{"id":7277,"date":"2020-10-21T19:51:46","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T19:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/?page_id=7277"},"modified":"2021-11-14T14:36:25","modified_gmt":"2021-11-14T14:36:25","slug":"10-21","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/10-21\/","title":{"rendered":"10-21"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Wednesday, October 21<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUS Cases 8.36 million
US Deaths 222,949<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Oct 20: The CDC estimates<\/a> 299,028 excess U.S. deaths during the pandemic. Voters line up<\/a> across the country, setting a record for early voting.\u00a0 Lawyers enlisted to identify migrant families separated at the U.S. southern border during the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy say in a court filing on Tuesday they have been unable to find the parents of 545 children<\/a>.<\/p>

Oct 21: Democrats announce that they plan to boycott Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination\u00a0<\/a>to the Supreme Court. OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma is expected<\/a> to pay $8.3 billion in a settlement regarding their role in promoting<\/a> the drug and lying about its side effects. New U.S. COVID cases exceed<\/a> 60,000 for the second day.\u00a0 Clips from the new Borat<\/a> movie emerge. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer and former New York mayor, is apparently duped in the movie. He speaks with the actress who portrays Borat’s daughter for what he thinks is a conservative news show. They return to the actress’ hotel room, which is filled with hidden cameras, and from there, Giuliani “can be seen lying back on the bed” and then “reaching into his trousers and apparently touching his genitals,” according to The Guardian<\/em>. Cohen, playing Borat, then storms into the room apparently yelling “She’s 15. She’s too old for you.”<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFrom the cutting room floor ...\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The significance of this “Great Barrington” versus “John Snow” debate resonates beyond the scientific community. Is the purpose of the government to prolong life and protect public safety or is it to preserve the machinery of elite power structures and ensure entrenched consumption habits (which is what Americans often mean by \u201cthe pursuit of happiness\u201d and \u201cpersonal autonomy\u201d)? It is a debate older than the United States\u2014a false choice, really\u2014that seems to recur frequently.[1]<\/a> We saw it in France in the eighteenth century, during the Industrial Revolution and the fight to end slavery in the nineteenth century, and during the Red Scare seventy years ago. In the United States, the stakes in the debate have always been tightly wound to the race and class of the people on the receiving end. The poorer and less white need to be controlled so the whiter and wealthier can have long life, safety, autonomy, and maintain their desired consumption habits.<\/span><\/p>\n

Take, for instance, the 545(?!) migrant children who, we learn today, have been separated from parents due to American incompetence mixed with the bland malevolence of the Trump administration.[2]<\/a> According to the US Inspector General, \u201cU.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Field operations (OFO) personnel at ports of entry had separated 60 asylum-seeking families between May 6 and July 9, 2018, despite CBP\u2019s claim that it had separated only 7 such families.\u201d[3]<\/a> Here we see a moment when the machinery of the system, which is ostensibly in place to protect the autonomy of individual American citizens, does nothing to prolong human life, even with children.  <\/span> [read_more id=”1″ more=”Read more” less=”Read less”]<\/p>\n

To investigate just how inhuman and blunt the American justice system can be, I scan through the Office of Inspector General press reports year by year. In 2009, there were 45 reports covering incidences like people defrauding Hurricane Katrina relief funds, child porn in a Customs and Border Protection office, immigration officers receiving bribes, and so on. In 2014, I find thirty-six such reports recounting bribery and misappropriation of funds. Thirteen were tallied in 2019, less than half the typical number over the last few decades\u2014signaling not less corruption and malfeasance, but less interest in rooting it out. Sadly, three of those thirteen reports are not inspections of corruption at all, but declarations of honors for various personnel or commemorations.<\/span><\/p>\n

These numbers are even more concerning in 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

So far this year, OIG has put out a single<\/em> press release regarding a single<\/em> indictment. And that target? The OIG itself: The indictment alleges that, from October 2014 to April 2017, Charles Edwards (a former acting(!) inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, Murali Venkata (one of Edwards\u2019 subordinates), and others \u201cexecuted a scheme to defraud the U.S. government by stealing confidential and proprietary software from DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), along with sensitive government databases containing personal identifying information (PII) of DHS and USPS employees, so that Edwards\u2019s company, Delta Business Solutions, could later sell an enhanced version of DHS-OIG\u2019s software to the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at a profit.\u201d[4]<\/a> True, we are in a pandemic, and our attentions are understandably diverted elsewhere. And even in the best times, we seldom watch the watchers.<\/span><\/p>\n

But here is the rub. In 2020, this year when government oversight for massive, million dollar criminal activities has been lacking, ICE raids have continued, labelled as \u201ctargeted enforcement operations,\u201d with names like \u201cOperation Broken Promise.\u201d There have been five raids between September 1 and October 16, rounding up 2,390 people. The news media speaks at length today about the orphaned children in detention, but they make no mention of the fact that many of these children have been there since 2018 or sooner. Can we compare for a moment the overzealous vigor applied to migrant families at the southern border and in the country to the silence of the OIG during the Trump administration? The optics of ICE officers rounding up illegal immigrants reads well with the demographic that sees Trump as the defender of las and order in this nation. The optics of the OIG rounding up criminals within Trump\u2019s government does not. Not to mention that, once power becomes sufficiently centered, the OIG becomes a lame body, only useful as a government tool for internal purges of remaining dissenters.<\/span><\/p>


<\/span><\/p>\n

Notes<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Kavi Shah, \u201cSafety Versus Freedom: An Eternal Fallacy Unveiled in Modern America,\u201d International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research<\/em> 4, no. 10 (2013): 4.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> \u201cLawyers: We Can\u2019t Find Parents of 545 Kids Separated by Trump Administration,\u201d NBC News, accessed October 21, 2020, https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/immigration\/lawyers-say-they-can-t-find-parents-545-migrant-children-n1244066<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Office of Inspector General, \u201cCBP Separated More Asylum-Seeking Families at Ports of Entry Than Reported and For Reasons Other Than Those Outlined in Public Statements\u201d (Washington, DC: Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, May 29, 2020), https:\/\/www.oig.dhs.gov\/reports\/2020\/cbp-separated-more-asylum-seeking-families-ports-entry-reported-and-reasons-other-those-outlined-public-statements\/oig-20-35-may20<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>U.S. Department of Justice, \u201cFormer Acting Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Indicted on Theft of Government Property and Scheme to Defraud the United States Government,\u201d March 6, 2020, https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/former-acting-inspector-general-us-department-homeland-security-indicted-theft-government<\/a>.<\/span> [\/read_more]<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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“After Louisville Police Shooting Deaths, Cases Quietly Closed,” Newsy, October 21, 2020, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XOi41dC2KLc<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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“Dolly Parton’s Mom Used To Sing Songs That Told Great Stories,” A Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CBS, October 21, 2020, https:\/\/youtu.be\/aG9FHb7tpCk<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Tom Llamas, “Parents of over 500 migrant children missing after border separation, ACLU says,” ABC News, October 21, 2020, https:\/\/youtu.be\/fyIX_0kP-kA<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Sky News Australia. Rudy Giuliani Caught in Humiliating Bedroom Scene in New Borat Movie<\/i>, 2020. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0xkg0-bc3dw<\/a>.<\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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