The Con administration’s reasons for building the Wall included border-crossers with cantaloupe calves from carrying backpacks full of “drugs” (anything from penicillin to potpourri) and it seems that, in one respect, they are partly right: the rate of seizure of methamphetamine at the border south of San Diego has increased by tenfold in the last ten years, to over 20,000 pounds in 2016. Seizures at Laredo and Tucson have increased in a similar fashion. However, the rate of deaths from stimulant abuse has only increased by 2-1/2 times in the same ten years ( see this CDC publication, 2017 National Drug Threat Assessment. ) This represents a complete failure of Richard Nixon’s “War on Drugs.”
The driver appears to be the Combat Methamphetamine Act, a law passed in 2005 that, in addition to other strictures, has placed pseudoephedrine behind the counter in pharmacies and limited individual purchasers to 7.5 grams every 30 days. The first result of the law was to reduce home-brewing of methamphetamine by a dangerous but simple to learn process involving large quantities of over-the-counter decongestants ( those who still do this acquire the starting ingredient by a procedure known as “smurfing” ) thereby reducing the strain on law-enforcement agencies that had been forced to do HAZMAT duties to clean up the poisonous byproducts.
The second result of the law was to encourage drug cartels to take up the slack, which they have done with alacrity. The fact that the “War on Drugs” has been lost is nowhere more apparent than in the low prices and ready supply of 100% pure methamphetamine on the street. In Portland, Oregon, methamphetamine is available for $5 a hit and has frequently been the only thing in stock. Like heroin, the supply of meth mostly comes from abroad, and like heroin, potency and affordability of meth has soared over the years since 1971, when Richard Nixon declared that drug abuse was the nation’s most serious threat and instituted the “War on Drugs.”
Another feature of our abject failure to win or even fight an effective rear-guard action in the War on Drugs is the fact that opioid overdose deaths have increased several-fold, partly because, due to competition, suppliers have increased the potency of heroin by adding fentanyl ( 50 times as strong as heroin ) or carfentanil ( 5000 times as strong ) to pure heroin while keeping the price the same. Heroin seizures have nearly tripled at the Southwest border over the last five years, according to the Washington Post, while in the same five years, methamphetamine seizures have quintupled.
Oddly, despite the public narrative blaming doctors for prescribing opioids as the cause of the dramatic increases in overdose deaths, the rate of prescriptions for these drugs has not increased very much– a table from the above-named drug threat assessment shows, for example, hydrocodone units prescribed at 7.2 billion in 2007, increasing to 8.8 billion in 2012, and decreasing to 6.2 billion units in 2016. Oxycodone showed a similar trend. It appears that the real cause of overdose deaths, in the majority of cases, is heroin, and latterly, heroin mixed with fentanyl. Perhaps doctors have contributed to the scourge by putting people on prescription drugs and then denying them further refills after they become hooked. Perhaps.
A future post will look at what has been, will be, and/or should be done about these problems.
Pogo Was Right
Hooray for Trump! As soon as he indicated cuts in Medicare, I knew that he would lose the votes of every senior citizen, including me. He has touched the third rail. Finally!
This person comments on the NYT frequently, and this time, he’s hit the nail on the head:
PogoWasRight
florida 4 hours ago
Hooray for Trump! As soon as he indicated cuts in Medicare, I knew that he would lose the votes of every senior citizen, including me. He has touched the third rail. Finally!
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com and DarkoStojanovic)
Republicans Believe in Bad Government
… Republicans accept as an article of faith that government is the problem, not a solution. So now that they’re running the government, why would they provide us with anything other than bad government?
A succinct and telling summary of the last fifty years of Republican governing strategy, since Richard Nixon won the presidency.
Republicans have passed a tax bill that allows deficits of “less than” $1.5 trillion over ten years, followed by agreeing on a spending bill that guarantees those deficits will be more than a trillion dollars in the next year alone.
Their purpose is to stimulate the economy, at the risk of raising inflation. They are gambling that inflation will be manageable if the salary of the typical American worker is kept from increasing unduly. Suppression of wage raises is behind their destruction of unions and confiscation of tips. High medical expenses are another way to keep workers from making or keeping too much money.
The Republicans have realized that stock market gains are not as reliably profitable to the idle rich as the locking in of 10-year Treasuries at greater than 3 percent (after inflation) yields. Ten year Treasuries are sold in the market, not released by the Treasury at a fixed rate, and they are sensitive to fears of inflation. Their levels rise reliably as the economy improves. Most importantly, Treasuries are guaranteed to pay off, unlike the risky stock market.
If the economy improves enough, the Republicans think they will be forgiven for collusion with Russia. They will not be forgiven for racism, sexism, militarism, suppression of free speech, spying on the opposition, and violence against those who speak out. They will particularly not be forgiven for abrogation of the Constitution.
(photo “money laundering” courtesy of pixabay.com and johnhain)
Republicans Are Fraudulent Deficit Hawks
Republicans have passed a tax bill that allows deficits of “less than” $1.5 trillion over the next ten years, followed by a spending bill that guarantees those deficits will be over a trillion dollars in the next year alone; this proves that the Republicans are frauds when it comes to fiscal conservatism.
They screamed in outrage at the trillion-dollar deficits that were forced on the Obama administration during its first year by the worst recession in 70 years, yet they were silent (with the exception of Rand Paul) over the latest spending bill that prevented a shutdown of the government and guaranteed a trillion-dollar deficit this year. The shutdown was caused by the intransigence of the Republicans over DACA, not by any fiscal emergency. It is shocking, shocking I tell you!
