Trump is NOT the answer

[onawah]

From non-profit Social Security Works on Facebook today:

[onawah]

House Farm Bill Would Sweep Away Hundreds of State Safeguards
By Melanie Benesh, Legislative Attorney and Jack Dearing, Government Affairs Intern
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2018
https://www.ewg.org/agmag/2018/06/ki...9#.WxiCVdMvwfN

"The proposed farm bill rejected by the House of Representatives last month has drawn scorn for creating new farm subsidy loopholes, increasing hunger, and cutting funding for conservation and rural development programs. But the bill also includes a less-noticed provision that would wipe hundreds of state food and farm laws off the books.
The provision, added in the final moments of the House Agriculture Committee’s vote to send the bill to the House floor, is designed to block a California law prohibiting the sale of eggs produced by hens crammed into too-small cages. But the amendment by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, goes much further, blocking virtually all state laws related to any agricultural product.
If enacted, the amendment would preempt hundreds of state laws governing food safety, food labeling, fishing, animal welfare, permitting, record keeping and procurement. Most of these laws are designed to protect consumers, but many also protect farmers. For example, they include laws that guard against invasive species or make it easier to sell food and farm products.
A recent analysis by Harvard Law School found that hundreds of laws in all 50 states would be at risk. To see what laws could be blocked by the King amendment in each state, use the map below.

Click on your state below to see state laws that would be affected by H.R. 4879.
Map of States' King amendment data



The King amendment isn’t the only farm bill provision that puts local laws at risk. Sec. 9101 of the House farm bill would also prevent cities, counties and communities from adopting their own pesticide laws. In effect, this provision would block local governments’ efforts to ban toxic pesticides like chlorpyrifos, or restrict spraying in places like schools or playgrounds, where children would likely be exposed. This map, from our colleagues at Beyond Pesticides, identifies local pesticide laws across the country that would likely be blocked by Sec. 9101.



House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., recently created a task force to support state’s rights, saying “government works best when it works from the bottom up.” But these farm bill provisions create an unprecedented assault on local food and farm laws – led by House leaders who claim to defend the rights of states.|"

[Bob]

Natalie - have you looked at the status of HR 4879?

Senate rejects it - See: https://www.care2.com/causes/success...amendment.html

background on HR 4879

Steve King of Iowa added to the bill. His “Protect Interstate Commerce Act” (HR 4879) would negate most state and local laws regarding the production or manufacture of agriculture products.

Gone would be regulations protecting animals, including those concerning puppy mills, eggs from battery-caged hens, horse slaughter, shark finning, and the sale of cat and dog meat, as just a few examples.

And that’s not all: HR 4879 would also remove protections for consumers and the environment, such as laws regarding food safety, environmental requirements and child labor.

King had tried and failed to add a similar amendment to the 2014 Farm Bill. Fortunately, he’s failed again, at least in the Senate’s version of the 2018 Farm Bill.

The Senate has passed its version by an overwhelming majority — and it does not include HR 4879.

HOUSE VERSION STILL INCLUDES HR 4879
The next step is for the Senate and House of Representatives to resolve the differences in their respective versions of the Farm Bill.

Unfortunately, HR 4879 still remains in the House version, along with other disturbing measures such as major cuts to and new work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), which serves more than 40 million Americans every year.

All House Democrats voted against this version of the Farm Bill. Hopefully HR 4879 and the other terrible measures will be removed from the final version.

[onawah]

Apparently there are still problems with the proposed legislation, because that article was in Environmental Working Group's email update today.

Posted by Bob (here)
Natalie - have you looked at the status of HR 4879?

Senate rejects it - See: https://www.care2.com/causes/success...amendment.html

background on HR 4879

Steve King of Iowa added to the bill. His “Protect Interstate Commerce Act” (HR 4879) would negate most state and local laws regarding the production or manufacture of agriculture products.

Gone would be regulations protecting animals, including those concerning puppy mills, eggs from battery-caged hens, horse slaughter, shark finning, and the sale of cat and dog meat, as just a few examples.

And that’s not all: HR 4879 would also remove protections for consumers and the environment, such as laws regarding food safety, environmental requirements and child labor.

King had tried and failed to add a similar amendment to the 2014 Farm Bill. Fortunately, he’s failed again, at least in the Senate’s version of the 2018 Farm Bill.

The Senate has passed its version by an overwhelming majority — and it does not include HR 4879.

HOUSE VERSION STILL INCLUDES HR 4879
The next step is for the Senate and House of Representatives to resolve the differences in their respective versions of the Farm Bill.

Unfortunately, HR 4879 still remains in the House version, along with other disturbing measures such as major cuts to and new work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), which serves more than 40 million Americans every year.

All House Democrats voted against this version of the Farm Bill. Hopefully HR 4879 and the other terrible measures will be removed from the final version.

[ichingcarpenter]

The 'Smocking Gun' on Trump's sociopathic narcissism

The Evolutionary Role of Narcissistic Sociopaths


I thought this was an interesting article on sociopathic tendencies vs psychopathic tendencies and cognitive empathy regardless what one thinks of Trump.




Co-authored by Nathan Lents, Ph.D., and Robert Trivers, Ph.D.

There is no shortage of published psychological profiles of Donald J. Trump that attempt to diagnose him, from a distance, as either a psychopath or a narcissistic sociopath (examples here, here, and here). These profiles, of course, are fatally hindered by the lack of access to Mr. Trump for personal examination and completion of personality inventories. There is a raging debate in the psychology community on the propriety of all of this. (Other kinds of diagnoses and analyses, here and here, and an important essay from Psychology Today.)

However, exploration of the evolutionary features of these very peculiar personality types does not require a personal examination and may provide insight into this important question.


