ADDING INSULT TO INJURY....12/29/23

133 years ago this morning, a young Lakota man’s hunting rifle accidentally discharged into the sky on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota while 3 soldiers from the US Army attempted to steal it from him.

The military thought it was being attacked, which led to one of the largest slaughters of Native Americans in history.

Around 250 Indian men, women, and children were shot to death on that cold morning.

This was just one incident in the long and bloody campaign to take away land without just compensation.

So given this history, you’d think the least we could do would be to make it easier for Native Americans to vote, but instead it’s gotten harder, particularly since the surge in voter suppression legislation enacted since the “Big Lie” about the so-called stolen election of 2020.

Indigenous people are disproportionately affected, and for many, still do not have a voice in their future.

Note: My dad took this picture of Ben Black Elk in 1963 at the base of Mt. Rushmore. Black Elk's father survived the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876 and was a first cousin to Crazy Horse.

HONORING AN ICON....12/28/23

Every Sunday night during the fall and winter of ’67 and ’68 I went down to the basement of Hansen Hall, the college dormitory where I lived on the campus of South Dakota State University to watch my favorite program on TV, the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

As one of the writers on the show, Tom Smothers constantly battled censors because of his cutting edge political content, eventually leading to the show’s cancellation in 1970.

The most notable confrontation occurred when Pete Seeger, who had been blacklisted for years during the McCarthy era, finally emerged in public again to play his song, “Waist Deep In the Big Muddy”, but the network wouldn’t air the segment because of the song’s reference to Lyndon Johnson’s disastrous Vietnam policies.

Because of growing opposition to the war and Seeger’s incredible popularity, the public demanded that he be allowed back to perform his song.

CBS caved and Seeger returned later that season to play the song on the air.

Sadly Tommy Smothers died last night at his home in Santa Rosa.

He was 86.

INCOMPREHENSIBLE....12/27/23

Many politicians on the right hate ESGs and are now going to war with investment firms like Vanguard and Arjuna Capital that offer these products.

It’s one of the most abhorrent assaults on freedom I’ve ever seen.

ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Business Governance and is a tool the industry uses to measure various companies’ policies regarding its treatment of people and the environment.

The program takes into account things like pollution mitigation, climate change, diversity, energy efficiency, adherence to regulations, health and human safety practices, and overall sustainability.

Corporations are then scored for their compliance in meeting these criteria.

This gives those of us who want to be socially and environmentally responsible something to look at when choosing how to invest.

WTF is wrong with that?