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wineauntie · 13 days

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WHEN WE MET THE WORLD STILLED – quinn hughes x singer!oc

masterlist

summary: quinn hughes finds himself enamoured by someone he’s convinced is far out of his league.

note: your honour, I love these two!

warnings: none really!

word count: 1.8k+

Juno Blackwood had absolutely zero idea about the logistics of hockey as a sport. In fact, if she hadn't been invited to Rogers Arena to perform the national anthems and a quick interval show, she probably wouldn't have even given the sport a second thought.

Her red-heeled, signature cowboy boots clacked across the cement floor as her head swivelled to look at everything her assigned tour guide, Michael had pointed out. She was half-listening, her thoughts more focused on running through various lyrics for her performance– she hadn't meant to zone out but it had just been so easy to.

"And obviously, we managed to get our hands on a jacket for you to wear for the anthems," the man guiding her spoke, snapping her out of her daze. "We figured the jersey mightn't be up your lane."

Feeling a sudden wave of doubt, Juno glanced down at her beige, afghan jacket that just brushed her knees. She wore one of her typical outfits— her boots, a pair of red wide-leg pants and a loose white shirt with a deep neckline, loosely knotted together in the front. Those paired with a gold belt (that she was certain was a long necklace before) seemed to be one of the only suitable options she'd had in her wardrobe.

She wasn't made for the cold weather in Vancouver or the chilly atmosphere of the hockey arena, she was a summer child, drawn to the sun and its warmth.

"Not that your jacket isn't perfect!" Michael rushed to say in a panic as his eyes bulged. Juno had realised that, once again, she seemed to zone out from the conversation at hand. "It's really nice and all, but I know you expressed interest in some Canucks apparel and—"

"The jacket sounds great," Juno cut in kindly, her ring-clad hand placing itself on top of his waving one. "May I see it?" The man flushed and bobbed his head, rushing forward, as Juno kept her strides long to keep up with him.

At the end of the hallway, a group of three people stood, idly chatting. As Juno's heels clicked and echoed, the group's eyes snapped up to meet her gaze. Her eyes remained lax as she locked eyes with the man who stood between two women. His eyes searched hers, as they softened. Juno examined the man shamelessly, taking in his navy suit and beanie, so unlike the outfit she adorned. Her gaze travelled across his stubble to his sheepish smile and his eyes.

Juno hummed, her lips quirking up as Michael stopped in front of the group with her by his side.

"Juno, this is Charlotte and Andrea, our social team," Michael explained, gesturing towards the two women who stood with their cameras and phones out, yet Juno's eyes lingered on the nameless man. "...and this is Quinn Hughes, Captain of the Canucks."

"It's lovely to meet you guys, I’m Juno." She smiled, moving her gaze away from the man–Quinn, as she shook Andrea and Charlotte's hands first. She paused as she turned to shake Quinn's, his intense stare igniting something within her.

Quinn took her hand carefully, their fingers briefly brushing as he finally cracked a smile.

"I'm going to be showing you around from here on,"

Juno almost melted at the sound of his raspy voice, her head tilting as they kept their hands connected. Realising that she had yet to speak up, she cleared her throat and released her grip.

"Great," she offered up, her eyes flitting to Andrea and Charlotte. "And you guys will be coming along for the trip too?"

"Yes!" Andrea gleamed, her eyes twinkling in excitement. "We have a few things planned, so Quinn will be taking you on a tour of the locker rooms as well as presenting you with a jacket."

Juno's eyes jumped back to Quinn, who seemed to be solely focused on her face. She cleared her throat and folded her arms, trying to block out the cold that infiltrated the arena surrounding her– although the heat stemming from his stare was creeping up her spine in indescribable warming sensation.

"You'll also get to meet some of the other guys and we'll try to linger in the background taking photos as subtly as we can," Andrea finished explaining, recapturing Juno's attention.

"You've got it all planned out," Juno commented appreciatively, "that all sounds perfect." She turned back to Quinn. "Well, I guess you're leading the way, Cap."

Quinn stifled a smile and gestured with his head for her to follow as he began to walk. "We can start with the locker room," he spoke, leading Juno further down the hall as she nodded and followed alongside him.

If Quinn's voice was a song, she wanted to listen to it on repeat because she knew she'd never get tired of it.

Now, Juno was no romantic, but with Quinn? He intrigued her...enraptured her attention and she couldn't place why.

"So, how did you get roped into giving me this tour?" Juno teased, as the media women followed close behind. "Lose a bet or were you sacrificed for the greater good?"

"Neither, fortunately," Quinn remarked, his warm eyes sparking with mirth. "I had to quite literally 'take one for the team' as the captain."

"You poor thing," She grinned, her lip jutting out in mock offence.

"That's not what the guys think," he mused, causing Juno's brows to raise in question. "A few of them begged to take you on the tour themselves." Quinn's confession caught her off guard, and she couldn't help but chuckle.

"Well, I must be quite the hot ticket item around here," she replied, her tone playful and light, undeterred by his words as they reached the locker room door.

Like a gentleman, Quinn stepped aside and held the door open for her, warning him with a dazzling and warm smile. As Juno stepped inside the locker room, she was immediately hit by the smell of sweat, disinfectant and leather. Quinn was close behind her as she scanned the room taking in the rows of lockers adorned with players' names and numbers.

"So, uh...this is where the magic happens," Quinn sheepishly spoke, his hands in his pockets. "Well, most of the time."

