On Monday, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem effectively suspended the process for introducing bills during the state's short legislative session, producing two bills designed to snuff protests during the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline.
On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported in SD legislative panel passes bills aimed at possible Keystone XL protests:
A South Dakota legislative panel has endorsed Gov. Kristi Noem’s bills to prepare for potential protests over the Keystone XL oil pipeline despite opposition from tribal representatives.
The Republican governor’s bills would require pipeline companies to chip in on protest-related expenses and create a way to pursue the money of those who fund destructive demonstrations.
The Joint Committee on Appropriations voted Wednesday to send the bills to the Senate floor.
Crow Creek Sioux Tribe Chairman Lester Thompson says voices shouldn’t be silenced about environmental concerns that affect resources people depend on to live.
Noem’s bills come after opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline staged large protests that resulted in hundreds of arrests in North Dakota.
Who does Noem think funded those protests? Why, the old conservative's bugaboo: George Soros. South Dakota Public Broadcasting (SDPB) Radio's Lee Strubinger reported Tuesday in Governor Indicates George Soros Funding Out-Of-State Protestors:
The governor says one of those bills sets up a fund that focuses on pursuing lawsuits against those who help fund what she calls “riot boosting.”
When asking if this implicates anyone who posts bail for an individual, or who gives gas money to someone who ends up arrested, an email from the governor’s spokeswoman says, “the bill’s focus is on individuals and entities that use their wealth to support and encourage acts of violence or rioting.”
The email goes on to say, “Those pursuing legal remedies would be looking for evidence the support was intended to cause such violence or rioting. These cases could be very fact-intensive and it would be up to a judge and jury to decide the outcome of a given situation.”
Noem says the bill is aimed to prevent out-of-state paid protestors from coming in and causing riots. She points to pipeline demonstrations against the Dakota Access Pipeline. When asked for examples of out-of-state donors, she points to a wealthy, Jewish philanthropist…
“I’d say the most typical national offender that we see funding these types of activities would be George Soros,” Noem says. “Those types of entities that want to come in and create disruption on a build, with this infrastructure, is what we’re hoping to shut down.”
A spokeswoman for Open Society Foundations, a George Soros backed non-profit, says there was no involvement in North Dakota.
Laura Silber says Soros and the Foundations oppose violence of any sort. She says it’s odd the governor is seeking to tarnish the recent surge in citizen activism.
“And to suggest that somebody is paying for these people to turnout and protest and do someone’s bidding that’s paid for by Mr. Soros or anyone else, it does a grave disservice to these people who are standing up and making their voices heard,” Silber says. “Whether that’s in South Dakota or anywhere else in this country.”
Silber says in the past, the Open Society Foundations has funded Women’s Health programs for Native Americans, and prisoner reentry programs in South Dakota.
Noem not alone in attacking Soros as evil billionaire
Blaming Soros and his money is a tactic straight out of the Republican world of Washington DC from which Noem departed after serving as South Dakota's congresswoman. Readers may recall our posts about use of these anti-semitic tropes by the National Republican Congressional Committee in Minnesota's First Congressional and now-Congressman Jim Hagedorn. For instance: Hagedorn campaign embraces NRCC's anti-semitic anti-Soros ad condemned by Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas.
The ads were called out in Israeli and Jewish publications, we noted in Strib: Hagedorn's fearmongering and bombast wrong for district; Feehan right choice for MN01:
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports ... Republican Campaign Ad Claims Iraq War Veteran Is 'Owned' by Jewish Billionaire George Soros...
In The Forward, Aiden Pink reports ... GOP Ad Accuses Jewish Billionaire George Soros Of ‘Owning’ Democratic Candidate...
In broader looks at the Soros trope, the Times of Israel reports After bomb scares, George Soros’s son says Trump is fueling demonization, while The Jerusalem Post reports House Majority Leader accuses Soros and others of 'buying' election. . ..
That rhetoric is reflected in the ad reviewed in KSTP's TRUTH TEST: NRCC Misleads in Feehan Attack reports...
But there are more instances of Republicans connecting Soros' money with protests.
In the New York Magazine's Intelligencer, Eric Levitz wrote in Republicans: Protesters Are an Unruly Mob — Unless They’re Heavily Armed and Support Us:
The Republican Party is the only thing standing between you and “the left’s angry mob” of ideological zealots (who are all, also, the hired hands of a foreign Jewish billionaire, and thus, aren’t genuinely angry, or ideological, or zealous). . . .
