Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
If I ever get to the point where I can’t do this any more, the Erinyes will not need to miss a beat. All they will need to do is get themselves an email account and sign up for two newsletters: the ones from In the Public Interest and the Project on Government Oversight. The former comes out on Mondays, and contains brief summaries of and links to articles regarding what is happening in the world of privatization throughout the United States, at all governmental levels. The latter comes out on Saturday and contains summaries of and links to articles regarding general stupidity and cupidity in the Unites States Federal government.
For instance, this week POGO features 14 articles in news outlets throughout the country (including one on its own site) which touch on its mission. One of these, from Lawfare, addresses the relationship between organized crime and our national security – particularly transnational organized crime, and specifically narcotrafficking organizations. Sadly, such organizations are finding it both easy and cheap to buy Border Control agents.
A former Border Patrol agent, Robert Hall, was sentenced on March 8 in the Southern District of Texas to 112 months in prison for accepting bribes from a drug trafficking organization and facilitating the smuggling of drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Hall assisted the trafficking organization for 10 years, between 2004 and 2014, providing the locations of unmanned border gates, the keys to locked border gates, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) radios. In return, he received cash payments of $50,000….
Hall is the latest in a string of CBP agents to be arrested for corruption in recent years. Through a Freedom of Information Act request, the Project on Government Oversight found that, through April 2018, 13 CBP agents had been charged with corruption-related crimes since the beginning of the Trump administration. Although this problem is not unique to the current administration, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security noted while testifying to Congress in 2017 that “historically, [his office] has seen large increases in allegations of misconduct against [Department of Homeland Security] personnel after rapid hiring surges.” Considering that trend, the Trump administration’s continued emphasis on hiring border security personnel suggests that Hall’s case may not be the last of its kind.
If they can buy such valuable services so cheap (on average, roughly $400 a month – chump change for a druglord), I should say Hall will definitely NOT be the last.
POGO’s own article concerns JASON. You’ve heard of Jason and the Argonauts? Well, this concerns JASON and the Bureaucrats. JASON is not an acronym (although some have been humorously proposed: “July August September October November” and “Junior Achievement, Somewhat Older Now,” for examples) but a name assigned in honor of that Jason guy who sailed the Argo. JASON
is a low-profile group of physicists and other patriotic eggheads that has quietly whispered wisdom into the Defense Department’s ear for the past 60 years. While the group’s focus is the military’s use of science and technology, it also investigates climate change and other non-military topics.
Since 1959, Jasons (as the members call themselves)
give up their summers to conduct serious studies for the nation, and take no public credit for it (no one acknowledges their JASON membership except for [Russell] Hemley, who is the group’s chair, and Vice-Chair Ellen Williams, a professor specializing in chemistry and nanotechnology at the University of Maryland). “They’re doing vital work for the country, instead of enhancing their own career with public research.”
If the group were being founded today, it would probably be named something like “The Defense Whisperers” or “The Pentagon Whisperers.” It would be difficult to overestimate the national security benefits JASON has provided over the years by applying the brakes to some of the DoD’s most hubris-filled ideas.
So naturally, in this administration, the Pentagon wants to cancel its contract. Well, the contract has been renewed, for now, but there are still those who want it gone.
In the Public Interest (ITPI) is another watchdog group; rather than focusing on the Federal government, it takes on privatization moves at every government level – including internationally. These people get the point – privatization is essentially just a scheme to funnel public funds directly to private investors, and always ends up costing more money that public works and getting less for that money. ITPI’s weekly roundup tends to have many more articles than POGO’s. but they are presented in such a way as to make what you are looking for easy to find – first divided by categories (as, education, infrastructure, etc.) and within those categories by the government level being addressed (as, national, state (by name), etc.)
The current roundup includes an article, listed and linked under “education,” which bears the added weight of addressing why privatization is wrong on principle.
West Virginia teacher Katie Endicott from Mingo County—which Trump won in 2016 with more than three-quarters of the vote—didn’t pull any punches. “It’s infuriating that people would try to profit off us: Privatization would give millions of dollars to elites and it would create even more haves and have not.”
Using the rash of recent teachers’ strikes (many of which were precipitated by abuses by charter schools,” the author makes to overarching point that
The [most] important question is: Will outsourcing take decision making power away from the public? … [W]hen charter schools are allowed to replace neighborhood schools, they threaten the democracy that makes public education truly public…. It’s time to see privatization for what it is: An all-out attack on democratic decision making.
Well said.
Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, it might just not be a bad idea to get that email account and sign up for the subscriptions I mentioned. But, for now, here are three issues for you to address. Go give ’em hell.
The Furies and I will be back.
Cross posted to Care2 HERE.
