Letter of Resignation to DHS Kirsten Nielsen

In Memory of Harrison Bergeron*

If (“Fire any son of a bitch who takes a knee!”) you can (“I really meant to say wouldn’t instead of would..., but there’s lots of others out there too.”) avoid all (“Don’t believe all the crap that those people out there put in their fake news!”) the dazzling (“I am going to invite President Putin to America for a summit.”) distractions (“NATO is obsolete, really.”), you might just remember (“Our biggest enemy is actually the European Union.”) the centerpiece of his administration is (“NEVER EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER…”) its immoral and callous cruelty to children and families in need of protection.    

Former DHS Advisory Member Elaine Holtzman

Thank you, former Congresswoman and member of the Department of Homeland Security Elizabeth Holtzman for writing your incensed letter of resignation to Kirstjen Nielsen.              

Ms. Holtzman was one of four members of the Homeland Security Advisory Panel who resigned in protest of the policies and their anger at not being consulted about the “zero policy idea” before it was implemented by the Trump administration.  A policy designed without any specifics to separate children and babies from families during deportation procedures without record keeping or any plan to reunite them.   

From Elizabeth Holtzman’s letter of resignation to Head of HHS Kirstjen Nielsen:

“As an author of the Refugee Act of 1980, along with Senator Ted Kennedy, I believe the treatment of refugees by you and President Trump violates the law and our treaty obligations to refugees.  The 1980 Act created a framework for the treatment of refugees, which it viewed as an integral and important part of US policy.  The Act was adopted against the background of the Holocaust, in which the US took only a tiny handful of refugees from the Nazis, leaving untold numbers to perish at their hands.  The Act was intended to prevent any repetition of that.  It was also passed in response to the massive exodus of boat people from Vietnam.  There was a time that the US welcomed refugees.  We readily accepted and absorbed more than 600,000 refugees from Cuba, 750,000 refugees from Vietnam and more than 100,000 Jews from the Soviet Union.  Considering that history, the thought that the US government is afraid today of 2,000 children and their parents is both laughable and appalling.

“Under your administration and that of Donald Trump’s, DHS has been transformed into an agency that is making war on immigrants and refugees.  The ethnically and religiously motivated travel ban, the refusal to provide relief to the Dreamers and the new mass deportation program that does not prioritize the removal of undocumented aliens with serious criminal records (thereby harming American citizen children and spouses by removing a parent and a breadwinner from the family and hurting the country by removing productive people who have been living here for decades) are malign and ultimately self-destructive policies.

“The final straw has been the separation of children from their parents at the Southwest border.  This is child kidnapping, plain and simple.  Seizing children from their parents in violation of the constitutional rights of both is bad enough (mentally harmful to the children and infinitely painful to both parents and children), but doing so without creating proper records to enable family reunification shows utter depravity on the part of government officials involved.

“Although it is I who am resigning in protest against these policies, it is you who should be tendering your resignation instead.”

According to Snopes, the other three members resigning were

• ·     Richard Danzig , Navy Secretary under former president Bill Clinton and a national security advisor to former president Barack Obama.
• ·     David Martin, Professor Emeritus of International Law at the University of Virginia, and a former Department of Justice and State Department official under the Clinton and Obama administrations. 
• ·     Matthew Olsen, a Harvard Law lecturer and former federal prosecutor who was Director of the National Counterterrorism Center in the Obama administration, and has held several other national security-related positions.  

Mr. Martin penned a separate letter, just as intelligent and damning, which can be accessed here. 

Keep (“I’m rescinding all their security clearances!”) your eye (“I’ll place a tariff on all Chinese goods.”) on the ball, (“Really, I think I’m a very stable genius.”) my friend.  

*”Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is a darkly satiric vision of our nation today.  

el Condor Pasa = TRUMP el Condor Muere

el cóndor muere

The lyrics are likely well-known to you, especially if you are old enough to recall the melodic and poetic impact of the works of Simon and Garfunkel:

Away, I’d rather sail away

Like a swan that’s here and gone,

Its saddest sound.

