alternet--2020-12-28--'Ridiculous': Trump administration awarded border wall contracts to build on land it doesn't own in

'Ridiculous': Trump administration awarded border wall contracts to build on land it doesn't own in Texas

This article is co-published with ProPublica , a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power .
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LA GRULLA , Texas — The federal government said it needed Ociel Mendoza 's land on the outskirts of this tiny Texas town — and it could n't wait any longer .
Each additional day of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as contractors waited to begin construction on the border fence slated to go through Mendoza 's ranch , the Department of Justice argued in court filings .
By Nov. 24 , the tab for the delay had reached nearly $ 1.6 million , the land acquisition manager for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in an affidavit .
More than a year earlier , CBP had awarded a contract then worth $ 33 million to a New Mexico-based company to build 4 miles of fencing in Starr County .
The county is one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump 's administration for a border wall and a place agents have called the most volatile stretch in the nation .
Construction was slated to begin in November 2019 , the agency announced .
There was one problem : The government had awarded the contract before obtaining the land it needed , including Mendoza 's .
This September , after more than a year without getting that land , CBP had to suspend the contract to Southwest Valley Constructors , accruing “ substantial '' charges along the way , according to court documents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his ranch in La Grulla .
A judge recently granted the government possession of part of Mendoza 's land under the Declaration of Taking Act .
In order to build the border wall , the ranch 's front gate and the fence will have to be moved back .
An investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune has found that the government 's strategy of awarding contracts before acquiring titles to the land in Texas has led to millions of dollars in costs for delays , according to calculations based on statements made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ On at least two dozen occasions , the agency has used the argument , often successfully , to convince even dubious federal judges to immediately seize land from property owners fighting their eminent domain cases .
The situation could become even more complicated if President-elect Joe Biden makes good on his promise to stop border wall construction .
Mendoza , an entrepreneur , said the government 's latest offer , which he said was about $ 136,000 , fell short of the $ 200,000 he was seeking .
The ranch is especially personal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he vowed to own after he crossed the border illegally over the property as a teen more than 40 years ago .
“ It represents a dream to me , '' said Mendoza , who became a permanent resident in the 1980s .
“ The American dream . ''
Since 2017 , the federal government has awarded at least a dozen contracts in South Texas worth more than $ 2 billion prior to obtaining all the land it needed for the projects .
The agreements are to build 146 miles of border wall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But very little construction has been completed .
Out of the 110 miles the administration planned to build in the Rio Grande Valley , where most of the land is privately owned , 15 miles had been finished as of mid-December .
The Army Corps of Engineers generally requires land to be acquired prior to awarding contracts , but the policy allows exceptions if approved by high-level officials , said Grace Geiger , an agency spokeswoman .
While posing greater risks for the government , she said the practice does n't have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the situation , the government may still be able to acquire the land before the contractor needs to enter the site .
Contract experts say the practice violates principles of sound procurement .
“ It sounds like a formula for waste , or worse , to make the construction contract first and only acquire the land months or years later , '' said Charles Tiefer , a University of Baltimore contracting expert .
Austin Evers , the executive director of American Oversight and a senior counsel for the State Department during President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the practice should be investigated by federal watchdogs .
“ The government is arguing that it has to seize these lands right now because it is being penalized under the contract it already signed , '' Evers said .
“ In plain English , what that means is that American taxpayers are seeing their money thrown away for no purpose because the government signed the contract before it could execute the project . ''
Federal judges hearing CBP 's eminent domain cases in South Texas also have expressed frustration with the government 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ County .
In recent weeks , a segment of border fencing has quietly gone up in a remote area near Mendoza 's ranch .
While the government gets the title to the property as soon as it files what 's called a “ declaration of taking '' and deposits the amount it deems reasonable with the court , it ca n't begin construction until a judge approves an order to possess the land .
U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez , a George W. Bush appointee , blasted government attorneys ' request to take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arguing that the agency has had the funds to acquire private land in Starr County for nearly two years .
“ The United States ' delay until November 2020 to file its motion for possession is not within the Court 's control ... and ( does ) not create an emergency for this court , '' she wrote Dec. 17 .
“ The Court has repeatedly expressed its dissatisfaction with the United States ' requests for expedited relief .
The United States is not entitled to expedited relief , and should cease requesting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ However , Alvarez said that under the Declaration of Taking Act , she had little option but to grant the government 's request to take possession of Mendoza 's land , noting that Mendoza had not responded in time and that the government had filed the correct documentation and deposited what it estimated it would pay for the land seizure .
Even as government attorneys continue to cite the growing costs of delays to judges , the agency has downplayed the issue outside the courtroom .
“ CBP will not know if there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ real estate until the end of the contract , as the Contractor may be able to make up any potential delays incurred , '' CBP spokesman Matthew Dyman told ProPublica and the Tribune on Friday .
Dyman declined to clarify the statement , citing the ongoing litigation .
CBP also insists that awarding contracts without first obtaining land is efficient .
“ Once the border wall system design is approved by the Government , and sufficient real estate is acquired by the Government , construction activities can begin , '' wrote Roger Maier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government has been here before .
A decade ago , CBP learned that building in this part of the border would be especially challenging , between acquiring the land — which in some cases took more than two years — and flooding concerns .
Under the Bush and Obama administrations , several border wall fence projects , also awarded before the government obtained the land , died because the agency could n't get them built before funding dried up .
The Trump administration 's legal efforts have only intensified , with nearly 40 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Southern District of Texas since Election Day .
All of which leaves the incoming Biden administration and hundreds of Texas landowners in a web of title and compensation disputes , multimillion-dollar contracts and a string of unfinished — and disconnected — projects all along the Rio Grande .
Biden has said he will cease wall construction and drop all the lawsuits on day one .
His transition team did n't respond to a request for comment as to how exactly the administration would go about canceling existing contracts nor what it would do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the eminent domain push .
Biden could save up to $ 2.6 billion if he halts construction , according to Army Corps of Engineers documents reviewed by The Washington Post .
This will not be the first time Biden confronts this issue .
Last time he was in the White House , the Obama-Biden administration allowed the lawsuits and contracts to proceed .
By the end of their first term , 54 new miles of border fence had been built in South Texas .
One of CBP 's toughest fights over eminent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ poor , mostly rural county where family properties date back to original Spanish land grants issued 250 years ago , well before the Rio Grande served as an international boundary .
For more than a decade , residents and county officials have resisted the agency 's push to build a border wall in Starr County , which the government has said in court filings is the No .
1 county for narcotics seizures across the entire southern border of the United States .
Starr and neighboring Hidalgo and Cameron counties are part of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which accounts for 40 % of immigrant arrests and 43 % of the marijuana seizures along the southwest border .
Under the Trump administration , Starr has become one of the agency 's top priorities for the border wall .
Hidalgo and Cameron counties already have about 60 miles of border fencing , built upon concrete levee systems .
But Starr County , which lacks a levee system , had no wall before the Trump administration first proposed building there in 2017 .
Three years later , CBP has awarded contracts for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ miles have been built , mostly on U.S .
Fish and Wildlife refuge land in remote corners of the county .
As it was a decade ago , the government 's effort is once again mired in complicated eminent domain legal battles that have so far prevented construction on the remaining miles .
Of 70 condemnation cases filed by the government since September in South Texas , 53 are in Starr County , where the government has only accelerated legal action since Election Day ( 25 lawsuits have been filed in this county @ @ @ @ @ @ @ case filed at the end of November , the government is seeking to seize a triangle of land smaller than 2 acres in the county .
Despite the tract 's small size , there are more than 30 individuals with possible ownership rights , scattered across Texas and as far away as Washington state , according to court records .
Lawyers say that as land has passed through the generations , many partitions have not been documented properly in official records , resulting in a thicket of potential land ownership that the government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ title issues in Starr County seem to be far more complicated and difficult than what we 've seen in the other border counties , '' said Roy Brandys , an Austin-based eminent domain attorney who represents border residents in these cases .
