12/30/12

Neiman Sawmills engaged in red state circle jerk

You just can't make up this crap.

Wyoming-based land rapers job creators, Neiman Sawmills has bought off martialed forces to grease assist LawCo politicos with at least 50,000 simoleans in their efforts to fool voters stem the imagined pine beetle epidemic.

KELO:
In 2012, the company donated $50,000 cash and an additional $50,000 for in-kind services to the Lawrence County program. Neiman says the company will continue in-kind services, though it's not yet been determined how much for 2013.
Or what: get sued into bankruptcy for moving the insects in timber more efficiently with logging trucks along public highways and Forest Service roads to the mill for the last 50+ years? Now 3 mills that i know of, operating a virtual monopoly and lobbying heavily in Pierre to pump the handle(s).

Hey, Woster, Mercer, Lawrence, Montgomery, Jaci Pearson: Harry Christianson, Murphy, Larry Mann?

Fuck these people...too! The bug is removing one of the biggest threats to the Black Hills water supply by killing one remnant of anthropogenic interference in former bison and wapiti habitat: Ponderosa pine infestation.

Preserve the legacy pine by saving them from the Neimans, clear cut without building new roads especially where doghair chokes aspen, birch or hazelnut, convert it to biodiesel, and burn, baby, burn.

12/29/12

Hollenbeck: Fall River County a sacrifice zone



Mark Hollenbeck of Fall River County is an earth hater. He is a crook, a tool for uranium mining interests, his ranch consists of stolen treaty ground, and he uses cattle to destroy some of the most culturally sensitive land in the Black Hills. His father, Bud, now deceased, was the world's worst poker player: I took thousands from him.

Again, the Rapid City Journal gave this loser a forum following the Pro Publica exposé of EPA's choice to sacrifice clean water for yellow cake exploitation:
Since the Dewey-Burdock Project is on the opposite side of the Black Hills from Rapid City, the geology and abundance of water in that part of the Madison will absolutely protect all other users of the Madison, especially any user east of the Hills. In order to operate, Powertech must satisfy the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s requirements for two water-related permits and obtain three water-related permits from the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), in addition to the NRC license and BLM Plan of Operation.
This guy blamed the Forest Service for protecting ancient pictographs; and, as the FS is under the management of Democrats, he flails his arms as if he is a victim of the White Draw Fire.

Hollenbeck's theatrics performed on his own mortgaged-up-to-his-areolae front deck for campaigning politician, Sen. John Thune (earth hater-SD) are laughable.

Fuck these people. DENR is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the South Dakota Republican Party: expect them to just bend over...again.

Bloomberg said drilling starts with acceptance of surety bond, that tax incentives have been offered, and Powertech is trading at .13: so much for market confidence.

12/28/12

Evans Plunge means Hot Springs

The Hells Angels could be among the prospective buyers of a Black Hills tourism anchor writes Curt Nettinga in the Hot Springs Star:
According to Vicki Hudson, who manages the Plunge, the group wants to sell the facility because they are getting older and want out of the business. To save the Plunge as a tourist attraction, some in Hot Springs are pushing the city to purchase the facility and run it as a municipal tourist attraction. While questions remain about the profitability of the Plunge, Hudson said the springs, pool building and water park facilities are older but can still turn a profit.
Mayor Harley Lux, once mayor of Lead, wants to see the results of an engineering study before council meets 22 Jan.

Hot Springs could be something if young people would find the town. The City should buy this thing, create a hot outdoor venue and encourage tribes to help create a heritage theme.

Besides, you can already see Denver from Lusk.

12/26/12

Today's intersection: snow cover and uranium


The Pumpkin Buttes are clearly visible in the upper right-hand corner of this NASA photo as a grey smear just south and east of Bighorn range




Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica:
The outcome could have far-reaching implications, setting a precedent for similar battles sparked by the resurgence of uranium mining in Texas, South Dakota, New Mexico and elsewhere. The Safe Drinking Water Act forbids injecting industrial waste into or above drinking water aquifers, but the EPA issued what are called aquifer exemptions that gave mine operators at the ranch permission to ignore the law. 
"It's disturbing that such a requirement would be so easy to get around," said Jeff Parsons, a senior attorney for the Western Mining Action Project, which is representing the Oglala Sioux in a challenge to stop the Powertech mine. "There is a reason that South Dakota prohibited Class 1 wells; it's to protect the aquifers." As of now, it's unclear how the EPA will answer Wyoming's challenge to its authority at Christensen Ranch.

