For off-the-cuff gaffes, casual insults to the audience, and every category of cringe-worthy idiocy, any Donald Trump speech is hard to match. Consider his remarks in North Dakota, annotated and commentated here by a certain Stephen Colbert. He was supposed to talk about tax reform, but he went off script.
You’ve never really shuddered until you hear Trump boast about Ivanka calling him “Daddy.”
(Reuters) – North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who took office last month in the height of tensions surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline, said he believed the line would eventually be built and asked opponents to clean their protest camp before spring floodwaters create a potential ecological disaster.
A centrist Republican with no prior political experience, Burgum was elected in a landslide on a platform of streamlining government and improving relations across the state. Burgum built a successful software business before selling it to Microsoft Corp in 2001.
Burgum told Reuters that approval of the pipeline appeared to be a foregone conclusion once Donald Trump moved into the White House.
“I expect the world’s going to change dramatically on that day relative to finding resolution on this issue,” Burgum said in an interview. “I would expect that (Energy Transfer Partners) will get its easement and it will go through.”
A coalition of Native American groups, environmentalists, Hollywood stars and veterans of the U.S. armed forces protested the $3.8 billion oil project at a North Dakota camp, which at one point held more than 5,000, though that number has shrunk in size during the winter.
Opponents contend construction would damage sacred lands and any leaks could pollute the water supply of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.
Last month, President Barack Obama denied a key permit needed to complete the pipeline, but Trump has said he will review that decision.
Local law enforcement have voiced concerns that any reversal by the federal government could cause the area to swell again with protesters, straining resources.
David Archambault, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, has repeatedly asked protesters to leave the area and let the pipeline fight play out in courts.
Burgum said he agrees with Archambault and asked protesters to help clean up the camp before it threatens the environment itself. More than 300 vehicles, along with dozens of temporary dwellings and other detritus, have been abandoned at the campsite, which sits in a flood plain that is likely to be overrun by spring rain and snowmelt.
State officials are concerned that floodwaters could carry that material away.
“The amount of cleanup that needs to take place is enormous,” Burgum said. “We’ve got a potential ecological disaster if this land floods and all the debris flows downstream into tribal lands.”
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Andrew Hay)
IMAGE: A man holds an American flag while marching with veterans and activists outside the Oceti Sakowin camp where “water protectors” continue to demonstrate against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline adjacent to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S., December 5, 2016. Picture taken December 5, 2016. REUTERS/Stephen Yang
By Terray Sylvester
CANNON BALL, N.D. (Reuters) – Activists protesting plans to run an oil pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota said on Saturday they have no intention of leaving a protest camp after U.S. authorities warned it must be vacated by Dec. 5.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the federal land where the main camp protesting the Dakota Access pipeline is located, said it would close public access to the area north of the Cannonball River, including to protesters. It said this was partly to protect the general public from violent confrontations between protesters and law enforcement that have occurred in the area.
Those who stay could face prosecution for trespassing, the Corps said in a letter to tribal leaders on Friday.
Organizers told a news conference on Saturday at the main protest site where about 5,000 people are camped that they had no intention of moving.
“We are staying here committed to our prayer,” said Dallas Goldtooth, an organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network. “Forced removal and state oppression? This is nothing new to us as native people.”
There are smaller camps on land not subject to the planned restrictions, including an area south of the Cannonball River where the Corps said it was establishing a free-speech zone.
North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple, a Republican, on Saturday said he supported the decision and the federal government, which allowed the protesters to become entrenched, must lead in the camp’s peaceful closure.
Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault said he received notice on Friday about the decision in a letter from Colonel John Henderson, an Army Corps district commander.
Archambault said the best thing the federal government could do for safety is deny the easement for the pipeline. “We have an escalating situation where safety is a concern for everybody.”
Archambault said he did not see the letter as a forced eviction and the tribe would continue to exercise its First Amendment rights to free speech. The tribe is working on a location on reservation land should people choose to go there, he said.
“I don’t think it will ever be an eviction where forces just come in and push people out,” Archambault said.
Demonstrators have protested for months against the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, owned by Energy Transfer Partners LP
The 1,172-mile (1,885-km) project is mostly complete except for the segment planned to run under Lake Oahe less than half a mile north of Standing Rock.
The Obama administration in September postponed final approval of a permit required to allow tunneling beneath the lake, a move intended to give federal officials more time to consult with tribal leaders. But the delay also led to escalating tensions over the project.
Last weekend, police used water hoses in subfreezing weather in an attempt to disperse about 400 activists near the proposed tunnel excavation site.
