FLOODING IN HOUSTON CAME AFTER RABID CAPITALISM PAVED PARADISE AND PUT UP PARKING LOTS

Feeling Rebloggy

Houston is America’s fourth largest city. Its zoning laws are largely nonexistent. Many of the city’s neighborhoods were constructed at or below the flood plain.

Basic common-sense rules and guidelines about designing building codes and infrastructure that could survive severe flooding have been overruled in favor of unregulated growth of.

This has been a dream come true for the rich and for real estate entrepreneurs.

But it is now a nightmare made real for Houston, as oil and chemical facilities sit (closest to black and brown) residential communities and the people are potentially being poisoned by toxic flood waters and air.

~Chauncey DeVega, Salon.com

Read More: http://www.salon.com/2017/08/31/disaster-capitalism-in-action-corporate-greed-made-harvey-worse-now-comes-the-cash-grab/

Since Houston, Texas was founded nearly two centuries ago, Houstonians have been treating its wetlands as stinky, mosquito-infested blots in need of drainage.

Even after it became a widely accepted scientific fact that wetlands can soak up large amounts of flood water, the city continued to pave over them. The watershed of the White Oak Bayou river, which includes much of northwest Houston, is a case in point. From 1992 to 2010, this area lost more than 70% of its wetlands, according to research (pdf) by Texas A&M University.

~Quartz

Read More: 

https://qz.com/1064364/hurricane-harvey-houstons-flooding-made-worse-by-unchecked-urban-development-and-wetland-destruction/

More than one scientist has said the destruction of Louisiana's wetlands is the reason the storm surge hit New Orleans levees so hard during Hurricane Katrina. And why are the wetlands gone there too?  More rapid capitalism and not enough environmental laws.

White, mostly republicans, keep voting for people that aim to kill and live on a hill above the flood plane because republicans have been dog whistling their white racism to moderate levels for decades using things like Southern Strategy. 

But now Trump is bull-horning the white supremacy over them. And they're going to get their small government desires right in the neck any minute now.

Ten days before Hurricane Harvey descended upon Texas on Friday, wreaking havoc and causing widespread flooding, President Donald Trump signed an executive order revoking a set of regulations that would have made federally funded infrastructure less vulnerable to flooding...

But because of Trump's rollback of President Barack Obama's Federal Flood Risk Management Standard, experts across the political spectrum say much of the federal money sent to Texas is likely to be wasted on [re-]construction that will insufficiently protect against the next storm.

businessinsider.com

'

read more:

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-reversed-obama-flooding-regulations-before-hurricane-harvey-2017-8

The republicans know this doesn't matter to their base though. By the time the next storm hits, ignorant white supremacists that voted for Trump -- who are left alive -- will believe President Obama was in charge during Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Katrina both.

BIG YELLOW TAXI

TWO CHOICES FOR SOME IN FLORIDA AND ALASKA: MOVE OR PERISH

Feeling  Rebloggy 

The water has been inching closer to Rita Falgout’s house, lapping at the edges of her front yard. Her home is one of 29 in Isle de Jean Charles, a narrow island in the bayous of southeastern Louisiana that is slowly sinking into the Gulf of Mexico. The island, home to members of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw and the United Houma Nation tribes, is reached by a lone road that passes through the marshland with water on either side. Since 1955, the island has lost 98% of its land.

“Now there’s just a little strip of land left,” Falgout, 81, tells Quartz. “That’s all we have. There’s water all around us.” She’s one of just 100 people who lives in Isle de Jean Charles. Few outside know or care what’s going on there. “I’m anxious to go,” she says.

~ QUARTZ 

Who's going to pay for the move?

And if the government pays, then who gets to move first?

These are the things to think about.

Read More

https://qz.com/994459/the-us-is-relocating-an-entire-town-because-of-climate-change-and-this-is-just-the-beginning/?

Like I said before, the one-percenters THINK they can move away from ALL the effects of climate change. Regardless of what you believe is causing climate change, polluting the planet cannot be making it anything but worse.  We need to push back against Trump and his cronies because human beings (the one percenters in the lead) can kill this planet or making it unlivable 

New study links Oklahoma earthquakes to fracking 

from 2014http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/oklahoma-earthquakes-linked-fracking-study

More than once I've read that the killing the wetlands, that grassy, swamp like area between New Orleans and the ocean is why Hurricane Katrina was so devastating to the land mass. The wetlands were a natural barrier to hurricanes in addition to the levees. Putting natural gas pipelines through them and the levees themselves have killed some of that barrier.

