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Archive for the 'Health & Well Being' Category

Stand Your Ground At Standing Rock

Posted by Michelle Moquin on 2nd October 2016

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Good morning.

I’m giving all that is happening with Trump a rest, at least for another day. There’s so much to disgusting news to report on him it’s challenging to pick just one. So I’m not going to today as well.

Instead I will turn my attention to an area that is probably not getting the media attention they deserve because this election has taken over the time and minds of most. At least for me it has been.

Thanks again Social Butterfly for posting the latest on DAPL. I watched the 8 minute live Facebook video.  I am so sad and sickened by how the indigenous people at Standing Rock are being mistreated. My heart goes out to them. It feels like their entire lives they have had to fight for their rights and their livelihood. Thankfully many people are coming together in solidarity, and prayer.

I found this while perusing the net.

From Bill Moyers:

Standing Firm at Standing Rock: Why the Struggle is Bigger Than One Pipeline

For indigenous people, the fight to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline is about reviving a way of life.

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A Standing Rock Sioux flag flies over a protest encampment near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, where members of the Standing Rock nations and their supporters have gathered to voice their opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. (Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

The first sign that not everything is normal as you drive down Highway 1806 toward the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota is a checkpoint manned by camouflage-clad National Guard troops. The inspection on Sept. 13 was perfunctory; they simply asked if we knew “what was going on down the road” and then waved us through, even though the car we rode in had “#NoDAPL” chalked on its rear windshield.

“What is going on down the road” is a massive camp-in led by the Standing Rock nation, aimed at blocking the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (the DAPL in question), which would carry oil from the Bakken shale in North Dakota across several states and under the Missouri River. What began with a small beachhead last April on the banks of the Cannonball River on land belonging to LaDonna Brave Bull Allard has expanded to both banks of the river and up the road, to multiple camps that have housed as many as 7,000 people from all over the world. Because of them, first the Obama administration and then a federal court stepped in to temporarily halt construction of the pipeline near the campsite. Still, the people of Standing Rock and their thousands of supporters aren’t declaring victory and folding their tents just yet.

The legal struggles for a permanent shutdown of the pipeline construction continue: the people of Standing Rock have filed a lawsuit to halt construction, as has one of the South Dakota Native American nations and landowners in Iowa as well. As the lawsuits proceed, other members of the camp have been involved in nonviolent direct actions, locking their arms around construction machinery to prevent digging. Dozens have been arrested as part of those actions, including 22 people on Sept. 12, the day I arrived at the camp. That was days after the Obama administration’s call for a temporary halt to construction on the pipeline, and a stark reminder that the struggle was not over.

In addition to the legal battles and the direct actions, though, the people of the Oceti Sakowin and Sacred Stone camps were preparing for another challenge: a North Dakota winter. Already at night, the temperature drops to 40 degrees Fahrenheit; deliveries of blankets and warm clothing were constant, as was the chopping of wood for fires and discussion of what kinds of structures would allow the camps to stay in place through the bitter cold months ahead.

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“We’re already winterizing in all aspects of the camp, young people working with the elders to find, whether it’s longhouses, whether it’s yurts, whether it’s any kind of structures that would keep us warm for the winter,” said Lay Ha, who traveled to North Dakota from the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming in late August and became part of the camp’s youth council.

They’re staying partly out of suspicion: A temporary halt is, of course, just temporary. “As far as I can see, it’s just another way to lull us to sleep, make us go to sleep so we leave and then they’ll start again,” said Ista Hmi, an elder from Wanblee, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation and a member of the Seven Council Fires. “The Missouri [River] here, it was poisoned already from the pesticides and all that but we were still able to clean it,” he said. “But those are just topical compared to this oil. The oil, if it gets in here, it will start destroying the ecosystem underneath; it’ll be dead water.”

“We’re protecting the water, we’re not protesters,” explained Lay Ha. To him, as to many others in the camp, that the action is led by Native people, that it is built around their belief in nonviolence and in the spirit of prayer, is vital. It is, to them, much more than a protest.

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Ha is Arapaho and Lakota on his father’s side and Eastern Shoshone on his mother’s; he is part of what has become the largest coming together of Native people in, many said, more than 100 years. The flags that flap overhead represent something more than a fight for clean water — they are a powerful statement of solidarity, a declaration of common interest.

The first camp you pass once through the checkpoint is a small one on the side of the road overlooking the construction site. Further along, signs, flags and banners hang from the barbed-wire fence along the road. A massive banner declares “No DAPL!” Spray-painted on a concrete barrier are the words “Children Don’t Drink Oil.” Then emerges the breathtaking sight of what is now called the Oceti Sakowin camp: Flags from well over 200 Native nations and international supporters line the driveway into the camp, flapping in the high plains wind. People ride through the camp on horseback. At the entrance, when you drive in, you are greeted by security and a man with burning sage to smudge your car. Just beyond, at the main fire, a microphone is set up for speakers and performers: When we arrived, Joan Baez sat by the fire, singing “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

Kandi Mossett of the Indigenous Environmental Network was wearing a “No Fracking” T-shirt when I met her at the media tent, doing an interview alongside a delegation from Ecuador of indigenous people who have also fought the oil companies there. She is from northwestern North Dakota, the Fort Berthold reservation, and the oil that would travel through the Dakota Access Pipeline is extracted from her community. She came to Standing Rock for the formation of the original camp, known as the Sacred Stone camp, on LaDonna Allard’s land. At first, she remembered, the camp had anywhere from five to 30 people. Then, when Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the pipeline, put out notification that it was going to begin construction, the camp swelled to 200, then 700. It spilled over the river, into what was at first simply called the overflow camp. But as that camp grew, the campers began to feel it deserved its own name. Oceti Sakowin is the name for the Seven Council Fires, the political structure of what is known as the Great Sioux Nation. “We had for the first time in 200 years or more, the Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation coming together in one place to meet again,” Mossett said.

