Understanding the Danger of Narcissism.

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Mano Singham has an excellent post up about understanding what we are actually facing with a narcissist poised to be president. Highly recommended reading, just a bit here:

This is not someone who is merely narcissistic in the colloquial, casual sense of the term, meaning that he’s selfish or self-centered. This is someone with a psychiatric disorder in all its flagrant, florid particulars. To grasp its seriousness is to be staggered that someone too disordered and rancid to be a trustee of your condo association will be running our country. How is it possible that almost half the voters, even those who like his values and disliked his (conventional politician of an) opponent, could have listened to him taunt and lie and bully his way through a campaign and then said, “Yep. That’s who should be in charge of the country”?

The implications going forward are nothing short of chilling.

Go have a read about what we are truly facing: What having an extreme narcissist as president is going to entail.

After reading Alfie Kohn’s article, I’m going to add this from the beginning, because there’s something I want to hammer home.

Reporter: What do you think people will take away from the [Republican National]   Convention? What are you hoping?

Donald Trump: From the convention? The fact that I’m very well liked.

– New York Times, July 21, 2016

The initial shock has given way to a twofold horror. First, there is the unavoidable fact that more than 62 million Americans voted for this man. Most white college graduates preferred him. Most white women preferred him. Presumably many of those 62 million aren’t bigots or bullies or sexual predators or compulsive liars. But they knowingly voted for someone who is all of those things and more.

And then there are the sickening practical implications. During the campaign, novelist Adam Haslett remarked that “endless acts of verbal violence shock us into stunned passivity so we no longer register the horror of what we’re living through.” But that’s nothing compared to the horror fatigue that awaits us under a Trump administration. His election — along with Republican control of both Houses of Congress and more than two thirds of state legislatures — will almost certainly precipitate an assault on civil rights, civil liberties, environmental protections (including a reversal of early, tentative steps to deal with global climate change), consumer protections, reproductive rights, gay rights, workers’ rights, prisoners’ rights, humane immigration policies, aid to the poor, gun control, antimilitarism, support for public education, and on and on. It will be bad enough for an individual deeply committed to any one of these issues; for those interested in all of them, it will be difficult to absorb, let alone summon outrage about and become active in opposing, a tidal wave of reactionary policies likely to continue on a daily basis for many years.

The potential impact on official policy is staggering. And yet I can’t stop thinking about the man himself.

The emphasis is mine. For every single person who either voted for Trump, or who used their opportunity to avoid this catastrophe by writing in someone or something stupid while voting, or who didn’t bother to vote, you fucking did this. You. That’s where the responsibility for the ruin we face rests. And more than anyone else, it’s you who needs to read that article. After that, try to figure out how to become a human being, because we’re going to have one hell of a fight in front of us.

The GOP, So Busy…

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Praying. Yep. Driving that ol’ Demon-in-Chief outta the capitol. FFS, we are in so much trouble. Fascists are bad enough. 1% billionaire fascists worse. Religious fanatic fascism? Yeah, that’s gonna help. Be nice if these people could manage to work, and do something truly miraculous, like work for all people, rather than praying to their fictitious psychopath.

Two of the pastors who participated in the event, Dave Kistler of the North Carolina Pastors Network and Dale Walker of the Tennessee Pastors Network, discussed their experiences on the American Pastors Network’s “Stand in the Gap” radio program last Friday.

Kistler revealed that U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black preached to participants and reportedly prophesied that a revival is about to sweep America and “it will commence … in the halls of Congress” and Walker concurred.

“If God rules in the halls of legislation, it’s the pulpit’s benefit of being there, being on site and standing up and speaking the law of God to our elected leaders and praying for them,” Walker said. “It’s been the absence of the pulpits is the reason why Satan has ruled in the halls of legislation.”