“ On several of the cases we 've been working on in Starr County , one of the reasons they have not progressed even faster is because the government and frankly , we as the landowners ' representatives , are trying to work out the title issues before they move forward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Accountability Office report , title issues in Starr have slowed construction timelines considerably .
“ Some counties in South Texas , such as Starr County , do not have the infrastructure or funding to maintain recordkeeping systems , '' the report says .
But where the federal government sees as a maze of legal hurdles , local officials see a reflection of the region 's heritage .
“ For many , the land has been in their families for generations , '' said Joel Villarreal , mayor of the Starr County seat of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a large number of residents that own land and they are proud of that heritage to own land .
They speak of it as something to be cherished , the idea of having land . ''
On a recent morning , Mendoza , 60 , stood in front of his ranch as orange survey markers fluttered in the wind around him .
At regular intervals , he has built steps into his own mesh and metal tube fencing , allowing would-be border crossers to climb over .
He said Border Patrol agents have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ I tell them for one , I was undocumented when I came here , '' he explained .
“ And two , so they do n't break down my fence ! ''
Mendoza says that he built approximately 300 ladders into the fence surrounding his 400-acre ranch so that people crossing the border illegally can pass through more easily — and so he can avoid damage to his fence .
The ranch holds a special place in the heart of Mendoza , who owns several businesses and properties in Starr County .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ as an undocumented immigrant , passing through the same piece of property on his way to a new life in Houston .
Thirty years later he bought the ranch when it came up for sale , and he is loath to lose it .
If the wall comes through the front of his ranch as proposed , Mendoza said he would have to move the fence and an expensive front gate , as well as the corral for the 40 or so cattle he raises on the land .
Worse , he said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virtually worthless by placing it almost entirely behind the barrier .
“ It wo n't have any value afterwards '' he said .
“ Anything could happen on the other side of the wall .
I wo n't be protected inside there . ''
The government first made Mendoza an offer to buy his land in April , according to court documents .
Five months later , federal prosecutors sued to take part of his ranch , depositing about $ 93,000 with the court as a “ just compensation . ''
The government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cost of suspending work was about $ 15,000 per day .
In other cases , the government contended that delays have added as much as $ 100,000 per day , depending on the size of the contract , according to a review by ProPublica and the Tribune .
The expenses came from what officials called de- and re-mobilization and from having equipment and crew on standby beyond the date construction was scheduled to begin .
Excerpt from the government 's motion for immediate possession in Mendoza 's case .
In four Rio Grande @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has detailed the costs of delays in court filings , the total is nearly $ 9 million , as of the date the court granted the order for immediate possession , which is when work can begin .
Despite not having been able to break ground in 18 months , the original $ 33 million contract to Southwest Valley Constructors is now worth $ 42 million thanks to contract options the government has exercised .
An earlier review of federal spending data by ProPublica and the Tribune found modifications to contracts have increased @ @ @ @ @ @ @ billions , costing about five times more per mile than it did under previous administrations .
Francis Rooney , a Republican U.S. representative from Florida and longtime real estate developer , called the practice “ ridiculous . ''
From a contractor point of view , he said , there 's the risk of inflation and rises in labor or material costs , for instance , as work on those sites is delayed .
“ That sounds a little reckless to me , but I 'm not surprised given some of what this administration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in reference to Trump declaring a national emergency and using military funding to accelerate border wall building .
Construction of the border wall close to Mendoza 's ranch near La Grulla .
ProPublica and the Tribune reached out to the companies with contracts in the Rio Grande Valley awarded under the practice .
Most did n't respond and Kiewit Infrastructure West , an affiliate of Southwest Valley Constructors , referred questions to the Army Corps of Engineers .
Raini Bruni , another spokeswoman with the Corps , said border wall contracts are written @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the risk on the contractor , who can request compensation in cases where there 's a delay or suspension , approved on a case-by-case basis .
But beyond the risk to the government and contractors , the practice can lead to a loss of protections to landowners , experts said .
Due process is at the heart of the government 's power to take private property , said Evers of the nonpartisan watchdog American Oversight .
But it is being ignored by rushing things through based on emergencies of the administration 's own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ runs counter to basic American values . ''
Beyond the fight over the value of his land , Mendoza does n't believe the wall will achieve its goal .
“ The people wo n't stop , '' he said .
“ It would n't have stopped me , I would have jumped over . ''
“ They use the legal system as a threat '' About 20 miles upriver from Mendoza , the Muñiz family is also fighting the government 's attempt to seize its land in a case that shows the pressure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , especially in the final months of 2020 .
On Sept. 1 , the government sued Noelia Muñiz and offered to pay $ 5,500 for about an acre of land .
According to court documents , she felt harassed by constant phone calls that she said were taking a toll on her health .
“ They call every day , they threaten that if you do n't show your face they will take you to court , '' said her brother Noe Muñiz Jr. , 63 , outside their home .
“ They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
...
It 's very stressful for her . ''
Usually the government first tries to settle with landowners but sues when they ca n't reach an agreement or it 's unclear who owns the land .
Ruben Solís , who lives in La Grulla , opposes construction of the border wall .
Since the beginning of the Trump administration , the government has filed 193 lawsuits — three-fourths just in the past year — asking Texas landowners to relinquish , temporarily or permanently , more than 5,800 acres , according to information @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and court documents .
Noe Muñiz Jr. said the family has been going through the process without an attorney because it ca n't afford to pay one .
“ We have no support at all , '' he said .
“ If you want support it takes money and no one has money .
...
I 'm pretty sure they would n't do this in a place where the majority of people are white .
Here you have Mexican people and they are poor , so come on . ''
In a normal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place such as environmental reviews , hydrology reports prior to starting the project , said Brandys , who has represented border residents under the current and previous administrations .
But due to what he calls the politicization of border wall construction , the U.S. attorney and those building the wall are under significant pressure from Washington to get as much done as possible .
All of which can significantly impact the landowners , he said , adding , “ Unfortunately in some of those situations you wo n't know until the wall is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we see what the effects are . ''
The Department of Homeland Security has a record of abusing the eminent domain process to build border barriers .
In 2017 , a ProPublica-Tribune investigation found DHS had cut unfair real estate deals , secretly waived legal safeguards for property owners and ultimately abused the government 's power to take land from private citizens .
In some cases , the DOJ bungled hundreds of condemnation cases , taking property without knowing the identity of the owners and condemning land without researching facts as basic as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bush administration , the federal government filed more than 360 eminent domain lawsuits along the U.S.-Mexico border as part of an effort to build up to 700 miles of fencing by December 2008 .
Along the Rio Grande , the agency built 50 miles in disconnected strips and seized a total of 564 acres for which it paid $ 18.2 million , ProPublica and the Tribune reported .
There are still 20 cases pending in South Texas from that era , involving about 440 owners , according to the DOJ .
While lawyers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , such as the government providing more details about the property it is trying to take , the pressure on landowners has not eased .
Daniel Villarreal , 56 , at his property in Rio Grande City .
Villarreal says that he sold a portion of his land for the construction of the border wall because government workers said they were going to take it anyway .
Daniel Villarreal , a 56-year-old bail bondsman in Rio Grande City , said government negotiators told him earlier this year he either had to accept their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But following Biden 's victory , he is starting to feel pangs of regret about selling about an acre of his riverfront property to the government .
He did n't want to say how much he agreed to but said it 's not life-changing money .
“ They say they gave me market value , but how long is that going to last ?
A year or two ? ''
he said .
“ And then what you 're left with is a monument to a man I do n't even like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Villarreal off from the beauty of the river 's edge , a fear echoed by other property owners .
Growing up , Noe Muñiz said he and his siblings swam daily in the river .
As he grew older , the river offered respite after a long day of working in cantaloupe and onion fields .
He still fishes there but worries that after a wall is built , the river would become too dangerous to visit inside the no man 's land that would be created south of the barrier .
Even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the battle to keep its land , it is trying to get what it considers just compensation , he said , and holding onto hope that Biden will cancel the wall contract in the area .
“ You ca n't give up on the land .
It 's not the government 's land , '' he said .
“ It 's hard to let go . ''