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Faith Spotted Eagle is also part of the Seven Council Fires, from the Ihanktonwan or Yankton band. She too was there on what she remembered as a wintry, blowing day in April when the Sacred Stone camp first opened. An elder and grandmother, she had also been part of the successful fight against the Keystone XL Pipeline, and pointed out that the networks activated by that fight were coming together again in North Dakota. In 2013, she said, a dream of her grandmother sent her to look at the 1863 treaty between her people and the Pawnee. On the 150th anniversary of that treaty, Jan. 25, 2013, those nations, along with the Oglala and Ponca, signed the International Treaty to Protect the Sacred from Tar Sands Projects. “In that treaty, we declared that forevermore we would be allies to stop this extractive move to destroy Mother Earth from the Boreal forest down to the Gulf,” she said. Since that time, other nations have joined, and the treaty was renewed with prayers and a donation to the Sacred Stone camp.

“A lot of those networks, it took years for them to come together. Standing Rock will do the same thing for the next one. It is a progressive healing and learning,” Spotted Eagle continued. In the unlikely alliances that came together, from the Keystone XL fight to Standing Rock, with farmers and landowners joining their actions, she noted, “That was where the power was.”

To Dave Archambault II, the tribal chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux, the struggle — and the response from indigenous people — is global. He greeted reporters Sept. 14 alongside the delegation from Ecuador. “We all have similar struggles, where this dependency this world has on fossil fuels is affecting and damaging Mother Earth,” he said. “It is the indigenous peoples who are standing up with that spirit, that awakening of that spirit and saying, ‘It is time to protect what is precious to us.’” Nina Gualinga, one of the Ecuadorian visitors, noted, “The world needs indigenous people. The statistics say that we are 4 percent of the world’s population, but we are protecting more than 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity.”

In an age where courts have deemed corporate entities “persons” with legal rights, Spotted Eagle sees a certain symmetry in the encampment’s philosophy: “The corporations have become individuals, the privatization has given them rights of individuals to just go out and wreak havoc,” she said. “Well, the river has a right and that right is being infringed upon.”

So do the people who live around it, she argues. “We are above all challenging the lack of consultation, of course, and the free prior and informed consent. Then, just our cultural freedom. We would never put a native pipeline underneath Arlington Cemetery,” Spotted Eagle added. But, she noted wryly, “It’s always a risk when you go into the courts. These courts are the courts of the conqueror.”

A sign along the highway near the Dakota Access Pipeline construction site reads “Flint Stands with Standing Rock.” (Sarah Jaffe for BillMoyers.com)

Winter will be hard, Spotted Eagle concedes. She said she hopes “the outside world will help” with donations. But, she added: “The ones that will stay are really going to have to bear down and address their cooperation even deeper, because if you go wandering off by yourself, you can perish, literally, up here.”

Kandi Mossett on a hill overlooking the Oceti Sakowin camp. (Sarah Jaffe for BillMoyers.com)

That outside support from individuals and environmental groups, she said, should respect the leadership of the Native people.” The message to the big greens is, stand by us, don’t co-opt us. And sometimes, they have to stand behind us, because 4,000, 7,000 Indians is a lot of Indians.”

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Some of the campers were planning trips back and forth, while others were committed to staying. The nature of the camp has been to swell and shrink; on the weekends, Kandi Mossett said, it grows exponentially. The estimate of 7,000 at one time does not count all the people who have passed through briefly, bringing messages of solidarity from places like Charlotte, North Carolina and Flint, Michigan. “I have people calling me, emailing me every day: ‘I am going to be able to come out in two weeks, are you still going to be there?’” Mossett said. “I say, ‘Of course.’”

For those who can’t make it to the camp, Mossett noted, there are other ways that supporters have held actions in solidarity with the camps. “We are targeting the financers of this project: the banks,” she said.

There are petitions, Facebook pages for the Sacred Stone and Red Warrior camps, and a call for Barack Obama to visit the camp. “We will welcome you, we will greet you, we will feed you, we will put up a tepee for you,” Mossett said.

The long-term strategy, she said, is similar to that of the Keystone XL project. “They told us ‘You are crazy. It is a done deal.’ They told us that about the Keystone XL and they are telling us that now about Dakota Access, that it is a done deal. We respectfully disagree.” If the permit is granted, she said, they will continue to hold the space, to risk arrest, to halt construction. “Companies and shareholders, they only have so much patience and they are losing money,” she noted. “That is the bottom line: money. The more we can delay them, the more we can stall them, the more we know we are winning.”

The sentiments of Mossett and Spotted Eagle underscore what is perhaps most significant about the camps along the Cannonball River: What is happening here is something more than just a fight to stop a pipeline.

The word I heard over and over again from the people I interviewed was “decolonize.”

In the speak-outs and prayer circles, speaker after speaker, from the Pacific Northwest and from the Amazon, from New York to Arizona recalled the historic violence committed against Native American people not far from where the camp stood. Many recalled the Battle of the Greasy Grass, what is taught to schoolchildren as the Battle of Little Bighorn, whichLaDonna Allard wrote was the last time the Oceti Sakowin came together. But for her and others, the massacres at Wounded Knee and Whitestone were closer to mind. It was the anniversary of the Whitestone massacre, where 250 women and children were killed by the US military, when private security guards turned dogs on the protesters at Standing Rock. It was Faith Spotted Eagle’s people, the Ihanktonwan, along with the Hunkpapa, that were killed there, and the use of police and security against peaceful protesters brought up those memories.

The echoes of historic struggles were everywhere, and to Spotted Eagle, they were reminders that the fight for the water is just a part of the fight for an entire way of life that was nearly crushed. She was raised speaking Dakota, and counted herself lucky to have her language and the worldview that came with it. The grass-roots organizing that brought together the camp, she said, was helping the Standing Rock people and other tribal governments to look past the structures imposed on them by the process of colonization. “If we don’t stop and every single day examine how I have become like the colonizer, I asked my daughter, ‘What is going to happen someday if we lose our songs, if we lose our language and we no longer think like Natives?’ She said, ‘Then the colonization process is complete.’”

