1. Send money. The Oceti Sakowin camp has been really stretched to the limit, first with the influx of veterans and other folks last weekend, and now dealing with the intense weather. Delivery trucks are having a hard time getting through, so donations of money are the best right now.
The full phrase is girding your loins with truth and putting on a breastplate of righteousness before going into battle for a just cause. That sounds like good advice to me; we're going to be standing in the full brunt of a storm of truthiness in the near future as TPTB and media elites 'splain to all the Little People why we can't have nice things like healthcare and retirement with dignity.
For pete f'ing sake! Must the Bernie wing fight neoliberal smears for eternity?
So I was watching a Standing Rock news TV program on CBC in Canada one night, and called a native buddy to get his take on it. He was appalled at what was happening, and knowing that I love Jackson Browne mentioned that he and Bonnie Raitt were playing at the event in support of the cause. Now, I was already planning on going to support the cause, but that cinched the deal.
The events of the 20th of November convinced me that I was going to go up to Standing Rock, and join the Water Protectors for a few days, at least. As I started getting prepared, Wesley Clark Jr. announced the "Veterans Stand With Standing Rock" mission, and it seemed like a good way for me to go up there. Unfortunately, it overlapped with my work schedule, but I managed to move a trip back, and have barely enough time to go up there with them, and back.
I'm sure you have heard about the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland by now.
Thirty-six people dead. At least three of the victims were transgender.
Cash Askew, 22, of Oakland, was part of the band Them Are Us Too. Askew recently told journalist Beth Winegarner, "As a young teenager, I was definitely attracted to goth and new wave in part because of the androgyny, and that aesthetic gave me a way to explore my gender expression before I could even come to terms with being transgender."
“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”
- W.B. Yeats
French president Francois Hollande will not seek re-election in 2017, mostly due to his historic unpopularity.
His political failure strongly resembles the demise of the Democrats.
Trump, the know-nothing victor
Once again a longish article that I suggest reading completely, a few out-takes
Less than 200 miles away from Standing Rock, another pipeline has broken and is dumping oil into someone's water (my bold in quote below)
A leak from a six-inch pipeline prompted the shutdown. The 783-mile pipeline transports crude oil in the Williston Basin of western North Dakota and eastern Montana, according to the company website.
It is not the first time the Bell Fourche Pipeline has had a spill.
According to records from US Department of Transportation, the company has had 10 reported spills over the past five years. Those spills accounted for the loss of nearly 5,000 barrels of oil and caused $2.26 million in property damage.
