of sacred lands and archaeological sites to the threats of desecration, contamination and permanent destruction. I urge President Trump to reverse this decision and ensure the protection of sacred lands and archaeological sites for the benefit of future generations.”

While the national monuments in Utah face imminent harm, they are not the only public lands currently at risk. The Trump administration’s national monument report includes plans to alter at least eight additional monuments that range from allowing logging in Maine’s Katahdin Woods and Waters, to allowing commercial fishing in the Pacific Remote Islands.

.

[AutumnW]

Onawah, This is really tragic. I am so sorry that you have to live under this regime. Try to be patient with those poor souls who don't realize they are being suckered while their environment is being degraded. There doesn't seem to be an easy remedy to this other than, hey...alien intervention! That might work, huh? I am serious. We keep messing with THEIR planet and we may be in for a big surprise, particularly sacred sites.

I have this vision that what Trump could create, in the mythosphere, bleeding into the mundane is a Skinner ranch effect, blanketing all areas where deep planetary environmental profanity is indulged.

[TargeT]

Onawah,

So far there are three issues where the Feds are going to lock horns with state's rights:

--sanctuary cities

From a legal standpoint, I think the feds win this one easily (due to the fact that crossing a border is the impetus)


Onawah,

So far there are three issues where the Feds are going to lock horns with state's rights:

--any attempts to interfere with the states that have legalized pot

States win this one, as long as nothing is exported from the state, no challenge at all as long as a judge isn't compromised.



Onawah,

So far there are three issues where the Feds are going to lock horns with state's rights:

--Drilling offshore. Washington, Oregon, California will put up tremendous obstacles.

And you never know. Maybe Unesco or some other trustworthy organization can help in the struggle with offshore drilling. Ridiculous to contemplate ever more infrastructure being implemented to prop up petroleum in its twilight years.



The Submerged Lands Act (SLA) of 1953 (https://www.boem.gov/Federal-Offshore-Lands/) grants individual States rights to the natural resources of submerged lands from the coastline to no more than 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) into the Atlantic, Pacific, the Arctic Oceans, and the Gulf of Mexico. The only exceptions are Texas and the west coast of Florida, where State jurisdiction extends from the coastline to no more than 3 marine leagues (16.2 km) into the Gulf of Mexico.

Doubt this will be a challenge, most rigs are WAY further out than 3 nautical miles, Feds will "win" this no problem.



Onawah, This is really tragic. I am so sorry that you have to live under a reign of Eco-terror.

Mining is eco terrorism? I knew a lot of gold miners in Alaska... they didn't seem like terrorists to me; we are pretty good at keeping those sites (as long as it's not strip mining or some such) fairly low impact.

I think the Eco-terrorism was in all the regulations imposed (based on fear.. aka terrorism) that ultimately just shut down the "little guy".

[AutumnW]

Oh the flailing, moaning, gnashing of teeth. It will be biblical! For those who missed the crucifixion, there will be front row seats to the "little guy's" awakening and death by shame and horror, minus a resurrection. Alas, I say unto thee, "what a bummer!"

[onawah]

Strip mining is on the rise, and that causes lots of problems.
[

Mining is eco terrorism? I knew a lot of gold miners in Alaska... they didn't seem like terrorists to me; we are pretty good at keeping those sites (as long as it's not strip mining or some such) fairly low impact.

.

[AutumnW]

Full disclosure -- I have shares in gold mines and feel bad about it. Strip mining. That's a fancy pants word for 'mountain removal' ain't it? And they say you can't move a mountain! I read the other day that monster mining machines will be driverless soon. Of course any new tech requires service people, manufacturing of component parts etc...but in aggregate increasing of automation across all sectors will kill high paying jobs. It sucks. And Trump's people raising false hopes about jobs is an abuse of those who rely on hope to get them through the day.

[onawah]

Surface mining is a more inclusive term, though strip mining (yes, it involves mountain removal) is just one category. See:
https://www.convergencetraining.com/blog/what-is-surface-mining
It brings to my mind the time long ago when I decided Timothy Leary was not a hero at all, as he began to describe a next step in humanity's evolution to be using up the earth's resources to the extent that moving off-planet became imperative.
Which seems to be what we are being programmed to accept via TV and Hollywood's futuristic and sci fi offerings.

[TargeT]

I always thought strip mining was a pejorative term, "surface mining" seems like some PC bull **** you say to not piss people off.

The majority of mines I saw were subsurface & followed mineral veins, strip mining (surface mining, mountain removal) is pretty ecologically devastating; far too invasive **in MOST areas**.


