#HR9495 is a slippery slope. Who will be considered #terrorists? #ClimateActivists, those who speak up against #IsraeliWarCrimes, #WaterDefenders, #NativeAmericans, #DragQueens, #GBLTQ folks, #Librarians, #gynecologists, etc., etc. We need to #StopHR9495 in its tracks!

#ClampDown #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DonTheFascistCon
#CriminalizingDissent #KristiNoem
#Blackwater #ErikPrince #Autocracy
#SilencingDissent #ClimateActivists
#AntiWarActivists #WaterProtectors
#PeaceActivists #ClimateJustice #Protests #StandWithStandingRock
#GazaGenocide #LebanonGenocide #WeDontNeedThatFascistGrooveThing

Ecuador's president Daniel Noboa, who is seeking re-election, has enlisted Trump supporter and Blackwater founder Erik Prince as an ally in ‘war’ on crime

Noboa announced on X "a strategic alliance to strengthen our capabilities in the fight against narco-terrorism and to protect our waters from illegal fishing"

#ErikPrince #DanielNoboa #Ecuador #Blackwater

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/12/ecuador-president-blackwater-alliance?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

“Another Blackrock? Nearly 100 U.S. Mercenaries are in Gaza Right Now”

by Nuvpreet Kalra in Counterpunch @counterpunch

@palestine
@israel

“They claim to be searching for weapons moving in Gaza, of course only on Palestinians [..] not those of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) [..]. We know this means that these soldiers are doing the work of the occupation forces”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/02/20/another-blackrock-nearly-100-u-s-mercenaries-are-in-gaza-right-now/

#Press #Palestine #Gaza #US #Mercenaries #UGSolutions #Blackwater #Netzarim #IOF #Oppression #Genocide

Well, well, well... Connecting the dots! Why am I not surprised to find #ErikPrince's bloody fingerprints on #Israeli #genocide!

#Israel preparing to flood #Hamas tunnels with seawater

Story by Harriet Marsden, 12/7/2023

"The Times reported that 'controversial US security contractor' Erik Prince, founder of private military company Blackwater, 'persuaded' Israel 'only days" after the 7 October attacks by Hamas 'to buy his sophisticated mining equipment' to flood the tunnels. A source reportedly told the paper that the involvement of the former US Navy Seal was a 'red flag' to the Joe Biden administration, which 'demanded more study' on the potential impact of flooding on groundwater and sewage facilities."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-preparing-to-flood-hamas-tunnels-with-seawater/ar-AA1l9DUn

#OffLeash #Blackwater #BibiIsAWarCriminal #ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal

Looks like Erik Prince's SCOTUS whispering worked... jfc

The Supreme Court effectively abolishes the right to mass protest in three US states

It is no longer safe to organize a protest in Louisiana, Mississippi, or Texas.

By Ian Millhiser Apr 15, 2024,

"The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will not hear Mckesson v. Doe. The decision not to hear Mckesson leaves in place a lower court decision that effectively eliminated the right to organize a #MassProtest in the states of #Louisiana, #Mississippi, and #Texas.

"Under that lower court decision, a protest organizer faces potentially ruinous financial consequences if a single attendee at a mass protest commits an illegal act."

#McKessonVsDoe #BLM #Fascism #SCOTUS #SLAPPs #RightToProtest #FreeSpeech #CivilDisobedience #CorruptSCOTUS #ClarenceThomas #ImpeachJusticeThomas #Blackwater #ErikPrince #NoDAPL #Academi #Activism

OpEd: Why #MAGA Loves #Russia and Hates #Ukraine

Feb. 8, 2024
By David French

"In 2021, The American Conservative’s Rod Dreher praised a #Putin speech condemning the West and said that Putin and #Hungary’s #ViktorOrban were 'completely clear and completely correct on the society-destroying nature of #wokeness and postliberal leftism.' (It should be noted that Dreher has nonetheless unequivocally condemned Putin’s invasion.) A 2022 exchange between Steve Bannon and #ErikPrince, the founder of private military contractor #Blackwater, was even more illustrative. Bannon hosted Prince on his podcast shortly after Putin’s invasion and proclaimed Putin 'anti-woke.' Prince replied supportively that the people of Russia 'still know which bathroom to use.' And Bannon kept the thought alive, asking, 'How many genders are there in Russia?'"

