Update from Standing Rock, October 28 / Links added

NoDAPL 3.10.27.16.JPG

UPDATED 12n PDT: A first-person account of being arrested yesterday. See the number that the cops scrawled on her arm. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cv4FyN6UAAEfxaD.jpg

Plus, there are reports coming out that the cops are still surrounding the water protectors. Here's a link to a brief video that shows some burned-out cars; it's a war zone. https://www.facebook.com/IndigenousLifeMovement/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED&fref=nf

**original post starts below**
Here's the statement from the Sacred Stone camp at Standing Rock about yesterday's police attack. All of the frontline camps were destroyed by the state-sanctioned thugs.

"In addition to pepper spray and percussion grenades, shotguns were fired into the crowd with less lethal ammunition and a sound cannon was used (see images below). At least one person was tased and the barbed hook lodged in his face, just outside his eye. Another was hit in the face by a rubber bullet."

http://sacredstonecamp.org/blog/2016/10/28/police-from-5-states-escalate...

If you're from one of the states that has sent cops or sheriffs to ND to "help," you can contact your local authorities and put pressure on them to pull their troops back home. At least one municipality has already done that, and it would ease the situation if there were fewer "supporting" cops. Notice in the next quotation from the Standing Rock statement who is responsible for passing the law that allows cops to cross jurisdiction.

"Law enforcement from at least five states (North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, Nebraska) were present today through EMAC, the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. This law was passed by the Bill Clinton administration and allows states to share law enforcement forces during emergencies. It is intended for natural disasters and has only been used twice for protests; once in the summer of 2015 during the demonstrations in Baltimore and here on the Standing Rock Reservation. Over 100 were arrested today in total."

It's important to remember that agents of the imperialist United States have always mistreated the indigenous people. This is not new behavior, just like the treatment of black folks in this country is not new behavior. It's just that those of us not directly affected are now having the chance to see it in real time. Please don't stop speaking out and passing along the information.

UPDATED 9:30am PDT: To donate to the legal defense fund for the more than 100 people arrested yesterday, https://www.generosity.com/fundraising/red-warrior-camp-legal-fund-nodapl

For a timeline with video and photos, http://www.unicornriot.ninja/?p=10476. Their reporters have already been arrested several times, and you can donate to them too.

@ruthhhopkins is a very reliable source, imo. She confirms that one horse was killed by cops and others were wounded. She also says that the son of Russell Means, Nataannii, was among those arrested yesterday. So far, no bail for any of the arrestees.

Video from Myron Dewey, one of the frontline media people at Standing Rock: https://www.facebook.com/myron.dewey1/posts/10104033408858279

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Steven D's picture

I don't recall anything like this happening to the heavily armed protestors in Oregon who took over a National Wildlife refuge building. For days they held law enforcement at bay, threatened and intimidated the local sheriff, and oh by the way were just acquitted of charges of conspiracy and unlawful occupation and firearms possession on federal property by an all white jury.

I wonder why?

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

lunachickie's picture

and what kind of bullshit is that?

I applaud our posters here for coming together and supporting these folks. They need us, badly. I would sure like to do more to help, and will do what I can. Meantime, I've been all over the socials with it, to get the word out there.

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Alphalop's picture

after all, they were not slowing down corporate profits, just terrorizing the residents of a small community. That's quite acceptable under the new normal.

Actually, on second thought it does surprise me that the OreGoons got off lightly for terrorizing the community, that's the feds job lately it seems and we all know how they hate competition...

You think shit is bad under Obama? Wait until Hillary...

We couldn't call Obama out for his shit for 8 years because that would make us racist and we wont be able to criticize Clinton without being called misogynists.

We need a white man back in office just so we can safely go back to calling them out without being attacked by "Our own side".

How screwed we are....

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

solublefish's picture

does not lie in criticizing the FBI for their treatment of the Malheur group, but in insisting they treat ALL persons in the US with the same degree of restraint and respect.

