Socialism: Disruption of Society & Dakota Access Pipeline
Socialism: Disruption of Society & Dakota Access Pipeline – “…environmental-rent-a-mobs have actually polluted the environment.”
by Bill Lockwood
The Entertainment Industry has become, in large measure, one big propaganda stage for the socialist left. This past weekend featured The Grammy Awards in which there was no shortage of calls to collectivist activism. Paris Jackson, for instance, used her moment in the spotlight to advocate more protesting of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Her call to arms was as follows: “We could really use this kind of excitement at a pipeline protest guys! #NoDaPL.”
From obstructionism in the halls of Congress to an overt disruption of society, socialists are intent on destroying what little freedom we have remaining in America.
Dakota Access Pipeline
The Dakota Access Pipeline is a $3.8 billion, 1,100-mile pipeline under construction in the Upper Midwest that would carry approximately 500,000 barrels of crude oil through four states. The point of origin is what is called The Bakken Formation in North Dakota. Named for the family upon whose farm the deposit of oil was originally found in 1953, the pipeline is to run to Pakota, Illinois.
Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) is the company building the pipeline. According to Popular Mechanics magazine, estimates from ETP range between 8,000 to 12,000 construction jobs and $156 million in tax revenue alone will result from merely the construction of the pipeline. Added to that, there is an estimated $129 million annually in property and income taxes that the pipeline will provide.
The Institute for Energy Research (IER) notes that, “an estimated $50 million annually in property taxes and nearly $74 million in sales taxes” will be funneled to the “states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois to support services such as schools, roads, and emergency services.”
Economic advantages aside, what is more concerning to many is the possible environmental impact of the pipeline. Wading through government red tape on this one is more than a minor challenge. Yet, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deemed the pipeline safe in an official government study. In a further evaluation of ETP itself, the Corps wrote that the ETP itself has “developed response and action plans, and will include several monitoring systems, shut-off valves, and other safety features to minimize the risk of spills and reduce …any potential damages.”
Brian McNicoll of the Daily Caller noted that, in all, ETP had received “approval from environmental bureaucracies in four states. It took negotiating with local and federal officials, working painstakingly with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of the Interior to identify the safest, most environmentally friendly route available.”
Because of all of these considerations, not the least of which is a huge jobs boon, the Dakota Access Pipeline received the endorsement of various groups and individuals. The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) stated, “From improved access to domestic fuel to a $5 billion economic infusion in the form of jobs, tax payments and reimbursements for landowners, communities stand to gain much from construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline … For the highly skilled and trained men and women of LIUNA, projects like the Dakota Access are more than just pipelines. They are crucial lifelines to family-supporting jobs.”
Laborers Local 563 Agent Cory Bryson said, “We’ve been inundated with calls from all over the country from people wanting to work on this pipeline project. Mainline pipeline projects like Dakota Access provide excellent working opportunities for our members and tremendous wages. The Laborers excel at this work.”
This common sense has not been lost on the political figures of North Dakota. Doug Burgum, the last Governor of North Dakota, and the current Governor, Jack Dalrymple, have both supported the pipeline. Governor Dalrymple wrote in the Star Tribune the following on December 15, 2016:
“A 13-month review process included public-input meetings held across the state. As a result of these meetings, the route was modified 140 times to ensure environmental safety, including a shift to follow an existing gas pipeline corridor so as not to create an entirely new pathway. The final route was legally approved and permitted by the state, the location for the crossing of the Missouri River was approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the easement was forwarded to the corps’ assistant secretary for signature.”
Nevertheless, in spite of the above simple facts, protestors, acting more like misinformed masses of Marxists in Lenin’s Soviet Union than American citizens, have been fomenting rebellion and disruption of lawful society, declaring that the pipeline would possibly pollute drinking water and cultural sites important to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North Dakota. Turbulence is boiling on the bottom of our society and the likes of Paris Jackson is delighted to stir it.