Kistler also revealed that in addition to praying in the Kennedy Caucus Room in the Capitol, pastors were given access to the U.S. Senate chamber by Rep. Louie Gohmert. In the senate chamber, he said, “we got on our knees … and it sounded almost like a labor room as people were crying out to God for the revival that Chaplain Black believes is coming and that we believe is coming.”

“To do that in the Senate chamber was an absolutely astounding opportunity,” Kistler said, “and again it puts an exclamation point on the Senate chaplain’s assessment that revival is on the way and may indeed begin in the halls of Congress.”

All that showy bullshit, “oh look, I’m on my knees, fist on forehead!” “No, look at me, I’m bowed all the way down, with my head almost on the ground, but not like those other people do, no.” Why don’t these fanatical morons ever, just once, pay attention to their book of myths, where the sacrificed son of their psychopathic god specifically said not to pray in that manner?

Right Wing Watch has the full story.

A Timely Reminder from Pussy Riot.

Nadya Tolokonnikova (Facebook).

Nadya Tolokonnikova (Facebook).

Nadya Tolokonnikova — the Russian artist, activist and Pussy Riot member — warned Americans not to grow complacent after the election of Donald Trump, who she said has the power to reshape political norms to his own benefit.

She said many Russians, including the wealthy oligarchs who helped engineer his rise to power, failed to appreciate the threat Vladimir Putin posed to the nation’s fledgling democratic institutions until it was too late, reported the New York Times.

“It’s important not to say to yourself, ‘Oh, it’s okay,’” Tolokonnikova said. “It’s important to remember that, for example, in Russia, for the first year of when Vladimir Putin came to power, everybody was thinking that it will be okay.”

[…]

Trump has frequently praised Putin and said his killing of critical journalists makes him a “strong leader,” and Tolokonnikova warned Americans that their democratic institutions are vulnerable to the same threats.

“It is a common phrase right now that ‘America has institutions,’” Tolokonnikova said. “It does. But a president has power to change institutions and a president moreover has power to change public perception of what is normal, which could lead to changing institutions.”

Full story here.

The New Government, A Family Affair.

With his son, Michael Flynn Jr. walking behind him, retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn gestures as he arrives at Trump Tower, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, in New York. CREDIT: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster.

With his son, Michael Flynn Jr. walking behind him, retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn gestures as he arrives at Trump Tower, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, in New York. CREDIT: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster.

Trump doesn’t seem to care that there are reasons nepotism is frowned upon in government, and this extends to his new “team” as well. Michael Flynn has been appointed national security adviser, which is bad enough, but it seems Flynn Jr is along for the ride, and he’s an open white supremacist who posts on Gab, the fascist version of Twitter. I won’t be linking any of his, um, gabs here, you can look at them over at Think Progress.

Flynn Jr.’s unabashed conspiracy mongering — something his dad has also engaged in recently — hasn’t prevented him from forging close ties with President-elect Trump. On Monday, CNN reported that Flynn Jr. “has an official government transition email address,” which indicates he has a role on Trump’s transition team.

Foreign Policy reports that Flynn Jr. “has assisted in personnel vetting, managing his father’s schedule, and fielding transition-related emails for the general, according to a person close to the Trump transition team.” The unnamed source told Foreign Policy that Flynn Jr. also “accompanies his dad to a ton of meetings.”

On Twitter, Flynn Jr. has posted images of himself with his dad at Trump Tower and walking with Trump. His bio links to the Trump transition team’s official webpage.

[…]

As Twitter has cracked down on white nationalist accounts in recent weeks, many adherents of the movement have instead started using the social platform Gab, which bans users from engaging in illegal activity but nothing else. As the New York Times recently detailed, the platform — which uses a frog for its logo — “has emerged as a digital safe space for the far right, where white nationalists, conspiracy-theorist YouTubers, and minivan majority moms can gather without liberal interference.” Several white nationalists who have been banned from Twitter — including Milo Yiannopoulos, Richard B. Spencer, and Ricky Vaughn — have resurfaced there.

