The Dakota Access and Keystone XL Pipelines Have Been Given the Go Ahead… But You’re Mad That a Nazi Got Punched in the Face?

So… His Lowness, Keeper of the Doritos, Trumplethinskin signed an executive order green-lighting DAPL and Keystone XL.

As he signed the paperwork in an Oval Office photo op, Trump said his administration is “going to renegotiate some of the terms” of the Keystone project, which would carry crude oil from the tar sands of western Canada and connect to an existing pipeline to the Gulf Coast.

The pipelines had been stopped during the Obama administration. The State Department rejected a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, and President Obama ordered work halted on the Dakota pipeline after Native American groups and other activists protested its route near culturally sensitive sites in North Dakota.

DAPL, if you will recall, was halted because they were going to build it through Native American land, violating treaty rights:

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which protested the Dakota Access pipeline, said it will take legal action to fight Trump’s decision, saying the pipeline “risks contaminating tribal and American water supplies while disregarding treaty rights.”

More about DAPL:

President Obama said in an interview published this week that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was considering rerouting the Dakota Access Pipeline to accommodate the “sacred lands of Native Americans,” sparking speculation over the fate of the controversial crude oil pipeline.

But it also prompted some to point out that the current path of the pipeline is actually a reroute itself, with critics calling this reroute an act of “environmental racism.”

A previously proposed route for the 1,172-mile pipeline had it crossing the Missouri River north of Bismarck, North Dakota, according to a document filed as part of the permitting process. The eventual route that was decided on, and is currently in construction, moved the water crossing of the crude oil pipeline south of the North Dakota capital, to just upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s reservation.

And here is a PDF of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s call to action.

So now these environmental travesties are going to be built, violating land treaties with Native Americans and likely making Climate Change worse…

But it’s the Nazi getting punched in the face that’s the big problem, here…

Kid rolling eyes

 

You’re Mad Because a Nazi Got Punched in the Face?

Let me just round up where we are in this country right now…

Let’s start with the fact that a Texas mosque went up in flames right after Agent Orange signed an executive order restricting migration from Muslim countries.

Then you should know that racist and anti-Semite Steve Bannon is now on the National Security Council.

As a reminder, the Dakota Access and Keystone XL Pipelines are now going ahead.

Also as a reminder, “progressive heroes” Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown voted to approve Ben Carson for HUD secretary.

Oh! And another reminder! Our Cheeto-In-Chief has decided to start publishing a weekly list of crimes committed by immigrants.

And again… he wants to build actual fucking concentration camps.

But you’re pissed because a Nazi got punched in the face?

[Read more…]

When They Go Low, We Go High – Part 2

(You got the sugar… now here’s the medicine…)

First, I need to say this:

I really like Michelle Obama. And yeah, I loved it when she said “when they go low, we go high”. So she is not the one I’m mad it. She is not the one who made this bullshit. It’s everyone else. People have twisted this statement in the same way white people like to twist MLK to use him against, for example, Black Lives Matter protesters.

When Michelle Obama said it, she was talking about being better than Donald Trump. We had the moral high ground. And for an election, it was a great soundbite that probably contributed to Hillary Clinton’s 3-million popular-vote win.

But the thing is, His Lowness, the Cheeto Fascist, Agent Orange of Fake-Tan-Landia, won the electoral college.

And “going high” is costing us way too much.

[Read more…]

From En Tequila Es Verdad: Ban Bannon – Call Your Reps

I’m going to quote most of it here, but make no mistake… you WILL click on this link. This is one of MANY calls to action.

I’m going to say it outright:

WE ARE AT WAR

 

Trump is not welcome as my president, and, if you are a decent person, he should not be welcome as yours. And this, my friends, is your first battle:

Ban Stephen Bannon. Do not allow him to be elected by Donald Trump. He is the very definition of a White Supremacist. The KKK, Neo-Nazis, and many others fucking love him. He cannot be allowed to be Trump’s Joseph Goebbels. He must be stopped.

[Read more…]

Best of the Left: Consent is Sexy (Rape Culture)

(Content Warning: Discussion of Rape and Rape Culture)

I will go ahead and apologize upfront for the lack of transcripts. This relies a lot on audio. So I’m sorry for that. Unfortunately, Jay does not provide transcripts. If anyone’s up for it, please do! I’ll see if I have time to do one myself, at least for clip I link here below. Also, this won’t be long (in part because I thought I had a day off, but I’ve been called into work, so). I just really want to highlight this.

Here’s the episode’s blog post. Included in that link are individual links to the different clips (and music) used.

The entire podcast is, of course, about rape culture. It’s a very sobering look at where we are today in terms of how we treat women, and how we treat those who are victims of rape and sexual assault. Ignore the comments (as always), as there’s one asshole in there who, as usual, refuses to get it (reads like an MRA, frankly), but the episode itself is really good, if really angering.

[Read more…]

Voting for Donald Trump is Not Progressive; It’s REgressive

To start off, I need to say that I am NOT voting for Hillary Clinton. To be honest, I may just skip the primary all together and vote against the Republicans in the general. I was very much excited about Bernie Sanders in the beginning, but I’m simply not anymore. I watched his failure with black people, including what looked a lot like racial profiling at one of his events, read his distinct inability to get specific on any of his promises, and basically just lost any of that excitement I had in him when I finally accepted that, really, he’s just another politician.

If you want more details, I recommend you go here and watch Elon James, Imani Gandy, and Aaron Rand Freeman of This Week in Blackness Prime discuss it all.

With that, however, is my unshaken belief that while Democrats in general are pretty terrible, they aren’t even close to being as bad as Republicans, and so what should be galvanizing the left is keeping the Republicans as far away from government as is possible. Democrats are bad, sure, but Republicans are actively evil.

Apparently, though, not everyone who claims to be “progressive” believes this. Some people, apparently, have decided that if Hillary Clinton is indeed the Democratic nominee (and it looks like she will be), they are going to vote for Donald Trump.

[Read more…]