Spring is Blooming!

For the past couple of weeks, we have had quite a bit of discussion concerning various species of hibiscus, both hardy and tender. See the link at the bottom of the page.

A fair amount of breeding of hardy hibiscus varieties has been done in the USA. Neal in Israel has sent in some photos of new varieties from Israel. They look to me like they might be tender tropicals or subtropical hybrids.

Katy, shalom,

A few weeks ago we visited the Hibiscus Farm in Kfar Warburg.

It's a hibiscus breeding center, produces a number of hibiscus-based products, and also serves as a tourist attraction.

Attached are shots of some of the latest hybrids. Young plants will be available for purchase in the fall.

I've been photographing spring developments in the garden lately. Will send along a few shots sometime soon.

Best regards,
Neal

"Hibiscus-based products" PLUS plants. Interesting. Here are a couple more:

Posted by: K.T. at 01:27 PM | Comments (33) | Trackbacks (Suck)

It's great when Passover and Easter come together like they do this year. I think it gives a little extra depth to our celebrations. Well, to the celebrations of SOME people, anyway.

Have you noticed any differences in approaches to the holidays this spring?

Posted by: K.T. at 11:10 AM | Comments (96) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Stratford)

1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate away.
2) Be kind, be nice. And no, you can't jump from the furniture.
3) Do you have a hankering to run with sharp objects? Well stop it.
4) Have a nice weekend!

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 07:36 AM | Comments (305) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Top Story

• Never get involved in a land war in Asia: Adobe tried to promote its services to artists on Bluesky. They promptly deleted their posts after realising that everyone on Bluesky is insane. (PetaPixel)
  
  I could have told you that, Adobe.
  
  Also, you suck. Just... Less than Bluesky. Like you're diptheria and they're anthrax.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (125) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Welcome to meme Friday! Due to my illness earlier this week, I was unable to collect memes as I usually do. I had plenty of videos, but tonight's memes were gathered in the wild by Gingy (pictured).

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (256) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Tina Koskima
@LoveSongs4Peace

View of Mont Blanc mountain range from Aiguille Du Midi in French Alps

Quaid, get yehr ass tah Mahrz. More Mars.

Otters (evil) on a slide.

Dog and his horse.

Cat wants to make friends with a deer but the deer just isn't into it.

Baby Genius Dog.

Shamy the Camel manages to make frenz with some rescue horses, after first putting them off with his high-energy and clumsy attempts to get attention. (IG)

Finding a lost dog (IG).

Nice morning bike run. (IG)

e=0c86c3d5-7115-4c95-971f-0ca1fd60eadb&g=5">Your package has been delayed for the following reason: NOSY GOAT (IG)

Dog is so happy to be included.

Gallant and Goofus, dog versions.

Baby elephant chases a bird, then toddles back to mama.

FLYING into the weekend!

"Giving belly rubs to the ol' rhino," if you know what I mean.

Happy Friday!

Posted by: Ace at 07:33 PM | Comments (250) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Last week, a female fencer was kicked out of a tournament and banned from competing for the crime of refusing to fence against a man.

That man has now been kicked off the team.

A transgender fencer, who competed in a USA Fencing-sponsored tournament and was at the center of controversy after an opponent protested against the organization's gender-participation policies, is no longer on the Wagner College women's fencing team.

Wagner College confirmed to Fox News Digital that Redmond Sullivan was off the team more than a week following the controversy at the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland.

Sullivan is shown to have competed for the Wagner women's team in the foil competition in several meets during the first half of the 2024-25 season. Sullivan participated on the men's team during the 2023-24 season, scoresheets from meets during the season showed.

The NCAA changed its transgender-inclusion policy after President Donald Trump signed the "No Men in Women's Sports" executive order.

"A student-athlete assigned male at birth may not compete on a women's team," the policy read.

...

USA Fencing has since defended its transgender participation policies.

Is sanity awakening?

"Austin Metcalf got exactly what he deserved."

Georgia Democrat: Asking people for proof of citizenship before they vote is an unconstitutional "poll tax." Note that anyone can get a copy of their birth certificate sent to them for like $3.

Sonny Hostin: Voter ID laws are unconstitutional because blacks and women don't have drivers licenses and don't know how to get any form of ID.