In the camp, they experimented with bringing back the long-ago structure of the Oceti Sakowin. “The second part of that struggle is to wade through the colonialism that has happened between then and now and to figure out, ‘What can we bring back with some modifications that will work for the people?’” she said. “There have been a lot of attempts to revive the Oceti Sakowin, but it hasn’’t happened because we didn’’t have a common focus.”

The common struggle has in turn opened up a space for different people to come together and share their songs and dances, their prophecies and histories. The lack of good cell phone service, Lay Ha noted, forces people to be more present. “It just brings you back to the old days where you hear the language, you hear our culture, you get to see youth riding on horseback and it’s really a change, it’s really decolonizing ourselves.”

“We are at the right point in time,” Spotted Eagle agreed. “We are free at this space in time.”

Walking around the camp, you pass singing circles and the kitchen — Tuesday night the menu was moose, brought all the way from Maine by a visitor to the camp. A nurse from the medic tent made rounds, making sure that people knew that at night, the Standing Rock ambulance parked on the grounds would leave but the medics would be on duty. Young children played volleyball and posed for photographs, finished from their day at school — a fully recognized school that teaches both the core curriculum so children at the camp won’t fall behind their schools at home, and also teaches songs and dances, languages and history, about the treaties and the fight for the water.

At night, campfires burned and tepees glowed, lit from within, as the open mic for speak-outs gave way to singing and dancing.

“We have had a few growing pains, but that is to be expected when you go from 30 people to 1,000 people in two or three days,” Mossett said. “There are a lot of logistics behind the scenes, things that people don’t see. Where are people going to go to the bathroom? Bringing in porta potties. Waste disposal. It was a really beautiful thing to see the community step up on our own and say, ‘Did you forget we are sovereign nations? We are going to do this and make it happen.’”

The coming together of the nations was something Mossett wanted for as long as she could remember, and that more than anything helped her envision a victory, not just against the Dakota Access Pipeline, not just against the whole extractive industry but for something much bigger.

“This pipeline would have already been built if we hadn’t come out here, taken back the power for ourselves and said, ‘Hey, nobody is going to help us or protect us except for us,’” Mossett said. “I think it was the nonviolent direct actions. In fact, I know that it was the nonviolent direct actions that got us to this point.”

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*****

Readers: Are any of you out there at Standing Rock? Can you tell us more? My HOPE is that your efforts will prevail. ✌🏽& ❤️

Blog me.

Sign if you agree to stop the pipeline.  Thank you!

/SB: Another feather in Obama’s cap! So happy about this one. Thank you, Mr. President!

Vohkinne: Nicely said. And I agree with you about our beloved president.

Happy Sunday, everyone. As always, thanks for being here.

Peace out.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

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michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

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Let’s not take that victory lap just yet

Posted by Michelle Moquin on 29th September 2016

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Good morning!

Whether you like him or not, let me begin by quoting two tweets by Michael Moore in response to the debatebecause his thoughts are my sentiments exactly:

“Pro-Hillary gloaters doing end-zone dance again when still on 50-yard line. U MUST get it in your head TRUMP IS GONNA WIN and act accordingly.”

“Bottom line: Did YOU do anything today 2 get Hillary Elected? If not, she lost. If u spent today relieved & smug about her victory, she lost”

I haven’t followed Moore in awhile but I was curious to read what he’s been saying about Trump. As much as I am a big fan of Keith Olbermann and his recent rants (brilliant) about Trump, I’ve had a revelation when it comes to what’s happening in our country regarding this election.

We can keep pointing out Trump’s characteristics (serial liar, misogynist, xenophobe, racist, +++!); it’s easy to do and Olbermann is excellent at laying them all out for us. However, in my opinion as I posted in yesterday’s blog, truth, racism, lack of qualifications etc., are not going to stop people who are strong Trump supporters from voting for Trump. Whites are going to vote color in spite of Trump’s massive characteristic flaws…and because of that their minds are not going to change no matter how much time and energy we expend showing people just how bad Trump is and telling voters to fact check his endless lies.

Believe it or not, this gives me a bit of relief. Not in “Hillary is going to win, I’m going to rest on my laurels” relief. No, my relief is that I don’t have to be exasperated anymore trying to understand why people are voting for Trump when he is a _______ , _______, ______!! I am crystal clear. Their reasons for voting for him are not based on logic, or what he does or doesn’t do.

I read this on Michael Moore’s site because, I know how the Republicans and Democrats are when it comes to the polls. Republicans will always go and vote for their man, and Democrats…well dems can be lazy (You know…Big L, little a…), and some will just not go because their man is out of the race (Bernie fans. He’s finally out there encouraging the millennials to vote for Hillary), or it’s snowing, or the lines are too long, or they’ll pull a Nadar and vote for Gary Johnson in spite of his “Aleppo moments” and encouragement from Michelle Obama and President Obama - that a no vote or a vote for a third party candidate is a vote for Trump. (Oh, when will Dems realize how badly we’ll be screwed if they do this again? Did we learn nothing from voting for Nadar?) 

This was first posted on Moore’s site almost two months ago but I very much think it is still relevant. You may not agree with all Moore says (I don’t) but he’s making a lot of sense. I like using sarcasm to get a point across. Moore does it in a way where the humor may not appeal to you, but I encourage you to look beyond that and consider the seriousness of what he is saying.

From Michael Moore:

MakeSureTrumpLoses

Over the past few days, a number of polls have come out showing Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump nationally by double digits, including in blue collar states like Michigan (10%) and Pennsylvania (11%). If you are a Clinton supporter and have felt a sense of relief when you saw these numbers, your shoulders suddenly relaxing and an audible “phew” coming from your mouth, if you got excited that your belief system was now reassured that there was no chance your fellow Americans will vote for a narcissistic misogynist, then you just became part of the problem — and why Donald J. Trump could actually win on November 8th.