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pswaterspirit's picture

There is a huge difference the way Oregon does business and the way North Dakota does. I have spent some time in North Dakota. My impression was that the government there would like nothing more than to kill them all and take their land. Oregon is a different bird all together. Note what states cops are "helping out" mainly other states who have similar abusive relationships with their tribes.

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BrutallyHonest's picture

I think its time that we fought back and took over our police station and all of the equipment inside. This is how I think we can fight back and win for the Black Lives matters movement too. Imagine using the polices own badges and equipment against the corporate elite, locking them inside the jails and arresting corrupt politicians.

One can dream

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Alphalop's picture

the only downside is that the reaction from authorities is going to be swift, massive and hyper-violent.

It's not going to happen until the people are so fed up that they start finding a violent option less and less repellent, an attitude that I can see changing more and more quickly.

These things have a tendency to accelerate and spiral out of control quite quickly once the wrong fuse is lit.

This situation in SD may be that spark, but if not it, something else will be because TPTB have made it apparent that they have no intention of slowing down the fleecing of the sheep. The problem with doing that that they overlook is that some magical process occurs when you sheer enough sheep, some of them transform into lions.

The number of lions is growing.

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

earthling1's picture

is really the only option left to us.
We can't fight them, we are out gunned. We can't protest, they will beat and shoot us. We can't speak out through the media and be heard. The internet is our last bastion of communication, subject to disappearing in a heartbeat. Whats next?
General strike. Stay in our homes. Make them break down every front door to beat, maim, or kill us.
INDEPENDENCE DAY 2017!

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Wink's picture

Why more of us in that neck of the woods aren't "occupying" Dakota is a good question. And, I know none of us wishes to be shot at, killed, or simply jailed for a week or two, but that's where we are. That's where we are. That's what it's going to take to end this horse$h!t.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

PriceRip's picture

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TheOtherMaven's picture

and the Power Elite are too stupid and greedy to know it.

S/he who dies last with the most toys on a pile of waste byproduct, choking on polluted unbreathable air - is still dead.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Lily O Lady's picture

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

There will be convictions at Standing Rock even though the Malheur Wildlife Refuge Rustlers walked away scot-free. The differences begin with the racial makeup of the Malheur Rustlers versus the Lakota defenders of Standing Rock, and ends with the fact that Malheur makes no profits for corporate pirates.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

Lily O Lady's picture

are all-in to nip this in the bud. They don't want it to spread.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

They only went after White FEMALE journalists: Deia Schlosberg and Amy Goodman, with an honorary nod to Shailene Woodley.

Chicken-shit militarized police afraid to take on the men?

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

thanatokephaloides's picture

Malheur makes no profits for corporate pirates.

Monsieur ou Madame, I must respectfully request that you cease and desist from your insult of honest Brethren of the Coast like myself by likening us to the scurvy-ridden bilge dogs who would stoop so low as to persecute Indians for their defense of their own land and water! Merci beaucoup!

Cordialement,

Captain Jean Laffite

/snarque

Wink

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Meteor Man's picture

I'm certain that Hillary has been asked by CNN to comment on yesterday's events and will be issuing a statement in support of one side or the other. Right?

The M$M is obviously gonna be all over this story with their typical bulldog persistence at speaking truth to power. Right? Joe Scarborough and Chris Matthews will leave no stone unturned getting a statement from both presidential campaigns. Right?

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Alphalop's picture

“It's important that on the ground in North Dakota, everyone respects demonstrators' rights to protest peacefully, and workers' rights to do their jobs safely,”

Her statement means nothing and takes no sides.

She has to maintain her public and private positions on things like these. Can't risk upsetting her corporate overlords by siding with the peons.

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

Mark from Queens's picture

Yet another clear sign confirming her slithery, transparent conscience.

Forced to respond, which makes her angry because it's another opportunity for the public to see through to her rotten core, she spits up the most insulting, equivocating nothingspeak, so typical and the domain of corporate lawyers everywhere and the reason most people hate and distrust both politicians and lawyers. She is despicable. A vindictive dictator-in-waiting for sure, as economist Michael Hudson said in a brilliant interview on what her presidency would mean for the 99%, Wall St and the world.

