Pipelines and Other Polluters: Some Bad News, Some Good News
- The Belle Fourche pipeline spill into the Little Missouri River in North Dakota is not yet contained. The drone footage below (4:30 mins) shows miles of pollution.
[video:https://youtu.be/MMEFdAnubLw]
- The company planning the Piñon pipeline, which would have crossed tribal lands in Arizona and New Mexico, has withdrawn its application. This is a big win for activists who have been opposing this construction for quite some time. The company claims that "market forces" caused the change in their position.
- Residents of Corpus Christi, Texas, have been told not to drink their tap water because it "might be contaminated with petroleum-based chemicals."
City officials said in a statement late Wednesday that a "back-flow incident" in an industrial area earlier that day may have caused the chemicals to seep into the water. The statement did not identify the chemicals or the plant from where they originated.
- One portion of the Navajo Nation has voted to divest from Wells Fargo and other banks funding the DAPL.
- The new governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, a billionaire with ties to the oil and gas industry, who took office on December 15, said in his first speech that he fully supports completing the DAPL. Surprise!
- A group called Arkansas Rising has taken some direct action against Diamond Pipeline on the St. Francis River (3:29).
[video:https://youtu.be/9x6nIEpj66E]
- An attorney who is active in the Yaqui people's fight against the Agua Prieta pipeline was kidnapped, threatened, then released, but her husband is still being held hostage.
In November, with the help of [Anabela] Carlon Flores, the community won a temporary moratorium on pipeline construction, successful arguing that the project, undertaken without full, prior, and informed consent of the Yaqui people, is a violation of Yaqui sovereignty, which is also protected under Mexican law. Despite the moratorium, construction activities reportedly continue.
Despite her kidnapping and fears for the life of her partner, Carlon Flores remained defiant, telling reporters on Wednesday, "I think no company and no public servants are interested in respecting Mexican law. What interests them here is to do business, no matter the rights of Mexicans and even less of Indigenous peoples."
- The movement to Defund DAPL is now claiming close to $27 million has been transferred out of banks supporting the pipeline.
- Fracking was just approved to begin in Ohio's only national forest.
"The government's plan is remarkably shortsighted in its failure to consider the full extent of fracking and wastewater disposal that could occur throughout the forest," Wendy Park, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said. "Water quality and wildlife will suffer regardless of where these activities occur."
- Drone footage from December 15 (7 mins) of the fortifications at the Highway 1806 bridge. Mercenaries invading and occupying a sovereign nation. The abandoned car on the Lakotas' side of the bridge is because someone reported the bridge was open and a person tried to drive through and broke down. Also note the line of approximately 20 cop cars, staging for some kind of action on the DAPL side of the bridge -- which is accompanied by disruption in the drone’s signal.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpvPAGDJL_s]
Link to the links (regularly updated): How to Help Standing Rock: Links for Donations, Phone Numbers to Call, Talking Points
Comments
I appreciate your work bring this to our attention
It is encouraging to see the movement grow across the country. There's an effort underway in SW TX.
http://rinf.com/alt-news/newswire/west-texan-protesters-fight-energy-tra...
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-texas-pipeline-idUSKBN13W2IV
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
The National Forest Service, an agency in the Dept of Ag, is
governed under a multiple use mandate. Hiking, hunting, and grazing can coexist along with timber sales.
Fracking is the opposite of multiple use: For one, citizens are excluded from the fracking sites; for another, water is polluted so there is an adverse impact on wildlife and fish and on the people who gain recreation from fishing and hunting. I don't think owners of livestock would want their animals near fracking sites.
It's a perversion of the peoples' public land which is managed by the USFS.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Thanks for keeping us updated on this topic
But what is this?
Why wouldn't all of the Navajo nations and all of the Native American population have already taken their money out of those banks?
Has one pipeline leak ever been noticed from the computers that are supposed to be monitoring the pipelines?
I always read that someone noticed the break and then informs the pipeline company after it had been leaking for days.
And how many counties have polluted drinking water that people aren't aware of? One article I read said that they numbered in the hundreds.
Not one of the people involved in the Flint fiasco has even been charged for not notifying people that their drinking water was contaminated with lead after they had known about it for over a year before they warned the public. Not one person. The Obama justice department did jack shit about holding anyone responsible for that and why the hell didn't they?
