By Nathan Barton

For the past several weeks, many of us have been watching events on Standing Rock Reservation, homeland of one of the modern Lakota nations in the Dakotas, as a “grassroots” coalition fights against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) project, which involves constructing a pipeline from the oil fields of Western North Dakota to connect with pipelines and refineries in the Mississippi Valley.

The entire business was escalated on Monday, as reported by Reuters when the anti-pipeline activities, mostly tribal members, occupied privately-owned land through which the pipeline is to be constructed, claiming that the land belonged to the Lakota under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 and had been stolen and given or sold to the current owners.

As with the previous (and apparently now-lost) Keystone XL Pipeline, the claim is made, particularly by the Standing Rock Lakota Nation and its allies, that significant environmental damage is not only possible but likely. Two additional issues inflame this situation: the claim that significant impacts will be made on sacred tribal lands and places with “wakan” (spiritual power), and that the US Army Corps of Engineers (and other federal agencies) failed to adequately consult the tribe AND the trustee for the tribe (the US Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). All of these issues were addressed in several recent court actions, and the court found against the tribe: the claims were apparently without merit and all matters were addressed both in accordance with the laws and regulations AND to a degree that determined that the claims of damage to the environment and sensitive cultural resources (whether actually owned by the tribe or not) were not supported.

Zero Hedge discusses the recent decision by the tyrant in DC and his minions to order options be halted and that the court decision be ignored. In what appears to be a clear case of pandering to special political interests: specifically a coalition between environist/global warming worshipers on the one hand, and radical “Native American” (AmerInd) groups on the other, the procedure as established by law has been halted and even reversed. Work has ceased on the construction, winter is coming (one of these days), and billions of dollars of investment are at risk.

So, as Zero Hedge reports, several groups supporting the industry and construction have lashed out in a condemning attack on the regime in DC, stating that the FedGov is ignoring the rule of law. This is in essence the same argument as the people occupying the private land on Monday are claiming: the land was recognized by treaty as being Lakota land, but later (through further treaties, agreements and federal (Congressional) action, was taken from them in violation of the rule of law.

Now, this hardly comes as a surprise to readers of The Price of Liberty. And is far from the first time. And surely the groups and people making this argument KNOW that the District of Criminals’ modus operandi is virtually ALWAYS to ignore the rule of law, substituting men for law, and politics for justice. And as the land ownership issue shows, this is NOT anything particularly new: that land was taken (depending on how you interpret the treaties and agreements) either in 1877 or 1889.

And they also surely know that this appeal will be fruitless, that it is a waste of paper, electrons, and time and brainpower. So we can assume that they are doing this simply to make a point: to appeal not to the White House and Congress – or even the Supreme Court (and we know how many battalions THEY have) – but to the people.

Or are they? Are they perhaps naïve enough to actually still believe that the rule of law is in effect here in the Fifty States? That someone, somewhere in the bowels (or sewers) of the White House, or the Capitol, or even the courts, that some powerful bureaucrat will suddenly be stricken with an attack of conscience and say “Oh, yeah, they are right! Back off, let them have the rule of law, let them have their land!”

I call it naïve, but we know that there are many people who DO believe that such human miracles can happen: that if they just say the right “magic words” that the federal income tax will vanish in a puff of Nazgul-generated smoke. That if they can just submit the precisely-worded petition at the right time to the right people, that the politicos will repent and the laws and the bureaucracy will reform and the thugs will back off. And that if enough people wave Occupy or Black Lives Matter signs, that the criminals will stop all the nasty things that they are doing.

Right. History shows that is virtually never going to happen. Consider, for instance, the example of the Egyptian pharaoh, who despite having his people and land devastated by the ten plagues, adequate proof (seemingly to anyone with two brain cells to knock together) that Moses’ God was indeed powerful enough to do whatever Moses said he would, still decided at the last minute to NOT let the people go.

The Dakota Access Pipeline saga is replete with viciousness and failure on both sides, and is far from over. How it is resolved, and what is done at the end of the process, is very likely to have a major impact on the whole Fifty States, not just Standing Rock or North Dakota or even the entire Northern Plains. And none of us are going to like it.

What it DOES, and will continue to do, is show that government solves little and makes a mess of everything it touches.