Common Dreams: "'What a Crock': Clinton Breaks DAPL Silence With Statement That Says 'Literally Nothing'"

"What a crock," said Ruth Hopkins, a Dakota-Lakota Sioux writer for Indian Country Today Media Network.

"Hillary Clinton managed to make a statement about the Dakota Pipeline that literally says nothing. Literally," 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben tweeted in response.

"Kind of a BS statement by the Clinton camp on #NoDAPL, frankly," wrote MSNBC host Joy Reid. "The outrage taking place out there cries out for outrage."

Others noted that the statement "is the most Clinton thing of all times," as Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting journalist Adam Johnson put it.

In a lengthy Twitter thread, anonymous commentator @ActualFlatticus breaks down what they say is the campaign's "triangulation" of the protest.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Lily O Lady's picture

chuckling!

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

And I'm not Clintoning you either.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

I would love to see a public retraction, but I'm not holding my breath.

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“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024

Mark from Queens's picture

McKibben all but says so, Bernie seems more fired up than usual too, Cenk is starting to not buy things, etc. I'd say there's many more too, indicative of the tepid, cautious support she blackmailed from them with "TRUMP FEAR 24/7!!"

Those extremely, almost laughably, high distrust numbers she's earned are no joke.

It's an election of Extreme Extortion and Blackmail.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Mark from Queens's picture

More unhappy dissent brewing.

at Truthdig, "Filmmaker-Activist Josh Fox on Pipeline Standoff: ‘Where the Fuck Is Hillary Clinton Right Now?’"

Remarking that “we all want to think that we would be on the right side” of history and that, for example, “if we were in Selma, we all would have marched with King,” Fox positioned Clinton squarely “on the wrong side of history right now” for maintaining a conspicuous silence about the DAPL battle.

“You cannot stand by when a racist occupying force that is run by the government of a rogue state is operating as an arm of the oil and gas industry, is attacking natives, is attacking protesters, is attacking people and torturing them in the ways that we saw in the Iraq War,” Fox said. “It’s unacceptable.”

Fox was equally unsparing about Clinton’s environmental credentials. “Hillary Clinton is not an environmentalist,” he said. “Hillary Clinton is not adequate on climate change. And right now, she’s standing by while human rights abuses are unfolding in America where she’s running for president.”

When the Civll Rights movement was about voting rights, people got beaten, arrested and jailed.

When the Civil Rights movement challenged the malice of "the triple evil of militarism, racism and capitalism," Martin Luther King was assassinated.

“What good is having the right to sit at a lunch counter if you can't afford to buy a hamburger?”
MLK

The Neoliberal pestilence at TOP love to talk about Voting Rights all day long. They don't much like talking about economic inequality.

Just as Hillary is fine walking with Civil Rights leaders commemorating their struggles but not with King's admonishment of challenging the economic system that holds them down. When it comes to chiding the oil companies calling the shots to beat and terrorize protesters the moneyed interest have a certain way of telling her in no uncertain terms to back off.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

solublefish's picture

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Wink's picture

to this b.s. shows just how smart he is. I'm not a big fan of the Cenk show, whatever they call it, but when "journalists" like Cenk get swindled... well, it's why I stopped watching the Sunday Wonk shows years ago. It became painfully obvious that that sad bunch knew jack about much of anything.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Citizen Of Earth's picture

would be more Hellery's style. And not a Remembrance of the dead, but a big flag waving Celebration for the hero soldiers with the courage to mow down 150 Lakota men, women and children.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

k9disc's picture

...need to find a path forward that serves the broadest public interest.
...

vs the narrow interests of Native Americans.

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Alphalop's picture

like the rest of us? - HRC

HRC should be an acronym for Highly Revolting Corruption from here on out...