However, I do think all this "bringing coal back" is just more 4d chess and that the regulation removal has a different goal in mind.

(coal isn't coming back, there's just no way).

[AutumnW]

I always thought strip mining was a pejorative term, "surface mining" seems like some PC bull **** you say to not piss people off.

The majority of mines I saw were subsurface & followed mineral veins, strip mining (surface mining, mountain removal) is pretty ecologically devastating; far too invasive **in MOST areas**.


However, I do think all this "bringing coal back" is just more 4d chess and that the regulation removal has a different goal in mind.

(coal isn't coming back, there's just no way).

Target, thanks for your assessments. They are appreciated muchly. Do you have any idea what 'they' have in mind when it comes to deregulation of the coal mining industry?

[onawah]

People's Action ( the non-profit that has also been campaigning for Standing Rock) posted the following to their email list today (2/7/18)
https://peoplesaction.org/campaigns/healthcare/


Hateful and Cruel
People are going to die if Trump’s latest idea sees the light of day. If you or someone you know receives Medicaid, then join us in expressing outrage.

Trump wants to limit the number of months that low-income adults have access to Medicaid benefits. He allowed Republican governors in Kentucky and Indiana to impose work requirements for Medicaid enrollees. Now ten more states have lined up for federal waivers. Trump and Medicaid administrator Seema Verma are considering letting states put lifetime caps on Medicaid benefits. First in line for waivers are Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Utah and Wisconsin.

Your state could be next.

You heard that right. In the middle of the opioid epidemic, Trump wants to limit the amount of health care that low-income adults can get in their lifetime. People get sicker as they get older. The result will be a massive crisis in cities and states as poor people lose their health care.

People’s Action believes that health care is a human right. We fought and won Medicaid expansion in many states, most recently protecting 70,000 people by ballot measure in Maine. On July 30, 1965, President Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments which established Medicare and Medicaid, promising that they would "improve a wide range of health and medical services for Americans of all ages." And it worked.

Under Trump’s plan, low-wage workers who do not get health care through their jobs could reach their Medicaid maximum even though they are working. Employers who pay low wages and don’t provide health care will not be penalized. But their workers will be.

The point of this is to shred the safety net to pay for the tax scam that gave the wealthy and Big Pharma a permanent tax break. We will fight Trump and his administration tooth and nail to prevent time limits, work requirements, eligibility lockouts and other policies that seek to limit Medicaid.

[onawah]

Trump’s go-to law firm is suing Greenpeace and others with a “SLAPP” suit
Earth Rights International sent this alert to their email list today:


Last week, our Director Katie Redford spoke on a panel in Washington, D.C. alongside fellow activists from Greenpeace USA, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Open Society Foundations, and Stand.earth to discuss how corporations are deploying the law to threaten those that dare speak against them.
Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP) is a tool used by corporations to intimidate and silence their critics. These lawsuits pose a great threat to the organizations and activists diligently working to protect human rights and the environment. Corporations that file SLAPP suits are sending a clear message to organizations and activists: If you speak out against us, we’ll take you to court.
(Watch Robert Reich break down SLAPP suits in this short video.)
PlhVHiWM4yk

Greenpeace USA
Dec 7, 2017
Trump’s go-to law firm is suing Greenpeace and others with a “SLAPP” suit. The company behind the Dakota Access pipeline is using this as a way to try and erase the history of the Indigenous-led peaceful protests that took place at Standing Rock — but we are not going to let that happen.

Take action against corporate bullies: http://bit.ly/2iwvopK

[TargeT]

Target, thanks for your assessments. They are appreciated muchly. Do you have any idea what 'they' have in mind when it comes to deregulation of the coal mining industry?

It seems more targeted at mineral extraction in general, Coal is just the vehicle to "get us there".

Not sure what it's about other than "not really about coal"; I haven't given much deeper research time to this topic.

[ThePythonicCow]

It seems more targeted at mineral extraction in general, Coal is just the vehicle to "get us there".

Not sure what it's about other than "not really about coal"; I haven't given much deeper research time to this topic.

Agreed - mineral extraction in general.

The coal angle is played up, since there's more coal miners (present or former) in the population than miners of most other minerals.

A key way that the US will dig its way out of the great "balance of trade" hole we're in is through using its land, to farm, mine and drill for oil (including on the north slope of Alaska and along the coastline of the US).