12/25/12

Crapo laps Craig; NRA greased Thune, Noem

Sidearms for the pre-born!

These redstaters have A+ ratings from the National Rifle Association, the country's preeminent apologist for death and destruction.

Crapo’s “mistake” was not on the same level as former Sen. Larry Craig’s “mistake” at a Minneapolis airport bathroom in 2007. It was worse. Crapo could have killed himself, or somebody else — which is a lot more serious than toe-tapping in a restroom stall. --Idaho Statesman editorial board.
Hypocritheocrisy exposed...again!

South Dakota's don Juan Thune and Krusti Noem have A+ and A ratings from the NRA. Thune got $7500 in 2010 and Noem got two large from the haters this past cycle.

In a related story from the Russia Times:
93-year-old Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the world’s most popular automatic rifle, has been admitted to a cardiology hospital in Izhevsk, in the Urals. The engineer’s health is said to have worsened during a routine check up on December 20, with Kalashnikov residing in intensive care ever since. His son insists the inventor is just undergoing routine procedures.
RT @justamexican:
"Idaho GOP Sen. Mike Crapo arrested for DUI after running red light." GOP calls for elimination of all red lights due to their liberal bias.

12/22/12

Northern states becoming more populous, older, whiter

As humanity awaits a new normal definition of mentally ill, global warming is sustaining higher numbers of people in historically inhospitable climates.

White retirees are sucking up land in The West: Montana has reached a million in population. North Dakota's earth raping has created a male-dominated spike, South Dakota and Wyoming are breeding more.
In terms of actual population numbers, California, with 38 million people, is still No. 1. It was followed by Texas at 26 million; New York, 19.5 million; Florida, 19.3 million; Illinois, 12.8 million; Pennsylvania, 12.8 million; Ohio, 11.5 million; Michigan, 9.9 million; Georgia, 9.9 million; and North Carolina, 9.7 million. Texas saw the largest growth, with an additional 427,425 people. California was second with 357,497 people, and Florida came in third with 235,306. Regionally, population growth was fastest in the South, followed in order by the West, Northeast and Midwest. --Lorna Thackeray, Billings Gazette.
New Mexico has grown about 1/3 of a percent. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

Neocolonialism is being lost on white people: the beneficiaries of violence.

Sociopathy is not the absence of God: it is the manifestation of creating miscreants of a species mutating as response to the evil being perpetrated on Earth.

Chaos has clearly triumphed over the perceived capitalistic order perpetuated by consumerism.

Find a hot springs near you and go soak with someone you love.

12/20/12

Free rhubarb pie with every sale of gun or brick of ammo

Gun carrying people are saying they are being responsible (but won't be held liable) for our safety if the rest of us don’t, or refuse to, carry.

Stand your ground has become vigilante justice because the courts are overwhelmed with suspects in the war on drugs, our communities are becoming armed camps and we’re barricaded in our homes afraid to let our kids go to school.

There are 83 vacancies on the federal bench where zero American Indians serve. The New Jim Crow has created a generation of felons in a non-white school to prison pipeline. Bullied kids, some to become young white men, have retreated into their virtual sancta and believe victims are the problem or that killing them would be sparing them a future torture.

Have the gangbangers always been right because a gun is power?

Is this how Americans really want to live? Carry rifles and sidearms into every bar, church, and arena?
Milch has pointed out repeatedly in interviews that the intent of the show was to study the way that civilization comes together from chaos by organizing itself around symbols (in Deadwood the main symbol is gold). If history is written by the victors, Deadwood is all about giving the losers their due. In the first season, magnificent bastard Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) came off as a villain; this year, his inevitably doomed campaign to save the lawless town from annexation by the United States and exploitation by robber barons served as a brilliant allegory for the evolution of American capitalism.
How many more people will be caught in or die from as yet uncounted crossfires?

