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KEEPING IMPORTANT INDIAN COUNTRY NEWS AVAILABLE LONGER
Residents waiting outside to be flown to Brandon or Winnipeg from
the St. Theresa Point First Nation airport. (Sean Kavanagh/CBC)
Military
to Help Evacuate 3 Manitoba First Nations at Risk from Wildfire
Fire prompted evacuation of Wasagamack First Nation,
partial evacuations of Garden Hill, St. Theresa Point CBC News, Canada - 30 AUG 2017
The Canadian military will help relocate some 3,700 people
forced from their homes by forest fires in northern Manitoba.
The Department of National Defence will send military planes
to get residents out of Wasagamack, Garden Hill and St. Theresa
Point First Nations, the department told CBC News in an email
statement on Wednesday.
"The Minister of National Defence has received and approved a
request for assistance from our partners at the Department of
Indigenous Affairs," the statement reads.
"The Canadian Armed Forces will provide RCAF air assets to
support evacuation efforts in Wasagamack FN community."
Two Hercules airplanes will fly displaced residents to
Winnipeg starting Thursday morning and continuing throughout the
day, according to a news release from the Canadian Red Cross.
The response is part of an agreement between the Red Cross
and the federal government to provide disaster relief to Manitoba
First Nations.
Emergency shelter in Winnipeg
But a statement from the department confirmed it will set up
a triage centre and emergency shelter in Winnipeg for evacuees....
Photo by Loretta Yerian
Candidates Running for Chairman: David Talayumptewa Navajo-Hopi Observer - 29 AUG 2017
David Talayumptewa is from the village of Kykotsmovi.
Why do you feel you’re a qualified candidate to run for
chairman/vice chairman of the Hopi tribe?
I have a bachelor’s degree in personnel and industrial
relations from Utah State University and a master’s degree from the
University of Utah in human resource management. I was also
commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve. I’ve worked
both on (and off) the reservation for quite a number of years. I’ve
worked for the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), working my way up
from a business manager to senior executive level of service as the
assistant deputy director for administration for the BIE. I
monitored a budget of the BIE which hovered around close to a
billion dollars. My experience and education has qualified me and
prepared me to work on behalf of the Hopi people.
In your opinion, what are the two biggest issues facing the
Hopi tribe?
In my opinion, number one, is our language. Our language
defines who we are as a people. We are slowly but surely losing our
language. One of my focuses is going to be to try to regain and
retain our Hopi language. If we don’t retain/relearn it, we are
eventually going to lose who we are as a Hopi people. With that,
potentially lose our entire culture and I can’t allow that to
happen. I plan to porpose a full immersion language program for
preschool children if I do get elected....
America Is Losing In Afghanistan to An Enemy That Tried to Surrender
Ryan Grim (twitter.com/RyanGrim), TYT Politics -
24 AUG 2017
Ryan Grim recently wrote for The Intercept:
DID YOU KNOW that shortly after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan,
the Taliban tried to surrender?
For centuries in Afghanistan, when a rival force had come to
power, the defeated one would put down their weapons and be
integrated into the new power structure — obviously with much less
power, or none at all. That’s how you do with neighbors you have to
continue to live with. This isn’t a football game, where the teams
go to different cities when it’s over. That may be hard for us to
remember, because the U.S. hasn’t fought a protracted war on its own
soil since the Civil War.
So when the Taliban came to surrender, the U.S. turned them
down repeatedly, in a series of arrogant blunders spelled out in
Anand Gopal’s investigative treatment of the Afghanistan war, “No
Good Men Among the Living.”
Only full annihilation was enough for the Bush
administration. They wanted more terrorists in body bags. The
problem was that the Taliban had stopped fighting, having either
fled to Pakistan or melted back into civilian life. Al Qaeda, for
its part, was down to a handful of members....
Greenpeace Responds to DAPL "Eco-Terrorists" Lawsuit
by Jordan Chariton, TYT Politics - 24 AUG 2017
Greenpeace is being sued by Energy Transfer Partners (ETP)
over Dakota Access pipeline - USA/Corporate world completely
insane...
Jordan interviews Greenpeace activist Travis Nichols about
ETP's accusations of "eco-terrorism".
Photo by SumikoPhoto/iStock
Interior Secretary Zinke Says He Will Shrink Some National Monuments
Zinke confirms some monuments will suffer "boundary
adjustments"
by Jason Mark, SIERRA Club - 24 AUG 2017
BREAKING NEWS: U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan
Zinke admits: he asked the White House to take land away from
America’s national monuments. He declined to say which ones, or how
much land he was talking about.
Not so fast, say tribal officials. “Secretary Zinke did not
meet the requirements laid out in President Trump's executive order,
which directed him to meet with state, local, and tribal
governments. He did not meet with any tribal presidents or chairmen,
nor did he meet with any local tribal officials,” Willie Grayeyes,
chairperson of Utah Diné Bikéyah, a coalition of native nations
advocating for Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, wrote in a
letter sent Wednesday to administration officials.
Update: According to a Washington Post report that cites
unnamed administration officials, Secretary Zinke's final
recommendations urge the president to reduce the size of Bears Ears
National Monument, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and
Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Zinke's recommendations still
have not been made public.
This morning, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke confirmed that he
is recommending to the White House that President Donald Trump
downsize some national monuments.
For months, conservation groups, backcountry hunters and
anglers, and community leaders in towns adjacent to national
monuments have been anxious about Zinke’s unprecedented review of
national monuments created during the Clinton, George W. Bush, and
Obama administrations. While Zinke has not yet made his decisions
public, in an interview with the Associated Press the Interior
secretary said that he has passed his recommendations to the White
House and is calling for unspecified boundary adjustments to what he
described as a “handful” of national monuments.
Conservation organizations and some Native American groups
quickly expressed outrage at the prospect that the Trump
administration will attempt to shrink some national monuments, and
once again complained that Zinke’s review process hasn’t been
transparent and inclusive of all points of view.
“Secretary Zinke did not meet the requirements laid out in
President Trump's executive order, which directed him to meet with
state, local, and tribal governments. He did not meet with any
tribal presidents or chairmen, nor did he meet with any local tribal
officials,” Willie Grayeyes, chairperson of Utah Diné Bikéya, a
coalition of native nations advocating for Bears Ears National
Monument in Utah, wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to administration
officials.
“Any recommendation from Secretary Zinke to shrink national
monuments is hypocritical at best and ruinous at worst,” Sierra Club
executive director Michael Brune said in a statement issued this
morning after the AP report was posted. “Secretary Zinke claims to
support public lands, but now we know he’s just one more Trump
administration stooge for polluting special interests.” ...
A crew installs a section of a crude oil pipeline for Enbridge
Energy. The environmental impact statement is out for another of the
Calgary-based pipeline company's projects, a replacement for Line 3
in northern Minnesota.
Report: Enbridge Line 3 Options All Would Have Negative Effect on
American Indians
by Mike Hughlett, Star Tribune - 17 AUG 2017
The final environmental impact statement for Enbridge's Line
3 oil pipeline replacement project says it is not possible to
determine whether the Canadian company's proposed route would be the
best option for American Indians in northern Minnesota.
That's because Enbridge's route and four alternative paths
would all have disproportionately negative effects on the bands,
according to the report compiled by the state Department of
Commerce. The report, released Thursday, also repeats some
environmental concerns raised in a draft EIS released in the spring.
But it does not make a recommendation on which route is best
for the $2.9 billion project, just comparisons for regulators to
weigh. Still, it is a significant development in Enbridge's nearly
three-year quest to replace its 1960s vintage pipeline that runs
from northwestern Minnesota to Superior, Wis.
After the draft EIS was released in May, at least four of
Minnesota's Ojibwe bands submitted comments to the commerce
department opposing the proposed Line 3 replacement options. The
bands are against any new Line 3 pipeline....
Shannon Rivers protested Trump at the Phoenix rally on Tuesday. For
Rivers, a tribal citizen of the Akimel O’odham of the Gila River
Indian Community, the alliance between indigenous people and Latinos
is personal. “Many [Latinos] are our family,” he said.
Photo by Jenni Monet.
“This Is Our Land”: Indigenous Rights Activists Respond to White
Supremacist Rhetoric
At the Trump rally Tuesday, indigenous and Latino
rights advocates stood together to protest racial inequality in
Arizona’s justice system. For these groups, facing militarized
police is nothing new.
by Jenni Monet, Yes! Magazine - 24 AUG 2017
It came with a loud boom followed by a second one—a series of
smoke bombs lodged toward a crowd of protesters in downtown Phoenix
Tuesday night.
“You guys better get going before the gas starts,” said a
local police officer wearing a helmet, his Plexiglas face shield
flipped upward atop his head.
“Wait … What gas?” said a young cyclist standing nearby. Then
he asked again with more urgency. “What gas?!”
Half a city block away, a peaceful gathering had erupted in
rapid but short-lived chaos after, police say, someone lodged a
burning projectile at an officer, and in response, police fired
back. The city’s police chief said pepper balls, tear gas, and other
nonlethal chemicals were used. The drama disrupted what had
otherwise been an hours-long nonviolent demonstration held by many
protesting President Donald J. Trump. He chose Phoenix to host a
campaign-style rally, his first event since the deadly clashes in
Charlottesville, Virginia.
For the indigenous people who attended the rally, this police
response was a familiar narrative.
“The historical trauma is still happening today. We’re still
suffering but in different ways,” said Anthony Thosh Collins, a
citizen of the Onk Akimel O’odham with the Salt River Pima-Maricopa
Indian Community....
A view of the Kayenta Solar Facility, which became operational in
May and produces enough electricity to power 13,000 Navajo homes.
NTUA
Navajo Solar Plant Breaks New Ground
by Emery Cowan, Sun Staff Reporter, Arizona Daily Sun
- 23 AUG 2017
In May of this year, in the shadows of sandstone towers near
Monument Valley, an array of 120,000 photovoltaic solar panels fired
up for the first time.
In doing so, the Kayenta Solar Facility became the first
utility-scale solar project to go operational on the Navajo Nation,
producing enough electricity to power about 13,000 Navajo homes.
The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, which owns the solar
plant, touted the project as a major clean energy advancement on a
reservation long known for fossil fuel development.
Before the solar plant, “the green economy didn't exist” on
the Navajo Nation, said Walter Haase, general manager of NTUA, which
is a tribal enterprise. After years of empty promises on renewable
energy projects, Haase said the array that spans 200 acres shows
that such projects can, in fact, be completed on Navajo land.
“This is a game changer,” he said.
It’s the type of glowing assessment one would expect from a
person in Haase’s position. But analysis from energy experts
familiar with the solar plant, as well as the examples provided by
Haase himself, suggests the array is in fact a significant
advancement for renewable energy development on the Navajo Nation
and, more broadly, tribal land...
