INTERNATIONAL MICROVOLUNTEERING DAY UPDATES
Unclear If This Means Doing The Absolute Least You Can Do For An Organization or Volunteering for A Cellular-Sized Nonprofit …
-His name is Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
-He was born in El Salvador, migrated to the United States (though was not yet a citizen), and was living in Maryland when he was arrested by ICE agents and subsequently moved to CECOM, the notorious Salvadoran prison without being old what he was arrested for, a hearing to determine if the evidence at hand was sufficient to expel him from the country, or to be moved to what is one of the most notorious prisons currently open anywhere in the world. And, by admission of the Federal Government, the warrant demanding his arrest was filed in error, meaning his entire arrest was legally bogus from the jump. One would have thought that one mistake a mistake like this, catastrophic as it is, would be relatively easy to fix.
-The problem, of course, is that to admit a mistake like this would mean the Trump Administration would then have to admit their entire focus on expelling people of color under the claim of public safety was a sham, opening itself up to thousands of such claims from people wrongfully taken off the streets (and more emerging by the day). Even if many who were arrested were criminals, there is zero due process in expelling them, not even an attempt to create any kind of hearing or legal redress for individual cases – only the assertion from everyone inside of the White House that literally every person being “arrested” is a vicious gang member ready to rape every woman they possibly can with maximum violence, and the only “proof” Americans need that all being arrested and/or deported is the word of the government who over the last 45 years has been depicted as Evil Incarnate by the very same people now depicting themselves as being Saviors of America, if not The World is all wise and all knowing and all protecting and you just hush OR ELSE …
-The Supreme Court – THIS Supreme Court – agreed UNANIMOUSLY that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was taken out of the United States unjustly, though because the majority also simultaneously told Donald Trump that if Trump was acting as President he could pretty much do anything without fear of legal retribution. So instead of demand Garcia’s return, all SCOTUS could do is to try to “facilitate” Garcia’s return out of CECOM. And heading into a meeting yesterday between Trump and El Salvadoran ‘President’ Nayib Bukele, the potential for a PR move to free Garcia and depict Trump and Bukele as having a semblance of a soul and defuse the situation for a few days was right there for the men to take up.
-Instead, the pair backslapped and smirked and threw up their hands, Trump essentially throwing his wee tiny little middle fingers at SCOTUS and basically said he and Bukele were not going to release Garcia. Trump – who has spent the first 80+ days of his regime threatening to take over Canada, Greenland and Panama, and to bomb Iran and Mexico – absurdly claimed that he could not possibly force El Salvador to try to find Garcia and bring him back because that would be unsovereign. And Bukele – who has already incarcerated 2% of the male population of his country (the largest in the Western hemisphere) while openly labelling himself a “cool dictator” – threw up his hands and said how could he in good conscience release a TERRORIST (because that’s what Trump says he is, and who are we to question Trump’s judgment) onto the streets of New Jersey????
-That Trump now feels so emboldened that he could blow off this Supreme Court and hang them out to dry should not be surprising at all. It is what Trump has always done. It is a lesson Bukele should probably learn now before things take a turn and Trump abandons him (and if you want a fig leaf, bookmark this: Bukele’s paternal grandparents immigrated to El Salvador in the 1920s from … wait for it … PALESTINE), but too bad so sad in advance for Bukele and whatever else happens to him, because with a record like his it will …
-But before that, as if everything we have just noted about Kilmar Abrego Garcia wasn’t horrible enough, what happened before the meeting is where we can make a legitimate claim of the arrival of the worst Constitutional Crisis in American history since arguably the Civil War itself. While talking on a “hot mike” before the formal press even began, Trump spoke admiringly of the CECOM facility Garcia and at least 230 other Americans are being held and forced to perform what amounts to slave labor in that notorious facility … and telling Bukele “we need five more built … CECOM is just too small.”
-Trump then repeated statements made by other Trump minions throughout the week that after picking up as many black and brown people off the streets ICE even vaguely suspects might be gang members and accepting that suspicion as fact with zero evidence and zero ability to appeal before being shipped off, American citizens may also be on the list to expel outside of the United States on orders of the United States.