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

Lily O Lady's picture

water every time. Mankind lived millions of years without oil. We wouldn't make it a week without water. TPTB just refuse to get this.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

simply swept the Natives aside, as if they were of no account. There's no need for her to say anything meaningful about that. It's just business as usual. As long as big money keeps getting pumped into the right bank accounts, Hillary will remain unconcerned.

Attention must be shifted away from this little dust-up, to more important matters such as the Russians and Trump. Hillary is a progressive, and these demonstrators are just getting in the way of progress. If they don't want to help make America even more exceptional than it already is, fuck em.

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native

Lily O Lady's picture

Democratic primary. /s

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

civil contempt of court over the, then, ongoing accounting scandal that cheated American Indians out of billions of dollars. Norton refused to present an accurate accounting of the money collected. Bill Clinton fought any attempts at accurate accounting and payment of royalties and W Bush continued the stonewall.

That the federal government took native land and parceled it out in allotments was bad enough, but Interior than turned around, leased some of the lands for timbering, mining, petro-extraction, etc, and refused to either pay the money due or even account for the money Interior accepted "on behalf" of the Indians.

This is just one example, among the way-too-many, of the continuing war on American Indians and their culture(s).

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

the whole point, I thought was that the job the workers were doing shouldn't be done

and workers' rights to do their jobs safely,”

And as a former Secretary of State, shouldn't she know about the 1851 treaty?

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and deflect... It's typical Clinton bullshit. Workers' rights my ass.

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native

solublefish's picture

and of her Party, as currently constituted. Translation: "we respect the right of protest as long as it does not interfere with PROFITS". She masks that by pretending egalitarian concern for "workers' rights", and so she sounds very fair when in fact she is intent not only on violating the rights of Native Americans but those of all of us as she knowingly facilitates the destruction of the ecosystem on which we all depend.

The rights of the workers and those of the protestors here are not remotely comparable. No worker - or individual or corporation - has a "right" to engage in any behavior that will destroy the rights of millions. Period. What exactly is hard to understand about that?

The people gathered right now in ND are doing a great service for all humanity, not merely for themselves. My heart is in Standing Rock; and my body would be there too if my family and I could stand the economic hardship (and I begin to wonder if that is any excuse). "Mercy, mercy me...What about this overcrowded land/how much more abuse from man can she stand?"

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Big Al's picture

enforcing the ruling elite's plans? Turning the soldiers was significant during the Vietnam war and had an impact. Maybe an open letter signed by thousands to the North Dakota cops and national guard, whoever they had out there. Maybe start doing that to every cop station in the country, start a shaming project and keep it going. Tell them we know what they're doing, whose side they're on.

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lunachickie's picture

and have often thought about that. It's a hard pushback on the kind of groupthink they get in training, but I can't think of a more worthwhile PEACEFUL way to try and reach them.

Where to start, though? I'm guessing initial legwork of getting precinct names/addresses would be the hardest part, but I'm really good at hunting down such tedious details...

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Big Al's picture

in something like that. I was thinking about trying to draft an open letter, something to work from to prepare a message. I might give it a shot.

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Meteor Man's picture

Here you go:

On Aug. 27, Black Lives Matter activists from Minneapolis and Toronto traveled to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, which straddles North and South Dakota, to support indigenous tribes protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). On Sept. 2, BLM’s national chapter released a statement expressing its solidarity with #NoDAPL protesters. And now, members of New York City’s most active BLM groups plan on visiting Standing Rock this week to prevent the proposed 1,172-mile, four-state oil pipeline from being built on Native treaty lands.

https://www.google.com/amp/fusion.net/story/346460/black-lives-matter-fi...

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

solublefish's picture

I have been hoping that would happen; and it's about damn time. They both fight for Justice - for all of us - and against the same enemies - the proximate enemy of the police, and the ultimate enemy of corporate liberalism (or whatever is your term of preference).

Power to the People. Time to resurrect that slogan, 50 years after it was first intoned by the BPP.

Black and brown and red fighting side by side for right against wrong. Where are the white people at? There are a hundred Native American flags flying at Standing Rock. Where are the hundred peace, justice, and environmental groups? They should ALL be there.