Juno nodded, impressed by the organized chaos of the space. "It's got a winning kind of energy tonight," she remarked, moving closer to one of the lockers to get a better look at the jerseys hanging up.

"Well, I'd hope so," Quinn mumbled as she approached a locker on the far side which was labelled with her name and displayed a vintage, navy Canucks jacket with a red stripe down the sleeves and the logo on the back.

Juno beamed and ran her hand over the material, her fingers caressing the red, feeling rather glad for her coincidentally, coordinating outfit.

Quinn watched Juno with a soft smile, appreciating her genuine excitement, as he took the jacket off of the hanger and passed it over to her.

"Welcome to the team," he teased, handing her the Canucks jacket, the pair deaf to rapid clicking and flash of the cameras behind them.

Juno shrugged off her Afghan coat and hung it up on the hanger before she took the jacket from him, her fingers running over the material.

"Thank you," she said gratefully, slipping it on over her shoulders. It was slightly oversized but was comfortable and warm, two things she loved about clothing.

Quinn nodded, a small smile playing across his lips. "You're welcome," he replied, his gaze lingering on her for a moment longer than necessary.

As they stood there, exchanging smiles, Juno couldn't help but feel a flutter erupt in her stomach as her eyes locked on Quinn's. There was something about him that drew her in, further and further.

"Well, how do I look?" Juno radiated a smile, breaking the momentary silence as she twirled.

Quinn watched her with interest, his eyes following her every move. "Looks good on you," he remarked, his voice soft.

Juno grinned, feeling a rush of warmth at his compliment. "Thanks," she said, heat rising up her neck. This was so unlike her, she never acted like this with men– or women for that matter!

"Hi guys, could we just grab a photo of the two of you?" Andrea's perky voice asked, infiltrating whatever moment she and Quinn seemed to be sharing.

"Yeah,"

"Of course!"

Quinn and Juno's words overlapped as the two of them scooted closer together. She plastered her biggest smile across her lips, her head tilting as they faced the multiple cameras facing them. They stood for another few minutes before they were allowed to move apart and move on with the tour.

"So, you're performing during one of the intervals tonight, right?" Quinn asked, glancing over at her as they walked.

Juno shrugged, a smile tugging at her lips. "I am," she hummed, "three songs during the second interval and then the two anthems before the match."

Quinn nodded, seemingly satisfied with her answer. "Well, we're glad to have you here," he said sincerely, his eyes meeting hers. "And I have a feeling you're going to knock it out of the park tonight." Juno felt a warmth spread through her chest at his words, and she couldn't help but return his smile.

"Why thank you, Cap," she joked, successfully hiding the blush she could feel rising to her cheeks as a flutter of excitement turned into a flurry of joy at the thought of performing in front of the crowd later that evening.

"Juno, we're being told to show you where you're sitting and then bring you back in a while to meet some of the players," Andrea read off her phone, her eyes apologetic at the order.

"Alright," Juno hummed before she turned to Quinn for the final time. "Well, Cap, it's been a pleasure, thanks for the tour."

Quinn felt a faint smile grow at her words, a small laugh escaping his lips. "The pleasure's all mine," he nodded, sticking out his hand once again.

As Juno accepted Quinn's hand, she couldn't help but notice the warmth that radiated from his touch. His hand was strong and reassuring, yet surprisingly gentle, despite the toughness of them as their palms met.

For a moment, Juno swore the clocks stopped and the world apart from them fell into the depths of space, leaving the two of them in their bubble. Juno felt another damned flutter erupt in the pit of her stomach, a sensation she couldn't quite explain but couldn't ignore.

As Quinn's thumb brushed over her knuckles, she couldn't help but feel a sense of comfort wash over her. There was something about the way he held her hand – firm yet tender, confident yet gentle, a feeling that seemed to scream safe, as if she had finally found someone who understood her in a way no one else ever had.

Good Lord, Juno needed to take a nap or something. She was becoming soppy and unlike herself.

Pulling away, Juno followed Andrea out of the room, but not before flashing Quinn a dazzling smile, one that was quickly reciprocated by the man.

a/n: oh and this is her outfit + the jacket I envisioned her getting!

#wineauntie #quinn hughes angst #quinn hughes fluff #Quinn hughes #quinn hughes fanfic #quinn hughes imagine #quinn hughes fanfiction #quinn hughes x singer!oc #wineauntie – juno universe!#juno blackwood x quinn hughes #nhl x reader #vancouver canucks #quinn hughes fic

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wistfulcynic · 6 months

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the inn is a metaphor

They are terrible at running an inn.

In the beginning.

They don’t know the first goddamn thing about the hospitality industry. Or carpentry, plumbing, invoicing, logistics. Anything, really. They know nothing.

They learn.

There’s a lot of trial, even more error. But by the first time the Revenge returns for a visit they have something. A roof that doesn’t leak. Un-rotted floorboards. Nooks and crannies free from feral beasts of any kind. Zero spiders. Twin armchairs in front of the fire and a bed just big enough for the two of them. It’s a start.

The Revenge comes bearing gifts. Wee John has knitted them some afghans and Frenchie sewed an enormous quilt, which takes pride of place on the bed. They’ve towed in another ship as well, a wreck whose timber they all pitch in to rebuild into an extension and some outbuildings. Roach helps them plant a kitchen garden and a medicinal one.

