Oil Spills: North Dakota Public Record

Remember this: Sometimes you have to have an argument for why something is a damn bad idea. All you have to do is look at the track record. It is right there-collectively, and cohesively.

I don’t write these things for fame or fortune. I merely put thoughts out there for others to grab, investigate, use, and run with the sharp scissors.

So, while everyone is looking at one thing. I decided to look back at the wheat field and well, deviant that I am, things that you have to put out in public records.

Works for me at the moment

There was an article entitled; North Dakota recorded 300 oil spills in two years without notifying the public, by the Associated Press Bismarck. The article was dated Friday, 25 October 2013. That was three years ago.

It would seem that companies in North Dakota are required to report spills to the agency with jurisdiction, which puts them into public record, but are not really required to tell the public that it’s out there.

Question No. 1: If DAPL puts a pipeline through a portion of Standing Rock, and it leaks, are they going to make a report, file it with the public record, and hope no one asks, or finds out about it?

Not sure, thought I would ask.

If this article was in October 2013, and it stated the state Health Department and regulators were reviewing state’s policies for when to publicly report such incidences after a massive spill. I wonder if they actually revised that issue.

Question No. 2: If your state governance sees a red flag, and doesn’t address it, should the public think someone isn’t doing their jobs?

Then we go back to the time the Universe was giving everyone a heads up when lightning struck that wheat field in North Dakota and governance hid it for eleven days.

Question No.3: Damn, the Universe must not have liked that pipeline either. Do you think the Universe was pointing out the evidence?

Not sure, thought I would ask.

When you read track records like this, and let me tell you, North Dakota has a racetrack that extends well pass the event horizon.

Question No. 4: If the track record of oil companies and their spills is stacking up persistently in one state, (cough North Dakota), is it accurate to observe that when tribal, and non-tribal constituents do not trust their state government, is it warranted? 

If the state government is aware of this distrust, yet tries to silence tribal, and non-tribal constituents from observing their Constitutional Rights, and whatever Tribal Rights and treaties they have, can a state governance publicly try to undermine those groups in the hopes of clearing a path for something that has already been exhibited as a potential threat to quality of life, even to the point of disguise on the part of slipping it in a report, and silently placing it in the folder of Public Record, and hoping no one asks for it?

Not sure, thought I would ask.

When you read the Associate Press Bismarck article, it reiterates new pipelines spring up, which increases possible instances of pipeline breaching, this breaching causes the risk to environmental habitat to go up, which involves the closely connected human habitation.

Question No. 5: How many pipelines does it take?

Not sure, thought I would ask.

I was thinking this. If you can gather documentation from public records, of a bad track record, of companies with oil spills (list them all with dates, locations, and companies), lack of oversight (ask for the exact maintenance schedule to be performed to ensure quality assurance of the pipelines, and how covered ground pipeline is to be monitored), and being negligible at reporting to the public when a spill occurs, just to name a few-you would have a hefty argument for why North Dakota governance may not be strategically monitoring its oil companies shenanigans, and forgoing monitoring to keep up with the Jones at the cost of whomever lays in the wake of the pipelines.

Question No. 6: Who is to say that this same thing can’t happen at the Standing Rock area?

Not sure, thought I would ask.

There again, the big question would be:

Question No. 7: Why was DAPL so desperate to get that pipeline through?

Question No. 8: How did that desperation translate into the decisions to try and threaten, coerce, physically assault, and fully out them and their employees as a company now known for its blatantly disregard for human life, even verbalizing it with the moniker, “scum of the Earth”.

Not sure, thought I would ask.

I read the in 2014, one million gallons of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing leaked from a pipeline near Fort Berthold, home of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara. They live right on top of pipelines.

Question No.9: When you set your life up on top of a spider web of potential problems, would one think it is a little to late for going back? Is it better to just not have the pipeline near your water?

Not sure, thought I would ask.

When you are dealing with poor track records, one does wonder why the standard hasn't been set higher with more emphasis on transporting the products safely, without spills, or injuries to and through the destinations the pipelines occupy.

Where is the integrity management programs? Where is the in-line inspection tools to determine the condition of the pipelines? Where the hell are the Smart Pigs, and why aren't they being used? Is there adequate funding for research projects on  pipeline challenges? How are pipeline regulatory agencies ensuring incidences do not occur, and if they do, less frequent.

Why does it appear the pipeline companies are not working together or observing an industry wide recommended practice?

When you see the rate of error and malfunctioning in how Energy Infrastructure is handles, compounded with the numerous cases of malfunction of equipment,and maintenance, when is someone going to ask the question:

When is quality assurance and safety precaution going to be re-evaluated to address the high incidences of natural and liquid gas breaching pipelines, and any hole it makes birth from?