I’d rather be a forest than a street.

Yes, I would,

If I could, I surely would.

I’d rather feel the earth under my feet.

 After all the work and effort of trying to bring a magnificent animal back from the very brink of extinction, the Trump Administration has just passed a sweeping changethat would strip the Endangered Species Act of key provisions, a move that conservationists say would weaken a law enacted 45 years ago to keep plants and animals in decline from going extinct.

El Condor Pasais is considered by Peruvians their second national anthem even though the cherished melody was taken and adapted by Paul Simon from a traditional folk song of the Andean peoples in the late 1960’s. In fact, in what was considered an amiable lawsuit in the 1970’s, which resulted in Simon’s being labeled as the co-writer of lyrics along with several Peruvian composers; Simon, who had been misinformed that the song was simply an Andean folk melody, was eager to honor the ownership to the original country and people.    

Hand puppets used to prevent imprinting as chicks were laboriously raised.

El Condor Pasa - The Condor Passes 

From Cornell Ornithology Lab:  “The spectacular but endangered California Condor is the largest bird in North America. These superb gliders travel widely to feed on carcasses of deer, pigs, cattle, sea lions, whales, and other animals. Pairs nest in caves high on cliff faces. The population fell to just 22 birds in the 1980s, but there are now some 230 free-flying birds in California, Arizona, and Baja California with another 160 in captivity. Lead poisoning remained a severe threat to their long-term prospects.”  

But now it is the Trump Administration.  

According to a report by Dino Grandino in the Washington Post:

“One of the first things the Interior Department did under its new secretary, Ryan Zinke, was rescind an Obama administration regulation that outlawed hunting with lead shot.

“President Trump’s administration unveiled a proposal Thursday that would strip the Endangered Species Act of key provisions, a move that conservationists say would weaken a law enacted 45 years ago to keep plants and animals in decline from going extinct.

Puppet feeding

“The proposal, announced jointly by the Interior and Commerce departments, which are charged with protecting endangered wildlife, would end the practice of extending similar protections to species regardless whether they are listed as endangered or threatened. If the proposal is approved, likely by year’s end, protections for threatened plants and animals would be made on a case-by-case basis.

“In another rollback of a key provision, the administration wants the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to strike language that guides officials to ignore economic impacts when determining how wildlife should be protected.

‘“We propose to remove the phrase ‘without reference to possible economic or other impacts of such determination’… to more closely align with the statutory language,” the proposed rule says. “The act requires the secretary to make determinations based ‘solely on the basis of the best scientific and commercial data.’ ”

“Conservationists who worried about the changes, expected for months, said their fears have been realized. They decried numerous aspects of the proposal, including the removal of a requirement compelling federal agencies to consult with scientists and wildlife agencies before approving permits for ventures such as oil and gas drilling and logging.

“These regulations are the heart of how the Endangered Species Act is implemented. Imperiled species depend on them for their very lives,’” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, who was director of the Fish and Wildlife Service under President Bill Clinton. Clark is now president and chief executive of Defenders of Wildlife, a nonprofit advocacy group.

America the Beautiful

“’Unfortunately, the sweeping changes being proposed by the Trump administration include provisions that would undercut the effectiveness of the ESA and put species at risk of extinction,’”Clark said. “The signal being sent by the Trump administration is clear: Protecting America’s wildlife and wild lands is simply not on their agenda.’

“In April, the administration weakened a century-old law to protect birds by issuing guidance that says it would not be used as it had been to hold people or companies accountable for killing the animals.

“The Interior Department told police who enforce the Migratory Bird Treaty Act that killing birds “when the underlying purpose of that activity” is not intended to kill them, is no longer prohibited. For example, the new guidance says, a person who destroys a barn knowing that it is full of baby owls in nests is not liable for killing them.

More puppet feeding...