Jackie gives them business advice and contacts for her old suppliers. Lucius has a guestbook for them, with marginalia he drew himself. Some of it at least is appropriate for guests to see. The rest…

“Are you planning to have guests who’ll faint at the sight of a cock?” Lucius inquires innocently. “Because I’ll be honest with you, that seems unlikely.”

The idea of guests of any kind is still a long way off, but they’re getting there. They can envision it now, and not just as a wild fantasy they spin each other at night as they lie entwined with sweat cooling on their skin. They have actual plans, concrete ones, and a decent understanding of how to realise them.

They get to work.

Jackie’s contacts prove invaluable. Soon they have a liquor supplier, deals with local butchers, bakers, candlestick-makers, and even a reliable fisherman to give them first dibs on his haul.

(It’s not Pop-Pop.)

A few survivors of Zheng’s old crew hire on as housekeeping and kitchen staff. The soup is phenomenal. Ed learns how to make it and how to cook a fish without burning it. They have fresh-smelling towels, expertly folded. They have guest rooms, and soon they have guests.

It’s an adjustment, having new people in their space. Some of the guests are gawkers, eager for a piece of Blackbeard and the Gentleman Pirate. They reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, namely those particular assholes. But other guests are much more pleasant. Locals looking for a bit of a mini-break, people from nearby islands wanting a getaway, even the occasional European who doesn’t know who they are.

The guests are mostly happy with their stay. There’s excellent soup and decent fish, fresh linens and great views. The walls could be a bit thicker, perhaps, for everyone’s comfort, but the hosts are always most apologetic in the morning and offer copious marmalade in exchange for good reviews.

The Revenge returns frequently, each time with some new trinkets and finery for their former co-captains. In exchange, they host bonfires on the beach with music and dancing and wine, until they all fall asleep together in a pile, so like the old days on the ship that Stede watches them in the soft light of the embers with tears in his eyes.

“All right, love?” Ed asks him. He slips an arm around Stede’s waist. Stede tugs him in until Ed’s head is nestled against his shoulder. He strokes Ed’s hair. Ed sighs and snuggles closer.

“I’m all right,” Stede says. “A bit nostalgic is all.”

“You miss it.”

“I miss the crew. I wish they could visit more often. I suppose I miss the sea, though of course it’s right there in front of us. But I’m happy, Ed. I have no regrets.”

“Really?” The whisper of doubt in Ed’s voice has Stede pulling back to look down at his dear face.

“Yes really! Do you doubt it?”

“Kind of.” Ed shrugs. “It’s easier for me, I think. I was ready to be done with it, Stede. Desperate to do anything else but be Blackbeard. But you—you had just got started. You could be out there now with the crew, pirating away. You could be famous. You could—”

“Ed Teach, you listen to me.” Stede’s got his Captain Voice on now and the sound of it has Ed’s stomach turning cartwheels, his dick leaping to attention. “I don’t care about any of that. I only wanted to be a pirate for the freedom. To escape my old life. But I have a life now that I would never want to escape. Do you know why?”

Ed shakes his head.

“Because I chose it. I chose you. I love you and I would be happy anywhere you were.” He cups Ed’s cheek in his palm and kisses his forehead, his nose, his lips. Ed moans and presses closer but Stede pulls back, just far enough to whisper, “You make Stede happy.”

They spend that night alone in the inn, no guests, far enough from the beach that when they serve breakfast to the crew the next morning not a single smirk or smart remark is sent their way.

They wave goodbye to their friends that evening and stand together on their porch to watch the ship sail off into the sunset. Stede turns to Ed with a smile. “New guests checking in tomorrow,” he says. “We should probably fix the creak in the door hinge of Room 1.”

“I’ll do it,” says Ed, “if you polish the candlesticks. Fuckin’ polish makes my nose itch.”

“Deal,” says Stede. He turns to head inside. “What’ll we have for dinner?”

“Got a nice turbot we could roast.”

“Ooh, fab.”

The inn’s front door closes behind them.

It’s still a bit rickety, their inn. It’s old, it creaks, it springs leaks from time to time. It’s hard work, keeping it going. But they are devoted to the task. Whatever it takes, they will see their inn thrive.

It’s what makes them happy.

#blackbonnet #blackbonnet fanfic #gentlebeard #gentlebeard fanfic #ofmd #ofmd fanfic #our flag means death #post season two #profdanglais

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steampunkforever · 16 days

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Every now and then I play a game in my head called "How would you win 9/11?" Not in the Mark Wahlberg sort of way but from the perspective of "if I were not a neocon ghoul, how would I handle this and avoid/postpone the sandbox forever war?"

Hard mode: Bin Laden has to still escape the battle of Tora Bora alive.

Extreme mode: you still have to invade Iraq at the behest of Reagan Era advisors still mad about Iran 30 years ago.

Easy mode I would just play the PR machine hard with the launch of Enduring Freedom. Like Panama, I'd hit hard and all at once with a coordinated force. The American people would need blood quick, and looking like a strong president is imperative for your first term, especially after such a hit to the American Ego.

Definitely approving the Ranger battalion's deployment to Tora Bora is the best path here, but the key is to pull out just as fast as we went in once we get our guy. Keep it feeling fresh, like Panama or Desert Storm. Afghanistan frankly has very little advantages for any army (according to most imperialist conquests of the area) so leave the government to the people that live there. The important part is that Americans feel that NYC has been avenged.