Wetlands along the southern coastlines of the United States serve as natural speed bumps to approaching hurricanes by starving them of warm ocean water and creating physical barriers to surging flood waters. However, in the last 100 years, the construction of levees and canals has turned thousands of square miles of wetland habitat into open water. This video from NOVA scienceNOW explores the importance of these critical habitats and examines the damage Hurricane Katrina caused to one stretch of Louisiana wetland.

https://ca.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.watcyc.katrinawet/hurricane-katrina-wetland-destruction/#.WT23fGjytEY 

http://www2.southeastern.edu/orgs/oilspill/wetlands.html 

The devastating effects of Hurricane Katriana might represent environmental racism or environmental classism or both

Hawaii is one of the few states on the right track. A few days ago, it became the first state in the United States to sign on to follow Paris Climate Accord

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/07/531882630/hawaii-signs-legislation-to-implement-goals-of-paris-climate-accord-anyway

THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE VERSUS THE COMPLEXION OF THE PROTECTION

Didn't want that part to get lost in all the Standing Rock Tribe broken treaty discussions. 

MS. ROBINSON'S NEIGHBORHOOD EPISODE 1:  

• Can you say, "Environmental Racism" boys and girls? 

• Can you say, "The complexion of instant protection is white" boys and girls. 

Say these two things over and over as you watch the graphic below

(Pssst! The DAPL pipeline moved away from the Bismark, ND water supply without a fight or even a letter. As of the 2000 census, Bismark was 94% white and 3.39% Native American.)

"For several months, the local Native American community and other protesters have been arguing that the pipeline could threaten the reservation's water supply. But this is actually an updated routing — after the original routing was rejected for similar reasons. The original pipeline was to be routed just north of Bismarck, North Dakota, according to Karen Van Fossan, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Bismarck, North Dakota.

“I actually read about the original pathway, or an original pathway of the pipeline, in our local newspaper,” she says. “It’s our understanding, and I’ve talked to everybody who I know who would have known about it in advance, that we never even in Bismarck had to make an objection. The pathway was moved away from our drinking supply without our even needing to go to a meeting or write a letter.”

~PRI.ORG 

It's hard to believe somebody white wrote the song, "I fought the law and the law won" isn't it?  Doesn't that seem like... like... like old science fiction? I'll bet the white folks in Bismark probably never even knew THEIR water supply was in danger in the first place.

The white folks in Bismark are probably looking at the DAPL Protesters thinking "Damn rabble rowsers" right now.  White folks thing the greedy 1% among them is never gonna come for them. But that's always a lie. The Mean Tangerine Class always comes for people of color first....But we never have enough. Those greedy sons of b*tches always want MORE.

When Mean Tangerine says the "economy is stagnant" he means the 1% made close to the same amount of money they made last year. It's not enough to make "profit." They need "more profit" every single year. They call that greed for "more profit" by this positive sounding word like "growth."

Bismark and other white communities just like it may be sitting their blissfully ignorant for now, but one of the first things Mean Tangerine will probably do is gut environmental legislation so they won't be laughing and/or ignorant but for another two decades or so.

What happened to Flint and what is happening to Standing Rock Tribe is going to visit us all eventually. Instead of de-fang-ing the 1% we let the patriarchal white supremacists put one of the most rabid among them in charge -- without nearly enough of a damn fight.
READ MORE ABOUT THE EFFECTIVENESS OF
THE COMPLEXION OF PROTECTION
http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-12-01/bismarck-residents-got-dakota-access-pipeline-moved-without-fight

A SUMMARYON THE BATTLE BETWEEN STANDING ROCK TRIBE, DAPL, AND NORTH DAKOTA

Feeling Rebloggy

Answer to the question:

What's happening between North Dakota & #STANDING ROCK?

by Andrea Morisette Grazzini

A 1980 ruling by US federal courts found that land Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is building on was illegally taken from First Nation/Native Americans in the 1862 "Dakota War" aka: the Sioux Uprising and the subsequent Treaty of 1877.

THE PLAYERS: 

1. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe [that lives on/near this land] has registered a complaint (lawsuit), part of which the federal government is still reviewing.

In response the feds have already halted DAPL construction near and under a large key watershed on First Nation/Native American land and have further, asked them to voluntarily stop. But the fed has not made a final decision on the entire complaint. Their complaints are oriented primarily around

a. the health of the watershed/drinking water, and, to a lesser but related extent: the environment in general.  

b. the destruction of architectural antiquities related to the land.

c. interference with holy burial grounds.

.
2. Energy Transfer Crude Oil Company, LLC is proceeding with construction.

Likely to preserve the value of sunk costs already put into the project, and, willing to risk greater losses in hopes that a "once it's built" exception will kick in by the time the feds make their final call.