Psychopaths are indeed an evolutionary conundrum because their particular behaviors are not an obvious path toward evolutionary success. For example, the majority of serial killers are childless when they are killed or apprehended. Narcissistic sociopaths, however, invariably have families and children whom they support energetically, and many of the traits specific to this phenotype can fairly be called adaptive. This raises the important issue of the evolutionary niche of a narcissistic sociopath within the societies in which they exist.

[A note on terminology: We employ “narcissistic sociopath” as an umbrella term inclusive of Machiavellianism and narcissistic/antisocial personality disorder but exclusive of sadistic psychopathology, as explained below. Terminology in this area is inconsistent in both the scientific literature and even more so in popular media, in part because these various personality types/disorders exist on a multidimensional spectrum with both common and distinct characteristics. Importantly, our analysis is from the perspective of evolutionary biology, not psychology.]

Narcissistic sociopaths share many features with psychopaths including above average intelligence, considerable social savvy, adaptability, likability, and natural skills in (Machiavellian) manipulation. They are charming, outgoing, feign interest in people and subjects, and can convincingly fake both sympathy and conscience. If they engage in charitable acts at all, they are only in pursuit of ancillary selfish benefits. They learn from experience and show no dedication to a set of moral values, religious beliefs, truth, or transparency. If they admire anyone, it is other psychopaths and sociopaths that they wish to emulate. Finally, they are effective liars and show a chilling unconcern for the welfare of others.

There is one particular skill that is common to both psychopaths and narcissistic sociopaths and is absolutely essential to their nature: cognitive empathy. This is different from emotional (or affective) empathy, sometimes called emotional contagion, which is regarded as the ability and tendency to closely identify with the emotional experience of others.


Cognitive empathy is a mental skill involving the close observation of others in order to understand and predict their behavior. It is morally neutral and common in high-functioning individuals across the moral and ethical spectrum. While social workers and therapists use cognitive empathy to help individuals improve their lives, psychopaths and sociopaths use this skill to manipulate, coerce, and deceive others in orders. While emotional empathy is an innate cognitive feature we share with other social mammals, cognitive empathy is a skill that can be developed and refined, and doing so is key to the behaviors of both psychopaths and sociopaths.

However, the ways in which sociopaths differ from psychopaths is key to understanding their evolutionary utility. For example, psychopaths are more likely than the general public to be violent and to end up incarcerated. Narcissistic sociopaths, on the other hand, are usually nonviolent and can work within a system of laws and norms, insofar as it suits their goals, because, while they do not hesitate to harm others, especially when insulted or humiliated, it isn’t a specific aim. Instead, they are highly motivated toward the accumulation of riches and influence; whereas psychopaths are often more focused on sadistic self-gratification and generally do not seek positions of power and wealth per se. (There is some crossover between these phenotypes; sociopaths who do find gratification in inflicting pain can be labeled malignant narcissists.)

Finally, narcissistic sociopaths always seek reproductive success through procreation and aggressive nepotism, which is usually accompanied by extreme in-group identification, e.g., racism, xenophobia, and nationalism, while psychopaths show no allegiance to family, community, or country.

Therefore, the phenotype of the narcissistic sociopath is not a bizarre combination of traits, but rather a set of highly attuned social skills and behaviors aimed at increasing long-term biological fitness through wealth, status, power, and the future success of progeny. In order words, sociopaths are highly adapted (key literature here, here, here, and references therein).

The evolutionary puzzle of narcissistic sociopaths is not found in the phenotype itself but rather in the interaction of sociopaths with the society in which they exist. Social groups can detect dishonest and manipulative behaviors and act to punish the actors in order to either correct the antisocial behavior or remove them from the group. Dozens of mammal species have shown this very sophisticated and elastic social behavior, but humans and our close relatives are especially apt at detecting and punishing cheaters, freeloaders, and liars.

This sets up both a short-term conflict and long-term evolutionary battle between manipulative narcissistic sociopaths and the rest of society, that is, those who do not wish to be manipulated. Most individuals in a society share a vested interest in maintaining fairness and social order. The equilibrium point is reached through a concept called frequency-dependent selection, the essence of which is that phenotypes can sometimes have distinct advantages precisely because they are rare. Under this paradigm, the infrequency of sociopaths in a population is essential to their success.

Current estimates place the prevalence of narcissistic sociopathy at 1–2 percent, making it a candidate phenotype for frequency-dependent selection, especially given how successful they often are. The rarity of narcissistic sociopaths in the population, along with their considerable skill in hiding their true motivations, makes them very difficult to detect. If they were more numerous, however, members of society would become familiar with this particular pattern of social deviance and quickly learn to neutralize it. Furthermore, when narcissists encounter one another, while they may be willing to cooperate with each other in fickle and short-lived alliances, ultimately their goals will collide and the relationship deteriorates into mutually self-defeating conflicts. This, too, acts as negative selection and maintains the low frequency of this peculiar phenotype.

On the other side of the conflict is the selective pressure on the rest of society. Because sociopaths are rare, the intensity of the pressure on society to detect and neutralize them is correspondingly weak. Weak pressure leads to poor adaptation, while sociopaths experience strong pressure and become highly adapted. However, as the sociopath phenotype finds evolutionary success, the pressure flips back the other direction as the rest of society experiences increasing pressure, adapts, and then pushes the frequency of the sociopaths back down to the basal level. In human culture, this pendulum swings in both the long timescales of genetic evolution and the short timescales of cultural evolution. In both contexts, the conflict is cyclical.

With this evolutionary framework in mind, we can now return to the question of President Trump. Clearly, he attracts devoted supporters. He can be affable, charming, and flattering. He reads people well and can maneuver through his relationships in order to obtain the best “deal” for himself. While many question his capacity for emotional empathy, his skills in cognitive empathy are undeniable.