Hard mode means you don't get Bin Laden til 2011 as per current day, and therefore need to do a bit more cleanup during enduring freedom. Frankly my methodology here isn't much different than the current US anti-terror doctrine of airstrikes and deploying elite squads for night raids.

When you're fighting an asymmetrical war, using small units and remote explosions to hit key points (putting the "terrorism" in "counterterrorism") and match guerrilla fighters both costs less and beats the bad publicity of shipping corpses not old enough to drink home in flag wrapped caskets.

A low-impact campaign (read: less of a full on occupation) like this with US logistical support (and the input of people who're actually experts in Afghan geopolitics) would hopefully allow the US to avoid the protracted war with the insurgency that lasted literally 20 years and ended with the Taliban stronger than ever. Give it a couple years, call it a success, and hunt down the big guy until you get him in 2011.

Extreme mode isn't ideal (We shouldn't have been in iraq) but putting Bremer in control was really the nail in the coffin. I would demote him to janitor and find someone who understood the situation instead. Why build a highway next to an existing road? The obvious way to rebuild a country you bombed into fine gravel is to take advantage of the infrastructure you left behind.

I personally would've avoided treating Ba'athism like we could just denazify iraq, and rather pull key leadership and left the rest relatively intact so as to better rebuild the country. Allowing the military to remain standing (and in fact work as a method of reconstruction) and set up a client state that could keep Iran on its toes, sort of like how Iraq was before Desert Storm. Which still wouldn't be ideal but at least we'd significantly lower the chances of outright spawning ISIS through American cultural and administrative incompetence. There are no good imperialist wars but there are ways to not completely bungle it too.

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ausetkmt · 5 months

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Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans

Former President Donald Trump is planning an extreme expansion of his first-term crackdown on immigration if he returns to power in 2025 — including preparing to round up people living in the United States without legal permission on a vast scale and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled.

The plans would sharply restrict both legal and illegal immigration in a multitude of ways.

Trump wants to revive his first-term border policies, including banning entry by people from certain Muslim-majority nations and reimposing a COVID-19-era policy of refusing asylum claims — although this time, he would base that refusal on assertions that migrants carry other infectious diseases like tuberculosis.

He plans to scour the country for immigrants living here without legal permission and deport people by the millions per year.

To help speed mass deportations, Trump is preparing an enormous expansion of a form of removal that does not require due-process hearings. To help Immigration and Customs Enforcement carry out sweeping raids, he plans to reassign other federal agents and deputize local police officers and National Guard soldiers voluntarily contributed by Republican-run states.

To ease the strain on ICE detention facilities, Trump wants to build huge camps to detain people while their cases are processed and they await deportation flights. And to get around any refusal by Congress to appropriate the necessary funds, Trump would redirect money in the military budget, as he did in his first term to spend more on a border wall than Congress had authorized.

In a public reference to his plans, Trump told a crowd in Iowa in September, “Following the Eisenhower model, we will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” The reference was to a 1954 campaign to round up and expel Mexican immigrants that was named for an ethnic slur — “Operation Wetback.”

The constellation of Trump’s 2025 plans amounts to an assault on immigration on a scale unseen in modern American history. Millions of immigrants living in the country without legal permission would be banned from the U.S. or uprooted from it years or even decades after settling here.

Such a scale of planned removals would raise logistical, financial and diplomatic challenges and would be vigorously challenged in court. But there is no mistaking the breadth and ambition of the shift Trump is eyeing.

In a second Trump presidency, the visas of foreign students who participated in anti-Israel or pro-Palestinian protests would be canceled. U.S. consular officials abroad will be directed to expand ideological screening of visa applicants to block people the Trump administration considers to have undesirable attitudes. People who were granted temporary protected status because they are from certain countries deemed unsafe, allowing them to lawfully live and work in the United States, would have that status revoked.

Similarly, numerous people who have been allowed to live in the country temporarily for humanitarian reasons would also lose that status and be kicked out, including tens of thousands of the Afghans who were evacuated amid the 2021 Taliban takeover and allowed to enter the United States. Afghans holding special visas granted to people who helped U.S. forces would be revetted to see if they really did.

And Trump would try to end birthright citizenship for babies born in the United States to parents living in the country without legal permission — by proclaiming that policy to be the new position of the government and by ordering agencies to cease issuing citizenship-affirming documents like Social Security cards and passports to them. That policy’s legal legitimacy, like nearly all of Trump’s plans, would be virtually certain to end up before the Supreme Court.

In interviews with The New York Times, several Trump advisers gave the most expansive and detailed description yet of Trump’s immigration agenda in a potential second term. In particular, Trump’s campaign referred questions for this article to Stephen Miller, an architect of Trump’s first-term immigration policies who remains close to him and is expected to serve in a senior role in a second administration.

All of the steps Trump advisers are preparing, Miller contended in a wide-ranging interview, rely on existing statutes; while the Trump team would likely seek a revamp of immigration laws, the plan was crafted to need no new substantive legislation. And while acknowledging that lawsuits would arise to challenge nearly every one of them, he portrayed the Trump team’s daunting array of tactics as a “blitz” designed to overwhelm immigrant rights lawyers.

“Any activists who doubt President Trump’s resolve in the slightest are making a drastic error. Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to implement the most spectacular migration crackdown,” Miller said, adding, “The immigration legal activists won’t know what’s happening.”

Todd Schulte, the president of FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice advocacy group that repeatedly fought the Trump administration, said the Trump team’s plans relied on “xenophobic demagoguery” that appeals to his hardest-core political base.

