In Like Flynn

There are several ways this can go and since the truth is the most important tool we have during this administration, we must broadcast the results of it as much as possible no matter how grim. This is one of the defining human rights cases of this decade.

Context: Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a Salvadorian man who illegally entered the United States in 2011 after he and his family were targeted by gang violence in El Salvador. At time of writing he is not confirmed to be a current or former member or affiliate of any gang in any country. He was arrested once, in this time he was accused of being a gang member with no evidence, and was never charged with anything for this crime. He applied for and was denied asylum, but was given a withholding of removal order, which allowed him to maintain residence in the United States. He resumed his life under a work permit granted to him by the DHS

On March 12, he was arrested by ICE under the pretext that his status had changed. He was then sent to a detention center in Texas, before being flown into El Salvador's megaprison, the Terrorist Confinement Center, (CECOT). His family has not been allowed contact with him. The Trump administration themselves have claimed that the arrest and deportation of Garcia had been an administrative error. He has not been seen by family, media, or anyone other than prison guards and prisoners.

CECOT

CECOT is a prison designed for the mass incarceration of gang members and terrorists within El Salvador. The conditions of prison have been condemned by several human rights groups. Upon entering CECOT prisoner's heads are shaven, they are fingerprinted, photographed, and facial recognition scans are made of them. They are then forced to sit in rows like so before being escorted to their cells

In the cells they are provided steel beds with no blankets or sheets. Each cell has 80 beds, however the cells often have hundreds of prisoners within them. They are not allowed outside of their cells except for 30 minutes of exercise and prayer, which is done in full view of the entire cell block. The lights remain on at all times and they are given meals consisting of beans, rice, and tortillas. They are given a communal wash basin, toilet, and water in a large jug. They are not allowed outside the building at any time for any reason.

Those who are sent to CECOT are not given ends to their sentences. Not a single prisoner who has been processed within the facility has been permitted to leave. The people in this prison are not given end dates to their sentence. It currently hosts around 15,000 inmates, and it is estimated that at least 200 of them have died from illness, malnutrition, and abuse from guards and prisoners. The prison has only been open since January 2023

Since January 20th, Donald Trump and his secretary of homeland security Kristi Noam and his secretary of state Marco Rubio have worked with El Salvador's president Naib Bukele to house undocumented immigrants within CECOT for a fee of 6 million dollars per prisoner. Garcia is one of the prisoners within CECOT sent there under this exchange.

Chris Von Hollen is a US Senator from Maryland, where Kilmar Abrego Garcia lived until his arrest. In response to Donald Trump and Naib Bukele refusing to release Garcia, he has promised to go to CECOT himself to check in on Garcia's condition and discuss his return to the United States. In doing this there are several outcomes, and in this speculation I must state that everything that comes in this next paragraph is speculation.

The first and best outcome is that Senator Von Hollen is permitted to enter the facility, is allowed to record his time in there as many members of the press and government officials have been permitted to do so in the past. He is able to confirm that Garcia is alive, healthy, and can show the world a photo or video of Garcia. This would confirm that he is alive and it would allow the world to see the treatment of individuals in the prison.

The second is that Von Hollen is permitted to enter the facility but cannot record it. The reason that this scenario is worse is because we would not be able to see Garcia's condition and it would show that the previously transparent prison has begun to obfuscate it's treatment of prisoners.

The third is that Von Hollen is not allowed to meet Garcia. This would mean there is no confirmation that he is alive or dead, as CECOT has been known to hide or deny deaths in the facility. This would mean that Garcia has starved, died of illness, or was killed by prisoners or guards within CECOT in just over a month.

The fourth is Von Hollen is not permitted to enter the facility at all. This act would be deemed as intentionally preventing Von Hollen, a member of the opposition party in the United States, from viewing the prison despite Bukele's previous admittance of the current party's own members from recording and bragging about the arrests and deportations. The exact conditions of refusal would need to be clearer before further speculation

The fifth and least likely scenario is that Von Hollen is arrested during his time in El Salvador. In doing this, it would mean that any American can be sent to a prison in a foreign country for any reason and not be returned.

These scenarios are all possible, with the most likely being Von Hollen denied access to the prison. Every one of these outcomes will have a massive shock wave throughout the United States. Our immigration and legal system will be defined by this case, and we must monitor it at all costs.

