Dark Spigots, Republican Rollbacks & 45's Hardhat

Coming to your neighborhood? Better hope not 

"My people are here today because we have survived in the face of the worst kinds of challenges. The fact that oil is flowing under our life-giving waters is a blow, but it hasn't broken us."

That's Cheyenne River Sioux Chairman Harold Frazier reacting to Monday's announcement that oil has begun to flow through a disputed section of the Dakota Access Pipeline under Lake Oahe just upriver from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

Back in December, with global media attention focused upon the heavy-handed police response to peaceful water protecters in North Dakota, a concerned senior from Bella Vista, Arkansas named Kamryn Baker started a petition on Change.org that's garnered almost 49,000 signatures.

Her goal was to bring attention to the environmental dangers posed by the Plains All American Diamond Pipeline, and the dubious safety record of the company that will operate it; Plains All American Pipeline LP.

The Diamond Pipeline is a 20-inch diameter pipe that will carry crude oil across inhabited land stretching east from Cushing, Oklahoma, through Arkansas until it finally terminates 440 miles away in Memphis, Tennessee.    

As Baker notes in her Change.org petition "The pipeline itself will make it's way through five different water systems, including the Arkansas River and the Mississippi River." 

Some of the 3,400+ barrels spilled along the Santa
Barbara, CA coastline by PAAP, LP in 2015 

Now aside from the obvious environmental threats posed by a crude oil pipeline stretching through residential areas, pristine forest and sensitive river basins, the pipeline's operator raises serious concerns.

Plains All American Pipeline LP operates over 18,000 miles of crude oil pipelines that stretch across America, and they've racked up a disturbing list of violations and accidents.

Including a major coastal spill in California back in 2015.

As a Wikpedia article on the incident reports, the spill originated along the Santa Barbara coastline just north of Refugio State Beach on May 19, 2015 when a corroded, 28-year-old section of pipeline owned by Plains All American Pipeline began leaking.

An alarm that would have alerted workers to the leak had been turned off to repair a pump.

At least 142,800 gallons of crude oil spilled along a pristine coastal area that includes four different protected marine reserves teeming with wildlife - at least 221 birds including Pacific Loons and brown pelicans, and at least 138 mammals including California sea lions, otters and dolphins (and untold numbers of fish) were killed when they became covered with the thick oil tar that closed beaches as far as 100 miles away.

As Reuters reported last May, a grand jury indicted Plains All American Pipeline LP on 4 felonies and 42 misdemeanor charges related to the spill and the subsequent environmental damage.

Between 2004 and 2007 the company was prosecuted for over 10 different oil spills in multiple states - both history and odds suggest that some kind of accident is going to happen along the 440-mile stretch of the Diamond Pipeline stretching across Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee.

Greg L. Armstrong, CEO of Plains All American
Pipeline LP

Amanda Kennedy, a member of the Arkansas Water Guardians offered a cryptic warning in an interview in the Arkansas Traveler last December:

"No matter what, oil pipelines all eventually leak or fail and a slow leak is not easily detected either. No matter where that leak occurs along the pipeline that goes through Arkansas, it will be devastating (for) the environment and for the communities in that area. "

"There is no place that a spill would not negatively affect Arkansas. We have to stop contaminating our drinking water or we will not survive."

Her words echo the concerns of citizens and activists across the nation standing up against oil pipeline construction that threatens both communities and wildlife.

These kinds of man-made environmental threats come as the Trump administration, still smarting from failing to muster enough Republican Congressional support to even vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act last Friday, moves to undue the sweeping environmental protections put in place during President Obama's two terms in office.

Theatrically flanked by coal miners, earlier today Trump announced an executive order that would reverse the various climate change initiatives put in place by the Obama administration; with the help of his new Republican oil industry lackey EPA chief Scott Pruitt.

What's remarkable about Trump's rollback of environmental protections is that, like the Republican healthcare bill, it isn't what he says it is at all - the GOP healthcare bill failed in large part because it was actually a massive trojan horse tax cut for the wealthiest Americans disguised as a replacement for the Affordable Care Act.

Technology like this has been displacing coal miners
around the world for decades. 

As Coral Davenport noted in her New York Times article yesterday, Trump and other Republicans continually try to paint these climate change rollbacks as measures that will create jobs and secure America's "energy independence". 

But numerous experts cite that well-worn Republican rhetoric as both misleading and untrue.



Over the course of the past week I've heard multiple energy experts on NPR cite the well-known fact that since the 1950's, America's coal industry has largely moved towards automation to do the dangerous job of extracting coal from underneath the ground.

Complex machines like the one pictured above now do most of the back-breaking work that miners in places like Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania used to do.

Sure it's sad in terms of a way of life and a means to make a good (if dangerous) living for thousands of Americans and their families in rural parts of the nation.

But it's the coal industry itself that initiated the move to investment in technology rather than manpower - Republicans would have you believe Obama simply put miners out of work during his 8 years in office when America has been moving away from coal for decades.