“Americans should understand these policy proposals are an authoritarian, often illegal, agenda that would rip apart nearly every aspect of American life — tanking the economy, violating the basic civil rights of millions of immigrants and native-born Americans alike,” Schulte said.

The Tools to Exploit

Since Trump left office, the political environment on immigration has moved in his direction. He is also more capable now of exploiting that environment if he is reelected than he was when he first won election as an outsider.

The ebbing of the COVID-19 pandemic and resumption of travel flows have helped stir a global migrant crisis, with millions of Venezuelans and Central Americans fleeing turmoil and Africans arriving in Latin American countries before continuing their journey north. Amid the record numbers of migrants at the southern border and beyond it in cities like New York and Chicago, voters are frustrated, and even some Democrats are calling for tougher action against immigrants and pressuring the White House to better manage the crisis.

Trump and his advisers see the opening and now know better how to seize it. The aides Trump relied upon in the chaotic early days of his first term were sometimes at odds and lacked experience in how to manipulate the levers of federal power. By the end of his first term, Cabinet officials and lawyers who sought to restrain some of his actions — like his Homeland Security secretary and chief of staff, John Kelly — had been fired, and those who stuck with him had learned much.

In a second term, Trump plans to install a team that will not restrain him.

Since much of Trump’s first-term immigration crackdown was tied up in the courts, the legal environment has tilted in his favor: His four years of judicial appointments left behind federal appellate courts and a Supreme Court that are far more conservative than the courts that heard challenges to his first-term policies.

The fight over Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals provides an illustration.

DACA is an Obama-era program that shields from deportation and grants work permits to people who were brought unlawfully to the United States as children. Trump tried to end it, but the Supreme Court blocked him on procedural grounds in June 2020.

Miller said Trump would try again to end DACA. And the 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court that blocked the last attempt no longer exists: A few months after the DACA ruling, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, and Trump replaced her with a sixth conservative, Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Trump’s rhetoric has more than kept up with his increasingly extreme agenda on immigration.

His stoking of fear and anger toward immigrants — pushing for a border wall and calling Mexicans rapists — fueled his 2016 takeover of the Republican Party. As president, he privately mused about developing a militarized border like Israel’s, asked whether migrants crossing the border could be shot in the legs and wanted a proposed border wall topped with flesh-piercing spikes and painted black to burn migrants’ skin.

As he has campaigned for the party’s third straight presidential nomination, his anti-immigrant tone has only grown harsher. In a recent interview with a right-wing website, Trump claimed without evidence that foreign leaders were deliberately emptying their “insane asylums” to send the patients across America’s southern border as migrants. He said migrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.” And at a rally Wednesday in Florida, he compared them to the fictional serial killer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter, saying, “That’s what’s coming into our country right now.”

Trump had similarly vowed to carry out mass deportations when running for office in 2016, but the government only managed several hundred thousand removals per year under his presidency, on par with other recent administrations. If they get another opportunity, Trump and his team are determined to achieve annual numbers in the millions.

Keeping People Out

Trump’s immigration plan is to pick up where he left off and then go much further. He would not only revive some of the policies that were criticized as draconian during his presidency, many of which the Biden White House ended, but also expand and toughen them.

One example centers on expanding first-term policies aimed at keeping people out of the country. Trump plans to suspend the nation’s refugee program and once again categorically ban visitors from troubled countries, reinstating a version of his ban on travel from several mostly Muslim-majority countries, which President Joe Biden called discriminatory and ended on his first day in office.

Trump would also use coercive diplomacy to induce other nations to help, including by making cooperation a condition of any other bilateral engagement, Miller said. For example, a second Trump administration would seek to reestablish an agreement with Mexico that asylum-seekers remain there while their claims are processed. (It is not clear that Mexico would agree; a Mexican court has said that deal violated human rights.)

Trump would also push to revive “safe third country” agreements with several nations in Central America and try to expand them to Africa, Asia and South America. Under such deals, countries agree to take would-be asylum-seekers from specific other nations and let them apply for asylum there instead.

While such arrangements have traditionally only covered migrants who had previously passed through a third country, federal law does not require that limit, and a second Trump administration would seek to make those deals without it, in part as a deterrent to migrants making what the Trump team views as illegitimate asylum claims.

At the same time, Miller said, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would invoke the public health emergency powers law known as Title 42 to again refuse to hear any asylum claims by people arriving at the southern border. The Trump administration had internally discussed that idea early in Trump’s term, but some Cabinet secretaries pushed back, arguing that there was no public health emergency that would legally justify it. The administration ultimately implemented it during the coronavirus pandemic.

Saying the idea has since gained acceptance in practice — Biden initially kept the policy — Miller said Trump would invoke Title 42, citing “severe strains of the flu, tuberculosis, scabies, other respiratory illnesses like RSV and so on, or just a general issue of mass migration being a public health threat and conveying a variety of communicable diseases.”

Trump and his aides have not yet said whether they would reenact one of the most contentious deterrents to unauthorized immigration that he pursued as president: separating children from their parents, which led to trauma among migrants and difficulties in reuniting families. When pressed, Trump has repeatedly declined to rule out reviving the policy. After an outcry over the practice, Trump ended it in 2018, and a judge later blocked the government from putting it back into effect.

Mass Deportations

Soon after Trump announced his 2024 campaign for president last November, he met with Tom Homan, who ran ICE for the first year and a half of the Trump administration and was an early proponent of separating families to deter migrants.