Ending the war on cannabis is essential to the process as concurrent possession is illegal. It also would free resources to hire those professionals to whom Craig Moore alludes.

Maybe this would be a great time for a piece of rhubarb pie.

12/19/12

Morales: address global crisis of capitalism

The Winter Solstice is nearly here: it marks the beginning new year for us pagans.

Evo Morales is President of Bolivia: he recently offered his vision of a new age. Sara Shahriari quoted the leader at Indian Country Today:
“And I would like to say that according to the Mayan calendar the 21 of December is the end of the non-time and the beginning of time. It is the end of the Macha and the beginning of the Pacha, the end of selfishness and the beginning of brotherhood, it is the end of individualism and the beginning of collectivism – 21 of December this year.
The scientists know very well that this marks the end of an anthropocentric life and the beginning of a bio-centric life. It is the end of hatred and the beginning of love, the end of lies and beginning of truth. It is the end of sadness and the beginning of happiness, it is the end of division and the beginning of unity, and this is a theme to be developed. That is why we invite all of you, those of you who bet on mankind, we invite those who want to share their experiences for the benefit of mankind."
Honoring the fallen with a national day of mourning this Friday might give a hurting planet a few hours of relief from the enemies of humankind.

12/18/12

Highway 71 re-revisited

The drive to Rapid City went largely without event until reaching the plateau between the South and North Platte River drainages. Wind began gusting from the west in the 50 MPH range and dust clouds lifting from barren cropland often obscured the roadway until sunset overtook the rig near Crawford, Nebraska.

Canada geese appeared in nearly every stubble field in the umber Arkansas drainage and Sandhill cranes could still be heard overhead. Perhaps most surprising was the complete absence of snow, even on Raton Pass.



A favorite from the Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival




Sandhill cranes on the wing







 Near the Nebraska/Wyoming border



12/15/12

Noem, Nugent, Nelson and red state collapse

Only in America can gun ownership be a right and mental health care be a privilege.

State Representative Stace Nelson retired as a soldier of fortune: he sodomized women, beat people up and destroyed people's lives for money and now he wants to end health care for those who chose not to kill. Here's how he reacted to the shootings by a well-regulated militia member in Connecticut:
it is a great day for South Dakota.
And:
To remind congress to stop Obama's drive for higher taxes sign the petition at...@GroverNorquist Retweeted by Stace Nelson
Resurrection is an odd phenomenon, innit? Googling Andrew Pietrus found an old post at the now defunct Badlands Blue:
Hey Kristi Noem! Why does your pal Ted Nugent want the President to suck his machine gun and Hillary Clinton to “ride” his machine gun? Do you approve?

Kristi Noem might be backing away from appearing with crazy gun toting Ted Nugent in Rapid City on Oct. 16. The Teabagger support group Citizens for Liberty announced Nugent campaigning with Kristi at the Rushmore Civic Plaza. Here’s a good reason why Kristi should run away from the Nugent/Noem event in the clip above, and the transcript below:
I was in Chicago, I said, ‘Hey Obama, you might wanna suck on one of these you punk.' ... Obama, he's a piece of shit, I told him to suck on my machine gun. Lets hear it! [crowd cheers] I was in New York, I said, ‘Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch.' ... She might want to suck on my machine gun.
Nugent ending his speech by holding up two machine guns and yelling, "Freeeeedom!," gives a good idea what freedom means to him. Assassinating Barack Obama and using his machine gun to molest Hillary Clinton.

Question for news reporters for Kristi:
1. Do you agree with your pal Ted Nugent that Obama should suck his machine gun and Hillary should “ride” it?
2. Do agree with your pal Nugent that our President is “a piece of shit” and Hillary is a “worthless bitch,” and is that a reflection of your own character?

3. What will you direct Nugent to say about your opponent?


Cannabis is illegal and ammo for assault rifles is cheap: is this a great country or what?