In California -- of course -- a school suspended a six-year-old girl for writing the words "All Lives Matter" on a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr., apparently during a Black Lives Matter lesson. The lawyer for the state of California argued that the suspension was legal because the six-year-old had no free speech rights, as she is obviously too young to be "engaging in the marketplace of ideas." Judges hearing the case then noted, gee, if the girl is too young to be engaging in political discussions, you shouldn't have been indoctrinating her with BLM propaganda. Quoth the judge: "Maybe then you don'tgive a Black Lives Matter course to a 1st Grader. Maybe you teach tying shoes."

Chinese Communist Party partner corporation Nike promotes wearing the hijab as a sign of women's progress.

Posted by: Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (224) | Trackbacks (Suck)

They were always elitists -- they just became unafraid to say so since Obama, and gay marriage, and transgenderism, and covid.

They decided to go Full Leroy Jenkins. They divide the world into the Elite and the Deplorables, and they're all done condescending to the Depolorables.

Instead, they're telling the Deplorables that they're wrong, they're morally repugnant, and their advice and consent are no longer needed nor even wanted.

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten said on Friday morning he was shocked when seeing how much the American public believes the Republican Party cares about them, even in the wake of President Donald Trump's tariff salvo.

During "CNN News Central," Enten pulled up new aggregate poll numbers showing that Americans currently believe that Republicans care about U.S. citizens as much as Democratic Party figures do, a poll that has historically favored the Democrats.

"This, to me, is one of the most shocking pieces of poll data that I truly, truthfully have seen this year, or maybe in any prior year," he said, noting elsewhere how unexpected these numbers are after Trump unveiled his controversial tariffs earlier this month.

CNN's chief data analyst Harry Enten marveled at polling showing Americans' positive view of the GOP even after President Trump launched his tariff war.

Enten displayed poll numbers showing that in the three previous decades, the Democratic Party smashed the GOP in the category of which party is believed to care more about Americans. In 1994, the party had a +19 majority over the GOP; in 2005, a+23; and in 2017, a +13.

The post-tariffs numbers in that category -- taken from a Quinnipiac poll -- showed a tie between the two parties.

"And why is that so surprising? Because I want you to take a look at prior years -- Democrats always lead on this question," Enten said.

"And now all of a sudden, a tie?," he continued. "All of a sudden, the Democrats, who were the party of the people. No more! No more! We get a tie on this question, on a question that has traditionally overwhelmingly been a Democratic advantage... It's truly something I would not have expected to see, especially after this tariff war had begun."

Anchor Kate Bolduan asked the data reporter with which demographic group the Republican Party has been making the most gains. Enten moved to a new graph which showed polling done on college-educated and non-college-educated voters in 2017 and today.

"Among those with a college degree, it's the same score -- plus 18 points for Democrats in 2017, plus 18 points for Democrats now. But look among non-college voters. Look here. It was plus seven for Democrats in 2017. And now Republicans have overwhelmingly gained plus nine points."

Enten stated that the pro-GOP swing represented the party's gains among the "working class."

What the public sees is Trump trying to help American workers.

Meanwhile, all the Democrats can do is shriek that their rich bitch AWFL voter corps lost some money in their retirement funds (for a couple of days) and that we're hurting foreign economies.

Via John Sexton.

Sourpuss Kate Bouldin is sad:

Posted by: Ace at 05:17 PM | Comments (305) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Trump is looking to revoke their "parole" -- Biden's lawless grant of kingly forgiveness of their trespassing.

The Trump administration is revoking the parole of thousands of immigrants who they have found to have criminal records or to be on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center watchlist, a senior White House official told the Daily Caller.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has identified 6,300 individuals who were paroled into the United States since 2023, during the Biden administration, but are on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center or have a criminal record, a senior White House official shared with the Caller. The source was granted anonymity to discuss the details not yet announced. Every individual CBP identified is having their parole, which gives them benefits such as work authorization, stripped immediately, the official told the Caller.

"Among the 6.3k paroled aliens with criminal or terrorist records, 905 were collecting Medicaid (including 4 on the terrorist watch list). $276,000 was paid out," the official shared with the Caller, adding that all had Social Security numbers. "41 were collecting Unemployment Insurance, receiving $42,000 in benefits. 22 received federal student loans totaling $280,000."

More at Daily Caller.

