Militant Enviros Turn Ugly at Trump Protest Following Speech

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MDN editor Jim Willis attended the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s Shale Insight conference last Wednesday and Thursday in Pittsburgh (see Highlights from 2016 Shale Insight, Day One and Highlights from 2016 Shale Insight, Day Two – Trump!). We had heard, via media reports, that protesters would be present to try and disrupt The Donald’s talk on Day Two of the event (last Thursday). But we didn’t hear or see anything–at least during the conference. Trump’s keynote address was the closing talk at the conference. After he finished speaking, Jim made a beeline back to the MDN booth to get started packing it away since the conference was essentially over (officially ended at 1 pm). After shipping the booth and returning to the place where Jim was staying, he decided to change and, being a fantastically sunny and warm day, head several blocks away to a Starbucks for latte and to sit and get some work done on stories for last Friday. Literally around the corner from where Jim was staying, on Sixth Avenue in Pittsburgh, is an exclusive members-only club called The Duquesne Club. In walking past the club Jim noticed a large police presence, along with a remnants of what looked like the usual suspects he sees at protest rallies–a mix of college kids and old hippies with long gray hair tied back in a pony tails. Jim also saw PA House Speaker Mike Turzai walking on the sidewalk in front of the Club. So he wondered if perchance The Donald had gone to the club for lunch following his speech. Sure enough, in checking the news, Trump held a fundraising dinner at the Club immediately following his speech at Shale Insight. Since the protesters weren’t even noticed (by the press) at the mammoth David L Lawrence Convention Center where Trump spoke, they figured they would get noticed if they jammed the street in front of The Duquesne Club instead. And sure enough, it worked. Police were there in riot gear, and it’s a good thing, because some of the protesters were borderline violent–threatening to break into the private club…

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