. . .For the moment, the GOP’s attacks on George Soros’s lawless minions is a campaign tactic, not a rationalization for criminalizing dissent. But every time a “normal,” mainstream Republican like Chuck Grassley or Orrin Hatch derides Democratic activists as the lawless agents of a foreign power, it becomes a little easier to see a “jackboat of authoritarianism” peeking out at the edge of our republic’s horizon.
Ryan Cooper reminded The Week's readers of the Republican Party's anti-Soros Anti-Semitism in his column, The Democratic leadership's Israel fiasco:
Unsurprisingly, the wide streak of anti-Semitism in the Republican Party does not impede this relationship either. Netanyahu didn't ditch the GOP over a Trump ad saying rich Jews (George Soros, Janet Yellen, and Lloyd Blankfein) control the levers of global politics. He didn't either when Trump said the white supremacist "Unite the Right" rally at Charlottesville — where torch-wielding mobs chanted "Jews will not replace us," and where a neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd of leftist demonstrators, wounding 35 people and killing one — contained "very fine people."
Nor did he when a Trump supporter — clearly inspired by constant Republican demonization — allegedly sent a mail bomb to Soros' house. Nor did he when another right-wing extremist, who espoused the Republican conspiracy theory that Soros was conniving to bring Muslims refugees into the U.S., massacred 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue. (Also, somehow Republicans who are baying "anti-Semite" at Omar failed to get so worked up over Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) calling Jewish Democratic donor Tom Steyer "$teyer" in a tweet).
Add Kristi Noem to that crowd--and it appears as if she's getting that free Republican pass with this malarky. Here's hoping the JCRC looks at this instance as closely as it did matters in Hagedorn's case and more recent non-Soros related statements by Minnesota Fifth District Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Are Noem's Bills Anti-Native? Tribal leaders speak
Multiple sources are bringing Noem's lack of discussion of the two new bills with South Dakota's tribes. At the Daily Republic, Sarah Mearhoff reports in Noem introduces bill package to curb Keystone XL protests:
Noem said her two-part package is the result of discussions between her administration and TransCanada, lawmakers, law enforcement officials and other stakeholders.
Monday's news release did not mention any discussions with South Dakota's tribes. At the news conference, Noem said she has spoken with individuals like Tribal Affairs Secretary David Flute and she is "looking forward to (the tribes') feedback" now that the legislation is public.
David Flute served one term as chair of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Dakota on the Lake Traverse Reservation in Northeast South Dakota and Southeast North Dakota until tribal members voted him out of office, replacing him with Ella Robertson.
It's especially curious to Bluestem that Noem didn't bother to bring up these bills just over a week ago on February 27, Tribal Relations Day at the State Capitol. KELO reports in Noem's 'new beginning' with SD tribes:
"What I wanted was a ceremony where you could feel my heart, that you could feel that we have a unique opportunity to unify and have a new beginning."
The Noem Administration is working to have the flags of all nine recognized tribes in South Dakota displayed inside the Capitol building.
The Governor held a summit on Wednesday with tribal leaders and representatives before attending the tribal day ceremony.
Well, okay then.
UPDATE March 7: Native Sun News Talli Nauman made that point first with a photo in Tribal chair locks horns with governor over KXL Pipeline dissent package: with the caption: "The future of South Dakota,” Lakota students honor South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem with a star quilt at the 2019 State Tribal Relations Rotunda Ceremony in the capitol."
Love the photo op, don't ask the people.
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chair Harold Frazier had an immediate thumbsdown response March 4 to South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s announcement of two bills to kneecap dissent over the proposed construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline.
“I am disappointed again with the leader of South Dakota. The governor has not discussed any proposed legislation with the Sioux Nation or Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe,” Frazier said in a written statement.
“This proposed legislation is designed to further an agenda of shoving this pipeline down our throats,” he said. “She is putting the economic needs of the foreign company TransCanada ahead of the future of South Dakota.”
The tribes of the Great Sioux Nation have gone on record year after year in opposition to building the tar-sands crude-oil conduit across the waters and lands of their 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty territory. They reiterated their stance on the floor of the Legislature during opening sessions.
Nonetheless, Noem and her team met with Trans- Canada Corp. and law enforcement to discuss the Keystone XL Pipeline project and “to listen and develop legislative solutions that allow for an orderly construction process for this pipeline and others. The legislation is the result of those discussions,” she said in a written statement.
Frazier recoiled: “If the governor truly wants to save money, she should consider not allowing a pipeline through the state. This legislation only shows that they are more concerned with saving money while suppressing South Dakotans rights of assembly and intimidating anyone who is considering options to stand up for what they believe is right.”
Noem maintained she is “a supporter of property rights, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly. We should celebrate differences of opinion, but here in South Dakota, we will have the rule of law, because rioters do not control economic development in our state,” she added.
