Standing,
Congresswoman (D. Hawaii), Tulsi Gabbard, 2 tour Iraq veteran, and US Army Reserve Major, will go to standing Rock and Stand Firm. (Awkward for Governor Dalrymple, now...)
“I’m participating in the Dakota Access Pipeline protest because of the threat this project poses to water resources in four states serving millions of people,” says the congresswoman, who has a long record of environmental activism. “Whether it’s the threat to essential water sources in this region, the lead contamination in Flint, Michigan, or the threat posed to a major Hawaii aquifer by the Red Hill fuel leak, each example underscores the vital importance of protecting our water resources.”
Gabbard is calling on President Obama to “do the right thing and stop this pipeline project before water resources for millions are forever ruined.”
[Bernie Sanders takes the same stand on DAPL, but just with his words, so far. This is a chance for Obama to capitalize politically, or for Trump to do so, if Obama waits too long, like a week.]
The veterans will be going to the Oceti Sakowin campsite, which has been the target of a number of recent orders from the government. This weekend will be a critical time for the camp, as the US Army Corps of Engineers announced that it would close the protest camp on Saturday. "We want to give them a moment of peace so we can take a little bit of pressure off," Ashleigh Jennifer Parker, Coast Guard veteran. [sourced from Russian propaganda site]
"Stranded Assets": The DAPL deals were signed in 2014, when oil was over $100/bbl and looked stable at that price. Bakken shale was at peak production then. US was "new Saudi Arabia". You remember...
Now, all of the oil coming out of the Bakken is already being refined locally. There is no need for the pipeline, except that the builders have contractual commitments from refiners and financiers to pay locked in fees and prices. They are off the hook if the pipeline is not operational on January 1, 2017. Some of the delays from unforeseen events might be litigated or negotiated, but a lot of money is at stake. There are 2 sides to the money issue her, but we really only see the desperate side, bulldozing people, lobbing grenades, soaking and freezing them.
This battle can be won by the Water Protectors.
That "20 billion barrels of oil discovered in West Texas" is just a changed estimate of what might (50% chance) exist and be "technically recoverable".
It would lose $500 billion being "recovered" at current prices.
UK Military: Climate Change will stir unimaginable refugee crisis. (This is the 21st Century issue.)
Syrian Army/Air Force and Kurdish YPG Syrian militias attack Turkish Army-led-Syrian Rebels east of Aleppo. (Stand-offs. Russians not attacking NATO Turks. Syrians attacking Turk-led moderate-extremists. Lots of testing-the-waters. Risky. Turkish brinksmanship will be answered by...?)
Official Russian position on this Turkish declaration-of-war (lite) is that it is inappropriate to speculate on what it means, since the Turkish government has not clarified its new position. The door remains open...
Israeli warplanes have launched missiles from their border with Syria, hitting 2 sites near Damascus, without apparent casualties. (The sites may have been military targets or not. Israel wants Golan oil/gas, of course.)
Departing CIA Director, John Brennan, in BBC interview, advises Trump not to trust Russia, and that dumping the Iran nuclear deal would be folly.
"Friendly" Fire
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