Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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A revealing Facebook post by the Delaware Povertykeeper a/k/a Riverkeeper tells us all what the true mission of this phony tax-exempt organization really is.

Our readers are researchers by heart and one of them sent me a Facebook photo they discovered earlier today. The post can be found on the Delaware Riverkeeper’s page and, therefore, it will come as no surprise it features a picture of Maya Van Rossum, the Delaware Povertykeeper herself. What is surprising is the flash of truth that comes with the photo posted.

Here’s the photo, which serves to invite Delaware Povertykeeper friends to attend a Denver, Colorado “Frack Attack Summit.” Notice the slogan used by Maya (her words, apparently); “Escalating the fight between communities and the oil and gas industry.” Finally! Some honesty from the dirty tricks arm of the William Penn Foundation and the Wallace family – an admission none of the Povertykeeper/Riverkeeper theatrics have anything to do with the Delaware River but are, rather, the work of a divider and instigator who desires conflict as a way of fighting oil and gas. Forget the tax-exempt mission of this “charity.” It’s nothing more than a political guerrilla outfit focused on manipulating naive communities into fighting against oil and gas. More on that in a moment.

The Frack Attack Summit is a project a coalition known as Stop the Frack Attack that consists of all the usual suspects – the same tiny group of fractivists operating under different names in a multitude of places under the sponsorship of an even smaller number of funders. They’re fronted by Earthworks, which is part of the Park Foundation/Rockefeller network Jay Halfon coordinates and they’re staffed by a serial protester type named Robby Diesu, who works with another entity known as the DC Action Lab.

Robby Diesu

The DC Action Lab says it’s a “a worker-owned collective of experienced organizers trying to build a world based on equity, justice, and sustainability.” That means they’re paid shills, I guess, and their “clients” list is another collection of the typical leftist bully groups funded by the likes of the Haas, Heinz, Park, Rockefeller and Wallace families.

Robby, they say, “specializes in mass mobilizations and direct actions for the environmental and labor movement.” How fascinating. I always hoped one of my kids would grow up to be one of those but they were all too busy trying to find jobs and pay off college loans. Robby apparently didn’t have to worry about that. Here’s a profile of him from someone who had observed some of his escapades in 2011 (emphasis added):

A quick google search shows that Robby is pretty much a professional protester who happens to attend college.

Whether it’s organizing for nut-job Cindy Sheehan, carving out a niche for gay students at Catholic, disrupting tours of the U.S. Capitol and getting arrested, getting arrested at the White House, getting arrested outside of the Capitol, or disrupting a peaceful neighborhood with bull horn protests, I am surprised this kid has time to attend classes. He probably has to work multiple jobs to cover all of the bail to repeatedly cover the times he’s been arrested. Maybe he’s on the six-year plan. This kid would be king of the jungle for social justice activists at SLU. Camping in a tent for Haiti? Please. There’s no topping Robby!

To Robby’s comment that is getting torn apart on DCist:

“First, it doesn’t bring real economic development to D.C. and to the Brightwood/Petworth neighborhood, which is where most of the organizers live. Second, we need more affordable housing in the District. To really support local businesses, the District needs more people living here that can buy things. If we have cheaper living, people can buy more things. Third, Walmart funds anti-statehood candidates. By welcoming Walmart into the District, it’s like a slap in the face for the people who think we should have full statehood.”

I have a hard time believing that Robby is an expert on “real economic development.” Second, I love how he identifies with “most organizers” (read:union, interest-group, or unemployed). Once Robby graduates, if he already hasn’t, he’ll be an organizer, which is the same thing as an unemployed business graduate telling everyone they’re “a consultant.”

Talk about being prescient! The author nailed it and that was four years ago. Robby became a protestor and a consultant, just as predicted. On the other hand the trend line was pretty clear even three years earlier when Robby made these observations during an Iraq war protest:

It’s sometimes hard to get his classmates to listen, but he’s still pressing others to join him for action. “We’re youth; we have the most free time ever.

“This is our movement, too,” he said. “It’s not just for old white women.”

Virginia Leavell

You have to give this kid credit for honesty at least. He may not be the brightest bulb but he knows a lark when he sees it and he’s not afraid to be politically incorrect.

It could be worse, given some of his DC Labs partners, namely Virginia Leavell, who is profiled here. Virginia is the prototype “occupier” and trustfunder of the type we see over and over and over again at the helm of fractivist groups – they are disproportionately represented among all radical groups because, well, they have the free time and the guilt.

Here’s a few excerpts on Virginia:

Leavell, 28, wears her red hair loose and a little messy. She has tattoos, a piercing in her upper ear and big hipster glasses. She looks the part of the young protester, concerned about overwhelming student loans, an underwhelming job market and politicians who aren’t concerned enough about the sad economics of most people’s lives.

Only Leavell isn’t part of the 99 percent. In addition to having a job (she’s a union organizer), Leavell inherited around $1 million a few years ago. She owns the house that hosted the kissing booth. So what’s she doing occupying D.C.?

“I’m an ally,” she said to The Huffington Post. “I don’t have debt. I was given money. I’m an ally.”

…After college, Leavell lived in Thailand for two years, working for a study-abroad program, before coming back to the District to take up life as a professional activist.

…Also despite her wealth, Leavell considers herself part of the movement to dismantle the capitalist economy and sees the Occupy protests as advancing that movement. As a self-described “white person of privilege,” she recognizes the tension in this position. But she said she’s willing to live with that tension until she’s completed her life’s work and her “privilege” — which is to say, the societal advantages bestowed by inherited wealth and race — is taken away.

…Leavell knows the capitalist system will not fall quickly. Until then, she plans to donate, to organize, to protest. To have potluck dinners with other activists who, because of family money, could also eat at any restaurant in the city. She plans to remain an ally of the 99 percent, to keep rallying with Occupy DC and to push to bring about a world without any Resource Generation.

“I was born in the 1 percent because of my family, and I am working really hard for the radical redistribution of wealth,” Leavell said. “Because that’s the right thing to do. I want very much to live in a world where we all have equal access to resources and we all can get what we need to live comfortably. It’s against my self-interest.”

It’s all incredibly laughable, of course, but these are the types of individuals who elitist families – run by second, third and forth generation trust-funders such as David Haas, Teresa Heinz Kerry, Adelaide Park Gomer and the Rockefeller/NRDC gang – finance to fight fractivism. It’s a way to spread the wealth among their own and occupy the kids’ free time, after all.

The 1900 Tudor Revival mansion, called Stoneleigh, was home to three generation of the Haas family. It is located in Villanova not far from Maya Van Rossum’s home. The Haas family finances the her Delaware Riverkeeper operation.

And, Maya Van Rossum, the Delaware Povertykeeper a/k/a Riverkeeper loves cavorting with these folks when she’s not giving fiery speeches on other causes. She lives fairly modestly but comes from the same culture of privilege, continuing to live in Radnor (where per capita income is more than twice as high as the Commonwealth and they like to brag about it), living on street where homes sell for $400,000 to over $1 million. Meanwhile, she goes to a natural gas heated office in Bristol every day to fight the industry, working with people such as Robby and Virginia, doing her best to “escalate the fight between communities and the oil and gas industry.” What a cruel joke on the people of the Upper Delaware River region (per capita income 16% below the Commonwealth) who are impoverished by the games played by these children during their free time.