Month: November 2016

“The Corps sent a letter to Standing Rock Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault Nov. 25, saying the decision is to protect the general public from violent confrontations between protesters and law enforcement in that area.“

Hey, law enforcement aren’t like grizzly bears or coyotes or something, the government could actually just tell them not to be violent, and that would ALSO protect the general public from violent confrontations between protesters and law enforcement in that area.

This is such horseshit.

You can contact the regulatory complaint line of the Army Corps of Engineers at (202) 761-5903.

ETA 28 Nov: Read “CHEYENNE RIVER SIOUX TRIBE REACTS TO U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS EVICTION NOTICE: YOUR LETTER MAKES A GRAVE & DANGEROUS MISTAKE“

[Note from the future: NYMHM grew out of these public posts from Joanne Merriam’s Facebook account. We retain them here in archives to provide a record going back to the beginning of Trump’s presidency.]

1.

“Law enforcement officials in North Dakota have deployed tear gas and water hoses against hundreds of activists protesting against the Dakota Access Pipeline.” In freezing temperatures. This is not ok.

The more I think about this, the angrier I get. The police say this is justified because the protesters are setting fires (which the protesters say are bonfires to keep warm, which I believe, but I’m just looking at what the police themselves are claiming). How is that a justification? Even if you take the police at 100% face value, ARSON IS NOT A CAPITAL CRIME.

2.

“Wisconsin legislative map ruled illegally partisan; case will go to Supreme Court,” WaPo.

3.

I’m in a doctor’s office, so no control over the tv. They’re playing The View, and this is the first time I’ve watched it. They’re talking about the alt-right and calling it explicitly white supremacist. That’s good to see.

[Note from the future: NYMHM grew out of these public posts from Joanne Merriam’s Facebook account. We retain them here in archives to provide a record going back to the beginning of Trump’s presidency.]

Good news! “Statement Regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline“:

Today, the Army informed the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Energy Transfer Partners, and Dakota Access, LLC, that it has completed the review that it launched on September 9, 2016. The Army has determined that additional discussion and analysis are warranted in light of the history of the Great Sioux Nation’s dispossessions of lands, the importance of Lake Oahe to the Tribe, our government-to-government relationship, and the statute governing easements through government property.

Timely reminder why pipelines are dangerous: “Mapping 7 million gallons of crude oil spills,” High Country News (from 2015).

[Note from the future: NYMHM grew out of these public posts from Joanne Merriam’s Facebook account. We retain them here in archives to provide a record going back to the beginning of Trump’s presidency.]

If Trump doesn’t change his mind again, we might be able to keep coverage for children up to age 26 and for people with pre-existing conditions. I don’t know how we’ll pay for these things without the mandate, unless we get single payer. That would be amazing but I don’t see a Republican congress approving it.

[Note from the future: NYMHM grew out of these public posts from Joanne Merriam’s Facebook account. We retain them here in archives to provide a record going back to the beginning of Trump’s presidency.]

If you feel like you need to do something, give money and/or time to Standing Rock or Black Lives Matter or the Innocence Project or the Government Accountability Project or Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch or your local library or your local soup kitchen.

The world hasn’t ended. This is an armistice, not a defeat.

If you feel like all you can do today is build a blanket fort and watch Jane Austen movies, do that. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to your neighbours. Let’s be gentle with each other. Let’s be there for each other. Every small kindness matters. I’m so glad you are all here with me and I’m sending you all love and resilience.

2016 continues to be bonkers.

1. The Irrational Downfall of Park Geun-hye [Ask a Korean]
2. “He has solemnly told the country to trust him while refusing to produce any records to prove whether he speaks the truth or has utter contempt for it.” [Newsweek, “Donald Trump’s Companies Destroyed Emails in Defiance of Court Orders“]
3. “For instance, could his judicial appointments be influenced by his own court cases? . . . Would lawyers, parties in cases and even judges seek to curry favor with a powerful individual in a way that might alter the outcome?” [USA Today, “How 75 pending lawsuits could distract a Donald Trump presidency“]
4. Another great story from David A. Fahrenthold with this amazing anecdote:

In the fall of 1996, a charity called the Association to Benefit Children held a ribbon-cutting in Manhattan for a new nursery school serving children with AIDS. The bold-faced names took seats up front …[with] a seat saved for Steven Fisher, a developer who had given generously to build the nursery.

Then, all of a sudden, there was Donald Trump.

“Nobody knew he was coming,” said Abigail Disney, another donor sitting on the dais. “There’s this kind of ruckus at the door, and I don’t know what was going on, and in comes Donald Trump. [He] just gets up on the podium and sits down.”

Trump was not a major donor. He was not a donor, period. . . . So they warbled into the first song on the program, “This Little Light of Mine,” alongside Trump and a chorus of children — with a photographer snapping photos, and Trump looking for all the world like an honored donor to the cause.

Afterward, Disney and Buchenholz recalled, Trump left without offering an explanation. Or a donation. Fisher was stuck in the audience. The charity spent months trying to repair its relationship with him.

[Note from the future: NYMHM grew out of these public posts from Joanne Merriam’s Facebook account. We retain them here in archives to provide a record going back to the beginning of Trump’s presidency.]