This article is co-published with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublica's Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published.
Also, sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
LA GRULLA, Texas — The federal government said it needed Ociel Mendoza's land on the outskirts of this tiny Texas town — and it couldn't wait any longer.
Each additional day of delay was costing the government $15,000 as contractors waited to begin construction on the border fence slated to go through Mendoza's ranch, the Department of Justice argued in court filings. By Nov. 24, the tab for the delay had reached nearly $1.6 million, the land acquisition manager for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in an affidavit.
More than a year earlier, CBP had awarded a contract then worth $33 million to a New Mexico-based company to build 4 miles of fencing in Starr County. The county is one of the top targets of President Donald Trump's administration for a border wall and a place agents have called the most volatile stretch in the nation. Construction was slated to begin in November 2019, the agency announced.
There was one problem: The government had awarded the contract before obtaining the land it needed, including Mendoza's. This September, after more than a year without getting that land, CBP had to suspend the contract to Southwest Valley Constructors, accruing “substantial" charges along the way, according to court documents.
Credit: Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune/ProPublica
Ociel Mendoza, 60, at his ranch in La Grulla. A judge recently granted the government possession of part of Mendoza's land under the Declaration of Taking Act. In order to build the border wall, the ranch's front gate and the fence will have to be moved back.
An investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune has found that the government's strategy of awarding contracts before acquiring titles to the land in Texas has led to millions of dollars in costs for delays, according to calculations based on statements made by CBP officials in court filings. On at least two dozen occasions, the agency has used the argument, often successfully, to convince even dubious federal judges to immediately seize land from property owners fighting their eminent domain cases.
The situation could become even more complicated if President-elect Joe Biden makes good on his promise to stop border wall construction.
Mendoza, an entrepreneur, said the government's latest offer, which he said was about $136,000, fell short of the $200,000 he was seeking. The ranch is especially personal. It's a piece of land he vowed to own after he crossed the border illegally over the property as a teen more than 40 years ago.
“It represents a dream to me," said Mendoza, who became a permanent resident in the 1980s. “The American dream."
Since 2017, the federal government has awarded at least a dozen contracts in South Texas worth more than $2 billion prior to obtaining all the land it needed for the projects. The agreements are to build 146 miles of border wall and install nearly three dozen gates.
But very little construction has been completed. Out of the 110 miles the administration planned to build in the Rio Grande Valley, where most of the land is privately owned, 15 miles had been finished as of mid-December.
The Army Corps of Engineers generally requires land to be acquired prior to awarding contracts, but the policy allows exceptions if approved by high-level officials, said Grace Geiger, an agency spokeswoman.
While posing greater risks for the government, she said the practice doesn't have to lead to greater costs as, depending on the situation, the government may still be able to acquire the land before the contractor needs to enter the site.
Contract experts say the practice violates principles of sound procurement.
“It sounds like a formula for waste, or worse, to make the construction contract first and only acquire the land months or years later," said Charles Tiefer, a University of Baltimore contracting expert.
Credit: Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune/ProPublica
A Border Patrol vehicle in Rio Grande City, Texas.
Austin Evers, the executive director of American Oversight and a senior counsel for the State Department during President Barack Obama's second term, said the practice should be investigated by federal watchdogs.
“The government is arguing that it has to seize these lands right now because it is being penalized under the contract it already signed," Evers said. “In plain English, what that means is that American taxpayers are seeing their money thrown away for no purpose because the government signed the contract before it could execute the project."
Federal judges hearing CBP's eminent domain cases in South Texas also have expressed frustration with the government's legal argument for immediate possession in Starr County. In recent weeks, a segment of border fencing has quietly gone up in a remote area near Mendoza's ranch.
While the government gets the title to the property as soon as it files what's called a “declaration of taking" and deposits the amount it deems reasonable with the court, it can't begin construction until a judge approves an order to possess the land. U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez, a George W. Bush appointee, blasted government attorneys' request to take immediate possession of Mendoza's ranch, arguing that the agency has had the funds to acquire private land in Starr County for nearly two years.
“The United States' delay until November 2020 to file its motion for possession is not within the Court's control ... and (does) not create an emergency for this court," she wrote Dec. 17. “The Court has repeatedly expressed its dissatisfaction with the United States' requests for expedited relief. The United States is not entitled to expedited relief, and should cease requesting such relief without good cause."
However, Alvarez said that under the Declaration of Taking Act, she had little option but to grant the government's request to take possession of Mendoza's land, noting that Mendoza had not responded in time and that the government had filed the correct documentation and deposited what it estimated it would pay for the land seizure.
Even as government attorneys continue to cite the growing costs of delays to judges, the agency has downplayed the issue outside the courtroom.
“CBP will not know if there are any associated delay costs due to real estate until the end of the contract, as the Contractor may be able to make up any potential delays incurred," CBP spokesman Matthew Dyman told ProPublica and the Tribune on Friday. Dyman declined to clarify the statement, citing the ongoing litigation.
CBP also insists that awarding contracts without first obtaining land is efficient.
“Once the border wall system design is approved by the Government, and sufficient real estate is acquired by the Government, construction activities can begin," wrote Roger Maier, a spokesman for CBP.
The government has been here before. A decade ago, CBP learned that building in this part of the border would be especially challenging, between acquiring the land — which in some cases took more than two years — and flooding concerns. Under the Bush and Obama administrations, several border wall fence projects, also awarded before the government obtained the land, died because the agency couldn't get them built before funding dried up.
The Trump administration's legal efforts have only intensified, with nearly 40 new eminent domain lawsuits filed in the Southern District of Texas since Election Day.
All of which leaves the incoming Biden administration and hundreds of Texas landowners in a web of title and compensation disputes, multimillion-dollar contracts and a string of unfinished — and disconnected — projects all along the Rio Grande.
Biden has said he will cease wall construction and drop all the lawsuits on day one. His transition team didn't respond to a request for comment as to how exactly the administration would go about canceling existing contracts nor what it would do with land it now owns as part of the eminent domain push. Biden could save up to $2.6 billion if he halts construction, according to Army Corps of Engineers documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
This will not be the first time Biden confronts this issue. Last time he was in the White House, the Obama-Biden administration allowed the lawsuits and contracts to proceed. By the end of their first term, 54 new miles of border fence had been built in South Texas.
Starr County
One of CBP's toughest fights over eminent domain centers on Starr County, a poor, mostly rural county where family properties date back to original Spanish land grants issued 250 years ago, well before the Rio Grande served as an international boundary.
For more than a decade, residents and county officials have resisted the agency's push to build a border wall in Starr County, which the government has said in court filings is the No. 1 county for narcotics seizures across the entire southern border of the United States.
Starr and neighboring Hidalgo and Cameron counties are part of the agency's Rio Grande Valley sector, which accounts for 40% of immigrant arrests and 43% of the marijuana seizures along the southwest border.
Under the Trump administration, Starr has become one of the agency's top priorities for the border wall. Hidalgo and Cameron counties already have about 60 miles of border fencing, built upon concrete levee systems.
But Starr County, which lacks a levee system, had no wall before the Trump administration first proposed building there in 2017. Three years later, CBP has awarded contracts for 55 miles, but only about 5 miles have been built, mostly on U.S. Fish and Wildlife refuge land in remote corners of the county.
As it was a decade ago, the government's effort is once again mired in complicated eminent domain legal battles that have so far prevented construction on the remaining miles.
Of 70 condemnation cases filed by the government since September in South Texas, 53 are in Starr County, where the government has only accelerated legal action since Election Day (25 lawsuits have been filed in this county since Nov. 3).
In one case filed at the end of November, the government is seeking to seize a triangle of land smaller than 2 acres in the county. Despite the tract's small size, there are more than 30 individuals with possible ownership rights, scattered across Texas and as far away as Washington state, according to court records.
Lawyers say that as land has passed through the generations, many partitions have not been documented properly in official records, resulting in a thicket of potential land ownership that the government has struggled to unravel.