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Alphalop's picture

if they have kids or families send them post cards with pictures of the victims of the officers that were assigned to the scene to every one of their families saying, "Does it make you proud that your daddy/mommy supports this?".

Dozens or hundreds of them every day, from people all around the nation.

Maybe take up collections for Billboards and start a "Violent cop of the month" campaign where we put pictures of the officer and his victim up in various areas, including their home jurisdiction, but also nationally.

This would make other cops that are bullies or have violent tendencies maybe think twice. A large portion of those that enter law enforcement do so because they crave respect. Having your name tarnished publicly in front of the whole community that you both live in AND work in is a good way to start getting them to comply with US for once.

We need to make those that think, "To protect and serve" only applies to themselves and the 1% think again.

I don't like having to think of tactics like this, but I am literally grasping at straws trying to find some, ANY for that matter, non-violent solution to these problems and the media sure isn't going to show these things, that's for sure.

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

Big Al's picture

Ya, it sucks having to do this kind of thing but I suppose we can't expect the revolution to be comfortable. We are at the point of grasping for straws.

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blazinAZ's picture

As I mention in the OP, putting pressure on the out-of-state cops and sheriffs is one tactic that is being used. Hennepin County is getting deluged with people telling them to pull their troops back.

Identifying individual officers is being challenging because their faces are either covered or behind their riot masks and they're not wearing badges or name tags. When you watch the vids, you can hear the water protectors repeatedly asking for them to identify themselves -- which are ignored, of course.

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

TheOtherMaven's picture

until the time comes when the opposition is too strong to crush.

It's time to use Her "Stronger Together" motto against Her and against the Power Elite. There are many times more of Us than there are of Them, and if enough of Us can stand together....

That's really our only hope now.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Citizen Of Earth's picture

Trigger warning. I will make a moral person mad.

Here's the youtube link to this same video for those that prefer.
https://youtu.be/aVXejqh-Zuk

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Alphalop's picture

the street in violent response.

I am not a violent man, but watching this video I couldn't help but think, "I can totally see why someone witnessing this would grab a rifle and start firing into the police lines."

Make no mistake, this shit keeps happening and that will start to happen, then the escalation from both sides will be near unstoppable. These things take on a momentum of their own after a while.

Hopeless, desperate people often lash out with violence when they feel they have no other options open to them and even less to lose, and if violence is being used against them they do have a legitimate argument for their counter-violence.

We are heading full speed towards a brick wall and all of us that keep trying to change direction or pry their feet of the pedal are getting brutalized for it.

It's gonna be bad is my prognostication.

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

Big Al's picture

Those fuckers. That is hard to watch for me.

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Alphalop's picture

violent turn I know what my role will likely be that of a counter-sniper.

My back is gimped, and I can't run or hump gear anymore like I used to, but I am a pretty damn good shot with Model 700 Win Mag.

The thought that it may come to that, at my age and condition is incredibly distressing, I only ever had to fire on someone once, and it wasn't a good experience at all, but if it comes down to a fight I know it won't be in me to sit idle and let others do the dying for my benefit.

I doubt many of these cops will be showing up though if it does take that turn. Bullies never like to fight someone that fights back.

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

HoosierDeb's picture

a tipping point. I thought I had reached my peak of anger over the Dem primaries. Watching what's unfolding at Standing Rock is making me aware that I have a whole 'nother level of fury... and it scares me shitless that I'm not sure how or if I want to control it.

I'm a frumpy, almost sixty year old white lady who had a stroke 4 months ago. Yet, I'm about a half a heartbeat away from jumping in my car and heading west. Hubby would kill me, but even that's growing less of an obstacle. In the meantime, I'm waiting on a call back from the local cop who sent 'troops' to 'help' in ND. Am betting he either dodges the call or has a flunky armed with the corporate talking points.

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Despair is NOT an option!