Flynn Jr.’s Twitter bio actually includes a link to his Gab page. On Gab, Flynn Jr. follows white nationalists and posted that he hopes to convince his dad to switch to the new platform.

Yikes. The full story is at Think Progress. You can also read about the ongoing nepotism and refusal to divest among the Trumps here.

NoDAPL: It’s Not Over.

Photo by Tod Seelie for Jezebel.

Photo by Tod Seelie for Jezebel.

Yes, there was a celebration over having some breathing room at last. But if anyone knows not to trust government, it’s Indians. There’s even less reason to trust oil companies who are already bursting with billions of dollars. All that money means power, and they do not like being thwarted. They have engaged in an ongoing smear campaign, spreading lies and propaganda, openly purchasing the Morton County Sheriff’s department, with the approval of long ago purchased Governor Jack Dalrymple. The Army Corps of Engineers has asked ETP to stop digging before, and what happened? They went out on a holiday weekend and kept working, destroying sacred sites. ETP does not care what anyone says, they do not think they are obligated to listen or obey in any sense. Their sense of 1% entitlement is even bigger than their pockets. Their hatred of the Indians attempting to protect the land and water, for all peoples, has infuriated them from the start, and that start was in 2012.

It didn’t take long for them to lash out in absolute fury and defiance, in a lie and propaganda filled piece of bile, and their insistence they will indeed complete DAPL as planned. The people at the Oceti Sakowin camp aren’t going anywhere yet.

The White House’s directive today to the Corps for further delay is just the latest in a series of overt and transparent political actions by an administration which has abandoned the rule of law in favor of currying favor with a narrow and extreme political constituency.

As stated all along, ETP and SXL are fully committed to ensuring that this vital project is brought to completion and fully expect to complete construction of the pipeline without any additional rerouting in and around Lake Oahe. Nothing this Administration has done today changes that in any way.

So, keep those donations coming, people, and help in any way you can, because this is far from over. Those of us here in nDakota have already seen what ETP is willing to do, and it’s not pretty. All the veterans pouring into camp helped beyond measure, because even Kirchmeier can figure out that assaulting veterans is likely to result in much media coverage, and negative coverage at that, so they’ve stood down for now, but that won’t last. No one at the camps can afford to leave until ETP leaves, completely.

“We don’t trust anything they say,” Castaneda explained pleasantly. He first arrived at Standing Rock in October, and stayed through most of November before returning home for a spell. He returned this week. Cunningham and a friend, social worker Kyla Ferguson, had been here since mid-November. All three noticed a sudden absence of law enforcement drones hovering over the camp on Sunday. The peace and quiet, they pointed out, coincided with an influx of media and celebrity supporters, not to mention thousands of veterans who arrived to support and defend the water protectors. All three worried that ETP and law enforcement were merely behaving themselves for now.

“Once the media and the vets leave, they’ll start acting out,” Cunningham said. That’s what happened in late October, when seven different police agencies converged on the 1851 Treaty Camp, which stood in the pipeline’s path. The three friends watched as tipis and tents were destroyed. People were sprayed with rubber bullets or dragged from where they were praying in a sweat lodge and arrested. Some 140 people were taken into custody in all. It was a scene he found hard to forget.

“Native Americans have been sold a bill of goods a million times,” he added. “There’s a lot of mistrust.”

Via Jezebel. * #NoDAPL. * The Verge has covered the ETP response. * Then there’s this.

To every single person who has supported us and helped, whether spreading the word, getting the signal boosted, donations of any kind, lila wopila – very many thanks. Thank you all so much. Thank you for standing up for what is right, for standing up for a healthy planet, healthy water, for the wealth that truly matters, family, friends, and a sustainable, healthy ecosystem. The fight for these things is going to get much harder, all over the planet. Let’s keep that love going, and keep standing up.

Conscripting local police into Trump’s deportation squads.

AP Photo/Kathy Willens.

AP Photo/Kathy Willens.

State’s rights? Oh, forget those. The ugly hypocrisy of republicans rears its collective head. Where they once never shut up about state’s rights, when attempting to foil every move by President Obama, they aren’t so concerned about them now. As a matter of fact, they are quite prepared to run them right over, in quite fascist manner – coercion. How do you force local cops to become your personal deportation goons? By tying federal monies to going along. It’s important to understand this current attempt at legislation.

Remember the Tenth Amendment?

The Constitution’s vague nod to states’ rights was a staple of Republican rhetoric for much of the Obama presidency, with many Republicans claiming that pretty much anything Obama supported violated this amendment. At its peak, “tentherism” seeped so deeply into the GOP’s bones that the party’s House leadership embraced a radical reading of the Constitution that individual GOP candidates used to argue Social Security or Medicare is unconstitutional (although, in fairness, it is far from clear that they understood the implications of their words at the time).

But all of that deep concern for the constitutional balance between federal and state power has fallen by the wayside, now that Republicans are set to control all three branches of the federal government. In a speech on the Senate floor last week, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) urged his colleagues to pass the so called “Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act,” a plan to effectively conscript state and local police into President-elect Trump’s plans to crack down on undocumented immigrants.

[…]

Toomey’s legislation would prohibit cities from receiving certain grants, including Community Development Block Grants, if the city’s police has a policy of not cooperating with certain federal efforts to round up immigrants. These grants fund a diverse range of programs, many of which have little, if anything, to do with immigration. In Philadelphia, for example, which Toomey represents, these grants paid for a litter removal program and they contributed to an effort to renovate 12 storefronts.

Full story at Think Progress.

NC: No Jobs for You!

Before choosing Richmond, Va., real estate research firm CoStar Group was looking to take space at the 615 South College office tower (center) currently under construction in uptown. Rick Rothacker rrothacker@charlotteobserver.com.

Before choosing Richmond, Va., real estate research firm CoStar Group was looking to take space at the 615 South College office tower (center) currently under construction in uptown. Rick Rothacker [email protected].

While that hateful bigot McCrory still attempts to hang onto his lost office, and refuses to admit all the damage done to NC by HB 2, it has come to light that HB 2 was the reason for a loss of a 732 job expansion. Odd, how the repubs refuse to address these reasons for job losses. Hate, bad for business!

Newly obtained North Carolina Commerce Department documents show House Bill 2 was the primary reason Charlotte lost a 732-job business expansion to Richmond, Va.

A day after real estate research firm CoStar Group announced plans to expand in Virginia, a North Carolina economic development official closed out the project file and listed the controversial LGBT legislation approved March 23 as the deciding factor.

In an Oct. 25 email to state officials, Garrett Wyckoff, senior manager of business recruitment for the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, said he changed the status of the CoStar project to “Closed Lost.”

“It is my understanding that we lost the project. I have selected the following reason for this status change: Local issues,” Wyckoff wrote in an email obtained by the Observer through a public records request fulfilled Thursday. For further explanation, Wyckoff added: “Spring 2016 Legislation.”

The Charlotte Observer has the full story.

Sunday Facepalm.

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Paul Hair, co-author of Hating Jesus: The American Left’s War on Christianity, is a wee bit upset over some confederate statues being dismantled and moved.

Reuters reported on Nov. 19 that Louisville, Ky. began dismantling a Confederate monument for removal to a different location. The dismantling of the monument is part of the progressive campaign to destroy all reminders of the Confederacy. This campaign, in turn, is part of the larger effort to demonize and destroy all of U.S. culture.

Oh my, all of American culture is gonna disappear, oh no! Just once, I’d dearly like a specific, clear definition of what constitutes U.S. Culture. Genocidal Bigotry, check. Religious fanaticism, check. Religious terrorism, check. Slavery worshiped as a beloved tradition, check. White supremacy, check. Fanatical fetishisizing weaponry, check.  Okay, what else?