In an interview, Homan recalled that in that meeting, he “agreed to come back” in a second term and would “help to organize and run the largest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.”

Trump advisers’ vision of abrupt mass deportations would be a recipe for social and economic turmoil, disrupting the housing market and major industries including agriculture and the service sector.

Miller cast such disruption in a favorable light.

“Mass deportation will be a labor-market disruption celebrated by American workers, who will now be offered higher wages with better benefits to fill these jobs,” he said. “Americans will also celebrate the fact that our nation’s laws are now being applied equally and that one select group is no longer magically exempt.”

One planned step to overcome the legal and logistical hurdles would be to significantly expand a form of fast-track deportations known as “expedited removal.” It denies immigrants living in the country without legal permission the usual hearings and opportunity to file appeals, which can take months or years — especially when people are not in custody — and has led to a large backlog. A 1996 law says people can be subject to expedited removal for up to two years after arriving, but to date, the executive branch has used it more cautiously, swiftly expelling people picked up near the border soon after crossing.

The Trump administration tried to expand the use of expedited removal, but a court blocked it, and then the Biden team canceled the expansion. It remains unclear whether the Supreme Court will rule that it is constitutional to use the law against people who have been living for a significant period in the United States and express fear of persecution if sent home.

Trump has also said he would invoke an archaic law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to expel suspected members of drug cartels and criminal gangs without due process. That law allows for summary deportation of people from countries with which the United States is at war, that have invaded the United States or that have engaged in “predatory incursions.”

The Supreme Court has upheld past uses of that law in wartime. But its text seems to require a link to the actions of a foreign government, so it is not clear whether the justices will allow a president to stretch it to encompass drug cartel activity.

More broadly, Miller said a new Trump administration would shift from the ICE practice of arresting specific people to carrying out workplace raids and other sweeps in public places aimed at arresting scores of immigrants living in the country without legal permission all at once.

To make the process of finding and deporting immigrants already living inside the country without legal permission “radically more quick and efficient,” he said, the Trump team would bring in “the right kinds of attorneys and the right kinds of policy thinkers” willing to carry out such ideas.

And because of the magnitude of arrests and deportations being contemplated, they plan to build “vast holding facilities that would function as staging centers” for immigrants as their cases progress and they wait to be flown to other countries.

Miller said the new camps would likely be built “on open land in Texas near the border.” He said the military would construct them under the authority and control of the Department of Homeland Security. While he cautioned that there were no specific blueprints yet, he said the camps would look professional and similar to other facilities for migrants that have been built near the border.

Such camps could also enable the government to speed up the pace and volume of deportations of people who have lived in the United States without legal permission for years and so are not subject to fast-track removal. If pursuing a long-shot effort to win permission to remain in the country would mean staying locked up in the interim, some may give up and voluntarily accept removal without going through the full process.

The use of these camps, he said, would likely be focused more on single adults because the government cannot indefinitely hold children under a long-standing court order known as the Flores settlement. So any families brought to the facilities would have to be moved in and out more quickly, Miller said.

The Trump administration tried to overturn the Flores settlement, but the Supreme Court did not resolve the matter before Trump’s term ended. Miller said the Trump team would try again.

To increase the number of agents available for ICE sweeps, Miller said, officials from other federal law enforcement agencies would be temporarily reassigned, and state National Guard troops and local police officers, at least from willing Republican-led states, would be deputized for immigration control efforts.

While a law known as the Posse Comitatus Act generally forbids the use of the armed forces for law enforcement purposes, another law called the Insurrection Act creates an exception. Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act at the border, enabling the use of federal troops to apprehend migrants, Miller said.

“Bottom line,” he said, “President Trump will do whatever it takes.”

#US Immigration #immigration issues #trump #Sweeping Raids #Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans #deportations #forced deportations #illegal migration #gop #lies #posse comitatus act

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mariacallous · 1 year

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The time for incrementalism in Ukraine is over. Send in the tanks.

The United States and its NATO allies are engaged in an intense debate over security assistance to Ukraine. The issue at hand is whether they should provide Kyiv with modern, Western-made heavy tanks — weapons that would greatly boost the Ukrainians’ battlefield power, especially for maneuver warfare of the type needed to retake much or most of the roughly 17 percent of Ukrainian territory that Russia still holds. (Britain has announced that it plans to send an unspecified number of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks.) But the larger debate remains unresolved.

If this kind of debate sounds familiar, that’s because it is. We have already shipped to Ukraine weapons systems — including antiaircraft missiles, HIMARS rocket artillery and Patriot air defense batteries — that would have been unthinkable a year or even just months ago. Yet no one seems entirely happy with the result. Some worry that the Biden administration has gone too fast, risking Russian escalation as a response to U.S. and NATO support for Ukraine. Still others indict President Biden for excessive caution. Even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his speech of gratitude and solidarity to Congress just before Christmas, couldn’t resist gently chastising Washington with his “honestly, not really” line about whether Western aid to date was adequate.

In fact, there has been a method to the West’s apparent madness in sticking with the slow-but-steady approach to arming Ukraine. It’s not perfect, but it has been pretty good, and in broad terms it should continue to inform our assistance to Kyiv.

But there’s an important caveat to be made. What one might call the “the Goldilocks policy” will continue to work only if we recognize its risks — most importantly, that it is fundamentally reactive, thus hindering the development of a strategy to end the war. (And by the way, I’m in favor of sending hundreds of Western tanks as soon as possible — for reasons I will explain below.)