We've shipped much of our manufacturing to foreign lands, and we've been depending on our military, banks, intelligence, and drug businesses, supporting King Dollar, to pay for our imports. With the death of King Dollar, that gig won't continue to work, and we (the US) will have to find some other way to make our way in this world. Our standard of living will decline, and we'll sell whatever we can find to sell.

The Federal Government has been "preparing" for this day, spending the last few decades acquiring large portions of land in the Western US, which I suppose can be "sold" to the highest (or most corrupt) bidder, rather as happened in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

[AutumnW]

Paul, exactly. Trump is the American version of Boris Yeltsin.

[TargeT]

Paul, exactly. Trump is the American version of Boris Yeltsin.

I doubt trump had very much to do with what seems to be a very long term strategy (BLM land grabs, huge shipping corridors being put in to Mexican ports... someone knew, or had SERIOUS contingency plans in place a long time ago).

[Foxie Loxie]

Let's think of Trump as the Wrecking Ball....we'll see where the pieces fall! :boom:

[ThePythonicCow]

Paul, exactly. Trump is the American version of Boris Yeltsin.
By my current political and personal leanings, I tend to cheer Trump on, but from a more cynical view, I wouldn't deny that Trump is but an actor, who "struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more." Well ... surely you'd agree at least that his strut is well accomplished :).


I doubt trump had very much to do with what seems to be a very long term strategy (BLM land grabs, huge shipping corridors being put in to Mexican ports... someone knew, or had SERIOUS contingency plans in place a long time ago).
Agreed - we're embedded in patterns, strategies, cycles, ... that stretch back decades, if not generations, centuries or millenia.


Let's think of Trump as the Wrecking Ball....we'll see where the pieces fall! :boom:
I sometimes think of Trump as the front man for a bankruptcy proceeding.

[thunder24]

Target, thanks for your assessments. They are appreciated muchly. Do you have any idea what 'they' have in mind when it comes to deregulation of the coal mining industry?

It seems more targeted at mineral extraction in general, Coal is just the vehicle to "get us there".

Not sure what it's about other than "not really about coal"; I haven't given much deeper research time to this topic.

Saw a report last night that a company from Canada is moving drilling equipment into south dakota to extract gold

[Foxie Loxie]

Well, Paul....I'd say we DO have the Businessman in who can navigate us through all this. I was listening to Thomas Paine recount to Lionel how much Trump has "saved" for us already! Not having a business mind, it's hard for me to comprehend how all this works! :wacko:

[onawah]

Trump’s Big Buyback Bamboozle
Friday, February 09, 2018
by RobertReich.org
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/02/09/trumps-big-buyback-bamboozle

https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_large/public/views-article/corp.jpeg?itok=VcWXZNHD



Now that the richest 10 percent of Americans own 84 percent of all shares of stock (up from 77 percent at the turn of the century), this means even more wealth at the top.
The new tax law is giving America’s wealthy not one but two big windfalls: They stand to gain the most from the tax cuts for individuals, and they’re the big winners from the tax cuts for corporations.

Trump’s promise that corporations will use his giant new tax cut to make new investments and raise workers’ wages is proving to be about as truthful as his promise to release his tax returns.

The results are coming in, and guess what? Almost all the extra money is going into stock buybacks. Since the tax cut became law, buy-backs have surged to $88.6 billion. That’s more than double the amount of buybacks in the same period last year, according to data provided by Birinyi Associates.

Compare this to the paltry $2.5 billion of employee bonuses corporations say they’ll dispense in response to the tax law, and you see the bonuses for what they are – a small fig leaf to disguise the big buybacks.

If anything, the current tumult in the stock market will fuel even more buybacks.

Stock buybacks are corporate purchases of their own shares of stock. Corporations do this to artificially prop up their share prices.

Buybacks are the corporate equivalent of steroids. They may make shareholders feel better than otherwise, but nothing really changes.

Money spent on buybacks isn’t reinvested in new equipment, research, or factories. Buybacks don’t add jobs or raise wages. They don’t increase productivity. They don’t grow the American economy.

Yet CEOs love buybacks because most CEO pay is now in shares of stock and stock options rather than cash. So when share prices go up, executives reap a bonanza.

At the same time, the value of CEO pay from previous years also rises, in what amounts to a retroactive (and off the books) pay increase – on top of their already humongous compensation packages.

Big investors also love buybacks because they increase the value of their stock portfolios. Now that the richest 10 percent of Americans own 84 percent of all shares of stock (up from 77 percent at the turn of the century), this means even more wealth at the top.

Buybacks used to be illegal. The Securities and Exchange considered them unlawful means of manipulating stock prices, in violation of the Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934.

