conjecture: the quality of life in its prisons is a pretty good measure of the success and level of civilization of a society.

(note “measure”, which does not make a claim of “cause”. there are Goodhart’s Law risks.)

hello.

i guess the other place you might see this is a voting booth.

i periodically repost this one. never really know why. https://www.interfluidity.com/v2/7964.html

one nice thing about being in Europe is you get to see all the surveillance Substack is putting you through.

@arclight

@Phil @realcaseyrollins they engaged in treaties under the Constitution with the United States there were no passports in common usage they were an ambiguous case and so it was legislatively clarified, exactly how our system is intended to work.

https://www.tpr.org/border-immigration/2025-06-25/ice-arrested-a-6-year-old-boy-with-leukemia-at-immigration-court-his-family-is-suing

@Phil @realcaseyrollins i guess we have a lot of really really subgeniuses now.

@Phil @realcaseyrollins because their reservations were arguably sovereign territory, a much stronger not-under-jurisdiction case than migrants who are obviously under jurisdiction, they are arrested all the time.

@realcaseyrollins @Phil yes, but it’s consequential, it should be a reliable, reviewable, accountable someone. like a judge in a public process.

@Phil @realcaseyrollins someone has to determine that they have no right to be here and where home is. they sent that guy to jamaica for no particular reason, Venezuelans to CECOT on at best disputable claims of gang affiliation etc.

@Phil @realcaseyrollins justice only when it’s easy, then.

you know, for a small fraction of the tax cuts we really could hire hundreds of new immigration judges to provide people with meaningful process over a reasonable timeframe.

@realcaseyrollins @Phil i do care about the rule of law. and its application by human institutions under principles of fairness and equity. it is the law, in the United States, that you can break the law and mount an affirmative defense as to why under particular and exigent circumstances it was the right thing to do, for example. it is the law that a jury needn’t convict. good law is goes beyond did she or didn’t she, or to what category does she belong? mens rea is a principle of law.

@Phil @realcaseyrollins that one was not lawless. his father had paperwork to fill out for his citizenship he flaked on filling out. years later the child is literally stateless, a citizen of nowhere. not all that is lawful is just. a sane administration would have helped this guy fix the paperwork, but they are looking for deportation numbers, anyone they can get.

@Phil @realcaseyrollins dude, they revoked all Afghanis status under temporary parole, including many likely to be harmed or imprisoned for having helped our military. https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status/temporary-protected-status-designated-country-afghanistan https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/12/afghanistan-tps-immigration-dhs/

@realcaseyrollins @Phil well then, i hope you don’t speed, or jaywalk, or forget to fill out some mandatory paperwork. because, then, to the camps with you! in the name of respect for the law!

it’s a lovely country you have in mind.

@Phil @realcaseyrollins Lots of people being detained and deported now literally did nothing wrong other than paperwork. They just sent a guy to Jamaica who was born on a US base to US parents. He is deemed stateless, no citizenship at all. People who came from Afghanistan legally just had their status revoked, they didn’t cross a border, the border suddenly crossed them. https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2025-06-04/texas-man-born-to-u-s-soldier-on-u-s-army-base-abroad-deported/

@realcaseyrollins @Phil because this executive acting without constraint is unlikely to abuse power, say, by removing people who’ve done no wrong more serious than be in a confusion about the paperwork to labor camps and prisons in countries to which they’ve never been. this is the new America you are cheering.