First, though, a defense of “slow but steady.” The need to avoid Russian retaliation or escalation is often cited as the main reason for a step-by-step approach. That is an entirely valid concern. The United States and allies have directly assisted Ukraine in the killing or wounding of more than 100,000 Russian soldiers.Western weapons have provided Kyiv with the necessary lethal capabilities, and U.S. intelligence systems have been part of the kill chain. This is a form of military support that far exceeds what the United States did to help Afghan mujahideen fight the Soviets in the 1980s — or any of its other partners in Cold War-era proxy conflicts against the U.S.S.R.

So it made sense to wait and see if Russia would shoot at NATO logistics infrastructure, supply convoys, satellites or even NATO military bases in Eastern Europe. So far, caution has paid off. Ukraine has survived as a country and taken back a respectable amount of the land it lost in the war’s early months; the war has not expanded. Moreover, when Putin issued his veiled and not-so-veiled nuclear threats in September and after, they had to be taken seriously. It was better to let him cool down before considering the next escalation of Western military support.

Second, experience has shown that the West was right to take time to assess Ukraine’s most immediate and acute needs as a matter of priority at each stage of the fight. Javelin and Stinger missiles were crucial to stymying Russia’s initial attacks on Kyiv in late February and March 2022. In the next phase of the fighting in the spring and summer, Kyiv needed an ability to punch back against Russia’s bombardments of regions in Ukraine’s east and south. Then, in the late summer and fall, more accurate and longer-range artillery — including HIMARS — gave Ukraine a chance to take back some territory by targeting Russian infrastructure, command posts, troop concentrations, depots and key supply routes. Improved defenses against drones and missiles became crucial when Russia stepped up aerial attacks from September onward.

Third, the West’s “cautiously aggressive” approach also acknowledges another reality: that modern weapons systems are complex to use. Learning how to use Patriot missiles takes months. (The same point applies to the United States’ Abrams main battle tanks, by the way — to say nothing of maintaining them or properly integrating them into a combined-arms operation.) Ukrainian soldiers have demonstrated impressive learning abilities as they adapted to Western weaponry over the past year. Even so, we’ve been right to take into account the long learning curves needed to master these systems.

Yet the debate over tanks has also revealed the biggest weakness of the incrementalist approach — namely, that it is always reacting to events on the battlefield rather than trying to shape them. Going step by step has helped Ukraine patch up vulnerabilities, to be sure, but it hasn’t furthered the goal of formulating a strategy to end the war or defining the capacity that will be ultimately needed to do so. Tactically, we have been very good, but strategically our planning is somewhat lacking.

As for the tanks, I think it’s time we provide them. That’s not because doing so will necessarily help Ukraine win the war decisively. Rather, Kyiv deserves a fair chance to win back as much territory as possible. Until it has that chance, neither Russia nor Ukraine is likely to negotiate with the kind of sober realism needed to end this war on reasonable and sustainable terms. Sending tanks will also show Moscow that American resolve remains firm even with war-skeptical Republicans in charge in the House of Representatives — another factor crucial to productive talks.

If this conflict is to have any chance of ending in 2023, as I hope, there is little time to waste in providing Ukraine with a true combined-arms-maneuver warfare capability and then seeing what it can do with it.

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everydayafghanistan · 2 years

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Yesterday marked one year since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and 332 days since they banned education for the vast majority of secondary school girls across the country, first citing a “technical issue” related to uniforms and this last week, citing “religious issues” and “cultural sensitivities.” Many of the country’s religious scholars say it’s a political decision rather than an Islamic one. It's unclear if and when high school girls will be allowed to go back again. Today, their younger sisters go to class without them. After 40 years of war, some girls are receiving their first education with schools opening in areas where they never existed before. In some, the Taliban’s daughters are receiving their first education. 15 year old girls are in first grade, learning the alphabet alongside 5 year olds. A raft of cultural and logistical obstacles had stopped the students' older sisters and mothers from attending school before. Now, these girls teach their mothers what they have learnt in their classes. As always, no two situations are the same in Afghanistan. They differ from province to province and district to district. But one thing is clear, these girls are glad to be here. After grade 6, these girls’ futures will be in the hands of Afghanistan’s new government, and it will be infinitely more difficult without the tools they need to find their paths forward. There remains no sensical justification for the ban on their older sisters' education. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world to ban girls from receiving an education. #Kunar #Afghanistan Photo & words by Lynzy Billing @lynzybilling in July 2022. #everydaykunar #school #afghan #girls #letafghangirlslearn #reportage #reportagespotlight #photojournalism #afghanwomen #everydayafghanistan #afghangirl #everydayeverywhere #everydayasia #reportagephotography (at Kunar) https://www.instagram.com/p/ChUraipNOg_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#kunar #afghanistan #everydaykunar #school #afghan #girls #letafghangirlslearn #reportage #reportagespotlight #photojournalism #afghanwomen #everydayafghanistan #afghangirl #everydayeverywhere #everydayasia #reportagephotography

