05 Monday Jun 2023
Posted in Citizenship, Climate Change, Economics, Insanity, Local Reporting, Politics, Saving the Earth
Remember all the fanfare about Governor Tim Walz’ Climate Subcabinet? Apply today!
I applied. Thought I could bring perspective. But did they really want perspective?
I guess it was an easy job?
That Annual Report certainly looks to be running late… by a couple years now.
Yep. First and last.
Another nothing burger financed by taxpayer funds?
A boondoggle for friends to gather and pretend they were working?
No wonder we’re seeing things go downhill fast?
Who is really doing anything?
24 Monday Apr 2023
Tags
CELDF, climate change, Covid, COVID-19, Enbridge, Guantanamo, Keystone, Lies, Line 3, Line 93, Miscarriage, mRNA, Propaganda, Stillbirth, Vaccine, Walker Brook
It’s hard to say what has been most frustrating about my life as an activist but perhaps it’s the freaking absurdity of what continues to sell like hotcakes? Against all logic. Even though the deception can be discovered with the least bit of scrutiny? 🧐
Natalie sings of our situation…
Regardless of whether it is Big Pharma, our government, or Big Oil, my concerns about the players are finding themselves on solid ground. The proof continues to emerge on Enbridge’s Line 93 construction failures (while state agencies continue to remain silent on these as-yet-unreported concerns) and data keeps coming to light on the adverse impacts of the mRNA vaccines.
While it can be difficult to face the blowback from those who are not yet discerning the bullshit, I’ll continue to speak truth as I discover it. And I’ll be ever grateful for those who are willing to discuss life matters openly… to find truth together.
This past week shows recent concerns being wrangled:
1. The news on vaccines continues to come. None of it good, sadly, for those who’ve been inoculated with mRNA.
2. Even the Aspen Institute is now a Propaganda Program!! For crying out loud. Next thing you know Fox News will be telling more truth than MPR? 🧐 Lots of shake ups in MSM this week, eh? Feels collapse is nearer every day and we’ll only know about it if we’re watching alternative media. Perhaps you can check out these tidbits to learn more?
3. Industry failures that result in Environmental damages:
4. How capitalism works…
Why the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep dying. Poor die at a rate of 500/day… Just because they are poor. Being poor is REALLY EXPENSIVE. SO MANY RULES that create strive for the poor while giving more help to the rich. Guess the rich got better bootstraps? 
And that’s to not even mention Guantanamo, the Canadian Kids, or Earth Day celebrations.
I’ll see you Monday! {Unless, like Tucker, my producer kills my show!!} 😬
17 Monday Apr 2023
Posted in Citizenship, Climate Change, Community, Coronavirus, Death, Economics, Family, Health, Human Extinction, Musings
Tags
By the time we realized the truth, it was too late to do anything.
Humans never were good at understanding our limits.
Our hubris was our demise.
10 Monday Apr 2023
What an amazing time we had at a jam packed event for AICHO -as stated in their event notice:
Dabinoo’Igan is empowering the voices that are often silenced due to Domestic Violence. “One Community, Many Voices, Stop the Silence” is an opportunity for our community to come together for the victims who are silenced. Enjoy musical performances by Erik Koskinen and Band, Anishinaabeg national music award winners Annie Humphrey and Keith Secola along with the Miziiwekaamikiinang Drum Group on April 6, 2023
AICHO is expanding our culturally responsive domestic violence shelter Dabinoo’Igan to help more victims of domestic and sexual violence in our community. …in partnership with the Ordean Foundation. All monies raised will go toward the Dabinoo’Igan Shelter expansion.
In the fiscal year 2021, the Dabinoo’Igan Shelter provided 490 unique individuals with shelter services, accommodated 2,509 bed stays, and answered over 577 crisis calls. During the same year, Dabinoo’Igan had just under 200 requests for services that were unmet due to capacity issues.
Victims of violence should never have to face these barriers when seeking safety and help.