South Dakota is dying as the median age overtakes democracy.
Two men moving from Washington state to Ohio were traveling through South Dakota with legally purchased medical marijuana when a Highway Patrol officer nabbed them and charged them with possession. --Ryan Lengerich, Rapid City Journal.
Fuck these people.

This post has been updated.

12/13/12

Boycott Menards



Another privately-held company is threatening Galtism.

Menards, whose policies include issuing anti-democratic propaganda, pays its employees subsistence wages while massaging its margins in under-served markets like Rapid City and Scottsbluff, Nebraska.

O'Fallon, Missouri has been passed over according to a local media outlet:
The company is blaming the Obama administration for the project’s failure. A Menards spokesperson says the company no longer plans on adding a store in O’Fallon, Missouri because of the President’s economic policies.
John Menard is one of the country's richest white men contributing to earth haters like John Thune and Michele Bachmann while joining with Koch Industries in forcing primaries against those resisting its advances.
Menards and CEO John Menard have been cited for dozens of environmental code violations; in 1997 Menard and his company were fined $1.7 million when Menard himself was found to have used “his own pickup truck to haul plastic bags filled with chromium and arsenic-laden wood ash to his own home for disposal along with his household trash,” according to Milwaukee.--Adele M. Stan at AlterNet.
Fuck 'em.

12/11/12

Audubon: US bird count at risk to invaders from Canada, pesticides

Robins and Purple Finches have joined the multitude of Pinyon Jays filling the yard and at the feeders. Too many Eurasian Collared Doves are displacing the smaller Mourning Doves; the annual Audubon Christmas bird count is underway.

A recent visit to Bosque del Apache found fewer Sandhill Cranes (about 1000), Canada Geese in the hundreds, the Snow Geese count over 35,000, many Mallards and Coots; one Blue Heron shied away from the camera:




Cougar food park here





A letter to President Obama appeared in HuffPost Green:
Pesticides are by design killers of life. They are biocides. Some of them are associated with higher rates of cancer; others poison the nervous system; others act like hormones, disrupting the endocrine system, causing sex and developmental abnormalities. According to David Pimentel, professor of entomology at Cornell University, pesticides affect some 720 million birds per year, killing outright 10 percent or 72 million birds each year. In addition, pesticides are killing our honeybees that pollinate a third of our food.--Evaggelos Vallianatos, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Analysis, Pitzer College writing in the Huffington Post.

12/10/12

Pine Ridge, Dakotas are sacrifice zones

Energy independence is code for: the elites will make Gazans of us all.

Scientists at the American Geophysical Union are circling around the mass movement of soil as the boundary at which the Anthropocene began. Tina Ghose at LiveScience:
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) could also serve as markers. These are formed from combustion in natural wildfires, but also come largely from the burning of fossil fuels.
Western North Dakota, eastern Montana, and all of Wyoming are sacrifice zones: red states where the Right to Work for less will kill workers and ecosystems. West Virginia is a wasteland already plowed under by coal and death.

Now, the grim reaper comes for South Dakota. Chris Hedges at Democracy Now!
Pine Ridge is a Lakota reservation in South Dakota. The average life expectancy for a male is 48. That is the lowest in the Western Hemisphere outside of Haiti. At any one time, 60 percent of the residents have neither electricity or running water, 80 percent alcoholism rate, because you break—you break these people. You create a culture of dependence. You make self-sufficiency impossible. And then people anesthetize themselves. But it’s incumbent upon us to look at these sacrifice zones to understand what happens when there are no restraints, no impediments on corporate capitalism, because they’re doing this globally.
There are 83 vacancies on the federal bench in a country that purports to have a right to a speedy trial: the resulting bottlenecks are burying cases that should enjoy sunlight to be settled by the very corporations creating sacrifice zones.

12/8/12

Rural America becoming irrelevant after farm dustup


The defeat of the Republican agenda in the wake of its abandonment of ecological and environmental responsibilities has marginalized the party.

