April 18 Friday roundup

This week’s episode of “Next Comes What” focuses on how the world moved from Nazi kidnapping and deportations during World War II to the War on Terror a half century later, and talks about events related to Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his arbitrary rendition to El Salvador. You can watch it on YouTube or listen to it via Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. If you want to explore links to different parts of the history mentioned in the episode, you can read this week’s Tuesday post.

There’s been even more news since the Tuesday essay and the podcast episode went up, some of which is important enough to include here. In a response related to the detention of Maryland resident Kilmar Albrego Garcia, Judge Harvie Wilkinson delivered a unanimous ruling from the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals. What he wrote is a brief but ringing defense of the Constitution. It’s also a rejection of the request from the Department of Justice to block demands laid out by Judge Paula Xinis.

Wilkinson, a staunchly conservative judge with decades on the bench (he was appointed by Ronald Reagan!) wrote

Meanwhile, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen not only went to El Salvador but actually met with Abrego Garcia in person, despite his detention in the country’s notorious CECOT facility.

These events have been extensively covered, so this is probably not news to you. But what I’d like to add about the whole situation is that we have a member of the legislative branch and several members of the judicial branch who are doing exactly what the law and the Constitution require of them to uphold their oath of office. It really matters that parts of the system are still working—and working without hesitation.

We need to praise and reinforce those efforts, while stepping up to do our part as well. If you’re short on ideas, see the end of any Tuesday post or podcast episode, where I always lay out actions you can take.

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In less-urgent news, there will be a Spanish-language edition of Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World. Which brings my books to a total of fifteen editions in eight languages, a number that isn’t astounding for an established author, but which would have amazed my childhood aspiring-author self.

And I’ll tell you more about this plan in a couple weeks, but I’m preparing for a voyage from the Netherlands up to Arctic Norway, sailing as a crew member to take a newly renovated ship up to its summer season there. I’ll also head to Warsaw to meet with Dr. Olga Shpak, whose work provides front-line support for soldiers in Eastern Ukraine. I met Olga through expedition friends in 2020 and have been helping her since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

Thank you to those of you who have already made contributions to her important work. Assist Ukraine has recently received full 501(c)(3) status, so if you want to help but need to be able to get a tax deduction for your generosity, you can now donate here.

For this week’s picture of a thing I’ve made or done recently, I’m including a photo of a trimaran that belongs to a friend. I didn’t make the trimaran myself! But I took it out on the Patuxent River in Maryland on Monday and got in a lot of good practice.

Arctic boats tend not to be trimarans. Still, Monday’s outing let me focus on becoming faster at tacking and working the sheets, which is something I’ll be doing a lot out on the North Sea.

Here’s hoping the weekend brings you some fair wind or a view of water—and a little hope going forward. There’s so much we can all do that will make a difference.