Help us help our community in need. Dabinoo’Igan is Anishinaabemowin for “a place where you are safe, comforted and sheltered”. More about musicians, tickets, fundraiser: : https://www.aicho.org/funddvshelter
Top event sponsors: Ordean Foundation, Krenzen Auto, McKnight Foundation, First Nations Development Institute, Maurices, St. Louis County Attorney’s Office, Essentia Health, Ivy Vainio + Friends, Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, National Bank of Commerce, RBC Wealth Management-Duluth, and RSM US LLP. #AICHOFundDVShelter
from the event info
This event was incredible. Terrific organizing. Amazing performances. Annie is always powerful – EVERY time I’ve seen her – and the middle guys were stars with a big booming sound – really rocked it – then Keith came out and blew our minds.🤯 Great to see David Huckfelt. 🫶
Ivy and team did a fantastic job. The Ordean guy was terrific. Really could see the coherence in the group. Good to see some friends there to support the fundraiser and we really enjoyed the after party! 😍
More time with friends all the way home, including visiting our babies!! 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
So many good friends and family. 💖
Working this week on getting our place organized again for kitten arrival. After swearing I wouldn’t… ever again… 😵💫 Only excuse… Overwhelming cuteness.😻😻 And they say two is easier…🧐
Deep conversations and time in the woods all made for a terrific welcome of spring. 🌱 🌺
So many good friends and family. 💖 My life keeps getting better and better.
03 Monday Apr 2023
Posted in Citizenship, Community, Finding Your Purpose, Musings
If being a good ally means only following and listening, I am a bad ally.
Did Creator not make me as I am supposed to be? A questioning, puzzle-piecing, thinking, compassionate, metallurgical engineer?
Should I stop asking questions? Some say that my questions seem accusatory or critical, rather than inquisitive. I can work on my tone, yet…
I want to ask friends, “If you know my heart, why do you take my questions as criticism instead of inquiry?”
Pondering how to find my way.
[This was written some time back. I’ve worked on tone and approach as I continue to discover my own personal evolution, yet still, occasionally, this thinking arises.]
We’re all doing our best as we walk these paths through life. 💖
20 Monday Mar 2023
Tags
We watch our banks… collapsing?
Or being made to appear as if they are anyway.
I wonder how much longer…
before all the systems ~ every one of which is showing signs of strain… to keep up with growing needs, improve upon services, or even maintain its basic foundations ~
are simply GONE.
We joke about the internet disappearing.
Yet, how much is already unavailable… under the thumb that ensures no “misinformation”?
(Or… maybe just moved… to a new platform… where one can still speak freely?)
But is the day soon? When we simply won’t have these magic computers in our pockets to tell us…
Who to be.
Which place has the best doohickey for the least output.
How to get where we’re going.
Some joke about humans who cannot get from point A to B without a GPS machine directing them.
The latest fad is using paper maps.
(Who knew, Mom!?! You’ve always been ahead of the curve.)
So how are we navigating now?
Are we still following the signs of a colonized culture, hell bent on using military might to ensure its GDP?
Are we still mindlessly seeking the next job, clothes, partner, car, house… that will fulfill us?
Are we sensing the fruitlessness, nay cruelty, of the American Way of Life?
Many more each day, by choice or circumstance, are choosing a new way.
A holistic, universal, mutual aid network way of engaging with their fellow crew members.
A way that is more direct, local, sustainable, and… FUN!!!
I am calling it the BEconomy.
This is a place where each of us can BE who we are… doing the work we love ~ be it cooking, researching, fishing, sewing, cleaning, growing, organizing, teaching, entertaining ~ each and every one of us… loving our neighbors as we find our way forward together… in love, for the good of all.
Some may call me a Dreamer.
Nevertheless.
This feels like a big new year opening before me…
And I feel it just may be…
My best yet.