However, he also has maintained an unwavering pursuit of wealth, influence, and power, by his own admission. He has never participated in regular religious observance, is not outwardly pious, and shows no allegiance to a political party. It is well documented that his views have shifted, sometimes repeatedly, on the most central political questions of the day such as abortion, government involvement in healthcare, military interventionism, federal drug policy, and LGBTQ rights. While only his critics view him as racist and xenophobic, even his supporters see him as fiercely nationalistic and his own campaign slogan of “America First” underscores this. And finally, he aggressively pursues his own biological fitness through the placement of his children in top positions in both his business enterprises and his presidential administration. Thus, an evolutionary analysis reveals that he is clearly not a psychopath.

Whether or not he is a narcissistic sociopath, then, depends on the answers to questions about his conscience or lack thereof, commitment to truth and transparency, sincerity in his professed religious beliefs, fidelity to political ideals, and tendency to cheat, deceive, and coerce. These questions are more like Rorschach tests in which his supporters and detractors come to opposite conclusions. However, for the most part, the answers to these questions do not require a psychological analysis of the president. There is abundant evidence in the public record.


https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/b...tic-sociopaths

Oh and about that smocking tweet Donald did at 4 in the morning....

Trump Writes 'Smocking Gun' Twice in One Tweet, Gets Mercilessly Clowned

https://www.complex.com/life/2018/12...-tweet-clowned

[Praxis]

My favorite part of the smocking gun is lemmings of Q have decided that it was an intentional misspell.

Smocking is indeed a sewing term.

Also, I wonder how many on this forum have invested in the Iraqi Dinar?

The more that comes out the more I think this hypothesis is correct:

Trump is being used by his daughter and her husband to accomplish what they would like while he will take the fall for it.
This is why he uses the terms fake news.

He read something in a news paper that was not supposed to get to him, they probably leave fox news on for him so he doesnt see other stuff, and in order to explain it, Ivanka decided to go the "No daddy, that is not true dont believe them, believe me. They are fake news"

They he does the same thing to the world. He loves his daughter. Like loves, in many ways as he has openly and disgustingly expressed in public. She knows this.

All the while, you can see DONNY JR who just wants in the whole wide world for his daddy to love him , but knows especially from the divorce proceedings with Ivana that daddy doesnt care about the old name sake.

We are watching inbred white trash play out on national television. It would not surprise me if Ivanka gets named chief of staff now that Ayers said no or that daddy trump hasnt already floated that idea.

Kushner is clearly a mossad asset and the power couple is the real story.

The part that blows my mind is teh Q NONSENSE only makes sense when he is the underdog before the election.

Post election, this toungue in cheek deep state fight doesnt hold water. Especially when he has the chance gifted to him to expose the JFK files once and for and DOES NOT.

Never forget he could have exposed the CIA but CHOSE NOT TO.

But dont worry guys and you know the chorus so sing it with me:


SEALED INDICTMENTS

[onawah]

Giving polluters a free pass
Take action here:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/...rs-a-free-pass

(Never mind the global warming disinfo, methane is very toxic)

"On December 17th, 1963, our country took decisive, bipartisan action with the passage of the Clean Air Act, reaffirming our commitment that all Americans should have safe air to breathe. Now, President Donald Trump and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler are attacking standards that protect our health.

Don't let them get away with it.
Wheeler and Trump are trying to destroy the EPA’s commonsense, cost-effective oil and gas pollution standards, putting their polluter allies ahead of the health and safety of communities across the country. We can’t let them get away with it.

DEADLINE 12/17: Tell Wheeler and Trump that our health must come before corporate polluters.

With over 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide, methane is a major driver of climate change, and Wheeler and Trump’s reckless rollback of these critical protections would put our families and environment at risk. Wheeler is ignoring the EPA’s mission to protect our health and the environment by gutting these critical methane pollution standards – and this is just the beginning. This rollback marks the beginning of a two-part scheme by Wheeler and Trump to dramatically weaken efforts to reduce dangerous toxic air pollution.

GET LOUD: Tell Wheeler and Trump that we refuse to go backwards.


Make no mistake: this is a blatant attempt to give corporate polluters a free pass to endanger our health and safety. If Wheeler guts these critical methane pollution standards, our families will pay the price, especially those who live near oil and gas facilities. December 17th is your last chance speak out against these rollbacks.
We need your voice – our health is on the line.

Thank you for speaking out,
Catherine Mbacho
SaveOurEnvironment.org"

From Action Network:
"Oil and gas methane pollution standards are commonsense safeguards that help keep our air clean and our families healthier. Now, Donald Trump and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler want to give their friends in the oil and gas industry a free pass to put our health and planet in danger by recklessly rolling back these protections. This puts lives at risk – exposure to harmful air pollution from the oil and gas industry can increase risk of asthma attacks and cancer. This rollback will also exacerbate the harmful impacts of climate change. We depend on the EPA to protect us from harmful pollution that makes it harder to breathe and contributes to climate change.

This proposal is bad for Americans, and especially poor and vulnerable communities bearing the increasing costs of climate change, and also bad for an industry trying to compete in a cleaner energy economy. Together, we can stop the Trump administration from putting the interests of the oil and gas industry over the needs of our families."
Sign the petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/...rs-a-free-pass

[onawah]

Stop Trump's Latest Arctic Oil Drilling Scheme
Submit an official comment before January 4 to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, calling on him to keep the Beaufort Sea permanently off-limits to Big Oil & Gas.
From the NRDC Natural Resources Defense Council

(Alaska just had a huge earthquake. More drilling and oil spills they definitely don't need.)
"The Polar Bear Seas.
That's what they call the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, together home to most of Alaska's imperiled polar bear population.
The Beaufort is also the latest target of President Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's unrelenting drive to hand over our Arctic wilderness and U.S. coastlines to his oil industry allies.
Drilling in the Arctic's Beaufort Sea would be extraordinarily dangerous — the risk of oil spills there is extremely high, and cleaning up spills in such rugged and remote waters is functionally impossible.The Interior Department is formally accepting public comments on its risky drilling gambit until January. So we only have a few weeks to flood the Interior Department with thousands of citizen letters opposing drilling in the Beaufort Sea.