Please do not think for a second this election is over or in the bag. There are three long months to go. If you think that all we have to do is just let Trump keep shooting himself in the head – that “Trump will beat Trump” and the rest of us just have to sit back and watch with glee – well, you are playing with fire. And you’re looking for a way to get out of doing any work. Clearly you’ve forgotten this election is not about whether there are more people “for” Hillary or Trump. Of course there are more people for Hillary! She will lead in the opinion polls from now until Election Day.

AND IT DOESN’T MATTER.

Because this is not a popularity contest decided by polls (or in this year’s edition, a contest over who you dislike the least). As I’ve said, if people could vote from their sofa via their Xbox or remote control, Hillary would win in a landslide. But this election is only about who SHOWS UP to the VOTING BOOTH on November 8th (or to early voting or by absentee ballot). The election this year is not being held as usual on the first Tuesday of November; it’s happening in the second week of the month, so if you live in the top half of the country, that means a greater chance for snow or icy rain — and that means a lower turnout. A lower turnout helps Trump.

This election is ONLY about who gets who out to vote, who’s got the most rabid supporters, the kind of candidate who inspires people to get out of bed at 5am on Election Day because a Wall needs to built! Muslims are killing us! Women are taking over! USA! USA! Make My Penis Great Again! Hillary is the Devil! America First! Fetus First! First in Line at the Polls!

So instead of feeling better this week because of the new polls (BTW, only one of these polls is of “likely voters” – the Reuters Poll – and in that one, Hillary leads by only 4 points), or regaling over Trump’s insanity (so insane, he raised $82 million last month in mostly $10-$20 contributions, stunning the Clinton campaign, because Bernie never had a grassroots month anywhere near that), I would like to suggest a different response. I’d like to ask those who love Hillary to hold off on the victory party ’til the wee hours of November 9th. Please, can we all agree that now is NOT the time to do this: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/25/434585015/not-over-til-its-over-runners-early-celebration-costs-her-the-bronze

Let’s stop the early celebrating and the gloating over Trump’s Bad Week. No premature end zone dances. If you are serious about this election, and if you are smart enough to still take Donald Trump seriously, then here’s 5 things to do – four for you, and one for Hillary:

  1. You Are Responsible for Getting 50 People to the Polls November 8th. Start making your list now. Create this list on your smart phone of the people you will personally make sure show up to the polls on November 8th. Enter their email addresses and cell phone numbers. Call it your “November 8th Project.” Add a name to it every single day between now and November 8th until you have 50 people – 50 names in 90 days. Focus on nonvoters. Then, on November 7th and 8th, call, text and/or email every one of them and remind them to vote. Offer them a ride. Offer them lunch. Offer to watch the kids. Offer to mow their lawn. Plan a get-together or a party for everyone after going to vote. You must remind even those people who you think don’t need reminding. This election isn’t about you voting —it’s about you getting 50 others to vote.
  2. From Today Until November 8th, You Are in the French Resistance. Imagine what it was like to be in the French underground while the Germans invaded France. The only possible way to win was an unrelenting, round-the-clock commitment to defeat the Nazis. There was no time for one of those 3-hour French dinners. They did not take vacations. They did not sleep in. They did not have time for “playdates.” The Germans were coming! The Germans were there! Well, friends, our fascist (Drumpf!) is coming! That’s the mind-set you need to be in. For the next three months, the kids have to get themselves to soccer! Work on your marriage in December! There’s no time for hot yoga! No one in the French Resistance ever said “I can’t blow up that Nazi train today ’cause I feel like I might be coming down with a cold!”
  3. You Must Be Supportive of the Depressed Voter. So many people have given up on our system and that’s because the system has given up on them. They know it’s all bullshit: politics, politicians, elections. The middle class in tatters, the American Dream a nightmare for the 47 million living in poverty. Get this straight: HALF of America is planning NOT to vote November 8th. Hillary’s approval rating is at 36%. CNN said it last night: No one running for office with an approval rating of 36% has ever been elected president (Trump’s is at 30%). Even in these newer polls, 60% still say that Hillary is “untrustworthy to be president.” Disillusioned young people stop me every day to tell me they’re not voting (or they’re voting 3rd Party). This is a problem, folks. Stop ignoring it. You need to listen to them. Chastising them, shaming them, will not work. Acknowledging to them that they have a point, that Hillary Clinton is maybe not the best candidate, and then promising them that you will join them on November 9th in a political revolution that will demand Clinton enact her platform, that might go a long way to getting them to vote. They don’t have to change their opinion about Hillary. They just have to reluctantly vote for her and be allowed to feel very bad about doing it – and very good that we will fight on their side after the election.
  4. Hillary Must Slyly Stick Trump with a Comedy Shiv During the Debates. Bill Maher and I will help Hillary with this (Hill, call us!). I’m sure Amy Schumer and Chris Rock would chip in, too. Clinton actually has a good sense of humor, but keeps it mostly hidden (here she is back in the ’90s, sparring with a Republican leader of Congress: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XsSydPOgCc). Trump has very thin skin. If she can slide the perfect line of satirical ridicule just under that thin skin of his, he will implode. On live TV. And that, my friends, will be the moment it’s over for him. A complete mental meltdown on a stage without his cheering man-fans in the room. BOOM!
  5. I Hereby Appoint You Precinct Captain in Your Neighborhood, in Your School, and at Your Place of Work. Yes, you. Tell them Michael Moore personally named you. Not because I have any authority to do so. Just because I said so. And you said so. Please, friends, do not depend entirely on the “Democratic Party” to pull this off in November. It is often, depending on where you live, an apparatus of numskulls, hacks and former high school student council rejects. Quick, name the local chair of the Dems in your county. They are not of the people. If we depend just on them, we lose. We usually do. Obama had a brilliant campaign team, was a beloved candidate, and that’s why he won. Hillary’s campaign lost 22 states to a 74-year old socialist who had neither a comb nor 50 bucks in his pocket — and was unknown to everyone except me and some hippies in Vermont! Hahahaha! Here’s a tweet this week from one of Hillary’s “top advisers”, the chair of the “Campaign for American Progress”, just to give you a clue as to the brain trust surrounding her:

Screen Shot 2016-09-28 at 9.23.55 PM

So we can’t just depend on them alone to stop Trump. That’s why I’ve decided to appoint myself, as of this moment, chair of the “Shadow Campaign to Defeat Donald J. Trump” (or, in short, “The Resistance”) — and I’m appointing each and every one of you as my Precinct Captains in the areas where you live, work and go to college. From this moment forward you will organize the block you live on, or the town or neighborhood you live in, or your dorm, your office, or your place of worship. If asked, just identify yourself as the “Local Head of the Defeat Trump Coalition.” If others want to be the “Head” or say they are the “Head,” just share the title with them. Then appoint more Precinct Captains. Don’t hold meetings. Do actions. Use humor. Conduct flash mobs. Be a disruptor. Think creatively and subversively. Have fun. Defeat Trump.

