As This Presidency* Unravels, the Looting Will Begin in Earnest

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

05 August 20

We’re going to keep an eye on what it might be smuggling out under its coat on the way out the door.

have an awful feeling that, as this administration* begins to feel its time slipping away, the smash-and-grab is going to begin in earnest. (The natural extension of this, of course, is that, if the president* actually loses in November, the year will end with an orgy of outright looting.) Out in North Dakota, the affiliated tribes of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation have taken the Department of the Interior to court, because it is the position of those tribes that the administration* is trying to swipe the rights and royalties to mineral deposits on the Fort Berthold reservation. From the AP:

The memo filed May 26 by Daniel Jorjani, solicitor for the department, said a historical review shows the state is the legal owner of submerged lands beneath the river where it flows through the Fort Berthold Reservation. The tribes argue that three previous federal opinions dating back to 1936 have confirmed their ownership of the Missouri River riverbed, including a 2017 memo by former solicitor Hilary Tompkins.

Gee, a potential profit center protected by an Obama administration memo? That’s the ultimate twofer for this pack o’ thieves, who wouldn’t abide by a treaty even if they believed in them, which they don’t.

At stake is more than $100 million in unpaid royalties and future payments certain to come from oil drilling beneath the river, which was dammed by the federal government in the 1950s, flooding more than a tenth of the 1,500-square-mile (3,885-square-kilometer) reservation to create Lake Sakakawea.

The issue now sits with Judge Amy Berman Jackson, the U.S. District Court judge who’s handled many of the legal cases involving the inmates of Camp Runamuck, including matters involving Paul Manafort and Roger Stone. Last week, Jackson froze all oil and gas royalty payments deriving from the disputed land until this all gets sorted out. Few people are more familiar with the high-handed attitude of this administration* toward laws, regulations, and norms than is Judge Jackson, so the tribes may have a shot here. As things get worse for this presidency*, we’re going to keep an eye on what it might be smuggling out under its coat on the way out the door.