😍
26 Thursday Jan 2023
Posted in Citizenship, Community, Economics, Human Extinction, Local Reporting, Saving the Earth
We’ve heard orchids are fragile and take long years to bloom, yet here in Minnesota’s harsh winter climate we revered their beauty so, we made the Showy Lady Slipper our state flower. And we have many scenic byways where everyone can enjoy their beauty as they often thrive in the wet ditches along our roadways. If you haven’t seen them, make plans to do so. And act quick because the state road projects are ignoring them… Leading to their destruction… at quite the pace now.
So why doesn’t the state of Minnesota care for and protect this flower we profess to hold in such high regard?
Instead, MN Department of Transportation seems hell bent on spending our tax dollars in destroying the beauty of our state, giving away the Tree Nation relatives to the best bidding logger for his troubles, and assuring the vacationers stop coming because…
Why bother? Nothing special to see here anymore.
It seems the Department of Transportation has figured out a way to prevent fatalities along Highway 34! …a problem most of us didn’t even realize was a problem we face. Because we don’t.
Their solution involves the culling of thousands of trees along a 7-mile stretch of Scenic Byway through the Smokey Hills State Forest. (Forest, you know, as in TREES.) As part of this tree clear cutting, they will remove stumps and regrade the ditch. This is the part that eliminates the Ladyslippers.
I didn’t know much about these flowers before moving to Minnesota but definitely recall my first sighting. I was with my mom at the edge of Lake Itasca in our gem of a state park, which hosts the Headwaters of the Mississippi. She’s the one who found them and when I saw the beauty I was stunned. What soft pink color, flowing curves, and a little spot where sometimes you might find a spider or some other being enjoying in a closer view. If I was small enough I’d sure want to climb inside and see what’s happening in there! What more lovely cavern of beauty could a spider wish?
As a resident along County 2 in Clearwater County, I watched a few years ago as the County widened our road and extended their easement far to each side, clear-cutting the beauty along this scenic drive info Itasca State Park from U.S. Highway 2. Only two of us fought the easement request, saving many trees. It’s one of my proudest accomplishments since moving to Minnesota.
As my neighbor put it, “if I wanted to live on the plains of North Dakota I would have bought a house in North Dakota.”
As the project was state-funded, it required the deep cuts to the sides of the road, clearing the beauty of the trees, reportedly to allow people to avoid crashes, by being better able to see deer. Also, it process, destroying the fragile habitat of the Ladyslippers.
The result is that while we may still be living on a Scenic Byway, we no longer live in a scenic landscape. This is in part because in addition to culling most of the trees, the state also allowed Enbridge Incorporated to build a tar sands pipeline adjacent to the “Scenic drive“. This video depicts what we hope will not be the fate of those living along Highway 34, as Joeb assured me there would be no burn piles with this project. It depicts the destruction of clear-cutting we witnessed along County 2. (Now in addition to fewer trees you see more erosion barrier, still present almost a year and a half post-Enbridge Line 93-construction. I just found out last week the damages aren’t seen as “permanent” until 5 years. I’m sure all the erosion barrier will have grown into the habitat by then so the visual damages will be gone? Yet the damage remains. And continues.)
When I spoke with MNDoT on this Highway 34 clearcut I was told the Scenic Byway designation would remain. Yet I asked Joeb Oyster, project manager for the Highway 34 resurfacing:
“My guess is that the reason this was named a Scenic Byway is because of the trees. … Will it really be a scenic byway, for which to designate?”
When the County 2 project was being revealed, several of us met with the County Engineer Dan Sauve at the public meeting asking him what would be done to save the Ladyslippers. He expressed no concern for the flowers saying only, if we wanted to remove them, we were welcome to do so. So we did!
Dozens of us, in the summers before construction, were out there taking hundreds of these beauties to new homes in hopes we can restore the ditches by returning them post-construction. It seems these days if there’s anything you’d like done in your community you best do it yourself.
And if there’s anything you want protected you best do that yourself too because the state isn’t working for protection on our behalf. I’m not sure who they’re listening to exactly, but it’s not the people who have lived here, whether for generations or millennia, or just a few years like me.
A simple solution, perfect for a scenic tree-lined drive – a few informative speed limit signs – could do the trick. Yet did the state consider this? Apparently this idea was beaten out by an idea that culling trees on the south side of the road – at a cost of millions of dollars to taxpayers – will save money in chemical costs because with the trees gone, they won’t need so much salt in winter.
If you’ve passed 3rd grade, you likely see the folly in their plan. You know about the low angle of the sun in winter… and how it would mean hundreds of feet of trees would need cut. Even if this idea was one that made sense, it would be destructive beyond belief virtually eliminating any Scenic on the Byway.
If you’ve passed high school economics, you likely realize it’s gonna take an awful lot of salt savings to make up for, what is it now, almost $16M in logging costs?!? That’s a WHOLE LOT OF SALT!
And what of those vacationers? The ones who used to come here to see the Ladyslippers? Their dollars will be spent elsewhere as we create a dull and lifeless Minnesota.
How’s that helping out children, Tim Walz? Clear-cutting their landscape. Ever hear of Easter Island? The more I watch, the less I can judge those Easter Islanders. Our “leaders” and “managers”, charged with protecting our natural resources, are giving them away as they clearcut more each year. And to what end?
I don’t know if you’ve driven many of the roads in Minnesota, but I’m sure I’ve seen stretches of wide open road – not a tree in sight – and still… A snow and ice encrusted reality!
I have to say their solution is likely to create even more of the problem they were trying to avoid in the first place. The only thing I’ve noticed on County 2 since they widened the road and stripped the easement from trees is that people drive as if they are now on an open runway: faster than ever.
At a meeting with the public last night in Detroit Lakes, we learned of all the ways not only MNDoT but also the Federal Highway Administration have FAILED to follow proper protocols that include working with Scenic Byway folks to adhere to their rules regarding Scenic Byways, which this stretch of Highway 34 in the Smokey Hills is currently designated.
Why is it -with this much public opposition, including Tribal Nation voices – that the agencies, state and federal, refused to meet with the public? They were all invited to the public hearing last night, but refused to attend and hear the near 150 voices that quickly mustered on a Tuesday evening to hear what is happening to our world.
Trees = Pipelines?
I heard yesterday of training given at the Minnesota DNR for their employees. It seems they tell their people that, if they are approached by citizens who ask about pipelines, the Department of Natural Resource policy is to NOT ENGAGE.
Maybe Minnesota Department of Transportation has a similar policy for citizens who ask about the Trees?
02 Monday Jan 2023
As Dan and I made our way home from Nagaajiwanaang (Fond du Lac Reservation) on New Year’s Eve, I felt wonderful Peace.
It seems I’ve done all I can in the past year to bring good, find solutions, offer my help, and do my best to win*.
And it was good to feel that success alongside good friends and collaborators who are so supportive.
As I remember all those who have been a part of this past year, it’s lovely to recall times of collaboration, feelings of breakthrough, and delicious times of fun and frivolity – though I can’t find a video of our vow renewal.
It’s harder to remember the times of hopelessness, the feelings of defeat, and the many ugly discoveries we’ve made in the land.
Yet we are bouyed by those around us also working for good. And you can see and hear my latest in a lucky piece where I rant and rave while little birds eat from my hand.
*Here’s what I mean by “win”.
Blessed New Year as you do your best… to Win.
19 Monday Dec 2022
Posted in Citizenship, Climate Change, Community, Local Reporting, Preventing Line 3
Tags
1855 Treaty, Aquifer, Clearwater County, Enbridge, Keystone, Line 3, Line 93, Mill Creek, Minnesota, MN DNR, MPCA, Pipeline, spill
This is a blog post about the letter I wrote last week to 55th Chief of Engineers, Lieutenant General Spellmon, of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding my concerns on Enbridge’s Line 3/93, especially here in Clearwater County. I meet with the County Commissioners tomorrow to review these concerns and discuss response readiness.
Boozhoo, Lieutenant General Spellmon,
I’m a retired Metallurgical Engineer writing from 1855 Treaty Territory regarding growing concerns for the current Enbridge worksite at Walker Brook in Clearwater County, Minnesota. These concerns were only heightened by the December 7 Keystone pipeline rupture at Mill Creek, a geography so similar to ours with a creek adjacent to an uphill pipeline corridor. We appreciate the work you are doing there in response to the latest Keystone pipeline failure. We are hopeful to prevent a need for similar response at our location, which geologically is far more water-filled and unstable than that of the Kansas plains.
We’ve been watching Walker Brook valley with concern since early August when we noticed Enbridge’s timber matting access road had been reinstalled west of Clearwater County 110. In late August, my partner discovered an open hole above the pipeline corridor and we began watching this place even more closely. [47-degrees, 47-minutes, 63-seconds, and -95-degrees, 28-minutes, 35-seconds.]
This photo shows upwelling as indicated by surface ripples. Since then, we’ve taken several hikes in to monitor and test at this location, concerned about impacts to the land and water quality.
Located within a 399-acre section of state tax land and County Memorial Forest, this crossing of Enbridge’s Line 3/93 pipeline at Walker Brook is in a precarious valley of deep glacial till and forested peatbog very similar to LaSalle Valley, where Enbridge is also currently struggling to remediate multiple upwelling water locations. These two valleys are like mirror images of each other on either side of the Mississippi River Line 3/93 crossing, where Enbridge experienced multiple frac-outs into the large wetlands of Mississippi River headwaters. This is clearly a fragile geology, full of water, which opponents to the Line 3 project testified was too much of a risk for a Tar Sands pipeline project.
We see now, that heeding citizen warnings would have been prudent. The applicant’s route was a bad idea that was not given enough geotechnical or hydrological study to assure prevention of avoidable tragedies. We remain disappointed that the USACE refused to perform an EIS as that work may have saved us these troubles. A year after Enbridge began flowing tar sands crude through their pipeline, we still await resolution of upwards of 4 dozen sites of deep groundwater upwellings, many of which, based on Enbridge’s lack of transparent communication regarding their environmental failures both during construction and since formal construction ended, we believe the state remains ignorant.
As a retired Metallurgical Engineer, my concerns include those regarding the pipeline integrity in Walker Brook Valley. If the pipeline is floating in a veneer of peat and/or being fatigued by the fluctuating water levels, the stresses could exceed designed metallurgical limits. I am concerned the Canadian Corporation, as evidenced in this video, has found this installation to be more problematic than expected. We know that Enbridge has struggled to complete their work at this crossing for over a year, yet there has been no release of information on this site to the public, save that done by Waadookawaad Amikwag in their announcements and webinars. Nor does it appear the DNR or MPCA are communicating with Clearwater County Commissioners or the County Land Commissioner on this concern. As this is Clearwater County Memorial Forest, public land with multiple deer stands as hunting remains open this weekend, we still have no notice of this danger to the public from the state or federal agencies. We are concerned that Enbridge alone knows of the risks here and that state and federal agencies may remain uninformed.
You received memos from Minnesota US Representative Betty McCollum, on 10/14/22, and Representative Ilhan Omar more recently, regarding the concerns of Waadookawaad Amikwag, a citizen scientist group seeking your assistance for federal investigation of this situation. As USEPA recently replied to Representative McCollum’s memo, we look forward to receiving your response soon as well. We are hopeful for a robust response to our specific concerns of deep underground upwelling water flows.
I write today with evidence of recent dirt piles adjacent to the Enbridge Line 3/93 corridor; another possible indication this project in the valley may involve pipeline integrity concerns.
In addition, we hold concerns for the excessive water removal from the valley as Walker Brook feeds The Red River of the North. Water being pumped up the hillside and over the Laurentian Divide now overwhelms the Enbridge dewatering station and flows across County 110 north of the project site, as indicated in the photo below. These ponds and brook that result are situated in the Mississippi River watershed and the excess water appears bound for Daniel Lake in the Clearwater State Wildlife Management Area. How will these millions of gallons of water being moved from one watershed to another impact both watersheds and the wildlife and people who rely on them?