In those days, the typical corporation put about half its profits into research and development, plant and equipment, worker retraining, additional jobs, and higher wages.

But under Ronald Reagan, who rhapsodized about the “magic of the market,” the SEC legalized buybacks.

After that, buybacks took off. Just in the past decade, 94 percent of corporate profits have been devoted to buybacks and dividends, according to researchers at the Academic-Industry Research Network.

Last year, big American corporations spent a record $780 billion buying back their shares of stock.

And that was before the new tax law.

Put another way, the new tax law is giving America’s wealthy not one but two big windfalls: They stand to gain the most from the tax cuts for individuals, and they’re the big winners from the tax cuts for corporations.

This isn’t just unfair. It’s also bad for the economy as a whole. Corporations don’t invest because they get tax cuts. They invest because they expect that customers will buy more of their goods and services.

This brings us to the underlying problem. Companies haven’t been investing – and have been using their profits to buy back their stock instead – because they doubt their investments will pay off in additional sales.

That’s because most economic gains have been going to the wealthy, and the wealthy spend a far smaller percent of their income than the middle class and the poor. When most gains go to the top, there’s not enough demand to justify a lot of new investment.

Which also means that as long as public policies are tilted to the benefit of those at the top – as is Trump’s tax cut, along with Reagan’s legalization of stock buybacks – we’re not going to see much economic growth.

We’re just going to have more buybacks and more inequality.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Robert Reich, is the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, and Time magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the 20th century. He has written 14 books, including the best-sellers Aftershock, The Work of Nations, Beyond Outrage and, most recently, Saving Capitalism. He is also a founding editor of The American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and co-creator of the award-winning documentary INEQUALITY FOR ALL.

[onawah]

Stop Ivanka Trump and Marco Rubio from cutting Social Security benefits
The petition to Congress reads:
“Pitting paid family leave against Social Security is a cruel false choice. Reject Marco Rubio’s plan to pay for paid family leave by cutting Social Security benefits.”
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/ss-trump-rubio?t=3&akid=27214%2E1968103%2EGJT4Kz

Sen. Marco Rubio and Ivanka Trump are coming after your Social Security benefits. The pair is reportedly building congressional support for a proposal that would require people to accept a cut in their future Social Security benefits in exchange for six weeks of paid parental leave.1

This is a cruel false choice. The richest country on the planet can afford to ensure that both new parents and our senior citizens are able to meet their basic needs.

We must build overwhelming opposition to the cold-hearted Rubio-Trump proposal before it gains traction in Congress.

Tell Congress: Don’t pit Social Security against paid family leave. Click here to sign the petition:
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/ss-trump-rubio?t=3&akid=27214%2E1968103%2EGJT4Kz

New parents should not have to choose between caring for their children and keeping their jobs. Yet more than 25 years after Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act – which requires some employers to allow employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to attend to family-related matters – the United States remains the only industrialized nation in the world that does not offer all citizens paid family leave.2

Paid family leave is a good, progressive policy that CREDO supports. But we can’t allow Sen. Rubio and Ivanka Trump to pit paid family leave against Social Security. As Social Security Works President Nancy Altman put it, “our country can afford to increase, not cut, Social Security’s modest benefits, while also adding paid family and medical leave.”3

Under the proposal reportedly being discussed, new parents who choose to receive paid family leave would be forced to push back the date at which they would be eligible to receive Social Security benefits. The end result of such a scheme would be a cut in Social Security benefits, as individuals would receive benefits for a shorter period of time.4

The Rubio-Trump proposal is yet another cynical Republican attempt to cut Social Security benefits under the guise of helping families. It is up to us to make sure members of Congress don’t fall for this Trojan horse attack on Social Security.

Tell Congress: Don’t pit Social Security against paid family leave. Click the link below to sign the petition.

https://act.credoaction.com/sign/ss-trump-rubio?t=7&akid=27214%2E1968103%2EGJT4Kz

Thanks for everything you do.

Josh Nelson, Deputy Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets

[AutumnW]

Let's think of Trump as the Wrecking Ball....we'll see where the pieces fall! :boom:

Foxie, read up on Russia under Yeltsin. You want to improve your country, not wreck it, like Yeltsin did Russia. There is this idea that tearing it down and starting over will help put everything on a firmer foundation with more integrity. Ask Paul what an American govt default would look like, how it would play out for you.

No social security, no Medicare, no food stamps -- for starters.