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/opinion/why-maga-loves-russia-and-hates-ukraine.html

#Transphobia #ChristoFascism #ErikPrinceColonialism #CorporateColonialism #Fascism #TigerSwan #NoDAPL #HumanRights #EnvironmentalJustice #LGBTQ

#ClarenceThomas secretly attended fundraising event for group pushing cases before the court, new report says

The #Koch network is frequently behind cases before the court, including a closely watched challenge this term that could upend decades of precedent.

by Kelsey Reichmann, Sep 22, 2023

"Thomas’ attendance at the Koch network fundraiser is coupled with his failure to disclose the trip. Ethics experts called on the Judicial Conference — the rulemaking group for federal courts — to refer Thomas’ disclosure lapses to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

"'The law is very clear,' Gabe Roth, executive director at Fix the Court, said in an email. 'The Judicial Conference must refer to the Attorney General 'any individual' for which there is 'reasonable cause to believe' that 'information required to be reported' in their disclosure has not been reported. We're far past 'reasonable cause' territory.'

"Thomas’ failure to disclose other gifts from #billionaires has already been reported to the Judicial Conference, however no action has been taken by the group.

"According to ProPublica, the Palm Springs event was just one instance the Koch brothers rubbed elbows with the conservative justice. The trio all took regular trips to an exclusive all-male retreat in California, Bohemian Grove. Thomas is said to attend the camp as Crow’s guest. Other attendees at the retreat include #Blackwater founder #ErikPrince, George H.W. Bush, and Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi."

https://www.courthousenews.com/clarence-thomas-secretly-attended-fundraising-event-for-group-pushing-cases-before-the-court-new-report-says/

#SCOTUS #Oligarchy ##Corporatocracy
#Corruption

A shadowy and controversial secret club meets in the California woods every year — and at least 5 US presidents were members

by Áine Cain
Mar 11, 2018,

"George H.W. #Bush joined the club in 1973, while chairing the Republican National Committee during the Watergate scandal.

"Domhoff writes that Bush belonged to a camp called Hill Billies, along with top executives from #BankOfAmerica, #GeneralMotors, and #ProcterAndGamble.

"Bush also brought along a future president as a guest on one trip to Bohemian Grove. He introduced his son — George W. Bush — at a lakeside talk in 1995, saying that he'd make a great president, according to Domhoff."

https://www.businessinsider.com/bohemian-grove-club-us-presidents-2018-3?op=1#george-h-w-bush-bunked-with-executives-from-influential-companies-7

#BohemianGrove #Oligarchy
#Corporatocracy
#Corruption #Koch #Blackwater

Well, well, well... It seems we've come full circle, eh?

#ClarenceThomas secretly participated in #Koch network donor events

Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, helping a political network that has brought cases to #SCOTUS

By Joshua Kaplan - Justin Elliott - Alex Mierjeski
Published September 22, 2023

"Thomas' involvement in the events is part of a yearslong, personal relationship with the Koch brothers that has remained almost entirely out of public view. It developed over years of trips to the #BohemianGrove, a secretive all-men's retreat in Northern California. Thomas has been a regular at the Grove for two decades, where he stayed in a small camp with real estate billionaire #HarlanCrow and the Kochs, according to records and people who've spent time with him there.

"The Grove is an exclusive, two-week party held in the Sonoma County redwoods every July. A member or his guest can wander from the Grove's shooting range to a lecture by #Blackwater founder #ErikPrince, or from a mint julep party to a performance by the Grove's symphony orchestra. Wine, sometimes at $500 a bottle, flows freely, and late at night, members consume clam chowder and chili by the gallon. More than one attendee recalled walking outside in the morning to find a former cabinet secretary who fell asleep drunk in the grass.

