Sometimes the events of the day seem downright surreal. Yesterday, I read about the US Coast Guard cutter Campbell which returned to the Portsmouth Naval Base from a three month Pacific patrol in which it seized more than 11,000 pounds of cocaine, worth about $159 million. Nevertheless, the personnel aboard the Campbell are not currently being paid for their work due to the current partial Federal shutdown. Nationally, the 42,000 Coast Guardsmen and women are the only military personnel working without pay. Thousands of Coast Guard civilian personnel, who support the Coast Guard military personnel, have also been furloughed without pay.
Of course, the reason that the government is shut down is that current occupant of the Oval Office has thrown a temper tantrum over a wall on the border with Mexico, a wall that he swore Mexico would pay for. The reasons that he claims the wall is necessary are twofold — to stop illegal immigration and to block the importation of drugs.
The fact is that cross-border illegal immigration is at near 50 year low. Also, most undocumented immigrants arrive in the US legally and overstay their visas. A wall won’t stop them, as most arrive by plane.
Will a wall stop the movement of drugs? No. According to Rear Admiral Christopher Tomney, director of Joint Interagency Task Force South for the US Coast Guard, “well over 95% of the drugs are moving on the water via container ships, non-commercial vessels, pleasure boats, sailboats, fishing boats.”
And here is where the surrealism kicks in. US Coast Guard personnel are working without pay while serving on the front lines of the war on drugs, interdicting literally billions of dollars worth of illegal drugs each year. The USCGC Campbell’s recent success is not an isolated event. In September, the USCGC Seneca seized $61 million worth of drugs, while in November the crew of the USCGC James recovered around 18.5 tons of cocaine worth an estimated $500 million.
In the last three fiscal years, the US Coast Guard has interdicted almost 700 tons of cocaine with a street value approaching $20 billion dollars.
So we have a situation where the Coast Guard personnel, who are really stopping illegal drugs, aren’t getting paid over the funding of a needless wall which won’t stop significant quantities of illegal drugs.
The satirical military blog, DuffelBlog, has a suggestion to address the problem — sell the seized drugs to pay wages.
Coast Guard begins reselling seized cocaine amid government shutdown
With the Coast Guard being the only branch of the military whose members may go without during the current government shutdown, the service has decided to resell the nearly $1 billion dollars worth of cocaine seized in the past six months to supplement pay for the 42,000 men and women on active duty.
“We doubt legislation will be passed by Friday, Dec. 28, which will keep us from getting our scheduled pay check for 31 Dec.,” Chief Warrant Officer Kevin Francescon said in a statement. “However, we have a shit ton of drugs. And if we can capture it, we damn well can sell it back for twice the price to the right buyers.”
Again, this is satire.
News reports they get one last paycheck at the end of December.
Tighten your belts!
Got my USCG pension Friday plus a $30 dollar COLA raise.
Next month, ?
Which leads on to the legalization of cannabis and the navies of the world on drugs patrols seizing dhows full of the stuff, maybe to sell on?
Yeah, good luck on the drug sale. Tho I wouldnt put it past Trump to try and do just that.
Like Bass fishermen’s Catch and release!
Good for Job security too!
President Trump stayed in Washington. Congress left on vacation.
The Coast Guard gets their scheduled paycheck for December.
Who really cares about the Coast Guard?
Trump is holding the government hostage over his needless vanity wall. The shutdown is on him.
Claiming that Trump cares about anyone or anything other than himself is idiotic.
Pathetic. Surreal is the right word, and you don’t need drugs for this experience, folks. My son spent thirteen years in the Coast Guard, the smallest and proudest of the services. To see the men and women in this vital branch being denied their pay as they continue to perform their duty with dedication and honor makes my blood boil.
I call satire bull crap. If the Mexican government did a better job of taking care of their people they probably wouldn’t want to leave and get all the Freebies they get when they treck across the border with almost nothing to stop them. I am tired of my tax money being given away to the trash and free loaders on gubment programs. The coast guard does a great job at intercepting the drugs and scumbags trying to get in by water but you can’t catch them all. We still need something on the border and not something that has to be redone in 3 or 5 years.
Bob, that is just stupid. You apparently believe the Orange Oaf’s lies about an immigration invasion, when in fact, cross-border immigration is at close to 50-year lows. You are apparently also unaware that more Mexicans have been leaving this country than entering for several years now. If you really cared about freeloaders you would oppose the shameless handouts to the wealthy by the Republicans. No one is opposed to border security. Most Americans, however, are opposed to wasting taxpayer money to build a border wall to feed the ego of a clown and a traitor.