[ThePythonicCow]

No social security, no Medicare, no food stamps -- for starters.
Until when and if most pensions, retirement funds, medical coverage, social welfare benefits, and even Social Security (currently my only source of income) plans within the US either fail entirely or are cut back drastically ... the United States (corporations, and federal, state and local governments) will not have come to grips with the reality that vastly more has been promised than can be paid.

Similarly, much debt, including real estate mortgages, car loans, (a big one) student debt, and (an even bigger one) US Treasury debt will have to fail or be heavily discounted, before any return to honest accounting, with serviceable levels of debt, a stable currency, and a sustainable future, can be reached.

Not only have we (our Bankster and other Elite Bastard overlords) built a monetary system that resembles the Tower of Babel ... we've built it upside down, with the largest part at the top, resting on a far smaller level of actual productive capability.

Quadrillions of derivatives rest on top of hundreds of trillions of securitized debt, interest rate swaps and forex swaps, rest on top of tens of trillions of dollars of rehypothicated primary debt, rest on trillions of dollars of actual resources and productivity potential, with fraudulent accounting dominating at each level.

[onawah]

Trump's Infrastructure Scam
Trump's infrastructure scam guts clean air, water, wildlife and labor protections. Tell Congress to reject it
https://sierra.secure.force.com/actions/National?actionId=AR0103818&id=7010Z000001PAorQAG&data=137f06168b7f6a2654b4c2690c573bf830c250bc91ec054ac73dad80a137eb66c3f19fa60fe627eb21c75bc4d4e139c 7&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sierraclub&utm_campaign=elp




Trump just released what he's calling an infrastructure plan. But instead of investing in public transportation, creating family-sustaining jobs, and helping America become a clean energy superpower, Trump's scam seeks only to benefit his wealthy friends and corporate polluters.

Send a message to Congress: Reject Trump's infrastructure scam today.

Trump's infrastructure scam guts environmental safeguards like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Environmental Policy Act, making it easy for the federal government to rubber stamp permits for corporations to build dangerous pipelines, toxic waste dumps, and other destructive projects. It would restrict environmental reviews for infrastructure projects and limit public participation, reducing opportunities for impacted individuals and communities to make their voices heard in the decision-making process.Trump even plans to sell off public lands to oil companies and other special interests in order to pay for his scam.

We know that America's infrastructure doesn't have to come at the cost of clean air and clean water. We need safeguards that protect our environment and keep our communities healthy, and we need our voices to be heard in the process.

Tell your representatives in Congress to reject any infrastructure plan that doesn't create family-sustaining jobs, invest in clean energy, and protect our air, water, and health!
https://sierra.secure.force.com/actions/National?actionId=AR0103818&id=7010Z000001PAorQAG&data=137f06168b7f6a2654b4c2690c573bf830c250bc91ec054ac73dad80a137eb66c3f19fa60fe627eb21c75bc4d4e139c 7&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sierraclub&utm_campaign=elp
Thank you,

Matthew Gravatt
Associate Legislative Director
Sierra Club

[AutumnW]

I read today that Omarosa, no longer a big fan of Trump's is warning the world about Mike Pence. Says that if people are worried about Trump they should be terrified of a Pence govt. She claims he thinks Jesus speaks to him directly and tells him what to say!

I've always thought Pence is the greater threat, as well. If he is the genuine fundamentalist Christian article, AND he somehow becomes president (with a largely fundamentalist military,) it will be beyond awful.

Two scenarios could play out. Pence could try to bring on Armegeddon with a major nuclear war OR almost equally frightful, Paul and Foxie and others are correct. Trump will be used as the wrecking ball and then Pence will proceed him somehow and rebuild America as a hard right Christian theocracy. Oh, the horror.

[thunder24]

I read today that Omarosa, no longer a big fan of Trump's is warning the world about Mike Pence. Says that if people are worried about Trump they should be terrified of a Pence govt. She claims he thinks Jesus speaks to him directly and tells him what to say!

I've always thought Pence is the greater threat, as well. If he is the genuine fundamentalist Christian article, AND he somehow becomes president (with a largely fundamentalist military,) it will be beyond awful.

Two scenarios could play out. Pence could try to bring on Armegeddon with a major nuclear war OR almost equally frightful, Paul and Foxie and others are correct. Trump will be used as the wrecking ball and then Pence will proceed him somehow and rebuild America as a hard right Christian theocracy. Oh, the horror.

This speaks of technology that guides these puppets and "recruited by military intelligence to run for president politicians."

