The standoff continues, at Sacred Stone Camp and in Bismarck. Winona LaDuke ( Anishinaabe) has an interesting column up at ICTMN, as further information comes to light.
The recent announcement of Enbridge’s purchase of the Dakota Access Pipeline came as a surprise to most of us. For the past four years, Enbridge has told the people of Minnesota that the proposed Sandpiper route (Clearbrook to Superior) was essential. It turns out that was not true. Let me try to translate what I think happened.
From “the”, wonderful photos of a humpback whale. Exciting! Click for full size.
1) What one sees most of the time: just a large, humped back after it surfaces, blows, inhales, and does a shallow dive.
2) Showing its flukes – normally (always?) seen just before a deep dive (when it will feed). This is one of the species’ signatures, almost no other large species shows the tail consistently before sounding.
3) …and, every once in a while, a tour will be very, very lucky, and see the whale perform a series of saltos like this; it did this about 7-8 times in a row, this was the only one I caught clearly (despite the evidently calm seas, it wasn’t entirely flat – the boat was doing irregular “pitches” of about 50 cm in amplitude). Just breathtaking.
Photos taken off St. Anthony, NL, Canada, July 28 2016.
© “the”, all rights reserved.
From Giliell, oh, click for full size!
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
From Giliell, slices of nice. Flowers are Hortensia and Clover. Click for full size.
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
Eating the candle at both ends. And the top. And the sides. And every other way we can do it. Click for full size.
© C. Ford, all rights reserved.
Male Yellow-rumped Warbler. Click for full size.
© C. Ford, all rights reserved.
Oh, the KKK. Gad, they are a whiny bunch of assholes. Seems they are planning to, um, attend a Black Lives Matter Rally on Long Island this Sunday. I’m just going to include the choicer whiny bits here, and boy, are there a lot of them. Click over for the full article, including rally organizer Vanessa Vascez-Corleone’s priceless response, which includes an open invitation, as it seems the Klan’s idea of attending is to lurk in a ‘secret place’.
The Ku Klux Klan, the oldest American hate group in existence, has a message for those organizing Black Lives Matter rallies on the East End: “They should be ashamed of themselves.”
And now the KKK, with its long history of murder and violence, plans to bring members to a Black Lives Matter rally scheduled for Sunday in Westhampton Beach, according to a man identifying himself as a high-ranking KKK member. That rally is slated to begin at noon at the traffic circle near Village Hall.
Speaking Tuesday with Patch, Gary Monker, who said he is the Exalted Cyclops, or chief officer, in New York of the Loyal White Knights of the KKK, said many people have misconceptions about the organization.
“We’re the only organization right now standing up for whites, upholding the second amendment of the Constitution,” he said. “We are not a hate group. We are Christian and we’re trying to restore America back to what it used to be.”
This incredible litany of whine is rich with opportunities for mockery, so everyone, please, mock away, on every possible platform, and show these buffoons up for what they truly are: vile bigots crying crocodile tears over their inability to openly terrorize and murder at will. There’s plenty of material coming up.
Sandy Rios.
Whip out those hankies and you’ll be able to catch crocodile tears!
Christian activists’ boycott of Target hasn’t exactly been a rousing success so far, as the company this week announced that it’s spending $20 million to expand its available restroom options while at the same time remaining inclusive toward transgender people.
Right Wing Watch notices that Christian activist Sandy Rios is so scared that the boycott of Target will be a flop that she fears she’ll never be able to use a public restroom again.
“If we do not keep the pressure on Target, this will quickly — we know how major corporations are, they are scared to death of anything that isn’t politically correct — this will spread like wildfire, we will not be able to go to the bathroom anywhere,” she told Breitbart’s Alex Marlow. “What’s at stake is all the other companies around this country that will just cave, they just will.”
Oh my, it would be nice if you could figure out that this is the way the rest of us already feel. We’ve been living fear of a public lav because of people like you, Ms. Rios. If you really want to settle this, just self ban yourselves from public lavs. Unfortunately, since Breitbart’s nastiest, slimiest, sleaziest, most unethical asshole, Stephen Bannon, has hired onto the Trump campaign, Breitbart is busy whipping this all up again, into a massive frenzy of bigotry and hate.
Full story here.
Brandon Ecoffey at The Lakota Country Times has a good article up about the current fight against Dakota Access pipeline.
For many Americans the fact that the poorest people in the United States have promised to lay their lives down to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline is a bewildering experience. The shock that comes along with the realization that the Oceti Sakowin have come together once again as a united front against one of this country’s most powerful lobbies should come as no surprise for we have been fighting big industry since the arrival of colonial powers in the western hemisphere.