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore

http://www.ndhealth.gov/EHS/OpenRecords.asp

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/25/north-dakota-oil-pipeline-spills-secrecy 

https://thinkprogress.org/it-will-never-be-the-same-north-dakota-s-840-000-gallon-oil-spill-one-year-later-16686efd39#.25ok9w47j

Reading, Writing, and Indigenous Legal Matters.

Remember this: Does it apply, or does it not? If it doesn't, can someone find a proper home for it in the future in some legal jargon? Or is it somewhere else? 

One must muddle through the swamp of legal wording. Hey, I got nothing to do but read. 

Section 5 and Section 6 needs to creep up from the grave. This should apply to the Governor of North Dakota, Morton County Sheriff's Department, public and private entities exercising aggressive measures towards the Standing Rock Sioux Peace Prayer against DAPL, and anyone else pretending to be concerned, while assaulting tribal members with war tactics, bodily harm, and crimes against people living under the supposed protection of the US Federal Trust of Indigenous lands. 

An Act to Regulate Trade and Intercourse With the Indian Tribes (1790).

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That if any citizen or inhabitant of the United States, or of either of the territorial districts of the United States, shall go into any town, settlement or territory belonging to any nation or tribe of Indians, and shall there commit any crime upon, or trespass against, the person or property of any peaceable and friendly Indian or Indians, which, if committed within the jurisdiction of any state, or within the jurisdiction of either of the said districts, against a citizen or white inhabitant thereof, would be punishable by the laws of such state or district, such offender or offenders shall be subject to the same punishment, and shall be proceeded against in the same manner as if the offence had been committed within the jurisdiction of the state or district to which he or they may belong, against a citizen or white inhabitant thereof.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That for any of the crimes or offences aforesaid, the like proceedings shall be had for apprehending, imprisoning or bailing the offender, as the case may be, and for recognizing the witnesses for their appearance to testify in the case, and where the offender shall be committed, or the witnesses shall be in a district other than that in which the offence is to be tried, for the removal of the offender and the witnesses or either of them, as the case may be, to the district in which the trial is to be had, as by the act to establish the judicial courts of the United States, are directed for any crimes or offenses against the United States.

Seems pretty square on how it applies.

Another thing, as I have been reading, is: 

If the Standing Rock Agency at Ft. Yates, North Dakota, is the field office for the Bureau of Indian Affairs that provides Trust Services and tribal services to the Standing Rock Sioux-what exactly was the Bureau of Indian Affairs doing to ensure they were policing the Trust Responsibilities towards the Standing Rock Sioux in regard to the aggressive means used by the Governor of North Dakota, Morton County Sheriff’s Department, and anyone else employed through private, or public entities.

I know I have seen the complaint the Bureau of Indians Affairs does not do its job, so exactly what were they doing in all this? I have seen others voicing their concerns on this.

If this has been a long standing complaint within the indigenous tribes, why hasn't that office been overhauled to bring it current where tribal constituents are better served in a timely manner. When you have enough complaints that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is slacking on the job, that would call for an over-all assessment of functioning, revision, and overhaul. 

If it is not working-repair it.

Is someone is going to treat indigenous people as charges of the federal government, then who were the irresponsible adults in these shenanigans? Nowhere did I read or see...Bureau of Indian Affairs said or did (blank). There is nothing to read on that unless it is hid in the dark net. As you read further you will see, I assume but could be wrong, that more responsibility has been given to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to manage trust fund lands on behalf of the tribes. 

I did find this on the Mille Lacs band Of Ojibwe that probably needs a couple of eyes cast upon it-for learning sake. 

For your reading enjoyment:

The U.S. Government Trust Responsibility to American Indians

·        The U.S.government has a trust responsibility to American Indians. This trust responsibility was an underlying promise made by the United States when it made treaties and agreements with Indian tribes.

·        The U.S. government acquired virtually all of its land through treaties or agreements with Indian tribes. Today most lands that Indian tribes use are owned by the United States and held in trust by the U.S. government for those tribes.

·        The U.S. government made a commitment to protect Indian tribes from non-Indians by enacting the Trade and Intercourse Acts, which were passed between 1790 and 1834. Exploitation of Indians was one of the major reasons for conflict between Indians and non-Indians.

·        The U.S. government’s trust responsibility to American Indians was affirmed in the 1830s by the Supreme Court. The court ruled that when the government entered into treaties with Indian tribes, it made a promise to protect and enhance Indian tribes.

·        In 1871, the United States passed legislation stating that it would no longer enter into treaties with Indian tribes, primarily because it had acquired all the land that it wanted at the time and because the treaty-making process had caused conflicts between the Senate and the House of Representatives. Thereafter, all federal laws passed with regard to tribes have been the result of actions taken by Congress.