None of those things are anything to be proud of, they should be national embarrassments, but noooo, those are the good things, the moral things, oh my yes! Ugh.

Demonizing and destroying American culture includes elevating evil. This is why the Obama regime honored sodomy by designating the Stonewall National Monument in June of this year.

I have never know anyone to obsess on genitalia and all the things one might do with said genitalia like hetro Christians. Isn’t it bad enough that you all have a massive porn consumption problem? Couldn’t you focus on the problems with your own genitals and leave everyone else’s alone? Or perhaps you could try actually having fun with your equipment, might loosen you up a bit, make you happy for five minutes or something. Queer people are not evil, sex is not evil, and saving Stonewall has absolutely nothing to do with sex, you dimwit. I expect you know that, too, it just burns like crazy though, doesn’t it, having a monument to a time of great social change, wherein the majority of people decided to elevate their minds and hearts, and become inclusive, better human beings. Christians just hate that sort of thing, I know. I shall squeeze a tear out for you, Paul. It won’t be genuine, mind, but I doubt you’d care.

There already is a movement urging the incoming Trump administration to undo the Obama regime’s massive land grab. That land grab included designating the Stonewall Inn and many other areas of land as parts of national monuments.

Oh, you’re one to talk about a land grab, you genocidal believer in Christian Dominionism. That wasn’t a “land grab” it was a desperate attempt to save some small portion of our mother, our source of life, y’know, the planet we’re on. We only get one, and it didn’t come from any god, and there sure as hell isn’t any god pointing a cosmic finger and healing all the damage idiots like you are doing, and intent on doing yet more. Some of us think that things like the richness of family, friends, community, and a healthy eco-system which sustains and gives life are more important than a select handful of white assholes who think there can never ever be enough money or power in their pocket.

As for a “regime”, no there hasn’t been one of those yet, but you’re fair dripping at the one looming on the horizon, aren’t you? Disgusting.

There’s no reason those objecting to America honoring sodomy couldn’t join the larger movement to undo all the national monuments Obama designated at large. And if that effort proves successful, it then would make it possible to destroy the Stonewall Inn and wipe out its stain on American history.

A stain on American history. I rather think that white Christian colonials were (and are) a stain on Turtle Island, and on Turtle Island history. Perhaps it’s time for a different movement, one to dismantle, bit by bit, every single fucking church on Turtle Island. All of them, gotta go. You stand for every evil, for every single one of your so-called sins. That’s a stain that needs scrubbing out.

Source.

Kirchmeier: I wanna be a star! Gimme money!

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Goodness. It’s rather clear just why Kirchmeier insisted on millions more on top of the 10 mil already provided, which bought him all kinds of white cowboy military tough guy Rambo goodies, most of which have been brought to bear on unarmed protectors. Hundreds of people have been badly injured by Kirchmeier’s tough dude fantasies, given reality by the unreal amount of money handed over by KKKJack Dalrymple, and we know who is backing him. (When you have invested all your money in oil, made sure there is no oversight and no accountability, why, so surprising oil would have his greedy backside, right?)

Now that millions more have been handed to him, Kirchmeier, after jerking around with the Morton County Sheriff’s fb, posting lies, getting caught, taking them down, lather rinse repeat a zillion times, yanking the whole account down, and now rebooting it, with Kyle the star of his dreams in “truth videos”. Sigh. This man is a flagrant criminal, and he’s never met a lie he doesn’t like. But he knows the truth, you betcha, and of course, he’s a bloody saint, and all those evil Indians and allies, well, we’re savages. And criminals. And liars. I’ve been out to the Oceti Sakowin camp, many times. Kirchmeier is a liar. He lies at every opportunity. I’ve witnessed his actions, I’ve heard his lies, and I’ve documented plenty, along with many others. Anyone with a conscience would be permanently bright red with embarrassment and shame right about now, but it looks like those are two things which do not exist in Kirchmeier.