“A mass killing of birds resulting from a catastrophic event such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which destroyed or injured up to a million birds, would no longer be punished under the treaty. Interior would pursue penalties under the Natural Resources Damage Assessment program that is not specific to birds. In the past, “the department has pursued MBTA claims against companies responsible for oil spills that incidentally killed or injured migratory birds. That avenue is no longer available.”

“Other bills would make federal wildlife officials look past evidence collected by their own scientists and defer to data collected by states as “the best scientific and commercial data available,” even though state funding of science related to endangered species is a small fraction of federal funding.”

Other threatened and endangered animals facing immediate endangerment from this move:

Gray Wolf

Humpback Whale

Black-Footed Ferret

Bald Eagle

Manatee

More amazing information about the Condor from Cornell:

·      In the late Pleistocene, about 40,000 years ago, California Condors were found throughout North America. At this time, giant mammals roamed the continent, offering condors a reliable food supply. When Lewis and Clark explored the Pacific Northwest in 1805 they found condors there. Until the 1930s, they occurred in the mountains of Baja California.

·      One reason California Condor recovery has been slow is their extremely slow reproduction rate. Female condors lay only one egg per nesting attempt, and they don’t always nest every year. The young depend on their parents for more than 12 months, and take 6-8 years to reach maturity.

·      Condors soar slowly and stably. They average about 30 mph in flight and can get up to over 40 mph. They take about 16 seconds to complete a circle in soaring flight. By comparison, Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles normally circle in 12–14 seconds, and Red-tailed Hawks circle in about 8–10 seconds.

·      At carcasses, California Condors dominate other scavengers. The exception is when a Golden Eagle is present. Although the condor weighs about twice as much as an eagle, the superior talons of the eagle command respect. 

·      Condors can survive 1–2 weeks without eating. When they find a carcass they eat their fill, storing up to 3 pounds of meat in their crop (a part of the esophagus) before they leave.

·      California Condors once foraged on offshore islands, visiting mammal and seabird colonies to eat carrion, eggs and possibly live prey such as nestlings. 

·      In cold weather, condors raise their neck feathers to keep warm. In hot weather, condors (and other vultures) urinate onto a leg. As the waste evaporates, it cools off blood circulating in the leg, lowering the whole body temperature. Condors bathe frequently and this helps avoid buildup of wastes on the legs.

·      Adult condors sometimes temporarily restrain an overenthusiastic nestling by placing a foot on its neck and clamping it to the floor. This forceful approach is also a common way for an adult to remove a nestling’s bill from its throat at the end of a feeding.

·      Young may take months to perfect flight and landings. “Crash” landings have been observed in young four months after their first flight. 

·      California Condors can probably live to be 60 or more years old—although none of the condors now alive are older than 40 yet.

·      What’s in a name? The name “condor” comes from cuntur, which originated from the Inca name for the Andean Condor. Their scientific name, Gymnogyps californianus, comes from the Greek words gymnos, meaning naked, and refers to the head, and gypsmeaning vulture; californianus is Latin and refers to the birds’ range.

Rep. Liz Cheney - Daddy Would Be Proud

Former VP Cheney and Rep. Liz Cheney

Another Cheney, Another Exploitation of Our Natural Resources.

It was Kenny Invergo who first opened my mind to the wonder of the annual migratory patterns of birds, especially raptors.  He and the group of us often slept in a mud-spattered and frost-whitened van on the cascades of the Mississippi River in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, and crawled out of our blankets at dawn to check mist nets for foraging owls and the morning skies for hawks traveling south in the beginning cold of fall. Raptors were just one species of the thousand species flying high over our blind, but Ken kept a copious record of times, weights, band numbers, types, and descriptions of the many hawks he captured through the fall.   For decades.  Kenny passed away some time ago on his land overlooking the long valley running into the Mississippi Valley, his favorite creatures still making their instinctive travels overhead each fall.