Mark from Queens's picture

The more I think about the events at Standing Rock the more I realize this is the true and real antidote to the super-depressing zombie reality tv 2016 election fraud. It's the truest, most burning and alive reality of all our grievances coalescing at once, contrasted with the stultifying Disneyfied Stepford candidacy of HRC.

The relentless, merciless grinder of Neoliberal corporate capitalism is on full display in Standing Rock, literally bulldozing over people's land, beating and arresting peaceful protesters, with the full fury of armed soldiers of the state, whose puppet strings are naturally, as they always have been and are now, being pulled by the corporations and oligarchs who continue to call the shots in all of these instances - over the most basic of all human rights, of access to clean water, which without no one can live. It's put the brazen greed of capitalism on trial for the whole world to see. The cops and National Guard are part of the exhibit, dutifully doing their jobs with their narrow-minds, because they are the pawns of the oligarchy, unwittingly there to protect rich people and their "property."

I feel the same way as you. I felt this way when Ferguson was going down too. I was able to get out in the streets often with Occupy Wall St, and then with #BlackLivesMatter. It changed my life.

Thanks for making those calls to your local police. They need to hear from folks outside of their bubble. The revolution will come, I believe, when those "enforcers" being to see how they're being used, have their consciences tell them they can not beat these people who are fighting for what is principally right and decide to lay down their arms, or best case, protect the protesters and their cause.

Please take care of yourself. We need your fire. It's inspiring!

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Citizen Of Earth's picture

the cops are up against a Prayer Line of People Singing Protest Songs. /s

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

blazinAZ's picture

No politician or other authority ever calls for nonviolence from the cops. Even though they are always the instigators of the violence.

I become enraged

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

It needs to go global. Notice how the storm troopers have all got American flag patches displayed prominently on their jackets? Way to promote America, guys! I pledge allegiance.... to what, this?? The real patriots here are brave, unarmed Native Americans, not the bullies with guns and jackboots and flags. Perhaps the Standing Rock stand-off can serve as an opening battle in the long war to come - the war to protect the planet from those who would own and desecrate it.

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native

Citizen Of Earth's picture

USA ,USA.
If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

I don't think this is exactly what God had in mind.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

that people have for all their relations. The only thing corporatists love is the bottom line.

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native

gendjinn's picture

There are more of us than them. We can be in more places than they can. We can stretch them to breaking. We can take shifts and they are too few to do so. We can break them.

This is where things are heading if not to outright revolution in the streets.

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Steven D's picture

things can go two ways: peaceful revolution or fascism.

Which way do you think the mega-corporation executives are going to select?

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Mark from Queens's picture

illuminates this quite clearly.

And yes, lots of the reporting during the 1930's about the state of mind of working folks makes your point, that the country indeed was on the verge of serious Revolution (i.e. farmer revolts in the Midwest, lining the highways with shotguns to prevent trucks from passing during a boycott, judges being taken out of courthouses in small town America to be tarred and feathered for foreclosing on their properties to big East Coast bankers) because of the Greet Depression.

Police forces, National Guard and the Justice system have always been and are all still pawns of the oligarchy. We've seen it over and over again, from the Ludlow Massacre in Colorado when the NG was brought at at the behest of the Governor who was given his orders from the mine owner Rockefeller, to the heinous scenes on our city and town streets from Zuccotti Park to Ferguson with the militarization of cops beating, arresting and threatening with all manner of second hand toys they collect from the Military Industrial Complex when the Army are through playing in the desert sands with them.

Sheldon Woolin's theory of Inverted Totalitarianism I think sums up this new fascism perfectly, as it not being obvious demagogic Fascism but the equally pernicious, if not more, because comparitively seems so innocuous on the surface. Chris Hedges interviewed him and wrote the piece:

Inverted totalitarianism is different from classical forms of totalitarianism. It does not find its expression in a demagogue or charismatic leader but in the faceless anonymity of the corporate state. Our inverted totalitarianism pays outward fealty to the facade of electoral politics, the Constitution, civil liberties, freedom of the press, the independence of the judiciary, and the iconography, traditions and language of American patriotism, but it has effectively seized all of the mechanisms of power to render the citizen impotent.

