Sunday Serendipity

jace, thanks…now to light the second purple candle and a little excerpt from today’s

patheos: Advent Two: Stumped while Seeking Peace in Zootopia

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

from Isaiah 11:1-10.

So we listen to this week’s lectionary reading for the Second Sunday of Advent and light the Advent candle of peace. Then we wait—since waiting is Advent’s most familiar theme song. We wait for this promised mountaintop haven of peculiar peace to become life as usual. But waiting is not enough any longer. Too many lives are at risk in our towns and neighborhoods. Violence rips heart and breath out of too many people each day across the globe. The blood of rage and war flows through too many of our world’s streets. Too much of life as usual is life as fear and fighting and oppression. We cannot wait. We need peace now.

But what are we to do? Isaiah’s serene picture of wolves and lambs napping together? It seems that even some Christians are so suspicious of, defensive about and even enraged by each other’s theological perspectives and political stances we can’t relax into a Sunday afternoon nap in the same room.  And if we do nap together, we’ll nap with one eye open, just in case. Maybe that’s what the lambs on Isaiah’s mountain do too. After all…

and from big oil’s  bignewsnetwork:

Amid prolonged protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), President-elect Donald Trump has expressed his support for the $3.8 billion project in a statement ahead of the scheduled evacuation of the protesters, set to begin on Monday.

Trump claimed that his personal investment of $500,000 in Energy Partners, which is leading the project, was not linked to his approval. 

In a speech in Cincinnati, he pledged to “eliminate every single wasteful regulation” and “remove all restrictions on the production of shale energy, oil, natural gas and clean coal.”

“Go Tom Brady!”

renee, go where?   🙂

wcsh6:

OCETI SAKOWIN CAMP, N.D. (The Des Moines Register/Kevin Hardy) — Tasheena Cloud said Saturday that she and the hundreds of other veterans who have been filing into this protest camp near the Dakota Access pipeline will remain peaceful when they put themselves between law enforcement officers and passionate demonstrators in coming days.

But she said she has no idea how police and the North Dakota National Guard will respond.

“I don’t know what to expect,” she said. “I just know I’ll put myself in harm’s way.”

In the snowy prairies of North Dakota, the Oceti Sakowin Camp has become the longest-running protest in modern history, as thousands of American Indians and environmentalists seek to halt completion of the 1,172-mile pipeline.

In the coming days, the demonstrators will be aided by military veterans who have come to give occupiers a respite and call attention to what they say are human rights violations committed by local law enforcement. Demonstrators have described being attacked by security dogs, sprayed with tear gas, shot with rubber bullets and blasted by water cannons.

Police officials have defended their tactics but promised to keeping the veterans’ demonstrations peaceful.

“A lot of people are coming here expecting to see a confrontation,” Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney told reporters Saturday, “and it’s not going to happen.”

Cloud, 32, of Wisconsin said she cried watching images of security dogs attacking pipeline opponents. And she was disgusted when police doused protesters with water cannons in subfreezing temperatures here.

“I feel humiliated as a veteran,” said Cloud, who was deployed three times in her eight years serving in the Navy. “I went to war. I protected this country. For this to be happening at home, it’s embarrassing.”

https://youtu.be/tI3g_laToxE

President-elect Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) interrupts a security briefing to retweet people (Pete Davidson, Kyle Mooney, Bobby Moynihan).

cnn: Jill Stein says she’ll ‘escalate’ Pennsylvania recount case after earlier plans to drop it
…
A statement from the Stein campaign shortly after said it will file a lawsuit in federal court Monday seeking a statewide recount.
“Over the past several days, it has become clear that the barriers to verifying the vote in Pennsylvania are so pervasive and that the state court system is so ill-equipped to address this problem that we must seek federal court intervention,” said Jonathan Abady, lead counsel to the Stein recount efforts. “As a result, on Monday the Stein campaign will escalate our campaign in Pennsylvania and file for emergency relief in federal court, demanding a statewide recount on constitutional grounds.”

Read More

Stein earlier in the weekend had taken aim at procedural hurdles at the state level.
“The judge’s outrageous demand that voters pay such an exorbitant figure is a shameful, unacceptable barrier to democratic participation,” Stein said in a statement. “This is yet another sign that Pennsylvania’s antiquated election law is stacked against voters. By demanding a $1 million bond from voters yesterday, the court made clear it has no interest in giving a fair hearing to these voters’ legitimate concerns over the accuracy, security and fairness of an election tainted by suspicion.”
Stein campaign spokeswoman Jordan Brueckner later clarified Saturday that while petitioners withdrew their case for a statewide recount, recounts in hundreds of precincts in some Pennsylvania counties — including Philadelphia, Allegheny and Lehigh — will continue. The campaign is also still pushing for forensic audits of voting machine software in the state.
Stein tweeted that the expense of the recount was caused by elected leaders.
“#Recount2016 is so expensive because of elected leaders who have refused to invest in a 21st-century voting system.”
“This is about responding to the American voters who are standing up and saying, ‘We deserve an election system that we can trust, and that is accurate, that is secure against hacking, against human error, against machine error, and in which the votes are being counted.’ Because right now, it’s not clear that all the votes are being counted,” Stein said on “Fox News Sunday.”

the hill: Feds deny permit for Dakota Access pipeline

Federal officials have denied the final permits required for the Dakota Access Pipeline project in North Dakota.

The Army Corps of Engineers announced Sunday it would instead conduct an environmental impact review of the 1,170-mile pipeline project to determine if there are other ways to route the pipeline to avoid a crossing on the Missouri River.

“Although we have had continuing discussion and exchanges of new information with the Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access, it’s clear that there’s more work to do,” Army Assistant Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy said in a statement.

“The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing.”

The decision comes after months of protests against the proposed project. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe objects to the pipeline, warning that it threatens their drinking water supply.

Sunday’s decision is a major victory for the tribe, which sued against other permitting decisions for the project, pushed the Obama administration to deny it, and rallied tribal allies and anti-pipeline activists to their cause.

“We wholeheartedly support the decision of the administration and commend with the utmost gratitude the courage it took on the part of President Obama, the Army Corps, the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior to take steps to correct the course of history and to do the right thing,” tribal chairman Dave Archambault said.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell released a statement in support of the decision, saying it is in line with federal laws designed to assess environmental impacts of infrastructure projects.

“The thoughtful approach established by the Army today ensures that there will be an in-depth evaluation of alternative routes for the pipeline and a closer look at potential impacts, as envisioned by NEPA,” Jewell said in the statement.

The long-term effect of the Army Corps of Engineer’s decision is unknown. President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team told lawmakers last week that he supports the pipeline and will grant the permit.