·        The U.S. government assumes a trust responsibility for all lands that it owns, whether they are national parks, national forests, military reserves, or Indian trust lands. The government’s responsibility is to manage those lands in a way that best serves the people who use them.

·        The U.S. government’s responsibility for managing land held in trust for Indian tribes is no different from its duty for managing other lands it owns. The United States is responsible for ensuring that decisions that affect Indian trust lands benefit the tribes involved.

·        In recent years, the United States has said that every federal agency has an obligation to ensure the protection of tribal governments, even though the trust relationship is administered primarily through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. For example, the Department of Energy has a responsibility to ensure that the energy needs of tribes are being met, and the Environmental Protection Agency has a responsibility to ensure that the environments within Indian reservations are protected.

·        Federal agencies and their employees are responsible for ensuring that their actions that affect Indian tribes enhance, protect and improve conditions for the tribal communities and governments. Each federal agency has applicable law that describes its relationship to everyone in the United States, including its trust relationship with Indian tribes.

·        Management programs for Indian trust lands are implemented for the most part by the Department of the Interior, which has regulations describing how it will protect and enhance federal lands. Generally, protection and enhancement of Indian trust lands are done through the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, and recently, more tribes are assuming control over the use of their own lands through self-governance cooperative agreements.

·        In the 1980s, tribes began to take on some of the responsibilities for managing trust lands under the authority of a federal law, P.L. 93-638, also known as self-governance. Under self-governance, tribes have received federal funds directly to administer and manage programs, services, functions and activities that the tribe determines are in the best interest of its members.

·        Self-governance does not mean that the trustee-benefactor relationship between the United States and tribes ceases. Instead it means that the U.S. government now has cooperative agreements with tribes that enable them to directly operate programs for their members that formerly were provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service. A major tenet of self-governance laws is the continued trust responsibility of the federal government to tribes. 

http://millelacsband.com/mille-lacs-band-ojibwe/economy/businesses-and-economic-impact-home/u-s-government-trust-responsibility-to-american-indians/

Dear Hunters: Endowed To Protect

Remember this: Causative Melancholy writes an unread letter.

Dear Hunter: I am about to let you know what’s up.

Now that Thanksgiving 2016 has the derogatory stain of Human and Constitutional rights violations by a continuous stream of militarized police violence on the Standing Rock Sioux by Morton County Police, DAPL, Dakota Access, LLC, and outsourced security companies-the one thing I would like to see, which cannot find, is a full environmental impact statement for the conditions a DAPL crude oil leak in the ground implied under the water source of the Standing Rock Sioux. 

There should be one. This environmental impact statement should include the complete expanse of the pipeline through its subsequent states and anything it affects, even human beings. Where is it? How can Dakota Access, LLC build without the environmental impact statement? If there is an environmental statement, why is it not available for the public?

The XL Keystone Pipeline had an environmental impact study-where is DAPL’s?

Questions. Questions.

Free media is focusing on infringement of an indigenous spiritual movement, human rights, desecration of sacred burial mounds, and Dakota Access with the help of North Dakota’s governance to pull a Viking move on the Standing Rock Sioux. When you read the content of official letters between lawyers and different departments involved-one wonders where that bit of information is.

Celebrities got involved. It is a shame that the common person can’t make a statement and it is heard. It has to be known person with a huge following. That didn’t work-DAPL put up a barb wire fence while officers walked over the burial mound like it was nothing.

Yet a small person can stand up and make a big sound-when everyone else joins in repeating the words.

Foreign places even showed support but they are a long ways off.

I have been trying to put it all into perspective with the lack of evidence, available research on the part of science in order to do such a project, and turning the screw so you can look in another prism of the key hole.

When you review pipeline projects, jobs are generated but do not last forever. The project itself destroys habitat in areas and it takes time for those areas to recoup.

There is a problem with keeping up a standard of maintenance and upkeep on pipelines to keep leaks from occurring. Corrosion, as I have read is a guilty party. If an oil pipeline is sixty feet under a water source, at the mercy of the agents of nature, and not visually inspectable, is it proper to say this is favorable conditions for undetectable leaks over a period of time that could cause extreme damage to the ground, ground water, and those living things above it?

Then a company drives that right through someone’s family graveyard-that is a morally bankrupt concept to observe.

For writing purposes’ sake, I am going to reason that what has been done to Standing Rock is good enough reason to revolt. If you need something else to drive it home-here it is. Anyone else that can think of a valid reason to support this argument, feel free to write your own-and spread the word.

I may dwell in darkness in my blog, but readers tend to write and spread the word. Go forth and multiple.