-Simply put, if Trump keeps Garcia in CECOM, he will take that as proof he can arrest anyone he dislikes and ship them to any prison he can fit them in with nobody to stop him. It is a dream he has always had, and he has people surrounding him who have also had that dream – and sadly, unlike his economics team or even Elon Musk’s coders, this team is now proving they can and will get that job done for Trump and themselves. BUT, if somehow Trump is forced to at least get Garcia removed, the potential to stop him elsewhere becomes more possible. The stakes could not be higher.
-So now what?
-Court proceedings will continue, and there is little doubt SCOTUS will be asked to return to the case since even their shamefully modest request that Trump “facilitate” or somehow kindly ask Bukele to bring Garcia home have been met with soiled adult diapers being thrown at John Roberts’ head with laughter coming from the Oval Office for good measure. And there are reports Roberts – who may already have seen Amy Coney Barrett side with the there liberal ladies on the Court to oppose Trump – is desperately trying to sway Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to oppose Trump (and may have quiet backing from sponsor Leonard Leo, who reportedly is infuriated at Trump over the MAGAGOPTrump Tariff mess, to do so).
-There are also efforts to try to put pressure on Bukele. MD Senator Chris Van Hollan has demanded Garcia’s release and is planning a visit to El Salvador on Thursday if Garcia is not released – and, as it may be necessary to say, released alive, and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has broken out one of his patented Sternly Worded Letters to try to sway the situation (even though during the height of the #OustSchumer movement he said the one thing that could generate actual action on his part would be a constitutional crisis involving the courts, which … (GESTURES WILDLY)).
-And even public polling on how Trump is handling immigration – the one area that has sustained high polling since before the election (head slap) is now plunging like the stock market, as non-MAGA Americans who shrugged and thought when Trump said he was going to take care of immigration he would maybe toss a handful of people out who were really bad people now recoil in the realization that KAMALA HARRIS WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING she said would happen (and so, tragically enough, was Donald Trump). While many may think Trump-as-dictator and MAGA-as-Cultists wouldn’t give a flying fk about polling, this is Donal Trump we’re talking about – he ALWAYS cares about polling and wanting to be loved, so knowing he is Not Loved by fewer and fewer people might shame him into “finding a way” to get Garcia out.
-Or not. Those who have spent their lives praying for an opportunity to terrorize people they hate with Governmental force (Stephen Miller), people who love having a daddy figure to fulfill their rancid goals under the guise of working for Trump (Kristi Noem), craven rudderless power vultures (Marco Rubio) and a-bit-of-all-of-the-above oddities (Ka$h Patel) are clearly gung-ho about what is happening with Kilmar Abrego Garcia (continually asserting he is a vicious criminal with absolutely no evidence of any kind supporting that claim) and chomping at the bit to expand the effort wherever and whenever.
-This is as serious as it gets. Speaking out, protesting when you can, breaking phone systems to make Trump and Bukele bring Garcia back to his family and stop the fascist surge now is something we all need to do in the days and weeks to come. 3.5% and all that …
-We want to give love and protection to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and the Pennsylvania State Police. On Sunday night, a 38-year-old unemployed laborer living with his parents after domestically abusing his estranged wife and 13-year-old child who also just so happens to be a rabid MAGAt who claimed on social media “JOE BIDEN OWES ME $2000” brought three Molotov cocktails with him and firebombed the Governors Mansion while Shaapiro and his family were having their Passover meal.
-The laborer, whose name will not be posted here because fk that guy, had a hammer (reportedly a sledgehammer) and was also reportedly ready to use it on Shapiro had Shapiro went to the rooms being firebombed. But he fled when officers appeared and gave himself up and is currently in custody. Legacy Media Inc. have downplayed the Biden post, and of course Trump has not made one comment on the crime.
-So with all that grim news, is there anything positive going on? The answer to that is YES – and at the top of the YES list is Harvard University. The White House was looking to impose their will on Harvard as they have at Columbia University, which capitulated to Trump in order to get several hundred million dollars of federal grants illegally held by Trump to be released, only to have that release have brutal strings attached that may force Columbia to do everything from end all attempts to bring students of color to the school to edicts on what to teach at the school.