Massive earthmoving machines demonstrate why
coal jobs will not be coming back as Trump says

Rather than send men underground to mine coal, some modern large-scale coal operations use massive amounts of explosives to literally blow the top off of mountains, then use massive earth moving equipment to remove the coal.

Some operations cut huge canyons to expose the coal seams then remove it (pictured left).

Despite Trump's hot-air promises to coal miners, that type of mining simply requires less workers, Trump couldn't change that if he wanted to.

Unfortunately for coal miners it's a trend that has been going on for decades despite Republican sound-bite rhetoric; just find the CEO of a mining company and ask him or her if it's more profitable to hire more miners to do the work large machines do.

As University of Wyoming energy economist Roger Godby told the New York Times, "the mines that are staying open are using more mechanization. They're not hiring people."

As far as energy is concerned Trump continues to peddle the distorted reality he lives in; like demand for coal is suddenly going to reverse a decades-long trend, spring back and miraculously "save us".

When Trump talks about coal, he only reveals he has no real understanding of global energy consumption trends, U.S. energy needs and costs, or the industry itself.

Buffoonery: Trump dons a coal mining hardhat
to dupe coal miners into voting for him.

Amanda Davenport's NYT's article quotes Harvard energy economist Robert Stavins as saying:

"We don't import coal. So in terms of (Obama's) Clean Power Plan, this has nothing to do with so-called energy independence whatsoever."

As Trump himself has admitted in his own book, "I play to people's fantasies." 


That's part of what's so reprehensible about Trump donning a hardhat and using coal miners to serve as visual media props so he can sell an energy policy meant to enrich the wealthy elites who bankrolled his toxic presidential campaign - under the false pretense of "bringing back jobs." 

The fog that enveloped large swaths of the Philadelphia - central New Jersey area early this morning reminded me that perspective can be obscured by phenomenon both natural and manmade.

For many Americans it's difficult to see the various ways Republicans are assaulting our environment through the thick political fog of controversy spewing forth from the White House on a daily basis.

As Trump tweets and lies, Congressional Republicans continue to chip away at the fundamental environmental protections that even Richard Nixon believed were important.

Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris

Did you read the article in MotherJones.com on Monday about the EPA set to rule on regulations that restrict the use of chlorpyrifos on Friday?

Chlorpyrifos is a widely-used pesticide shown to cause neural damage in the brains of children and impact fetuses when pregnant women are exposed to it.

It's made by Dow Chemical.

The same company that gave $1 million to Trump's inauguration committee.

Dow and other large agricultural interests are pushing to roll back restrictions on the use of chlorpyrifos, and as the MotherJones.com article reports, "In 2000 the EPA banned most home uses of the chemical, citing risks to children." 

Does that sound like one of those "job killing regulations" Republicans fantasize about cutting?

How do you think the Trump administration's intentionally-understaffed EPA under Scott Pruitt is going to vote on rolling back restrictions on the use of chlorpyrifos on Friday?

With the chemical manufacturing corporate behemoth? Or with the innocent children whose brains will be affected by increased exposure?

Sadly, my money is on the corporate titan that "donated" $ 1million to 45's inauguration - I truly hope I'm wrong on that one.

If I'm not, let's hope sensible politicians and public health advocates can use the courts to appeal the EPA's decision and stem the flow of the dark spigot Republicans are ready to hose America with.  

Dishonorable Dealings In the Dakotas?

The massive Crazy Horse Monument, Black Hills, SD

Even before the Sacred Black Hills territory was stripped away from the Great Sioux Reservation by an Act of Congress passed on February 28, 1877, an act which violated Article 2 of the Treaty of Fort Laramie signed nine years before on April 29, 1868, lawmakers and the federal courts (in conjunction with private interests) have consistently conspired to systematically violate the rights of the Sioux.


In what would become an unfortunate portent of the future, it was the discovery of gold in the Black Hills by European prospectors in 1874 that sparked the decision by the U.S. government to move the Sioux from the same very territory which had been promised to them by said government in perpetuity just over a decade before.

In fact, a 1980 Supreme Court Case decision in United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians ruled that the Sioux had been unfairly stripped of their ownership of the Black Hills territory in 1877.

The high court awarded the Sioux the value of that land in 1877 plus interest, $106 million, but in a testament to their resolve, the Sioux refused to take it; preferring to wait to gain back their rightful ownership of the Black Hills.

That award has been held in trust in the U.S. Treasury and is reportedly worth over a $1 billion today.

In their majority opinion the Supreme Court wrote in part, "A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history."

Construction continues near a DAPL protest camp  

Could the justices who handed down that decision 37 years ago have predicted the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the 21st century?

Probably not - but history often repeats itself.

And construction on that controversial stretch of pipeline slated to carry another valuable natural resource, oil, under yet another stretch of land sacred to the Sioux, began again last Thursday.

Aided by another court decision.