Meanwhile, the Golden Emperor is planning to withhold all federal funding to sanctuary cities -- and states.

President Donald Trump said his administration is close to finalizing a plan that would withhold all federal funding to cities and states that have enacted "sanctuary" zones and do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

"No more Sanctuary Cities! They protect the Criminals, not the Victims. They are disgracing our Country and are being mocked all over the World," Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social Thursday morning. "Working on papers to withhold all Federal Funding for any City or State that allows these Death Traps to exist!!!"

Posted by: Ace at 04:23 PM | Comments (204) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Yesterday I mentioned the classic terrorist arrangement, whereby a terror group works hand-in-hand with a "political wing." The political wing allegedly does not conduct terror attacks -- it's a group of people with relatively clean records.

But the "political wing," while claiming to be distinct from their terrorist partners, is always there to negotiate on behalf of the terrorists, making demands in exchange for peace. The terrorist wing provides the Stick, the political wing is there to collect the Carrots.

Black September, the Palestinian terror group behind the Olympics massacre, had a front group called the PLO you might have heard of. The Irish Republican Army had the supposedly non-violent Sinn Fein.

One side of the organization wears black hats and sets off bombs and fires. The other side wears white hats -- or gray hats, at least -- and negotiates to make the bombs and fires stop.

Christopher Rufo and my friend David Reaboi have written about the exact same arrangement in today's left.

The terrorists pretend to be separate from the "activists" and political/donor network of the Democrat Party.

In fact, they're just two claws of the same beast.

How "Tesla Takedown" Activists Fool the Public

The campaign against Elon Musk's company is hardly a grassroots movement.

..

A closer look suggests that Tesla is the latest target of an activist and organizing ecosystem that the Left has built over decades. That infrastructure manufactures, amplifies, and strategically uses protests and "direct actions" to force concessions or policy change. These direct actions range from nonviolent (sit-ins or flash mobs) to violent (arson, harassment, or even assassination), all meant to focus attention through the drama of real-world confrontation. The goal is to bypass the normal channels of democratic decision-making, obtaining desired ends through minoritarian pressure campaigns.

It would be impossible, however, to find a single person or entity directing both the protests and the violence. Rather, the two are linked by the concept of "diversity of tactics," an activist doctrine that holds that a movement should welcome the use of coercion methods as part of the whole range of the radicalization spectrum--from conventional, nonviolent marches to riots, property destruction, and violence--within their strategic program.

Diversity of tactics encourages activists to take advantage of a clever ruse: the public-facing flank of the movement presents the image of nonviolent resistance, while the behind-the-scenes infrastructure supports and occasionally engages in violence. One creates strategic opportunities for the other, with any connection hidden behind a veil of plausible deniability.

All organizations should be required to absolutely repudiate "diversity of tactics," which is just a codword for "approval of violence by our armed wing." For "non-profits," this can be done by simply refusing to grant them their tax exemption unless they renounce this support of terrorism.

Let's examine diversity of tactics at work.

...

[T]he footprint of professional activists, whom Winter admitted having "reached out to," was evident from the start. Each of the nationwide Tesla Takedown protests were scheduled and posted at The Action Network, a progressive for-profit company that provides online tools for left-wing organizing. It promises its customers the tools "to help you capture a moment, rally supporters to your cause, and sustain relationships with activists." The pricing for these services--which include databases and sign-up forms like the ones Winter described--can run more than $4,000 per month.

The Disruption Project, a Philadelphia-based far-left organizing group, was initially identified as a host or co-sponsor of all the Tesla Takedown's protests at the Action Network's event listings. The Project has since been scrubbed from the Action Network's site, but it still shares an SMS "short code" with Tesla Takedown--a sign of ongoing linkage.

The Disruption Project's founder is Jeff Ordower, a longtime activist whose background runs the gamut of professional left-wing activism....

Diversity of tactics creates a three-tiered structure of activism. At the first level are the officially sanctioned protesters--often nonviolent, racially diverse, and media-friendly--who serve as the movement's public face, attracting coverage and providing a veneer of legitimacy. The second, smaller tier consists of more confrontational activists who are willing to disrupt events, block traffic, or engage in civil disobedience. The third tier is the smallest and includes those with the greatest commitment to radical action as well as a willingness to engage in acts of vandalism, sabotage, destruction of property, and violence against persons.

This third tier is the so-called "black bloc," which the supposedly "non-violent" protesters, or "Greens," know will commit violence. The Greens know they are being used for cover by the black bloc -- they are the "ocean" in which the revolutionary fishes can swim, and hide themselves, as Mao said.

The Greens also commit violent criminal acts -- the black bloc will assign them to commit specific acts. The Greens are told they must do this for the revolution. The Greens, having no criminal record or minor criminal records, can get away with violent crimes more than the black bloc thugs, who have arrest sheets a mile long.

But they're all working together. Even the FBI knows this.

But large sections of the FBI are aligned with antifa so they pretend they're unaware of the symbiotic relationship between the terrorists and their "clean hands" partners.

Each level claims to be distinct from the others, even while tacitly endorsing or creating opportunities for the others' activities. In fact, the diversity of tactics framework lets activists simultaneously disavow and take advantage of violence.

...

In radical theory, property-destroying riots get framed as defensive responses to systemic oppression--and, in many cases, are encouraged outright. "Both civil disobedience and direct action can involve property destruction and can still be considered non-violent by many activists," Brock University professor Janet Conway notes in a 2003 law journal article. "Offensive as it is to liberal sensibilities, property destruction may be integral to the success of the [Black Lives Matter] uprising," writes RH Lossin, a lecturer in Harvard's history department. "Disavowing property destruction and even theft because of a spurious attachment to a reified notion of nonviolence is a mistake. It is a disavowal of power."

The Tesla Takedown campaign did not specifically address or denounce the fire bombings or their perpetrators in its statement opposing "violence, vandalism and destruction of property." As a practical matter, the diversity of tactics framework works only with a commitment to a principle of "non-denunciation," or refraining from publicly condemning the more militant tactics employed by allied activists. This preserves internal cohesion among activist groups and prevents public-facing activists from having to answer for the crimes committed by their more militant comrades. Such condemnations could also be used to splinter other activists or the Left generally. In this way, the Tesla Takedown leaders could invite escalation without owning it.

Read the whole thing.

Speaking of terrorist groups with supposed "clean hands" groups fronting for them: Would you believe that "pro-Palestinian" groups in the US are really front groups for Hamas?

Ryan Mauro:

America's non-profit sector is at the root of the post-October 7 tidal wave of domestic terrorism, antisemitism, and destructive anti-Israel protests plaguing the United States.

A series of large-scale investigations by Capital Research Center (CRC) revealed that the leadership of the so-called "pro-Palestinian" movement is, at its core, anti-American and anti-Western. It views the US exactly the same way it views Israel: as an illegitimate, genocidal entity that must be destroyed.

The cumulative conclusion of these reports serves as a warning about what is to come unless the corrective measures CRC identified are implemented: a burgeoning nationwide insurgency in the US that may be appropriately characterized as the "Turtle Island Intifada."

These seditionists often refer to the US as "Turtle Island" or the "so-called United States" as a way of delegitimizing America's right to exist. "Turtle Island" originates from a Native American myth claiming that a supernatural entity created North and Central America on a giant turtle's back during a flood.

Just as this "pro-Palestinian" movement wants to destroy Israel and build Palestine upon its "settler-colonialist" ashes, it also intends to actualize the vow of "Death to America" by "globalizing the intifada" and "bringing the war home" to "liberate Turtle Island."

CRC's newly released study, When Charities Betray America: How 'Pro-Palestinian' Protest Groups Promote Anti-Americanism, evaluated the rhetorical patterns of 496 of the most influential "pro-Palestinian" groups and activists in the US in the 15 months before the October 7 massacre and the 15 months afterward.

Within this large sample, CRC found that the movement's anti-American vitriol increased by 186% after the Hamas-led atrocities. The volume of content itself increased, as did its viewership and popularity.

The overall engagement of the anti-American posts on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) grew by 2,167%. Calls for anti-American violence, particularly towards law enforcement, increased by a staggering 3,000%.

More at the link.

AG Pam Bondi, as well as Elon Musk, claim that the DOJ is investigating the financiers of US domestic terrorism -- the well-heeled Democrats funding all of this revolutionary violence.

