New Orleans Snags 2017 All Star Game.

2017-all-star-game-x750

Nearly a month after the NBA announced that it would move the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte, N.C., in the wake of the state’s anti-LGBT law, league leadership announced today that the game will take place in New Orleans.

CNN reports that the February 19 game will be played in New Orleans’s Smoothie King Center, marking the third time the Big Easy has hosted the All-Star Game.

“New Orleans is a world-class destination for sports and entertainment and we are very appreciative that the city is once again hosting our All-Star festivities,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement today. “We are grateful to Tom and Gayle Benson and the Pelicans organization and to Governor John Bel Edwards, Mayor Mitch Landrieu and the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation for inviting us back for what promises to be another exciting and memorable celebration of the game.”

The news comes as tens of thousands of Louisiana residents work to rebuild after historic flooding that has destroyed an estimated 40,000 homes in the southern part of the state, killed at least 13 people, and prompted more than 86,000 to seek federal disaster assistance. The NBA and its National Basketball Players Association have promised to contribute financially to the recovery effort, in addition to volunteering time and resources during the weeks leading up to the game.

“Even in the midst of a historic crisis, I am excited that the NBA has recognized how great the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana are,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a Friday statement. “In Louisiana, one of the strongest bonds that unites all of us is our passion for sports. Not only will NBA fans be able to participate in the All-Star Game events, they will also be a part of our world-famous Mardi Gras festivities. The fan experience can’t get any better than that.”

Full Story at the Advocate.

Trump’s Louisiana Donation: The Winner Is…

Family Research Council leader Tony Perkins Bil Browning

Family Research Council leader Tony Perkins.

Yes, that’s right, Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, a rabidly anti-queer religious extremist.

Donald Trump has reportedly donated $100,000 to help Louisiana residents affected by disastrous floods — but he’s put it in the hands of an anti-LGBT church whose interim pastor is Tony Perkins, head of the infamously homophobic Family Research Council.

I want to emphasize that reportedly, because supposedly, Trump has made donations before, but they have an interesting way of never showing up anywhere.

Trump visited the church, located in the Baton Rouge suburb of Greenwell Springs, and made other stops in the area at the invitation of Perkins. The church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, which believes that being LGBT is a sin. The Greenwell Springs church’s website includes a “Statement on Marriage and Sexuality,” which reads in part:

We believe that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one’s sex, or disagreement with one’s biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God.

It asks church employees and volunteers to “abide by and agree to” the statement and “conduct themselves accordingly.”

[…]

Perkins, as a Louisiana delegate to this year’s Republican National Convention, took credit for helping to create what even the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay conservative group, termed the most anti-LGBT platform in party history. It continues to oppose marriage equality, denounces the Obama administration’s call for transgender students’ access to gendered facilities of their choice, and contends that parents have a right to enroll their children in any kind of therapy. The last is a thinly veiled endorsement of “ex-gay” therapy, even though major medical groups condemn it as ineffective and harmful, and several states and cities have barred licensed professionals from subjecting minors to it.

The Advocate has the story.

Dakota Access and The Mindset of Christendom.

Steven Newcomb (Shawnee, Lenape) has an excellent column up at ICTMN, and it’s very relevant to the state’s latest moves against the Lakota people.

You can read about that here.

Onto the column…

When I saw the news of Chairman Archambault’s arrest, it made me think of something our great Shawnee leader Tecumseh said to an audience of Native people:

“The Great Spirit in His wisdom placed you here and gave it [this land] to you and your children to defend. But ä-te-wä! [alas!] the incoming race, like a huge serpent is coiling closer and closer about you.”

Of the pipeline, Chairman Archambault says, “We don’t want this black snake within our Treaty boundaries.” He continues, “We need to stop this pipeline that threatens our water. We have said repeatedly we don’t want it here. We want the Army Corps of Engineers to honor the same rights and protections that were afforded to others, rights we were never afforded when it comes to our territories. We demand the pipeline be stopped and kept off our Treaty boundaries.”

The proposed pipeline will carry millions of barrels of crude oil. It only takes one break and a massive release of the hydrocarbons to poison sacred waters for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe with toxicity. The Standing Rock Hunkpapa know that water is the basis of life and ought to be held in the highest regard.

Ms. Taliman says the conflict is taking place in “Hunkpapa Territory near Cannon Ball.” To an extent this is what the Dakota Access pipeline project comes down to: Whose territory is it, and whose values shall prevail in that territory? The values of the American empire? Or the spiritual and ecological values of Original Nations such as the Standing Rock Sioux Nation?