What you can do

You remember COVID? That vaccine that made it become a non issue in a year? That was done because the government expedited it's funding and research. Next time it won't.

Those testing centers? Gone

The little help the government provided? Gone

You'd be surprised how despite minimal effort the US could have been hit a lot worse. This next time we will have an anti vax head of the DHHS.

The 2024 election and how to make things better

We did our best folks, we voted. We canvassed and phone banked and fundraised and bullied the president into dropping out of the race. But we lost. We cannot change that, and the sooner you accept that then sooner you can begin to feel better.

Take a week, a month, till the inauguration, however long to come to terms with what happened. You're feeling grief and grief takes time to process.

But a lost election does not mean you will die.

Your life, if I had to guess, will become materially worse. If you're queer and in a red state start saving up. If you're trans get those name and gender changes in. If you're undocumented, or related to someone undocumented, get your shit gathered.

I can't guide you through everything but I can tell you now that your life is not over, and even if it will suck absolute shit, it will get better over time. You'll graduate, get a promotion, find a partner (or find some garlic bread if you're not into the whole relationship thing), see friends, watch movies, read books, watch a sunset. There will still be good things, and it is important that we appreciate these good things especially when things start to suck.

We can't make any calls on how bad the next four years will be but I can say this, fascist governments can't last forever. They're a fire that gets lit and burns itself out. Some fires are big and destroy a lot of things, sometimes they can be contained, sometimes they burn longer than you'd like.

But they do burn out, especially when people contain it and help control it.

Find local organizations that advocate for the one thing you care most about. Trans rights, abortion, Gaza, homelessness. Go to join them, work with them, and recruit for them.

If you can't find these orgs, get a friend and do it yourself. If you can't find a friend, make one. Do not ever think you are helpless, you are a member of your community and with enough work you can work to change it. Even if no one listens to you, you are there making a statement and that means that you are not silent.

As online as I am I think I'm going to wane off it. It does nothing for me, outside of wasting my time and laugh at funny jpegs. It's important that we remember that the Internet is not real life, as much as it may seem.

Also, and I don't care if you're an anarchist, socialist, communist, third worldist, neo-Trotskyite. You're a bleeding heart liberal now. Keep your social positions, but leftism can't get done now. You love Joe Biden, you loved Hillary, you were ok with Bernie. Work within this framework until it becomes politically viable to do anything else.

The dialogue is less than stellar but I'll chock it up to the devs being French, the graphics are solid and I love the soundtrack. The moments where Max has on headphones or music plays during cutscenes can be corny at times but it's a vibe so I like it

The story is solid, and having just reread borrasca, I get very similar vibes (there's even a shady rich guy named Prescott, c'mon). I like the rewind mechanic a lot and I really wish more games used something like it because it is a cool function narratively and also gameplay wise. The game encourages you to explore your options, allowing good ones to seem bad and bad ones to seem good. Even if you can't rewind all the way, knowing how max and the other person feels about certain options is neat and definitely helped with certain plot points.

I have two issues so far, one a bit more minor than the other. After Kate's attempt, Max gets brought into the office with Prescott, Madeson, and Jefferson. If you explore enough, it is very clear that all 3 had something to do with further causing Kate's distress. Prescott clearly drugged her and hosted the party, took her to some weird room, and then drugged her again. Max sees Madeson harass Kate, take photos of her, and overall shows he's interested in her more than other students. Jefferson is the last person we see Kate talk to before she leaves, and the conversation leaves her in tears. All three of these people are an issue, but the game only allows you to take care of one of them, which does not really make sense to me.

The second issue is that I cannot tell if I'm meant to like Chloe. I sympathize with her because clearly her home life is rough and her best friend just disappeared. But she is not a good person or friend. She blames Max for smoking weed, pushes Max to and beyond her limit, gets mad when Max takes a 20 second call from a depressed girl, and then gets mad again at Max for not shooting a random guy. I want to believe they're going to have a falling out because they realize they aren't really meant to be friends anymore. My biggest prediction is that Chloe will ask Max to rewind when Amber went missing and Max refuses, since it seems like she cares more about Amber. I'm hoping this is the case and then Max and Katie work together, or maybe Warren. Either of them are better deuteragonists than Chloe honestly.

If you want to complain about the messaging of media, then at least engage with the actual message and not minor tweaks to character design and pronouns.