The Chicago Pipeline Connection

Back from Standing Rock and already thinking about returning. There was some great news out of Morton County yesterday. A judge tossed out the "riot" charges against Democracy Now's Amy Goodman. Standing Rock friends tell me this morning that all the other felony cases have also been dropped.

But still, almost everywhere I turn, racist symbols abound. Watching Cleveland vs. Toronto in the ALCS, the racist Indian insignia is constantly in your face. If you Google Cleveland Indians you won't find the symbol on their page. Too embarrassing? But watching the game itself, it's displayed prominently.

Then I read this headline in the WSJ: Elizabeth Warren Claims a Scalp Remember, Trump is fond of referring to Sen. Warren as "Pocahontas".

I'm trying to write something for the MSM about the Chicago connections with Standing Rock and the pipeline protests. There's plenty of connections to write about. That's for certain.

For one thing, IL is on the asshole end of the 1,134-mile-long Black Snake that transports fracking oil from the Bakken region of ND down through IA, crossing about 40 rivers, threatening the drinking water of millions of people, before dumping it all out in our state.

Environmental racism is another connection. Remember, the pipeline was originally supposed to run through predominantly-white Bismark until residents protested and pushed it down to Lakota Sioux territory. In Chicago, isolated, poor black and Latino neighborhoods have become the main targets for toxic waste dumps, coal power plants, petcoke, and incinerators.

Then there's the politics of water. Today's DNAInfo reports that water at nearly half of Chicago parks has high levels of lead. There's even higher rates of lead pollution at the city's public schools drinking fountains.

And oh those pipeline investors. Bank of America, which has profited from those toxic debt swaps that helped bankrupt the schools, J.P. Morgan Chase (Bill Daley), Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, to name but a few. All big contributors to Rahm Emanuel's campaign.

The Chicago students who were with me on my last trip to Standing Rock are making their own connections. I'm sure we'll be hearing from them soon.