3. North Dakota is supporting the company, likely to retain jobs and revenues it produces for their state.

They sought to bring in the National Guard before they got approval from the feds. The feds sided instead with the First Nation/Native Americans and refused the request.

So North Dakota reached out to neighboring states for support. Some, including the Anoka, Washington and Hennepin County Sheriff's Offices in Minnesota have responded, even against their constituents/communities and leaders' complaints. One state went to help but then withdrew due to the accountability conflicts.

4. The federal government's first response was positive for the tribes. And, in general they tend to favor tribal sovereignty in cases like this.

States have a different relationship with tribes, and, in some cases this includes asserting jurisdictional power over tribes in public safety and civil matters, though this tends to be frowned on except in extreme cases.

It's likely the feds were hoping that DAPL would pull out and/or that they'd negotiate or amend their plans to accommodate the tribes, rather than force the feds to make a call that will create a major outcry whichever way they decide.

SOVEREIGNTY & LAW NUANCES
1. First Nation/Native Americans and the US have "dual sovereignty."

2. First Nation/Native American land is sovereign. (The federal government does not govern First Nation/Native American land.)

3. The federal government is Constitutionally mandated to a "Trust Relationship" that includes a "duty to protect" tribal rights.

* * * * *

From [here,] there are two somewhat tricky parts:
Part ONE

1. In the 1980 decision, SCOTUS ordered the government to pay the tribes a multi-million dollar sum.

2. Though it doesn't control tribes' land, the federal government does reserve some 'power over' tribes around economic/commerce matters in exchange for relative supports for tribes.

Namely trade and taxes.


3. Since the tribes never gave up the land they are asserting their original rights, which the U.S. government acknowledged in its ruling, so they see the governments payoff as an unilateral payout as "trade," which they never agreed to.

So they never took the money. It remains in escrow in the Treasury, still.

Part TWO

1. The second tricky part is that some states presume public safety and civil court jurisdiction over tribes and their people, and this is not outside federal law.

2. However, states cannot make rules and agreements over and/or with tribes independent of related federal laws, all contained in Treaties either, so it gets murky.

3. In many cases, when they've tried to and been called on it, the federal government has ruled in favor of tribal sovereignty.

4. Hence, the lawsuit that the tribes have in front of the Justice department as we speak.

If I were betting, I'd put my money on the tribes to win. Since there's precedent for that, and clear language about land ownership and the responsibility of the government to sustain their commitments to First Nation/Native American tribes who our country has abused since we were founded, I also side with them.

by Andrea Morisette Grazzini

Related
Headline

Dakota Access Pipeline: More Than 100 Arrested as Protesters Ousted From Camp

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dakota-access-pipeline-authorities-start-arresting-protesters-new-camp-n674066

PRESIDENT OBAMA SENDS 80 MILLION TO FLINT

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In a six-hour Wednesday visit to Detroit, the president pledged that “we will have the backs of Flint’s people.”

“It was encouraging to hear President Obama say that $80 million will be coming to Michigan to help local governments, like the City of Flint, improve their water systems,” Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said in a statement from Washington, D.C. “The residents of Flint could benefit greatly from that type of money. We are waiting to see how much of the $80 million will be allocated to the City of Flint and how much of it will go elsewhere, but it’s a step in the right direction.”

~ Detroit News 

The state of Michigan can decide how the money is spent, including how much of it will go to Flint and elsewhere. But Michigan does have to submit a plan for how it intends to use the money to the E.P.A. before it's spent 

Read More: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/01/21/stabenow-obama-gives-million-flint/79134306/

CHER DONATES MORE THAN 181,000 BOTTLES OF WATER TO FLINT

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"After reading about Flint’s plight—more than 100,000 people have been consuming tainted water since 2014—Cher contacted her friend Brad Horwitz, an investor in the spring water company Icelandic Glacial. Horwitz connected Cher to the company’s chairman, Jon Olafsson, and communicated her wish to make the [181,440 bottle] donation.

These bottles will begin arriving January 20 at the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan. From there, they will be sent to food banks and community centers for distribution to residents who live below the poverty line, a demographic that comprises about 40 percent of the city’s population. After use, the food banks will recycle the bottles and keep the money raised in the process.

~The Advocate

Go Cher!Read More: http://www.advocate.com/people/2016/1/17/cher-donates-181440-bottles-water-flint-michigan?team=social


Read More About The Environmental Racism That Led To This Crisis at "On Flint Michigan: With White Republicans Around, Who Needs Terrorists?"  http://blackchickrocked.blogspot.com/2016/01/with-white-republicans-in-flint-who.html