“The title issues in Starr County seem to be far more complicated and difficult than what we've seen in the other border counties," said Roy Brandys, an Austin-based eminent domain attorney who represents border residents in these cases. “On several of the cases we've been working on in Starr County, one of the reasons they have not progressed even faster is because the government and frankly, we as the landowners' representatives, are trying to work out the title issues before they move forward."
According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, title issues in Starr have slowed construction timelines considerably. “Some counties in South Texas, such as Starr County, do not have the infrastructure or funding to maintain recordkeeping systems," the report says.
But where the federal government sees as a maze of legal hurdles, local officials see a reflection of the region's heritage.
“For many, the land has been in their families for generations," said Joel Villarreal, mayor of the Starr County seat of Rio Grande City. “We have a large number of residents that own land and they are proud of that heritage to own land. They speak of it as something to be cherished, the idea of having land."
Fight over land
On a recent morning, Mendoza, 60, stood in front of his ranch as orange survey markers fluttered in the wind around him.
At regular intervals, he has built steps into his own mesh and metal tube fencing, allowing would-be border crossers to climb over. He said Border Patrol agents have asked him why he built them. “I tell them for one, I was undocumented when I came here," he explained. “And two, so they don't break down my fence!"
Credit: Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune/ProPublica
Mendoza says that he built approximately 300 ladders into the fence surrounding his 400-acre ranch so that people crossing the border illegally can pass through more easily — and so he can avoid damage to his fence.
The ranch holds a special place in the heart of Mendoza, who owns several businesses and properties in Starr County. In 1979, he crossed the border as an undocumented immigrant, passing through the same piece of property on his way to a new life in Houston. Thirty years later he bought the ranch when it came up for sale, and he is loath to lose it.
If the wall comes through the front of his ranch as proposed, Mendoza said he would have to move the fence and an expensive front gate, as well as the corral for the 40 or so cattle he raises on the land. Worse, he said, the wall would render the ranch virtually worthless by placing it almost entirely behind the barrier.
“It won't have any value afterwards" he said. “Anything could happen on the other side of the wall. I won't be protected inside there."
The government first made Mendoza an offer to buy his land in April, according to court documents. Five months later, federal prosecutors sued to take part of his ranch, depositing about $93,000 with the court as a “just compensation."
The government claimed in Mendoza's case that the cost of suspending work was about $15,000 per day. In other cases, the government contended that delays have added as much as $100,000 per day, depending on the size of the contract, according to a review by ProPublica and the Tribune. The expenses came from what officials called de- and re-mobilization and from having equipment and crew on standby beyond the date construction was scheduled to begin.
Excerpt from the government's motion for immediate possession in Mendoza's case.
In four Rio Grande Valley projects alone, where the government has detailed the costs of delays in court filings, the total is nearly $9 million, as of the date the court granted the order for immediate possession, which is when work can begin.
Despite not having been able to break ground in 18 months, the original $33 million contract to Southwest Valley Constructors is now worth $42 million thanks to contract options the government has exercised. An earlier review of federal spending data by ProPublica and the Tribune found modifications to contracts have increased the price of the border wall by billions, costing about five times more per mile than it did under previous administrations.
Francis Rooney, a Republican U.S. representative from Florida and longtime real estate developer, called the practice “ridiculous." From a contractor point of view, he said, there's the risk of inflation and rises in labor or material costs, for instance, as work on those sites is delayed.
“That sounds a little reckless to me, but I'm not surprised given some of what this administration has done," he said, in reference to Trump declaring a national emergency and using military funding to accelerate border wall building.
Credit: Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune/ProPublica
Construction of the border wall close to Mendoza's ranch near La Grulla.
ProPublica and the Tribune reached out to the companies with contracts in the Rio Grande Valley awarded under the practice. Most didn't respond and Kiewit Infrastructure West, an affiliate of Southwest Valley Constructors, referred questions to the Army Corps of Engineers.
Raini Bruni, another spokeswoman with the Corps, said border wall contracts are written in a way that puts much of the risk on the contractor, who can request compensation in cases where there's a delay or suspension, approved on a case-by-case basis.
But beyond the risk to the government and contractors, the practice can lead to a loss of protections to landowners, experts said.
Due process is at the heart of the government's power to take private property, said Evers of the nonpartisan watchdog American Oversight. But it is being ignored by rushing things through based on emergencies of the administration's own creation, he added, “which runs counter to basic American values."
Beyond the fight over the value of his land, Mendoza doesn't believe the wall will achieve its goal. “The people won't stop," he said. “It wouldn't have stopped me, I would have jumped over."
“They use the legal system as a threat"
About 20 miles upriver from Mendoza, the Muñiz family is also fighting the government's attempt to seize its land in a case that shows the pressure government agents have put on local landowners, especially in the final months of 2020.
On Sept. 1, the government sued Noelia Muñiz and offered to pay $5,500 for about an acre of land. According to court documents, she felt harassed by constant phone calls that she said were taking a toll on her health.
“They call every day, they threaten that if you don't show your face they will take you to court," said her brother Noe Muñiz Jr., 63, outside their home. “They use the legal system as a threat. ... It's very stressful for her."
Usually the government first tries to settle with landowners but sues when they can't reach an agreement or it's unclear who owns the land.
Credit: Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune/ProPublica
Ruben Solís, who lives in La Grulla, opposes construction of the border wall.
Since the beginning of the Trump administration, the government has filed 193 lawsuits — three-fourths just in the past year — asking Texas landowners to relinquish, temporarily or permanently, more than 5,800 acres, according to information provided by the Texas Civil Rights Project and court documents.
Noe Muñiz Jr. said the family has been going through the process without an attorney because it can't afford to pay one. “We have no support at all," he said. “If you want support it takes money and no one has money. ... I'm pretty sure they wouldn't do this in a place where the majority of people are white. Here you have Mexican people and they are poor, so come on."
In a normal condemnation case there would be safeguards in place such as environmental reviews, hydrology reports prior to starting the project, said Brandys, who has represented border residents under the current and previous administrations.
But due to what he calls the politicization of border wall construction, the U.S. attorney and those building the wall are under significant pressure from Washington to get as much done as possible. All of which can significantly impact the landowners, he said, adding, “Unfortunately in some of those situations you won't know until the wall is built and the projects are up and we see what the effects are."
The Department of Homeland Security has a record of abusing the eminent domain process to build border barriers.
In 2017, a ProPublica-Tribune investigation found DHS had cut unfair real estate deals, secretly waived legal safeguards for property owners and ultimately abused the government's power to take land from private citizens. In some cases, the DOJ bungled hundreds of condemnation cases, taking property without knowing the identity of the owners and condemning land without researching facts as basic as property lines.
Under the George W. Bush administration, the federal government filed more than 360 eminent domain lawsuits along the U.S.-Mexico border as part of an effort to build up to 700 miles of fencing by December 2008. Along the Rio Grande, the agency built 50 miles in disconnected strips and seized a total of 564 acres for which it paid $18.2 million, ProPublica and the Tribune reported.
There are still 20 cases pending in South Texas from that era, involving about 440 owners, according to the DOJ.
While lawyers and residents say some things have improved, such as the government providing more details about the property it is trying to take, the pressure on landowners has not eased.
Credit: Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune/ProPublica
Daniel Villarreal, 56, at his property in Rio Grande City. Villarreal says that he sold a portion of his land for the construction of the border wall because government workers said they were going to take it anyway.
Daniel Villarreal, a 56-year-old bail bondsman in Rio Grande City, said government negotiators told him earlier this year he either had to accept their offer or they would take it anyway.
But following Biden's victory, he is starting to feel pangs of regret about selling about an acre of his riverfront property to the government.
He didn't want to say how much he agreed to but said it's not life-changing money. “They say they gave me market value, but how long is that going to last? A year or two?" he said. “And then what you're left with is a monument to a man I don't even like."
The wall would also cut Villarreal off from the beauty of the river's edge, a fear echoed by other property owners.
Growing up, Noe Muñiz said he and his siblings swam daily in the river. As he grew older, the river offered respite after a long day of working in cantaloupe and onion fields. He still fishes there but worries that after a wall is built, the river would become too dangerous to visit inside the no man's land that would be created south of the barrier.
Even though the Muñiz family will likely lose the battle to keep its land, it is trying to get what it considers just compensation, he said, and holding onto hope that Biden will cancel the wall contract in the area. “You can't give up on the land. It's not the government's land," he said. “It's hard to let go."
Lexi Churchill contributed to this report.