When Heritage Equals Hate: The Truth About the Confederacy in the
United States ACLU on YouTube - 24 AUG 2017
Streamed Video
Watch live as Jeffery Robinson, the ACLU’s top racial justice
expert, discusses the dark history of Confederate symbols across the
country and outlines what we can do to learn from our past and
combat systemic racism.
Troubled Waters: Tennessee Families Stand Up for a Clean Environment
by Keith Griffith, Equal Voice News - 20 AUG 2017
CLAIRFIELD, Tenn. — On the northern slope of Cooper Ridge – a
long, low-slung rise in Tennessee’s Cumberland Mountains – sits the
127-year-old Hatfield Cemetery, a well-maintained strip of
flower-adorned plots where gravestones older than a century sit next
to still-fresh graves.
Bright pink ribbons hang in the tree branches surrounding the
cemetery, marking 100 feet from the burial grounds. Beyond them is
planned one of the largest surface coal mines in Tennessee’s
history. The mine will soon surround the cemetery. On an afternoon
in May, a swath of clear-cut logging was visible through the trees,
and heavy machinery could be heard over the sound of chirping birds.
The Cooper Ridge mine will span a total of roughly 1,400
acres of land, both above and below ground, stretching from the
southern tip of the ridge where it will encircle Hatfield Cemetery
to the northern tip, where it will sit right above the Clairfield
Elementary School, which serves 92 students....
Protest the Approval
of the Tesoro Refinery Merger/Expansion – SIGN THE LETTER! Social350 - 20 AUG 2017
Hundreds of thousands marched on April 29th across the US and
the world calling for solutions to the growing global climate
crisis. In Los Angeles, demonstrators converged near a major
petroleum refinery and two major ports in support of the nearby
vulnerable communities calling for protections for their health and
safety. Unfortunately, not two weeks later, behind closed doors, the
regional Air Quality District gave the Tesoro merger the
environmental go-ahead, ignoring the pleas of thousands. Sign this
petition to register your disapproval!
CNN's Zakaria Slams Elite for Reaction to Trump, Charlottesville
Jacqueline Thomsen, CNN, on The Hill - 20
AUG 2017
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria blasted the nation's elite on Sunday for
a “mealy-mouthed” reaction to President Trump’s remarks on
Charlottesville.
Zakaria said that most of the country reacted “swiftly and
strongly” to Trump’s comments that “both sides” were to blame for
violence at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., but
that GOP politicians and executives fell short.
“The delayed, qualified and often mealy-mouthed reaction of
many in America’s leadership class tell a disturbing story about the
country’s elites and the reason we are living in an age of populist
rebellion,” Zakaria said.
Zakaria hit Republican leaders for having “suddenly gone
mute” over Trump’s comments and not condemning the leader of their
party.
And while he said that business leaders had done the right thing in
dropping out of Trump’s advisory councils, Zakaria questioned if
other CEOs would have spoken out if Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier hadn’t
publicly resigned first.
“Some jumped ship when it was clear there was really no
alternative,” Zakaria said....
American Indian Genocide Museum — Racism towards IndiansTraced to
Perversion of Bible
by Steve Melendez, Censored News - 17 AUG 2017
I recently read this chief's speech about George Washington
and something just didn't seem right. It was published in Vol. 4 of
Trail Ride Magazine under the title "When God Goes to War". I write
this open letter to the author and editor of the magazine, Dr.
Elliot Johnson, after reading the following chief's speech:
" I am Chief, and ruler over my tribes. My influence extends
to the waters of the great lakes, and to the far blue mountains. I
have traveled a long and weary path, that I might see the young
warrior (George Washington, from the day he had horses shot out from
underneath him) of the Great Battle. It was on the day when the
white man's blood mixed with the streams of our forest, that I first
beheld this chief. I called to my young men and said, 'Mark you tall
and daring warrior? He is not of the redcoat tribe---he hath an
Indian's wisdom, and his warriors fight as we do---himself is alone
exposed. Quick, let your aim be certain, and he dies. Our rifles
were leveled, rifles which, but for him, knew not how to miss--'twas
all in vain, a power mightier far than we, shielded him from harm.
He cannot die in battle. I am old, and soon shall be gathered to the
great council fire of my fathers in the land of shades, but ere I
go, there is something bids me speak in the voice of prophecy.
Listen! The Great Spirit protects that man, and guides his
destinies---he will become the chief of nations, and a people yet
unborn will hail him as the founder of a mighty empire."
I emailed this speech to the Fred W. Smith National Library
for the Study of George Washington and this was their reply: "This
speech has proven to likely be a myth or legend. There is no solid
proof of where the origins of that speech came from. It is published
in some books, but without any citations, it is not able to be
proven really one way or the other."...
Dr. Johnson, did you know that there are those out there
teaching hatred of Indians? And did you know that they are using the
Bible to do it? They are teaching that the cowboys are the Chosen
People and that the Indians are the Canaanites. I know that is hard
to believe but they are also teaching that America is the cowboy's
Promised Land---never mind that the Promised Land had boundaries. I
say this because I notice that on every other page of your magazine,
you have written at the bottom of the page, the slogan, "A Cowboy's
Journey Into the Promised Land" and I hope you don't literally
believe that....
Unfortunately, anyone who teaches that the American Indians
should have been exterminated as God commanded the Canaanites to be,
is teaching a twisted interpretation of the Bible which amounts to
white supremacy and nullifies the Great Commission. As a matter of
fact, this false teaching is so embedded in American history that
Adolph Hitler used it to justify the genocide of the Jews during
world war II. He said, speaking of the Jews and the Slavs, "The
natives will be our Redskins".
As Nelson Mandela said, "No one is born hating another person
because of the color of his skin or his background or his
religion…People must learn to hate …". Hitler learned well, but he
learned well from the Jezebel nature of American history where land
theft and murder were legalized. The world witnessed justice being
stood on its head at Standing Rock where a people who have lived on
the land for thousands of years and who had a treaty with the United
States were treated as trespassers. The sad thing is that it could
all be traced back to the false teachers and their perversion of the
Bible....
Trump & Mattis Mull Plan to pay Erik Prince 10B yr to Privatize
Afghan War
by Ray S. Cline, Change.org - 18 AUG 2017
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said administration officials
are mulling the proposal by businessman and former Navy SEAL Erik
Prince to surge private security contractors into Afghanistan to
take over duties currently performed by U.S. troops.
“The strategic decisions have not been made, but — I don’t
know how to put this — I think that’s all I want to say,” Mattis
told reporters Monday at the Pentagon. “The strategic decision has
not been made.”
The defense secretary added, “It’s part of the options being
considered. And the president’s open to the advice of the secretary
of state, and myself and the director of the CIA,” referring to Rex
Tillerson at State and Mike Pompeo at the Central Intelligence
Agency.
Prince, who founded the private security firm Blackwater that
was later renamed Xe Services and then Academi, first shared his
idea for Afghanistan in a May 31 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal,
“The MacArthur Model for Afghanistan,” which called for
consolidating authority into a viceroy who would lead coalition
efforts in the country....
This Week in History: Navajo Code Talkers Day People's World - 14 AUG 2017
Each year, August 14th is recognized as Navajo Code Talkers
Day in gratefulness for the role native Navajo speakers played
during World War II.
The term “code talkers” is strongly associated with bilingual
Navajo speakers specially recruited during World War II by the
Marines to serve in their standard communications units in the
Pacific Theater. Code talking, however, was pioneered by Cherokee
and Choctaw Indians during World War I.
Philip Johnston, a civil engineer for the city of Los
Angeles, proposed the use of the Navajo language to the U.S. Marine
Corps at the beginning of World War II. Johnston, a World War I
veteran, was raised on the Navajo reservation as the son of a
Christian missionary to the Navajo. He was one of the rare
non-Navajo who spoke the language fluently.
Navajo has a complex grammar, and is not mutually
intelligible enough with even its closest relatives within the
Na-Dene linguistic family. It was still an unwritten language, and
Johnston thought Navajo could satisfy the military requirement for
an undecipherable code. Navajo was spoken only on the Navajo lands
of the American Southwest. Its syntax and tonal qualities, not to
mention dialects, made it unintelligible to anyone without extensive
exposure and training. One estimate indicates that at the outbreak
of World War II, fewer than 30 non-Navajo could understand the
language....
Signs left by protesters demonstrating against the Energy Transfer
Partners Dakota Access oil pipeline sit at the gate of a
construction access road where construction has been stopped for
several weeks due to the protests near the Standing Rock Sioux
reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S. September 6, 2016.
REUTERS/Andrew Cullen
Security Company Denies Providing Illegal Services During DAPL
Protests
by John Hageman, West Fargo Pioneer - 14 AUG 2017
BISMARCK—A firm contracted by the company that built the
Dakota Access Pipeline disputed last week the allegation it was
providing "security and private investigative services" during the
monthslong protests against the project.
North Carolina-based TigerSwan's answer to a lawsuit from the
North Dakota Private Investigative and Security Board was filed
Thursday, Aug. 10, about about six weeks after the board's complaint
was filed in Burleigh County District Court. The regulatory board
accused TigerSwan of operating in the state without a license and
sought an injunction.
Providing private investigative or private security services
without a current license is a Class B misdemeanor.
An Energy Transfer Partners spokeswoman previously said
TigerSwan was no longer working in North Dakota on behalf of the
company. Dallas-based ETP was the lead company building the
1,172-mile pipeline carrying oil from western North Dakota to
Illinois....
Exclusive: Stonewall Jackson's Great-Great-Grandsons Call for
Removal of Confederate Monuments
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! - 17 AUG 2017
As President Trump faces growing outrage over his response to
the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, we
bring you an exclusive: an interview with the great-great-grandsons
of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. At least 1,500 symbols of
the Confederacy can be found in public spaces across the country.
But now a number of the monuments are coming down. Calls for the
removal of the statues are even coming from the descendants of the
leaders of the Confederacy. We speak with two of the
great-great-grandsons of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. Jack
and Warren Christian have just written an open letter to the mayor
of Richmond calling for the removal of the Stonewall Jackson statue
in Richmond. They write, "Our sense of justice leads us to believe
that removing the Stonewall statue and other monuments should be
part of a larger project of actively mending the racial disparities
that hundreds of years of white supremacy have wrought."...
Flowers, supporters, family, and
mourners in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the site where Heather
Heyer was killed and many others were wounded
when a white supremacist demonstrator deliberately sped his vehicle
through a group of counter-demonstrators who opposed the White
supremacist, Nazi, neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan agenda.
Some Republican elected officials and several state legislators
propose legalizing the vehicular murder of peaceful demonstrators.