[turiya]

The Sierra Club’s
Profitable Descent into Leftism (http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc_21_3/tsc-21-3-walker-sierra-club.shtml)

By Brenda Walker








Issue theme: "How political correctness
corrupts environmental science"


The Sierra Club was once an honorable organization, and not that long ago either. A few decades ago, it was truly bipartisan, as befitted a group trying to protect wilderness. Conservatives were not shunned as members, but were welcomed as part of the team. One example was life-long Republican Dr. Edgar Wayburn, who helped save more than 100,000 acres of scenic wild places during his 103-year lifetime. He was a five-term president of the Sierra Club during the 1960s. But it’s inconceivable that a member of the GOP could be elected to that post in today’s organization, which has been fundamentally corrupted by left-wing political influence and millions of dollars with ideological strings attached.

How corrupt is the Sierra Club today? It has become so debased that it has done nothing to combat the destruction of parts of treasured national parks (http://www.desertinvasion.us) like Yosemite and Sequoia by invading Mexican drug gangs. The cartels have moved into public lands in the United States and set up toxic marijuana plantations that environmentally degrade protected places that are supposed to remain pristine. But the Sierrans have made a political marriage with open-borders Hispanic Democrats, and maintaining good relations with political allies is now more important than what was once the Club’s prime directive.

The impetus for the loss of integrity was simple greed. In the 1990s, the Club came across a deep-pocketed donor with an interest in the environment, one David Gelbaum (http://www.susps.org), a Wall Street investor who had made hundreds of millions of dollars. He was willing to be a generous funder to the Sierra Club, but with one stipulation. As he was quoted in a Los Angeles Times article (“The Man behind the Land,” 10/27/04), “I did tell [Sierra Club Executive Director] Carl Pope in 1994 or 1995 that if they ever came out anti-immigration, they would never get a dollar from me (http://www.susps.org).”

That restriction posed a problem, since existing Sierra Club policy dating from the 1960s recommended a steady-state population for the United States (http://www.susps.org/history/scpolicy.html) and recognized immigration’s being a major cause of increasing human numbers. In 1969 the organization expressed hope that American population could be stabilized by 1980. In 1970 the Club endorsed a resolution from Zero Population Growth (later renamed “Population Connection”) that included support for actions that would “bring about the stabilization of the population first of the United States and then of the world.” In 1989 a Sierra Club policy specifically noted that “Immigration to the U.S. should be no greater than that which will permit achievement of population stabilization in the U.S.”

But with big money beckoning in return for the disavowal of the clear connection of environmental harm with excessive immigration and population growth, Sierra leadership folded like a cheap lawn chair. In 1996, the Club rescinded its previous population policies that could be seen as related to immigration levels. The elite management team probably rationalized that enormous environmental good could be done with great riches, and therefore merited dispensing with integrity about an increasingly controversial topic.

And the Club was very well rewarded indeed by the generous David Gelbaum; the organization received over $100 million dollars in a couple donations over the years 2000 and 2001. In any normal circumstance, such a transaction would be considered a bribe and roundly condemned. But the Club leadership kept the source of the new riches secret, until the 2004 LA Times article revealed Gelbaum as the sugar daddy. Even after the dots were connected, however, the liberal press couldn’t bring itself to recognize an Enron-sized environmentalism scandal of an iconic organization.

Of course, any honest and educated environmentalist understands that human overpopulation is a great danger to sustainable natural systems. If you care about preserving wilderness, protecting species, and having enough water, then piling in another hundred million people every few decades into the high-consuming United States is not the way to go.

Starting in 1996, a concerned group of grassroots members became alarmed at the Club’s reversal on long-held population policies. Your humble correspondent was a member of this group, known for a time as Sierrans for U.S. Population Stabilization (http://www.susps.org) until threatened with a lawsuit for using the Club’s name (despite existing Gay Sierrans, Sierra Club Seniors, etc.). The acronym SUSPS then became the operating title (SUSPS.org online).

We spent untold volunteer hours working to return the Club to its former sensible, environmentally appropriate positions. We gathered member petitions to qualify candidates for the Board of Directors and pose policy referendums for the membership’s consideration in the annual Club-wide elections. We succeeded in getting several fine environmentalists elected to the Board, although our important population initiative of 1998 failed to make the cut.

Had SUSPS members known in the beginning that the Sierra Club had been bought and paid for, I doubt we would have spent eight years trying to reform a morally bankrupt and dishonest institution.

