Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

Infamy

Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision on a Muslim travel ban was a truly horrible day for our nation. So was the decision to allow continued lying at fake women’s health centers. Kennedy warned of authoritarianism in the latter, but said we’ll have to trust Trump on the former! I know these Republican injustices weren’t put there because of their brilliant legal minds, but Jesus-fucking-christ!

Meanwhile Roberts, the stealth troll, said the infamous Korematsu decision was bad law because it was based on race. The motivations in interning American citizens by the military, FDR, and the majority of Americans certainly were based on racial hysteria, but the case itself was decided on “national security” grounds, a court kowtowing to the executive. Roberts’ majority opinion in Trump argues exactly that, surrendering to an executive power claiming “national security.”

So what stops a president (hmm, I wonder which one?) from sending Americans to concentration camps if the President says it’s necessary under “national security”?

Sotomayor: “It leaves undisturbed a policy first advertised openly and unequivocally as a ‘total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States’ because the policy now masquerades behind a façade of national-security concerns.”

This coming Saturday’s rallies and marches were planned to protest Trump’s vicious kidnapping strategy at the border. They will encompass this infamy, too. See you there.

2 responses to “Infamy”

  1. Barbara Harris

    Hang in there. These are trying times. Let’s all be politically active and let our opinions be known. I think the only thing that has kept our country from sliding into a full-fledged dictatorship is all the opposition making itself at every opportunity. So by all means keep speaking out! But take breaks too. Nature is good medicine for the stress of current Times.
    I’ve been enjoying your photos. Keep up the good work!

    1. Thank you, Barbara! Key to all this is people of good conscience banding together.

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