From Joyce Vance:

“First, a reminder about the importance of peaceful, nonviolent protests, the approach successfully adopted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to fuel the civil rights movement in the 1960s. When Dr. King organized sit-ins in public spaces in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, the images that were projected across the country showed white Birmingham police officers turning pressurized hoses and aggressive police dogs against peaceful demonstrators. Peaceful protests forced Birmingham’s entrenched, racist police chief Bull Connor to resign. Public spaces like lunch counters and bus stations in Birmingham were ultimately desegregated.

The thing is, peaceful protest works. It can move mountains. It’s also essential, in a moment when the Trump administration will be alert to seize on anything even approaching violence to tamp down on protests that are getting underway and going national, to make sure that protests stay peaceful. In 2020, as Black Lives Matter protests spread across the country, Trump threatened he’d use the military to bring them under control. “We have the greatest country in the world,” the president declared. “We’re going to keep it safe.” He doesn’t need any excuses.

After peaceful protesters were tear-gassed to clear Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., so Trump could have a political photo opportunity, appetite for these overreaches seemed to diminish, although the threats continued periodically. But memories dim, and here we are in 2025 with growing discontent towards a president who has raised taxes and cut jobs, all without any apparent benefit to the American people. Trump might try to take advantage of minor incidents, or even plants who engage in violence, to impose the Insurrection Act and use the military to put a halt to Americans who are out on the streets exercising their First Amendment rights.

Could Trump turn out the American military against protestors if something like that were to happen? Normally, the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. It explicitly outlaws using the armed forces to enforce the law within our borders, unless that action is expressly authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress. Enter the Insurrection Act, which permits a president to deploy the military in American cities and on our streets in very narrow circumstances involving insurrection, rebellion, or extreme civil unrest. In those circumstances, the military can only be used for “emergency needs” towards the goal of reestablishing civilian control as quickly as possible.

But, as the Brennan Center has explained, “The problem is that the Insurrection Act creates a giant loophole in the Posse Comitatus Act rather than a limited exception to it.” The Act was adopted in 1792, and it hasn’t been updated since 1874. Its language is broad and gives presidents plenty of discretion to, for instance, use the military to arrest American citizens engaged in protest, if a president calls what’s going on an insurrection, rebellion, or civil unrest. In an 1827 case, Martin v. Mott, the Supreme Court ruled that it is up to the president to decide whether the Insurrection Act should be invoked and that the courts may not review his decision. A president inclined to absorb power from a vacuum into his own hands has plenty to work with, as Trump has done, claiming we are being invaded by the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang to justify invoking the Alien Enemies Act and deporting people. So here we are.

Concerns about the Insurrection Act don’t mean that Americans should obey in advance, giving up their right to assemble and protest peacefully. But it does mean we need to understand the way the Trump administration could respond to organized protests as we head toward Saturday, April 5, when many Americans plan to participate in protests that are being organized locally but coordinated nationally. It helps us understand why peaceful protest, which is proven successful, is also essential.

In July of 2024, Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation and one of the chief architects of Project 2025, proudly announced on Steve Bannon’s podcast, “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” Donald Trump disclaimed all knowledge of Project 2025 shortly after reporting on that came to light. But we have learned since that Project 2025 was always the plan, and it’s being implemented now. We are forewarned. 

George Orwell wrote 1984: “One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.” We still have a Constitution, and we should each find the best way for us, personally, to ensure it stays that way. We have the obligation to find ways to speak up, even if we fear imposition of the Insurrection Act.

Be like Cory Booker. Be willing to stand up for what you believe in.

Subscribe to Joyce Vance’s newsletter and/or her contributions on SubStack. I also suggest you listen to Jasmine Crockett, a member of Congress from TX who is amazingly articulate and willing to call it like she sees it as she does here in defense of our First Amendment Rights.

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Remember and Honor:

From the Los Padres Forest Association (On April Fools Day) I read it early morning 4/2  — 4 am while 1/2 asleep — and given all the sh** this admin has done, I believed it. Now that I am awake, I realize it was a joke, Plaskett Primate finally woke me up.)

Recreational Realignment of Public LandsThe administration signed a new Order to launch a nationwide program designed to monetize public lands through an expansion of recreational opportunities. This program is called Recreational Realignment of Public Lands (RRPL). While the concept of more recreational opportunities within our public lands is certainly positive, the fineprint within the RRPL program has raised criticism from multiple national watchdog organizations. CLICK HERE to read a complete list of the proposed recreational realignment projects. Here locally, there are two proposed RRPL sites within the Los Padres.