Iowa is under fire from the Environmental Protection Agency. US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack blasted his home state for failing its people:
For the first time in recent memory, farm-state lawmakers were not able to push a farm bill through Congress in an election year, evidence of lost clout in farm states. Vilsack criticized farmers who have embraced wedge issues such as regulation, citing the uproar over the idea that the Environmental Protection Agency was going to start regulating farm dust after the Obama administration said repeatedly it had no so such intention. "There's a huge communication gap" between farmers and the food-eating public, he said. He said they also need to embrace diversity because it is an issue important to young people who are leaving rural areas. --Mary Clare Jalonick and Jennifer Agiesta, AP
Bake a man a pie and he'll learn to divide by seven. Teach a man piety and he'll crucify the apples then say they died for his sins.

Woster photo.

12/7/12

Ice festival bolsters Bozeman bottom line; Lead? Meh

When it was made illegal in 1939, cannabis was the active ingredient in dozens of medicines marketed by Merck, Eli Lilly, Parke Davis, and other pharmaceutical companies.--William C. Shelton.

The site of future warp history is showing how winter destinations make sense right now:
The artificial climbing wall is making its debut at the 16th annual Arc’teryx Bozeman Ice Festival, which kicked off Thursday. This is the first year that the festival, which features numerous clinics in Hyalite Canyon and draws thousands of participants, has extended its activities to town. Proceeds from this week’s festival go to helping the Forest Service keep Hyalite Road plowed in the winter, a practice that began just two years ago. --Whitney Bermes, Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Oh well.

Go over to Decorum Forum and say hi to Bob.

A Mighty Flood of Justice has been added to The Floor: good stuff from South Dakota Peace and Justice Center, go check it out.

A New Century of Forest Planning tells readers that the service sector is driving the growth numbers in the West.

Great piece from Dan Boyce at Montana Public Radio:


12/5/12

Cheatgrass fueling mega-fires

Department of Interior releases carbon findings:
Forests, grasslands and shrublands and other ecosystems in the West sequester nearly 100 million tons (90.9 million metric tons) of carbon each year, according to a Department of the Interior report released today.
Cheatgrass doubles the likelihood of fire. Recall Southeastern Montana's Ash Creek Fire Complex earlier this year.

More on cheatgrass from the Summit County Citizens Voice.

Soot from wildfires accelerating melting of Greenland ice fields.

Wildfire risk assessment proposed.
This non-native species was first introduced to the United Sates from Asia in packing material. Initially distributed along rail lines, it spread throughout many States including Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, and South Dakota.-- By Fabian Menalled MSU Extension Cropland Weeds Specialist
Christopher Joyce, NPR:
These cheatgrass fires are increasing partly because the climate is warmer and also because more people are living in cheatgrass country. There are some things that can be done though, like planting green borders of less flammable vegetation around cheatgrass as a fire break.
From the USGS Western Ecological Research Center:
There is significant concern that repeated burning at historically appropriate fire return intervals for ponderosa pine forest will benefit this invasive plant to the detriment of native species. There is additional concern that the high flammability of cheatgrass fuelbeds will lead to fire return intervals that are more frequent than occurred historically and that are prescribed in the agency fire management plans, potentially preventing recruitment of pine seedlings and leading to type conversion of native forests to alien grasslands.
Again, Christopher Joyce:
And there's a fungus that kills cheatgrass — it's called the black fingers of death — but introducing it could be biologically risky to other plants.
Grazing cheatgrass early in the season by native ungulates that deposit organic fertilizer helps restore native plants.

Black Hills Pioneer: South Dakota Department of Earth Hatred washes Valentine Mining's feet with hair in ritual worship.

The world's oldest trees are dying.

EPA announces redevelopment tools:
To further promote the reuse of potentially contaminated lands with renewable energy, the EPA released three model comfort letters specific to renewable energy development.
The withdrawal of Jim DeMint likely elevates water warrior Senator Roy Blunt (earth hater-MO) to lead assault from lower Missouri River basin.

Wyoming receives nearly half of federal mineral receipts. (pdf)

EPA announces environmental justice small grants winners. Region 8 recipients were in Colorado and Utah.

While President Obama's comments at the White House Tribal Nations Conference seemed to embrace measures to heal the Earth the US is sandbagging climate talks in Doha incensing some in more enlightened countries.