Because, you see, we have no choice. We’re in the Trump Resistance.

Yours in revolution and future playdates,

Michael Moore

P.S. Still feeling giddy about all the bad news surrounding Trump this week? Here’s another bucket of cold water: Trump can actually lose Florida, Virginia, Colorado and New Mexico — and STILL WIN! All he has to do is carry the rust belt “Brexit States” of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Hillary lost three of these four in the primaries. Nothing can be taken for granted. Once more: This is all about who shows up November 8th — not who’s ahead in the popularity polls right now. On the morning of the Michigan Primary, Hillary was ahead of Bernie in a WJBK/TV2-Detroit poll by 22 points. Twelve hours later, she lost. Leave your bubble now! You are a Precinct Captain! You have work to do!

*****

Readers: So, yes, even though my feeling are that whites are voting color, more than likely I will still continue pointing out Trump is this and Trump did that. But what I won’t do is get complacent and think, “There is no way Trump can win. There is no way that many people will vote for him.”

What I won’t do is assume that just because Hillary has won this debate (and more women are feeling better about Hillary and worse about Trump), or any debate against Trump, that she is going to win the presidency.

I am not going to take that victory lap, or dance in the end-zone until after Hillary has won. I hope you’ll do the same and heed Moore’s advice and do something today 2 get Hillary elected.

Thoughts? Blog me. 

Howard: I so enjoyed reading your comments. Thank you for the kind words. You are obviously very proud of your girls, and you have every reason to be. No apology necessary. I consider all women girls. :) Thanks to you and your daughters for reading.

Social Butterfly: That was hilarious.  I so needed that humor. Thanks for posting. Keep ‘em coming! xo

Thanks too for reminding everyone about VOTER REGISTRATION DAY. READERS: If you haven’t registered, PLEASE DO IT TODAY! :)

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

me

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Don’t Think It Can’t Happen

Posted by Michelle Moquin on 28th September 2016

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Good morning!

I was so wrapped up in Trump’s weird behavior during the debate that I never congratulated Clinton for a job well done. While Trump who was just basically crazy,  Clinton was calm, clear, cool, and coherent. So did the needle move to the left?

I read on the Huff Po: ”If there are any women still on the fence about Trump, these latest comments should send them screaming into Clinton’s arms.” 

God, I hope so. I have faith.

Just in case you you’re wondering what it would look like with Trump as President, I was thinking that exact same thing myself.

I found this write. The title caught my interest and the content inspired me to post it. Mostly because I have read many comments from the left on Facebook, a few from people that I personally know, who think there isn’t much difference between Clinton and Trump. That sentiment completely baffles me.

Here’s the write from Common Dreams:

The Left Underestimates the Danger of Trump

 trump_danger-underestimated

I know we just had the fifth anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, but there is little to celebrate at such a grim moment. That being the likelihood Trump may very well win.

If he does, Black Lives Matter will be declared a domestic terrorist outfit, just like the Earth Liberation Front was under Bush.

Trump and Attorney General Giuliani would relish using the National Guard to crush blockades of oil pipelines and trains, and indigenous people defending their lands. There will be no more climate justice movement or even hesitant steps toward limiting climate change.An English-only law would likely be passed, DACA be withdrawn, and sanctuary cities outlawed. White supremacists, Neo-Nazis, the Klan, and the Alt-Right would all be welcome into his administration, overtly or covertly.

There would be an all-out assault on reproductive rights and Planned Parentood.

Significant gains made at the National Labor Relations Board in the last few years will be overturned.

Huge swaths of the West under federal control will be turned over to logging, ranching, mining, and oil and gas industries.

Tens of millions would go from inadequate healthcare to no healthcare.

The Alt Right will aggressively disrupt the left.

Massive voter suppression becomes the norm.

There will be organized vigilante violence, perhaps even mini-pogroms, against Muslim and Mexican communities with the state turning a blind eye.

Don’t think it can’t happen; the WWI period saw hideous pogroms against African-Americans and Chicanos with state support. Entire communities were wiped out and thousands killed.

This would just be the beginning. Trump makes Reagan’s Voodoo economic policies like a beacon of rational economic planning. His combination of budget-busting tax cuts, decimating social welfare, roiling U.S. alliances, and abrogating free-trade deals would send the economy into a nosedive. As soon as a recession hits, Trump would immediately go hunting for scapegoats to distract his followers. This could include a ban on Muslim immigration, a registration program, and mass round-ups of immigrants, meaning concentration camps to hold them before they were ousted, overseen by his “deportation force” of Brownshirts.

There is a quaint notion on the left that somehow Trump is hot air. This ignores the dynamics he’s set in motion that will make new types of state-sponsored racial violence all but inevitable. This is not just a quantitative change over Obama and Clinton, but a qualitative one. In fact, it may even be worse that what I am outlining here. This is a man who muses about using nuclear weapons, he ignores even basic bourgeois political norms or rules, and he is lustily cheered by tens of millions when he calls for the assassination of his opponents and mass ethnic cleansing.

Yet a significant portion of the left is obsessed with how terrible Hillary Clinton is, both as a candidate and politically. As if this is somehow news. I see very little from the Facebook left on the extreme dangers Trump represents. I’ve gone to six different Trump events, and it’s evident he has consolidated a white nationalist movement that is demanding a 21st century apartheid state. Even if it doesn’t happen right away, Trump will inevitably go down this path as he sabotages the entire economy and U.S. foreign relations.