RRPL is proposing an expansion of recreation in Ventura County by creating a year-round Golf and Ski destination set within the rugged Sespe Backcountry. ‘Halfmoon Pines’ will be a 4-season resort featuring two 18-hole golf courses, two ski mountains (Thorn Point & Little Mutau), a 25k square foot clubhouse/ski lodge located at Mutau Flat, 518 carbon-neutral villas and a natural hot spring spa resort at Sespe Hot Springs accessed by gondola leading down Johnston Ridge.

In Monterey, RRPL will be expanding recreation by building a one-of-a-kind wild animal experience called the ‘Carrizo Springs Adventure Park’. The park will be the largest in existence covering half of the Monterey Ranger District. The headquarters will be centrally located at The Indians with seven gondolas providing access to an array of ecotourism offerings including zip-lines, shark diving and programs like: Plaskett Creek Primates, Tassajara Tiger Sanctuary, Pine Valley Pachyderm Pasture, Pfeiffer Polar Bear Plunge, the aptly named Lion’s Den and the sure to be crowd favorite Crocs of the Arroyo Seco. What’s truly special about Carrizo Springs Park is that there will be no fences. All animals will be free to wander as nature intended across the vast Los Padres Backcountry.

While the RRPL program will certainly change portions of the Los Padres, it should accomplish its goal of expanding recreation. For us diehards who love the backcountry, don’t worry, we’ve been assured that all backcountry trails will remain open for those with a valid Adventure Pass.

Here is the website: Mobilize.us and a screen shot of the details of the demonstration planned for here in MoCo. 4/5/25 11-1 at Window on the Bay, 717 Del Monte Blvd Monterey. The sign up is to join the movement, if you want. You need not sign up, RSVP, or send in ANY personal information. Just show up!!!

Experimental helicopter water drops at Regents Slide were scheduled but ended up being during recent rains, which appears to have done something. The upper, dirt portion of the slide is moving on its own every day. I think some tens of thousands of yards came off over the weekend. 

Here’s a recent summary I sent to my institution a month ago.

Caltrans geotech has heavily-instrumented the upper portion of the slide due to its continuous movement. The movement has made it very hazardous to remove so equipment has been put on and pulled off the working bench repeatedly over the past few months. The attached photo shows the upper slide as of February 3rd, circumscribed in orange dashed lines. The original slide is on the back (south) side of a rocky, resistant ridge and well below this upper area. Debris from that rockslide can be seen 500 feet down on the highway on the right side of the photo. 

The plan has been to start above the rockslide section and cut it out using a working bench. The cut material gets pushed over the edge, gradually working downhill back to the highway. The upper slide section was destabilized by that process and started “rotating”, slipping downhill and outward, pushing over the resistant rocky ridge below. The arrows in the photo are my attempt to depict that rotation. The weight of the upper area to the left is causing the material to slide downhill but it is encountering the resistant material below. That is causing it to actually move horizontally and outwards to the right and to push out into the air, calving off like a glacier reaching the ocean or a lake. You can see there are two new slide sections at the horizontal arrows where the dirt is flaking off and falling down to the highway. 

Excavation is on hold while it rains. There is a presumption that as the soil gets heavier with water, the material will accelerate (not catastrophically fail) and reveal exactly where the slip plane is behind the slide. That will allow them to have a better defined plan moving forward. You can see their graded slope in the upper left of the photo. They need to keep that slope behind the slip plane as they work their way down to the right. 

Changes over the last month involve more dirt being pushed off the bench onto the slide (head) and the lower right (toe) calving off down to the highway. Also see attached two photos I took during the rain last week. Beneath the remaining vegetation there are fissures criss-crossing the moving section. It acts like a glacier, slipping off the top of the lower part of the larger slope, calving off the mountainside about 400′ above the highway. Impossible to put equipment on it when it’s wet.  They monitor it daily and pull off when it accelerates and jump back on when it slows down. 

That’s the latest from ground zero,
Mark

Here are the photos Mark references:

March 12, 2025 by Mark Readdie

March 14, 2025 by Mark Readdie

And from yesterday, March 18, which shows the recent drop:

Something I forgot to mention probably because I recycled a month old update. In addition to the two excavators and two other dozers, there are an additional two D8 dozers that have been retrofitted to wireless operation because Caltrans is pushing Papich to keep pushing dirt over the slip-plane crack but having an operator in the machines is too dangerous. The scale and complexity of this slide has pushed Caltrans into new technological territory in order to keep making progress. Perhaps a photo of all the equipment working on the slide would provide some scale. I’ll have to see if I can get that this week.