Finally, we are concerned to know if this location has been reported to PHMSA and if their representatives might be of assistance to watch closely over this worksite of concern. And we urge your Engineers to ask Waadookawaad Amikwag for assistance as they are watching closely and have data and evidence on the nature of this concern that might be helpful in resolution.
We look forward to watching state and federal agencies build relationships of trust with the public monitors to ensure full enforcement of the Clean Water Act in Clearwater County and across Minnesota.
Thank you for your consideration. Miigwech Bizindaawiyeg.
Sincerely,
Jami Gaither
Alida, MN
218-657-2321
cc:
Michael S. Regan, USEPA
Alan K. Mayberry, PHMSA
Timothy Gaither, PHMSA
U.S. Congresswoman Betty McCollum, Minnesota 4th District
U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, Minnesota 5th District
Anna Hotz, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Randall Doneen, Minnesota DNR
Waadookawaad Amikwag
Sheriff Darin Halverson, Clearwater County Sheriff’s Office
Andy Anderson, Clearwater County CCSO EMS
Bruce Cox, Clearwater County Land Commissioner
Got word from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission Secretary Seuffert Friday that it was posted to the Docket!!
21 Monday Nov 2022
Posted in Citizenship, Community, Economics, Local Reporting, Preventing Line 3, Uncategorized
Tags
Deep Water Breach, Enbridge, Line 3, MN DNR, MPCA, PHMSA, Pipeline, Sinkhole, unrelenting water, USACE, USEPA, Walker Brook
A while back, my friend Nookomis Deb Topping, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of R.I.S.E. Coalition, invited me to take a road trip to Mackinac to testify against the Proposed Line 5 Tunnel Project in the Straits of Mackinac. [Another Dumb Enbridge Idea…] Here’s what we told the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on what Enbridge promises… vs. what they will deliver.
Nookomis Deb Topping had the brilliant idea that we could print poster sized prints of the devastation we’re now facing here in Minnesota. So we did.
The people in Michigan were very interested to see the Enbridge post-construction landscape in hopes it might open the eyes of the USACE to help them say, “No,” to Enbridge’s next dumb idea. Anyone can see these are grave concerns – and this one, as yet unreported to the public – indicates when Enbridge asks, we must say, “NEVER AGAIN!!”
This past week, Waadookawaad Amikwag revealed two sites of upwelling water concerns, of dozens we’ve uncovered, along Enbridge’s Line 3/93 corridor. These ongoing concerns mean continued infiltration of our wetlands and bogs, doing unknown levels of harm.
We saw 198 members of the public engaged to hear our Presentation of Findings and 100 attended the Q&A discussion with the public later that evening. Eighty of them stayed for an extra twenty minutes of Q&A after the Action at the top of the hour! They were very interested in our work and so many questions remain unanswered.
We hope to get fact sheets and more updates out to the public soon.
Keep up to date by subscribing to the Waadookawaad Amikwag YouTube channel.
And Waadookawaad Amikwag has a website pending release.
Meanwhile, we hope YOU will TAKE ACTION asking the US Army Corps of Engineers and the US Environmental Protection Agency to Support the Waadookawaad Amikwag call for a complete Federal Investigation.
Now, as winter closes in, we see more and more Enbridge presence at Walker Brook. Why do they need to have lights on at night? What are the risks? What is the state allowing them to do now? Without our knowledge.
More importantly, without Tribal Consultation.
Walker Brook damages are even visible on Google Maps now from photos taken earlier this year. You can see here the entire valley full of destruction. Closer in, the degraded hillside is evident. Closer still, you can even see the sinkhole that’s opened in the ground above the Enbridge tar sands pipeline.
Of course, it’s worse today. Enbridge has 24/7 monitoring now.
Only God and the MPCA know what they’re doing to the land and water now.
Retired at 45 