Demonstrators plan a march at noon Sunday in Washington, from the Department of Justice to the Washington Monument.
(Writing by David Bailey; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Andrew Hay)
IMAGE: Protesters block highway 1806 in Mandan during a protest against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, North Dakota. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith
There is an epic clash of two cultures — one with a guiding ethic of harmony between people and nature, the other driven by an ethos that encourages the exploitation of both. Yet, for months, our clueless media gave this match-up little coverage.
For the face-off is between Energy Transfer Partners, one of the world’s largest pipeline corporations, and the Standing Rock Lakota Sioux Tribe. It’s not merely big news, but the panoramic story of America itself. It’s a real reality show — a cultural, political and moral drama featuring raw greed, grassroots courage, class war, ancient rites, human rights, defenders of the common good, the most nefarious Texas oilman since J. R. Ewing, a historic gathering of Native tribes and a Bull-Connor-style sheriff — all on location near a North Dakota town named Cannon Ball!
The Dakota Access Pipeline is a massive 1,172-mile-long pipeline being constructed by EPT. It will cut through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois. This pipeline, owned by oilman Kelcy Warren, crosses 200 rivers and countless farms, and it cuts through the ancestral lands and burial grounds of the Tribe.
DAPL risks economic and environmental disaster. The corporation plans to bury its oil pipeline under the Missouri, beneath the Lakota people’s main source of water for drinking, bathing, irrigation, fishing, and recreation. As a Lakota phrase says — water is life — and one rupture could be ruinous.
In April, the Standing Rock Sioux made their stand. Some 35 tribal leaders established Sacred Stone Camp, just off their reservation and near where ETP’s engineers intend to tunnel under the river. After the tribe’s social media network spread word of the rebellion, a spontaneous migration of Native people — not coordinated by anyone — began arriving at the camp to stand in solidarity against ETP.
They came in cars, campers, and caravans — some even paddled down the Missouri in traditional canoes. By August, representatives of 280 Native American tribes had joined, making this the largest, most diverse, cross-tribal action in U.S. history. Sacred Stone Camp pulsated with a sense of rediscovered power, ancestral duty, and indigenous culture. Not only were spirits high, but the extraordinary unity of so many diverse Native cultures — boldly gathering in a show of strength and shouting “NO” to yet another arrogant act of gross injustice — seemed to herald a reawakening.
As the protest gained strength — and was joined by thousands of progressives and covered by independent media — ETP and its political minions responded predictably: with panic, whining, lies, and brute force.
North Dakota’s governor, Jack Dalrymple falsely wailed that “unlawful acts associated with the protest near Cannon Ball have led to serious public safety concerns and property damage.” He declared a state of emergency, set up road blocks to seal off the reservation, brought in riot-clad troopers, removed state water and health services from the protest area, and used his state PR machine to demonize the activists as a violent threat to surrounding towns of white people.
ETP’s legal beagles have attempted to silence protestors by filing hokey lawsuits against several tribal leaders and activists that may be aimed at bankrupting defendants with legal fees; seeking a federal injunction against anyone interfering with pipeline construction; and threatening to prosecute Native Americans for — Oh, the irony! — trespassing on land that was theirs before it was stolen from them.
On Labor Day weekend, a DAPL crew suddenly started construction on the under-river tunnel, reportedly damaging tribal burial sites. When unarmed protestors put their bodies in front of the machinery, a line of private “pipeline guards” showed up and blasted at least 30 protestors with pepper spray and sicced a pack of attack dogs on them. At least six people were bitten, including a child and a pregnant woman.
At least four reporters have been charged with everything from criminal trespass to conspiracy for trying to cover what the mainstream media won’t touch. Charges are still pending for some of these journalists.
Standing Rock tribe’s chair, Dave Archambault has made clear that the Native people are committed to the higher values of “our lands, people, water, and sacred sites.” As they have been for millennia, the tribe’s actions today must be based on the common good of their grandchildren and their grandchildren-generations into the future. The Standing Rock Sioux are in this fight for the long haul: “Our fight isn’t over until there is permanent protection of our people and resources from the pipeline. We won’t stop until they [EPT] stop.” To find out more and join the fight, go to www.SacredStoneCamp.org.
To find out more about Jim Hightower, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
Photo: Dakota Access Pipeline protesters square off against police between the Standing Rock Reservation and the pipeline route outside the little town of Saint Anthony, North Dakota, U.S., October 5, 2016. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester/File Photo
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