{"id":62180,"date":"2017-02-21T11:00:49","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T17:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=62180"},"modified":"2020-12-30T08:14:09","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T14:14:09","slug":"question-for-nprmpr-the-strib-alondra-cano-and-every-other-minnesota-liberal-figurehead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=62180","title":{"rendered":"Question For NPR\/MPR, The Strib, Alondra Cano, Betsy Hodges And Every Other Minnesota Liberal Figurehead"},"content":{"rendered":"

To: \u00a0NPR, the Strib, \u00a0Alondra Cano, and every other Twin Cities liberal that’s spent the lasdt six months romanticizing the NoDAPL “pipeline” protest
\nFrom: \u00a0Mitch Berg, Ornery Peasant and actual North Dakota native
\nRe: \u00a0Just Curious, Here<\/p>\n

All,<\/p>\n

You all – media and political figures alike – have spent the past six months romanticizing the “No Dakota Access Pipeline” protests more thoroughly than a Scarlett Johansson cheesecake photo shoot.<\/p>\n

NPR \/ MPR? \u00a0You had your reporters out in the wilds of south-central North Dakota, doing your best to make the protests sound like an organic grassroots phenomenon, sprung up from the soil to\u00a0protect the river<\/em>. \u00a0Y’know – the Missouri. \u00a0The river that flows through middle of the Dakotas and Nebraska.<\/p>\n

Of course, while your reporters (yours too,\u00a0Strib<\/em>) plead “It’s Settled Science” on many convenient issues, you ignored it over and over again on this issue. \u00a0It’s a simple fact – while the oil that powers your Subarus does indeed have\u00a0some\u00a0<\/em>risk of spilling in its remote location far from any major population center, it’s many orders of magntitude per barrel\u00a0lower\u00a0<\/em>that that same risk the way the oil is currently transported – by truck and train, through the middle of Bismarck, Jamestown (blocks from my father’s house, actually), Fargo, Fergus Falls, Saint Cloud, Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Madison and Chicago. \u00a0 As in\u00a0astronomically more safe<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But let’s not pretend that Alondra Cano knows\u00a0the first thing about statistics, or cares a rats ass about a bunch of white, rural, Trump-voting North Dakotans’ safety (or, for that matter, how many Strib or MPR reporters could name the river the “protesters” are “protecting”). \u00a0 And your logical consistency about the oil that powers your cars and buses and printing presses and transmitters is no less dubious than about where your food comes from. \u00a0Yep, same place.<\/p>\n

In fact, let’s forget the logical and moral inconsistency of\u00a0your entire story –\u00a0<\/em>you media figures’ selective and incurious reporting, you politicians’ illiterate grandstanding. \u00a0Ignore it all for now.<\/p>\n

Let’s focus on today – where the “protesters” have left an ungodly mess at their “protest” site<\/a>. \u00a0North Dakota’s top tow-truck driver notes:<\/p>\n

There are roughly 200 vehicles down there at last count, ranging from cars and pickups to rental trucks. We\u2019re going to have a very drastic situation trying to keep these vehicles from getting into the river \u2013 what everybody\u2019s been trying to protect from day one. We can\u2019t leave them there. We don\u2019t know what kind of biohazard is going to be produced with all the fluids or any other garbage that\u2019s inside the vehicle.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s a Bismarck TV station’s report:<\/p>\n