Cartoon

The Memo Line

Written by SK Ashby

(Cartoonist - Stuart Carlson)

In other news, the United States crossed 36,000 deaths from COVID-19 this afternoon from about 690,000 confirmed cases by the end of the today. Over 2.2 million cases have been identified worldwide.

Meanwhile, March 2020 was the first month since the year 2002 that we did not have a school shooting. You know, because all the schools are closed.

Finally, public records obtained by the Washington Post through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) shows that smugglers sawed through Trump's fake border wall at least 18 times in just one month last fall.

The breaches and attempted breaches were made between Sept. 27 and Oct. 27, according to CBP records, with five of the incidents occurring on a single day, Oct. 10. The agency withheld information about the specific locations of the incidents, citing law enforcement sensitivities. The agency said the average cost to repair the damage was $620 per incident.

The records do not indicate whether the one-month span last year is a representative sample of how frequently people are trying to breach new sections of Trump’s border barrier, which are made of tall steel bollards partially filled with concrete and rebar. The Post reported last November that smuggling crews armed with common battery-operated power tools — including reciprocating saws that retail for as little as $100 at home improvement stores — can cut hack through the bollards using inexpensive blades designed for slicing through metal and stone.

$100 is a very small price to pay when running a multi-million dollar smuggling operation.