The Republicans Who Want to Legalize Running Over Protesters
by Catherine Rampell, Opinion writer, The Washington Post
- 17 AUG 2017
Last weekend in Charlottesville, a driver mowed down peaceful
protesters and killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer. The act was
reminiscent of recent terrorist attacks across Europe committed in
the name of the Islamic State, which has urged followers to use
vehicles to kill enemies.
As far as we know, the alleged killer in Charlottesville
didn’t get instructions from the Islamic State. As far as we know,
he didn’t even receive marching orders from any of the neo-Nazi
groups with which he sympathized.
But he also didn’t need to turn to either of these factions
for inspiration. He could just have easily have gotten the idea from
a Republican state legislature.
This year, Republican lawmakers in at least six states have
proposed bills designed to protect drivers who strike protesters.
The first bill was introduced in North Dakota in January, and
similar bills have since come under consideration in North Carolina,
Tennessee, Florida, Texas and Rhode Island.
They were joined by other states trying to discourage
protests — typically relating to Black Lives Matter, the Dakota
Access Pipeline or other left-leaning causes — that sometimes
obstruct traffic.
The North Dakota bill would shield drivers from civil and
criminal liability. The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Keith Kempenich,
perversely suggested that shielding drivers who kill protesters was
a necessary anti-terrorism measure....
Law enforcement officials watch people on the other side of a
barricaded bridge where people are hoping to block the building of
the Dakota Access Pipeline on Thursday, October 27, 2016.
CHRIS MACHIAN/THE WORLD-HERALD
The Public Pulse: Nebraska Should Prepare Itself for an Extended
Keystone XL Protest Omaha World-Herald - 17 AUG 2017
Over the past year, thousands of my fellow citizens in North
Dakota worked to resolve the Dakota Access Pipeline protest at
Standing Rock.
I worked on a fundraising effort to pay for cold weather gear
for law enforcement officials standing on the line in Morton County.
None of this essential gear was budgeted and was outside of the
federal reimbursement programs. Private donations of nearly $100,000
were raised to cover these very costly unbudgeted needs. North
Dakota also incurred $32 million in policing, legal and cleanup
costs.
These protests took place on federal Corps of Engineers land.
Last week, the federal government rejected our state’s request for
reimbursement....
Mr Schwartz has been a fierce critic of the billionaire property
magnate since he threw his hat into the ring for the presidential
race. AFP/Getty Images
Art of the Deal Co-author Predicts Donald Trump Is about to Resign
'Trump's presidency is effectively over. Would be
amazed if he survives till the end of the year. More likely resigns
by fall if not sooner,' says Tony Schwartz.
Maya Oppenheim, Independent - 17 AUG 2017
The co-author of Donald Trump’s memoir The Art of the Deal
has predicted the US President is going to resign by autumn if not
sooner.
Tony Schwartz, who claims to have ghostwritten the 1987
best-selling business book, argued Mr Trump is on the brink of
stepping down and said he would be shocked if his presidency lasts
until the end of the year.
Mr Schwartz, who has been a vocal critic of President Trump
and spent 18 months interviewing and shadowing him in the 1980's,
suggested he would negotiate a deal for immunity in the Russia
investigation in exchange for giving up his seat in the Oval Office.
He said: “The circle is closing at blinding speed. Trump is
going to resign and declare victory before Mueller and Congress
leave him no choice”.
“Trump's presidency is effectively over. Would be amazed if
he survives till the end of the year. More likely resigns by fall,
if not sooner.”...
GOP Sen. Bob Corker: Trump Hasn't Demonstrated 'Stability',
'Competence' The Daily Beast - 17 AUG 2017
Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) delivered a stinging rebuke of
President Trump on Thursday, telling reporters in his home state
that the president has yet to show the “stability” or “competence”
necessary to be a successful leader. “He also recently has not
demonstrated that he understands the character of this nation,”
Corker said. “He has not demonstrated that he understands what has
made this nation great and what it is today. And he’s got to
demonstrate the characteristics of a president who understands
that.” Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
said “radical changes” are needed in the White House. Corker has not
been afraid to criticize the Trump administration, and was
previously in line to be chosen as secretary of state....
On his website, Cohen said "It is morally and legally incumbent upon
me, based on my oath of office, to introduce articles of
impeachment." (Images: MGN / Cohen's Twitter page)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tennessee 9th District Congressman and ranking
Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and
Civil Justice Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, announced on Thursday that he
will be introducing articles of impeachment against President Donald
Trump following the President’s comments on the horrific events in
Charlottesville, Virginia....
"I believe the President should be impeached and removed from
office. Instead of unequivocally condemning hateful actions by
neo-Nazis, white nationalists and Klansmen following a national
tragedy, the President said ‘there were very fine people on both
sides.’ There are no good Nazis. There are no good Klansmen.”...
Hundreds of victims have come forward with stories of abuse from
Catholic clergy. Estimates of others victimized may remain faceless
and unaccounted following the settlement of the lawsuit.
(Photo: Terry Long Fox/For the Tribune)
Montana Reservations Reportedly 'Dumping Grounds' for Predatory
Priests
CLAIMS OF SEXUAL ABUSE BY CATHOLIC CHURCH WORKERS
HAVE EMERGED FROM ALL OVER THE STATE.
by Seaborn Larson, Great Falls Tribune - 17 AUG 2017
HAYS – For decades, even lifetimes, the Catholic Church
refused to turn in priests with known pasts of sexually abusing
children, women and men. The story is known in as many corners of
the world as the Catholic Church exists, including Montana's two
dioceses.
In the Pacific Northwest, however, the Catholic Church and
the Jesuit Order have been accused of using Indian Reservations as
their “dumping grounds” for the worst recidivist priests accused of
sexually abusing children throughout the 1900s. Here, church
officials reportedly determined predatory priests could remain
undetected. Here, the church that acted as an anchor for the
communities, and the victims lived with the abuse in silence.
Attorney Vito de la Cruz said Montana reservations were no
different: They were the church's rural and remote sites for hiding
predatory priests. Cruz’s Seattle law firm has represented victims
from Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho and Montana, and he said the
systematic issue is told from church documents revealed in cases
already settled, and the active one against the Great Falls-Billings
Diocese.
"I think the evidence points to that," Cruz told the Tribune.
"Those who had problems in respect to abusing kids, it's easy to
hide in the reservations; people won't complain much, it's isolated
there, and there are massively disproportionate balances of
power."...
2013 march to stop Arecibo incinerator
Incinerating the Future: Austerity Crisis Threatens Wetlands and
Economic Opportunity in Puerto Rico
by Adriana Gonzalez, Sierra Club - 14 AUG 2017
Last month on our blog we introduced you to Sierra Club de
Puerto Rico, where our newest chapter is in solidarity with allies
on the Island of Enchantment in the fight against economic
austerity. The pressure from Congress to repay decades-old debts to
international financiers is putting Puerto Ricans in the impossible
position of having to sacrifice the incredible natural beauty that
makes our island so special.
Nowhere is this more clear than in Arecibo, a municipality in
the north coast of Puerto Rico with a population of about 90,000
residents and 171 square miles. The biggest wetland system in Puerto
Rico, the Caño Tiburones, is located in Arecibo and is home to over
125 species of birds. This wetland system is crucial for local
fishermen, hunters and the local tourist economy. Arecibo has also
two forest reserves, including the sub tropical Rio Abajo forest
reserve where a population of the critically endangered Puerto Rican
parrot has been monitored for years. The town of Arecibo is also the
host of cave systems and cultural sites such as the Arecibo
Observatory, once the largest radio telescope in the world.
Despite all this natural beauty, biodiversity and the
economic benefits from tourism that this special place draws,
Arecibo is at risk. A private waste management company wants to
build a trash incinerator there that would burn 2100 tons of waste
per day. Trash burning incinerators not only produce greenhouse gas
emissions but also toxins such as lead that affect human health.
Emissions from incinerators are loaded with CO2, acid gases and
nanoparticles of heavy metals like lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic
and chromium. Proponents of the plant argue that it will help both
to solve Puerto Rico’s waste disposal challenges and supply energy
to the island, but incineration is one of the most expensive and
polluting ways to address waste, as well as one of the most
expensive and polluting ways to produce electricity. The proposed
plant in Arecibo will generate only 77 megawatts of energy per day,
only 2% of the total energy consumed daily in Puerto Rico. This
plant would not convert waste to energy - it would just be a waste
of energy....
At the gates of the court about 50 members of various tribes
gathered, who celebrated the ruling as “a victory of the rights of
the original peoples.”
Victory for Indigenous Peoples as Brazilian Supreme Court Rejects
Lawsuit
from el
Periodico, Translated by Earth First! Journal
- 16 AUG 2017
The Brazilian Supreme Court today rejected a lawsuit filed by
the state of Mato Grosso demanding compensation for territories that
in 1961 it was forced to cede for the constitution of indigenous
reserves.
The eight judges present at the court session unanimously
concluded that the Constitution considers that lands that have
traditionally been occupied by tribes that have never abandoned them
can be ceded by the State to their “original” owners.
The case referred to the Xingu National Park, which extends
over a region of 27,000 square kilometers that, since pre-Portuguese
colonization, is inhabited by dozens of indigenous ethnic groups.
This area was defined as an indigenous reserve in 1961 and
the regional government of Mato Grosso claimed that as “owner” of
the land, it should be compensated for the decision of the State
that transferred ownership to the Indians.
The denial of this claim was based on several articles of the
Brazilian Constitution of 1988 already reflected in the previous
ones, they deal with the indigenous issues and they establish the
possibility of a cession of lands to the tribes that have occupied
them for centuries....
Louisiana indigenous leader Cherri Foytlin, visiting man camps in
North Dakota: COURTESY/Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
‘Water Blessing and Healing Walk’ to Increase Awareness of Pipeline
Danger
by Talli Nauman, Native Sun News Today, Health & Environment
Editor - 16 AUG 2017
NEW TOWN, N. D. –– On Aug. 9, the North Dakota Public Service
Commission subpoenaed representatives of Dakota Access Pipeline to
attend an initial hearing in an unprecedented investigation of the
private company that has forced its oil transportation
infrastructure on the Great Sioux Nation.
The PSC set Aug. 17 as the formal hearing date for
representatives of Energy Transfer Partners and associates to answer
questions of misconduct before the commission, meeting at the state
capitol in Bismarck.
The DAPL representatives are also fighting federal charges
lodged by the Standing Rock, Cheyenne River and Yankton Sioux
nations over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ alleged failure to
adequately consult tribal governments on cultural resources and
water protection in permitting the pipeline construction.
In addition to those cases, the state’s North Dakota Private
Investigation and Security Board is conducting a civil suit against
Energy Transfer Partners for the failure of the corporation’s
private security company, TigerSwan, to comply with rules for
registration and operation, which resulted in the arrests of
hundreds of pipeline opponents during 2016....