alternet--2020-12-28--America's military reckoning: Most who've served deserve our praise. But veterans don't get a free p

America's military reckoning: Most who've served deserve our praise. But veterans don't get a free pass

It 's time for Americans to end their ritualistic fawning over veterans .
When former members of the U.S. armed forces visit the White House to , they prove that veterans do not automatically , uncritically warrant our praise .
In an era of perpetual war , this may appear blasphemous .
America 's all-volunteer force has borne the burden of a militarized foreign policy in the wake of 9/11 that has sent more than two million servicemen and women overseas to keep our nation safe .
These veterans have sacrificed immensely , some in .
Incredibly brave men and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yet in society 's haste to thank them for their service , veterans have become , in far too many ways , an inviolable sect beyond reproach .
Any criticism risks bringing forth a slew of anti-patriotic opprobrium .
Such blanket adulation must end .
And this most chaotic of years demonstrates why .
In one of the more contentious political seasons in American history , few malefactors have exceeded the duplicity of retired Lt. Gen. , who has called on President Trump to suspend the Constitution and declare martial law so military @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2020 election .
Never mind that Flynn , who pled guilty to misleading the FBI , once swore an oath to uphold that very Constitution .
Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. has echoed Flynn 's sedition entreaties .
The Vietnam War veteran also petitioned for martial law in the aftermath of a free and fair election , but then went further still , imploring Trump to cancel the Electoral College , suspend habeas corpus and arrest Democrats for treason .
Below these conspiracy theorists might be found veterans like Rep. R-Texas , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to ridicule the working-class background of his colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , D-N.Y. To Crenshaw , his political opponents were `` nuts '' and did n't `` know hardship '' like he did .
( Democratic senatorial candidate relied on similar tactics in Texas . )
Apparently , in these narratives , only veterans understand adversity and suffering .
Nor have senior military leaders and veterans accorded themselves well in foreign policy .
Secretary of State , a 1986 West Point graduate , slow-rolled acknowledging Joe Biden as president-elect and publicly quipped he would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a second Trump administration . ''
The policies Pompeo have supported — one source recently described him as a `` `` — hardly have advanced our national interests overseas .
Even well-respected officers have been largely derivative in their approach to U.S. foreign policy .
Retired Lt. Gen. and former national security adviser , in his latest book , has recommended a national security strategy based on little beyond what one reviewer has deemed `` a more muscular and constant use of force . ''
When President Trump authorized the assassination of Gen. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Quds Force , other retired generals described the act only in terms of `` , '' without questioning its .
And none of us should discount that some American veterans have acted immorally in our recent wars , a point of vital concern for our society , if not for our president .
Texas Republican chair — who recently — received a military reprimand for threatening to shoot an Iraqi detainee , while , and , either have been accused or convicted of killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan .
Do these men @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a uniform ?
Without question , these examples are not , thankfully , representative of the larger whole .
The vast majority of Americans serving in the armed forces do so in a way that make their families and local communities proud .
In large measure , we should take pride in those citizens who voluntarily serve their nation in uniform and appreciate their sacrifices on our behalf .
But instances of impropriety should not be dismissed because we are required , by some unwritten rule , to mechanically thank veterans for their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shield the wearer from scrutiny , criticism or disciplinary action .
Like all of us , veterans and current serving members of the armed forces are human beings , with the same gifts and foibles we all carry on a daily basis .
Armies often are a reflection of the societies they serve .
Such is true of the U.S. armed forces today which is `` more than in previous generations . ''
Yet despite our claims of , our society remains imperfect .
We should not be surprised that military service members @ @ @ @ @ @ @ need to come to a reckoning with our military affair , for it has become dangerous to our republic at a time when our fundamental political values and norms have been threatened by an imperial presidency and its timorous supporters .
Our adulation makes it more difficult to hold institutions accountable , to forge , under civilian control , more appropriate military policies , and to determine the costs of our national security .
In the end , when veterans call to suspend the Constitution in times of peace or discount their immoral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we , as a society , have the right and responsibility to hold them accountable .

It's time for Americans to end their ritualistic fawning over veterans. When former members of the U.S. armed forces visit the White House to promote military coups , they prove that veterans do not automatically, uncritically warrant our praise.
In an era of perpetual war, this may appear blasphemous. America's all-volunteer force has borne the burden of a militarized foreign policy in the wake of 9/11 that has sent more than two million servicemen and women overseas to keep our nation safe. These veterans have sacrificed immensely, some in heroic fashion . Incredibly brave men and women still populate our military ranks.
Yet in society's haste to thank them for their service, veterans have become, in far too many ways, an inviolable sect beyond reproach. Any criticism risks bringing forth a slew of anti-patriotic opprobrium. Such blanket adulation must end. And this most chaotic of years demonstrates why.
In one of the more contentious political seasons in American history, few malefactors have exceeded the duplicity of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn , who has called on President Trump to suspend the Constitution and declare martial law so military leaders can oversee a redo of the 2020 election. Never mind that Flynn, who pled guilty to misleading the FBI, once swore an oath to uphold that very Constitution.
Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney has echoed Flynn's sedition entreaties. The Vietnam War veteran also petitioned for martial law in the aftermath of a free and fair election, but then went further still, imploring Trump to cancel the Electoral College, suspend habeas corpus and arrest Democrats for treason.
Below these conspiracy theorists might be found veterans like Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, embracing his party's hyper-partisan talking points to ridicule the working-class background of his colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. To Crenshaw, his political opponents were "nuts" and didn't "know hardship" like he did. (Democratic senatorial candidate MJ Hegar relied on similar tactics in Texas.) Apparently, in these narratives, only veterans understand adversity and suffering.
Nor have senior military leaders and veterans accorded themselves well in foreign policy. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo , a 1986 West Point graduate, slow-rolled acknowledging Joe Biden as president-elect and publicly quipped he would help usher a "smooth transition to a second Trump administration." The policies Pompeo have supported — one source recently described him as a " global arsonist " — hardly have advanced our national interests overseas.
Even well-respected officers have been largely derivative in their approach to U.S. foreign policy. Retired Lt. Gen. and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster , in his latest book, has recommended a national security strategy based on little beyond what one reviewer has deemed "a more muscular and constant use of force." When President Trump authorized the assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, chief of Iran's Quds Force, other retired generals described the act only in terms of " American deterrence ," without questioning its moral or legal justifications .
And none of us should discount that some American veterans have acted immorally in our recent wars, a point of vital concern for our society, if not for our president. Texas Republican chair Allen West — who recently called for secession — received a military reprimand for threatening to shoot an Iraqi detainee, while Eddie Gallagher , Clint Lorance and Robert Bales, among others , either have been accused or convicted of killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Do these men deserve our admiration simply because they wore a uniform?
Without question, these examples are not, thankfully, representative of the larger whole. The vast majority of Americans serving in the armed forces do so in a way that make their families and local communities proud. In large measure, we should take pride in those citizens who voluntarily serve their nation in uniform and appreciate their sacrifices on our behalf.
But instances of impropriety should not be dismissed because we are required, by some unwritten rule, to mechanically thank veterans for their service. Wearing a uniform should not shield the wearer from scrutiny, criticism or disciplinary action. Like all of us, veterans and current serving members of the armed forces are human beings, with the same gifts and foibles we all carry on a daily basis.
Armies often are a reflection of the societies they serve. Such is true of the U.S. armed forces today which is "more racially and ethnically diverse than in previous generations." Yet despite our claims of American exceptionalism , our society remains imperfect. We should not be surprised that military service members might be imperfect as well.
We need to come to a reckoning with our military affair, for it has become dangerous to our republic at a time when our fundamental political values and norms have been threatened by an imperial presidency and its timorous supporters. Our adulation makes it more difficult to hold institutions accountable, to forge, under civilian control, more appropriate military policies, and to determine the costs of our national security.
In the end, when veterans call to suspend the Constitution in times of peace or discount their immoral acts in times of war, then we, as a society, have the right and responsibility to hold them accountable.


alternet--2020-12-28--'Sadistic': Trump slammed for teasing 'good news on COVID relief' after letting millions lose unempl

'Sadistic': Trump slammed for teasing 'good news on COVID relief' after letting millions lose unemployment

Minutes after CNN published a report revealing President Donald Trump had planned to sign the coronavirus relief bill Christmas Eve at Mar-a-Lago in a big show , but changed his mind at the last minute , Trump posted a tweet teasing out `` good news . ''
`` Good news on Covid Relief Bill .
Information to follow ! ''
the president said , ignoring the fact that by not signing the bill by midnight Saturday , 12-14 million Americans will be kicked off their extended unemployment insurance benefits .
Many on social media were aghast , especially since Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during months of negotiations on the legislation , but he 's been golfing the past few days knowing literally millions were desperately hoping he would help them .
Many Americans are literally starving , unemployed , and facing eviction and loss of basic services .
Americans have enough enough of the billionaire president who has descended into fascistic attacks on the U.S. elections system now that he will be a one-term president .
UPDATE : 7:32 PM ET – Trump has not said anything else , but here 's CNN 's Keith Boykin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ :

Minutes after CNN published a report revealing President Donald Trump had planned to sign the coronavirus relief bill Christmas Eve at Mar-a-Lago in a big show, but changed his mind at the last minute, Trump posted a tweet teasing out "good news."
"Good news on Covid Relief Bill. Information to follow!" the president said, ignoring the fact that by not signing the bill by midnight Saturday, 12-14 million Americans will be kicked off their extended unemployment insurance benefits.
Many on social media were aghast, especially since Trump has not only been missing in action during months of negotiations on the legislation, but he's been golfing the past few days knowing literally millions were desperately hoping he would help them. Many Americans are literally starving, unemployed, and facing eviction and loss of basic services.
Americans have enough enough of the billionaire president who has descended into fascistic attacks on the U.S. elections system now that he will be a one-term president.
UPDATE: 7:32 PM ET –
Trump has not said anything else, but here's CNN's Keith Boykin weighing in on a Washington Post update:


alternet--2020-12-29--Trump suffers bipartisan rebuke as the House votes by large margin to override his veto

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted 322-87 on Monday to override President Trump 's veto of the $ 740 billion National Defense Authorization Act ( NDAA ) .
If approved by two-thirds of the Senate , the override would be the first of Trump 's presidency in an increasingly split Congress with just three weeks until President-elect Joe Biden 's inauguration .
Prior to Trump 's denouncement and veto of the critical defense bill , it had been passed by Congress every year since 1967 .
He said he would veto the bill `` if lawmakers did not repeal liability @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act , '' Axios reported Monday .
The 74-year-old president also opposed legislation in the defense bill that proposed renaming 10 military installations currently named after Confederate leaders .
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith ( D-WA ) said Monday , `` It is enormously important we pass this bill .
We did it once .
Let 's just do it one more time and then we can all go home for the year . ''
During his remarks , Smith referred to the Armed Services @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Congress . ''
He continued , `` That 's not an easy thing to achieve .
We have a lot of things we passionately disagree about in this body , and we should .
But on the armed services bill , we manage to come together .
It 's not always easy , but we get it done .
I think it is enormously important we let the country know that that process has n't died . ''
A Senate vote is expected to occur this week on the bill .

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted 322-87 on Monday to override President Trump's veto of the $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). If approved by two-thirds of the Senate, the override would be the first of Trump's presidency in an increasingly split Congress with just three weeks until President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.
Prior to Trump's denouncement and veto of the critical defense bill, it had been passed by Congress every year since 1967. He said he would veto the bill "if lawmakers did not repeal liability protections for social media companies outlined in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act," Axios reported Monday.
The 74-year-old president also opposed legislation in the defense bill that proposed renaming 10 military installations currently named after Confederate leaders.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) said Monday, "It is enormously important we pass this bill. We did it once. Let's just do it one more time and then we can all go home for the year."
During his remarks, Smith referred to the Armed Services Committee as "the most bipartisan committee in Congress."
He continued, "That's not an easy thing to achieve. We have a lot of things we passionately disagree about in this body, and we should. But on the armed services bill, we manage to come together. It's not always easy, but we get it done. I think it is enormously important we let the country know that that process hasn't died."
A Senate vote is expected to occur this week on the bill.


alternet--2020-12-29--Partyland 2020: The Trumpists celebrate while the world burns

'T is the season to be folly Fa-la-la-la-la , la-la-la-la Don ( ald ) we now our gay apparel , Fa-la-la-la-la , la-la-la-la !
...
It 's party time in the nation 's capital and the Christmas spirit reigns supreme , even if the Texas Republican Party does want to secede from the Union .
I mean , who does n't ?
And hey , do n't you want to attend a party ?
After all , it 'll be at the White House , masks purely optional , social distancing not particularly necessary .
Too bad you already missed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Covid Ball '' ) that The Donald and Melania so graciously hosted .
Still , if you make it to one of the others , be sure to check out Melania 's decorations , not to speak of her just-unveiled new White House tennis pavilion of which she should be proud , despite all the criticism .
After all , unlike you-know-who , she used the moment to welcome non-Trumpian presidents to come !
( `` It is my hope that this private space will function as both a place of leisure and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) Meanwhile , even though more than 50 people in his circle have already been infected with Covid-19 , her husband has been hosting up to 24 parties and celebrations of every sort at the White House this month .
In other words , top-notch super-spreader Christmas fun until more or less the end of time .
( If you 're well over 65 , like I am , it may quite literally be your last chance to have a blast . )
And whatever you do , when you 're freely wandering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that tribute to essential workers in the Red Room !
If , however , you 're of a slightly more serious frame of mind , how about cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at Mike Pompeo 's State Department ?
Hurry it up because one thing is guaranteed : it 's not going to be anywhere near as much fun in the Biden years .
( I mean , so been-there , done-that , right ? )
And do n't worry , since the State Department building has been deep-cleaned repeatedly due to reported Covid-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fact that State Department personnel are being urged to work from home .
I guarantee you that it 'll be a blast -- and I do n't mean a bombing-Iran sort of blast either , though for all any of us knows , that might be in the works , too !
After all , you could already have run into a bevy of foreign ambassadors and up to 900 guests ( actually , fewer than 70 appeared ) in rooms on the eighth floor of that building ( but socially distanced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were supposed to go on until Christmas .
Whoa , rein in that sleigh , Santa !
Sorry to disappoint , but Mike canceled his final superspreader party and went into quarantine last week after -- big shock !
-- coming into contact with someone who had the coronavirus while hosting those `` diplomats and dignitaries '' at close quarters !
Deck the halls with boughs of folly indeed !
And 2020 !
What a year to celebrate , right ?
The very year when Donald Trump won his second term as president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ confused ?
Did I mean lost the presidency in a landslide of pandemic deaths ?
Still , if in this `` holiday '' season , and in the true spirit of Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo , I were to be offered the chance to remake the history of this century , here 's the switcheroo I might choose to pull .
Let 's start with this simple fact : on December 9th , more people died in a single day from Covid-19 ( 3,124 ) than died on September 11 , 2001 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Towers and part of the Pentagon ( 2,977 ) .
Or cumulatively speaking , think of it this way : more Americans have died in less than a year from the coronavirus than the 301,000 civilians that Brown University 's Costs of War Project estimates have died in America 's forever wars in Afghanistan , Iraq , Syria , Pakistan , and Yemen since 2001 .
Donald Trump 's response to the pandemic has , of course , been to give awful advice , hold super-spreader rallies galore , and most recently host @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the White House ; he has , that is , responded to the arrival of Covid-19 on our shores by committing murder big time .
( Estimates are that , by February 2021 , 450,000 Americans could be dead from the pandemic even as vaccines to prevent it begin to arrive .
By the time this country is more or less safe -- if it ever truly is -- that number might be 600,000 ( or almost in the range of the American toll in the `` Spanish Flu '' of 1918 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a few years , consider the response of President George W. Bush to that one day of horrific death caused by 19 mostly Saudi hijackers aboard four commercial jets .
In response to those 9/11 attacks , he launched what quickly became known as the Global War on Terror , promptly invaded Afghanistan , and a year and a half later did the same thing in Iraq .
( That was , of course , something he and his top officials had begun thinking about -- quite literally , in the case of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rubble of the Pentagon , even though that country 's ruler , Saddam Hussein , had nothing whatsoever to do either with al-Qaeda or those terror attacks . )
Of course , 19 years later , despite a president who swore he would end this country 's `` forever wars , '' the war on terror is still ongoing without a lasting victory or true success in sight .
Now , in this mad Trumpian Christmas season with increasing parts of the country in lockdown and Covid-19 cases , hospitalizations , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ here 's my fantasy proposition , my imagined historical switcheroo : What if , in response to 9/11 , George W. Bush had , irresponsibly enough , simply thrown parties at the White House in high Trumpian-style ; and what if , in response to the coronavirus crisis , Donald Trump had , responsibly enough , launched a global war on Covid-19 in true Bushian fashion ?
How differently history might have turned out .
The Blazing Fool Before Us Instead , of course , Bush did launch those disastrous invasions and Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ truth when it came to the pandemic ( and so much else ) .
The result , in both cases : crimes and deaths galore .
Though it 's seldom thought of that way , both of those twenty-first-century presidents of `` ours '' were , in a rather literal sense , mass murderers .
In addition , thanks to the two of them and the cast of characters that accompanied them , we now live in a world of remarkable lies and self-delusion , whether we 're talking about the U.S. military @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all , if you do n't think this country is delusional when it comes to what still passes for `` national security '' consider this : just the other day , the Democrats and Republicans in Congress , who can evidently agree on so little else , passed a record veto-proof defense bill giving the Pentagon a staggering $ 740 billion dollars for the next fiscal year .
( Talk about inequality in this country with so many Americans at the edge of eviction or even hunger and Congress doing next to nothing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ together they actually agreed to offer more money than the Pentagon even asked for when it came to purchasing new arms , including extra Lockheed Martin F-35 jet fighters , already the most expensive and possibly least effective warplanes in history .
Meanwhile , across the planet , the weaponry into which all that `` national security '' money has been poured is still killing people , including startling numbers of civilians , in never-ending unsuccessful wars that have turned millions of people in distant countries into displaced persons and refugees .
Considering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ security '' is n't just a joke , but a lie of the first order .
It has , as a start , produced both global and national insecurity ( while aiding the rise of what 's now called right-wing populism ) .
Those disastrous but disastrously well-funded wars launched by George W. Bush proved to be , above all else , acts of mass murder abroad , even as they also led to the deaths , injuries , or PTSD misery of significant numbers of Americans .
Think of them , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ literal sense imaginable , war crimes .
Of course , those acts of mass murder all took place in distant lands far from most American eyes , even as , in an ever more unequal society , they deprived so many here of needed assistance .
In part , Donald Trump 's victory in the 2016 presidential campaign was a product of that mass murder abroad .
And now , without ever actually ending those wars as he promised so vociferously , he 's become a mass murderer at home in his own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , think of him , whether in relation to Covid-19 itself or the election that took place in its midst , as launching a kind of war on terror on both Americans and our political system .
In the process , he 's helped create a world of staggering folly that should be eternally unmasked .
( Whoops !
Well , you know what I mean . )
The America he 's played such a part in producing has created a kind of mental chaos that 's hard to take in .
One @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sad spirit in this series of tweets : She 's right .
No credits roll and yet the president and his men , as well as Republican governors like South Dakota 's Kristi Noem who refuse to mandate masks are , in an obvious sense , aiding and abetting murders .
Take , for instance , the president 's lawyer , former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani who traveled the country unmasked , ignoring social distancing guidelines wherever he went , to beat the post-election drums for Donald Trump .
He then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , got special medications that most Americans could never receive thanks to his pal , and called into his own radio show from his hospital room to essentially denounce masking and social distancing and assure his listeners that Covid-19 was `` curable . ''
( Tell that to the more than 300,000 Americans who have already died from it . )
Now , do n't such acts , multiplied many times over , qualify as part of what might be considered a homegrown war of ( not on ) terror in a world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ season ?
And I have n't even mentioned the crimes this president and his administration have committed against the environment or President Trump 's criminal urge to torch the planet itself in a fashion that , given what we already know about climate change , will potentially result in so much more death , destruction , and displacement .
We live in a land of vast crimes against others and increasingly against ourselves .
We also await a new president whose greatest ad line is simply that he is not Donald J. Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in all honesty that `` new '' has to be taken under advisement .
Let 's hope for the best , especially when it comes to climate change , but Joe Biden will , after all , be 78 years old -- by far the oldest president in our history -- on entering the Oval Office .
He 's the been-there , done-that man of our moment and , Obama appointee by Obama appointee , he seems largely intent on recreating a familiar past that helped create the very future we 're now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a country on edge , armed , angry , and in a conspiratorial frame of mind , as we face a Mitch McConnell Republican Party that would rather take down the future than negotiate much of anything , Donald Trump , the murderer , continues to prove himself the ultimate , possibly all-time , sore loser , even as he parties away at the White House .
He gives a pandemic version of Christmas true meaning .
See the blazing fool before us , Fa-la-la-la-la , la-la-la-la Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ author of a history of the Cold War , The End of Victory Culture .
He runs TomDispatch and is a fellow of the Type Media Center .
His sixth and latest book is A Nation Unmade by War .
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook .
Check out the newest Dispatch Books , John Feffer 's new dystopian novel ( the second in the Splinterlands series ) Frostlands , Beverly Gologorsky 's novel Every Body Has a Story , and Tom Engelhardt 's A Nation Unmade by War , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Shadows of the American Century : The Rise and Decline of U.S .
Global Power and John Dower 's The Violent American Century : War and Terror Since World War II .

'Tis the season to be folly
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Don(ald) we now our gay apparel,
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!...
It's party time in the nation's capital and the Christmas spirit reigns supreme, even if the Texas Republican Party does want to secede from the Union. I mean, who doesn't?
And hey, don't you want to attend a party? After all, it'll be at the White House, masks purely optional, social distancing not particularly necessary. Too bad you already missed the Congressional Ball (redubbed the "Covid Ball") that The Donald and Melania so graciously hosted. Still, if you make it to one of the others, be sure to check out Melania's decorations, not to speak of her just-unveiled new White House tennis pavilion of which she should be proud, despite all the criticism. After all, unlike you-know-who, she used the moment to welcome non-Trumpian presidents to come! ("It is my hope that this private space will function as both a place of leisure and gathering for future first families.")
Meanwhile, even though more than 50 people in his circle have already been infected with Covid-19, her husband has been hosting up to 24 parties and celebrations of every sort at the White House this month. In other words, top-notch super-spreader Christmas fun until more or less the end of time. (If you're well over 65, like I am, it may quite literally be your last chance to have a blast.) And whatever you do, when you're freely wandering the White House, don't miss that tribute to essential workers in the Red Room!
If, however, you're of a slightly more serious frame of mind, how about cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at Mike Pompeo's State Department? Hurry it up because one thing is guaranteed: it's not going to be anywhere near as much fun in the Biden years. (I mean, so been-there, done-that, right?) And don't worry, since the State Department building has been deep-cleaned repeatedly due to reported Covid-19 infections there and pay no attention to the fact that State Department personnel are being urged to work from home. I guarantee you that it'll be a blast -- and I don't mean a bombing-Iran sort of blast either, though for all any of us knows, that might be in the works, too! After all, you could already have run into a bevy of foreign ambassadors and up to 900 guests (actually, fewer than 70 appeared) in rooms on the eighth floor of that building (but socially distanced, I swear) at gatherings that were supposed to go on until Christmas.
Whoa, rein in that sleigh, Santa! Sorry to disappoint, but Mike canceled his final superspreader party and went into quarantine last week after -- big shock! -- coming into contact with someone who had the coronavirus while hosting those "diplomats and dignitaries" at close quarters!
Deck the halls with boughs of folly indeed!
A Historical Switcheroo
And 2020! What a year to celebrate, right? The very year when Donald Trump won his second term as president in a landslide -- or am I confused? Did I mean lost the presidency in a landslide of pandemic deaths? Still, if in this "holiday" season, and in the true spirit of Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo, I were to be offered the chance to remake the history of this century, here's the switcheroo I might choose to pull.
Let's start with this simple fact: on December 9th, more people died in a single day from Covid-19 (3,124) than died on September 11, 2001, in the ruins of the Twin Towers and part of the Pentagon (2,977). Or cumulatively speaking, think of it this way: more Americans have died in less than a year from the coronavirus than the 301,000 civilians that Brown University's Costs of War Project estimates have died in America's forever wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, and Yemen since 2001.
Donald Trump's response to the pandemic has, of course, been to give awful advice, hold super-spreader rallies galore, and most recently host those ongoing, largely unmasked festivities at the White House; he has, that is, responded to the arrival of Covid-19 on our shores by committing murder big time. (Estimates are that, by February 2021, 450,000 Americans could be dead from the pandemic even as vaccines to prevent it begin to arrive. By the time this country is more or less safe -- if it ever truly is -- that number might be 600,000 (or almost in the range of the American toll in the "Spanish Flu" of 1918).
Now, to step back just a few years, consider the response of President George W. Bush to that one day of horrific death caused by 19 mostly Saudi hijackers aboard four commercial jets. In response to those 9/11 attacks, he launched what quickly became known as the Global War on Terror, promptly invaded Afghanistan, and a year and a half later did the same thing in Iraq. (That was, of course, something he and his top officials had begun thinking about -- quite literally, in the case of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld -- in the rubble of the Pentagon, even though that country's ruler, Saddam Hussein, had nothing whatsoever to do either with al-Qaeda or those terror attacks.) Of course, 19 years later, despite a president who swore he would end this country's "forever wars," the war on terror is still ongoing without a lasting victory or true success in sight.
Now, in this mad Trumpian Christmas season with increasing parts of the country in lockdown and Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths eternally rising into record-breaking territory, here's my fantasy proposition, my imagined historical switcheroo: What if, in response to 9/11, George W. Bush had, irresponsibly enough, simply thrown parties at the White House in high Trumpian-style; and what if, in response to the coronavirus crisis, Donald Trump had, responsibly enough, launched a global war on Covid-19 in true Bushian fashion? How differently history might have turned out.
The Blazing Fool Before Us
Instead, of course, Bush did launch those disastrous invasions and Trump did launch his own personal war on truth when it came to the pandemic (and so much else). The result, in both cases: crimes and deaths galore. Though it's seldom thought of that way, both of those twenty-first-century presidents of "ours" were, in a rather literal sense, mass murderers. In addition, thanks to the two of them and the cast of characters that accompanied them, we now live in a world of remarkable lies and self-delusion, whether we're talking about the U.S. military or our health and well-being.
After all, if you don't think this country is delusional when it comes to what still passes for "national security" consider this: just the other day, the Democrats and Republicans in Congress, who can evidently agree on so little else, passed a record veto-proof defense bill giving the Pentagon a staggering $740billion dollars for the next fiscal year. (Talk about inequality in this country with so many Americans at the edge of eviction or even hunger and Congress doing next to nothing for them!) In fact, together they actually agreed to offer more money than the Pentagon even asked for when it came to purchasing new arms, including extra Lockheed Martin F-35 jet fighters, already the most expensive and possibly least effective warplanes in history. Meanwhile, across the planet, the weaponry into which all that "national security" money has been poured is still killing people, including startling numbers of civilians, in never-ending unsuccessful wars that have turned millions of people in distant countries into displaced persons and refugees.
Considering such funding to be for "national security" isn't just a joke, but a lie of the first order. It has, as a start, produced both global and national insecurity (while aiding the rise of what's now called right-wing populism). Those disastrous but disastrously well-funded wars launched by George W. Bush proved to be, above all else, acts of mass murder abroad, even as they also led to the deaths, injuries, or PTSD misery of significant numbers of Americans. Think of them, in fact, as, in the most literal sense imaginable, war crimes.
Of course, those acts of mass murder all took place in distant lands far from most American eyes, even as, in an ever more unequal society, they deprived so many here of needed assistance. In part, Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential campaign was a product of that mass murder abroad. And now, without ever actually ending those wars as he promised so vociferously, he's become a mass murderer at home in his own striking fashion. In this pandemic year, think of him, whether in relation to Covid-19 itself or the election that took place in its midst, as launching a kind of war on terror on both Americans and our political system.
In the process, he's helped create a world of staggering folly that should be eternally unmasked. (Whoops! Well, you know what I mean.) The America he's played such a part in producing has created a kind of mental chaos that's hard to take in. One nurse in unmasked South Dakota caught its sad spirit in this series of tweets:
"I have a night off from the hospital. As I'm on my couch with my dog I can't help but think of the Covid patients the last few days. The ones that stick out are those who still don't believe the virus is real. The ones who scream at you for a magic medicine and that Joe Biden is going to ruin the USA. All while gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm. They tell you there must be another reason they are sick. They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that 'stuff' because they don't have Covid because it's not real... These people really think this isn't going to happen to them. And then they stop yelling at you when they get intubated. It's like a fucking horror movie that never ends. There's no credits that roll. You just go back and do it all over again."
She's right. No credits roll and yet the president and his men, as well as Republican governors like South Dakota's Kristi Noem who refuse to mandate masks are, in an obvious sense, aiding and abetting murders. Take, for instance, the president's lawyer, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani who traveled the country unmasked, ignoring social distancing guidelines wherever he went, to beat the post-election drums for Donald Trump. He then fell ill with Covid-19, was hospitalized, got special medications that most Americans could never receive thanks to his pal, and called into his own radio show from his hospital room to essentially denounce masking and social distancing and assure his listeners that Covid-19 was "curable." (Tell that to the more than 300,000 Americans who have already died from it.)
Now, don't such acts, multiplied many times over, qualify as part of what might be considered a homegrown war of (not on) terror in a world not of holly but folly this Christmas season? And I haven't even mentioned the crimes this president and his administration have committed against the environment or President Trump's criminal urge to torch the planet itself in a fashion that, given what we already know about climate change, will potentially result in so much more death, destruction, and displacement.
We live in a land of vast crimes against others and increasingly against ourselves. We also await a new president whose greatest ad line is simply that he is not Donald J. Trump (thank god!), though in all honesty that "new" has to be taken under advisement. Let's hope for the best, especially when it comes toclimate change, but Joe Biden will, after all, be 78 years old -- by far the oldest president in our history -- on entering the Oval Office. He's the been-there, done-that man of our moment and, Obama appointee by Obama appointee, he seems largely intent on recreating a familiar past that helped create the very future we're now mired in.
As we await him in a country on edge, armed, angry, and in a conspiratorial frame of mind, as we face a Mitch McConnell Republican Party that would rather take down the future than negotiate much of anything, Donald Trump, the murderer, continues to prove himself the ultimate, possibly all-time, sore loser, even as he parties away at the White House. He gives a pandemic version of Christmas true meaning.
See the blazing fool before us,
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of a history of the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture. He runs TomDispatchand is a fellow of the Type Media Center. His sixth and latest book is A Nation Unmade by War.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Books, John Feffer's new dystopian novel (the second in the Splinterlands series) Frostlands, Beverly Gologorsky's novel Every Body Has a Story, and Tom Engelhardt's A Nation Unmade by War, as well as Alfred McCoy's In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power and John Dower's The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II.
Copyright 2020 Tom Engelhard