[Read more…]

A Classic Coulter Meltdown.

Image: Ann Coulter speaks to Fox News (Screen capture).

Image: Ann Coulter speaks to Fox News (Screen capture).

While demographic trends have shown that people of color are increasingly opposed to the predominantly white party and are growing in number, Coulter pins the GOP’s downfall not on Donald Trump but on Clinton’s “illegal” voters.

“If Hillary wins … she has said, Tim Kaine has said, amnesty for all illegal immigrants,” Coulter continued. “We know that’s 30, 40 million. She’s going to throw open the southern border. She’s going to more than quadruple the number of Muslim refugees we bring in.”

The ultimate result will be: “There will be no hope for any Republican ever winning another election,” she concluded. “There’s no point to what I do, what talk radio hosts do, what Fox News does,” she said. “Nobody goes to the game when you can’t win.”

Oooh, now that’s what I call a result! Of course it won’t happen, but we sure as hell can hope. The world would be so much better with such absences. Back to reality, there will never be a lack of things for the alt right to be hysterical over, because frothing and freaking out is the only thing they know to do. Well, that and whine about being persecuted.

Coulter seemed to be giving up on her crusade against the mainstream media. “I’ve been recommending that since the Mexico debate in his speech to get fair coverage. But I’m not sure it’s worth it,” Coulter said. “Because look, if he loses, Hillary has edge.”

That doesn’t mean Coulter wouldn’t take a job if Trump offered her a show on TrumpTV. “I would love to go into business with him,” she said.

She also noted that some have said that Trump has softened his immigration approach but they’re wrong. “If there’s one thing we’re going to get out of a Trump presidency, it’s a wall,” she said.

TrumpTV. Right, well that’s Fox 2.0 on steroids, ennit? Oh, that fucking wall. Why on earth are idiots everywhere enamored with this monumentally stupid idea? Absurdly, this whole wall thing, from the beginning, has brought that awful movie Pacific Rim to mind. Now, that flick was fun in the popcorn sense, but I about lost it when it spent all this time on people building this monumentally stupid wall, against massive, super-powerful critters, who of course, wiped out years of time and money wasted in no time at all. As soon as they showed people building that wall, I yelled “what the fuck are doing that for?” Anyone with sense could have said “that won’t work”. Well, this monumentally stupid wall won’t work either.

Full story here.

Louisiana Floods, But Climate Change A Chinese Hoax.

CREDIT: AP Photo/Max Becherer.

CREDIT: AP Photo/Max Becherer.

…According to Elizabeth Crisp, a reporter for The Advocate in Baton Rogue, Trump drove through areas littered with flood debris in his motorcade, and then visited a local church where he spoke with both flood victims and disaster relief volunteers. He then signed autographs before leaving.

[…]

But Trump’s visit, coupled with his calls for sympathy for the victims of the flooding, is ironic, considering his denial of climate change, which is expected to increase the likelihood that devastating floods like the one in Louisiana will occur.

“Climate change has already been shown to increase the amounts of rain falling in the most intense events across many parts of the world, and extreme rainfall events like this week’s Louisiana storm are expected to grow increasingly common in the coming years,” Bob Henson and Jeff Masters explained over at Weather Underground. Which is to say that while climate change can’t cause a single weather event — and while floods certainly would occur in a world without climate change — global warming is making the odds of these extreme events more and more likely.

Trump, however, does not believe that climate change is a problem worth solving. He has called it a “hoax” and argued that it was concept “created by and for the Chinese.” He has called for the United States to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, which many view as the best chance for avoiding the most catastrophic effects of global climate change. Under a Trump administration, policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions would take a backseat to his promises to mine for as many fossil fuels as possible.

If Trump truly is concerned for the people of Louisiana, supporting policies that would make devastating flooding like this more likely is a strange way of showing it. Environmental groups took notice, with the Sierra Club decrying his visit as “campaign theatrics.”

“Let’s be clear: Donald Trump is taking his reckless and dangerous denial of climate science to the heart of a crisis fueled in part by climate change,” Sierra Club Political Director Khalid Pitts said in a statement. “That’s like a tobacco lobbyist offering health tips at a cancer ward.”

Trump’s running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence (R), asked Republicans in Congress in 2005 to cut spending before sending disaster relief funds to Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In 2012, then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney faced backlash when he visited Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Isaac; Romney and running-mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) supported a budget that would have slashed federal disaster funding.