Vice's Video About White Supremacists in Charlottesville Vice on Boingboing - 15 AUG 2017
Kottke says: "This is perhaps the best on-the-ground view of
what went down in Charlottesville over the weekend. It’s graphic in
spots. Prepare to get angry and sad and frustrated and scared."
On Saturday hundreds of white nationalists, alt-righters, and
neo-Nazis traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia to participate in
the “Unite the Right” rally. By Saturday evening three people were
dead — one protester, and two police officers — and many more
injured.
“VICE News Tonight” correspondent Elle Reeve went behind the
scenes with white nationalist leaders, including Christopher
Cantwell, Robert Ray, David Duke, and Matthew Heimbach — as well as
counter-protesters. VICE News Tonight also spoke with residents of
Charlottesville, members of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the
Charlottesville Police.
From the neo-Nazi protests at Emancipation Park to Cantwell’s
hideaway outside of Virginia, “VICE News Tonight” provides viewers
with exclusive, up close and personal access inside the unrest. UPDATE 8/15/2017:Independent documentary photographer
Daniel Hosterman wrote: "I think the Vice piece did a reasonable job
showing on very small slice of what happened in Charlottesville and
in the typical Vice, sensationalist style. It definitely showed a
lot of the extremist language and ideology of the white supremacist
contingent and showed how they can be terrifying. Those of us on the
ground -- who have been to events like these before -- already knew
that.
What the Vice video did not show was the nature of the folks
resisting these white supremacists, the utter disregard of law
enforcement for the safety of the citizens of Charlottesville, and
the really powerful displays of bravery I witnessed over those
couple of days.
I've got a lot of thoughts on a series of photographs at my
Instagram account (@dhosterman), and many more I'm still trying to
process now that I'm home. I really appreciate your reporting and
just want to be sure this Vice piece doesn't become your canonical
view of the events in Charlottesville....
Stand In Solidarity with Charlottesville - Find an Event Indivisible - 13 AUG 2017
This weekend, hate groups and domestic terrorists of all
stripes went to Charlottesville, VA to push their hateful message of
white supremacy, fascism, anti-Semitism, and bigotry.
When they got there they waged violence on unarmed
anti-racists, killing one and injuring many others. We mourn for the
life that was lost, and we will honor all those under attack by
congregating against hate in our own communities.
Tonight and tomorrow, Indivisible groups, along with our
friends at Women’s March, Democracy for America, Working Families
Party, Resist Here,...
"It’s all going to
end," writes Singer in the wake of hate-fueled white
supremacist gathering and an attack of domestic
terrorism against anti-racist counterprotesters that
left one person dead and many others injured in
Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday. "The lie you told
yourself about being special. So you huddle together
with others just like you, shivering and crying and
blowing snot onto each others shoulders pretending that
it’s a rally for white pride. It’s really just the
world’s biggest pity party for boys too scared to be men
and own up."
Dear White Supremacists: There Will Be No Race War
by Steven Singer, CommonDreams - 13 AUG 2017
This one goes out to all the white boys.
No.
Not ALL the white boys.
Just the ones who think being “white” and being a “boy” means
the world owes them something.
Cause I’m white, too, and I know it doesn’t make me any
better than anyone else.
But not you.
You think your lack of pigmentation is a special sign of your
supremacy. As if being pale was synonymous for God’s chosen.
Well let me tell you something, white boy. God didn’t choose
you. You did.
What you take for superiority is just a misguided attempt at
self-esteem.
I’m a snowflake? YOU’RE the snowflake. Same color. Same
consistency. In the first warm breeze, you’ll melt.
I’m talking to YOU, white boy. All of you.
All those melanin-starved faces wearing matching eggshell
t-shirts and fat-ass khakis.
All those brave, young men holding Tiki torches and an
inflated sense of self worth.
All the protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, so fearless
they can spray mace on those they disagree with, so bold they can
throw punches so long as they know the police won’t hold them
accountable, so courageous they can drive a car into unarmed
counter-protestors, so brave that they can’t even call themselves
what they are: Nazis, the Klan, white supremacists.
You hide behind “Alt Right” as if the rest of us can’t figure
out who you really are.
Surprise! We see you!
We see your twisted lips, scrunched eyes and flaring
nostrils. Your hood-starved heads and sweat-gelled haircuts. Your
hate warped faces spouting reheated leftovers from WWII.
My grandparents fought people like you.
They dressed in army green and hopped the ocean to pound
people like you into the ground.
They took your goose-stepping forebears and blasted them into
bits. They buried your intellectual precursors under the ashes of
their eternal Reich.
And for my grandfathers’ sacrifice, I rarely had to deal with
people like you, myself. Not outright.
It’s not that people like you didn’t exist. Your attitudes
and beliefs still percolated just beneath the surface of so many
frustrated white boys.
The difference was that they were too smart to actually give
voice to the darkness in their hearts.
It didn’t stop them from acting on it. They just wouldn’t
admit why.
Segregation, red lining, broken windows policing, and a
plethora of others. It was all polite, all deniable, all just the
colorblind way we do things around here.
But that doesn’t really work anymore, does it?
Times are changing.
The face of America is changing. And it’s increasingly brown.
It’s got curly hair and unexpected features. It’s fed by
different foods and nourished by different beliefs and customs. And
it’s often called by a name that doesn’t derive from Europe.
People are starting to speak up. They’re starting to call you
out.
And you don’t like it.
More than that you’re scared. Terrified.
It’s all going to end. The lie you told yourself about being
special.
So you huddle together with others just like you, shivering
and crying and blowing snot onto each others shoulders pretending
that it’s a rally for white pride. It’s really just the world’s
biggest pity party for boys too scared to be men and own up.
You’re brave when you’re in numbers, aren’t you? With numbers
or with a gun.
Then you can say whatever you want. You can pretend whatever
racial fantasy will protect your fragile little egos.
You’ll whine and boast and imagine you’re winning some kind
of war for survival. But we know what you’re really doing.
You’re on your knees. You’re begging for a confrontation.
You’ll do anything to provoke it.
It’s your only hope.
Push them. Prod them. Insult them until they fight.
Bring them down to your level.
Prove your moral superiority by stoking a race war.
Because you can battle human bodies, but you can’t stop
ideas.
You can’t triumph over equality, empathy and love.
You can’t stop the tick of time. You can just hope to reset
the clock.
Well, I’ve got bad news for you.
There will be no race war.
Not now. Not ever.
Oh, there may be fighting.
You’ll try to make it happen. But it won’t be white vs.
black.
It won’t be race vs. race.
It will be your tiny minority of cowards and fools vs. the
majority of the rest of us.
Do you really think people like me will fight on your side?
Do you think I’ll stand by you just because the shade of my
epidermis matches yours?
Hell No!
I’ll fight with my black brothers and sisters if it comes to
it.
I’ll fight on the side of equality, fairness and love.
I’ll do like my grandfathers and smash you into the ground.
We all will.
But I’d rather not fight at all.
There need be no violence.
And there won’t be.
Unless you force it.
You see, you can’t make a race war happen.
All you can do is unite the rest of us against you.
This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
White Supremacy Is White America's Legacy and Our Responsibility to
Defeat
by Jack Daly, Medium - 12 AUG 2017
By the time you read this sentence, if not by the time I have
finished writing it, you have likely seen the images. Polo shirt
clad white men wielding flickering tiki torches, marching through
Charlottesville, Virginia, shouting “white lives matter” and “we
will not be replaced”. You will have seen men in baseball hats
waving Confederate and Nazi flags, men in bicycle helmets clutching
makeshift shields, men in camouflage toting assault rifles. All
decrying “anti-whiteness” and excoriating minorities, immigrants,
Jews.
Worst of all, you will have seen car plowing into
counter-protesters, flinging people into the air, before cowardly
fleeing. An act of domestic terrorism unleashed barely one hundred
miles from the nation’s capital.
This is the emboldened face of the far-right, neo-fascist,
racist, white supremacist underbelly of America. We should all be
disturbed and sickened and outraged by this, but we cannot be
surprised. White supremacy and bigotry are not new phenomena nor
confined to the province of a white trash fringe. These beliefs are
a well-treaded legacy of the American story, having always lain in
plain sight for anyone willing to see....
Rescue personnel
help injured people after a car ran into a large group
of protesters after a white supremacist rally in
Charlottesville, VA
“I wonder how many protesters I could run over.” GOP Has Openly
Advocated Road Violence The country reacted with horror after a
Nazi demonstrator mowed down protestors with a car. But Republicans
have been attacking protestors in roads all year, with both violent
rhetoric and legislation.
by Matthew Chapman, Shareblue - 13 AUG 2017
The deadly events in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday
have rocked the entire nation.
As neo-Nazis protested the removal of Confederate monuments and
clashed with locals and police in Emancipation Park, one man
violently mowed down counterprotestors with his car, killing
32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. The perpetrator,
James Alex Fields, Jr., is being charged with murder.
The reaction across the country was immediate outrage from
all corners. Democrats and Republicans alike decried the violence —
though Donald Trump could barely bring himself to do so even
partway.
But Republican condemnations ring hollow, given that many in the
party have for months openly advocated running down protestors with
cars....
MUST SEE VIDEO:
Energy Transfer Partners Caught Creating FAKE Pro-pipeline Groups
Dallas Goldtooth, Facebook - 10 AUG 2017
Energy Transfer Partners caught creating fake pro-pipeline
groups to disseminate misinformation about water protectors! They
used the same actor to pose as a "local" against two different
pipeline fights!
Toxic Tour of the Bakken Oil Formation - Stop at Man Camp in
Williston, ND Indigenous Environmental Network - 10 AUG 2017
"We have to stop this foolish line of [thinking] that says we
either have to destroy our planet or live in the Stone Age. That's
just silly...We have to invest in solutions."
"...there's so much complexity in terms of what's happening
here this isn't just an environmental issue, it's an issue of
indigenous sovereignty, it's an issue of violence against women,
it's an issue of communities' self-determination, as well as
environmental health, and biodiversity..."
Maud Swift Bear,
Rose Long Face, Ernest White Thunder, and Dora Brave
Bull were among the first students to arrive at the
Carlisle Indian Industrial School on Oct. 6, 1879, and
are all buried in the cemetery.
‘Those Kids Never Got to Go Home’
Nearly 200 children died and are buried at the former
Carlisle Indian School. Now the Rosebud Sioux want to reclaim their
ancestors.
by Jeff Gammage, Staff Writer, Philly News - 13
MAR 2016
CARLISLE, PA — They want the bones of their children back.
They want the remains of the boys and girls who were taken
from their American Indian families in the West, spirited a thousand
miles to the East, and, when they died not long after arrival, were
buried here in the fertile Pennsylvania soil.
The brevity of those lives, and the effort of a South Dakota
tribe to reclaim them now, spring from a turn-of-the-century episode
of forced assimilation and cultural destruction — one that continues
to haunt and torment the Rosebud Sioux....