"There's a saying among the Bohemians, as the club's members call themselves: The only place you should be publicly associated with the Grove is in your obituary. That privacy is paramount, members said, in part to allow the powerful to speak freely — and party — without worrying about showing up in the press. Only designated photographers are allowed to take pictures. Cellphones are strictly forbidden.

"Members typically must pay thousands of dollars to bring a guest. Several people ProPublica spoke to said that before the pandemic, they saw Thomas there just about every year. ProPublica was able to confirm six trips Thomas took to the retreat that he didn't disclose. Flight records suggest Crow has repeatedly dispatched his private jet to Virginia to pick up Thomas and ferry him to the Sonoma County airport and back, usually for a long weekend in the middle of the Grove festival."

https://www.salon.com/2023/09/22/clarence-thomas-secretly-participated-in-koch-network-donor-events_partner/

#Oligarchy #Corporatocracy #Corruption

Extent of #Blackwater and #CIA Collaboration Uncovered

By Yana Kunichoff
Published December 11, 2009

"New details of Blackwater participation in clandestine CIA raids detail the extent to which private security contractors were involved in covert government antiterror operations.

"According to former employees and current and former American intelligence officials, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions, Blackwater security guards participated in clandestine raids to capture or kill suspected insurgents in #Iraq and #Afghanistan and in transportation of detainees on CIA flights.

"The raids against suspects were said to occur almost nightly between 2004 and 2006, the height of the Iraqi insurgency. Several of the former Blackwater employees said the lines dividing the government-sanctioned agencies (the CIA and the military) and Blackwater began to blur.

"This information highlights a more extensive relationship between the CIA and Blackwater, now re-named Xe Services, than government investigation had previously acknowledged.

"This was confirmed recently by an article about #ErikPrince, the founder of Blackwater, published in Vanity Fair. In it, Prince spoke about the extent of his involvement with the CIA, which ranged from putting together, funding and executing operations to bring personnel into 'denied areas' to targeting specific people for #assassination who were deemed enemies by the #USGovernment.

"Though Prince alleged that he participated as a private citizen and used his personal funds to carry out operations, the Blackwater employees interviewed by The New York Times confirmed both their full knowledge of and participation in the raids.

"#Xe spokesman Mark Corallo, however, continued to deny this."

Full article:
https://truthout.org/articles/extent-of-blackwater-and-cia-collaboration-uncovered/

#TigerSwan #BigOil #HumanRights #Covert #Corporatism #Corporatocracy
#Corruption #Capitalism #Colonialism

From 2017: Revealed: #Blackwater Founder #ErikPrince's Business Ties With #Netanyahu’s Disgraced Chief of Staff

U.S. businessman at center of storm over allegedly setting up back-channel between #Trump and #Putin has ties to #AriHarow and an Israeli financier

by Hagai Amit, Dec 6, 2017

"His involvement in foreign policy raises eyebrows because of his involvement in Blackwater (now known as #Academi), the multinational security firm that operates around the world. Though he sold the company in 2010, Prince has made a fortune from wars – from #Iraq to #Afghanistan. He has also attracted bad press: In September 2007, Blackwater employees escorting a convoy killed 17 Iraqis. They claimed it was an ambush, but Iraq claimed the killings were unprovoked. The Iraqi government refused to renew Blackwater’s license in 2009.

"Five years ago, well before anybody predicted Trump’s election, Prince visited Israel and was hosted by Harow. At the time, Harow was a businessman with a private investment fund as well as being chief of Netanyahu’s bureau. Harow tried to interest Prince in investing in Indigo Strategic Capital, a venture capital fund that Harow was co-managing with Dorian Barak.

"How much Prince invested in Indigo remains unknown, but it is known that through Indigo he invested in the Israeli companies #NowForce (security) and #AgentVi (real-time video analytics)."