[…]

Trump apparently kept his own plans for a visit quiet, and did not call Edwards before planning his trip. Edwards welcomed Trump’s visit, but warned against using the visit as a photo-op, suggesting that instead Trump volunteer or donate money to the LA Flood Relief Fund. According to reporters in Louisiana, Trump’s visit included no volunteer time or announcement of financial contributions.

Trump isn’t just a con man who owes massive amounts of money to all manner of people and a habitual fraud, he’s a dyed in the wool conspiracy kook. This man makes only one life better, his own. As far as he’s concerned, the rest of us can go to hell, a hell he’d be more than happy to usher in.

Full story at Think Progress.

Where is the f*cking check?

Republican presidential nominee makes campaign stop in flood-ravaged Louisiana (Screen capture)

Republican presidential nominee makes campaign stop in flood-ravaged Louisiana (Screen capture)

The Governor of Louisiana asked the President to stay put, because rescue efforts are still going strong, and there simply are not resources to deal with something like a presidential visit, so that’s what the President did, not being an ego-bloated ass. Speaking of ego-bloated asses, when Trump announced plans to go tromping about flood ravaged Louisiana, the Governor once again asked for officials to stay put, and said if Trump wanted to help, he could donate money.  One of Trump’s advisers with sense also attempted to explain that this would be a bad idea, but no, Mr. Ego just had to show up. Why, I don’t know. What I do know is he got the exact reception he deserved from Neva Butkus.

Where is the fucking check?

“Alright, y’all,” wrote Baton Rouge resident Neva Butkus, “I need to clear some things up.”

Butkus — a Chicago native who has worked with the City Year teaching program — said that she “has spent this entire week running donation centers, organizing volunteer efforts, and will be doing demo work on houses all this weekend.”

She wrote, “Our Governor has explicitly asked Obama to NOT VISIT at this moment because our first responders are STILL saving people’s lives. YES, It has been a week and there is still standing water. Tens of thousands of people are displaced. This is a NIGHTMARE and our governor does not want to shut down interstates that are BRINGING IN SUPPLIES just to escort our President into the city.”

She went on to say that Donald Trump’s visit was not welcomed by any residents she knows because it tied up precious resources that could be used in rescue and relief efforts.

“He is exploiting an opportunity to look as if he is welcomed during a tragedy,” she said.

“Our Governor literally told him (as this article shows) that Trump is welcome in our state but if he’s coming he better be volunteering or writing a sizable check to assist with recovery,” continued Butkus. “A 60 second video of him unloading play-doh from a truck does not count.”

Finally, she demanded, “Trump. Seriously. Where is the check. Like where is the fucking check. My people are drowning. My co-workers and family and friends have lost everything. My friends and co-workers that haven’t lost everything are taking off work (my boyfriend is taking PTO) to clean out people’s homes and rip out sheet rock and carpet. Give us money or GTFO. I don’t want to see you in your suit in AUGUST carrying boxes off a truck like you care about us. Louisiana is an incredible place. Baton Rouge is my home and I have watched people drop EVERYTHING to help one another during this time. The whole country seems to be floored by the generosity and love that our residents show each other during tough times, but to us this is normal. This is Louisiana. And you do not belong here.”

Via Raw Story.

Lesbian and Transgender Hillbillies are Coming to Get You.

A lesbian couple sitting in a sunny field (Shutterstock.com)

A lesbian couple sitting in a sunny field (Shutterstock.com)

Well, the right wing has found something new to froth about, there are LGBT people in rural areas! Really, who knew. After all, everyone knows all LGBT people are in urban areas, struggling to get their glitter just right or something. There couldn’t possibly be native rural or Southern LGBT people, and farming? Forget about it. Of course, the truth is that there are lots of LGBT people all over the place, and queer folk in rural areas, the South in particular, have more difficulties in getting together with other queer folk, and don’t have near the resources of other rural people, especially farmers. The 15th annual Nationwide LGBT Rural Summit was held at Drake University in Des Moines, IA on Aug. 18. That would be the fifteenth one, but of course, right wing asses seemed to just now find out about it, and are joyful in the hissiness on display over yet another sign that the sky, it be falling, as all us queers are the 5th column intent on destroying the good ol’ conservative heart of Amerikka. Oh yes.