Because it affected poor people, but if it had happened to affluent white Americans I'm betting things would have been different.
No drama OBAMA doing what he does best. Nothing.
Best president since FDR, my ass!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
re: the Navajo Nation
My understanding is that the very large Diné nation (which the US government and therefore the tribal gov't calls Navajo) is divided into agencies, chapters, and other subdivisions, just like the United States is.
And just like the United States, different citizens and different municipalities respond in different ways and at different times. Since the vote was 40-0-1, this call to divest is probably the equivalent of getting all the counties in a single state to agree on something.
I know your heart is in the right place, snoopy, but I don't think it's fair to ask why Native people haven't done more or done it faster. Have you ever tried to get your local town or county to do anything like move their bank accounts? It's a really difficult thing, and the reservation system set up by the federal government makes legal changes, including financial ones, particularly challenging.
The indigenous people of this continent are not more responsible to fix this than we are. Until we have accomplished divestment in our local town councils, the states where we live, the places where we work, the pension funds or unions we're associated with -- then we really can't fault anyone else for not doing their part. It's up to all of us!
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
In the late 19th century and early part of the 20th century
the Navajos existed in a state of tolerant anarchy. A person could leave the western part of the reservation, say, and make his way east and expect to have help if it were needed and a place to sleep.
There were farms, orchards, and grazing lands which the people managed locally with respect for each other and with respect for the basic harmony of nature.
Anyway, this is what my friends told me and some, on the west side, were elderly and remembered those times.
I think the federal government, in the person of the BIA, found it hard to deal with no central governing body and managed to get the Navajo people to accept a tribal council. I know there was resistance to Chairman McDonald's agreements (some of
them) with the BIA but they have a tribal government and have had it for decades.
I haven't lived in the region for years, but I bet the chapters still play a decisive role and I bet those who are expert in the ceremonies - which can go on for as long as 9 days - are still accorded the highest respect.
Apparently, many tribes had different systems of governance and the BIA would have wanted to make a one-size-fits-all for the agency's convenience.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
And as you mentioned
In addition to police in riot gear with military equipment there are mercenaries helping law enforcement in our country.
Where is the outrage over that?
I don't remember who it was that responses to my comment in Big Al's essay, but they were right.
The right cheers when protests like OWS, BLM and DAPL are brutally broken up, but the left wants bloodshed when groups such as the Bundys point guns at federal officers and take over a government site.
I think that it was intentional that the government didn't do anything to the Bundys for as long as they did because it further divided this country.
Nothing is going to change until both sides come together to see what our government and big business is doing to our country.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
I'll disagree to this extent: Cliven Bundy signed a Special Use
Permit for grazing with the Bureau of Land Management years ago. The lease had a fee that was well below market value and it's true that if Bundy owned the land, his taxes on it would have been higher than the annual grazing fees to the BLM.
Bundy refused to pay any of it. The BLM tried a half-assed roundup years ago but gave up. The BLM did refer three criminal complaints with the Dept of Justice which is the proper procedure and the DOJ ignored them. When BLM rangers, US Marshalls, and local law enforcement came to serve the court order on Bundy, the well documented armed standoff took place. Instead of picking the time and place to arrest Bundy, the Obama administration called a de facto law enforcement-free zone for this scofflaw. Wherever his cattle went, no officer was allowed to act. This even includes part of a National Park, Lake Mead Natl Recreation Area. Visitors were kept out of this area - many square miles of parkland and BLM land - and precedence was given to Bundy.
The federal government's cowardice emboldened attacks on officers and two Nevada officers were killed. Nobody benefits from failing to enforce the law and allowing the situation to grow completely out of hand endangered many people for no reason and Bundy's cattle seriously degraded the rangelands.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Thanks for the news!
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Hit them in the pocketbook, or at least give them the facts
about eventual downturn...
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
I get queasy every time I see that point being made==
that the Sioux are being asked to accept poison that white people didn't.
It's true, it's racist, and it's right to point out that racism. But it's a talking point that could turn on a dime and become "Those bad white people in Bismarck: refusing the pipeline is white privilege! They shouldn't have done that."