Meanwhile, there is a bizarre faith on the left that the ruling class will somehow keep him in check, despite the fact he will have control over every branch of government. This is matched by a warped belief that somehow extreme racist violence will create new left-wing mass movements. In reality, all the recent organizing gains will whither as the left is forced to wage losing defensive struggles against violent white nationalists.

No one will be able to stop his dictatorial, white supremacist agenda. Congress won’t stop him. He will have a majority on the Supreme Court, and while sections of the ruling class may be deeply unhappy, they will still be safe and obscenely wealthy and can always escape.

This election is a choice between two movements. Do you want to see movements like Black Lives Matter, Climate Justice, low-wage workers, immigrant rights, and other left social forces continue to grow and develop? Or do you want to see Neo-Nazis, the Klan, the Alt-Right on the offense and backed by a Trump administration?

*****

Thoughts? Blog me.

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

me

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Posted in Health & Well Being, Human Rights and Equality, Lying Sacks Of Shit, Political Powwow | 28 Comments »

The Only Thing That Matters

Posted by Michelle Moquin on 27th September 2016

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Good Morning!

Screen Shot 2016-09-26 at 9.28.34 PM

Bizarre. There’s no other word to describe it. Ok, maybe there is but that is the first word that came to my mind. I’m sure you watched the debate. These are my rants and thoughts in no particular order:

Trump lied over and over.

Lester Holt had to hold his tongue and that bugged me. But really, there was nothing he could do. There wasn’t much Clinton could do either. Trump lied so much that we would never have gotten to the issues if we just talked about how much Trump was lying, and called him out on it every single time.

But what really drove me insane was how many times Trump went overtime and Holt didn’t do anything! And how many times Trump interrupted!? Too many times to count. I kept saying out loud, “Lester, just interrupt the motherfucker and tell him to stop babbling and shut the fuck up so we can hear Clinton.” Yeah, I was frustrated. Ugh. My better side did not show up.

Trump was unprepared, incoherent, and completely incapable of answering any questions that gave us any idea of his plans. I learned absolutely nothing from him except that he is an insane, infantile, bully, and as we all know, a Lying Sack Of Shit. Please add your thoughts here too.

Trump claims Clinton is not presidential. And he is?! Trump is blatantly insane – did you catch his crazy demeanor? He was constantly in motion – drinking water, twitching, continuous face contortions, sniffing his nose, sighing, and pursing his lips, leaning in, outbursts, interrupting. Did I say interrupting? Got any more to add?

I’m embarrassed. Actually no, I’m not embarrassed. However, I would think anyone voting for him would be. He is not fit to be presidebt…oops president. Go back to reality TV  - That’s where you belong.

And did I mention Lies? LIES Lies lies…And people call Clinton a liar. Why are they not calling out Trump who lies ALL OF THE TIME? What about telling Clinton that she’s “not nice?” Hellooo…do you remember saying horrific things about women, OTW’s, not to mention your racist and sexist remarks? This is such typical republican hypocrisy, why would Trump be any different? His supporters aren’t either. They are more vitriolic and down on Clinton calling her a liar, evil…you name it. But they seem to give good ole Donald a pass on EVERYTHING.

Trump questions whether Clinton has stamina to be president. A sexist remark in my opinion. Clinton spent 11 hours testifying during the Benghazi hearings in Congress, +++…we all know Clinton has stamina. She’s proved it time and time again. What about his stamina? He couldn’t even last 90 minutes during the debate. By the end of the first hour he looked exhausted, dazed, and having a hard time focusing.

And he had the gaul to question Clinton’s temperament. Wha’at?? Need I go on? And I haven’t even said anything about the issues. This was the most bizarre (and frustrating) debate I have ever seen. There was so much weirdness and disconnectedness between the questions asked of Trump and his answers, and Lester…I’ll say it again…”Why didn’t you just Tell Trump to shut the fuck up?”

Sigh. I’m not saying anything about the debate that no one else didn’t notice, including the Trump supporters. Yes, Clinton crushed his ass. There is no doubt, he got trumped – she won. There was a few drop the mic moments, but the only people who noticed were Clinton supporters. I almost missed them myself because I was so distracted by Trump’s behavior.

You think she would be a shoo-in after this debate, right? Any logical person would see that. But logic doesn’t play here. I’d be surprised if the needle moved more than slightly to the left after this one. Sure some on the fence are now seeing the insanity of Trump but I wouldn’t keep my fingers crossed that many will. Why? Because no matter what happened during the debate it all boils down to this, something that he and his supporters all know:

If racism got in the way with what people wanted to do, Trump would be out.

If sexism got in the way with what people wanted to do, Trump would be out.

If having no qualifications to be president got in the way with what people wanted to do, Trump would be out. 

If caring about what’s best for the country got in the way with what people wanted to do, Trump would be out.

If truth got in the way with what people wanted to do, Trump would be done. But…the truth is, Lies don’t matter. Truth never gets in the way with what people want to do. Racism doesn’t either. Sexism doesn’t either. Qualifications don’t either. And I’ll throw in logic too. Because it’s evident that people aren’t being logical about what’s best for the country or Trump would be done. 

The truth is the only thing that matters is COLOR. In the end whites are going to vote color. They may be shouting the mantra “Make the Country great again,” but under their breath they’re saying “Keep the country white.”

That is the only logical reason that Trump is still in the running and why he is polling so close to Clinton. 

And that is why Clinton is no shoo-in. If this truth scares you, then do something. I HOPE my sisters in this country wake up, woman-up and take their position and power. This election is no joke. It is a must that Clinton win. Oh…We do have our work cut out for us.

Readers: I know you want to give your two. I’m done. The forum is open.

Blog me.

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2016

me

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

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Posted in Health & Well Being, Lying Sacks Of Shit, Political Powwow | 26 Comments »

“mni Wiconi.”**

Posted by Michelle Moquin on 26th September 2016

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**Water is life.

Good morning.

/SB, Abeque, and all the indigenous peoples:  Thanks for posting your concerns. I knew very little about this pipeline. However I did more reading and what I have read really concerns me.

Our Native Americans have suffered through so much from the massacre and genocide of 12 million peoples, to robbing them of their lands, to displacement of their children (really, kidnapping!) into foster homes, taking them away from their culture, their language, their traditions and their families.

And now this.

When a young Native American girl saysthe oil industry keeps pushing for it because they don’t care about our health and safety. It’s like they think our lives are more expendable than others,’ looking at history, she is correct.

We have built several holocaust museums that condemns Germans. And yet it is another issue to build a museum that confronts our own genocide. There isn’t a museum that confronts the genocide that was perpetrated by our own ancestors towards Native Americans or towards African Americans.

Even in Washington, the Native American museum doesn’t address the genocide but rather a sort of a “historical amnesia”. We have no problem pointing the fingers at others who have done such atrocities, but when it comes to ourselves, when we can’t even examine, not to mention document,  who we are and what we have done in our own country, it is truly sickening.

And now this.

Energy Transfer Partners demolished Native American burial grounds damaging irredeemable ancient cairns and stone prayer rings, and attacked the peoples with dogs and pepper spray. Did they even care?

An earlier plan that would cut the pipeline across the Missouri River upstream from Bismarck, North Dakota, was rejected to avoid contaminating the state capital’s water source, yet they had no issue building the pipeline downstream to the present contested crossing, where the Standing Rock Sioux says they’ll be the ones who suffer in the event of a spill. 

Considering that from 2012-2013 alone, there were 300 oil pipeline breaks in the state of North Dakota, my guess is the Native Americans have every right to be concerned over the safety of their water, and their livelihood, and every right to want to protect their land.

It’s obvious that the livelihood of the Native Americans aren’t valued as much as whites when you consider their horrific past and present day treatment.

Lawrence O’Donnell speaks well to this:

I know I’m digressing here but, like the murders of African American men, and our shouts of “Black Lives Matter,” cops killing blacks is the modern day lynching, could this pipeline be the modern day genocide? Ok before you go off on me, because I know that sounds radical and far-fetched – and I don’t mean to sound like a fear-monger, but biological warfare was used against the Native Americans in the past.

Yes, genocide may not be intentional but after what happened in Flint Michigan (A 2011 study on the Flint River found it would have to be treated with an anti-corrosive agent for it to be considered as a safe source for drinking water. Adding that agent would have cost about $100 a day, and experts say 90% of the problems with Flint’s water would have been avoided.), my feeling is, nothing is beyond the white man and the atrocities he will commit to his fellow humans when money is the motivating factor. The way OTWs are grossly and continuously mistreated in this country, I wouldn’t throw that question into the trash just yet.

Isn’t it about time we treated our Native Americans with the respect, care, and humaneness that they deserve? Like all OTWs who don’t see the light of justice, my heart goes out to them. I stand in support of them with them.

Here’s a recent write from the Huff Po:

The Super Twisted History Of The Dakota Access Pipeline

Signs hang from heavy machinery after protesters stopped construction on the Energy Transfer Partners Dakota Access oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota

Archaeologists from institutions including the Smithsonian and Chicago’s Field Museum joined opposition to Energy Transfer Partners’ project this week, accusing it of destroying burial grounds.

Completion of the Dakota Access oil pipeline seemed almost inevitable. But then the Obama administration stepped in this month and offered a respite to the medley of Native Americans, environmentalists and Midwestern landowners who oppose it.

Three federal departments announced that work would stop on a pivotal section of the 1,172-mile pipeline in North Dakota while they second-guessed how the Army Corps of Engineers approved most of the project in July. The move was applauded by critics, who say the pipeline could pollute drinking water from the Missouri River and destroy land that’s culturally important to Native Americans. Many also object to the energy company acquiring land from family farmers in Iowa via eminent domain.

The controversy stems from a series of government decisions since 2014, when Energy Transfer Partners announced a plan to carry 570,000 barrels of crude per day from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota to existing infrastructure in Illinois.  A look now at those choices explains why thousands demonstrated against the pipeline and dozens were arrested near the Standing Rock Sioux’s reservation and in Iowa in the summer.

“They’ve been using backdoor process to get the pipeline approved,” said Dallas Goldtooth, an activist with the Indigenous Environmental Network. “The antiquated permitting process was not designed for mega fossil fuels projects.”

New pipeline opponents emerged this week, when archaeologists from the Smithsonian, Chicago’s Filed Museum and other institutions wrote a letter to President Barack Obama this week. The letter criticized the Energy Transfer Partners’ “recent destruction” of Sioux burial grounds.

But construction rushes ahead, apart from a section near an encampment of hundreds of Native American protesters. It stands at 60 percent complete, according to a memo from Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren to employees this month.

Critics say the following moves explain why the pipeline looks to them like an environmental hazard and a government boondoggle.

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The Dakota Access Pipeline would stretch 1172 miles, from North Dakota oil fields to an existing Illinois pipeline.

Oil Spills, Climate Change Concerns

Critics say that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used a lenient environmental review that didn’t adequately examine the potential for oil spills or the impact on climate change.

Getting the federal agency’s approval was essential because the pipeline would cross its rivers and waterways 202 times.

The Army Corps granted permission to an environmental assessment relied on skewed data from Energy Transfer Partners, according to attorney Carolyn Raffensperger. The assessment made alternatives to the pipeline, such as using railroads to move the oil, which sound costlier and it came to other conclusions that underestimated the environmental risks, said Raffensperger.

Pipeline spills happen nearly every day in the U.S., federal data shows. The environmental assessment didn’t address what damage a Dakota Access leak could cause, Raffensperger said.

“The approval process for pipelines is fatally flawed,” said Raffensperger, who’s litigating against the pipeline’s use of eminent domain in Iowa.