Out-of-sight, out-of-mind. This pipeline stretches estimate 1,130 (or 1172) miles-with a certain amount of that underground. It goes through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and on to Illinois. That is 1,130 miles of potential damage to wildlife habitat, outdoor infringement due to No Access due to damage, etc. There is the issue of the Oil Company cleaning up the mess it has created, and everyone else living with the fall-out from it.

How fair it is that a big corporation, or company can act as they please, as it would seem, to whomever they want, yet depending on which state you live in, the constituent has to go to the local government, ask for a building permit to add to their house, or have natural resources come out to their property and tell the constituent where a hole can be dug to put in a water source?

Does Human habitation ever occur in an Environmental Impact study? 

If it does, why was the Standing Rock Sioux not included in its ledgers? Or someone was hoping to rub the Standing Rock Sioux from it in the hopes-no one would care about them.

Not this day.

The idea the other states involved caters to the acceptance of something that could ruin their quality of life exists, but look the other way with the hopes nothing bad will happen. Then I think, Flint Michigan and the tainted water-among other stories.

Constituents were disregarded in the construction of policies and ideas to supposedly serve the community without proper consideration for the possible outcomes that could harm them. In its execution of said plan, disregarded ensuring quality material and a plan to monitor were lacking. There didn’t seem to exist consistent monitoring for safety issues and placed regulations for water quality.

You have distrust in politicians, and the politician’s inability to use sound science to ensure quality of life of the human constituents through regulations that stipulate a section dedicated to problem-solving in the now, instead of the “after the fact”.

No one said a politician had to be a scientist, but a politician has a world of scientists at the ready to give sound input on issues where there is questionable content. All they have to do is ask the question, receive the input, and make a sound decision, or send that idea back to the drawing board until someone works out the kinks.

If you can’t execute it without harm-review, revise, and then act.

Dear Hunter-this is where you come in. If you hunt any of those states, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois-go to that states Department of Natural Resources for hunting and google the wild game. Do you want to lose that?

If these people can ramrod a tribe of indigenous peoples, when someone decides to privatize Public Lands-do you think the militarized police aren’t going to show up and spray you in the face with mace, shoot rubber bullets at you, blind you with lights to keep you up at night, and refuse to let you build a fire in freezing condition after spraying cold water on you to give you hypothermia?

Do you think you will be different? Somehow, your life has more value than Standing Rock-no, it doesn’t.

Standing Rock fights for the same things-it varies in their timeline-but the same things. They fight for all of us. Even you good hunter.

How you value land and hunting is the same as Standing Rock with some varying in belief-but you know it is sacred, you need it, and it is yours to defend-it is your home.

If you don’t believe me look up the fight for public lands and hunting. See what your google strike gets. I believe that is one of the keystone issues Steven Rinella speaks on; if you need some credibility here, because what do I know-I am a woman.

When you have elected a President that can’t be trusted in his word, you have to wait for the shoe to drop; God forbid where it fall.

When shady politicians forego the quality and value of human life to hire a get-away-crew to do less than excellent work which causes sickness and disease-maybe you need to rethink being silent because you were never promised it wouldn’t happen to you.

If a United States veteran, who made a vow to protect the American people can stand up for and with the Standing Rock Sioux, then Hunters everywhere need to get off their asses and realize what this means to them.

Not ever hunter is a likable character. Some are self-serving, like to see themselves in photos, and act as elitists over all of us-but you, Hunter-are a free agent of the wild. It is your endowment to protect it. I am eyeballing you to scientists of the world.

Yet, you are free to chose.

Its water, land, family, wildlife, a way of life, and the things you spout are tradition, to be pasted to your kids-for future generations. 

That is no different than Standing Rock Sioux. They have the same innate right to it-and it is being tread on.

Its habitat, wildlife, all things we know as Nature that restores our soul when the trappings of this world, wear us down with stress, depression, and lack of hope.

One of our mottoes as the American Public: Don’t tread on us.

When did we give it away? Why do we normalize the treading on other people that are fighting for a reason that can’t be argued?

When did we stop standing up with our ethnic brothers who want the same decency and respect-the same people whose ancestors walked through lives of happiness, abuse, torture, life and death for us to get here?

How did people come to disrespect the self and each other, and normalize the things our ancestors and people now, died for?

Some people don't like what I have to say. If I was having a hard time, I would want someone like me to show up. Standing Rock is having a hard time, that is all they want to-and people to respect their belief that pipeline not go under their water source, or anywhere near their sacred burial sites. They don't want putrid water. Water is life.

Dear Hunter: You best be standing up and vocalizing. You are not immune to this. Don't wait for them to drive something through your hunting grounds. If you shirk you duty at this, when your hunting is gone, or you cry for help and it goes unheard-I told you so.