By 2004, Club management began to fear that democracy might win the day because of SUSPS’ strong slate of candidates. Carl Pope and his leftist cronies MoveOn.org and the SPLC launched a most reprehensible smear campaign of false accusations (http://www.centerforimmigrationtruth.org/splc-follow-the-money), with the help of a compliant liberal press. It took a truly supine media to accept and recite the idea that the former Democratic Governor of Colorado Dick Lamm and former Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Frank Morris were racist right-wingers. But the press swallowed the Sierra propaganda because who would think that the virtuous environmentalists would be fighting dirty for their faction’s selfish greed. So the Sierra management’s approved slate of obedient toadies swept the election, and the SUSPS candidates lost under the barrage of inuendo and outright lies (http://www.susps.org/info/election_results.html)from the left-wing establishment.

Along the way to its new identity, the Sierra Club lost many old members who were disgusted by the tragic devolution of John Muir’s wilderness club into the leftists in hiking boots. However, the group acquired new associates which it appears to find quite agreeable, like MoveOn.org (Soros funded), the SPLC (http://www.centerforimmigrationtruth.org/splc-manipulating-press), La Raza (http://www.centerforimmigrationtruth.org/about-center-for-immigration-truth), and George Soros. So there is no shortage of money, even if the potential membership pool is greatly diminished.

The Sierra Club, the Democratic Party, and Al Gore all claim to be deeply concerned about global warming caused by spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But it’s hard to take their worries seriously when all are quite happy with immigration-fueled skyrocketing population growth (http://www.susps.org/overview/population.html) in the world’s top resource-using country. If any of the climate worriers truly cared about global warming, they would be leading the charge for limiting immigration (http://www.susps.org/overview/immigration.html). By rapidly increasing the number of residents of America, Washington makes the United States an even bigger engine of pollution and greenhouse gases. Immigrants don’t relocate to this country for the better recycling opportunities: they come hoping for an American level of material consumption (also known as “seeking a better life”).

In December, we learned the results of the 2010 Census. The total population of the United State on April 1, 2010, was counted at 308,745,538, an increase of 27,323,632 over just 10 years. The science- and math-ignorant press did not think that was a big deal; in fact some media sources emphasized the slowdown, as did MSNBC’s headline “Population growth slowest since 1940, census shows” (12/21/10). That assessment is certainly accurate, particularly from the rate of growth, expressed in percentages: the 2010 growth rate was 9.7 percent, compared with 13.2 percent from the previous decade. However, there is no increase in the natural resources like water necessary to support the additional 27 million people, and the loss of farmland continues to reflect the profitability of housing construction over food production. If there were any environmental organizations pointing out the effect of continuing rapid population growth on natural resources after the Census announcement, it was muted at best.

Sadly, the degradation of the Sierra Club from a bipartisan science-friendly environmental organization into a semi-outdoorsy left-wing political group is bad news for the earth, Our planet needs all the friends it can get, judging by worsening species extinction, the collapse of major fish stocks like the North Atlantic cod, the enormous Great Pacific Garbage Patch of floating plastic, and many other symptoms of ill health. No matter what anyone’s opinion on the idea of human-caused climate change, the Sierra Club’s position on that issue or any other can no longer be trusted as genuinely environmental when the organization is now all about left-wing globalist politics.

A timely illustration of today’s Sierra Club priorities can be found in the campaign statements of the eight persons running in the 2011 Board of Directors election. There is not a single mention of population, not even that the global number is forecast to reach seven billion later this year. That’s a one-billion person increase since 1999, when the six-billion threshhold was crossed, in just 12 short years. One might hope America’s top green organization would recognize the meaning of those numbers and provide much needed leadership and public education. But the Club is too politically correct to suggest how unprecedented human growth threatens our planet’s natural systems of replenishment. Elite Clubbers prefer to lecture Americans about resource use rather than acknowledge the whole picture, in which population and consumption multiply each other’s effects, as expressed by Paul Ehrlich’s I=PAT formula (http://www.susps.org/info/congr_testimony_written_20010802.html) (Human Impact on the environment equals the product of P= Population, A= Affluence, T= Technology).

Another aspect of the current Club Board of Directors election deserves attention. One candidate is Larry Fahn, who was President during the decisive election when SUSPS Board candidates were poised to possibly take power. Fahn helped lead the shameful smear campaign against our highly reputable candidates (http://www.susps.org/info/election_results.html), and he now states his pride in being a Club hatchet man, saying in his 2011 campaign statement: “I led the Club during trying times, the ‘hostile takeover attempt,’ when outsiders, anti-immigration activists like former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm, ran for several board seats. Lamm and others sued me over my leadership against them.”