“July 3rd marked the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. On that day in 1918, America’s most important bird protection law went into effect. Throughout 2018, we are celebrating this milestone as the Year of the Bird, yet at the same time, we (the Audubon Society) are defending the law in the face of unprecedented attacks, including by recently filing a lawsuit against the administration.

The Great White Egret 

Because of the Migratory Bird Act, it is not legal to take or possess or export/transport or sell or barter migratory avian species in America. Nor is it legal to have or hold their physical parts, nests, or eggs except with a valid Federal permit providing an allowance to do so.  Remember the Passenger pigeon?  Gone. Remember the clamor for White Egret plumes for fashionable hats just after the First World War?  Still around, because the same bird made it to 1918, and was saved under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.  

“A few weeks ago, in conjunction with other conservation groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife, National Wildlife Federation, and others, Audubon filed litigation to challenge the administration’s interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act that guts enforcement of the law. The policy reverses decades of precedent in the interpretation of the law by both Republican and Democratic administrations. The new interpretation allows all industrial activity to be exempted from the MBTA by only prohibiting deliberate acts, and letting off the hook bird deaths caused by hazards such as oil waste pits, oil spills, mining activity, power line electrocutions, and other threats. It drastically reduces the incentive for companies to adopt best practices that save birds from preventable harm, along with the ability to recover after events such as oil spills by applying fines under the law to habitat restoration.”

And, if you considered Scott Pruitt a danger to the environment?  Don't feel too relieved.  Enter stage Halliburton, Representative Liz Cheney – like father, like daughter.

According to Audubon:

Oil-Soaked Pelicans

“In reaction to a bird-killer amendment introduced today by Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) and passed by the House Committee on Natural Resources, National Audubon Society President and CEO David Yarnold (@david_yarnold) said, “Rep. Cheney is giving oil and gas companies and other industries a free pass to kill birds with impunity. This amendment guts the most effective bird conservation law that has been on the books for a century, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Under Cheney’s amendment, companies would have no responsibility for bird deaths. We will engage our 1.2 plus million members to stop this and any other attack on the laws that save birds.”

Cheney introduced the measure as an amendment to H.R. 4239, a bill written to weaken environmental protections in order to facilitate oil and gas drilling. The amendment was approved in the committee mark-up, and the bill passed out of committee earlier today. 

“The MBTA is one of Audubon’s earliest victories. Congress passed the MBTA in 1918 in response to public outcry over the mass slaughter of birds, which threatened egrets and other species with extirpation. The law prohibits killing or harming America’s birds except under certain conditions, including managed hunting seasons for game species. The law protects more than 1,000 bird species in part because industries implement commonsense best management practices like covering tar pits and marking transmission lines.

“Facts and figures on industrial causes of bird mortality in the United States:

·      Power lines: Up to 175 million birds per year (Source: http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr191/Asilomar/pdfs/1051-1064.pdf)

·      Communication towers: Up to 50 million birds per year (Source: http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr191/Asilomar/pdfs/1051-1064.pdf)

·      Oil waste pits: 500,000 to 1 million birds per year (Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16988870)

·      Gas flares: No reliable mortality estimates, but an infamous 2013 incident in Canada incinerated an estimated 7,500 birds (Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/7-500-songbirds-killed-at-canaport-gas-plant-in-saint-john-1.1857615) 

“Audubon members can take action and urge their legislators to vote against any legislation that includes language weakening the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

“The National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow, throughout the Americas using science, advocacy, education and on-the-ground conservation. Audubon's state programs, nature centers, chapters and partners have an unparalleled wingspan that reaches millions of people each year to inform, inspire and unite diverse communities in conservation action. Since 1905, Audubon's vision has been a world in which people and wildlife thrive. Audubon is a nonprofit conservation organization. Learn more how to help at www.audubon.organd follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @audubonsociety.

“Contact: Nicolas Gonzalez, ngonzalez@audubon.org, (212) 979-3100.”