Adam Isacson

Still trying to understand Latin America, my own country, and why so few consequences are intended. These views are not necessarily my employer’s.

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January 16, 2021 — 3

A walk around downtown Washington on the eve of inauguration

We live close to downtown Washington, the weather was cool but sunny, and my family and I finally had a few hours off. We took a walk to see what our city looks like, 10 days after the riot at the Capitol and 4 days before the presidential inauguration.

Stars and Stripes reporter Bob Reid put it well on Twitter. The city’s center doesn’t quite look like a war zone. Instead, “it looks more like a Cold War frontier zone in the ‘70s. Empty streets, barriers, bored armed troops.”

About half a mile from Pennsylvania Avenue, you walk past the first security perimeter, where National Guard Humvees or dump trucks are parked, along with arrays of jersey barriers, to block vehicles. A block or so before Pennsylvania Avenue, you hit the next ring of security, where pedestrians like us wait in line to be searched, then let in. From there, you can go all the way up to the metal fencing that blocks access to the National Mall and everything about 1,000 yards from the Capitol.

From The Washington Post. Home is several blocks off this map’s northern edge.

Here are some photos of what we saw. It’s grim. We’re so much worse off than we were four years ago.

And may I emphasize: f*** every one of my fellow Americans who has made this happen to my city and my country. You can all go straight to hell.

Click on each photo for full resolution. Like everything else on my site, these photos are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Yours to share and adapt, just give credit.

National Guard at the outer perimeter, 4th and H Streets and Massachusetts Avenue.
The outer perimeter at 7th and I Streets NW.
7th and I Streets, Mount Vernon Square.
Boarding up the Walgreen’s at 7th and H Streets NW.
The National Archives are inside the second security perimeter. Only people who’ve been searched can get there.
Pennsylvania Avenue is almost totally empty.
Even the glass I.M. Pei pyramids outside the National Gallery of Art are boarded up. This measure was not taken at any previous inauguration, nor during the Women’s Marches, the Black Lives Matter marches, the March for Our Lives, the March for Science, or any other recent peaceful demonstration. I hate this so much.
This is usually the inaugural parade route. No bleachers on the sidewalks this year.
A remnant of January 6th.
This is as close as you can get to the Capitol today.
Humvee at the inner perimeter.
National Guardsmen.
Guardsmen are carrying M4 rifles with the magazines stowed in pouches on their vests.
Rifles and a pizza box on Constitution Avenue at 3rd Street.
These wanted notices, with faces captured from videos of the Capitol riot, are on most bus shelters.
December 10, 2020 — 0

Photo

The view from my seat while hosting yesterday’s virtual event on coca and eradication in Colombia.
December 4, 2020 — 0

Friday afternoon

My wife took this photo of me working at home today. Why would I ever want to go back to the office? To have more mousepad space, I guess.

The microphone is for podcasting—got it 9 years ago for $100. I’m not sure what the cat is for—got it 17 1/2 years ago for free.

June 20, 2020 — 2

Wearing this until Wednesday

On Thursday I had a metal plate screwed into the broken radius bone of my right wrist. Today (Saturday) I’m in only modest pain, but I’ll have this cast on my right arm until Wednesday.

I’m right handed, so don’t expect much from me that requires a keyboard for the next few days. On Wednesday, I should be going back to a brace that lets me use my fingers.

Thanks to the folks at Georgetown University Hospital who made it look easy on Thursday. I was in and out in less than 6 hours, 2 of them spent totally unconscious.

June 10, 2020 — 0

On the disabled list

You can barely see it in the picture, but I’ve slightly broken my wrist in two places while being an idiot in the park on Sunday, trying to jump from a tree stump to a high branch.

I’m not in horrible pain, which is why it took me three days to even schedule a doctor visit. But now I’ve got a fiberglass cast immobilizing my wrist and much of my right hand (I’m right-handed).

My output on this website is likely to slow down for a few weeks, because I can’t type anywhere nearly as fast as I’m used to typing. Bummer!

March 26, 2020 — 0

Photo

After many years of accumulating home office-type gadgets, working at home is tolerable.

In the frame: Mac Mini with dual monitors, MacBook Air, sheet-fed scanner, podcasting mic, HD camera, blu-ray burner, printer, mechanical keyboard, mouse, Hue lamp, amp, LED lighting, speakers, turntable, headphones.

If you find this horrifying, I totally understand. If it’s any consolation, there’s a washer/dryer and a litterbox behind me.

March 25, 2020 — 0

Photo

Can I afford it? Barely. But a 2014 laptop with a busted trackpad connected to a big monitor just wasn’t working as my main work machine.

This fully loaded Mac Mini arrived two days earlier than expected. You may hear a bit less from me over the next day or two while I set it up.

March 24, 2020 — 0

Photo

While looking for a photo of coca bushes, I came across this shot from Putumayo, Colombia in 2016. Isn’t that cute.