Read more:
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2017-12-06/ty-article/revealed-erik-prince-had-business-ties-with-netanyahus-disgraced-chief-of-staff/0000017f-f754-d460-afff-ff76cb520000

#ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal #IsraeliWarCrimes #BibiIsAWarCriminal #ErikPrinceColonialism

The wealth of #Betsy #DeVos,
by contrast, comes from a simpler operation:
the marketing of what some have called a pyramid scheme that goes by the brand name #Amway.

Founded by her father-in-law in 1959, Amway distributes home products like dish soap and cosmetics through a network of home-based sellers
who are pressured to recruit more sellers in order to earn a bonus on the amount of product the distributor would then sell wholesale to the recruit.
That recruit would also be a distributor, looking for recruits of his or her own, in order to sell more products wholesale in order to get that bonus.

Note the emphasis on recruitment and bonuses rather than the direct-selling to retail customers,
who, in the end, were the ones for whom Amway products were ostensibly intended.

In the business press, Amway is often described as a “multilevel marketing company.”

In the 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission described its business model as
an “inherent fraud,” as historian Rick Perlstein reported in The Nation,
and tried to shut the company down.
The FTC failed in that effort, but did issue orders in 1979 slapping Amway for price-fixing and misrepresenting the kind of money distributors could expect to make.
In fact, Amway was made to tell distributors that they could wind up losing money.

Three decades later, in 2010, a class action lawsuit by former sellers (um, “distributors”) alleging Amway’s engagement in an “illegal scheme” was settled out of court.

According to USA Today, Amway agreed to pay $55 million to former distributors,
closely oversee high-level distributors who run training businesses,
strengthen refund policies
and make other changes estimated to cost an additional $100 million.

In Forbes’ 2016 listing of “America’s Largest Private Companies,” Amway clocks in at number twenty-nine.

The education secretary, née Elisabeth Prince, did not come into the DeVos family empty-handed.
Her own family of origin, while not as wealthy as her husband’s, was quite well-to-do through her father’s enterprise, 💥Prince Corporation💥, itself a privately held company until Johnson Controls bought it for $1.3 billion in cash in 1996.

Founder #Edgar #Prince, seeking to change the political culture to more closely resemble his own heartless Calvinism,
donated, according to Zack Stanton of Politico, “millions in seed funding to launch the
💥Family Research Council,”
the right-wing organization that represents and organizes politically conservative evangelical Christians,
and was famously designated an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Prince’s son, #Erik, used his windfall to found #Blackwater, the military contractor that went on to infamy when, in 2007,
its mercenaries gunned down civilians in a Baghdad city square.
Four Blackwater contractors were convicted in 2014 of killing fourteen unarmed Iraqis “in what prosecutors called a wartime atrocity,” according to the New York Times.
Blackwater, since sold and renamed #Academi, was also privately held.
It enjoyed more than $1 billion in government contracts.
In 2010, according to the Washington Post,

Prince moved to the United Arab Emirates “amid mounting legal problems for his American business.”

Both the #Mercers and the #DeVoses pour millions into the political system.
You can bet they plan to run the country the same way they have run their companies: using shell games and pyramid schemes, fraud and shakedown.

According to The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer, #Robert #Mercer “gave $22.5 million in disclosed donations to Republican candidates and to political-action committees” to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
And that doesn’t include possible donations to nonprofit advocacy groups, now allowed,
since the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC,
to conduct advertising for and against political candidates.

But unlike PACs, these nonprofits
—classified as “social welfare” groups
—are not required to disclose their donors.