It’s sad reflection on the current Sierra Club that being an enthusiastic purveyor of character assassination is now considered an advantage for gaining office. Interestingly, the late David Brower, an admired conservationist, resigned from the Board (http://www.susps.org/sprawl/sbq_750_stmt.html) in 2000 because the Club leaders had lost all passion to save the earth. “The world is burning and all I hear from them is the music of violins,” he said.

Music would be an improvement at this point. The earth needs defenders now more than ever, but the Sierra Club is playing a different tune indeed.

Link (http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc_21_3/tsc-21-3-walker-sierra-club.shtml)



.

[onawah]

Stand up for America’s Wilderness legacy
From: Wilderness Watch
2/14/18
https://wildernesswatch.salsalabs.org/secretaryryanzinke/index.html?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=38affcf4-0944-4a5f-a6d0-9696eb4cacac

The Wilderness Act of 1964 promises that our government will protect and preserve Wilderness "for the permanent good of the whole people." Yet, in just the first year of the Trump Administration, America's Wilderness, public lands and wildlife legacy have been under constant attack.

Every day seems to bring plans to undermine the Wilderness Act and America's 110 million-acre National Wilderness Preservation System, more rollbacks of our bedrock environmental laws, or new proposals to grease the skids for resource extraction on public lands.

One person who's right in the middle of these schemes is Trump's Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who has made it his mission to destroy the promise of the Wilderness Act. We're not going to let him get away with it.

As Interior Secretary, Zinke is in charge of some of the most important federal agencies that administer America's National Wilderness Preservation System, including the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

If you don’t think Secretary Zinke has a huge impact on America's Wilderness legacy, consider the fact that over 72 million acres of Wilderness is under his purview. That's a whopping 66 percent of the entire acreage within our National Wilderness Preservation System!

Just look at this list of some of Secretary Zinke's most anti-Wilderness actions:

• In December, Zinke released a new legal opinion designed to fast-track two mining leases in northern Minnesota so a company owned by a Chilean billionaire can construct a copper and nickel mine in the watershed of the Boundary Waters Wilderness. The Chilean billionaire also happens to be renting a mansion to President Trump's daughter, Ivanka. American citizens have already sent tens of thousands of letters opposing issuance of these leases and we have to keep the heat on!

• During the recent government shutdown, Secretary Zinke signed a secret deal to bulldoze a road through the Izembek Wilderness and Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Zinke's secret deal would destroy wildlife habitat and set a terrible precedent for America's Wilderness system. We also know it's illegal, so we sued him.

• Secretary Zinke has remained silent as Congress tries to pass a number of bills to amend, weaken or undermine the Wilderness Act, including: a bill to open all Wilderness areas to mountain bikes and other wheeled contraptions; legislation that would threaten all Wilderness areas within 100 miles of the U.S. border with Canada and Mexico; and a NRA-backed 'Sportsmen’s Act' that would gut the Wilderness Act and its promise of preserving areas "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man."

• With Zinke's full support, the Trump administration reversed common-sense regulations put in place by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to prevent barbaric hunting practices in National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska, which include 20 million acres of Wilderness. Now, under Zinke's leadership, grossly unethical practices — like shooting denning wolves, killing hibernating bears and cubs, and catching and killing bears with traps — could return. If doing this in our national wildlife refuges in Alaska isn’t bad enough, Zinke has begun a review to open some of the national park units in Alaska to the same disgusting practices.

• While Secretary Zinke has proposed more than doubling the fee your family must pay to visit one of our iconic National Parks like Glacier, Yellowstone, and Grand Canyon, Zinke's Bureau of Land Management just slashed the fees private ranchers pay to graze livestock on our Wildernesses and public lands. Incredibly, welfare ranchers graze a cow and her calf for merely $1.41 a month, a price that doesn’t begin to pay for cost to the government to administer the program, let alone the ecological damage done by livestock operations!

This is but a partial list that doesn’t include the host of issues that indirectly, but importantly, bear on our most iconic landscapes. Secretary Zinke supported opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — America’s Serengheti — to massive oil and gas development, and he gutted the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monuments by over two million acres. And he’s threatening to waive environmental and wildlife protections in many more.
Please act now and tell Secretary Zinke that you expect him to stand up for America’s Wilderness, public lands, and wildlife legacy, and if he’s not up for that task, he should resign: https://wildernesswatch.salsalabs.org/secretaryryanzinke/index.html?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=38affcf4-0944-4a5f-a6d0-9696eb4cacac