The Protests
Since rabbles and mobs mobilized for agitating society have little reasoning powers, it is not supposed that the following will turn these hordes of lefties into thoughtful statesmen. But the facts are difficult things to overcome.
First, the pipeline is not on or near Indian Land. In reality, the pipeline is 70 miles distant from the Standing Rock Reservation’s water supply. Governor Dalrymple added that the pipeline has a “permitted route” that “never crosses tribal land.” “Those opponents who cite the 1851 Treaty of Fr. Laramie to dispute who owns the lands conveniently ignore the later treaty of 1868.” This is why the U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C. ruled against a request for an injunction.
Further, not one person from the Standing Rock Tribe has met with ETP or any regulator in any meeting or hearing of public notice for the course of two years. Socialist policies are not established by rational discussion and debate, but by power-plays blueprinted by community-organizers.
Second, many of the protestors are funded by communist George Soros. Brian McNicoll of The Daily Caller exposed this months ago. Camps of protestors were funded by Soros’ “anti-energy, anti-environment, anti-jobs activists journeying from the coasts” to draw international attention to the supposed plight of the Sioux Indians. Up-ending society is what Soros has in mind.
Ironic isn’t it? Socialist International website claims big bad Trump is a “billionaire” with designs on America while the communists frame themselves as poor grassroots activists who only wish to protect the environment from the greedy rich. Another communist lie. Socialist International fails to mention that the protestors themselves are bank-rolled by one of the wealthiest communists in the world—George Soros. Sponsored by more billionaire money SI calls for protestors to “occupy” peaceful cities this spring, such as Fargo and Bismark in order to further disrupt society.
Third, the protests have escalated into violence. Ignoring real property rights, protestors have encamped on private land and have blocked off bridges and roads. Fires ignited by protestors have caused $2 million in damage; protestors have hurled Molotov cocktails at police officers and guns were fired injuring at least one person. Sounds like Woodstock of old, hating “the establishment”—but leaving millions of dollars worth of cleanup for someone else to finance.
At one point police arrested 141 protestors, according to NBC News reports. Another report shows that over 260 were arrested upon another occasion. Predictably, most of those arrested were “out-of-state protestors” likely bussed in by leftist activists. Rent-a-mob for hire.
Socialism always spawns violence and disorder. One might think that the DOJ under Obama last fall would have interfered. Wrong. Obama’s AG, Loretta Lynch “refused to deploy federal forces” to assist the beleaguered in North Dakota even though violence had begun. Hot Air’s Jazz Shaw suggested that the reason was political, as the protestors “are very big with the Democratic base and there’s an election coming up.” Per IER, then-President Obama listened to 31 environmental groups to side with the socialist movement.
Fourth, environmental-rent-a-mobs have actually polluted the environment. So much for being “at one with nature.” But the environment is not what this is really about. Bob Adelman reports that after the exit of the protestors “so much trash and human waste had accumulated that the cleanup is expected to take weeks. Once the debris has been cleared, an environmental cleanup will follow” (The New American).
So grotesque was the environmental damage that even “Dave Archambault, the tribal chairman for the Standing Rock Sioux and leader in the protest movement, was astonished at just how much trash, garbage, rotting food, tents, teepees, sleeping bags, blankets, canned goods (open and sealed), food, equipment, human excrement, and even dozens of automobiles had been left behind.”
“The cleanup will take weeks,” Archambault noted. The mounds of trash left behind by protestors are in danger of polluting the very environment they said they cherished, wrote Adelman. “Most of the cost will be borne by the tribe, which has received an estimated $6 million in donations from those supporting the protestors. The balance will be provided by volunteers from nearby Cannonball, and local health and environmental agencies supported by local taxpayers.”
This abject hypocrisy is built right into the socialist system of liberal thinking. Wherever liberalism has taken root, it is not hard to find. Maybe Paris Jackson and the Hollywood elite will sponsor the clean-up? Maybe they will protest the filthy protestors who leave mounds of trash in beautiful North Dakota?