Story at Medium, via #RuthHopkins.

In the meantime, this fucking thug of an asshole couldn’t even manage a proper thank you to those who fulfilled his Morton County and Burleigh County Cops’ wishlist:

On Friday December 2nd at approximately 2pm CST Water Protectors from Oceti Sakowin camp will fulfill a donation list that the Morton County Sheriff’s Department released on November 22, 2016.

The Oceti Sakowin headsman will join veterans, youth, and women leaders and stand with Leonard Crow Dog who will offer a prayer as Protectors deliver the supplies to the Sheriff’s Department in Mandan, ND.

Water Protectors offer these donations to the Morton County officers in generosity and compassion, despite the aggression and hostility they have shown innocent unarmed Protectors of this camp.

The following is a join statement from the Indigenous Environmental Network and the Indigenous Peoples Power Project :

“North Dakota taxpayers have already bankrolled the Morton County Sheriff Department with approximately 10 million dollars for the suppression of peaceful water protectors. Despite this excessive financial support, Morton County officers are asking taxpayers to donate supplies.

The Oceti Sakowin camp is a prayer camp, and a resilient, self-sufficient community. The camp is full of abundance– in spirit, in humanity, and in resources. Oceti Sakowin has enough to share. Generosity is an original teaching for the Lakota.”

Via Common Dreams.

internationalindigenousyouthcouncilgivespeaceofferingtolawenforcement

Several weeks ago, law enforcement dealing with DAPL protests sent out a list of goods they could use if the community would like to donate them.

The International Indigenous Youth Council saw that list and decided to use it as an opportunity for de-escalation. Lead by the council, demonstrators dropped off Gatorade, water, batteries, breakfast bars and more.

The teens said they wanted the police to know they have compassion for all people and all walks of life.

“As American citizens, as the good American citizens that we are, we went ahead and we supplied them with that. We gave them water because water is life,” says Thomas Lopez Jr., IIYC member.

We reached out to the Morton County Sheriff’s Department who declined to comment on camera. Instead, they directed us to a Facebook post that read:

“Thank you to the members of the International Indigenous Youth Council who stopped by with gifts of supplies and snacks for our employees. Your kindness and support is very much appreciated!”

Via KFYR. Wow, aren’t you just blown away by the thanks? How about how much it has been completely underplayed? You’d almost think Kirchmeier didn’t want anyone to know about this, and given the fact that it isn’t being shouted by the cops, or covered by anyone else, well, I guess that means he keeps getting to paint us as nasty, evil, savages. Look in a fucking mirror, Kirchmeier, and you’ll see the evil.

Trumpgrets.

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It seems that reality is slowly sinking in to some of those who voted for Trump, who now find themselves bewildered, angry, and sorrow-filled over the great tough dude they voted for. So much so, a tumblr has been started, compiling all the regrets. A great many of them have to do with Trump’s lack of action on the imprison/kill Clinton business. These people really thought he meant that isht.

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@realDonaldTrump PLEASE SHUT UP. Can’t you just ignore and zip it until you take office? The more you speak the more I regret my choice.

https://trumpgrets.tumblr.com/ * #Trumpgrets.

Trump’s Carrier Con.

President-elect Donald Trump at Carrier’s Indianapolis plant on Thursday. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.

President-elect Donald Trump at Carrier’s Indianapolis plant on Thursday. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.

If you think that Trump somehow “came through” on that jobs business, you need to think again. All Trump did was play a game, showering a billion dollar business with tax cuts and money, money, money, that is going to end up being pulled out of the taxpayers of Indiana’s pockets, some way or another. Close to 1,500 jobs are still moving to Mexico. So, great save, Donnie. Rather than swallow the bullshit whole, spend a few minutes of your day reading, not only about the details of this supposed great move, but how the media is complicit in selling the con, assuming most people will simply take it all as truth, and too many will do that. Don’t be one of them.