“Unlike the Nazis, who made life uncertain for the wealthy and privileged while providing social programs for the working class and poor, inverted totalitarianism exploits the poor, reducing or weakening health programs and social services, regimenting mass education for an insecure workforce threatened by the importation of low-wage workers,” Wolin writes. “Employment in a high-tech, volatile, and globalized economy is normally as precarious as during an old-fashioned depression. The result is that citizenship, or what remains of it, is practiced amidst a continuing state of worry. Hobbes had it right: when citizens are insecure and at the same time driven by competitive aspirations, they yearn for political stability rather than civic engagement, protection rather than political involvement.” (snip)

He writes, “Downsizing, reorganization, bubbles bursting, unions busted, quickly outdated skills, and transfer of jobs abroad create not just fear but an economy of fear, a system of control whose power feeds on uncertainty, yet a system that, according to its analysts, is eminently rational.”

Inverted totalitarianism also “perpetuates politics all the time,” Wolin said when we spoke, “but a politics that is not political.” The endless and extravagant election cycles, he said, are an example of politics without politics.

“Instead of participating in power,” he writes, “the virtual citizen is invited to have ‘opinions’: measurable responses to questions predesigned to elicit them.”

Political campaigns rarely discuss substantive issues. They center on manufactured political personalities, empty rhetoric, sophisticated public relations, slick advertising, propaganda and the constant use of focus groups and opinion polls to loop back to voters what they want to hear. Money has effectively replaced the vote. Every current presidential candidate—including Bernie Sanders—understands, to use Wolin’s words, that “the subject of empire is taboo in electoral debates.” The citizen is irrelevant. He or she is nothing more than a spectator, allowed to vote and then forgotten once the carnival of elections ends and corporations and their lobbyists get back to the business of ruling.

“If the main purpose of elections is to serve up pliant legislators for lobbyists to shape, such a system deserves to be called ‘misrepresentative or clientry government,’ ” Wolin writes. “It is, at one and the same time, a powerful contributing factor to the depoliticization of the citizenry, as well as reason for characterizing the system as one of antidemocracy.”

The result, he writes, is that the public is “denied the use of state power.” Wolin deplores the trivialization of political discourse, a tactic used to leave the public fragmented, antagonistic and emotionally charged while leaving corporate power and empire unchallenged.

“Cultural wars might seem an indication of strong political involvements,” he writes. “Actually they are a substitute. The notoriety they receive from the media and from politicians eager to take firm stands on nonsubstantive issues serves to distract attention and contribute to a cant politics of the inconsequential.”

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

blazinAZ's picture

every time someone says "what happened?" I try to remind them that it has always been this way.

the origin of policing in USA is slave patrols and strike breakers. Always protecting rich people's "property" (including people) and never "protecting" the rest of us.

Thx, Mark

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

ggersh's picture

"Which way do you think the mega-corporation executives are going to select?"

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

gendjinn's picture

They never stopped choosing fascism. United Fruit, Coke and so forth.

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SparkyGump's picture

This situation obviously needs the "Justice" Department to step in and peaceably resolve this conflict. Oh right, this doesn't involve white right wing extremists so go get your batons, boys! It's skull crackin time. Disgusting.

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The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.

Raggedy Ann's picture

Just look over there next to the pipeline company. Isn't that him I see yucking it up with the fellas?

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Alphalop's picture

of each other, lol!

"Great Minds" and all that... Wink

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

Raggedy Ann's picture

On another note, I want to thank you for an essay you wrote some time back in answer to people trying to shame you for voting third party. I used some of your words to respond to a local political blog where an attorney was trying to shame people out of voting third party. The blog is not one where you can post comments - one must email the blog's author with your comments and he used mine, so many thanks!

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Alphalop's picture

response and his initial article.