As Nika Knight reported in an article for CommonDreams.org, on Monday U.S. District Judge James Boasberg denied an emergency request by lawyers representing the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux to halt contruction of the pipeline.

With that ruling, contractors hired by Energy Transfer Partners (the company building the DAPL), can continue to prepare to run a stretch of pipeline directly beneath Lake Oahe - a resevoir near Cannon Ball, North Dakota near the Missouri River.

Once completed, hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day will flow through that pipeline underneath a source of fresh water for some 20 million people.

Aside from the obvious environmental danger, lawyers for the Sioux also tried to make the case that the presence of the pipeline is an infringement on their religious rights because the oil will flow next to sacred lands.

But Judge Boasberg played down their concerns, saying in part, "as long as oil isn't flowing through the pipeline, there is no imminent harm to the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes."

But it's not Judge Boasberg's fresh water supply that will be threatened by an oil pipeline spill.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg 

Judge Boasberg was appointed by President Obama.

But as CounterPunch.org reports, he is, by virtue of his upbringing, a child of privilege and means.

He prepped at St. Albans, one of the most prestigious private schools in the D.C. area, and attended Yale and Oxford.

Clearly he's a learned man with extensive legal experience and a keen intellect.

But it's still fair and reasonable to ask the question: will he follow the law in this case?

Should the disturbing pattern of infringements upon Sioux tribal lands and sovereignty by the U.S. government and private interests motivated by profit in the 19th century be taken into account in the legal challenges to the DAPL?

Or will this scion of the establishment be more swayed by the collective legal muscle of the corporate lawyers working on behalf of Energy Transfer Partners and the group of banks (including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, HSBC and Goldman Sachs) that backed construction of the project with a $3.75 billion line of credit?

In all fairness to Judge Boasberg, he is scheduled to hear arguments at a hearing on February 27th to rule on the Sioux's request for an injunction against the U.S. Army Corps for their having granted the final easement that allowed ETP's contractors to begin drilling under Lake Oahe.

He also ordered ETP to provide updates to the court on a weekly basis so that all concerned will know exactly when oil will actually being to flow through the pipeline.

But those are all big "if's" considering how the federal government stripped the Sioux of the Black Hills 140 years ago.

And in the meantime, the forces of American of corporatocracy are quietly stirring in the vast open stretches around Cannonball, North Dakota near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation - and beyond.

Chickasaw Artist Kristen Dorsey Advocates for Native American Representation

Members of the Crow Nation arrive at Standing Rock

As most of you know, last November hundreds of Native American Water Protectors were gathered with members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe near the Cannonball River in North Dakota where they attracted global media attention for bravely facing off against authorities and contractors to oppose the construction of a section of the Dakota Access Pipeline that would encroach on sacred tribal lands and threaten the fresh water supply for thousands of people in the region.



It is recognized by many as the largest gathering of Native American protesters in U.S. history.

And in many ways it was an awakening of both conscience and spirit.

Not just for the 566 different tribes recognized by the federal government, but for thousands of indigenous peoples around the world and millions of non-indigenous people in America and in other nations around the globe.

Set against the backdrop of the collective shock of the election of Donald Trump, the Standing Rock protests were also a timely reminder of the immense power of peaceful protest, non-violent resistance and the freedom of expression - principles enshrined in the bedrock of American values.

For young and old alike it was a lesson in the importance of standing up for what's right, even in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds - especially in a nation where the power of financial institutions, corporations, conservative political interests and the 1% seems to have grown exponentially.

While there was extensive media coverage of the Standing Rock protests, particularly the unforgettable images of members of law enforcement and private security using dogs, rubber bullets, water from hoses and other means to try and subdue peaceful unarmed protesters, too often it seemed as if the actual voices of indigenous peoples were lost or even somehow secondary to those images.

Now obviously there was media coverage of what the protesters wanted in terms of stopping the pipeline construction, but from my perspective, in many instances the mainstream media rarely dug under the surface into what brought those protests into being.

Chickasaw Artist Kristen Dorsey

Or what it was that drew hundreds of people from other tribes in different parts of the U.S. (and from tribes in other countries too) to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to a remote stretch of North Dakota to stand side by side with the Standing Rock Sioux.

For those interested in understanding more about the broader protest movement taking place in indigenous communities across America, the critically-acclaimed Viceland recently premiered a new series airing Fridays at 9pm called Rise.

Just go to the Viceland Website to see clips or watch episodes for free online.

The first two episodes probe deeper into the Standing Rock Protests and offer insight mainstream media didn't take the time to cover.


That said, I thought it would be appropriate to follow up my previous blog about the environmental impact of new pipeline construction in America and switch gears by sharing the powerful words of the renowned Chickasaw metalsmith, jewelry designer, business owner, feminist, activist (and surfer!) Kristen Dorsey.

She's a really interesting and multifaceted artist and entrepreneur who designs and sells custom jewelry based on the themes, traditions, customs and imagery of traditional southeastern American indigenous culture where the Chickasaw once lived and thrived until being forcibly removed from their ancestral lands and moved hundreds of miles west by the U.S. government in the 1830's during what is commonly known as the "Trail of Tears."