I've seen crazier shit in the age of Obama. Once someone has told you that supporting Social Security is racist because FDR put Japanese-Americans into detention centers, you're ready for anything.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I don't understand your point
If it's "right to point out that racism," then what's the "turn on a dime" that happens? It sounds like you don't like the term "white privilege," and I didn't use that term. However, what do you call what is happening except environmental racism?
It is a fact that the pipeline was originally routed closer to Bismarck. It is a fact that the Bismarck residents -- 92% white, according to the US Census -- said "no" because of the dangers of leaks and other pollution. It is a fact that the DAPL was then routed to the Sioux Nation's treaty land, which they have never ceded to the US government or to any private owner. It is a fact that the Lakota people have objected to the route for years, but their "no" didn't count the way the white people's "no" counted. And it is a fact that mercenaries, supported by the National Guard, many "law enforcement" agencies, and Border Patrol, have the water protectors under 24-hour surveillance (including snipers, according to Bisbonian), have attacked them brutally, and are maintaining a military invasion of their land, including the blockading of a public highway -- all to protect an oil company doing damage to the environment.
I think the Bismarck residents were completely within their rights to reject the DAPL. So are the Sioux.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
I agree with all that.
It is, absolutely, environmental racism. I'm not saying we shouldn't say it. It's just that when we say it, we're vulnerable to co-optation in a way I never saw before the last few years.
The problem is that anti-racist talking points have been getting co-opted, re-tooled, and re-released to do work that benefits the status quo and its adherents, and the notion of "white privilege" has been used, over the past couple of years, in a rather terrible way.
Of course you, and I, and the water protectors too, understand that nobody ought to have their water endangered, no matter what color their skin is, but it would be easy to deploy the talking point slightly adjusted and turn it into a "it's white privilege to oppose pipelines going through your town."
Nobody who actually cares to stop pipelines would do this, but we're living in a world where honest and moral fights get horribly co-opted, mainly via corrupt communications (the mainstream press and online trolls/shills.) Look at what Hillary 2016 did to feminism. Is there any feminism even left? Looks to me like what's left is a jobs and promotion program for upper-middle-class and upper-class women, mainly white ones. They're trying to do the same thing to the movement for Black rights and justice in this country. The only reason they haven't succeeded altogether is that that movement is very strong, very multiple (located in many diff. places, made up of many diff. people)
It's a problem, but it's also a catch-22, because we can't stop saying these things.
Once the establishment co-opted anti-racist discourse, they had us down and in the corner, and we haven't figured out how to fight back against that tactic yet.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I appreciate your explanation
but I don't share your analysis.
When you say to beware of the "co-optation" of "talking points," I hear "self-censorship because some people will twist your words." I absolutely think there is still "feminism," and I continue to call myself a feminist and do my political work from that standpoint.
I also don't agree that the "establishment" has "co-opted anti-racist discourse." I will continue to call out racism and all the other bigotries, both institutional and individual, and what people do with that information is out of my control. I will not be silenced out of fear of how certain people and institutions will respond.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
Sure. I expect most people will.
I probably will too.
But until/unless we come up with a countermeasure to their co-optation, they'll keep pwning us. Since they started calling us racist for opposing Obama's drone strikes, new wars, mass warrantless surveillance, austerity measures, etc., they've had us on the run. They've come pretty close to destroying the anti-war movement. They've seriously damaged the alliance between left-wing white people and Black people, and have redefined racism to exclude racist economics--in fact now, they've wedded anti-racism to an ugly predator capitalism that actually hurts the hell out of Black people (like I said above, somebody once told me I was racist for supporting Social Security). As for feminism, I became a feminist when I was about 14. If I were 14 today, I would not become a feminist. Why should I, when the most circulated images of feminism are Madeleine Albright telling women they have a place in hell if they don't support Hillary? Or when Gloria Steinem uses her TV time to say that young women support Bernie because "that's where the boys are?"
You and I have a history with feminism--we've seen other versions of it than this. Who in the public eye is representing a different feminism than the one we just saw paraded around as part of Hillary 2016?
The establishment is laying waste to cultural memory, and also to the dictionary. Their propaganda machine controls most of what people see. One of the other reasons NODAPL is so important is that it puts something different into the camera eye. Very little resistance and very little dissent manages to make it there, even with the Internet to help us.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver