Hike and Badness

We had decent weather today.  The winds are gone, the sun was out, and there were high, thin clouds to moderate the bright sunshine.  Things always look better when there are a few clouds. More ocotillo are blooming, most are not leafing yet.  I think they're conserving water.

We took a trail that we don't remember well.  So, after walking for awhile, it started coming back to us.  It's the trail that goes up behind the big rocks in the distance.  It crosses the Yetman Trail just below the mountain bike turn around point.  Earlier, we'd lost the knowledge of where the trail behind the big rocks is.  Now we know.  I realize this is not that interesting to you all, but now I have a record of where the trail is.  It's a brutal hike, I'm not sure we'll do it this year.  It's long, there is a miserable descent, and then followed by more long walk.  Sounds delightful, eh?

Now I will talk about the depredations underway to our country.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team has been removed from the web, in order to not have any DEI showing.  “The motto of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was ‘Go for Broke.’ It is a gambling term that means risking everything on one great effort to win. The soldiers of the 442nd needed to win big. They were Nisei —American-born sons of Japanese Immigrants. They fought two wars: the Germans in Europe and prejudice in America.”  They came out of the Japanese internment camps, banished there by Secretary Simpson and FDR.  They were put there under the aegis of the Alien Enemies Act, of 1798.  The 442nd had 4000 purple hearts, 4000 bronze stars, 21 medals of honor, 5 presidential unit citations.  But, since they're not white men, they do not deserve any recognition for their efforts.  Hegseth and 47 totally suck. Update to post:  the page has been put back.

47 used the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans to Ecuador.  Many of these people are alleged to be members of the gang Tren de Aragua.  However, since there were no hearings, no investigations, no time spent in immigration court, who knows?  47 is on shaky ground here legally.  From NPR we learn:

Lee Gelernt, the ACLU's lead counsel on the case, said the administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act is illegal because it's up to Congress to declare a state of war that allows detention of so-called "foreign aliens."

"The Alien Enemies Act cannot be used during peace time for regular immigration enforcement," Gelernt said. "Congress was very clear in the statute that it can only be used against a foreign government or foreign nation. It has never in our country's history been used during peacetime, much less against a gang."

Beyond the question of the president's authority, Gelernt also questioned whether the hundreds deported to El Salvador were in fact gang members.

"These individuals did not get a hearing to show they're not members of a gang," Gelernt said.

Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., agreed to block the deportations of the five men on Saturday. He later broadened the order to anyone covered by Trump's proclamation. Another hearing in the case is set for March 21.

Despite the ruling, and the order issued to turn the plane around, the men on the plane are now in Ecuador, in a terrorists prison.  Very bad people are in this place.  Any non-bad people swept up in this deportation will not last very long before being killed.  This is a shameful day for the US.

The NPR article is very good, as is the explainer on the Alien Enemies act.  AP also has a good piece.

Remember a few decades ago in South America, one of the dictators was disappearing people.  In the US, we were all judgy and disapproving of this, but now, that's who we are.  I'm cutting and pasting out of a twitter thread about the recent ICE activities.  These stories have been all over the internet, this guy has the most coherent list. 

• Fabian Schmidt, a German engineer with a green card, was detained for hours at Logan Airport in Boston, where he was stripped, put in a cold shower, sleep deprived, denied food and water and access to medication. He was hospitalized & remains in detention. Go here.

• Jessica Brösche, a German, was tormented for over a month, including 8 days in solitary (torture).  Go here.

• Rebecca Burke, a British backpacker, was picked up at the Canadian border (on her way out), and they held her just to torment her. She's still being held now. Go here.

• Onto ICE's usual diet of colored people. The most notable case is Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder and frankly model Palestinian (he worked with the British Embassy), abducted from craven Columbia and made an example of quite publicly.  Go here.

• Then there's Dr. Rasha Alawieh—a transplant doctor at Brown on an H-1B visa—abducted and disappeared from the Logan Airport. Then she was deported despite a court order halting the deportation, because laws have disappeared also. Go here.

Deportations are supposed to require a hearing before a judge in immigration court.  This does not appear to be happening.  47 has interpreted the Alien Enemies Act to mean that if he thinks they are bad people, even with no proof, he can have them deported.  So much for due process.

In other news of the bad, Black Lives Matter Plaza is being removed.  It may already be gone.  Here is a photo for remembrance.

 
That's it, that's all the doom and gloom I have for one day.