Take a couple minutes to read an interesting interview Kristen did with author and blogger Kate Hart; it offers some insight into her work, life and advocacy for indigenous peoples and feminist empowerment.

And for you ladies out there, or guys looking for a gift for Valentine's Day, check out her Website to see some of the really cool jewelry she designs and sells.

She's got a few videos about her work on the Chickasaw Nation Video Network too if you want to learn more about what she does.

Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole 

Last week my friend James shared a letter Kristen wrote to the Republican Deputy Majority Whip, Oklahoma Congressman Tom Cole, just over a week after Trump was elected president.

Cole is also a member of the Chickasaw Nation, one of only two Native Americans currently serving in Congress, and James felt strongly that Kristen's letter eloquently voiced the concerns and hopes of indigenous peoples across America.

People who understand that strong representation in this divided Congress is more critical than ever in the face of the threats posed to the environment, the welfare of indigenous peoples, Native American rights and tribal sovereignty by the Trump administration.

That said, here's the text of Kristen Dorsey's letter, I hope you'll take some time to read it as it offers insight into the goals and aspirations of the emerging indigenous protest movement in America and beyond.

-->

November 15, 2016

Congressman Tom Cole
4th District of Oklahoma
2467 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressman Cole,

I would like to congratulate you on your many years of dedicated public service. Today I write to call on you to advocate for Native America within Congress. I understand that you are obligated to the general population of Oklahoma citizens, and not just your Native American constituents; however, it is the unfair burden of the few to represent the many when they are members of an underserved and underrepresented population.

I know that you are proud of your Chickasaw heritage and citizenship, and I know that a strong Chickasaw woman raised you to be so. I applaud and celebrate your political achievements, which give me hope that one-day more Native American voices will cry out within the walls of government. I know that we are mutually related through the bloodlines of Te Ata, who herself was an ambassador for Native People.

I call on you to hear me now. We are fighting for this land and our struggles are woefully underreported in mainstream media. Many Americans see us as extinct, absent, and conquered. Throughout history Chickasaw people have fought for our right to exist. Today our tribal Nation is thriving but my deep fear is for our future generations. They will inherit an Earth that is sick. It is sick with climate change, which is already resulting in massive ecological destruction, and increasingly dangerous natural disasters. The fossil fuel industry has left so many irreparable scars on our earth. Take for example the effects of fracking in Oklahoma. Man-made earthquakes are displacing your citizens. Take for example the Exxon oil spill, our elders cried that day because they saw our ancestral homelands in the southeast devastated by impending environmental effects that we don't even fully comprehend.

I fear for my unborn children. As I write this, thousands of Native People around the country are led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in demonstrations against the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline. In the past few months, despite peaceful demonstrations at the construction site near the Cannonball river, our Native American brothers and sisters have been under assault by militarized police as they do everything in their power to protect sacred burial sites and a sensitive watershed from destruction. I urge you to view the on the ground footage of the violence waged against our water protectors by the North Dakota police. I also urge you to contact the Standing Rock tribal leadership to hear their perspective and gain a deeper understanding about the lack of tribal consultation over this project.

Your website states that you support pipelines because they are a safer way to transport crude oil. I hear your arguments, however, according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in 2015 alone there were 715 pipeline incidents. I do understand that much of our economy is built on oil. I also understand that my children and children's children cannot drink contaminated water, or breath polluted air, or live in an ecosystem eroded by massive species die-offs due to rising temperatures. I believe that there are solutions and clean energy technologies which need research, development, and implementation. I also know that our Chickasaw Nation believes the same or Governor Anoatubby wouldn't have sent monetary support along with an official statement of support to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

I urge you to re-evaluate your policies and set your political course to move away from the fossil fuel industry. Please actively consult the scientific and tribal communities and reach across the aisle to develop a sustainable energy plan with goals of reducing emissions and dependency on oil, both foreign AND domestic. I also urge you to advocate for the United States to honor our commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement. Every country must work together to save our planet for future generations. Our Chickasaw ancestors sacrificed so much for us. We must now make our own sacrifices for the sake of future generations. Leaders are the people who sacrifice the most and I understand that I am calling on you to make fundamental changes to your political platform, which has undoubtedly contributed to your political success thus far. I do not ask these sacrifices of you lightly. Our future generations need your voice now more than ever.

Chokma’shki,

Kristen Dorsey (Chickasaw Nation)

Polarization In the Pipeline

Opposition to DAPL in Oklahoma on Tuesday

Critics of America's divisive new POTUS have pointed to his unpredictability as one of the numerous flaws in his shaky leadership style.

But on the first Tuesday of this fledgling administration Trump was anything but unpredictable as he signed a slew of executive orders that read like the start of an all-out assault on the environmental protections that keep our air, water and soil safe.



It's probably safe to say that those executive orders were, in part, a reaction to the fact his fragile ego is likely still bruised from all the Women's Marches that took place across America (and the world) on Saturday.

Trump's latest political boasting includes pledges to kickstart the stalled Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines, but if he had even a remote interest in reuniting a country left divided by his toxic presidential campaign, this was clearly not the move. But he did it anyway.

As a brief snapshot-reminder of just how divisive these pipeline projects are, my good friend and former high school classmate James sent me the above photo his wife took yesterday afternoon.

Now some of you may recall that James is a resident of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, a state where rampant natural gas fracking has already caused an exponential increase in earthquake activity - and yes, the state where Scott Pruitt, Trump's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency served as attorney general.

James and his wife were just outside of Ada, Oklahoma on Tuesday when they saw the car pictured above with hand-drawn letters covering the back windshield spelling out the widely-shared Twitter hashtag,  #NoDAPL and the words "Water Is Life."

Major Canadian & U.S. pipelines 

It was encouraging to see that kind of grass roots resistance popping up so quickly after Trump's announcement about moving forward on both controversial pipeline projects.

The White House announcements also sparked quick reactions from environmental groups and politicians in Washington as well.

Including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

The feisty former Democratic candidate, who made opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline a plank of his presidential campaign, defiantly Tweeted that "I will do everything I can to stop Keystone XL and DAPL."

Native American activists who spent months protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline quickly announced plans to oppose it in court if necessary, but the larger trend is troubling for America's natural, political and ethical environments.

Remember, Trump stands to reap massive personal windfalls as a direct result of his using his executive powers to push to approve these pipelines.

Most reasonable-minded folks would call that conflict of interest...on steroids.

Not only has the unpopular POTUS disclosed large personal investments in some of the major oil companies that have partnered to invest in building the DAPL, as Greenpeace.org reported he's accepted large campaign contributions from the CEO of the largest fracking company in America Harold Hamm.

Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Partners

Kelcy Warren, the CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the DAPL, donated $100,300 in campaign contributions to Trump's presidential campaign.

Trump is already facing a potential lawsuit filed on Monday by a team of legal and Constitutional scholars and experts who argue that his tangled secretive web of foreign investments represents a clear violation of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

We should all familiarize ourselves with the Emoluments Clause by the way, the way Trump's transition is going, odds are good that we'll be hearing about it again soon.

The massive grassroots opposition to the DAPL and Keystone XL isn't just about those two specific projects, it's also about the larger threat to America's environmental protections that are now in the hands of a Republican president who thinks climate change is a "hoax" cooked up by the Chinese, and a Republican Congress largely bought and paid for the nations largest oil and gas companies.

There are other large-scale pipeline projects in the works that have received far less national media attention which also pose grave potential threats to the natural environment.

Like the Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana.

As New Orleans reporter Aviva Shen reported in an article posted on ThinkProgress.org back on January 14th, the Bayou Bridge Pipeline would form the final leg of the Dakota Access Route, forming a "bridge" pipeline that would link to an existing pipeline that stretches from Nederaland, Texas to Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Section of swamp in the Atchafalaya Basin

As Shen notes:

"The Bayou Bridge Pipeline would carry 480,000 barrels of oil a day a final 162 miles across the state to refineries and ports, through eight watersheds and long stretches of fragile wetlands."

That includes parts of the Atchafalaya Basin, a fragile system of rivers, swamps, bayous and wetlands covering 1.4 million acres that stretches 140 miles across central Louisiana.

Not only is it a National Heritage site, it's the largest area of wetlands and swamp in the United States teeming with wildlife where the Atchafalaya River meets the Gulf of Mexico.

The idea of a pipeline that carries 480,000 barrels of crude oil a day rupturing in a remote section of the Atchafalaya Basin is like imagining an environmental crime of incalculable proportions.

And remember that's oil we (Americans) don't actually need - the bulk of the tar sands crude extracted from North Dakota will be transported south to refineries and ports along the Gulf of Mexico where it will be loaded on to tankers and exported to other countries.

In the long term that has little to do with America's "energy independence", it only makes sense to the profit margins of the web of companies that will extract the oil, build the pipelines, refine the oil and ship it overseas to make a profit.

Trans-Pecos Pipeline cuts through Texas 

Profit (for a relative few) that comes at a cost to the environment that will be passed on to human, wildlife and plant life in the form of increased toxins in the soil, more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and contaminated fresh water from pipeline leaks.

There are real consequences to this fury of pipeline expansion, for example an Aljazeera.com article in 2015 reported an 87% increase in pipeline accidents between 2009 and 2014.

Not just oil pipelines either.

With America's untested Twitter-happy POTUS intentionally releasing outlandish headline-grabbing statements via his social media account on a daily basis to distract the media and public from all the real crazy shit Republicans are doing, it's pretty unlikely the words Trans-Pecos Pipeline will splash across the headlines of mainstream media anytime soon.