Native people of this country have both experienced and resisted the will of corporations for the entirety of our shared history. We saw the devastation that came with the early fur trade that began with beaver pelts that were eventually replaced by buffalo robes. We witnessed the atrocities that accompanied the powerful cotton lobby and their thirst for slave labor and cheap lands. We foresaw the arrival of settlers in the heart of Lakota Country, who came to take gold from our most sacred lands. Today, the “Horse Nations” are prepared for yet another battle against corporate powers and their allies in the United States Congress.
Most Americans have been taught to believe that the federal government and our elected officials have been put in place to protect our freedoms and way of life. For Native people the truth is the opposite. Since the inception of this republic the policies drafted regarding us have been crafted to take from us our culture or the resources we live on. For these reasons we are conditioned to question all that is offered us by both the government and big oil.
There are two promises that have been made by the oil industry that have proven to be categorically false.
Oh, so sorry to be late with this, it’s been difficult to keep up.
AHO! Sacred Stone Camp is calling on all water warriors, canoeists, kayakers, paddlers, all water warriors, bring your boats, and join us on the Missouri River, Saturday, August 20th. People are coming from all four directions to stand with us, to defend our right to say no, to defend healthy land, healthy water, healthy people, healthy animals. If you can stand for all Turtle Island, please stand with us.
Bring boats, paddles, life jackets, and banners.
Lawsuits are pending, brought by the Oceti Sakowin, but Dakota Access is aggressively pushing the pipeline anyway, not waiting for the hearings next week.
Sacred Stone Camp. Sacred Stone Camp Po. Box 1011 Ft. Yates, ND 58538 A good drop-off for supplies would be the actual camp located on the banks of the Cannonball and Missouri, north of the community of Cannon Ball. Follow the Facebook page for the most frequent updates: https://www.facebook.com/CampoftheSacredStone/
Show up, donate, signal boost, please help! Pilamayaye.
The city of Bismarck has closed off streets for a round dance.
I should add that cops have set up concrete roadblocks, and are checking license plates of all those heading into the camp, saying they are only allowing Standing Rock rez people in, but you can still get by. Be persistent, but no confrontations, and no violence – the cops are busy making up lies as it is. You can keep up with that at https://twitter.com/sacredstonecamp – so go if you can, but put your stealth on! You water warriors already have your way in, and past cops.
Included with the purchase of a gold ear cuff, the note read, “‘Dear Ivanka, Thank you so much for your web order! We’re happy to let you know that the proceeds of your sale have been generously donated to the American Immigration Council, the Everytown for Gun Safety organization, and the Hillary Clinton campaign.”
The note was signed, “Best, Jill + Sabine,” with the Instagram photo captioned, “Dear @ivankatrump, #thanksbutnothanks #payitFORWARD.”
There’s no internet outrage quite like the outrage of Trumpians. The owners of jewelry store acknowledged Ivanka Trump’s purchase, and posted this to Instagram, where upon there was a trumplosion, so to speak.
“Loooooosers ! Say buh bye to your company,” wrote ilianaruizjcj.
fearss33 wrote, “Brag it up!! Very poor business choice! Your company is fucked!!”
“Disgusting! Keep your political views to yourself. Run your business with class. Hope you loose [sic] lots of money from being so ignorant,” added valleygrrrl, with another commenter chiming in, “I’m utterly in shock of your display of professionalism. I hate to, no actually ladies I’m not afraid to say but karma is a b*tch and I know it will come back to hurt you.”
Things weren’t much better on Facebook, with Beau Patterson calling them, “Self-serving, tacky tw*ts,” and JJ Lars, adding, ” F*cking worthless c*ck suckers!”
Laura Fleckenstein advocated trying to damage their business, writing, “I just sent them about 100 emails. Block up there [sic] business.”
And no comment thread infested with Trump fans would be complete without an all-caps rant, courtesy of Susan Phipps: “EVERYONE BOYCOTT LADY GREY..WE HAVE NEVER OF HEARD OF THIS CHEAP UGLY JEWELRY.. BUT WHAT FEW CUSTOMERS THEY DO HAVE NEED TO BOYCOTT..RUDE..DISREPECTFUL UNGRATEFUL BUSINESS..AND REALLY UGLY JEWELRY! IT MUST BE HARD FOR THOSE WHO WROTE THIS LETTER TO BE SO JEALOUS OF A RICH..SUCCESSFUL..BEAUTIFULWOMAN LIKE IVANKA WHO IS LOVED BY MILLIONS! #boycottladygrey”
I’m afraid Ms. Phipps of the all caps rage is a fine example of someone who doesn’t take out 10 seconds to think anything through. “Cheap ugly jewelry.” “Really ugly jewelry.” Um, that cheap, really ugly jewelry was purchased to be worn by the “rich…successful…beautifulwoman” Ivanka Trump. Ooopsie.