“This package creates a legal avenue, if necessary, to go after out-of-state money funding riots that go beyond expressing a viewpoint but instead aim to slowdown the pipeline build. It allows us to follow the money for riots and cut it off at the source.” ...
Read the full article at the Native Sun News.[end update]
High Country News' Elena Saavedra Buckley reports in South Dakota pushes bills to prosecute ‘riot-boosting’ ahead of pipeline construction:
Two bills allowing the state of South Dakota to prosecute pipeline demonstrators and their funders — and use money from damages to fund law enforcement and pipeline costs — moved to the Senate floor on Wednesday. Introduced by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, R, on Monday, the bills would protect the 1,179-mile-long Keystone XL pipeline, a planned TransCanada project that would slice through the state carrying 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day. The Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association has opposed the bills, representing the leaders of 16 tribes in the region, none of whom were consulted for the legislation. . . .
Opponents insist that the laws would effectively snuff out constitutional protests such as those at Standing Rock.
The riot-boosting bill “has the capacity to make a criminal of any citizen, not just big donors or supporters,” said Crow Creek Chairman Lester Thompson, Jr. “In a world of social media, how do you determine who is a riot-booster or just a concerned citizen?”
Thompson was the only tribal chairman who spoke at the hearing; many tribal leaders from South Dakota were in Washington, D.C., testifying about federal appropriations for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service.
“It seems like this Canadian company is calling the shots here,” said Gay Kingman, executive director of the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association, at the hearing. “Transparency dictates that all stakeholders should have a seat at the table, and anything less is paternalism that tribes have experienced for years.” . . .
Sen. Reynold Nesiba, D, who voted no, criticized the lack of tribal involvement and expressed concern over the broad reaches of the state’s “riot” definition. “So many people write a check or give cash for people who are going to a protest, partly for educational experiences,” he said after the committee vote. “That notion of trying to hold somebody liable for the actions of another I find deeply problematic.”
Sen. Ryan Maher, R, whose district neighbors the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock reservations, also voted no. “I’m not going to support 189 today just because of how ‘riot’ can be construed,” he said.
Documents obtained by the ACLU of Montana showed the federal and local law enforcement had “anti-terrorism” training sessions and “riot-control formations” in 2018 to prepare for predicted Keystone XL protests. At the Standing Rock demonstrations, extremist vocabulary came hand-in-hand with mass arrests and the use of water cannons and teargas grenades. . . .
The bills will be voted on in the Senate Thursday morning.
In the Argus Leader, Sarah Kaczke reports in Gov. Kristi Noem's Keystone XL pipeline protest legislation passes committee:
Tribal members said they were concerned the bills would unfairly affect tribal members with civil lawsuits. Yankton Sioux member Faith Spotted Eagle pointed out that the tribes have treaty rights in South Dakota.
"If you sue us, we're going to sue you," she told the committee.
Lester Thompson Jr., chairman of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, said Senate Bill 189 could have a broad application, thus stifling protests on any subject, and it's unclear in the bill could be considered a "riot booster." He questioned if President Donald Trump's tweet caused violence in South Dakota, "is he a riot booster under South Dakota law?" . . .
Tribal members also took issue with the state's lack of consultation with the tribes prior to the bills' introduction on Monday, with Spotted Eagle calling the bills an "ambush" on the tribes. The committee's bill hearing on Wednesday also took place on a day when most of the tribal chairmen in South Dakota were unable to testify in Pierre because they were attending a meeting in Washington, D.C., tribal members said.
When asked by the committee about the lack of dialogue with the tribes, McCaulley responded that the tribes aren't among the entities that will pay into the PEACE fund and the proposed pipeline route doesn't cross any reservations.
That was certainly the case for Chair Robertson, according to our print copy of the tribe's newpaper.
The Reading Eagle's Associated Press copy, Panel passes bills aimed at possible Keystone XL protests, added:
The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe supports the constitutional rights of tribal members and the public to peacefully assemble and engage in free speech on issues of great importance, lobbyist Remi Bald Eagle said, adding the tribe does not support riots.
"Together these bills send the message that the state of South Dakota is more interested in getting paid to suppress its citizens' rights than it is paying attention to the rights of its citizens," Bald Eagle said.
In a another post, Bluestem will consider the rising tide of anti-protest legislation in the United States.
Painting: Indigenous Sami people from Norway joined the Standing Rock Sioux and other Indigenous tribes from around the world in protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. SD Governor Kristi Noem wants none of that in South Dakota while the Keystone XL pipeline is built. (Photo: Red Warrior Camp/Facebook/Common Dreams).
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