Our Country
‘Tis of We
On 20 Jan 25, Donald John Trump signed 26 executive orders, 12 memoranda, and 4 proclamations.
1. On immigration and citizenship issues, Trump signed executive orders ending birthright citizenship, pausing refugee admissions, designating certain cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy and calling for increased vetting and screening of migrants entering the U.S.
2. The second proclamation declared the situation at the southern border “an invasion.”
The third proclamation declared a national emergency at the southern border.
Credit. The Salt Lake Tribune These executive actions mostly were false on their face, cruel in intent, and illegal under the plain face wording of the constitution.
Credit. The Week Implementation proceeded immediately. The Lawfare website litigation tracker lists the following actions involving Trump 2.0:
1. 302 active cases since 20 Jan 25, including 10 suits by the Trump administration challenging state or local laws
2. 39 dismissed suits or appeals
3. 11 Supreme Court stays or order to vacate lower court orders
4. 1 Supreme Court affirmation of lower court order
5. 18 suits where judges granted summary judgment or a permanent injunction
Credit. Other Words. The tracker is not current. It does not acknowledge the most recent orders and rulings by the high court that allow Trump 2.0 to continue “temporarily” its blatant violation of habeas corpus and birthright protections. At some later date the Supreme Court is bound to accept cases crafted to force its formal (and possibly infamous) opinion of the fundamental lawlessness of Trump 2.0.
Credit. The Columbus Dispatch Quiet Heros
On 02 July 25, United States District Judge Randolph Moss sitting in Washington, D.C. ruled that nothing in the Immigration and Nationality Act or the U.S. Constitution “grants the president or his delegates the sweeping authority asserted in the proclamation and implementing guidance” contested before his court. According to reporting by The Guardian, Judge Moss held that the constitution did not give the president the authority to “adopt an alternative immigration system, which supplants the statutes that Congress has enacted and the regulations that responsible agencies have promulgated.” The pleading was brought by 13 people seeking asylum in the United States and three immigrants’ rights groups. They argued that it was unlawful to declare an invasion (emphasis added) and unilaterally ban the right to claim asylum.
The ruling blocks the attempts of the administration to bar asylum applications at the US-Mexico border. It is a heartening ratification of the rule of law at the lower court level. All praise and glory to those with the faith and tenancity to continue to challenge the criminal conduct of the federal government.
The administration will appeal this ruling in principle and very likely disregard it operationally. It is reasonable to expect the Department of Trump Justice to seek to lift the order at the appelate level. It is likely that the Department of Homeland Security will continue illegal border operations pending a far distant and probably favorable ruling by the blatantly partisan and demonstrably corrupt high court.
Credit. US News & Woorld Report Corrupt and Craven Conduct
On 03 July 25, the Congress of the United States of America passed a bill, over the objections of a plurality of interested and engaged constituents, that included formal and direct funding for criminal conduct by representatives of the federal government. According to Google AI, the "One Big Beautiful Bill" allocates over $100 billion to ICE and border enforcement through September 2029. This includes significant funding for detention centers, personnel, and operations. Specifically, $45 billion is earmarked for building new detention centers, and nearly $30 billion is dedicated to expanding ICE's enforcement and deportation operations.
1. Detention Centers: $45 billion will be used to construct new immigration detention facilities, including family detention centers.
2. ICE Personnel: Approximately $29.9 billion is allocated for hiring, training, and retaining ICE officers, agents, investigators, and support staff.
3. ICE Operations: A substantial portion of the funding will support ICE's operational activities, such as transportation, technology upgrades, and facility maintenance.
4. Deportation Expansion: The bill aims to triple ICE's 2024 annual budget, significantly expanding its deportation capabilities.
Credit. News & World Report Manifesto
The Tyrant Trump cannot reach and attack the private and public passions of personality of each and every one of We the People without resorting to force of arms.
We each have the indivisible Power of One. Until taken into custody, detained, and deported without notice or opportunity to object, we each can decide when and where and why to use our power. To lose it, hide it, protect it, celebrate it, and/or generally to use it to survive at minimum, to prevail to a purpose at maximum.
This truly is a time of Illegitimi Non Carborundum.
Good is good.
Wrong is wrong.
Hope indeed does spring eternal.
Still we hold certain truths to be self-evident and certain rights to be inalienable.
Refusing to be discouraged or distracted is a potent form of effective resistance. Sustained sound mental health in a context of chaos and repression is an historically effective strategy against tyranny.
Laughter and joy drive opressors bonkers.
I firmly believe that right is might. That all things work to the good. That we each have a duty to celebrate and exercise such advantages in health, safety, and welfare as we possess.
Every day, everywhere, all the time, let us each and all resist the implementation of the Project 2025 playbook in every legal way. Let us remember ourselves and each other well.
Resist. Persist. Prevail.
Go, team, go.
This rampage against the departments of government exposed for me just how deep and wide, how complex the mechanisms of ensuring justice, fairness, non-discrimination had become. In some ways, perhaps, we had become shackled by the complexity of negotiating all of these checks and balances against such injustices. However, in the process of unwinding them, we are returning to the era of vigilante justice of the wild, wild west. That fantasy we glorify in the movies will be exposed for the primitive, raw form of order it produced; hanging in the town square, posse's administering summary justice in places no witnesses exist, the exercise of the raw power of the gun, or which group has more of them in carrying out policy. I don't want to go back there. I don't want to live in a world where injustice AND justice are defined by a hail of bullets, one from the "black hats" and the next from the "White hats" in a world full of color-blind persons lining up with one camp or the other.
What a perfectly wonderful and refresingly erudite analysis of a completely dangerous situation. Thank you for enriching this conversation in such a positive manner.