Essay? Smile

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

Raggedy Ann's picture

sorry - just saw this and am on my iPad so can't link (technology challenged). If you google New Mexico Politics with Joe Monahan, read Thursday and Friday. You'll read it there. Smile

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Alphalop's picture

the pipelines construction at some fancy, expensive restaurant.

All of our politicians have made it common knowledge who their real constituents are, and it ain't those poors in Dakota (or anywhere else for that matter).

Those people need to be shown their place...

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

Obama Holds Private Meeting As Cops Mass Near NoDAPL Front Lines Read

While Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier sat down with President Barack Obama at a private roundtable in Los Angeles on Tuesday, October 25, Morton County, N.D. Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier was calling in police reinforcements from six states to enforce Energy Transfer Partners’ demands that “trespassers” be removed from the path of the pipeline.

Authorities implied they may forcibly remove the water protectors from the new camp, which is on land recently purchased by Dakota Access LLC, the subsidiary that is building the pipeline.

"We have the resources. We could go down there at any time," Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney said, according to the Associated Press. "We're trying not to."

Lotta good it did the Lakota.

Somewhere, the ghosts of William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, and George Custer are all clinking glasses.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

TheOtherMaven's picture

Never, ever forget that he could have put a stop to the Trail of Tears - and he did nothing. The worst of it went down under Van Buren, not Jackson.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

solublefish's picture

Because of course, the Indian Removal policy of the USG (and states) in the South in the 19th C was aimed at one purpose: to free land for the expansion of slavery westward. Then as now the government was doing the bidding of wealthy elites - acting to protect their privileges at the expense of the rights of actual people and the principles the nation claimed to respect.

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was "Pinkertons again".

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Alphalop's picture

somehow we managed to get stuck footing the bill for the very bastards that are oppressing us in the name of the corporations this time.

They may be evil, but they sure as hell ain't stupid.

A brilliant, if sociopathic, move on the part of the Ubers...

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

Citizen Of Earth's picture

Not one story about it on the CNN.com home page. So suppression by the MSM is successful. Thanks Obama.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

mouselander's picture

Wow! Hillary firmly believes that "all voices should be heard and all views considered in federal infrastructure projects." Truly staggering, the raw gutsiness of this person, the sheer, unvarnished, petal-to-the-metal political courage she demonstrates on virtually every issue. And just compare Secretary Clinton's thoughtful response with that of that spiteful Stein woman, who apparently couldn't think of anything more useful to do than vandalize a tractor.

NAPL_Statement.jpg

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inactive account

blazinAZ's picture

She's a clear and present danger

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

Damnit Janet's picture

then the pigs would coddle them. Just look at Bundy's Terrorists in Oregon. Those fuckers were allowed to take over our wildlife center and destroy fences, cameras and they even had their own fucking armed roadblocks....

The pigs and elites are even going after journalists who report on the protests.

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"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison

lotlizard's picture

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blazinAZ's picture

they are using the same playbook

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

Citizen Of Earth's picture

Sounds like a replay of the Police thugs mayhem from yesterday, now at the Sacred Stone camp.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

Six state militias band together to invade Federally protected land and the President refuses to assert US sovereignty?

I know the Tribes lost their request for an injunction last month, but now that the MRAPs have moved in, challenging the constitutionality of the scope of EMAC enforcement seems like a damn good claim to use in a fresh TRO filing.

If nothing else it would buy them some time.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Citizen Of Earth's picture

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Citizen Of Earth's picture

Solidarity Rally in Minneapolis

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

blazinAZ's picture

Indigenous Environmental Network has a list of ways to help.

https://other98.com/best-ways-support-nodapl-protectors/

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

shaharazade's picture

development. The appearance of thousands of wild buffaloes coming from the hills in standing rock yesterday.

bison2_0.jpg

http://www.whitewolfpack.com/2016/10/givers-of-courage-thousands-of-wild...

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OzoneTom's picture

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lotlizard's picture

“Eywa has ‘herd’ you!”

Or as Obama might put it, “Gaia is in the mix.”

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Bisbonian's picture

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Mark from Queens's picture

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

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