Full story here.
Shutterstock.
Twitter is pulling a “look at us, we’re doing something, we really are, look!” They are busy suspending accounts which they think are promoting extremism and terrorism.
Twitter said Thursday it has suspended 235,000 accounts as part of its crackdown on accounts that have violated policies on the promotion of extremism and terrorism over the last six months. With the latest move, the total number of suspended accounts in the past year has reached 360,000.
In February, the microblogging platform announced that 125,000 accounts had been banned for the same reasons since mid-2015. Twitter joined the fight against terrorism after it faced criticism over the level of extremist content that was detected on its network. Twitter said daily suspensions of terrorism-linked accounts have jumped 80 percent since last year and that such suspensions usually rise just after terrorist attacks.
“The world has witnessed a further wave of deadly, abhorrent terror attacks across the globe,” Twitter said in a statement. “We strongly condemn these acts and remain committed to eliminating the promotion of violence or terrorism on our platform.”
Twitter said it has expanded its teams that review reported violations, and also expanded the number of groups it works with to counter violent extremism online.
[…]
“Our work is not done,” Twitter said on its blog post, adding: “Our efforts continue to drive meaningful results, including a significant shift in this type of activity off of Twitter.”
I’ll say your work isn’t done, it isn’t even started yet. Hell, it isn’t even acknowledged. I don’t have any problem with suspending accounts which have no point except to spread hatred and violence, but I can’t help seeing this as a smoke and mirrors move on the part of Twitter execs who do not want to face the real problem – that their platform is made for, and largely supported by trolls who delight in vicious harassment. Twitter has been taken to task about this so many times now, and they always have excuses, there are always plenty of harrumphs and paragraphs of glib nothingness, but no solutions provided, no changes made. Oh yes, they banned Milo whateveritis, and while I’m sure that helped some, this still leaves just about every woman and person of colour on that platform open to vile harassment on a large scale. No one should have to be utterly exhausted at the end of each day, attempting to filter and block, just because they want to engage in some friendly banter, update, or exchange news. Twitter could be a good platform, but it would require sweeping changes, and Twitter would have to take a hit by removing their troll base, and I’m pretty sure that won’t happen.
Via Raw Story.
Frank Amedia.
Frank Amedia, a pastor who says he is serving in a volunteer capacity as Donald Trump’s “Christian policy” liaison, said last month that God told him last year that Trump would win the GOP nomination and that he believes Trump has been “raised up” to help pave the way for the Second Coming.
Amedia spoke with Steve Strang, the founder of the Pentecostal magazine Charisma, on Strang’s podcast on the day Donald Trump effectively won the Republican presidential nomination; the podcast was posted online last week.
[…]
“In this instance, it’s not because Donald Trump has heralded his faith or the name of God, but the Lord has put His favor upon him, and how amazing it is that the favor of God can overcome so many mistakes, so many bumbles, so many things that otherwise we would think would destroy somebody in business, destroy them in politics, destroy them in relationships. But yet it’s very evident it was the will of the Lord to do this and here we sit now.”
Amedia then told Strang that he believes there is “a skirmish going on” in the “heavenlies” right now that “is the beginnings of the preparation of the way of the coming of the Lord.”
As part of this preparation for the Second Coming, he said, a “breaker anointing” has taken place, giving Trump the power to break up “established norms” that have not served the “Kingdom of God.” (This is a reference to a passage in the Old Testament Book of Micah about the end of days.)
Breaking up the established norms. Hmm, okay, I think that can be translated as “only white, straight christians who are politically incorrect are okay, yessir!”
“And this breaker anointing is manifesting in so many different facets on earth today,” he said. “One of them is the political realm, one of them is right here in the United States, and I perceive that Donald Trump has been raised up with that breaker anointing to just begin to crush all of the strangleholds that have been placed upon this country. And, let’s face it, this country influences the world. And the positions that he’s taken, albeit in not quite the personality that you and I would walk out into, is accomplishing in establishing a lot of what were established norms and are established norms that haven’t been very effective at all on serving the principles of the Kingdom of God.”
Um, Frank, I hate to break this to you, but just up there ^, you were yakking about Jesus coming back, raining down destruction and all that; now you’re yakking about how Trump is gonna make this a god huggin’ power to be feared country again, dominating the world, and taking its rightful place as bestest country ever. I think you need to pick here. Hmmm. Jesus or power. Power or Jesus. Power…or what now?
Via Right Wing Watch.