Critics argue the pipeline should have been vetted through a more rigorous environmental impact statement. The Army Corps says on its website that option would only be available if the environmental assessment had turned up anything troubling.

“The [agency] drafted an Environmental Assessment) to determine if the placement and operation and maintenance of the pipeline on federal real property interests have potential to cause significant environmental effects,” it states. “If there is such potential, the [Army Corps] will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement.”

The Army Corps has shown some concern for negative consequences if hazardous materials were to get loose elsewhere.

It rejected an earlier route that would cut across the Missouri River upstream from Bismarck, North Dakota, partly to avoid the risk of contaminating the state capital’s water source. But it was remapped downstream to the present contested crossing, where the Standing Rock Sioux says they’ll be the ones who suffer in the event of a spill.

“We have designed the state-of-the-art Dakota Access pipeline as a safer and more efficient method of transporting crude oil than the alternatives being used today, namely rail and truck,” said Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren in a memo to employees last week that the company released to the press.

Click over to watch the video:

 

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‘Loophole’ Speeds Up Project

Out of all the local, state and federal agencies with some jurisdiction over the project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had the most influential input, although only 37 miles of pipeline would exist inside its territory. Its approval came last in the review process.

Sierra Club lawyer Doug Hayes said the Army Corps exploited “a loophole” opened by Obama’s energy priorities to push the pipeline through the review process. Hayes is litigating against the use of eminent domain to seize property from land owners along the pipeline’s route in Iowa.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers subjected the pipeline to what’s called the Nationwide Permit 12 process and narrowly looked at “several hundred” waterways crossing essentially as independent projects, rather than judging it as one, massive structure, Hayes said. This permit program was designed for small structures like boat ramps and mooring buoys that affect fewer than half an acre of the Corps’ jurisdiction.

As far as we can tell, it was only used for truly minor pipeline projects” until Obama called for the expedited approval of the Keystone XL pipeline in 2012, he said.

The project should have been subjected to what’s known as a 404 permit, a part of the Clean Water Act that considers the impact from projects like airports, dams and mining exploration, according to Hayes and other opponents.

The Army Corps declined to answer The Huffington Post’s queries about the pipeline because of ongoing litigation, but material on its website said the agency could only evaluate the sections on its land, rather than the pipeline in its entirety.

“For this project, [the Army Corps] has jurisdiction over a very small portion of the overall pipeline and may not regulate where it does not have jurisdiction,” the site post states.

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The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has accused Energy Transfer Partners of deliberately destroying important artifacts, including graves shortly after historical sites were identified.

3 Federal Agencies Called Out The Army Corps

Long before the protesters garnered the support of celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio and Pharrell Williams, three government offices expressed dismay at the Army Corps’ decision making.

The Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in March wrote separate letters raising the possibility of water contamination and destruction of historic sites in terms echoing the Standing Rock Sioux, The Associated Press reported in April.

They were concerned that tribes along the route had not been properly consulted and called on the Army Corps to go ahead with a formal environmental impact statement.

Those fears were realized earlier in September, according to the Standing Rock Sioux, who accused the company of deliberately destroying important artifacts, including graves shortly after the historical sites were identified.

Protesters entered the company’s land in response, where security guards reportedly used pepper spray and dogs to disperse them.

“They went out of their way to desecrate this land,” said Allison Renville, who was at the protest camp that day and grew up on the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate reservation in South Dakota. “People were really upset. We were kind of shocked that it was even happening.”

Energy Transfer Partners insists that it is culturally sensitive to what might be underground and has denied encountering anything significant. The company has also claimed that protesters have attacked its workers, though spokeswoman Vicki Granado refused to provide specifics of any alleged altercation “for security reasons.”

The company’s chief executive wrote in a memo that multiple archaeological studies “found no sacred items along the route.” Environmental worries are likewise overhyped too, he wrote, as other pipelines crisscross the region. There are 25 crude oil and natural gas pipelines in North Dakota, according to the state’s pipeline authority.

Farmers’ Land Taken for Pipeline

In Iowa, protesters have fumed over the state’s use of eminent domain to force landowners to sell land that Energy Transfer Partners needs to build the pipeline. Police arrested more than 40 demonstrators for alleged trespassing at a construction site on Sept. 17.

Farmland cannot be seized through eminent domain in the state, attorneys said, unless it’s for a project with a public benefit like a highway or sewer line. Despite opposition, the Iowa Utilities Board in March determined that “the proposed pipeline will promote the public convenience and necessity.”

Among the roughly two dozen property owners at the time fighting the eminent domain order were a man trying to preserve land in his family since 1898, a family of turkey farmers and a woman who grows crops like blueberries, rhubarb and asparagus.

“We do not think there’s any public benefit from this at all,” said Kari Carney, executive director of 1000 Friends of Iowa. “The process was really sort of rammed through.”

Energy Transfer Partners claims that the pipeline will annually generate $129 million in property and income taxes.

As a financial precaution, the Iowa Utilities Board said its approval was contingent on the pipeline’s parent companies, which also includes Sunoco Logistics and Phillips 66, to put up money in the event the pipeline causes an emergency in Iowa.

An Iowa Utilities Board spokesman declined to comment due to ongoing litigation.

The next steps

Though the Obama administration froze work on one section of the project near the Standing Rock Sioux, construction continues elsewhere as much of the route is on private land.

Other tribes have joined the Standing Rock Sioux, who have a lawsuit pending against the Army Corps over the approval process. Some Iowa landowners have sued the state for its use of eminent domain.

The wildcard may be what decision the Obama administration reaches. Though the president was earlier a proponent of the Keystone XL pipeline, he rejected it last year. The statement the Department of Justice, the Army and the Department of Interior issued last week announcing work would not proceed near the tribe raised the question of whether the administration has undergone a transformation on projects like this.

“This case has highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects,” the joint statement said.

If the pipeline comes to fruition, Energy Transfer Partners stands to reap huge benefits as other companies have abandoned plans for competing pipelines in the area.

“We got so lucky,” CEO Kelcy Warren told Bloomberg last year. “All of our competition vaporized.”

 *****

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