March 19, 2020 — 0

Photo

Washington DC’s MacMillan Reservoir this morning.

As an urban runner, I always notice the air quality difference when I get a chance to run in a forest or a rural setting.

On this morning’s solo run in Washington DC, that’s what the air felt like. The air really is noticeably cleaner.

March 11, 2020 — 0

Cleaned out

After seeing that Italy closed all stores except groceries and pharmacies due to the coronavirus outbreak, I said to the family, “Maybe we should go to Costco tonight.”

Virtually everyone else in DC had the same idea; the place was jammed on a Wednesday night. Here’s the “organic brown rice” display.

February 17, 2020 — 0

Betelgeuse, the rapidly fainting star

I just went outside here in Florida, where I’m visiting relatives, and yes, Betelgeuse, one of the most familiar stars in the northern night sky (it’s in Orion’s shoulder), is way dimmer than it used to be.

I took this shot with my phone. Betelgeuse used to be about as bright as Rigel, the star at the very bottom of the photo:

This all happened quickly: before October, Betelgeuse was near the top ten brightest stars in the sky. Now it’s lower than 20th. Some speculate that the red giant, 600 light-years away, might go supernova. But the dimming has slowed over the past week. Here’s a good explanation in the New York Times.

January 23, 2020 — 0

A few photos from El Paso and Juárez

From Tuesday and Wednesday.

Outside the Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso.
Mount Cristo Rey, west of El Paso in the New Mexico desert, viewed at night.

The Rio Grande, seen from the Paso del Norte border bridge.
These tents on the Ciudad Juárez side of the border denote the area where asylum-seeking migrants get returned when subjected to the “Remain in Mexico” program, which requires them to await their hearing dates on Mexican soil. Kidnappers who prey on migrants often operate just outside this tent area, making them very vulnerable here.
Caribe Queen, a Cuban restaurant in downtown Ciudad Juárez, founded within the past year by Cuban asylum seekers forced to “Remain in Mexico” pending their hearing dates in the United States.
Mexican National Guardsmen in a playground along the Rio Grande (the area of green brush behind them). The border fence is in the background, set far back from the actual borderline—the elevated highway is actually in the United States, between the fence and the river.
A Mexican National Guardsman reads his phone near the border fence.
Graffiti on the fence in Anapra, west of Juárez.
Central American children forced to “remain in Mexico” play at the Pan de Vida shelter in western Juárez.
Only five of twelve lanes open at the Paso del Norte port of entry, where the wait to get back into the United States was about 45 minutes.
December 19, 2019 — 0

Here’s a big new report about last week’s trip to El Paso and Ciudad Juárez

My visit to the border last week went well: logistics were flawless, the people we encountered were amazing, and we learned a lot. But I came home feeling disturbed. Even more than after my four visits this year to San Diego/Tijuana and to Mexico’s southern border.

Maybe it was the relentlessness of the Trump administration’s non-stop assault on some very weak people. Maybe it was the grinding fatigue that the cities’ activists and service providers exuded. But when I got home late Saturday I was having trouble relating to family and friends. I was only happy with my butt in a chair, typing up my notes and my thoughts about what I’d just seen at this part of the border.

I figured I’d write a memo about my trip. But I typed and typed. There was so much to talk about, as you can see from the table of contents below. I worked a late night Monday night, slept a lot Tuesday night (had to give a talk in Spanish on Wednesday), and last (Wednesday) night, I didn’t sleep at all: I pulled my first true all-nighter, not even a break to lie down, in many, many years.

I just wanted to get it done. So much that I saw and heard was so out of balance and awful, the holidays are nearly here, and the writing became like a form of therapy.

12,000 words, some graphics and several photos later, I posted this memo to WOLA’s website late today. It’s sprawling, and honestly I’m in no condition to judge whether it’s easy to follow. But I feel at least somewhat better for having written it.

I hope it helps you to understand what’s going on at the U.S.-Mexico border after a very trying year, and what is at stake there in the next year, for all of us whether we live at the border or not.

Hope you get something out of it too. The memo is here.

“I Can’t Believe What’s Happening—What We’re Becoming”: A memo from El Paso and Ciudad Juárez

  • The big 2019 Increase and Decline in Family Asylum Seekers
  • Box: a Terrible 2019 in el Paso and Ciudad Juárez
  • The Decimation of the U.S. Asylum System
    • Remain in Mexico
    • Metering
    • Conditions during the wait in Juárez
    • Conditions for Cubans
    • The July 16 asylum ban
    • GACA: Sending people to Guatemala
    • “PACR” and “HARP”
  • Rights Issues
    • Processing
    • Migrant deaths
    • Use of force and community relations
  • Wall Construction
  • Security in Ciudad Juárez
  • The Helpers are Exhausted
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.