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patricide1885 · 1 year

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I met my adopted (indigenous/Mexican activist) sister's best friend who is Desi, and I like him, he's great. He indicated he didn't like temples with white Hindus because he feels it's patronizing or just to look cool, and I was like sure, but if you actually believe it's simply the truth wouldn't it make sense to? And he was like idk maybe. And I was like do you believe in it? And he was like nah not really, it's more of a cultural thing for me. I'm not interested in converting to Hinduism, so idc. However. As I can't paint my room logistically speaking, my ceiling is covered in old recycled sarees from like the 90s, because they're cheaper, lighter, more eco-friendly, and more beautiful than just fabric by the yard. I was showing them my room virtually and my sister who knows they are sarees was calling them "tapestries" and I'm like shit. I'm like a bad white. Like I don't think there's anything wrong with it, or else I wouldn't have done it, even though it might be a little weird if you're Indian, kind of like the religious thing, but now it's awkward. I'm not sure if he realized they were sarees. I also have a floor sofa and a bunch of afghan rugs along with my gothic and dark catholic/ orthodox imagery so honestly it is kind of veering into "this white is annoying" territory while remaining firmly in the gray area, but it's my room, the decor being pleasant for me has an air of desperation to it, I'm poor, I have no energy to redecorate etc. I've been out of this kind of situation for a long time, and I'm uncomfortable because I don't want it driving a wedge between me and my sister in the future even if they think it's fine right now. I think I'm traumatized by this website and I do have a fear that by being white I'm bound to make the people of color close to me uncomfortable eventually even if that's not what I want. I try to do everything appropriately and I do think about it, but there is just this huge awkward bubble of gray area around cultural appropriation where even if it isn't technically that, it can definitely rub people the wrong way.

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afghanlogistics01 · 1 year

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logistan · 2 years

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fgisolutions · 1 year

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usafphantom2 · 2 years

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Iraq is struggling to maintain its Russian military helicopters

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 08/20/2022 - 4:10 PM in Helicopters, War Zones

The Iraqi armed forces are facing significant difficulties in sustaining their fleet of military helicopters manufactured in Russia as an indirect result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The latest quarterly report by the U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General's Office (OIG) on Operation Inherent Resolves against ISIS notes that the Russian supply chain problems caused ?? by the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Moscow for perpetuating it affected Iraq's ability to sustain its Russian-made aircraft.

The EIG report revealed that the Mi-17 Hip military transport helicopters of the Iraqi Army Aviation Command (IqAAC), in particular, are being negatively affected. In addition to forming the backbone of the IqAAC helicopter fleet, which also includes Mi-28NE and Mi-35M attack helicopters, these Mi-17s are essential to support ground forces and perform medical evacuations.

The report pointed out that "reduced maintenance and logistical support for the Mi-17 resulted in the most significant decrease in the mission capacity rate among ISF (Ia Iraqi Security Forces) aircraft linked to ground units".

"In addition, given the ISF's desire to frequently use the Mi-17 in operations, fuselages are exceeding their recommended flight hours, exacerbating their low mission capacity rates," he added.

These setbacks occur only a few months after Iraq started a repair program for its military helicopters.

On a March 1 visit to Taji Air Base in northern Baghdad, Iraqi Defense Minister Anad Sadoun inspected helicopters built in Russia recently returned to service by the program.

"We continue with this campaign and, in the near future, we plan to repair a second batch of helicopters and so on, until we complete the repair of all broken helicopters and thus increase the overall level of readiness to more than 80%," he said.

Citing the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, the IGO report predicts "a reduced operational status of these platforms at least during the conflict in Ukraine".

With this war probably continuing in the near future, Iraq will probably not be able to complete its repair project at any time. Eventually, you may even have to land and cannibalize some of your helicopters to keep others in airworthiness.

A significant decrease in the number of operational Mi-17s can negatively affect the ISF's ability to combat the remnants of ISIS in the country.

Like Iraqis, Afghans valued their Mi-17s, finding them much more suitable for Afghanistan's dusty environment and easier to maintain and operate thanks to decades of experience in using them.

Given this familiarity, the US has taken the practical measure of acquiring Mi-17 for the Afghan military, as they did for Iraq. However, Congress ended this in 2012 and the U.S. pressured the Afghan military to adopt the UH-60 Black Hawk.

The Afghans were unfamiliar with the iconic medium-sized American utility helicopter. They had to have completely retrained pilots and mechanics with extensive practical support from thousands of American contractors. Even if the Afghan military had not collapsed dramatically in August 2021, it would have taken, according to a U.S. official, until the mid-20s, before the Afghans could completely keep their Black Hawks alone.

While post-2003 Iraq acquired the F-16 fighters and the main M1 Abrams battle tanks from the United States, it decided to continue buying most of its helicopters from Russia.

Baghdad requested a possible sale of U.S. Apache AH-64 attack helicopters in January 2014, but ended up opting for Russian equivalents. The Mi-35 and Mi-28 Iraq acquired in the mid-2010s were easier to operate and integrate into their armed forces, due to their previous experience with previous variants. In addition, Moscow did not attribute any commitment to sales, which Washington would undoubtedly have done with a sale of Apache.

Iraq was also much happier to purchase additional Mi-17s instead of looking for Black Hawks for reasons similar to those of the Afghan military. Would it have, as in Afghanistan, undoubtedly faced considerable difficulties ?? to integrate the Black Hawk into its armed forces.

All these decisions made perfect sense for Iraq at the time. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the adverse effects of the supply chain problems that followed at the IqAAC may leave Baghdad wishing in retrospect to have diversified its fleet of rotary-wing aircraft by buying at least some American helicopters.

Source: Forbes

Tags: Military AviationHelicoptersMi-17War Zones - Iraq

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Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in a specialized aviation magazine in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.