Charles Fox /
Staff Photographer
Native Americans, Mark Soldier Wolf and White Eagle at
right are part of the visiting Northern Arapaho
delegation at the former Carlisle Indian Industrial
School.
CARLISLE, Pa. — Nelson White Eagle, gray and stiff at 78, needed
time to make his way across the wet grass to the graves of the
children, but when he got there, he didn’t hesitate:
The Northern Arapaho elder sang — a song of gratitude and honor, of
thanks and remembrance and healing.
No answer came from the rows of white headstones in the cemetery on
the grounds of the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School, now the
campus of the Army War College. And none was expected.
“I felt better after I sang the song,” White Eagle said. “We need to
hang on to one another, love one another.”
In this Aug. 14,
2015, file photo, water flows through a series of
sediment retention ponds built to reduce heavy metal and
chemical contaminants from the Gold King Mine wastewater
accident in the spillway about a quarter mile downstream
from the mine outside Silverton, Colo. Environmental
Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Aug.
4, 2017 that he will consider paying for economic
damages from the spill, something the EPA previously
said it could not do because of laws protecting the
government from lawsuits. His comments came during a
tour of the mine on the eve of the second anniversary of
the spill. (Brennan Linsley, File/Associated Press)
Utah Seeking $1.9 billion from EPA Over Mine-waste Spill
by Dan Elliott, AP, The Washington Post - 08 AUG
2017
Utah is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for
$1.9 billion in damages after the EPA inadvertently triggered a
multi-state spill from an old gold mine in Colorado, the Utah
Attorney General’s Office confirmed Tuesday.
The state filed the claim in February but never publicly
announced it, said Dan Burton, a spokesman for the attorney general.
Word of the claim first surfaced Friday when the EPA made a passing
reference to it in a news release.
It is by far the largest known claim stemming from the August
2015 spill from the inactive Gold King Mine in southwestern
Colorado, and it brings the total to at least $2.3 billion.
The Navajo Nation filed a claim for $162 million and the
state of New Mexico sought $130 million.
Burton initially declined to say what Utah’s claim included
or how state officials arrived at the $1.9 billion figure but said
details would be released later.
“It’s a function of looking at the damages, and the cost of
cleanup and the long-term maintenance in the area,” he said....
Greece: Networks of Resistance Conference
Part 1 - ZAD, Bure, Hambach Forest Unicorn Riot - 10 AUG 2017
Athens, Greece – In the summer of 2017, folks in Athens
organized the Networks of Resistance: 1st European Local Struggles
Conference to “create an open source platform” to expand upon and
share the experiences, knowledge, and ideas that have arisen from
organically created resistance encampments currently building new
alternatives outside of capitalism and nation-states. The two-day
conference was held in the self-organized Embros Theater, which is a
squatted ex-factory in the Psiri District of Athens.
Navigating through the dynamics of building strong grassroots
movements that impact radical change is a arduous task. The
resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in the United States
was monumental, but it didn’t stop the project nor the flow of oil.
In Europe, resistance to development and fossil fuel extraction
projects continues to grow in waves, similar to the USA, and like
the resistance camps around Standing Rock, autonomous experiments of
building an alternative society outside of capitalism and void of
consumerism and hierarchy have existed for years now....
Water Protector Alert! Sacred Stone Camp, Facebook - 08 AUG 2017
Water Protector alert! Construction on the Enbridge Line 3 is
underway in Superior, Wisconsin even though they do not have all the
permits for Minnesota!
#StopLine3
Enbridge pipeline is currently being laid in the ground right
outside of Duluth/Superior. Let's work together to stop construction
immediately. Please share to build awareness/momentum against Line 3
& Line 66.
Location of current construction: 7127-7199 WI-35, Superior,
WI 54880
#StopLine3
“I’m
Very Scared and I’m a Sad Mom”: Commerce City Residents Testify at
Suncor Refinery Expansion Hearing Unicorn Riot - 09 AUG 2017
Commerce City, CO – On Wednesday evening, August 2, 2017,
over 100 residents of Commerce City, Colorado, filled the Suncor
Energy refinery public hearing for Suncor’s request for modifying
their permits (PDF) to allow for more emissions. Unicorn Riot
livestreamed the hearing (full video embedded below).
According to the ‘Notice of Public Comment Hearing’ (PDF)
published on June 20, 2017, on the Colorado Air Quality Control
Commission website, there was already a “preliminary determination
of approval for modifications to the Title V Permit for the Suncor
Energy Refinery Plants 1 and 3.”
This public hearing was not initiated by Commerce City’s
government, the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment
(CDPHE), nor Suncor, it only happened because the Cross Community
Coalition, with and through its counsel Earthjustice, submitted a
request for a public comment hearing (PDF) before the Colorado Air
Quality Control Commission.
According to the request for the public hearing,
The Suncor Refinery (previously under other ownership) has
been found to have repeatedly violated its air pollution permits,
and has been subject to numerous enforcement actions as a result....
MISSOULA FRESH MARKET
Worker accused of profiling Native American couple no longer
employed by Fresh Market
by Ashley Nerbovig, Missoulian - 08 AUG 2017
Missoula Fresh Market said an employee accused of
discriminating against a Native American couple in a video viewed
more than 100,000 times no longer works for the company.
Shawn Madman and his girlfriend, Tenisha Oldman, went to the
store on West Broadway Saturday and noticed a man staring at them as
soon as they walked in the door, he said.
Madman confronted the man, who was a Fresh Market employee,
and captured the exchange in two cell phone videos, both containing
graphic language.
“Excuse me, sir,'' Madman said. "Hey, every time when a
Native American comes in here, why do you follow them around? Why do
you follow us around?”
The employee responded, “Oh my gosh, why's it always Native
Americans? 'Oh, why do you got to profile us?' Every Native American
that comes in here says that. You’re just like the rest of them.”
Madman responded, “Oh really? Like the rest of them, huh?”
“Everyone says that,” the employee said.
“That’s because you do, you do profile us,” Madman said.
The employee did not identify himself in the video and Fresh
Market did not provide his name.
The employee suggested in the video that he had caught Oldman
shoplifting in the store before.
Madman said a manager later told him the store had no record
of shoplifting allegations against Oldman.
In a second video, streamed live Saturday on
Facebook, Oldman and Madman are told they are banned from the
store for a year. That video had more than 100,000 views by Tuesday
evening, with some commenters calling for a boycott of the store.
Missoula Fresh Market Co-Owner Craig Holtet said Tuesday the
employee in the video no longer works at the store. He said the
company also told Madman and Oldman that they were not banned from
shopping there.
“We work hard to provide everybody who comes into the store a
happy shopping experience,” Holtet said. “I lost sleep over somebody
not having a good experience.”
Holtet said the store took immediate action to resolve this
issue and a manager met with the couple on Monday. Holtet will also
meet with the couple on Thursday, he said....
People Shouldn't Buy the Right to Steal Your Land
Native Americans have seen this monster before.
by Charles P. Pierce, Esquire - 09 AUG 2017
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA—The involvement of the indigenous
populations in both the United States and Canada in the opposition
to various pipelines, including the Keystone XL, should come as no
surprise. As we have said, the abuse and misuse of the eminent
domain process in the construction of the pipeline here has been an
effective organizing tool to bring together environmentalists and
ranchers to oppose the project. And if it is nothing else, the
history of the native peoples on this continent is the greatest
example of eminent domain abuse in human history. They know better
than anyone the feeling that greater forces from the outside can
overwhelm and threaten long-standing ways of life.
On Tuesday, in a basement ballroom of a downtown hotel, the
Ponca, Santee, Omaha, and Winnebago peoples organized a treaty among
themselves, and several other tribes, expressing their opposition to
the pipeline. From the start, here and in Canada, the indigenous
peoples of the continent have been at the heart of the opposition to
projects like this one, most visibly during the extended
confrontation over the Dakota Access pipeline. In Nebraska, the
alliance between Native Americans and ranchers, particularly over
issues of eminent domain, not only was shot through with remarkable
historical je ne sais quoi, it was a pragmatic decision based on
common interests. People shouldn't buy the right to steal your land.
The Native people are familiar with this phenomenon and with how
angry its victims can become....
An unidentified
youth yawns as he stands amidst members of Native
American tribes who were holding a prayer during a rally
outside the building where the Nebraska Public Service
Commission was holding a hearing on the fate of the
Keystone XL pipeline, in Lincoln, Nebraska, Tuesday,
Aug. 8, 2017. The Nebraska Public Service Commission is
on Day 2 of a five-day public hearing to decide whether
to approve the Keystone XL pipeline which would
transport oil from tar sands deposits in Alberta,
Canada, across Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska. (AP
Photo/Nati Harnik)
Opponents Question Route Choice During 2nd Day of Keystone XL
Pipeline Hearing
Zach Pluhacek, Lincoln Journal Star - 08 AUG 2017
Nothing binds the Keystone XL pipeline to its proposed route
through Nebraska, TransCanada officials acknowledged Tuesday under
sometimes-furious questioning by attorneys opposing the pipeline.
A different route -- one parallel to the existing Keystone
pipeline, which was built in 2010 -- would cut a shorter path
through the state, cross fewer rivers, make one less pass over the
Ponca Trail of Tears and reduce the potential impact on wildlife
such as the endangered whooping crane.
"Wouldn't it be an advantage to TransCanada to be able to put
in a pipeline across a route over which it had no public opposition,
and for which the public was either in agreement or indifferent?"
attorney Dave Domina of Omaha asked Meera Kothari, the project's
lead engineer, during the second day of a weeklong hearing at the
Cornhusker Marriott Hotel....
Water woes have
reshaped the map of North America by 2028 in this detail
from an imaginative map in the new water atlas.
COURTESY BRYCE TOUCHSTONE, MELISSA BROOKS
Maps Show How Water Can Be a Precious Lifeline—or a Deadly Weapon
A new atlas by "guerrilla cartographers" explores the importance of
water in everything from ancient mythology to modern warfare.
by Greg Miller, National Geographic - 08 AUG 2017
In the recent conflicts in Iraq and Syria, water has often
been used as a weapon. When ISIS seized the Fallujah Barrage, a dam
on the Euphrates River, in 2014, they raised the floodgates to
deprive downstream cities of water.
Later, they released water from the dam in an attempt to
flood approaching Iraqi forces, which eventually recaptured the dam
in 2016. (See "What You Need to Know About the World's Water Wars.")
Water touches every aspect of human life, sometimes in
unexpected ways, says Darin Jensen, a cartographer at the University
of California and founder of a nonprofit group called Guerrilla
Cartography.
The group’s latest project, Water: An Atlas, takes an
unconventional look at the importance of water through more than 80
maps, including one showing the sites where water has played a role
in the conflict with ISIS (included in the gallery above).