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore, čhúŋwaŋča waók kté 

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Makes you wonder if the same thing happened to Standing Rock. 
When you read down through this you'll find this statement:

The scope of this task was restricted to assessing the impacts in the Columbia River from these two scenarios; we did not evaluate potential impacts in the Pacific Ocean or along the Pacific Coast. We also did not separately assess how the public or Indian Tribes would value the potential losses to natural resources if either of these spills were to occur, although these values may be at least partly accounted for in the methods we used. Thus, we expect that we are underestimating the potential impacts to fisheries and the potential natural resource damages from these spill scenarios.

http://192.168.1.1:8181/http://columbiariverkeeper.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/2615-137-CFTE-Ex1503-000095-ENV-Report_05-13-16.pdf

Politically-Incited Repressed Memories

Remember this: Emotions are linked to previous traumas. Invoke the memory to free the emotion, and watch it run rampant.

Since this election, I have found myself the observer and participant in bridging some strange gaps between me and other people.

By the way, the best way to bridge a gap is to sit down with someone, extend understanding by listening fully to their concerns instead of diminishing them with rhetoric and hate. They have to talk the poison out. For important issues, talk to the horse’s head and not its ass. 

I was sitting across the table from an African-American woman who said, “If Trump thinks I am going to go back to the way we lived when people of color couldn’t mingle with white people-then he is wrong.”

I said, “I was born in (blank space). I didn’t have anything to do with that.”

She said, “I will not have a white person telling me what to do.”

She was angry and wanted nothing to do with me; a week separation from her was required. 

I took a pause and thought: What could it be? I was a stranger to her.

I was having a burden placed on me that wasn’t my shame to bear. By God, I wasn’t going to bear it either. I didn’t care who I had to fight to figure it out. Yet, where could it possibly come from? It came from her memories. Mine too.

You really had to be a part of the busing that went on around 1974 to understand. This was a time when schools were being desegregated and equalized so there was a certain proportion of Caucasians integrated with African-American children. We were tossed together, regardless of home training and expected to integrate as one.

It worked where I lived so long as you didn’t have the awful whispers of ethnicity hate at home.

If you were poor and Caucasian, you were sent to the rural African-American schools. If you were a financially capable Caucasian, you were enrolled into a private school.

Without reliving the details, children from this era were raised within the bosom of desegregation and the stress it caused by generating situations where conflict was present. It was rough on Caucasian and People of Color because both sides were indoctrinated with predisposed familial-inherited hate and avoidance, then thrust into a situation were previously both groups were conditioned to avoid.

What made it somewhat of a success was there was integration of teachers of different ethnicity with the belief they could work together and educate children of varying ethnicity, without falter, and succeed.

That is the Power of Love.

I had some of the best teachers in the poorest school district because they loved us, and worked because they loved us in spite of what surrounded us outside of the school walls.

One can’t forget the parents brave enough to be okay with sending their children to ethnically equalized schools.

Here you see a multiple-joint effort to get a desired outcome.

Eventually, differing people in a community began to begrudgeonly get along.  The world passes with each new dynamic to challenge an old system that segregated people out. People died for this change.

Years and years later, you begin to see groups self-segregate on their own under the belief they are not being served equally as other groups.

All previous hard work is drifting like broken continents.

All these different groups have their own agenda that moves within the realm of an ethnicity’s majority taking control of the Power, whatever that power may be.

There is no overall unifying harmony in this dynamic. There is no broad spectrum for it to feed into. It is a selfish intention spotlighting to get power over another group in the hopes of controlling the destiny of the main group and the other targeted groups.

It is the emotion of fear, anger, and an avenging Nature fueling the idea, that if one has control they can alleviate the suffering on the chosen group, but end up elevating the suffering on another lesser desired group for justifiable reasoning. There is no balance in this system-ever.

When Trump became the President elect through the Electoral College, everything that he spoke of as a means to gain control and cater to a certain group of people in America, set all those that were not considered into a series of repressed memories and ideas from a long time ago. What wasn’t repressed was now clearly invited into the open to show its ugliest faces.

Society lives with the truth that ugliness lives with us constantly and we hardly ever get a break from it.

When someone is not saying terrible things and making innocent people look bad, corporations are using brutal and less than sanitary means to beat down on a people to get a project finished regardless of the future consequence for profit's sake.

Cast your eyes to Standing Rock. The Sioux are protesting against DAPL placing a pipeline in proximity of their water supply and the possible consequence of a breach in the pipeline polluting their only source of water. There is the truth it was redirected from Bismarck for the same reasons Standing Rock didn’t want it near their water. DAPL didn’t budge because they figured no one cared about Standing Rock and it would be a breeze to knock them over and the world wouldn’t even notice the thump in the night.

When you are an observer looking at the images coming out of Standing Rock, you realize all it takes is the right thing applied to you, and easily you could be in the same predicament.

You can look back over different time zones of history and see images reflecting the exact same thing. It is the brutality, the lack of diplomacy, the lack of understanding, and the overall lack of not listening to the concerns of people, and taking them seriously while treating them as if they are “scum of the Earth” as one DAPL employee uttered on a video easily accessed online.

Where is the mutual respect? Do constituents not deserve it?

Information bleeding out into the social media zones clearly articulate how one stranger can have no regard for human life. That same person could be riding on the Subway with you, or sitting with a cup of Starbucks coffee at Barnes and Nobles.

When you have someone coming along, stating they care nothing for you, or your issues, it echoes back into government especially if governmental agencies, banks, and anyone else with power are backing these people.

The very last thing the American public needs right now is the idea now seeded in our heads that we cannot trust our government to listen to us, act on our behalf, and take our needs seriously.

These traumas bore several ideas with it.

It brought about the idea that someone in a trusted position of power could use that position, and that power, to inflict great pain on innocent people employing them. That position is the Presidency an any other governmental position with means to invoke a power play affecting the populace. The Presidency is not a place for a hate and fear monger. Nor should it be a place where the majority control of a group for self-serving interests should take advantage of the American public to condone a fascist regime geared to support Republican rule, as the majority.

Diversity matters in more ways than one.

It was the idea that someone in power could wield it in such a way to incite broken trust, anger, and contempt among constituents where outward displaces of pettiness ruled the social media strata.

This infliction of harm could happen to minorities, LGBT, immigrants, and pretty much anyone regardless of creed, or ethnicity; all it needs is a target.  People could be subjugated. Those not doing the subjugation would carry the crime for someone else’s actions.

It was already bad enough that daily individual race relations at the basement level were difficult to hurdle, but having it flaunted on a national amphitheater magnified its effects way out of proportion.

Everyone is guilty for being judgmental and labeling others even before we get to know them. In Trump’s case, he was already a person with a Celebrity facade who slipped from one facade to another much to his benefit.

One of the indicators plaguing this Presidency is: the notion and idea, be it a glaring light, that all the hard work done by people all over the world, and here in the United States, could be destroyed in the swipe of a pen, like a mean child would kick down another person’s sand castle that took hours to build. These people and their actions have done great things. These efforts are to move society to become more independent from the addictions that are ruining our planet and its people.

In a nutshell: Our bad memories of the past should not be allowed to affect our children’s future. Nor should we be enslaved to it forever, or have it wielded against us as some kind of unintentional psychological manipulation.

We have a right to say “No” for ourselves, other people we stand with and for, our children, the World, and the condition of our Earth.We have a right to “say No to that”.

Trump could be the ultimate trickster-for good or evil, or his own boogie man, who knows?

What Trump needs now is a Jiminy Cricket because his behavior is unbecoming of a President.

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore "Redivivus et ultor"

Non-Voter Headspace

Remember this:  Wait for the backfire.

Watching the Collegiate Electoral Voting map appeared to be a river of blood right through the middle of America-it’s spread was everywhere. I fondly called it, The Masque of the Red Death. 

I wondered who could vote in such a way, and why?

The only thing I could think of was a great mental plague in the form of resentment, and the ability to organize an outcome, not necessarily in favor of benefiting the country, but one as children playing in a school yard with a bully shaking down kids for their lunch money.

Wait till someone realizes that a campaign was based around knowing how to work people through their true intentions to get into a position for self-benefiting shenanigans. 

If the undercurrent was to strike back against minorities, immigrants, etc. and take their country back (who exactly are these people?), then that would mean there is X amount of people that see the rest of us as non-patriotic and undeserving to live here.

Is that what it is like to be a winner? Complete separation from the rest of the country based on an ugly truth we now know is that big red blot across America on the Collegiate Electoral Voting map.

Take back your country? Who are we supposed to be taking back our country from? Oh wait, we weren’t included in that ‘take back America and make it great again’ scheme. Wait until "We, the People" have to take back our country from a Fascist Republican rule. A lot of these people are going to be using the guise of God to dictate their rules. Trust me, God isn't going to be speaking directly to them either. Buckle up kiddos. Four years is a long time when under the thumb of a small group of people that could make your life a living Hell.

Have fun champs! Let us see, if Trump makes it, what he will do over the next four years and if it ends in disgust, betrayal, and a mess to which the likes have never seen.

I wonder what the body count is going to be. If you worried about what you thought Hillary did that never went to trial, what exactly do you think will be Trump’s outcome especially when he has said some disrespectful things of Veterans? Those comments were right there coming out of his own mouth and not diatribe fake news reporting on Facebook and social media outlets.

Someone told me Trump might shock us. I laughed and said, “You bet. He’s gonna shock America for sure.”

Didn’t that already happen?

I figured this was going to happen because it is not too hard to figure out some of the American public. We already know we have racism running rampant, misogyny, and other things that play their incredible way out in political forums as we watch and go WTF over and over again.

Yet no one can stop those outcomes. We lie down as constituents, grumble, take it, move on, and mark it down as taking it for a loss.

I no longer worried over Trump’s election to office. That point was mute. I was convinced that the problem appeared to be people with voting apathy. Those people, who live in America, are subjected to its laws, but do nothing to take part in the process other than complain when policies menace their lives.

I woke up. Trump was President. I went to work. I began asking the same and only question: Did you vote? I didn’t need to know who they voted for-just if the person voted. Ten people I asked. Ten answers I got.

“Did you vote?”

Person #1     African-American Male Over 20:    No

Person #2     African-American Male Over 20:    No

Person #3     African-American Male Over 20:    No

Person #4     African-American Male Under 20:   No

Person #5     African-American Male Under 20:   No

Person #6     African American Male Under 20:   No

Person #7     Caucasian Female over 60:         No

Person #8     Caucasian male over 20, military: No

Person #9     African-American Female Over 20: Yes

Person #10   Caucasian Male over 30:           Yes

Person #11   African-American Male over 20:    Yes

Person #12   African-American Male over 30:    Yes

Of the twelve people, four voted. Of the eight people, voting apathy was evident. Digging in a little deeper, I asked: Why did you not vote?

The sixty-year-old Caucasian female’s reply was her vote didn’t matter. It would cancel out another’s vote and make it null. Two people’s vote would not matter.

The Caucasian male over 20, military replied the two lead options were not options. Trump was not a quality choice given his public antics, and Hillary had Benghazi looming over the voter’s heads. Who do you vote for the fascist, misogynist megalomaniac, or the military murderess?

Some unnamed person trolled me on Twitter, making sure I understood they weren’t attacking me, but telling me they were neutral and didn’t trust Hillary because of Benghazi. Now, I am not sure if that story is even true. No charges against her were ever filed. Why the hell not if it was that bad? I just blocked that person and moved on. Not sure why they even bothered with me.

Onward.

The six African-American males replied their vote didn’t matter. They argued by the time it got to the Electoral College-the Electoral College could vote the way the Electoral College wanted to. This vote would most likely align with the majority vote in the special interest section; not what is in the best interest of the States diverse people, or government.

The other four proclaimed they did their part and voted; nothing more to see there.

Here you have 8 people alone for their reasons that did not vote.  I wondered how many people didn’t vote just in my state. If the number is large how many of those people did not vote for the same reasons.

Another 19 year-old African-American male not included in this group told me that he didn’t vote because he was too lazy to change his voter registration from another district.  I mentioned absentee ballot and he didn’t want to do that either.

How do you live in America, in a state, with the things we are facing and not vote-then just live with the outcome. How do you live in America, as a young African-American male with the Black Lives Matter movement-yet you don’t care if you vote?

Great! The Curse of Manifest Destiny was upon us in the form of apathetic non-voters, who were becoming victims of their own undoing in the form of giving over their existence to something they felt was inevitable-no matter their actions, or the outcome.

Otherwise, I am a donkey sitting on my ass unwilling to move to go vote.

The moral of the story here is: Non-actions, no matter how you argue it is not the best self-governing policy when making huge decisions in the face of a long term consequence that can affect the world you know-it-at-large.

How do you change constituent’s minds about the value of their vote? If they think that low of their vote then can it be true to say, as a constituent, they feel their existence in the grander scheme of things within their government is left unheard, or inevitably worthless?

As politicians willing to lead, how do you go through the motions of politics knowing you were voted in on a sham because the ones that didn’t vote don’t believe in their government-federal and state, or you as a politician with many words and promises?

How does a government get to a point where a portion of We, The People feel as if we are victims to the unreliable Wheel of What-Fresh-Hell-Is-This-Today!

How does a government get to the point where “We, the People” have spoken, but it is a certain group hell-bent on striking back at everyone instead of doing what is in the best interest of the country as a whole? 

Or is it when constituents tell the government over and over they do not want something and a vague compromise is set forth, yet the outcome is not in favor of the constituents?

I know government is not perfect, but over time when the constituents yell at the governing body that things aren’t right and it needs to change, the governing body does nothing and holds “We, The People” hostage with laws made supposedly to ensure our rights, when we are just held hostage by them. Yet, we as constituents feel violated by the workings of our fellow man with spiteful choices and decision-making.

I was accused of spreading the hate but it would seem Trump did a fine job of that on his own with the help of his voters-whoever they are.

I also wondered with Trump voters, if this being at the whim of government means clutching onto the first person believed to be like a messiah, and voting them into office with the hope “We, The People” will be heard by the people we elected-even though “We, The People” is not a whole agreeable unit but different rations of a voting system in portion for a final outcome. 

“We, the People” in this case is Trump Nation. I am from the “We, the People of America.” How about you?

It stinks to high heaven like the War between the North and South-that was a racial epithet to how mistreating people will backfire in your face.

I didn’t do any of that hate-mongering. That was Trump, his rally followers, and those going around putting nasty things on minorities property. 

Yet, you will reap what you sow.

I had a friend over the age of 60, Caucasian female that believed Trump was sent from God to solve the problems of America. I stared in horror when she admitted sending money to his campaign. She really believed there were people out there voting who were sent by the Devil to keep America down. I wondered exactly what and who she thought America was. My tentative submission would be merely the Christian people of her choosing. She also believes there is a limited amount of space in heaven and some of us just won’t cut it.  I talked to someone about that particular episode. The consensus was: Wow, she has really fallen off the path. Maybe you need to cut ties with her?

You would be surprised how much of this strange indoctrination of voting based on religious belief is hammered out in churches in certain parts of the country.  I know of at least three churches I set foot in where I walked right back out based on the content of the sermon, and the way parishners treat everyone like an opportunity to show God just how holy they are-then post it to the internet.

Don’t worry. They make sure their children probably don’t have a say in their vote because the vote is streamlined straight through the family. They all vote the same, regardless of whether they want to vote different.

I put the question to task: In the face of voter apathy reeling our country into the panic zone, because some of us know what’s up, how do we go about digging into the mentality of these non-voters in the next four years to get them to be on-point and vote?

What about the backfires? Backfires are fires started to check an advancing fire by clearing an area.

We have already seen this in the form of protests. Protests that are likely to flare up over the next for years and I will not surprised if violence explodes somewhere and people are harmed.

I don't like to be all gloom and doom but there it is.

Of course, people like that religious lady friend of mine will say it is God’s work and those people against Trump deserve it because they are possessed by the evil spirit of the Devil.

I will interject here, being personally religious, this lady might be a small clutch of people. The rest might be okay.

What about now empowered voters, whose chosen candidate has won, advancing on those opposed to that candidate in such a way to make you think the winning candidate’s supporters really show they see a difference in you versus them. This difference is enough to ask you to leave your own country and aggression towards you? That doesn’t seem to be democratic at all.

When did America get to the point where we are judged, measured and found lacking to be American by other Americans?

The thing about this is: karma swings back around to serve you up the same quality bowl of ‘suck this Too-Big-For-Your-Britches magic'. When it comes, that one is gonna hurt.

I told you the darkness might come. Never say when, where or how; just that it would come.

If Trump and Hillary taught me anything it would be this:

Anyone can run for President with any kind of platform, both proper and vulgar, and get away with it. There is a group out there that does not want women to advance. There is a deeply flawed thought process flowing through the non-voter brain that we need to correct. STAT!

In terms of Trump, I am sure the ones running this country will be his kids. He will be a figurehead. The Republican Party is now the dominant force in true coup fashion.

If Trump were smart, he would hire all those against him, and let them lead his presidency by allowing the others to have input into his leadership. That is what a boss does. You pick the winning team.

That would burn a lot of Trump supporters because they would not be expecting that. It would appear Trump constituents are wanting the protection of a bully that can push people around.

Isn’t that what happens when you put a fox in  a hen house?

On a positive note, two African-American couples were talking to me. One of the men jokingly said, “Be patriotic. Give me a discount.”

I said, “Did you see who was elected President?”

The man laughed, “He says he is going to do something. Let’s see what he can do.”

I laughed. If these African-American couples can have some hope Trump won’t be as bad as he has impressed himself to be, there is a spark of Hope in this strange reality.

That is all I ask for: Hope in this messy situation.

I’ll go on that for now and wait to see what the fall-out is going to be over the next four years.

By the way, those of you that came to me defending Trump, if he does well you will not see me. If he screws up this country, I will find you in four years, show up to your social media door, and we are going to have a long chat.

Why? For the LOLZ

Otherwise, I need to work out my plan for four years because a woman will sit in that Oval Office-and other places in the government. If there is anyone willing to help me make this plan send me a message.

Even if it takes spending all my free time with teenagers, or anyone else living in voter apathy, to get it across to them that they matter, their vote matters, and their place in the world is worth fighting for no matter what is standing before them. It would be time well spent.

Let the games begin…..

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore

                   WH Bloodworth