Update from Standing Rock, October 29
The construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline continues at breakneck speed. The company is trying to get the pipeline completed as fast as possible in the hope that it will then be a fait accompli and the water protectors will "go home." But the water protectors are home. Everywhere they look, this is their original land, the Sioux Nation, which has never ceded this property to private ownership, despite what the settlers and the corporations say.
If you didn't move your money during Occupy, now is a good time to do so. Wells Fargo, Citibank, and a lot of other financial institutions are involved with the pipeline. Here's a link with contact info for the 17 banks. http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/how-to-contact-the-17-banks-fund...
Move your money to a local credit union, and then tell the banks why you're no longer their customer (the link also includes a suggested script)
Here are some follow-up videos after Thursday's attacks by the national guard and the cops. The first is a report from some of the medics, who were actively targeted by the police. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQql9pbwKAQ (by Native Momma).
Here is another report that shows the injuries inflicted by the cops. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6ICGE9BOF4 (5:26)
Here's Native Momma with a nighttime report (Thursday night) about the aftermath
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KXLp1tg9B4 (4:15)
Here's another on-the-ground report from Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/holly.young.946/posts/10157635066860333
There is a lot of misinformation going around. No, there weren't thousands of bison or buffalo who magically appeared (though it makes a good story). Some of the horse riders had the lovely and brilliant idea of getting the bison to help, and they herded a few dozen toward the frontline action, but the cops used their helicopter to frighten them away. It did give the people protesting a momentary boost, but resulted in several riders and horses being shot at by sheriffs, and one horse was injured badly enough that it had to be put down.
More lies: The Morton County sheriff has claimed that one Native woman shot at them, but the water protectors say that this is completely untrue, and the sheriff has produced no video of that happening and no weapon has been produced. Earlier, the sheriff had talked about pipe bombs, because he had heard some Native people talking about "carrying the pipe," a ceremonial object. The complete disrespect being shown to Native spirituality and spiritual practices only adds insult to injury. Some people were dragged out of a sweatlodge during Thursday's invasion of one of the camps.
Please check all sources carefully and be aware of what you're reposting. The water protectors need social media and all of us to keep spreading the word, but it needs to be as accurate as we can make it. We know the cops lie. We've seen it numerous times. But we can't afford to spread inaccurate information. (end of lecture)
To donate supplies to Sacred Stone: http://sacredstonecamp.org/supply-list/
To donate to the legal defense fund: https://fundrazr.com/d19fAf
Comments
The sheriffs were shooting at people?
How is that legal?
Here's something about the buffalo. Check out the video.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
How was it legal for the security forces
to let those dogs attack unarmed and defenseless people? It wasn't an there are charges pending I think. I will look for the link.
I'm hearing two different stories about whether they are on private land or their own land.
Then there are the 9 farm owners who are suing because this company used eminent domain to put the pipeline through their land.
MarilynW provided a link to the executive order Bush signed which proves that was an illegal land grab.
Eminent domain is only supposed to be used when it helps a community, not a private company.
You missed the Kelo decision???
SCOTUS ruled 5-4 that what you just described is completely legal.
The especially shameful aspect to this care is the four so-called liberals on the Court (Stevens, Breyer, Souter, Ginsberg) voted in favor of the decision along with "swing" vote Kennedy. This is the only SCOTUS ruling in my memory where I agreed with the conservatives (Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, and Thomas).
So under this ruling, it must be that the authorities are claiming they have the right to defend "private" property from reclamation by its public community former owners.
Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.
In my younger and more carefree days I took that
and the civil forfeiture BS as "heightening the tensions".
I see the tinder everywhere. When half the population would not be able to $400 together in an emergency, the tinder is everywhere and all it needs is the right spark.
But the opposition has a great fire prevention team, funding and donations have this noticeable ability to silence passionate organisations. Have you noticed who went quiet abruptly in the last few months?
I know what you mean
They make it a habit to cut out a small group to abuse. These people are then labeled with whatever unfavorable traits they can make stick that will turn the greater population against them.
We fall for it over and over. I doubt there is anyone that does not have these seeds planted in their head. If people actually went out and checked things out they would find they are no better than those they look down on. We are all to one extent or another spouting ignorance that damages our cause.
Americans are bombarded with messages, some covert some
overt, that have the aim of dividing the class of people who have only their labor to sell to survive.
