Not in My Name
Hang on folks, because this one is going to get personal…
For months now, the orange regime has been using our military to illegally murder people in boats in both the Atlantic and now the Pacific oceans. We have no information on the victims. We’ve killed over 40 people now without even being able to tell anyone their names. We have no proof that they were “narcoterrorists” as the regime has insisted. They’ve said a lot of things to justify these murders to themselves and their base but have proven nothing to anyone. The actions have been blasted by past military members, current military members, and even well-known Republican Senator, Rand Paul, who called them out as “extrajudicial killings” this weekend. “No one said their name, no one said what evidence, no one said whether they’re armed, and we’ve had no evidence presented,” Paul told Shannon Bream of Fox News Sunday morning. “They summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public, so it’s wrong.”
It is so wrong in fact that a top military official -a career military man – resigned because of the illegality of the boat attacks that are being directed by Trump and Hegseth directly. Additionally, members of the military involved in the strikes have reportedly requested letters of protection, clarifying that they will not be criminally liable for these moves. It was also reported that those letters were not provided. Not only has no evidence been provided, what has been reported exposes just how illegitimate these killings are. Immediately after the first two boat strikes in the Atlantic, news broke that the victims had been identified as fishermen. That prompted the re-release of an older story from the first orange administration of a strike gone bad in 2018 that killed a group of North Korean fisherman. This “peace president” spoke openly during his first run about wanting to be a war time president. He sees strength in war, and he wants to exploit it in the same way his idols have done.
The fact that fentanyl, the drug the administration claims these boats are carrying, does not come from Venezuela is ignored. That at least one of the boats they blew up in the Atlantic would have required about 20 fuel stops to reach Miami from Venezuela is not talked about. The fact that the administration has taken absolutely zero steps to even prove their allegations to the required committees in congress – the representatives elected to speak for We the People – is brushed off as unnecessary for this administration. Foreign leaders, those who’s citizens have been killed by these US strikes, have spoken up, outraged that their people are being targeted because the regime wants a Brown enemy. They’ve accused our president and our military of murdering against innocent people. Here? We’re staying quiet.
And then there were survivors. Two survivors were rescued after one of our attacks on the Atlantic. Those two supposed “narcoterrorists” were not taken into custody. They weren’t even identified by the US government. The same US government who spent tax dollars to print mugshots of people being arrested and deported earlier this year so they could decorate the walkway of the White House, didn’t celebrate the names of these particular baddies. The administration who has spent countless tax dollars flying innocent people to a hellscape prison in El Salvador and couldn’t wait to parade them coming off the plane in their chains to the public, hasn’t said a peep about these supposed dangerous criminals they somehow identified and stopped. The same administration that flew the Secretary of Homeland Security to that prison to do a photoshoot; posing in her tight shirt and full makeup in front of shirtless men in cages that also happened to not be the people she’d sent there, has no photos of these guys to show off.
Instead, these supposed criminals were immediately returned to their home country, where they are seen as victims of the US president and military. No charges filed, no charges pending. More survivors were rescued in an effort led by the Mexican government this weekend. Again, they were not taken into custody by the US to be charged for the crimes they supposedly committed. Crimes that were so egregious as to warrant military action on internation water are no longer a concern as long as we got to drop a bomb on something. Nope. Our government just moved on from that one, survivors being an annoying inconvenience to their play time.
The orange menace was asked last week why he doesn’t just go to Congress and ask for a declaration of war, like the law requires, and his response was the least presidential thing he’s said yet, and that’s saying a lot. Spewing on again about drugs in the US, Trump announced he didn’t need to go to Congress. “We’re just gonna kill people, okay? We’re gonna kill them. They’re gonna be, like, dead.” And while most normal people heard that and recoiled, the supporters of the orange regime cheered as if this was the most natural next step to the Republican version of the “war on drugs” we’ve been dealing with for decades.
Diving into the comments section of the articles online about the killings – not something I often recommend – was as alarming as the attacks themselves. People celebrating what they perceive as strength of an administration they are adamant is only breaking the law in order to protect We the People. They’re only doing what other administrations have not been willing to do. And there were those that claimed anyone who has dealt with addiction in their family is cheering this and those who don’t approve just don’t understand. And this is where it gets personal.
I am from one of those families. Growing up, there were extended family members that dealt with addiction and went through recovery. Sometimes successful, sometimes not. I’ve had friends who have dealt with addiction themselves, or in their family. And then it came even closer to home when I almost lost my only-born kid to an opioid addiction. I’ve watched someone I love more than my own life slip under water, helpless to the pulls of the drug that was much stronger than they were, and absolutely stronger than me. I’ve fought and screamed and made threats. I’ve begged and pleaded and offered bribes and hallow words of hope. I’ve preached strength and perseverance. I’ve called tip lines. I’ve waked downtown streets in the middle of the night. In rainstorms. In the winter cold. I’ve pursued vehicles I thought they were in. I’ve tracked down the so-called friends they used with. I’ve turned down “what you lookin’ for” offers, made threats, and cried. I’ve walked into my child’s room to find them unconscious and not responsive. We’ve went in and out of rehabs. We’ve sat in meeting circles and listened to others share their stories. We’ve seen some not make it through, relapsing and ultimately losing their battle. The world of addiction is real and it’s painful.
We were one of the lucky ones, and this is something we never forget. This summer, we will celebrate nine years of recovery for my kid. 2,922 days free from the opioids that threatened to destroy one of the kindest hearts I know, and not just because they come from my own. This kid wasn’t a troublemaker. They weren’t violent or cruel. They weren’t living a life of juvenile crime. They were caught up in the epidemic that has been surging through our country since long before they were born, and the work it took for them to get out of it takes a strength many will never possess. And with all of what they went through, all of what our family went through, not once have we listened to the accounts of these bombings and thought, well, they were bad guys.
Not once have we considered justifying the regime using our past and the heartbreak of millions of others to murder people. In fact, it’s the exact opposite at our house. It’s outrage. Outrage that innocent people are being murdered in our names. Outrage that our laws, our constitution, the very things that make us a civil people, are being ignored. Outrage that this regime has found yet another way to circumvent the due process that is required. That we are utilizing military weapons on small watercraft rather than intercepting them on the water, rather than arresting individuals, holding trials, and presenting evidence. Rather than doing the hard work of justifying taking a life, they are playing war games with real victims and giving the middle finger to precedent, our constitution, and every one of us. None of us should be good with this, and as a family in recovery, I refuse to say they are doing this to protect us.
xo – Auntie Sam