Free Republic

The environmental group Greenpeace has been ordered by a North Dakota jury to pay more than $660 million in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline’s construction.

The Texas-based company, Energy Transfer, alleges protest tactics by Greenpeace delayed the project, which began transporting oil in 2017 after President Donald Trump backed in his first term. Protests against the pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation drew thousands, but Greenpeace says it did not lead them and the lawsuit threatens free speech. The organisation "could face financial ruin, ending over 50 years of environmental activism" if it loses, it also says. The trial in North Dakota is expected to last five weeks, beginning with jury selection on Monday. The lawsuit, filed in state court, accuses Greenpeace of an...

In South Dakota, the president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe has ordered President Trump to cancel a planned visit to Mount Rushmore on July 3 for his Independence Day celebration. Julian Bear Runner told The Guardian, “The lands on which that mountain is carved and the lands he’s about to visit belong to the Great Sioux nation under a treaty signed in 1851 and the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and I have to tell him he doesn’t have permission from its original sovereign owners to enter the territory at this time.”

On the eve of the 2016 Presidential election, Issue #464 of Revolution announced in its headline, “In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America. . .Rise Up. . .Get Into The Streets. . .Unite With People Everywhere to Build Up Resistance in Every Way You Can. . .Don’t Stop: Don’t Conciliate. . .Don’t Accommodate. . .Don’t Collaborate”.Revolution is an online newspaper published by the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), a Maoist group descended from splinters of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). In 1969, RCP founder Bob Avakian and fellow Maoist H. Bruce Franklin had cofounded the...

President Biden shutting down the Dakota Access pipeline would result in Americans paying higher prices at the supermarket, according to experts. The Biden administration will decide the fate of the Dakota Access pipeline, which was approved by former President Donald Trump in 2017 after being denied by former President Barack Obama, following a court-ordered environmental review. More than 200 celebrities recently sent a letter to Biden asking him to permanently shut the pipeline due to its impact on the environment and its impact on the Indigenous people who live in the area. The Biden administration did not respond to FOX...

Sandmann’s family soon hired RunSwitch, a media relations firm with strong ties to the Republican party, to handle the crisis, and L Lin Wood, a high-profile libel attorney known for aggressively pursuing lawsuits against the media. Sandmann has complained that the video was spreading “misinformation” about the incident. *** Unlike Sandmann, Phillips does not have a PR firm to represent him and his side of the story, or an attorney to challenge critical journalists. His support team consists of two people: Ray Kingfisher, a northern Cheyenne who has known him for decades, and Daniel Nelson, a non-Native “ally” and program...

One of the most prominent and politically active left-wing think tanks in the United States, the Center for American Progress, has announced that it will no longer accept funding from the United Arab Emirates, the Guardian reported Friday. “With a rising undemocratic tide around the world, and serious questions about which side of that struggle our own president stands on, it seemed clear that all Americans should take extra steps and leave no doubt where they stand,” a spokesperson for the liberal organization told the Guardian. The spokesperson added, “This funding never impacted any CAP position or policy, but everybody...

The largest city named for Christopher Columbus has called off its observance of the divisive holiday that honors the explorer, making a savvy move to tie the switch to a politically safe demographic: veterans. Ohio's capital city, population 860,000, will be open for business Monday after observing Columbus Day probably "for as long as it had been in existence," said Robin Davis, a spokeswoman for Democratic Mayor Andrew Ginther. City offices will close instead on Veterans Day, which falls on Nov. 12 this year. Native Americans and allied groups have long used Columbus Day to elevate issues of concern to...

Be wary of those who only destroy. Smoldering embers of emotional environmental extremists can re-emerge as a wildfire. The Trump administration last week extinguished Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protesters when they proved only willing to torch and trash the earth; culture; children and animals they claimed to be defending. Pounding drums and donning feathered headdresses, they claimed to be “indigenous.” Shouting “Water is Life!” they professed to be guarding natural resources for “the children.” Holding “Protect the Sacred” banners, they declared themselves defenders of Native American cultural sites. It was all a show. Four hundred and eighty-plus mounded dumpsters full...

The Obama administration said it would not authorize construction on a critical stretch of the Dakota Access pipeline, handing a significant victory to the Indian tribe fighting the project the same day the group lost a court battle. The administration said construction would halt until it can do more environmental assessments. The Department of Justice, the Army and the Interior Department jointly announced that construction would pause on the pipeline near North Dakota's Lake Oahe, a major water source on the Missouri River for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The agencies will now decide whether they need to reconsider permitting...