The right-wing freakout over the summit began at conservative website The College Fix, which mocked the summit, complained that it was a waste of tax money and denied that LGBT people living in rural areas might face any special hurdles.

By August 16, the Washington Free Beacon picked up the story, wailing that the summit will enable “lesbian and transgender hillbillies how to get subsidies from the government.”

“The all-day summit will teach lesbian and transgender hillbillies how to get subsidies from the government like rural housing loans and ‘community facility grants.’ Bullying will also be discussed,” said the Beacon.

Then, none other than Rush Limbaugh picked up on the story.

“Have you heard the latest Democrat scam?” Limaugh asked on his program. “Have you heard about the Agriculture Department’s financial grants to lesbian farmers? You think I’m making this up? See, this is how they do it.”

“(W)hat the point of this is, folks, it’s not about lesbian farmers. What they’re trying to do is convince lesbians to become farmers,” he insisted.

“I’m like you; I never before in my life knew that lesbians wanted to be farmers. I never knew that lesbians wanted to get behind the horse and the plow and start burrowing. I never knew it. But apparently enough money can make make it happen, and the objective here is to attack — they’re already attacking suburbs, and that has been made perfectly clear by what happened in Milwaukee. And they’re going after every geographic region that is known to be largely conservative. They never stop, folks. They are constantly on the march,” said Limbaugh, whipping the story up into another Obama conspiracy.

World Net Daily joined in the panic and ousted Breitbart.com editor Ben Shapiro’s blog The Daily Wire called it “dumbest thing Feds have EVER Spent your tax dollars on.”

Lesbian farmers don’t exist, said the Wire’s Amanda Prestigiacomo.

“I mean, if I don’t know that the chocolate milk I’m drinking was originally obtained from a lesbian milking a cow, things could really breakdown [sic],” she wrote.

Oh yes, we are seriously contagious there, alt right folks, so perhaps you should all get out of the rural areas, and don’t eat or drink anything you haven’t produced yourself. It’s the only way to be certain. We’re coming for you, yes we are. Yep.

Via Raw Story and Media Matters.

North Dakota: State of Emergency Declared.

Sheriff's deputies from Cass County man a northbound checkpoint south of Fort Lincoln State Park on Thursday. Cars traveling south on Highway 1806 are diverted to Highway 6. Cars traveling north on Highway 1806 must go through the checkpoint. Officers were recording license plates of cars traveling north. Credit: Will Kincaid.

Sheriff’s deputies from Cass County man a northbound checkpoint south of Fort Lincoln State Park on Thursday. Cars traveling south on Highway 1806 are diverted to Highway 6. Cars traveling north on Highway 1806 must go through the checkpoint. Officers were recording license plates of cars traveling north. Credit: Will Kincaid.

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple issued an emergency declaration for southwest and south central North Dakota in response to protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline near Cannon Ball.

The declaration starts a process by which state agencies can get additional funding, said Greg Wilz, director of the Homeland Security Division of the state Department of Emergency Services.

Dalrymple said in the declaration that the state is committed to protecting the right to lawful protests, but recent events have created a “significant public safety concern.”

The protests have grown substantially over the past week as about 1,500 people have gathered to demonstrate against the pipeline being drilled under the Missouri River. Large campsites have been established for the protesters. Twenty-nine people have been arrested during the demonstrations.

The Morton County Sheriff’s Department has been the central law enforcement agency involved in monitoring the protests, but several state agencies have gotten involved.

North Dakota Highway Patrol has sent officers to the protest site, Wilz said. The health department has provided portable water trailers and a medical trailer at the protest camp. The transportation department has assisted with the road detour on Highway 1806 and put up barriers and signage.

Wilz said he will be looking at funding requests from the agencies, make an estimate and ask the emergency commission for an appropriation. The commission can authorize emergency services to get a loan from the Bank of North Dakota.

He estimated the additional resources could cost from $750,000 to $1 million, if the protests continue for the next few weeks.

[…]

Morton County declared its own state of emergency on Monday, for the purpose of tapping into its emergency fund and creating public awareness, said Cody Schulz, chairman of the county commission.

Schulz said the biggest expense for the county has been law enforcement, including overtime for the sheriff’s deputies and assistance from other agencies, including the Mandan Police and the Cass and Mercer County Sheriffs.

The governor’s emergency order does not include activation of the National Guard.

The governor is so damn deep in big oil’s pockets he couldn’t tunnel himself out, so naturally, he’s going to start spending money the state doesn’t have to corral all of us evil Indians and allies, and point the finger of blame at us. Thanks, gov.