Take action now — submit your Letter of Opposition to Trump's Interior Department and say NO to drilling in the Beaufort Sea and all our ocean waters.
HERE: https://act.nrdc.org/letter/beaufort...15001%2ELUfzwq
An oil spill in the Beaufort Sea would be disastrous for the Arctic's vulnerable wildlife, especially its threatened polar bear population and the region's many species of whales, seals, and sea birds.

And the Beaufort Sea sits right off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, itself a target of Trump's all-out oil drilling onslaught. A spill in the Beaufort could devastate the coastline of the Arctic Refuge, blanketing it with a deadly slick of toxic crude.


With the growing threat of climate change, which is warming the Arctic faster than any other part of Earth, America should be moving away from dirty fossil fuels and doubling down on clean energy.

Stop the Trump administration's new Arctic drilling plans — submit your letter today.

Last spring, thousands of NRDC supporters mobilized to send messages opposing drilling in the Arctic Refuge and Beaufort Sea. And NRDC and our allies filed a lawsuit in federal court to block this illegal oil drilling scheme, and that legal battle continues.

But Trump and Zinke are intent on moving ahead with their drive to drill in these pristine wild places. In addition to their destructive plans for the Beaufort, the Trump administration is about to release a disastrous five-year plan that will likely call for a massive expansion of oil and gas drilling along nearly all of America's precious coasts.

NRDC is prepared to fight offshore drilling on both these fronts and more. But in the meantime, please submit your Letter of Opposition to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke demanding that he halt his department's unrelenting push to open the Beaufort to oil drilling.

Thanks again for standing with NRDC in defense of the wild Arctic, and a clean energy future."

Sincerely,
Rhea Suh
President, NRDC

[onawah]

WOW! Just posted the action alert quoted below yesterday targeting Zinke, and today he resigned! Activism actually works! Today's post from National Parks Conservation Association:
"Have you heard? Earlier today, Ryan Zinke announced his resignation as Secretary of the Interior.
Within weeks of his confirmation, Secretary Zinke disappointed Americans who love their public lands and waters. On his watch, America's national parks faced unprecedented threats. Zinke either turned a blind eye to these threats or caused them through his own action.
America deserves a stronger Interior Secretary. And it’s crucial that park advocates like you speak up now to remind the Senate that our next Interior Secretary must do better.
Send a message to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today. Let the committee know that they should only confirm a new Interior Secretary that will be a fierce defender of America’s national parks and public lands and waters. https://p2a.co/J4z58iD?resetcookie=1

The next Secretary of the Interior will have to work hard to clean up the mess Zinke has left. He or she must:

Ensure the continued protection of all public lands, including national monuments, national wildlife refuges, national parks, and especially adjacent lands that safeguard parks from inappropriate oil and gas development;
Create an inclusive atmosphere for staff and visitors of all Department of the Interior (DOI) agencies, so that all Americans feel welcome in our public lands, and that the stories found in our parks represent the full American experience;
Recognize the impacts climate change is having on our country and proactively work to ensure those impacts are addressed throughout DOI agencies;
Honor the voices, history and needs of tribes in decisions about land protection and development;
And respect the people that have dedicated their careers to protecting public lands through DOI and its agencies.
Now’s the time to speak up! Tell the Senate to confirm an Interior Secretary who will be a better advocate for America’s public lands and waters." https://p2a.co/J4z58iD?resetcookie=1

Posted by onawah (here)
Stop Trump's Latest Arctic Oil Drilling Scheme
Submit an official comment before January 4 to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, calling on him to keep the Beaufort Sea permanently off-limits to Big Oil & Gas.
From the NRDC Natural Resources Defense Council

(Alaska just had a huge earthquake. More drilling and oil spills they definitely don't need.)
"The Polar Bear Seas.
That's what they call the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, together home to most of Alaska's imperiled polar bear population.
The Beaufort is also the latest target of President Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's unrelenting drive to hand over our Arctic wilderness and U.S. coastlines to his oil industry allies.
Drilling in the Arctic's Beaufort Sea would be extraordinarily dangerous — the risk of oil spills there is extremely high, and cleaning up spills in such rugged and remote waters is functionally impossible.The Interior Department is formally accepting public comments on its risky drilling gambit until January. So we only have a few weeks to flood the Interior Department with thousands of citizen letters opposing drilling in the Beaufort Sea.

Take action now — submit your Letter of Opposition to Trump's Interior Department and say NO to drilling in the Beaufort Sea and all our ocean waters.
HERE: https://act.nrdc.org/letter/beaufort...15001%2ELUfzwq
An oil spill in the Beaufort Sea would be disastrous for the Arctic's vulnerable wildlife, especially its threatened polar bear population and the region's many species of whales, seals, and sea birds.

And the Beaufort Sea sits right off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, itself a target of Trump's all-out oil drilling onslaught. A spill in the Beaufort could devastate the coastline of the Arctic Refuge, blanketing it with a deadly slick of toxic crude.


With the growing threat of climate change, which is warming the Arctic faster than any other part of Earth, America should be moving away from dirty fossil fuels and doubling down on clean energy.

Stop the Trump administration's new Arctic drilling plans — submit your letter today.

Last spring, thousands of NRDC supporters mobilized to send messages opposing drilling in the Arctic Refuge and Beaufort Sea. And NRDC and our allies filed a lawsuit in federal court to block this illegal oil drilling scheme, and that legal battle continues.