Carrier also confirmed in a press release on Wednesday night that it is getting economic incentives from the state, which “were an important consideration.” Various outlets reported that those incentives will amount to $7 million over a decade, or $700,000 a year.

At the event, Trump claimed that 1,100 jobs will remain in the state, which he said could go up and “is a minimum number.” Yet at least half of the company’s Indiana jobs will still go to Mexico. United Technologies, the parent company for Carrier, is still going to move 700 at the Huntington plant, while not all of the 1,400 jobs at the Indianapolis job are being retained.

Meanwhile, Indiana residents will shoulder the cost of the $7 million incentive package. But if past evidence is any guide, they won’t get much actual benefit for it.

The full story is here, go read, be informed. In the meantime, mainstream media has been spinning all this as “harsh consequences” threatened by Trump have worked in the case of Carrier. Couldn’t be farther from the truth. Yes, Trump did make noise about punishing corporations who wanted to move jobs out of the country, but the reality is that he’ll give them whatever they want, if they agree to keep “some” jobs in uStates. I can’t imagine who actually thought Trump would in any way be harsh when it came to corporations, he’s all for corporations, and he’ll make sure they get ultra sweet deals, while they continue to screw over workers, who will barely make a living wage, with zero safety net under them. There’s a full article about the media spin here, go read.

Yet the day after his speech, prominent media outlets ran with headlines saying that Trump is threatening to crack down on companies that move production offshore. They focused on his threat of “consequences,” despite the deal he actually struck with Carrier that includes no such consequences and despite other parts of his speech where he promised benefits to companies that threaten to leave.

Standing Rock: The Veterans Are Coming In.

Veteran Matthew Crane says soldiers like him have skills and training that could be useful in the Oceti Sakowin Camp. (Angela Johnston/CBC).

Veteran Matthew Crane says soldiers like him have skills and training that could be useful in the Oceti Sakowin Camp. (Angela Johnston/CBC).

American veteran Matthew Crane has been to Iraq and Kuwait, and has led disaster relief teams in the U.S. Now he says he’s found a new mission at the Oceti Sakowin Camp in North Dakota, supporting those opposing the Dakota Access pipeline.

The 32-year-old navy veteran is one of a growing number of ex-military members heading to the centre of the pipeline fight as part of a group called Veterans Stand for Standing Rock.

Naturally, Kirchmeier has been moaning about the veterans, saying they will bring violence. Right, because you damn piggish thugs haven’t been indulging in criminal violence at all, right? And shame on all the nDakota veterans* who are standing around tsking, and attempting to pour shame on these veterans who are standing up and doing the right thing. You can all go shut up and hide, and pretend you have morals somewhere in your back pocket. Doing whatever authority tells you, swallowing a gallon of oil and propaganda about us horrible savages, that’s easy. Standing up, thinking for yourself, recognizing evil, and having the courage to stand against it, that’s what the veterans at Standing Rock are doing, and everyone should be proud of them.

My thanks to those cops who have finally seen the light, and have refused to send people here. There aren’t enough of you, but it’s good there are some.

*Also, that cowardly lump of paste has the fucking nerve to say that the protectors have cost ND $10 million dollars. NO, THEY HAVE NOT. That criminal bigot, KKKJack Dalrymple cost the people of nDakota 10 million dollars, and has dumped another 7 million on that, for what? Oh, more piggish thugs! More shiny military equipment with which to brutalize the unarmed protectors. Fuck every single nDakotan who is such a fucking idiot that they buy this garbage. *spits*

Full article is here.

As for KKJack Dalrymple’s supposed “concern”:

The Standing Rock Sioux, in a statement on Wednesday, said that because “the Governor of North Dakota and Sheriff of Morton County are relative newcomers” to the land, “it is understandable they would be concerned about severe winter weather.”