-The White House made similar demands to the oldest university in the U.S., and Harvard essentially told the White House to pound dissertations, took them to court for withholding the funds as a First Amendment violation, and apparently inspiring at least three other schools (Northwestern, Princeton, and Rutgers) to also resist the push to end “wokeness” and kill all research of all kinds in American universities because Trump Says So and the GOP are nothing more than puppets for MAGA and Trump at the moment. HURRAH FOR HARVARD (and the others)!
-There are also reports that the Trump Economic Putz Parade of Idiots Economic Advisors are getting awfully torqued about one of the loudest Trumpers attempting to defend the STUPIDSTUPID MAGAGOPTariff plans, Commerce Secretary Howard “MAN I Love Being Downwind of Our Great Leader Donald Trump – Why Is Everyone Else Turning Green?” Lutnick, whose continuous contradictions, misstatements, incessant hunger for a camera and flat-out goofy behavior are combining to reportedly starting to inch him up the list of First Cabinet Member Out – a list that so far has proven a bit more stable in people staying on it than the first regime, but one still awaiting inevitable victims.
-If you are surprised that an on the outs Lutnick did not make today’s Petty Atrocity of the Day, you might be thinking “What – something topped that?” HOO BOY, something sure did – and that something and someone is America’s Least Liked Intern, JD Vance!
-Appearing on White House grounds to welcome the National NCAA Football Champions THE Ohio State University Buckeyes (I am an Ohioan and cannot explain why Ohio State fans get into such a huff if you forget the “THE” - we are simply conditioned to do so) the sadly-from-Ohio Vance tried to do what all MAGAts try to be, Alpha Male Butch. He was offered the National Championship Trophy to hold aloft like all the football players up there … and, womp womp sad trombone slide whistle of shame, when Vance tried, he couldn’t grab it properly, and as a result the National Championship Trophy snapped in half and fell apart in Vance’s shaky hands.
-While Vance did wear a suit and tie (and by the way, since we’re being petty, El Salvador’s Bukele did NOT wear a suit and tie!) he also did not appear to say thank you for the honor of humiliating himself, so while the concept of habeas corpus is terrifyingly on the brink, we can at least take comfort in seeing that nimrod fk up again while we work to defend the Constitution from these dangerous goofballs.
-Rallies this weekend!
-On to the day’s trivia …
-NEWS ON THIS DATE: In 1874, the first impressionism art exhibition opened in Paris. In 1912, the HMS Titanic sunk to the bottom of the ocean. In 1920, two men were murdered in MA – murders in which Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were controversially convicted and executed for. In 1997, Jackie Robinson’s number 42 was retired by every team in Major League Baseball. In 2003, George W. Bush claimed a victory in his attack on Iraq – a claim that crumbled in the years of occupation that followed. In 2013, two bombs detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing 3 and injuring over 260. In 2019, the Notre-Dame de Paris caught fire while being restored (it is being re-restored).
-DEBUTS ON THIS DATE: The dictionary (1755), the home telephone (1877), the modern Summer Olympic Games (1896), the road atlas (1924), air mail (1926), Black players in Major League Baseball (Jackie Robinson’s debut, 1947), McDonald’s Restaurant franchises (1955), IN LIVING COLOR (1990).
-HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Leonardo da Vinci, Henry James, James J. Jeffries, Thomas Hart Benton, Bessie Smith, Lita Grey, Hans Conried, Harold Washington, Michael Ansara, Elizabeth Montgomery, Roy Clark, Claudia Cardinale, Willie Davis, Dave Edmunds, Walt Hazzard, Ted Sizemore, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Heloise, Michael Cooper, Emma Thompson, Ed O’Brien, Chris Stapleton, Seth Rogen, Margo Price, Emma Watson, Maisie Williams, and Jordan Chiles.
-REST IN PEACE/POWER: Abraham Lincoln, John Jacob Astor IV, John Singer Sargent, Wallace Beery, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Genet, Greta Garbo, Joey Ramone, Byron “Whizzer” White, Benjamin Hooks, R. Lee Ermey, Brian Dennehy, Damaso Garcia, Willie Davis, and Whitey Herzog.
-FEED THE WORMS: Nikita Khruschev, Kim Il-sung and Kenneth Lay entered Earth on this date. Pol Pot bought it on this date.
-TODAY’S MUSIC INTERLUDE: Happy Birthday to Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney!