CSI: American Carnage (Thursday, February 7, 2019)
NOGALES, AZ — We can see what looks like an army truck, Professor, says Little Timmy, pup reporter. They’ve got stacks of razor wire in the back, giant piles. Timmy, along with Sarah, his friend from the resistance pot luck, and Mohammed, a friend from the Ramadan teach-in, are in Nogales, Arizona, next to a tall, rusting iron blockade. A wall. Timmy and his small strike force watch as the truck stops and soldiers jump out. They walk around to the back and lift out a large roll of razor wire and place it on the ground. Timmy, speaking on his cell to the Professor, says. They’re standing around now. It looks like they’re trying to find a place for their razor wire. The thing is, Professor, there is already so much razor wire, there’s no place to put any more. They’ve got rows and rows of it from the top of the wall to the ground. The Professor says, This is the crisis. This is what we are dealing with when the president says he isn’t going to take things off the table. Sarah says, Professor, the autocrat cares nothing about what he is doing and who he’s doing it to. He is only interested in the doing. He wants you to know that he’s screwing you and there is nothing you can do about it but watch and maybe jump up and down. The Professor says, He goes on about the lawless state of our southern border and how it is a threat to the safety, security, and financial well-being of all Americans. Sarah laughs a bitter laugh. She says, The autocrat doesn’t care about the wall. He doesn’t care about safety and security. He seeks the opposite. He is the threat. If anything, the wall, now covered top to bottom by rolls of razor wire, is destroying this little town, this little border town of Nogales with its Walmart and its Denny’s. The autocrat is concerned only with carrying out his own schemes with impunity. The wall is of interest not because of its physical presence but because of how it can be used rhetorically. You know all this, Professor. Timmy says, Wait a minute, now a group of people is approaching the soldiers. Hey, that’s the mayor. They are talking with the soldiers. Now they are arguing. The soldiers are shaking their heads and shrugging their shoulders. Mohammed says, There can be no doubt that the local people want to get rid of the razor wire. They say it is destroying their town, they said that on the teevee news. Timmy says, How do you know that? Mohammed says, I watched the live stream when we were in El Paso, preparing for the president’s visit. The mayor is demanding the army take it down because it is not a good thing to have a wall of razor wire running through the middle of your town. It can slice people in half while they shop. The mayor says he doesn’t know why Nogales is bing used as their concertina poster city. He says it’s not right. He says the town will sue. Timmy says, Did you hear that, Professor? The Professor says, I did. Sarah says, The autocrat laughs at such threats. He just orders up more wire, checks various bank accounts, and sits back to watch.
— Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019