You reposted
Mario Nawfal
@MarioNawfal
·
Apr 8
🚨🇺🇸WHO'S PAYING TO BURN TESLAS? DOJ & CONGRESS PROBING THE MONEY TRAIL

The Molotov attacks on Tesla dealerships weren't just mindless rage--they were coordinated, armed, and funded.

Now, the Department of Justice is digging deeper. Investigators are pursuing not just the arsonists, but also the shadowy networks that may have financed the crimes.

The House DOGE Subcommittee has formally called on the DOJ and FBI to expose any NGOs, activist fronts, or political donors fueling anti-Tesla violence.

This is no longer about protests. It's about domestic terrorism--and who's bankrolling it.

As AG Bondi warned: "No one--not the foot soldiers, not the financiers--will escape justice."

The anti-Elon mob is being unmasked. And the funders are next.

Sources: DOJ, House GOP Subcommittee on DOGE

But I don't know -- we've known the left were domestic terrorists since the early seventies.

You know what happened to the Weather Underground? They all got cush jobs in the left-controlled university system. They were paid off by their "clean hands" leftist partners.

Some of them, like Barack Obama's close friend and likely ghostwriter Bill Ayers, never even spent a day in prison for their years-long campaign of terror bombings.

Posted by: Ace at 03:11 PM | Comments (308) | Trackbacks (Suck)

I hope that Patel will stop this.

The promotion of Steven Jensen, the architect of the FBI's overzealous January 6 investigation, to head the Washington Field Office has confounded Donald Trump supporters and crushed their hopes that new FBI Director Kash Patel would reform the bureau and root out those who targeted the president and his backers.

The Washington Field Office is incredibly important. It cannot be given over to a leftwing Deep State zealot.

As the chief of the Domestic Terrorism Operations Section at FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC, from 2020 until October 2021, Jensen also oversaw the bureau's controversial operations targeting parents at school board meetings and Catholics going to traditional Latin Mass.

Plucking him from relative obscurity in South Carolina to head the FBI's most powerful field office sends exactly the wrong message.

It has caused consternation across the spectrum, from Judicial Watch and the Heritage Foundation to FBI whistleblowers and J6'ers guilty of misdemeanor trespass because they walked through an open door.

While a source close to Patel swears that the director has a good reason to elevate Jensen that will be clear "this week or within a month," neither he nor his deputy Dan Bongino agreed to an interview, and the FBI has refused to comment on the issue.

They hope the furor will blow over.

But FBI whistleblowers who put their careers on the line to expose the weaponization of the bureau feel betrayed.

"Steven Jensen weaponized the FBI to persecute Americans over January 6th," says Steve Friend, who blew the whistle to Congress about dangerous and unnecessary SWAT raids on cooperative misdemeanor suspects and the manipulation of statistics to make the so-called "domestic terrorism" threat from that day look more widespread than it really was.

Trump supporters like Julie Kelly and Charlie Kirk -- and Don Trump, Jr. -- seem skeptical of this story, and point readers to this article by John Nantz. Nantz says the only evidence for the claim that Jensen yelled at agents to be more aggressive hunting down J6ers is a single man's testimony, talking about what he remembered of a phone call made two years before his testimony. I guess Nantz is suggesting he may be misremembering who said what.

[The single witness George] Hill pointed to bias when categorizing cases as Domestic Violent Extremism (DVE), which represented a shift toward narrative led investigations, and away from fact-based tagging and prioritization of investigative resources. Hill was prompted to cite an example of this bias and referenced a "conference call with literally thousands of people listening." He admitted the alleged call took place almost two years prior to his testimony, then alleged that Steve Jensen lashed out about FBI Philadelphia's lack of aggressiveness with regard to J6 cases. Hill testified, "Steve Jensen said, 'You know, I don't give a blank. They're g*****n terrorists and we're gonna round them all up."

However, during questioning specific to Hill's allegation, Jensen was asked, "Mr. Jensen, do you recall ever saying anything along the lines of, you know, 'I don't give a blank, these people are g*****n terrorists, we're going to round them up?'" Jensen responded, "No." He was then asked, "Is that something you ever would have said?" Jensen responded, "No." He was asked, "Do you swear?" Jensen responded, "I don't."

That last answer is ambiguous on paper but apparently he was being asked "do you swear" as in "do you use profanity like g******n," not "do you swear you're telling the truth."

The other claim is about Jensen creating a "tag" used to categorize the allegations of terrorism at the school board meetings. This seems admitted, but Nance says this is a trivial clerical action. He just created a tag to file these claims under, as a blogger would create a tag to file stories about Obama under.

As to Jensen's diabolical plot to clap soccer moms in handcuffs and drag them by the hair into the labyrinth of the federal prison system, his testimony is dispositive. During the same congressional questioning, Jensen made it clear that his only involvement in Garland's infamous school board task force was the creation of the EDUOFFICIALS threat tag. As Jensen explains, "that tag was created to attach to any complaints that came in, SPECIFIC THREATS (emphasis mine) against school board officials, school officials or anybody else that would have participated in the school board meetings." After the creation of the threat tag, Jensen was transferred to the Training Division.

In point of fact, Jensen's testimony reveals a career FBI Agent who is extremely compunctious about proper predication, the preservation of First Amendment activity, focus on individual criminal activity (as opposed to group association), and close liaison with local and state law enforcement on matters unrelated to federal jurisdiction. He even defended the presence of Proud Boys at a school board meeting. Don't take my word for it. Read it yourself. Download the PDF and search the keywords, "Proud Boys."

In a slap-dash Blaze piece Tom Fitton had this to say, "For all I know, he's a good guy and we're all misinterpreting it." Ya think?

I don't know. It does seem to be pretty thin evidence and it seems unlikely that Kash Patel and Dan Bongino have suddenly called up David French's bull to take care of their wives.

Posted by: Ace at 02:11 PM | Comments (233) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The law already existed -- it just wasn't enforced.

A federal judge has cleared the way for the Trump admin to begin enforcing a federal statute requiring illegal immigrants to register with the government and carry documentation. The mandate, which Homeland Security says will be enforced starting Friday, could impact up to 3.2 million people living in the U.S. illegally.

Key Details:

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden ruled Thursday that advocacy groups challenging the registration requirement lacked standing to sue, allowing the policy to take effect immediately.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said those who've been in the country for 30 days or more must register by Friday, warning that failure to comply could lead to fines or criminal charges.

The requirement applies to everyone 14 and older without legal status, including long-term residents and Canadians who remain in the U.S. more than 30 days. Registrants must provide fingerprints and an address, and minors must be registered by a parent or guardian.

The Supreme Court also ordered Trump to seek the return of the MS-13 member he deported.... eventually.

This is confusing. The Supreme Court ruled that the district court overstepped its bounds in ordering Trump to perform his foreign policy function the way this AWFL shitlib wanted.

Now they're kind of saying the same thing... but also warning the AWFL shitlib who is managing the case that she mustn't overstep her bounds by presuming to tell the president how to conduct foreign policy. (Deportations are considered part of the conduct of foreign policy.)

So: Does Trump have to try to get this Solid Citizen back or not?

It's unclear. The Supreme Court is confused on the point.

After the ruling, many on the left claimed "Supreme Court in a unanimous decision: He has a legal right to be here, and you have to bring him back."

It is a bit more ambiguous than that. The Court actually warned that the district court could order the government to facilitate but not necessarily "to effectuate" the return.

The application is granted in part and denied in part, subject to the direction of this order. Due to the administrative stay issued by THE CHIEF JUSTICE, the deadline imposed by the District Court has now passed. To that extent, the Government's emergency application is effectively granted in part and the deadline in the challenged order is no longer effective. The rest of the District Court's order remains in effect but requires clarification on remand. The order properly requires the Government to "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador. The intended scope of the term "effectuate" in the District Court's order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court's authority. The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs. For its part, the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps. The order heretofore entered by THE CHIEF JUSTICE is vacated.

So what does that mean? The Court disagrees with many, including the Fourth Circuit, that President Trump had no inherent executive powers to countermand the district court's order. He clearly does have countervailing powers that have to be weighed more heavily in the matter. The district court is expressly ordered to show "due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs."

What is left is a legal pushmi-pullyu that seems to be going in both directions at once. What if the Trump Administration says that inquiries were made, but the matter has proven intractable or unresolvable? Crickets.

No one would seriously believe that, but what right does the district court have to manage the relations or communications with a foreign country?

I don't know what this means. I don't think the Supreme Court knows either.

Posted by: Ace at 01:10 PM | Comments (311) | Trackbacks (Suck)