The maps in the atlas come from artists, activists,
academics, and other mapmakers. Like the group’s first atlas, which
focused on food issues, it was a crowdsourced effort. Organizers
picked the theme and solicited contributions.
“It’s a very bottom-up process where we don’t look to
publishers or academics to tell us what people want to read on a
map,” Jensen says. “We announce a theme and let people who are
passionate about it tell us what should be in the atlas."...
Three protesters
of the Dakota Access Pipeline project attached
themselves to large excavators in September at a
worksite northwest of Almont near Interstate 94 and
County Road 86 in Morton County.
Judge Orders Prosecutor to Turn Over Private Security Memos
Caroline Grueskin, Bismarck Tribune - 08 AUG 2017
A judge ordered a prosecutor Tuesday to inquire after memos
from a private security firm working for the Dakota Access Pipeline
that might relate to a protester's criminal case.
Judge Allan Schmalenberger ruled in court that Morton County
Assistant State's Attorney Brian Grosinger needed to ask TigerSwan
for information pertaining to the arrest of Nicholas Tilsen on Sept.
14.
Tilsen allegedly used a "sleeping dragon" — a device made of
metal pipe that activists use to hook themselves to equipment — to
lock onto a track hoe at a pipeline worksite near New Salem. He is
accused of endangering the lives of law enforcement officers, who
used power tools to cut him off.
Schmalenberger's order came after a request from defense
attorneys Chad Nodland and Bruce Ellison, who argued that the
relationship between the company and local police was "hand in
glove," noting that the two apparently shared information, radio
frequencies and physical space at a joint information center. For
that reason, they should be entitled to information collected by
TigerSwan about Tilsen, they argued.
"The line between (Energy Transfer Partner's) private
security forces and law enforcement has been erased," Nodland
wrote....
A Dakota Access
Pipeline protester clears away a tire and debris from a
roadblock against a line of law enforcement during a
confrontation in October at the Front Line Camp located on
Highway 1806 in Morton County.
Practice of Recharging DAPL Cases Dropped in June, July
Caroline Grueskin, Bismarck Tribune - 08 AUG 2017
Morton County prosecutors appear to have quit recharging
protesters after they dismiss cases for lack of evidence.
A review of court records indicate no new charges were filed
from June and July against Dakota Access Pipeline opponents, who
were arrested on Oct. 22 and Oct. 27 — two of the most contentious
days during the protests — and whose cases were dismissed at the
request of prosecutors.
This represents a reversal from April and May, when the
Morton County State's Attorney's Office dismissed and recharged 39
cases from Oct. 10 and Oct. 22. Defense attorneys criticized the
practice as a way of coercing people to plead guilty.
Prosecutors did not respond to an email and handwritten
message left at the office for comment.
Motions entered by the prosecutors do leave open the
possibility of new charges.
"Due to the concern the state cannot meet the elements of the
offenses as charged, at present" is how many of the motions read.
And people already recharged from those dates have warrants
or upcoming court dates.
In June and July, most cases set for trial were dismissed at
the request of the prosecutors or by a judge. In total, 71 of 101
cases closed were the result of dismissals with no new charges
filed. Four people had cases dismissed, but were already recharged
from May. Sixteen people pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges for
deferred sentences and fines, two people were found guilty at trial
and one person took a pretrial diversion. In addition, seven people
were acquitted at trial.
Meanwhile, 10 people had warrants issued for their arrest,
because they did not appear at court dates.
Most of the cases handled derive from Oct. 22 and Oct. 27....
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe files brief asking for pipeline shutdown
during more thorough environmental review Stand With Standing Rock - 08 AUG 2017
Yesterday, we filed a powerful brief with the courts making
our case for why the pipeline should be shut down while the courts
decide an appropriate path forward. In cases where an agency is
found to have made such serious errors, it is typical that the
action in question be halted. In this case, that means shutting down
the pipeline.
The court determined that the Corps did not adequately assess
the impacts to our hunting and fishing rights, nor did they take
into account environmental justice. While these things are being
considered, we must continue to insist that the court should vacate
the easement as well as the finding of no significant impact, and
vacate other approvals pending completion of a full Environmental
Impact Statement.
Tribes Want Dakota Pipeline Shut, but Offer Fallback Plan
by Blake Nicholson, AP; ABC News - 08 AUG 2017
American Indian tribes fighting the Dakota Access oil
pipeline are asking a judge to shut down the line while more
environmental review is conducted, but they've also presented a
fallback plan should the judge disagree.
The "alternative relief" that Standing Rock Sioux attorney
Jan Hasselmen "reluctantly" proposed in court documents filed Monday
includes increased public reporting of pipeline issues such as
repairs, and implementation of a spill response plan — including
equipment staging — at the Lake Oahe reservoir on the Missouri
River, from which the tribe draws its water.
"Neither the Corps (of Engineers) nor DAPL has ever
communicated with the tribes about spill response planning,"
Hasselman wrote....
Make Your Voice Heard: No to the Dakota Access
Pipeline NARF
- 08 AUG 2017
Since 2014, tribes in the Great Plains have opposed the
Dakota Access Pipeline. Early in 2017, the Trump
administration fast-tracked the permitting process
but now, a federal judge has granted the Standing
Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes’ request
by ordering the United States Army Corps of
Engineers to adequately consider the impact of an
oil spill on fishing rights, hunting rights, and
natural resources. The next hurdle in the case is to
stop the flow of oil while the environmental study
can be conducted. Join NARF in Standing Firm for
Justice. Sign the petition below.
On your behalf, this petition will be delivered to:
Brent Cossette,
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Colonel John Henderson,
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...
A
child from the Iñupiaq village of Selawik walks near the
shore in northwest Alaska. The community faces coastal
erosion from climate change. Photo: Alaska
Region U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Tribes Commit to Uphold Paris Climate Agreement Western nations take action on climate change — and push for
self-governance.
by Lyndsey Gilpin, High Country News - 14 JUL
2017
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community started planning for
climate change a decade ago. Located on the southeastern peninsula
of Fidalgo Island on Puget Sound in Washington, the reservation is
surrounded by water and at high risk for sea-level rise. A
destructive 100-year storm event in 2006 led tribal leaders to
research and fund climate programs, and the Swinomish became the
first tribal nation to adopt a climate adaptation plan.
So when President Donald Trump announced his decision to
withdraw the U.S. from the United Nations’ Paris climate agreement,
the Swinomish reacted swiftly and, together with other tribes,
publicly committed to uphold the accord.
In the West, where many tribal communities and reservations
are on the frontlines of climate change, tribal leaders are
determined to move forward on climate action as sovereign nations
despite budget cuts, climate denial, and inaction. “We came together
with one another to raise the level of environmental awareness,”
said Debra Lekanoff, governmental affairs director for the
Swinomish. “We can’t just pick up and move the places where we
live.”...
County Sheriff Vance Norton shot and killed Ute tribal
citizen Todd Murray on tribal land.
Ute Indian Tribe Secures Major Victory Against Trespassing State &
County Officers
by Native News Online Staff, Native News Online -
13 JUL 2017
FT. DUCHESNE, UTAH – On July 11, 2017, the United States
Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued a decision in Vance
Norton, et al, v. Ute Indian Tribe, one of a series of cases in
which the Ute Tribe and the family of Todd Murray are seeking to
hold now-Uintah County Sheriff Vance Norton accountable for
allegedly trespassing onto the Ute Reservation and shooting Todd
Murray, an unarmed Ute Indian, in the head from point blank range;
and to hold Norton’s associates accountable for allegedly
trespassing onto the reservation and destroying evidence and taking
other actions to cover up Norton’s shooting of Murray....
Federal Government Denies N.D.'s Request for Reimbursement Related
to DAPL Protest Costs KFYR-TV - 12 JUL 2017
BISMARCK, N.D. - The federal government denied North Dakota's
request for reimbursement for cost associated with the Dakota Access
Pipeline protests according to a spokesperson for Gov. Doug Burgum.
The request was made directly to President Donald Trump from
Burgum and was denied three weeks later.
In the letter sent to the president Burgum notes that the
total costs for protest activity is expected to be $37 million.
On behalf of his tribe, Standing Rock Sioux Chairman
David Archambault II accepted the inaugural Henry A.
Wallace Award for courage at a ceremony in New York
City. Photo: Theresa Braine
Standing Rock Sioux to Spearhead $1 Million in Renewable Energy
Projects
Standing Rock Sioux receives inaugural Henry A.
Wallace Prize for courage under DAPL fire, plus $250,000, from
Wallace Global Fund
by Theresa Braine, Indian Country Today - 11 JUL
2017
Throughout much of 2016 and into the winter of 2017, water
protectors stood fast against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL),
even in the face of severe injury. The egregiousness of the actions
taken against unarmed water protectors caught the attention of the
Wallace Global Fund, founded by Henry A. Wallace, who was Vice
President of the United States under Franklin D. Roosevelt. The
progressive fund awarded $250,000 to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
and pledged to invest an additional $1 million in renewable energy
initiatives, to be led by the tribe.
The Wallace fund also bestowed its first-ever Henry A.
Wallace Award to the Standing Rock Sioux for their “unwavering
courage” in the face of the assault by a public-private partnership
of counterterrorism forces using military methods. Wallace spent his
life championing democracy and warning against the dangerous
impulses that could undermine it, personified by “those who care
only about money and privilege—who obtain political power by
pretending to care about ordinary people and democracy—who blame all
bad things on disfavored minorities, racial, religious or otherwise.
Who use lies, media propaganda and snide conspiracy theories to
mislead the people into giving them power,” said Scott Wallace,
Co-Chair of the Wallace Global Fund and grandson of the founder....
Enbridge's Line 3 Proposal: Why 13 Young Minnesotans Launched a
Legal Fight Against a Pipeline
We bring a unique perspective, because we will live
the longest with the consequences of today's decisions.
by Sophia Manolis, StarTribune - 11 JUL 2017
Most people have heard of the Dakota Access pipeline, but
many Minnesotans may not know that Enbridge, one of the companies
behind DAPL, is proposing an enormous pipeline expansion through our
state. Enbridge wants to construct a new pipeline called “Line 3” to
carry tar-sands oil from Alberta to Superior, Wis.
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission will hold hearings
on the pipeline proposal this fall and will decide whether to permit
it in 2018. While citizens may testify at the hearings, some parties
have been formally recognized as “intervenors,” based on having
submitted petitions declaring that the project would directly affect
them. Intervenors will participate officially in court proceedings,
representing their specific opposition to Line 3.
The Line 3 pipeline would have many harmful effects. High on
the list: It would contribute to climate change by expanding
fossil-fuel infrastructure and dependency. Therefore, 12 other young
people and I petitioned to intervene together in these legal
proceedings, because the advancement of climate change would
directly, personally and adversely affect our future health,
opportunities, livelihoods and well-being. As young people who value
clean water and air, and who would like to count on healthy,
thriving futures, we feel our voices should be heard in this
process. We call ourselves the “youth climate intervenors,” and on
July 3, a judge affirmed the merits of our argument, officially
granting us intervenor status.
Young people have never formally intervened in a U.S.
pipeline review process, yet we bring...
Based on Recent Rulings: Ten More Cases Dismissed
by Water Protector Legal Collective, via Censored News
- 10 JUL 2017
A big win for water protectors last week, 10 of the cases
arising from October 22, 2016 that were set to go to court on
Thursday July 6 and Friday July 7, 2017 were dismissed. The 10
defendants were facing Criminal Trespass and Engaging in a Riot
charges and seven of the 10 were represented by the Water Protector
Legal Collective (WPLC).
All of the cases stemmed from the mass arrests that took
place in Standing Rock on October 22, 2016 and are much the same to
the recent proceedings on June 29, 2017 when a not guilty verdict
was reached at the Morton County District Court.
The motion made by Assistant Morton County State’s Attorney
Brian Grosinger read, “Based on the rulings on the trial for June
29, 2017 in respect to the State anticipates substantially the same
evidence in these cases.” Upon finding out the order to dismiss was
granted WPLC Attorney Brian Fitzpatrick, whose client was one of the
10 defendants, stated: “The State’s Attorney, in my view, acted on
his ethical duty to dismiss any case that he cannot prove beyond a
reasonable doubt. These cases fall into that category. I applaud him
for doing the right thing.”...
Image Credit: Keri Pickett
Why Indigenous Civil Resistance Has a Unique Power
Activists should draw out the connections between
local struggles like #NoDAPL and the broader global climate justice
movement.
by Molly Wallace, Nation of Change - 10 JUL 2017 Published in collaboration with the Peace Science Digest,
which summarizes and reflects on current academic research in the
field of peace and conflict studies.
2016 saw the emergence of a powerful movement against the
construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, or DAPL, through land
vital to Native communities, especially the Standing Rock Sioux.
For non-Native people who have not been paying attention to
indigenous rights struggles over the past several decades, the
#NoDAPL movement may have served as a wake-up call to some of the
injustices still confronting these communities.
For others, as Tom Hastings points out in “Turtle Island 2016
Civil Resistance Snapshot,” in the Journal for the Study of Peace
and Conflict, #NoDAPL is simply another in a long line of civil
resistance struggles Native communities have mobilized, often
successfully, to claim their rights....
Protesters of the Dakota Access pipeline leave their main
protest camp near Cannon Ball, N.D. Feb. 28, 2017. (Tom
Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune)
Journalist Charged With Stalking For Filming Dakota Access Pipeline:
Trial Date 12 July 2017
After using a drone to film construction of the
Dakota Access Pipeline, police arrested well-known native activist
and journalist Myron Dewey, accusing him of using the drone to stalk
pipeline workers and security.
by Kevin Gosztola, Mint Press News - 07 July 2017
An indigenous journalist known for his work covering the
Standing Rock camps and other Native American-led resistance to the
Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) faces a trial on July 12 in Bismarck,
North Dakota.
Myron Dewey was accused by Shannon Eagon, the wife of Doug
Eagon, a member of the National Guard, of “stalking.” If convicted
of the class A misdemeanor, he faces up to one year in prison and a
possible $3,000 fine.
The complaint [PDF], approved by Assistant State’s Attorney
Gabrielle Goter, alleges on October 8, 2016, Dewey “harassed,
frightened, and/or intimidated security workers on a job site.” It
further suggests he targeted “their vehicles, license plates, and/or
where they were working, which made them fear for their lives and
their families’ lives.”
On October 8, police pulled Dewey over and seized a drone,
which he used to document how close the pipeline was getting to
water sources and sacred indigenous land. One officer claimed it was
used in a crime Dewey was involved in earlier that day. He was
subsequently charged and turned himself in to the Morton County
Police Department on October 14, when “Democracy Now!” host Amy
Goodman was also facing charges levied against her for journalism.
Dewey is Newe-Numah/Paiute-Shoshone from the Walker River
Paiute Tribe, Agui Diccutta Band (Trout Eaters) and Temoke Shoshone.
He founded Digital Smoke Signals, which was created to “indigenize”
media through indigenous voices that could produce representations
of their cultural core values.
He recently produced the third part of a feature documentary,
“Awake, A Dream From Standing Rock,” to get the perspective of water
protectors out to a wide audience. The film premiered at the Tribeca
Film Festival....
Federal Court Blocks Trump EPA on Air Pollution
by Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, The Washington Post
- 03 JUL 2017
An appeals court Monday struck down the Environmental
Protection Agency’s 90-day suspension of new emission standards on
oil and gas wells, a decision that could set back the Trump
administration’s broad legal strategy for rolling back Obama-era
rules.
In a 2-to-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit concluded that the EPA had the right to
reconsider a 2016 rule limiting methane and smog-forming pollutants
emitted by oil and gas wells but could not delay the effective date
while it sought to rewrite the regulation.
The agency has proposed extending the initial delay to two
years. Next Monday, there will be a separate administrative public
hearing on that suspension.
“The court’s ruling is yet another reminder, now in the
context of environmental protection, that the federal judiciary
remains a significant obstacle to the president’s desire to order
immediate change,” Richard Lazarus, an environmental-law professor
at Harvard Law School, said in an email.
“The D.C. Circuit’s ruling today makes clear that neither the
president nor his EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, can by fiat
unilaterally and instantaneously repeal or otherwise stay the
effectiveness of the environmental protection rules put into place
during the Obama administration,” he added....
Standing Rock's Fight Against Dakota Pipeline Continues While Tribe
Plans for a Fossil-Free Future
Amy Goodman, Democracy NOW! - 04 JUL 2017
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe recently won a major legal
victory in federal court which may have the power to force the
shutdown of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. District Judge
James Boasberg ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration failed
to conduct an adequate environmental review of the pipeline, after
President Trump ordered the Army Corps to fast-track and greenlight
its approval. The judge requested additional briefings next week on
whether the pipeline should be shut off until the completion of a
full review of a potential oil spill’s impacts on fishing and
hunting rights, as well as environmental justice. The pipeline faced
months of massive resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe,
members of hundreds of other indigenous tribes from across the
Americas, as well as non-Native allies. We speak with Standing Rock
Sioux Chair Dave Archambault II and Nick Tilsen, executive director
of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation and a
citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation on Pine Ridge Reservation in
South Dakota....
Grandson of Former VP Henry A. Wallace on Standing Rock's
Fossil-Free Future & American Fascism
Amy Goodman, Democracy NOW! - 04 JUL 2017
As we continue to look at how the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
is embracing renewable energy, we turn now to Scott Wallace and
Ellen Dorsey of the Wallace Global Fund. The fund recently awarded
the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe the inaugural Henry A. Wallace Award
and a $1 million investment in renewable energy projects led by the
tribe. The award is named after Scott Wallace’s grandfather Henry A.
Wallace, who served as vice president under Franklin D. Roosevelt
from 1941 to 1945. In 1944, Wallace published an iconic article in
The New York Times titled “The Danger of American Fascism.” He
wrote, "American fascists are most easily recognized by their
deliberate perversion of truth and fact."...
Divest-Invest: Foundations Urged to Back Climate Solutions While
Divesting from Fossil Fuels
Amy Goodman, Democracy NOW! - 04 JUL 2017
The Wallace Global Fund recently awarded the Standing Rock
Sioux Tribe the inaugural Henry A. Wallace Award and a $1 million
investment in renewable energy projects led by the tribe. We talk to
the fund’s executive director, Ellen Dorsey, about the
"Divest-Invest" movement....
Dakota Access Security Firm's Top Adviser Led Military Intelligence
Efforts for 1992 LA Riots
by Steve Horn and Curtis Waltman, DESMOG - 05 JUL
2017
Retired Major General James “Spider” Marks chairs the
advisory board for TigerSwan, a private security firm hired by
Energy Transfer Partners to help police protests of the Dakota
Access pipeline — an approach for which Marks has shown vocal
support.
DeSmog has found that Marks also headed up intelligence
efforts for the task force which brought over 10,000 U.S. military
troops to police the 1992 riots following the acquittal of Los
Angeles Police Department members involved in beating Rodney King.
In addition, Marks, a long-time military analyst for CNN, led
intelligence-gathering efforts for the U.S. military’s 2003 “shock
and awe” campaign in Iraq, which was dubbed “Operation Iraqi
Liberation.”
In recent months, Marks has endorsed Dakota Access and its
southern leg, the Bayou Bridge pipeline. He has shown this support
by writing op-ed pieces published in various newspapers and on the
website of a pro-Dakota Access coalition run by a PR firm funded by
Energy Transfer Partners.
“I spent a good portion of my adult life in Iraq, and I
must tell you that the similarities are stark,” Marks said in
November of the anti-Dakota Access encampment set up by the Standing
Rock Sioux Tribe.
Marks, according to The Washington Times, traveled to
Standing Rock “as an adviser to the Midwest Alliance for
Infrastructure Now” (MAIN), a pro-pipeline front group run by the
Republican Party public relations firm, DCI Group.
“General Marks is still an adviser to the coalition. He is
given a modest stipend for his time and expertise,” DCI Group's
Craig Stevens told DeSmog of Marks' relationship with MAIN.
“TigerSwan is not a member of the Coalition nor does the Coalition
receive any funding from them.” Stevens manages public relations
efforts for MAIN and is the crisis management lead for DCI.
In February, Marks traveled to Louisiana to speak in favor of
the Bayou Bridge pipeline at a Louisiana Department of Natural
Resources hearing....
France to End Sales of Gasoline, Diesel Vehicles by 2040
by Devin Henry, The Hill - 06 JUL 2017
France is preparing to end the sale of gasoline and diesel
vehicles by 2040 as a way of reaching its emissions targets under
the Paris climate agreement.
Nicolas Hulot, the Ecology Minister under new French
President Emmanuel Macron, announced the “tough” goal on Thursday,
Agence France-Presse reports.
"We are announcing an end to the sale of petrol and diesel
cars by 2040," said Hulot, who called the plan a "veritable
revolution.”
Macron has emerged as one of the Paris agreement’s biggest
supporters in the wake of President Trump’s June decision to pull
the United States out of the deal.
Hulot announced last month that France would stop granting
new licenses for oil and gas exploration both within France and in
its overseas territories.
Macron also said he would welcome American climate scientists
to come to his country to continue their research....
An electric BMW i3 near the Champs Elysees in Paris.
CREDIT: AP Photo/Francois Mori
France Will Ban Fossil Fuel-Powered Vehicles by 2040
Energy Minister Nicolas Hulot said the country wants
to be the world’s “number one green economy.”
by E. A. Crunden, ThinkProgress - 06 JUL 2017
France plans to fully end the sale of fossil fuel-powered
vehicles by 2040 in an effort to become a carbon-neutral nation,
Energy Minister Nicolas Hulot announced Thursday in Paris.
Aiming to be the world’s “number one green economy,” Hulot
said gas and diesel-powered vehicles would be phased out over the
course of the next two and a half decades, part of a larger effort
to meet targets set by the Paris climate agreement. Coal-fired power
plants will be eliminated, Hulot said, and citizens will be
encouraged to produce their own energy, especially those who own
homes. France will also introduce tax incentives — likely in the
form of a pollution tax on aging vehicles, or a tax break tied to
the purchase of new, cleaner cars — under the ambitious Climate
Plan, in addition to ending oil and gas exploration on French land.
While Hulot did not detail how France would enact these plans, he
emphasized that the “conditions” necessary to make them happen were
clearly laid out by the plan....
German News Magazine Rips Trump, Calling Him 'Unfit' and 'A Danger
to the World'
by Jen Hayden, Daily KOS - Originally Published
26 MAY 2017
Germany’s Der Spiegel newspaper is pulling no punches
after covering Donald Trump’s disastrous trip to Europe. In a brutal
op-ed, they lay out the case that Donald Trump is simply "unfit to
be President of the United States":...
NEW DOCUMENTARY: "MORE THAN A PIPELINE"
5 WAYS TO WATCH THE COMPLETE FILM FOR FREE
SEE LINKS BELOW:
Documentary: More Than a Pipeline
Watch in English or in Dutch MoreThanAPipeline - 29 JUN 2017
We need your help! The making of the film 'More than a
pipeline' has cost us over €28.000,-
We made the film from our hearts and would love to make it
available online for free so as many people as possible around the
world learn about the suppression of the First Nations....
More Than a Pipeline, Documentary - English Version
by Robert Bridgeman, YouTube - 30 JUN 2017
We are grateful, humble and proud to announce the online
release of More than a pipeline. MORE THAN A PIPELINE is a story
about 500 years of suppression of the First Nations and how Standing
Rock is basically a next chapter in that story.
This is a 100% non- profit project that relies on donations
of viewers. The objective of the film is to increase global
awareness about the suppression of The First nations of the US and
other countries around the world. But also to show how they
resurrected and found back their identity.
More Than a Pipeline, Documentary - Dutch Subtitled Version
by Robert Bridgeman, YouTube - 30 JUN 2017
We are grateful, humble and proud to announce the online release of
More than a pipeline. MORE THAN A PIPELINE is a story about 500
years of suppression of the First Nations and how Standing Rock is
basically a next chapter in that story.
This is a 100% non- profit project that relies on donations of
viewers. The objective of the film is to increase global awareness
about the suppression of The First nations of the US and other
countries around the world. But also to show how they resurrected
and found back their identity.
'More Than a Pipeline' (Watch full movie English or Dutch) Censored News - 02 JUL 2017
We are grateful, humble and proud to announce the online
release of More than a pipeline. MORE THAN A PIPELINE is a story
about 500 years of suppression of the First Nations and how Standing
Rock is basically a next chapter in that story.
This is a 100 percent non-profit project that relies on
donations of viewers. The objective of the film is to increase
global awareness about the suppression of The First nations of the
US and other countries around the world. But also to show how they
resurrected and found back their identity....
Aaron Turgeon, aka Prolific TheRapper, was acquitted of
one felony charge and two misdemeanor charges related to
his flying a drone during a pipeline protest.
(Photo: Caroline Grueskin, Bismarck Tribune)
12 No-Show Warrants Issued in May DAPL Cases
[In a
bold and unethical move, Morton County State's Attorney, Allen M.
Koppy brings new charges against defendants whose cases are
dismissed by the court. (Comment added by SENAA
International)]
by Caroline Grueskin, Bismarck Tribune - 02 JUL
2017
Twelve warrants were issued in May when Dakota Access
Pipeline protesters did not show up for hearings or trials scheduled
in Morton County.
Warrants are not a problem unique to the protester cases, but
they account for a significant number of the approximately 596 cases
still open.
According to court records, there are 109 pipeline-related
cases marked "inactive," which usually means an arrest warrant has
been issued. That number has been increasing, as more cases head to
trial and Morton County state's attorney files new charges against
people whose cases were previously dismissed for lack of
evidence....
Twelve No-Show Warrants Issued in May DAPL Cases [In
a bold and unethical move, Morton County State's Attorney, Allen M.
Koppy, brings new charges against defendants whose cases are
dismissed by the court. (Comment added by SENAA
International)]
by Caroline Grueksin, Bismarck Tribune; INFORUM
- 02 JUL 2017
BISMARCK — Twelve warrants were issued in May when Dakota
Access Pipeline protesters did not show up for hearings or trials
scheduled in Morton County.
Warrants are not a problem unique to the protester cases, but
they account for a significant number of the approximately 596 cases
still open.
According to court records, there are 109 pipeline-related
cases marked "inactive," which usually means an arrest warrant has
been issued. That number has been increasing, as more cases head to
trial and Morton County state's attorney files new charges against
people whose cases were previously dismissed for lack of
evidence....
Hawaiian Fight for Sovereignty Indigenous Rising Media, Facebook - 01 JUL
2017 Hawaiian Fight for Sovereignty
As we approach the 4th of July. Let us recognize the
Indigenous-led fights for sovereignty and self-determination.
Native Hawaiians view their island as an occupied country,
not as a U.S. state....
Quote of the Day
- The Last Word - MSNBC
31 OCT 2016
Quote of the Day
- MSNBC's "The Last Word"
ShaileneWoodley
NORTH DAKOTA'S PEACE OFFICER CODE OF CONDUCT AND OATH by Al Swilling, SENAA International
- 24 OCT 2016
North Dakota Law Contains a Detailed Code of Conduct and Oath of
Office That Its Peace Officers Must Vow to Uphold--That Applies to
the Morton County, ND, Sheriff, His Deputies, and Reinforcements
from Other Sheriff's Departments Who Are Working Temporarily for the
Morton County Sheriff, or for any other Law Enforcement entity in
the state of North Dakota....
A Word About Brenda
Norrell and Censored News Al Swilling, SENAA International - 14 FEB 2015 For those wondering why the vast majority of shared
posts on SENAA International's Web site and Facebook page are from
Brenda Norrell's Censored News, it's very simple—and very complex. For
many years, Brenda Norrell was a major journalist for (forgive me,
Brenda) Indian Country Today (ICT) until they censored Brenda's articles
and terminated her without cause. After leaving Indian Country Today,
Brenda created the appropriately
named Censored News.
While at
ICT, Brenda was a voice for the Dineh (Navajo) people at
Black Mesa, Arizona, where bed partners Peabody Coal and the BIA were trying to
forcibly remove Dineh residents from their ancestral homes in order to
strip mine the land of its coal. That greed took the form of a
contrived, fictional "land dispute" between Dineh' and Hopi....
Censored
News by Journalist & Publisher Brenda Norrell Censored News - 12 FEB 2015
Censored News was created in 2006 after staff reporter Brenda
Norrell was censored repeatedly, then terminated by Indian Country
Today. Now in its 9th year, with 3.7 million page views around the
world, Censored News is published with no advertising, grants or
sponsors.
Today, Censored News maintains a boycott of Indian Country Today,
whose reporters have relied on plagiarism of others' hard work for
years, instead of being present to cover news stories. Now, with a
collective of writers, Censored News focuses on Indigenous Peoples and
human rights.
www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Please Donate to and Support this important voice for Indigenous
people and human rights. --Al Swilling, Founder, SENAA International
Worldwide Prayer Gatherings Will Resume Weekly
by SENAA International - 28 OCT 2014 What Is a Worldwide Prayer
Gathering?
Though the specific details may vary from one support group to
another, and from one geographical location to another, the essential
concept remains the same.
A Worldwide Prayer Gathering is not so much a physical gathering into
one physical location as it is the spiritual gathering of individuals
and groups from around the world who are of one mind and one accord into
one spiritual place for a common purpose, which is to ask for the
Creator's help to bring about the circumstances that will accomplish our
common goal according to His promise.
TUTORIAL
LSO MANAGEMENT: What They Are
and What to Do About Them SENAA International - 16 FEB 2010
Introduction
The computing public is becoming increasingly aware
of the existence of Local Shared Objects (LSOs),
also called "Flash cookies" or "Persistent
Identification Elements" (PIEs), the dangers they
pose, and the unethical ways that they are placed on
our machines. LSOs are the busybodies of the
Internet, sticking their
noses in your personal
business at every opportunity without
your knowledge or consent; and like most
busybodies, they're being found out.
With growing public awareness of LSOs comes a growing
demand for effective, real time control of them. Most
LSO management solutions offer management or deletion of
LSOs after potentially malicious ones have had time to
do their damage. Stand-alone LSO management utilities do
not offer real time protection, either. This tutorial
provides real-time management of LSOs....
IF YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS, LEARN THEM! READ THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS!
Transcripts of the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of
Rights (1st 10 amendments), and other Constitutional Amendments for your
perusal. A public service endeavor of SENAA International.
$431,987 of $500,000
goal
Raised by 14,923 people in
6 months
GoFundMe - 21 NOV 2016 Sophia Wilansky is a water protector from New York.
She left New York City several weeks ago to help with the struggle
at Standing Rock. She been an active participate and family to the
activist groups NYC Shut It Down and Hoods4Justice. Sophia has
always been committed to confronting injustice through vigilance and
resistance.
Sophia was giving out bottles of water to protectors holding
down the space when she was shot with a concussion grenade. The
explosion blew away most of the muscles, femural and ulnal
arteries were destroyed, and one of her forearm bones was
shattered. She
was air lifted to County Medical Center in Minneapolis were she’s
currently undergoing a series of extensive, hours-long surgeries from
the injuries
sustained from the blast.
We
must to support our comrades when they need us the most. She needs
all of us right now. After all she is our family.
Please consider donating to help pay for her treatment.
Vanessa has been on the front lines fighting DAPL and working
security for Oceti Sakowin since September 11. During the action on
November 20 at the Backwater bridge, she was intentionally shot in the eye with a
tear gas canister from 6 feet away. It was aimed directly at her face by
a Morton County officer. She was seen at Bismarck Sanford hospital
and released because she had no insurance. She has a detached retina
and needs surgery to ensure her vision. She is now seeking medical
attention in Fargo. Donations will be used for the cost of the 2 ER
visits, surgery, medications, and recovery.
The PATRIOT Act's Impact on Your Rights - ACLU
The
ACLU’s National Security Project is dedicated to ensuring
that U.S. national security policies and practices are
consistent with the Constitution, civil liberties, and human
rights.