Hollywood is a leading offender as are the editors and publishers of the media who select the stories to cover and the slant the "news" takes.
I wanted our daughter to grow up in a tv-free house but had to give in when she started school and her classmates would discuss the shows. I've lived for as long as 12 years in places in the SW where no tv signal penetrated and was happy with no tv.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
TV is a tool like fire
It all comes down to what TV you watch. Even then, so long, as you watch with your kids (and yell at the screen like all good parents are supposed
then they get the right messages.
Democracy Now said yesterday horses shot w/rubber bullets
Are they using live rounds?
They're using that sound torture machine too. Awoman was either almost hit or actually was hit in the face with a beanbag round. She was interviewed on Democracy Now yesterday too, but I was at work so not sure about actual contact.
Democracy Now has also done a few stories on the large number of Native Americanas shot and killed by cops just in everyday life. A couple or three were pregnant women. We never, ever hear about this, at least not in the Houston area unless we listen to or watch Democracy Now. So freaking sad!
Oh, almost forgot. On a mainstream music station yesterday, they claimed the Protectors threw molotov cocktails and rocks at cops. Ironically, DN interviewed a Protector who talked about NOT reacting to being provoked by the cops. I know which reporting I believe!
WTF?
"On a mainstream music station yesterday, they claimed the Protectors threw molotov cocktails and rocks at cops."
When and how did radio DJs become so completely f*ing uncool? No soul at all!
After Clinton deregulated the FCC and blew open the floodgates
to corporate conglomerates in the 90's buying up all the radio stations.
Now they're mostly owned by conservative assholes like Clear Channel. The jocks are soulless RW robots. Free form FM radio feels like another lifetime ago.
This is not only a political revolution we're talking about, but a cultural one too. As George Carlin would say, "fuck these people."
"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
I heard thst too
There is a pattern that stretches back to the protests in the 60s but I would guess it was borrowed from the days of union organizing.
They either create violence with hired thugs or they set up a narative claiming violence to first win the sympathy of people who are not directly involved but could tip the scale. Second they are setting up a reason to go violent and end this so they can go home. Suddenly the Portland, OR news is reporting on this but their spin is "violent savages". There had been a call for more folks on the lines. There is safety in numbers.
If I had any actual skill
With this phone I could link you to a native news facebook page that talks about the arrest of a young man posing as a water protector who shot off a gun. He was arrested by BLM police. The truck he was driving was registered to the pipline company.
Omg! Pipeline thug posed as Protector & fired gun
It's like the cop during BLM protest tried to do when he, on video, started pounding on a storefront window - posing as a protester and attempting to incite a riot.
If I had any actual skill
With this phone I could link you to a native news facebook page that talks about the arrest of a young man posing as a water protector who shot off a gun. He was arrested by BLM police. The truck he was driving was registered to the pipline company.
Molotov cocktails
They need to produce video or it didn't happen. The cops lie and lie and lie. Dozens of videos from Native activists show the cops' abusive violence and they also show cops constantly filming the water protectors. If someone actually threw a Molotov cocktail, there would be documentation There is not.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
I expect, when completed
it will be vandalized repeatedly. Not necessarily by the Sioux. Personally, I'd like to see it decorated with a few pig scalps. Sorry, but his pisses me off to the marrow of my bones.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
Open Letter from Bernard to Barack
Those who want to help can find ideas here:
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Police Brutality Video From Thursday
Just reposting this for anyone who hasn't seen the brutal police actions against the Water Protectors. It is all designed to SEND A MESSAGE that protest (in the form of prayer, singing and dancing) will no longer be tolerated in America.
Length 7:06
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
Unless you are a Bundy.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Rioting Cops...
It's time to end this shit...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
If I said what I REALLY think should happen
we'd probably have authorities breaking our door down in a matter of minutes. ('Sup NSA?)
This shit is bananas.
'Sup, NSA? I love it!
I say similar when I talk on the phone, especially about bodily functions, which I purposely talk about just to fill their ears, time, database with poo, so to speak. I've heard that screaming into your phone hurts their bitty, sensitive ears, though I have yet to hear from any of the little scumbags, so I'm not certain.
Hey Obama, this is happening on your watch
And the world is watching this happen.
I hope this comes true one day. It couldn't happen to a more deserving group.
From today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (and Rob Rogers)
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
Drone Video Showing The Entire Scene
From Thursday. Pretty interesting. I gives a good aerial view of the scene. I've only watched the first 5 mins so far.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
thank you, Citizen
The man narrating is Myron Dewey, who is one of the water protectors' main media people. He has been arrested at least once, and an earlier drone of his was stolen by the cops two weeks ago in what sure looked like an illegal search and seizure.
Here's the video of that encounter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQXnX2Qv034
The utter rudeness and disregard on the part of the cops is infuriating. They don't treat him like a human being, let alone like a U.S. citizen with all the rights we supposedly have. He asks repeatedly for their names or badge numbers, asks to see a warrant, asks what crime he has committed, and he is barely acknowledged. The calmness and self-possession Myron displays in the face of the police state is awe-inspiring.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
I heard they established a no fly zone over pipeline
Not sure if it was on Democracy Now or Native News (comes on Pacifica 90.1 KPFT Houston @ 8am, right after Democracy Now & rt before a show hosted by people who get on my nerves so I switch it off after short update for Native News.)
But, it only applies to everyone except the cops. Their drones & choppers are okay. This is so out of hand, and completely outrageous!
Sounds a lot like Syria.
"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"
Of course
Because what we authorize our Gov to do abroad it will always eventually do to us. So argued William Jennings Bryan over a century ago, when the Anti-Imperialist League of which he was a prominent member opposed the US gobbling up the former Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico, Guam, Cuba, and the Philippines.
It's to prevent media choppers...
The optics of it would make the owners look bad...
Not that the media has any real intention of covering this though, so kinda unnecessary.
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
Exactly, in the Dakotas - No Fly Zones FFS! n/t
Same as Occupy. NYPD thugs shut down air space during their raid
of Zuccotti Park, after midnight.
They also shut down the subway going there and cordoned off an area of about 16 city blocks to do their pummeling and destruction of property under their own gaze only. Reporters were beaten and detained attempting to get near the scene, as were a couple of elected officials.
Miraculously, guess who did get in? Who else but Amy Goodman, of course!
I'm on an iPad now so can't look it up as conveniently as with my own computer, but would great if someone posted that video on this thread (it's on YouTube).
"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
Perfect cartoon.
I saw the original, and thought it needed to look something like this.
Also thanks for the link to the text for Wells Fargo. I have been emptying my account, and on Monday I will close it...having opened a Credit Union account already.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Look at how many foreign banks are on the list
I'd like to see
a list of the foreign banks that are investing in literally demolishing Portland OR for the rental/housing hot 'market'. They cut down and ripped up three huge redwoods on our neighborhoods main street to build toxic high end monstrous apartment building down the street. Some of the signs on the construction site's fences list the banks investing in the destruction and building frenzy. Lot's of Shanghai banks are investing in demolishing our city. Sorry to go off topic but this wholesale selling off of America's land, water and resources to multinational investors is occurring at an alarming rate.
Our Democratic city, state government like in ND or Iowa uses eminent domain and all kinds skullduggery including passing this off as environmental to pass off the graft and corruption off as progress and necessary. We should all take to protesting this corporate takeover where ever we find it. Someone did put a a sign when they were cutting down the Redwoods that said Run, Redwoods, Run. It's going to take people putting themselves out there on the line to stop this raping of the earth for profits of the disaster capitalists who literally make a killing for demolishing the planet. Water is life. Trees are life. Humans are life. This is madness that must be stopped.
Redwood murderers are the world's worst imo.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Wow, that link disappeared fast
I tried to follow it but the page seems to have been moved - or removed.
??? Just saw your comment, re clicked on link, still there for
me.
excerpt:
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Greedheads
As I think Hunter S. Thompson used to call them (developers). Shame about the trees. The local people should sue: their property values just dropped.
Thanks for the details, though.
The chinese are divesting from their own country
And investing in the US mostly in high end homes and real estate deals. It tells people I work for that the chinese economy is near collapse.
Liberty and Justice for Oil.
Oligarchy for the rest.
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
Heh.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
From the book mentioned by dakrle yesterday,
"Empire of the Summer Moon" (one of the final chapters. Of course.)
They started out doing it for free, since no one was there that would stop them. Quanah began to form small parties of Comanches to extract at least some payment from them, at below market rates for grazing land, of course. The juxtoposition of the Bundys, STILL grazing their cattle at below market rates, and in areas closed to them that belong to all of us, with the destruction and pollution and outright taking of native land in the Dakotas, STILL, is just infuriating.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
I am related to Quanah Parker via his mom Cynthia Ann
My maternal grandmother found out she was related to Cynthia Ann.
Kidnapped as a child from Ft. Parker, then kidnapped back as an adult, already having married the chief - Quanah's father, and giving birth. She was sadly miserable the last 10 years of her life back in the white man's world.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_Ann_Parker
A good reminder!
This reminds me that Empire of the Summer Moon is on my bookshelf and I really do need to give it a read.
Economic: -9.13, Social: -8.56
An excellent book.
I'd also recommend, for a history closer to the Dakota pipeline site, The Heart of Everything That Is, the biography of Red Cloud and the Lakota efforts to hold onto their land.
Native Americans and environmentalists do not like Trump but...
...Indigenous Youth Occupy Hillary Clinton Campaign Headquarters to Demand She Take Stand on #DAPL
The political revolution continues
For all the good it did them. :(
"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"
I know, they chanted, "Take the letter! Take the letter!"
No one would take the letter. Not the woman at the front desk, not the security guard, no one.
Heard about this too on Democracy Now, but certainly not on MSM.
They did great!
I saw the footage. They got on the media, which was the point. They put HRC on the spot, and that was also the point. And HRC issued a horrifyingly obtuse statement in response, which shows how clearly she prefers the side of corporate profits to the side of the People and the Planet. So the protest action exposed the Empress' 'new clothes' to all sentient people (outside of TOS) who happened to be watching - which was a real coup. How could the action have turned out better than that?
What is wrong with these pictures?
Look at how much armor these cops need to wear when they confront and beat unarmed people.
The video I watched earlier showing cops pepper spraying people and trying to make sure that it goes into their eyes is beyond disgusting.
I didn't believe that the lady shot at the cops 3 times. Why would she risk the criminal charges they would bring against her? My BS meter went off the second I heard that.
And as usual, the silence from Obama speaks volumes. Worthless POS making sure that the banks, oil companies and other corporations get to continue their criminal activities without any consequences.
Look at these chickenshit's expressions while they are attacking this small woman.
Amnesty International is sending people to watch these protests and the police actions.
They have really lost it there on the high frontier...
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
The dems are so busy patting each other
on the back about how great a President Obama has been for natives that they don't notice what's happening at Standing Rock.
If they do notice, they'll shut their eyes and cover their ears.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Well, the lighting is good in the first one
But the composition is marred by the appearance of the photographer to the right of the frame. The second one is nicely composed, but slightly overexposed and blurred....
Oh...you meant the use of militarized violence against nonviolence? Or the brick-headed brutality of the unthinking cops?
I worry about this
I have many friends from several different tribes that are there. There are many ways this could go. A few of them not good. The thought process on display by authorities is frighteningly 19th century but then I knew this is the way of thinking by the government in that area.
As to your cartoon there was an article in the most recent copy of a small Indian newspaper I get regarding an offer by the militias to come to standing rock. The offer was politely declined because weapons of any kind are not allowed. The militias statement was they respect the decision of the people to take this road and will stay away. However they will remain on call should things change.
I think that is a good sign.
Good that any militia would make such an offer; good that they would respect the wishes of the tribes to leave guns at home.
Might have been more accurate ...
... if the "Protester" were drawing-a-bead on the POV.
Certainly if one were a horse.
The Traditional Media Crickets
I saw this on FB and twitter respectively
https://twitter.com/mch7576/status/792512050534633472?s=09
One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.--Tennyson
Laurence O'Donnell on Indians: we've committed "genocide"
I was a pleasantly surprised to hear him speak so forthright about the "genocide" of indigenous people by our government (guess Howard Zinn's books may have been working on him), and how the U.S. was only one of 4 nations who didn't sign UN Treaty protecting indigenous peoples from violence and rights to their land (then finally did). Every now and then he can really turn on the righteous indignation and hit some nerves. Pretty powerful, I thought.
The full clip is on MSNBC, but I couldn't embed that so this is the closest I could find (his segment comes on about 1:50).
"The Whole World Is Watching"
"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