Politico’s Stanton reports that Betsy and Dick DeVos pretty much own Michigan politics,
having spent “at least $100 million on political campaigns and causes over the past 20 years.”
The DeVoses used political giving and influence to cut funding to public schools and pave the way for a large influx of charter schools,
and to see Michigan, home to the once-mighty United Auto Workers,
turned into a so-called right-to-work state,
an anti-union designation that translates into greater workplace control for business bosses, but few rights for the bossed

#Republicans Are Already Trying to Grant #Trump Dangerous Powers

Opinion by #HafizRashid
November 15, 2024

"House Republicans are trying to push through a bill that would give President-Elect #DonaldTrump powers as president to designate #nonprofit organizations as '#TerroristSupporting' even after it was seemingly defeated earlier this week.

"The Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act #HR9495 would allow the secretary of the treasury the ability to revoke any nonprofit organization’s tax-exempt status by branding it with a terrorism label. Earlier this week, the bill failed to receive the necessary two-thirds majority in the House to advance to the Senate.

"But on Monday, the House Rules Committee plans to hold a hearing that could set up a new vote on the bill, which initially had the support of all but one Republican and 52 Democrats. With the GOP only holding a seven seat majority in the chamber, they would need the support of more Democrats to advance the bill, which was introduced to combat #protests against #Israel’s war on #Gaza.

"Under any circumstances, the bill would threaten #FirstAmendment rights to #FreeSpeech, but after Trump’s election last week, there are now fears that the president-elect could use these new powers to crack down on his enemies with little recourse. Many #universities and #NewsOutlets are nonprofit organizations in addition to #activist groups.

"After the bill’s initial failure on Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union [#ACLU] celebrated the rejection of 'new broad and easily abused powers.'

"'The freedom to #dissent without fear of government retribution is a vital part of any well-functioning democracy, and now is not the time to grant the executive branch new powers to investigate and functionally shut down and silence its critics,' said Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel for the ACLU, in a statement.

"Now, the bill could be given a retooling and sent up for a vote again, giving a president who has already threatened to use the #military against his critics even more sweeping powers. The question is if #Democrats will recognize the bill as granting dangerous powers to the presidency, or see it as a chance to clamp down on protesters they have tried to ignore at their peril for the past year.'"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republicans-are-already-trying-to-grant-trump-dangerous-powers/ar-AA1uaihv

#ClampDown #WorkingForTheClampDown #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DonTheFascistCon #StopHR9495
#CriminalizingDissent #KristiNoem
#Blackwater #ErikPrince #Autocracy
#SilencingDissent #ClimateActivists
#AntiWarActivists #WaterProtectors
#PeaceActivists #ClimateJustice #Protests #StandWithStandingRock
#GazaGenocide #LebanonGenocide

Congress Is About to Gift Trump Sweeping Powers to Crush His Political Enemies
The House is set to vote Tuesday on a bill that would let the administration destroy nonprofits it claims support terrorism.
Noah Hurowitz
November 10 2024

"Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire for revenge.

"On the campaign trail, he joked about being a #dictator on 'day one' in office, pledged to jail #journalists, and threatened to retaliate against political foes who he felt had wronged him.
Now, just days after he secured a second term in the White House, Congress is already moving to hand a resurgent #Trump administration a powerful cudgel that it could wield against ideological opponents in #CivilSociety.

"Up for a fast-track vote next week in the House of representatives, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, also known as #HR9495, would grant the secretary of Treasury Department unilateral authority to revoke the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit deemed to be a 'terrorist supporting organization.'"

https://theintercept.com/2024/11/10/trump-nonprofit-tax-exempt-political-enemies/

#SilencingDissent #ClimateActivists #FreePalestine #Activists
#NoDAPL #Section25 #Fascism #Greenpeace #Project2025
#Blackwater #ErikPrince
#CriminalizingDissent
#CrackdownOnProtests
#AntiProtestLaws
#Genocide #ClimateActivists
#ErikPrinceColonialism
#CorporateFascism #CorporateColonialism
#ClimateProtestors #CharacteristicsOfFascism

#BreakingNews!