But Trump and Zinke are intent on moving ahead with their drive to drill in these pristine wild places. In addition to their destructive plans for the Beaufort, the Trump administration is about to release a disastrous five-year plan that will likely call for a massive expansion of oil and gas drilling along nearly all of America's precious coasts.

NRDC is prepared to fight offshore drilling on both these fronts and more. But in the meantime, please submit your Letter of Opposition to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke demanding that he halt his department's unrelenting push to open the Beaufort to oil drilling.

Thanks again for standing with NRDC in defense of the wild Arctic, and a clean energy future."

Sincerely,
Rhea Suh
President, NRDC

[Deux Corbeaux]

And now,

12 Days of Trump (NOT the answer, but for FREE)....... and NOT Hillary !

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=t1lXtZ16E5k

[AutumnW]

This may sound crude as hell but it's fitting, D.C. Those who feel they have been woken up, taken the red pill will find out soon enough that the real red pill is bigger and much harder to swallow. It would be indelicate for me to describe it further on a thread of my own creation. I left that for the Q thread.

[onawah]

Earth rights defender SUED by Trump's lawyers
From EarthRights International email update today
12/2/18:
"Krystal Two Bulls is of the Northern Cheyenne and Oglala Lakota tribes and an Army veteran from Montana who is being sued by Trump's go-to law firm for her participation at the Dakota Access Pipeline protest at Standing Rock.In 2016, activists began a campaign to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, citing the health and safety dangers that the project posed to nearby communities. The Standing Rock camp grew from a few protesters to a movement of thousands. Krystal Two Bulls served as a media liaison who helped communicate to the broader public about the campaign at Standing Rock.

But now, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), the company behind the pipeline, has retaliated. Using Trump's go-to law firm, Kasowitz Benson and Torres, ETP sued the activists working to protect their lands to force them into silence.

Krystal is not the first activist that ETP, or even Trump’s law firm, has tried to silence. ETP previously sued Greenpeace, BankTrack, and the EarthFirst! movement using the same allegations as they are using against Krystal now. Using the same law firm, another company, Resolute Forest Products, sued Greenpeace, Stand.earth, and five individuals in 2016.

These lawsuits attack not only Krystal's constitutionally protected free speech, but the free speech of all activists. The message the lawsuits sends are chilling: criticize us and we'll sue you, too! This is wrong.

EarthRights International is working to stop this. With our co-counsel at Center for Constitutional Rights, we are representing Krystal in court to protect not only her First Amendment rights, but the rights of all activists who are trying to protect their homes and communities. No one should be afraid to speak their truth in fear of a lawsuit."

"Pipeline Protester Fights Back Against Corporation’s Sprawling, Outlandish Lawsuit
Lawsuit is part of broader corporate campaign to silence critics
https://earthrights.org/media/pipeli...ndish-lawsuit/

Contact:
Jen Nessel
Center for Constitutional Rights
(212) 614-6449
jnessel@ccrjustice.org

Valentina Stackl
EarthRights International
(202) 466-5188 x100
valentina@earthrights.org

December 21, 2018, Bismarck
"Krystal Two Bulls, an Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne U.S. army veteran and environmental and Indigenous rights activist, today urged a federal court to dismiss a racketeering lawsuit filed against her for her role in standing for land, water, and her People against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the controversial pipeline at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, sued Ms. Two Bulls, adding her to its already sprawling case after a judge dismissed two other defendants and ordered Energy Transfer to file a new complaint. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and EarthRights International (ERI), two members of the newly formed Protect the Protest task force, represent Ms. Two Bulls in federal court in North Dakota.

Energy Transfer and its lawyers – Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, which has repeatedly represented Donald Trump—principally alleges that Ms. Two Bulls made statements encouraging people to protest at Standing Rock and served as a liaison between the protesters and the press and public, all of which is clearly protected by the First Amendment.

Today’s filing also argues that the case against Ms. Two Bulls should be dismissed because Energy Transfer missed the deadline for serving her with a copy of the complaint and misled the court with claims that she was hiding from them. Energy Transfer lawyers filed a sworn declaration with the court, claiming Ms. Two Bulls was evading service by moving between hotels using an assumed name, when in fact a quick Google search leads to her mailing address of 20 years.

“As an Indigenous woman, a veteran and environmental and indigenous rights activist, I take my responsibility as an original steward of this land seriously. Energy Transfer continues to violate Mother Earth, disregard the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and are now trampling on my constitutional rights,” said Ms. Two Bulls. “This whole case is about silencing and intimidating those who stand for what is right and just. I will not be silenced or intimidated.”

“Missing the deadline to serve Krystal is just the latest sloppy episode in this incompetently-litigated case,” said CCR Senior Managing Attorney Shayana Kadidal. “It’s one thing to not understand the First Amendment and what activists are free to do under it, but it’s a different level to have 90 days to serve someone whose address is on Google and still blow the deadline.”

Energy Transfer’s lawsuit is an example of a SLAPP—a strategic lawsuit against public participation. SLAPPs masquerade as legitimate lawsuits, but are in fact a tactic used by corporations to intimidate and silence environmental and indigenous rights activists and others. Energy Transfer originally sued Greenpeace and others, but ERI succeeded in getting claims against BankTrack dismissed in July, and the Center for Constitutional Rights succeeded in getting the claims against Earth First! dismissed in August. The judge ordered Energy Transfer to rewrite its claims against Greenpeace, which has also filed a motion to dismiss.

“Energy Transfer failed in its first attempt to use the law against activists who have criticized its pipeline, and now it’s trying to silence Krystal for protecting land, water, and her People,” said Marco Simons, ERI’s General Counsel. “They should be ashamed of this tactic, and we have no doubt that it will backfire on the company and its lawyers.”

Despite failing to suggest that Ms. Two Bulls has committed any crimes, the lawsuit invokes the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, a law enacted to target organized crime. It is one of two RICO cases filed by the Kasowitz firm; the other, Resolute Forest Products v. Greenpeace, has already been dismissed once by a federal court.