Since 2014 when it was first announced, local residents who live in the Big Bend region of Texas have been standing in opposition to this project that will transport fracked natural gas 143 miles from Texas to Mexico through a 42-inch diameter pipeline that will transport up to 1.4 million cubic-feet of natural gas per day under 1,400 pounds of pressure per square-inch.

Raise your hand if you'd want to live within a mile of that.

Who won the contract to build this $770 million project designed as a way to export some of the massive glut of natural gas in America (a result of rampant over-production) to a country with the 6th largest natural gas reserves in the world?

As MotherJones.com reported, two multi-billionaires, Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, the 2nd richest man in the world and (drum roll please....) Kelcy Warren, CEO of the aforementioned Energy Transfer Partners.

Same company building the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Same guy who's in business with Trump as you read these words and gave $100,300 to his campaign.

With the profiteering POTUS announcing that his own administration officials will now censor the science presented on the Web pages of the EPA, it's a clear signal that his goal is to allow fossil fuel companies unlimited leeway to encroach on the environment to increase their profits.

It's also clear that this slew of new pipeline construction is going to contribute far more to global warming and political polarization than it will to the long-term prosperity and best interests of the American people.

We're not in Kansas anymore, and we're way beyond "drill baby drill."

In Defiance of the Black Snake

Police using pepper spray on Standing Rock
protesters in North Dakota on Nov 2nd [Reuters]

Throughout modern history images like Nick Ut's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a young Kim Phuc fleeing a South Vietnamese village in 1972, after having her clothes burned off her body by Napalm dropped by South Vietnamese planes, have demonstrated the power of visual media to alter public perception and government policy and law on major social issues like the Vietnam War and civil rights.




But it remains to be seen whether images like the one seen above of heavily-armed members of local law enforcement using pepper spray against unarmed protesters trying to cross a stream near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation back in early November will move the Dakota Access Pipeline's principal owner, Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, to seek an alternate route for the stretch of the pipeline that could potentially threaten the Missouri River - and the fresh water source for the Standing Rock Sioux.

Throughout Sunday night some truly disturbing images of local and state police using high-powered water cannons on unarmed demonstrators trying to cross a bridge were distributed across social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram until mainstream media finally began devoting coverage of the incident.

I watched a short video posted on Twitter of a medic who was treating injured protesters at a make-shift first-aid station at the Standing Rock camp; he said the use of water cannons had caused a number of minor injuries created when people fell trying to get away.

Standing Rock protesters being hosed by
water cannons Sunday night

He also said people were being treated after being shot by rubber bullets.

Drone footage showed some limited ariel shots of the incident, including efforts by police to used the water cannons to take out the drone to prevent footage of the confrontation from being leaked to the media.





Accounts from other medics on the scene reported that up to 200 people were injured from shrapnel from concussion grenades, bean bags fired at point blank range and symptoms of hypothermia from some protesters who were intentionally doused with water while temperatures were in the 20's - causing their clothes to freeze.

Proponents of the DAPL claim that the 1,127 mile pipeline is a safer option than rail cars to transport highly volatile crude oil from the Bakken Shelf in North Dakota down through South Dakota and Iowa to a terminal storage facility in Illinois.

But Energy Transfer Partners have offered little in the way of guarantees that the company would be financially equipped or prepared to deal with the major environmental consequences of a serious pipeline break - as a Wikipedia article reports the state of Iowa only requires pipeline owners to keep a $250,000 surety bond on hold in the event of a major spill.

Think about that.

Ruptured section of the Kalamazoo pipeline 

How far is $250,000 going to go to cover a major underground pipeline break that spills hundreds of thousands of gallons of thick, viscous Bakken crude that could threaten wildlife, farm land and fresh water supplies?

Environmental organizations estimate that at least $1 billion needs to be held in reserve to deal with a major accident.

Remember the pipeline rupture in Kalamazoo, Michigan back in 2010?

The Canadian oil company Enbridge ignored three separate reports about the six-foot section of ruptured section of pipeline that eventually spilled over a million gallons of heavy Tar Sands oil into a section of the Kalamazoo River that spilled 40 miles downstream, drenching animals and 4,435 acres of land along the river bank.

That man-made disaster cost Enbridge $1.2 billion to clean up, a $177 million settlement, it displaced over 150 families and closed sections of the Kalamazoo River for two years.

Oh and Enbridge is one of the partners in the Dakota Access Pipeline.

It's pretty clear that Energy Transport Partners is basically expecting the American taxpayers to pick up the bill while they reap the profits of this $3.7 billion project; and they'll basically lawyer their way around responsibility if and when there's an accident on the 1,172 miles of the DAPL.

A consortium of 17 different global banks including Citibank, TD Securities, and BNP Paribas provided $2.5 billion in loans to finance the project; the remaining $1.2 billion was raised by ETP selling stakes in the pipeline to Phillips 66, Enbridge and Marathon Oil.

Energy Transfer Partners CEO
Kelcy Warren

The prospects of a Trump presidency aren't good for opponents of the pipeline either.

In addition to the untold number of personal business conflicts of interest presented by the president-elect's global business interests (many of which the public doesn't even know about because of his refusal to release his tax returns), the CEO of Energy Transfer Partners Kelcy Warren personally donated $103,000 to organizations that supported Trump's campaign.

According to an article posted on Democracy Now, Warren has also given thousands of dollars in political contributions to House Speaker Paul Ryan, House Energy Chair Fred Upton and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Lisa Murkowski.

Oh and ETP also has it's own PAC. Really.





So in addition to the over 71,000 miles of oil pipelines around that nation that ETP owns, thanks to the Supreme Court it also has a direct and anonymous unlimited pipeline of cash it can inject directly into a web of other conservative petroleum-friendly PACs that support Republicans who deny the existence of climate change and can't say no to Big Oil.

Trump also has investment ties with Phillips 66, and may have additional financial interests to some of the 17 banks that financed the DAPL.

It's an ethical mess of epic proportions that's going to roll right through four states.

With billions at stake for the pipeline, hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to Congressional Republicans in Washington who control the environmental laws and regulations that allowed it to be built with superficial environmental impact studies, the hundreds of indigenous peoples camped out near the Standing Rock reservation have a steep hill to climb.

As Native American activist Iysukin American Horse eloquently wrote in The Guardian back in August, many of the hundreds of members of different tribes who've gathered near the Standing Rock reservation see this not as a political fight.

But as a spiritual battle to protect their source of water, their land and their way of life.


Increasingly many see this pipeline designed to transport over 400,000 barrels of Bakken crude oil per day as the manifestation of the apocalyptic Native American prophecy of The Black Snake - which their elders foretold would destroy their way of life if not defeated.

Considering the forces behind the pipeline and the growing power of the corporatocracy it represents, The Black Snake is a truly dangerous creature.

And as the brutal attacks by local and state police against hundreds of protesters demonstrated last night, that Snake is already trying to destroy the way of life of the Original Americans.  

Let's hope those horrific images of violent police overreach on behalf of this consortium of pipeline producers, oil companies, banks and politicians continues to turn the powerful tide of public opinion in favor of environmental and human rights, and the basic principle of Democracy on which this nation was founded.

And Justice For Some

Standing Rock protesters confront bulldozers
clearing land for the Dakota Access Pipeline

This morning University of North Dakota faculty member and journalist Mark Trahant and Native American activist Winona LaDuke were interviewed on The Brian Lehrer Show.

They shared updates from the front lines of the ongoing efforts to block the Dakota Access Pipeline from infringing on Native American sovereignty and land - and threatening their fresh water supply.

Something Flint, Michigan residents know a little about.

Despite efforts by the federal government, police and private interests to quash this protest, it's only growing.

This morning dozens of people were on hand inside Grand Central Terminal's cavernous main hall to chant and voice their support for the Standing Rock Sioux's quest to protect their water supply; adding to the already significant social media coverage.

In response to reports that law enforcement officials were trying to track individual protesters on Facebook, more than a million people across the globe have used Facebook's Check-In feature to falsely claim to be at the protest site in North Dakota to confuse online surveillance efforts.

The crackdown by authorities against unarmed people in North Dakota is a far cry from how police and federal agents responded to the heavily-armed militants who occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in a remote area of Oregon last January.  

Ammon Bundy & the six co-defendants
who were acquitted in federal court

As you may have heard just last Thursday a  jury in federal court acquitted anti-government zealot brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five co-defendants of various charges related to their 41-day occupation.

One day later on Friday, about 1,260 miles away near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, heavily armed police in riot gear arrested at least 142 unarmed protesters demanding a halt to construction of a section of the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline.

The $3.8 billion pipeline is slated to carry crude oil from North Dakota to southern Illinois, and a stretch of the pipeline will pass near a dam directly underneath a section of the Missouri River just half a mile upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

An accident or damage to that section of the pipeline could potentially threaten the fresh water supply of not just the Sioux, but to farms and other families all along the Missouri in that part of the state.

Read through Alexander Sammon's brief timeline of the Standing Rock Sioux's efforts to block the pipeline; posted on MotherJones.com back on September 9th.

The Sioux Tribal Chairman in conjunction with the Tribal Historic Preservation Office, followed established procedure in their efforts to demand that the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) conduct an investigation to determine the archaeological significance of the section of Sioux land in question - land which the tribe considers sacred.

But repeated written requests were ignored and the USACE basically fast-tracked the permitting process for construction of the pipeline to proceed with virtually no significant environmental impact study - as Sammon reported "Permit 12" covers some 200 different sites covering four states over which the pipeline will pass.

A dog handler confronts protectors
on the weekend of Sept. 3rd

The efforts to block construction of the pipeline that began last summer eventually drew hundreds of members of indigenous tribes from all over the world, as well as thousands of people outraged over the federal government colluding with a private energy company in what some called the largest organized Native American protest in U.S. history.