#EnergyTransfer's $300 Million Lawsuit Against #Greenpeace for #StandingRock #Resistance Delayed

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
July 29, 2024

STANDING ROCK, #NorthDakota -- "Energy Transfer's $300 million #SLAPP lawsuit against Greenpeace and Standing Rock #WaterProtectors for the resistance to #DakotaAccessPipeline has been delayed until February, due to a 'massive document dump' by Energy Transfer, Greenpeace told Censored News today.

"Originally, our trial was set for July 29th, 2024 – but due to a massive document dump by Energy Transfer in June, Greenpeace filed a request to have the trial date pushed back. The judge agreed, and moved our trial to February 24, 2025 through March 28, 2025," Lindsay Bigda, communication director, Democracy Resilience Program at Greenpeace USA told Censored News today.
Responding to questions, Greenpeace said #RedWarriorSociety and other water protectors are named in the lawsuit.

"'Red Warrior Society is still named in the lawsuit and last week our lawyers presented arguments for why it shouldn’t be (because it is not the sort of entity that can be sued). The two individuals, #CodyHall and #KrystalTwoBulls, are also still named, but were never served. (Greenpeace entities are the only ones that were served and are actively litigating),' Bigda told Censored News.

"'Very few jurisdictions have made steps to prevent the corporate legal warfare waged in SLAPPs to #SilenceDissent and freedom of expression. The United States has long failed to uphold #HumanRights and #Indigenous leaders have had no choice but to leave their precious homelands; and use international diplomacy to implore all those who will listen for an end to the #extractive industry violence.'

"'Europe played a key role in the #colonization of the planet. Now let's see if she, her people, and jurisdictions, can help in undoing and healing that historic wound. #IndigenousPeoples must continue to engage with Europe to seek justice and #corporate accountability.'

"Standing Rock water protectors have been served subpoenas in the case from Energy Transfer, as it seeks out information. #UnicornRiot fought the subpoena in #Minnesota and won its case to protect its internal media files. However, Energy Transfer has now asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to reconsider its case.

"Greenpeace clarified the reason for the subpoenas that water protectors and Unicorn Riot media were served with.
'Unicorn riot was never named in the lawsuit. They received a third party subpoena, along with many other activist groups and individuals (these folks are not parties to the case; rather, they are third parties that Energy Transfer wants info from in its case against Greenpeace,)' Bigda told Censored News.

"Mercenaries #TigerSwan Spied without a License, Provided Info to Law Enforcement

"Red Warrior Camp was a focus of the mercenaries hired by Energy Transfer at Standing Rock in September of 2016, as revealed in the court-ordered spy documents released.
TigerSwan was found working in North Dakota without a license from 2016 through 2017. As a result, the North Dakota regulatory board ordered that TigerSwan's spy files be released. The Intercept now has over 50,000 of TigerSwan's spy documents at Standing Rock, as a result of a lengthy court battle. Energy Transfer, employer of TigerSwan, fought the release of documents in North Dakota court, but the North Dakota Supreme Court upheld the decision to release TigerSwan's documents in 2022.

"The TigerSwan aerial photos included #OcetiSakowin Camp, Red Warrior Camp, and the other camps. The spy documents reveal that a U.S. Border Patrol drone was included in the aerial #surveillance and #infiltrators were placed in the water protector camps at Standing Rock and elsewhere.

"Meanwhile, after Standing Rock, TigerSwan's CEO formed a new company. Syria says they are stealing #Syria's oil. CNN reported about the secretive contract and the new company.

#Palestinians Targeted for Surveillance by TigerSwan at Standing Rock

"As soon as a single #Palestinian activist showed up at an anti-Dakota Access Pipeline camp on the edge of the Standing Rock reservation in 2016, intelligence analysts for the mercenary security firm TigerSwan were on alert," by Alleen Brown, Drilled and co-published with the Center for Media and Democracy."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/energy-transfers-300-million-lawsuit.html

#ReaderSupportedNews #StandWithStandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #CorporateColonialism #EarthDefenders #CriminalizingDissent #BigOilAndGas #ErikPrince #Blackwater