The Keystone pipeline has not gone away; nor has the mortal danger to all of us it represents. The constant shitstorm from the Republican Party has made it difficult to keep focus on any one issue, and the media has been largely complicit in creating that problem and in making it worse. Keystone is Old News, and the most immediate danger it presents is to poor people. American Tradition dictates that “their” problems be ignored if there’s more potential for profit elsewhere.

The announcement of Kennedy’s retirement, combined with the theft of a Supreme Court nomination, and the rest of the Republican campaign to take over the the Judicial Branch, means that we can expect any and all challenges to the fossil fuel industry to be crushed by the courts. Case in point, South Dakota’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal against a regulator’s approval of the pipeline.

This fight will not go away because for a lot of people, it’s literally a fight for survival. To crush any efforts toward actual justice, the biggest fossil fuel companies have budgets surpassing those of many nations, and they can afford to buy as many mercenaries as they think they need. The Oil Must Flow, and countless millions have been and will be killed to support that fanatical ideology.

Under Obama, mercenaries and police waged war on behalf of Enbridge. They set dogs on peaceful protestors, beat people, shot them with rubber bullets, sprayed them with water in sub-freezing temperatures, used tear gas and pepper spray, and even explosives that nearly blew off an arm of one of the protesters. And under Obama, they got away with it.

How long is it until ICE decides they have jurisdiction over Native Americans? Reservations are technically sovereign territory after all (not that we’ve ever respected that), so there are borders around them that just HAVE to be patrolled by trigger-happy white supremacists!

It might not be this year or next, but we’re going to see an increase in clashes between the interests of the super-rich, and the interests of humanity. Both major parties have a record of siding with money and power against people, but today’s Republicans won’t just “regretfully” allow companies to do what they want – they’re going to actively cheer on escalating brutality, and the more cruelty and sadism they show, the more the Republican base will love them.

I’ll try to keep my readers up to date on this, but you should also follow Dallas Goldtooth on Twitter, and keep an eye on the Indigenous Environmental Network.

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