Tag: independence day
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem

Judge Shoots Down Gov. Noem Over Mt. Rushmore Fireworks

Reprinted with permission from American Independent

A federal judge has rejected South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem's attempt to circumvent safety rules and hold a massive Independence Day fireworks show at Mount Rushmore. He said her request amounted to asking for "judicial activism."

"This country could use a good celebration of its foundational principles of democracy, liberty, and equal protection of law," wroteRoberto Lange, the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota.

But, he wrote on Wednesday, it would "be improper judicial activism for this Court to disregard settled law" for him to force the U.S. Parks Service to grant a permit for a July 4, 2021, show, as Noem demanded.

Noem blasted the ruling, again asserting that "The Biden Administration cancelled [sic] South Dakota's Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration on completely arbitrary grounds," and writing, "I am disappointed that the court gave cover to this unlawful action with today's decision." She vowed to appeal, in hopes of having fireworks next year.

The Park Service, part of the Department of the Interior, said in March that it would not grant a fireworks permit this year for South Dakota Department of Tourism for the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

"Potential risks to the park itself and to the health and safety of employees and visitors associated with the fireworks demonstration continue to be a concern and are still being evaluated as a result of the 2020 event," it explained. "In addition, the park's many tribal partners expressly oppose fireworks at the Memorial."

Fireworks had been banned at the national park between 2009 and 2019, due to objections from Native American tribes (on whose sacred lands the monument was built) and concerns about wildfires. In 2020, Donald Trump and his administration ignored those — and coronavirus safety measures — to hold a massive Independence Day fireworks show and political speech at the site.

Noem sued Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in April, demanding a permit and falsely claiming that it was a purely arbitrary decision not to give her one.

"There was no reason given as to why we can't host the fireworks events. It wasn't based on environmental issues, it wasn't based on staffing issues or fire danger issues, it was just because they didn't want us to have it," she told reporters on May 3.

Just weeks before, Noem had declared "dangerous fire conditions" in the state.

Since becoming governor in January 2019, Noem has earned a national reputation for aggressively ignoring public health and safety.

She was one of the only governors who refused to issue any stay-at-home order as the COVID-19 pandemic hit her state in early 2020. As the situation worsened, she was also one of just a handful of governors who refusedto issue any mask requirements. More than 120,000 of her constituents tested positive — nearly 15 percent of the state's population.

In November, she railed against "absolutely false" claims by "some in the media" that her state had the highest number of new coronavirus cases per capita. At the time, her state had the second-highest number of new coronavirus cases per capita.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Mount Rushmore

Trump Delivers Angry, Divisive Speech At Mt. Rushmore Event

Beneath Mount Rushmore on the eve of Independence Day, President Trump addressed his holiday remarks to his narrow base of angry white voters while charging that advocates of racial justice are promoting a "merciless campaign to wipe out our history."

Trump focused on efforts by a few protesters to take down monuments and statues honoring figures who benefited from slavery, including Civil War generals and previous presidents.

"This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore," warned Trump. He said that protesters want to "defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children."

"We will not be terrorized, we will not be demeaned, and we will not be intimidated by bad, evil people," he added. "It will not happen."

Trump also announced plans for an executive order to establish a "National Garden of American Heroes," a park featuring the statues of the "greatest Americans to ever live."

The Mt. Rushmore event had all the trappings of a campaign rally as his fans chanted "Four more years!" Clad in Trump 2020 shirts and MAGA hats, very few wore masks.

Mount Rushmore, Sioux

Sioux Leader Says Trump Not Welcome At Mt. Rushmore

Reprinted with permission frrom Alternet

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visit to Mt. Rushmore National Memorial for a Fourth of July celebration was expected to draw an estimated 7500 people. When Julian Bear Runner, president of the Ogala Sioux Tribe, appeared on MSNBC's The Last Word, he explained to host Lawrence O'Donnell why he believed the president's plans were disrespectful of Native Americans.