They began calling themselves "protectors" instead of protestors in light of the fact that they were there to protect the drinking water supply.

But the peaceful opposition reached a violent head on the weekend of September 3rd when Dakota Access, LLC, the company building the pipeline, brought in private security contractors to protect bulldozers clearing land.

Cameras captured inexperienced handlers releasing attack dogs directly into crowds of unarmed people; a number of protectors were bitten, including a child.


The private security personnel also used mace on protesters who were upset over the bulldozers having plowed up swaths of what tribal members claim is a Sioux burial ground.

That scene was repeated last week when large numbers of police in body armor and helmets holding shields wielding long batons, supported by police in armored vehicles, helicopters and ATV's began trying to clear Native Americans from a large campground area; some of whom were on horseback.

Over the course of the Standing Rock protests over 400 people have been arrested.

Hundreds of unarmed indigenous people
engaged in non-violent opposition

Now if you compare the protests by the unarmed members of the Standing Rock Sioux and their indigenous brethren trying to block an oil pipeline from infringing on a natural water supply with Ammon Bundy's group of heavily armed militia members occupation of a federal wildlife refuge facility, there are some similarities.

Both groups were seeking rulings from the federal government related to the oversight of land.


The Sioux initially followed established legal procedure in their written response to the Corps of Engineers and requests for an independent environmental impact study and an investigation to determine if sections of land slated for pipeline construction were burial grounds.

Bundy and his heavily-armed posse of sovereign citizen militia members (most of whom don't even live in the remote Oregon community they occupied) took over a federal wildlife refuge based on a separate court case that had nothing to do with them, their own anti-government grievances and obscure interpretations of law and federal jurisdiction.

But the way in which law enforcement officials responded to the protests by both groups is a troubling example of the inherent bias within the the U.S. justice system based on race and ethnicity.

Ammon Bundy addresses the press during the
Oregon occupation 

Ammon Bundy, a hero of the sovereign citizen movement, has a history of violent confrontation with the federal government stretching back to his father's anti-government confrontations.

Nevada Rancher Cliven Bundy's years of refusal to pay the government grazing fees for the large numbers of his cattle that he kept on federally owned land culminated in a standoff in April, 2014 that garnered national media attention.

In a move that reinforces the old adage "like father like son", on January 2, 2016 after speaking at a rally held in a Safeway parking lot in Burns, Oregon in support of Dwight and Steven Hammond, two men convicted and jailed for setting fire to federal land, Ammon Bundy and a group of armed militants drove to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and occupied a collection of buildings.

Their goal was to try to force the federal government to release the Hammonds from jail and also turn over the 187,757 acres of the wildlife refuge established by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1908 to private citizens for "logging and recreational activities".

By the way the Hammonds had accepted their federal sentences for arson and voluntarily showed up to serve their time in jail - they also told the Bundys they didn't want their militia using their court case to justify the illegal occupation of the Malheur Refuge, but that didn't deter the Bundys.

One of Bundy's armed followers during the 
January occupation in Oregon

Their standoff generated global media attention and lasted for 41 days until Bundy and his brother were stopped by Oregon State Police while driving to speak at a local senior center and taken into custody.

But not before one of their followers, Robert "LaVoy" Finicum was shot and killed by police while reaching for a pistol after trying to flee the police stop.




So again, you compare the Bundy's occupation with the peaceful protests by the Sioux and the thousands of followers who've traveled to North Dakota to join them.

One group was heavily armed, the other brandish only signs in a show of nonviolence resistance.

Not only did Bundy's followers openly brandish their weapons in a manner that could be interpreted as threatening and hostile, they actually invited more people to bring their weapons and travel there to join them in an illegal occupation of a federal wildlife facility.

Bundy and his armed posse not only occupied federal property with demands that it be turned over to private citizens, they openly used language suggesting they were prepared for some kind of apocalyptic shoot-out with federal agents and also called for other armed individuals from around the country to bring weapons to the site and join the armed siege.

What did law enforcement do to move Bundy off the wildlife refuge?

Nothing.

Native American activist Winona LaDuke

They never stormed the buildings, they even let Bundy and some of his followers come and go as they pleased for much of the siege.

Meanwhile in North Dakota, unarmed protesters (including old women and children) have been maced, had attack dogs set on them, been beaten with batons, shot at with bean bag guns and been subjected to deafening noise designed to disperse crowds.


Over 400 have been arrested and jailed - some of them held in cages in a parking lot.

As Winona LaDuke said this morning during her interview, the efforts to protect the fresh water supply and prevent a large company from laying a crude oil pipeline over land granted to the Standing Rock Sioux by federal treaty isn't over.

Bundy and his armed followers have been acquitted of all charges, reinforcing the widely-held belief that the way law enforcement deals with Americans who occupy land depends less on whether they're armed and acting legally, or unarmed and acting peacefully - and more on their race and ethnicity.

In America some get justice, some get the business end of the stick.