For more information, visit the Center for Constitutional Rights’ case page https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-...th-first-et-al
and EarthRights International’s case page. https://earthrights.org/case/etp-v-krystal-two-bulls/ "

[East Sun]

At least he was the answer to Clinton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[onawah]

I don't mind being a bit indelicate. This is a wake up call on so many levels, and once people realize it, a lot of political squabbling is going to be dropped like a hot potato, and NO politicians are talking about it yet that I am aware of:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-XltWQeV6kk

Posted by AutumnW (here)
This may sound crude as hell but it's fitting, D.C. Those who feel they have been woken up, taken the red pill will find out soon enough that the real red pill is bigger and much harder to swallow. It would be indelicate for me to describe it further on a thread of my own creation. I left that for the Q thread.

More on this thread: https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...=1#post1265430

[Pam]

Posted by onawah (here)
I don't mind being a bit indelicate. This is a wake up call on so many levels, and once people realize it, a lot of political squabbling is going to be dropped like a hot potato, and NO politicians are talking about it yet that I am aware of:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-XltWQeV6kk

Posted by AutumnW (here)
This may sound crude as hell but it's fitting, D.C. Those who feel they have been woken up, taken the red pill will find out soon enough that the real red pill is bigger and much harder to swallow. It would be indelicate for me to describe it further on a thread of my own creation. I left that for the Q thread.

More on this thread: https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...=1#post1265430

This may be a bit off topic, but as I was watching this video they advertised for the company, True Leaf Market. I checked it out and it has great prices on seeds for sprouting or growing microgreens. I think this will be the answer if crop production is diminished. Personally, I think sprouting will be the simplest way to obtain fresh, nutrient rich food. You can buy 35-50 pound bags which would last a really long time. Really all you need is to sprout are the seeds, water and jars. I am so glad to learn about their store.

[onawah]

You can also grow sprouts indoors, like unshelled sunflower or buckwheat, wheat, barley, etc. and my favorite--whole dried peas-- in shallow trays of soil, such as the trays you get in a cafeteria, or you can use the lids from storage bins--anything with a big enough lip to keep an inch or two of soil plus water contained.
Use good compost for the best results, and feed the soil periodically with emulsion; the better the soil, the more nutritious the sprouts.
I spread plastic on the floor next to sunny windows to protect the floors, and keep the trays there during the winter months, and I use full spectrum light bulbs in all the fixtures, for light closest to sunlight.
Soak seeds overnight, then spread evenly over the soil in the trays, water, and then cover with black plastic while germinating for a day or so, until there are signs of sprouting.
Then uncover and let sprout, watering as needed.
Cut the sprouts with scissors or pull the whole sprout out of the soil and soak in water to clean the dirt off.
When it's warm enough outside, build a container outside that's enclosed with chicken wire to keep the squirrels and birds away.

[onawah]

This article re the unmasking of Trump certainly deserves a re-posting on this thread. Thanks to Paul's post here:https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...=1#post1267502
Trump Is A Pied Piper For The New World Order Agenda
Thursday, 03 January 2019 12:05 by Brandon Smith
http://www.alt-market.com/articles/3...d-order-agenda

"In my last article, 'The Fed Is A Suicide Bomber With A Deeper Agenda', I explored and dismantled recent propaganda surrounding the Federal Reserve's tightening actions, including the propaganda that Jerome Powell is some kind of rogue central banker who is rebalancing the system for the good of the nation. To summarize the points made in that article:

The Fed deliberately created the "Everything Bubble" so that it could be deliberately imploded at the proper time - in other words, the crash we have been witnessing so far during the final quarter of 2018 and continuing into 2019 is a controlled demolition of the economy. Jerome Powell is not some "rebel" going against the easy money dictates of the Fed. Jerome Powell is playing the role that has been given to him. Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen's job was to inflate the bubble. Jerome Powell's job is to crash the bubble.

This is a tactic used by the Fed and the globalists that run it for over 100 years - conjure a debt bubble, deflate the debt bubble, cause a crisis, siphon up hard assets for pennies on the dollar, use the panic to gain more power and centralization, introduce new control measures while everyone is distracted, rinse, repeat.

This process of controlled demolition needs a considerable distraction so that the central banks and the globalists ultimately avoid blame for the painful consequences of the event. Enter Donald Trump and the false Trump vs. Globalist paradigm. As I mentioned last week, the Fed is only one side of the equation for the crash; Trump is the other side.

Confidence games are highly varied affairs. They can be extremely simple and often obvious to everyone but the most inept and unobservant, or, they can be highly complex with many moving parts of deceit combined into a single elaborate con-machine. It is important to understand that confidence games are not just a means to steal money or valuables from unwitting people; they are also a vital part of economic manipulation, government dominance, and warfare in general. Almost all mainstream economic “authorities,” politicians, military tacticians and covert operatives are con men in one way or another.

With the exception of military tacticians acting in defense against an aggressor, con men are predominantly sociopaths. In order to carry out a “grift” against innocent people, an extreme lack of empathy is required. Understanding the mind and motivations of sociopaths and narcissistic sociopaths makes it possible to identify them faster and allows us to see their con games ahead of time.

In terms of social control, elitist con men are highly preoccupied with preventing spontaneous organization of rebellion. But this does not always involve the outright crushing of dissent. Instead, the elites prefer to use co-option and misdirection (con games) to lure rebellious movements to focus on the wrong enemy, or to trust the wrong leadership.

I am often reminded of the infiltration of the Tea Party movement by neo-conservatives in the years after the 2008 election. Neo-con-men exploited the desire among Tea Party activists for mainstream legitimacy and more widespread media coverage. They gave the activists what they wanted, by injecting their own political puppets into the movement. It did not take long for the Tea Party to abandon its initial roots in individual sovereignty and the Ron Paul campaign and adopt a decidedly statist tone. The smart people left the movement early and went on to launch their own efforts, but the goal of the establishment had been accomplished — the grass roots organized threat of the Tea Party was no more.

That said, the principles of conservative economics, small government and personal liberty remain entrenched in the American psyche and continue to grow. These ideals have a life of their own, and almost seem to act autonomously at times from any particular group or leader.

The single most important dynamo behind the rise of sovereignty activism has actually been the liberty media, or what some might call the “alternative media.” This group of people has been working tirelessly for years to inform the masses on the REAL news and data behind global events. Over time we have earned the trust of millions based on honest reporting and accurate predictions. It was only a matter of time before the establishment attempted to co-opt us as well…

The downfall of the Tea Party was a lack of cohesive leadership. There was no one there to put a stop to the neo-con infiltration. There was no one in a strong enough position to vet incoming influencers and prevent poison pills from entering the bloodstream of the movement. The problem with leadership, though, is that it denotes centralization and a bottlenecking of decisions and action. It’s quite a quandary for advocates of decentralization.

The most effective method for the establishment to sabotage a rebellion is to place one of their own puppets into a leadership position in that rebellion. This exploits the movement’s subconscious appetite for top down leadership. It neutralizes activists by tricking them into waiting for orders from on high instead of acting on their own individually. It makes a movement lazy and impotent.

The con game of false leadership goes beyond this, though. A charismatic puppet leader can trick activists into following a path completely opposite of their foundational ideals. He can turn the movement into something they would have originally despised (like turning a limited government pro-sovereignty movement into a big government pro-state cult). He can also take actions which are self-destructive, thereby making the movement appear insane or foolhardy by proxy.

I warned of this potential dynamic with Donald Trump long before the 2016 election. In fact, I predicted that Donald Trump would win the election based on the premise that the globalists were planning a grand con; to not only use Trump as a scapegoat for the crash of the “everything bubble” they had been inflating for the past 10 years, but to also use him as a pied piper to lure conservative movements into individual inaction, as well as being named as co-conspirators in the economic collapse that Trump was about to be involved in.

In my article ‘Clinton vs. Trump And The Co-Option Of The Liberty Movement,’ published in September 2016, I noted:

“To summarize, the elites need a patsy for the breakdown of the financial system they have engineered. That patsy will not be Trump per se, but conservatives in general. Whether Donald Trump is aware of this program or not, I do not know. I have no hard evidence indicating that Trump is anti-constitution; then again, I don’t have much evidence indicating he is pro-constitution. All I have at present to go by is his rhetoric, and rhetoric counts for nothing.

What I do know is that triggering a fiscal crisis under the watch of Trump and blaming conservatives is far more useful to the elites than triggering a crisis under Clinton and risk blame falling on international banking syndicates.”

The crash has now begun in the final quarter of 2018, with housing markets, auto markets and credit markets in steep decline, as well as stock markets trending into bear territory. In the same article I also stated:

“I believe Clinton is meant to lose. If this is the case and Trump is inaugurated in January of next year, the liberty movement needs to ask itself if Trump is truly an obstacle for the elites, or if he is an ally to the elites.

The Left is already salivating over the possibility that the Trump campaign will devour the liberty movement and turn it into something unrecognizable. Just take a gander at this editorial from Bloomberg called ‘The Tea Party Meets Its Maker,’ which announces the death of the “Tea Party” at the hands of Trump…”

After two years of witnessing Trump in action, it is clear to me that he is an active participant in the new world order agenda, and not just an unwitting patsy for the economic crisis.

Trump started out his presidential campaign with two very important issues. First, he argued for the need to “drain the swamp” in Washington D.C.; which included a sharp criticism of Hillary Clinton’s ties to banking elites and globalists. Second, he criticized the fraudulent state of the U.S. economy, pointing out that the stock market was in a massive bubble created by the Federal Reserve using near zero interest rates.

Trump’s first action upon entering the White House was to invite multiple “swamp creatures” into his cabinet, going against his core campaign promise. This was not all that surprising considering his past.

Trump was saved in the 1990s by Rothchild banking agent Wilber Ross, who bailed him out of his debts tied up in his failing Taj Mahal casino. Wilber Ross is now Trump’s commerce secretary. I ask, who is Trump going to be loyal to? The American people, who can offer him nothing of consequence, or the Rothschilds, who saved his public image and his billion-dollar empire?

Trump is also currently “advised” by the likes of Steven Mnuchin formerly of Goldman Sachs, Larry Kudlow formerly of the New York Fed, and John Bolton of the CFR, among others.

Trump has since flip-flopped on his economic position. Instead of warning about the huge financial bubble the Fed had created, he adopted a Twitter campaign TAKING CREDIT for the bubble for the past two years.

Some people will argue that Trump has placed blame on the Fed and exposed their operations, but this is theater based on selective observations. Trump continues to set himself up as the fulcrum or source of the current crash. Just this week his administration called the market decline a "little glitch" which would be solved once a trade deal with China was solidified. In other words, Trump is saying the trade war is the cause of the crash, not the Fed. Trump then at the same time blames the Fed.

Confusing? Not really, when you understand that Trump is part of a grand con game.

If Trump was truly interested in bringing down the globalists, then he would not be consistently providing them with such perfect cover for their crimes. I have been warning for the past year that the trade war is a perfect distraction for the public as the Fed unwinds QE and raises interest rates to kill the Everything Bubble. Trump continues to attach his administration to stock market performance while also blaming stock declines on his own trade conflicts with China. But what about Trump's supposed battle with the Fed? It's all wrestle-mania.

As the stock rally crumbled in the final quarter of 2018, the script that Trump would follow in response was also rather predictable.

In my article ‘In A Battle Between Trump And The Fed, Who Really Wins,’ published in February 2017, I reminded readers that the goal of the Fed is a controlled demolition of the U.S. economy and the dollar to open the door for the “global reset.” The reset is the event that the globalists hope will allow them to introduce a single global currency system and single world economy with the IMF and perhaps the BIS at the helm.

In my article ‘Trump vs. The Fed: America Sacrificed At The NWO Altar,’ I outlined the details of the con game. The globalists WANT to sacrifice the Fed and the dollar to make way for their new world order system, but they cannot do this in a vacuum. They need a distraction. Trump’s “battle with the fed” will likely escalate into a full-blown war. But Trump’s position against the Fed is not honorable.

According to the narrative, Trump is not going after the Fed because it has created the everything bubble and is now deliberately imploding it. Trump is going after the Fed because he wants the Fed to make the everything bubble even bigger by continuing to prop up a stock rally that Trump has attached to the success of his presidency. Trump will be painted as a spoiled baby in the mainstream, throwing a tantrum and attacking the “innocent” central bankers who were only trying to “normalize markets.”

In the meantime, the globalists can slowly kill the world reserve status of the dollar while avoiding the blame for the severe economic consequences this will produce. A conflict between the White House and the central bank will be presented as a sign that faith in U.S. debt and the longevity of the dollar is a bad bet. Foreign holders of dollars and T-bills, already quietly dumping these assets, will accelerate the decoupling. Trump’s trade war activities add to the distraction, creating a brilliant theater in which conservatives are conned into supporting a puppet leader on the verge of collapse, and confirming the crazed arguments against conservative principles in the minds of globalists and leftists.

The con game is to get liberty advocates to invest themselves fully in Trump, to the point that we end up owning every mistake he makes, and every disaster that is pinned on him. There is a concerted propaganda campaign targeting the liberty movement which is telling us that Trump is playing “4D Chess;” that Trump is planning a “coup” against the banking elites, that Trump is planning to bring down the Fed as a means to save the U.S., and even that Trump is working with Jerome Powell to crash the globalist system as a means to “restore the Republic.”

While Trump throws a bone to conservatives at times, including promises of a border wall, or a pull-out in Syria, there is no evidence to support the fantasy that Trump is some kind of ingenious tactician battling the the forces of evil using his wits while inside the system. But, there is considerable evidence as I have linked above supporting my position that Trump is controlled opposition working with the globalists to initiate a collapse that will be blamed on conservative ideals and limited government liberty activists. We shall see in due course. It is unfortunate though how many otherwise very intelligent people within the liberty movement have bought into Trump as a hero on a white horse.

The activists and alternative media are the real heroes. They are the people that pushed liberty philosophy into the mainstream. Trump merely rode the wave that they created. Even if he was a legitimate conservative and constitutionalist (which he is not), the movement doesn’t need his leadership. It never did. The globalists know this and hope to chain us to Trump as he sinks into historical oblivion, destroying us all in the process."

[ripple]

The nub of the above long winded and verbose Brandon Smith article is this, imho :--
QUOTE
The most effective method for the establishment to sabotage a rebellion is to place one of their own puppets into a leadership position in that rebellion. This exploits the movement’s subconscious appetite for top down leadership. It neutralizes activists by tricking them into waiting for orders from on high instead of acting on their own individually. It makes a movement lazy and impotent.

The con game of false leadership goes beyond this, though. A charismatic puppet leader can trick activists into following a path completely opposite of their foundational ideals. He can turn the movement into something they would have originally despised (like turning a limited government pro-sovereignty movement into a big government pro-state cult). He can also take actions which are self-destructive, thereby making the movement appear insane or foolhardy by proxy.
END OF QUOTE

If this were true , and in order to continue and prolong the 'scam ', why would the Elite allow anything to be raised which completely unmasked their plant , The Donald , as a phoney and traitor to the populist cause ?
Yet apparently this is precisely what they have done and this makes no sense whatsoever .
That is , for the scam to continue , specificity must always be avoided .No short term promises should ever be put to a rigid time test
YET , apparently , any moment indictments are to be activated .
Prison barges are to be utilised
Guantanamo is going to be filled .
In camera military tribunals will commence .
Martial law will declared as required .
Etc x Etc
In my eyes this Brandon Smith piece is poppycock because it is self contradictory . That is -- the proposition asserts --- you insert The Donald as your master double agent but then incredibly you also do and /or allow everything conceivable to undermine this exact claimed position and thereby guarantee failure of the original plot .
I personally could not care less whether Mister Trump is a man who often walks on water , is an Elite plant or just the consummate scam artist working closely with his past mentors the Rothschild family . But I like internal consistency in my conspiracy narratives or some compelling reasons why there need not be any .

[onawah]

If creating chaos and confusion ( or "Loosh") is the ultimate goal, then we should not expect things to make a lot of sense.
If the whole NWO game was actually devised by off-world entities, their motivations will logically be more obscure to us than any of our own devising.
imho

[ripple]

Posted by onawah (here)
If creating chaos and confusion ( or "Loosh") is the ultimate goal, then we should not expect things to make a lot of sense.
If the whole NWO game was actually devised by off-world entities, their motivations will logically be more obscure to us than any of our own devising.
imho

If ' loosh' was true , then writing in Forums and generally discussing likely strategies is a complete and utter waste of time !! ??
But bringing 'off - world entities ' into the premise is just a variation on the , " What if .. " game and is a mix of fantasy and gibberish , imho.
Pointless because it could continue forever and is irrational .
On the other hand I would say that the whole history of Elite inspired False Flags is an uninterrupted narrative of stupidity and amateurism .Because they are always found out . To now believe that we are faced by a completely brand new team of clever and thorough experts and specialists is not just a step too far , it is a million miles too far .Again , imho .