"I sent out a letter today to Mr. Trump advising him and stating reasons why he is not permitted to enter the treaty territory at this time due to the lack of consultation with the sovereign leaders of the Great Sioux Nation," Runner noted. "There's been no correspondence from his staff or himself to ever attempt to sit down, diplomatically, with the leaders of the Great Sioux Nation to obtain that permission or to contingently seek a plan on how to go about his Independence Day celebration. Right now, for me, it's very hard for me to remain diplomatic in times like this due to the lack of consultation."

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On July 4, A Message For Patriots

On July 4, A Message For Patriots

Americans will mark this Independence Day with family, food, and fireworks as we always do — and yet for many of us, these celebrations now occur under a shadow of doubt. Not doubt about the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, but the officials sworn to uphold them in Washington, starting with Donald J. Trump.

The most recent Gallup poll reveals a record decline in the number of fellow citizens who say they feel proud of our country, a dispiriting statistic that can only be attributed to the inimical performance of Trump as he dismantles our traditions, violates our laws, disdains our customs, divides us from each other and our allies, and shames us before the world.

Trump’s ignorance of constitutional principles is so glaring that former judge Andrew Napolitano, the very conservative senior legal analyst on Fox News, has denounced his authoritarian thrust. His government of kleptocrats and nepotistic appointments more closely resembles a corrupt 18th century court than a modern democratic government. His foreign policy, destructive of American principles, alliances, and prestige, often appears to serve the interests of a hostile foreign power rather than our own.

And perhaps worst of all, along with his sons and political associates, he has promoted the very worst elements in American politics: the white nationalists, neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, and every category of bigot, all echoing “Make America Great Again.” Of course neither Trump nor his lackeys on the far right can fulfill that promise (although their immediate departure from public life would help).

Everyone who has studied history knows that right-wing extremists always insist on posing as supreme patriots — even when they are consciously committing treason. During the years that preceded our entry into World War II, the Nazi agents working to foster hatred and protect Hitler were constantly parading around with swastikas and American flags. We saw the same revolting spectacle last year in Charlottesville, Virginia, when neo-Nazi gangs defiled the flag again.

Such fascist elements are not alone in seeking to monopolize the symbols of patriotism.  Many Republican“conservatives”– who too often enable the most unsavory and bigoted figures in their party — will likewise claim to be the only true patriots.

So every Fourth of July, in memory of my veteran father, I remind myself why that assertion rings so hollow.

We don’t need to imitate the exclusionary style of the right; we need only insist that liberals and progressives are equally entitled to share in the nation’s heritage — and far more entitled than Trump’s friends on the far right. In honor of this national holiday, the place to begin this argument is at the official beginning, with the first Independence Day.

While right and left were not yet the categories that defined politics back then, there can be little doubt that freethinking radicals as well as landed elites were behind the Revolution, and especially the writing of the Declaration of Independence. More than a few, notably Thomas Paine and Samuel Adams, were uncompromising opponents of aristocracy — an attitude that sometimes troubled their wealthier comrades. But George Washington himself ordered Continental Army officers to read the eloquent immigrant’s  pamphets to his troops.  

On the “right” were the Tories — colonists who feared change and bowed to the British crown while assisting the occupying army of George III. They were not regarded as patriots, to put it mildly.

The next great historic test was the Civil War, another struggle between the left and right, or between patriots and …a conspiracy of traitors, as the leaders of the Confederacy were deemed at the time. Whatever economic interests may have motivated hostility between North and South, the movement on the left to abolish slavery and preserve the Union confronted a conservative aristocracy that fought to preserve slavery and dissolve the nation in disgrace. Today the Confederate legacy is mainly an obsession of Southern politicians like Roy Moore, as well as neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and other extremists (who despise Lincoln, the father of the Republican Party).

The first global confrontation between democracy and dictatorship tested American patriotism again. Eighty years before Trump adopted “America First,” it was Hitler’s witting and unwitting allies in the United States who adopted that xenophobic slogan. Costumed in red, white and blue, the America First movement became a powerful instrument for foreign agents plotting against the United States. Is that tragic history repeating itself now as farce?

 As we mark the founding of our country this year, we can only renew our vigilance, and our commitment to vindicate the ideals that truly make America great — even under a government that dishonors them every day.