Mr. President: rewild the West.

12/4/12

Wyoming bracing for states' rights eruption on southern border, embracing failed state status




What is a backwards, dying cesspool of a red nanny state to do? Lock 'em up a throw away the key, of course.

Peter Baumann writes at the Laramie Boomerang:
“I anticipate we’ll probably see an increase, but we’ll handle those in the same manner as we have in the past through an arrest for possession of a controlled substance,” Albany County Sheriff Dave O’Malley said. “I don’t know that we’ll see a huge increase, but I anticipate that common sense dictates there will be an increase.” “We actually saw an increase when they did the prescription authority down in Colorado,” he said. “Our deputies will stop somebody driving down (Highway) 287 or some other highway and find that they’re in possession of marijuana. Normally they go, ‘Hey dude, I’ve got a prescription,’ but it’s kind of like, ‘Hey dude, they don’t work in Wyoming.’”
ACLU of Wyoming:
Deficiencies in medical and mental health care top the list of complaints from prisoners in Wyoming. These complaints are especially concerning in light of the fact that many mental health patients end up in Wyoming’s justice system. Other areas in which we received a high frequency of complaints include civil liberties, conditions of confinement and threats to personal safety.
Joan Barron, Casper Star-Tribune:
More than half of the $11.5 million budget cut proposed by the Wyoming Department of Corrections would come from savings on inmate health care costs.
Adam Voge also at trib.com
It had been only two days since Christopher Krumm killed Heidi Arnold and his father, Jim Krumm, perhaps only minutes apart. Christopher first took Heidi’s life then drove to Casper College, where he found his father about to teach a class. He shot him with an arrow from a compound bow and the two struggled. Chris cut himself enough with a knife that he would soon die. He then plunged a large knife into his father.
The AP reports there, too:
Gov. Matt Mead is recommending that Wyoming not accept federal money for an expansion of the Medicaid program, a key component of the Affordable Care Act.
Mandarin? Why not Shoshoni?

WTF?

12/1/12

Mandarin: neither Diné nor Lakota?

Or: WTF is wrong with GOP governors?

New Mexico's graduation rates have plummeted under earth hater governor, Susana Martinez:
Only 63 percent of our state's public school seniors graduated on time last spring, down from 67 percent the year before. The U.S. Department of Education ranks New Mexico second-worst in the nation just ahead of Nevada. --Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4
Mary Kim Titla, a member of the San Carlos Apache Nation which is trapped within the state of Arizona was one of six witnesses testifying before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee about how Native Americans can reclaim their image and identity in society.

Maryann Batlle quotes Titla in the Tucson Sentinel:
Panelists said that Congress should continue to support Indian Country on issues such as education, tribal self-determination and self-governance to ensure that Native Americans can protect their cultures. Still, she said more needs to be done to help native students retain their identity. She said that when native schools fail to reach state-issued benchmarks, the “failing” label can have a negative effect on students and give the impression that the whole community is a failure, even though there are success stories.





Lawyers trained in indigenous languages have access to stories that could reverse the loss of treaty lands.

Ruth Moon brought a story of hopefulness in the Rapid City Journal:
Lakota is part of the "Dakota" language group, the third most commonly spoken Native American language in the country, but new Census estimates indicate fewer than 19,000 people still speak it. More than 10,000 of the nation's Dakota speakers live in South Dakota. Navajo is the most commonly spoken Native American language with more than 150,000 speakers. Nearly 20,000 people speak Yupik, the language of central Alaskan indigenous people. The "Dakota" language group comprises 18 language variations.
The US Census Bureau cites the languages:
Assiniboin, Brule, Brule Sioux, Da'catah/Dakota/Dakota Sioux, Hunkpapa/Hunkpapa Sioux, Lakota/Lakotah/Lakota Sioux, Nakota/Nakota Sioux, Oglala/Oglala Sioux, Santee, Teton, Yankton.
Here are some additional resources (thanks to Nadene): The Endangered Language Fund and Stephan Greymorning (pdf)