The Border Crisis Drama is ...
Private Military Forces (PMF's) a.k.a. Private Military Corporations (PMC's) gaining leverage (gaming) to pry loose some or all of that $ 1.6 Bn porkbarrel announced today to be into Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California under the umbrellas of Dept. Homelland Security and Dept. Justice along with another $ 1.3 Bn porkbarrel going into the total $ 3.7 billion in funds to address what is called a “humanitarian crisis” brought on by a wave of immigrants from Central America. The funds will go to expanding detention facilities and further militarizing the border with Mexico. The $3.7 billion figure is a significant increase from the $2 billion the administration had told newspapers it would be requesting.
When we say, "Obama is appeasing his critics..." what we mean is the entire federal government is finding new, creative and innovative ways to funnel profit to the corporate complex of financial-investment-real estate-medical-military-school-prison-transportation/logistics-pharmacological-agricultural-construction-legal-public relations-lobbying-interstate-child-care-trafficking industry (yes, it's all one industry! in the neoliberal globalization model brought to us by Hayek-Friedman-Chicago Boys economics club).
A huge winner in this gameshow is Elbit Systems as you will find out if you just read this brief article here, here, here, here, here, here, and of course here wherein we find the story of an obscure Israeli transnational PMF/PMC that has been doing western hemisphere business in North America from the Canal Zone to the Canada line since the 1980's using battle-tested items straight from Palestine & Gaza to this continent. Elbit, in April 2014, beat out many contenders for the $142.5 Million Integrated Fixed Tower platform and program that SAIC, DRS Technologies, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics all wanted to be paid for by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)which wanted tried and tested systems, real-word experience guarding a border like the one between Israel and Palestinian.
If it's not the Israelis, then its the Brits or some other flavor of Corporate Cajun Cayenne Camping Chicken Couscous Cuisine done up as a smorgasbord of mind bending emerging technology like FAST that was highlighted in Nature, the weekly, international, interdisciplinary journal of science May 27, 2011. Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) Project has been in development since before publication of this December 15, 2008 U.S. Dept. Homeland Security project, sponsored by the Science & Technology Directorate’s (S&T) Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) and executed under the oversight of DHS S&T’s Human Factors Behavior Sciences Division, that seeks to develop people screening technologies that will enable security officials to test the effectiveness of current screening methods at evaluating suspicious behaviors and judging the implications of those behaviors. -- When we say "people screening", we mean profiling in a most invasively zero personal privacy way ;-) (just sayin').
Designed for airports, there is no reason we cannot use this mind screening device on, well, anybody, including me, you and the fine children pouring across our southern borders along with all the good-hearted volunteers already streaming breathlessly into the southwest to lend a hand privately carting these kids hither, thither, and yon, through airports or wherever, criss-crossing this nation a hundred times or more, from sea to shining sea and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canada side. ---- What a cluster-f&%(k
Yes, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, S. 744, did Pass in U.S. Senate a year ago, 6-27-2013, with an amendment by Yea-Nay Vote. 68 - 32 (Record Vote Number: 168) and many people are upset that it is not being voted in the House of Representatives. But think of how Elbit Systems has rushed from a few million dollars of business to just one deal that was tagged at $ 142.5 Million (0.1425 Billion). And add in all the "opportunities" to escalate the grave situation(s) on the southern U.S. border (as in S. 744 the "Southern Border" is language repeatedly used) just waiting for someone to say, "Well, but... but... but... what about the Northern Border?" (a.k.a. "mission creep")! --- Gosh, Elbit Systems will need at least $ 750 Million to $ 1,893 Million, or some such other astronomical number, to Patrol the Northern Border. It really is not a far-fetched scenario for The Border Crisis Drama now entertaining us all and distracting us from investing in truly public good. Clean water for all, Food for all, Housing for all, Sanitation for all, Health services for all including Dental and Vision services, Education for all, Employment for all, Living wages for all.
We can stop (see Map) U.S. military deployments in these African countries, and use the money here to rebuild the U.S.
Will Dallas really school all those kids this fall? Who will pay for that? We can but will we or will the money go to those Private Military Forces (PMF's) a.k.a. Private Military Corporations (PMC's) gaining leverage (gaming) to pry loose some or all of that $ 3.7 billion porkbarrel?