They said the camp has adequate shelter to handle the cold weather, adding that the Great Sioux Nation has survived “in this region for millennia without the concerns of state or county governments.”

And KKKJack says he’s worried about all us Indians in winter. Yeah. Let’s see you walk 250 miles, Jack.

And for all those fucking idiots who keep claiming this is what we deserve, because hey, Standing Rock didn’t show to meetings, once again, yes we did. In 2012 and 2014, along with 2016. Stop spreading that damn lie.

Canada: Trudeau Okays Two Pipeline Projects.

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On Tuesday, Canada’s Liberal government approved two major oil pipelines that, if constructed, would send one million more barrels of oil a day from Alberta’s tar sands — known in Canada as oil sands — to markets overseas. The move brought a chorus of criticism from environmentalists and indigenous communities, which have fought hard against the pipeline projects.

The move could be a major setback for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who came into power on a progressive platform that included strong climate action. He has spoken out in favor of the Paris climate agreement, and, under his leadership, Canada has announced plans to enact a nationwide carbon tax. But approving two pipeline projects — even while rejecting the Northern Gateway pipeline — will certainly damage his credibility with environmentalists who had hoped Trudeau’s leadership would signal a clean break from the policies of his predecessor, climate-denier Stephen Harper.

During the announcement, Trudeau acknowledged that the decision was bound to upset many across Canada, but argued that the projects were in the best interest of the country and the economy.

[…]

“Today’s announcement may as well have said that Canada is pulling out of the Paris climate agreement,” Aurore Fauret, Tar Sands Campaign Coordinator with 350.org, said in a statement. “By approving the Kinder Morgan and Line 3 pipelines, there is no way Canada can meet those commitments. Justin Trudeau has broken his promises for real climate leadership, and broken his promise to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples.”

[…]

Vancouver residents — as well as residents of Washington state, which shares waters with the Port of Vancouver — worry that increased oil traffic will raise the risk of a major spill off the Vancouver coast. The product from Alberta’s tar sands is a particularly heavy type of oil known as bitumen, which sinks when released in water, instead of rising to the surface like other oils. That makes cleaning up bitumen spills incredibly difficult and costly — instead of skimming oil off the top of the water, cleaning up bitumen usually requires dredging, which can have serious detrimental effects on ecosystems. Indigenous communities along the Vancouver coast are worried that such a spill could devastate important species like salmon and orcas.

“This issue is as black and white as the killer whales they endanger,” Charlene Aleck, a spokeswoman for the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, said in a statement. “This is about our survival and the protection of our home, this inlet and the planet. They are making a big mistake, we will not allow this pipeline to be built.”

[…]

Local environmental activist groups, however, voiced their disapproval of Trudeau’s decision.

“As thousands of water protectors continue to make camp in winter conditions at Standing Rock, more crude oil pipelines are the last thing the Midwest needs,” Andy Pearson, Midwest tar sands coordinator with MN350, said in a statement. “The Canadian approval of Line 3 is a slap in the face to the landowners and indigenous community members of North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, who will work harder than ever to make sure this dirty tar sands pipeline does not cross into the United States.”

[…]

On Tuesday, hours before Trudeau’s decision to approve the two pipeline expansion projects, news broke that Kellyanne Conway, President-elect Trump’s campaign manager and senior transition adviser, would be traveling to Canada before the inauguration to tour Alberta’s tar sands.

The move has lead to speculation that the incoming Trump administration might renew the Keystone XL project, something that Trump promised during his campaign. Following Trump’s Electoral College win on November 8, TransCanada — the company behind Keystone — released a statement saying it was eager to work with a Trump administration.

“TransCanada remains fully committed to building Keystone XL,” company spokesman Mark Cooper said.

We can all thank Prime Minister Trudeau for jumping on the oil wagon, and guaranteeing that Indigenous peoples in Canada and uStates will be endangered and royally screwed over. Thanks ever.

Full story here.