Via Bismarck Trib.

Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault II has responded…

[Read more…]

We Won’t Be Able to Pee Anywhere, Oh No!

Sandy Rios.

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.

Dakota Access: About That Oil…

DAS

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.

[Read more…]

Internet Outrage.

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.

Trump Will Make Jesus Come Back.

Frank Amedia.

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.

Dakota Access Standoff Calls on Obama.

The Camp of the Sacred Stones has swelled from a few dozen to more than 2,500, according to Standing Rock Sioux Tribe officials. They are calling for further review of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the end of July without a full environmental assessment. Courtesy Little Redfeather Design/Honor the Earth.

The Camp of the Sacred Stones has swelled from a few dozen to more than 2,500, according to Standing Rock Sioux Tribe officials. They are calling for further review of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the end of July without a full environmental assessment. Courtesy Little Redfeather Design/Honor the Earth.

Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II continued calling for peace and nonviolence as demonstrations continued at a construction site for the Dakota Access oil pipeline, a day after a federal district court in North Dakota granted a temporary restraining order against those it deemed were interfering with the work.

“As we have said from the beginning, demonstrations regarding the Dakota Access pipeline must be peaceful,” Archambault said in a statement to reporters on August 17. “There is no place for threats, violence or criminal activity. That is simply not our way. So, the Tribe will do all it can to see that participants comply with the law and maintain the peace. That was our position before the injunction, and that is our position now.”

Archambault also alluded to President Barack Obama’s 2014 visit to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, and his offer of help, noting that back then he did not ask the President for anything.

“I just showed him the reality of our lives,” Archambault said. “I believe both he and Michelle Obama were touched. So now if there’s any way he can intervene and move this pipeline off our treaty lands, I’m asking him.”

The temporary restraining order, dated August 16, prohibits the named defendants “and unidentified individuals,” designated as John and Jane Does, “from interfering with its right to construct the Dakota Access Pipeline (the “Pipeline”) in accordance with all local, state, and federal approvals it has obtained,” read Dakota Access LLC’s request to the court. Construction was halted due to “safety concerns,” the company said.

People vowing to protect the waters of the Missouri have gathered on land along the river owned by Standing Rock tribal member LaDonna Allard. The Sacred Stone Spiritual Camp, as it is called, has been occupied since April. It swelled from a few dozen a week ago to more than 2,500 by August 17, according to an estimate by tribal officials.

The court sided with Dakota Access LLC and granted the restraining order on the grounds that the permits were valid and thus give the company the right to start construction on the portion that will cross Lake Oahe, which was formed by the Oahe Dam on the Missouri River.

“Dakota Access has obtained the necessary easements and rights of way to construct the Pipeline in North Dakota and the necessary federal, state, and local permits for the Oahe Crossing,” the court said in its motion. “In accordance with the permits and approvals obtained for the Pipeline project, Dakota Access has commenced construction activities in North Dakota.”

[…]

The $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile-long pipeline would cross the Missouri River itself, in addition to the lake. Standing Rock Sioux Tribe officials say that in crossing Lake Oahe and the Missouri River, the pipeline would disturb burial grounds and sacred sites on ancestral Treaty lands. Archambault said that over the past several days he had met and spoken with everyone from demonstrators, to tribal government and spiritual leaders, to state and local law enforcement officials.

“In all of these meetings, my message has been consistent—we need to work together in peace,” he said. “And, as I continue to spread this message, I believe that the word is getting out. Standing Rock wants there to be peace.”

The chairman said he has also met over the past year with federal officials from numerous agencies “to express the Tribe’s strong opposition and to let them know that we will be heard,” and noted the upcoming hearing on the tribe’s lawsuit against the Army Corps.

“Our basic position is that the Corps of Engineers has failed to follow the law and has failed to consider the impacts of the pipeline on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe,” he said.

Also pending is a lawsuit filed by Dakota Access LLC against Archambault and several others simultaneously with the motion for a restraining order. The suit was filed after Archambault and about a dozen others were arrested during the demonstrations on August 11. Construction began on August 10.

Numerous tribes have expressed support for the Standing Rock Sioux, responding to a request for “proclamations, resolutions and/or letters of support,” the tribe said in an August 15 statement. All the tribe wants, Archambault said, is that the pipeline not be built across Treaty lands.

Sacred Rock Camp.  –  Rezpect Our Water.  –   Via ICTMN.