The worst of it is that temporary deficits were really called for under Keynes’ economic theory during the first days of the Obama administration, when recession was eating the houses of every American who lost his job through the lack of demand caused by speculators in real estate securities who got burned. Even then, when Republicans offered solutions, it always involved tax cuts for the rich. Now, when deficits are NOT called for because the economy is doing well, the Republicans who have gained the power are serving up deficits as far as the eye can see. Now, when saving for a rainy day is really called for, the Republicans have given us– tax cuts for the rich.
Paul Krugman spells it all out in his latest New York Times column (op-ed): “Fraudulence of the Fiscal Hawks”
(photo “money laundering” courtesy of pixabay.com and stevepb)
Comment of the Week: Calvinism and the Rich
Ron Cohen
is a trusted commenter Waltham, MA 2 days ago
The bait-and-switch scam that Krugman decries didn’t appear out of thin air. It was devised by some very rich people as part of a long-term strategy. Why do they care so much? Is it really about money? Or is it something deeper, more visceral, a need to dominate and impoverish everyone else?
The great English historian, R.H. Tawney, in his magisterial work, “Religion and the Rise of Capitalism” (1926), tells us that by the mid 1600’s, most English Puritans saw in poverty “not a misfortune to be pitied and relieved, but a moral failing to be condemned, and in riches, not an object of suspicion … but the blessing which rewards the triumph of energy and will.”
This ideal of individual morality, derived from Calvin, has been with us ever since. But it has surfaced with renewed zeal in our time, with men like the Koch bothers, Robert Mercer, Art Pope and Sheldon Adelson determined to spend whatever it takes to replace democracy as we know it—a leveling force—with a fascistic, plutocratic model of government.
For these billionaires, however, religion is not the motivator. Rather, it’s how they see themselves, their self image, that drives their lust for power, their need to dominate. They are the “makers,” deserving, while the rest of us are “takers,” undeserving and cadging off their efforts. Identity politics isn’t just for Democrats anymore.
For a penetrating interpretation, see George Monbiot’s short but defining piece in The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/p5dg6b5
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com and Maklay62)
Don the Con gave his first State of the Union address the other day. Some (most) Democrats in the audience failed to applaud when he gave his big lines– Republicans stood and enthusiastically applauded some of his more ridiculous claims. Later, at a rally, he called those who failed to applaud treasonous:
“They were like death and un-American,” he said. “Un-American. Somebody said treasonous. I mean, yeah, I guess, why not? Can we call that treason? Why not?”
As Masha Gessen reports in the New Yorker, during the time of Stalin, in the USSR, failure to applaud enthusiastically enough was definitely considered treasonous. Is this where Don wants us to go? Vlad “the Impaler” Putin has already gotten his country back into that territory.
(photo courtesy of pixabay.com)
Certain Comments Make You Wonder
“My main question is why the Republicans, spearheaded by Nunes, Jordan, and Goetz, are undermining the investigation and supporting Trump.
The answer seems to be that Republicans believe in a strong state that will break labor unions, set minorities against each other, weaken public education, and strengthen monopoly capitalism.
Their ideology overrides any internal doubts about the messenger.”
Diogenes
Belmont MA 5 hours ago
My main question is why the Republicans, spearheaded by Nunes, Jordan, and Goetz, are undermining the investigation and supporting Trump.
The answer seems to be that Republicans believe in a strong state that will break labor unions, set minorities against each other, weaken public education, and strengthen monopoly capitalism.
Their ideology overrides any internal doubts about the messenger.
silver
Virginia 4 hours ago
Devin Nunes is going after Rod Rosenstein to torpedo Robert Mueller’s investigation of the president. It’s that simple. Rosenstein is the underpinning of the Special Prosecutor’s probe, and should the Deputy AG go away, so will the investigation of the president, reasons Nunes. That’s not upholding law and order and Nunes and the Republicans know it.
The president owes his election to the FBI and James Comey. The field agents within the bureau did not want Secretary Clinton to win and there was something of a palace revolt against Comey to release his letter to reopen the investigation of the Secretary. Thus, Comey and the FBI handed the presidency to the GOP candidate on a silver platter, and this is how Republicans show their gratitude. The GOP and this president are bonded by similar antisocial attitudes which is why they are such a perfect match for each other.
Jeremy Mott
West Hartford, CT 7 hours ago
Trump virtually declared war on North Korea last night. It is now only a matter of time till the first strikes of that war.
Trump so very much fears the charge that he’s “all talk, no action” that he is jettisoning the strategy of patience and diplomacy and a unified front with other nations so he can “go it alone” to prove his strength. (His bone spurs have miraculously healed.)
Oh, yes, Trump made a plea for national unity last night. But new reports say Trump believes national unity will result only from another event like 9/11. Or a war.
We Americans must take to the streets before the bombs start to fall and the artillery begins to fire. Trump’s bellicosity makes war inevitable unless we stop him in the street — and stop his war before it starts..
Steel Magnolia
Atlanta, GA 7 hours ago
Goldberg assembles some terrifying pieces:
–The derailing of Victor Cha’s proposed ambassadorship to South Korea after Cha “expressed reservations about a preventative American strike on North Korea.”
–The public parade of the grief of Otto Warmbier’s parents, whose innocent son was tortured and ultimately died at the hands of the North Korea, bringing the cameras back a second time to linger on their faces, red and contorted in unmitigated pain.
–The exhortation of Ji Seong-ho, who was maimed by North Korean famine and believes Christians have a duty to destroy the regime, to raise his crutches in defiance and perhaps a call to arms.
And there is yet another–one that pulls these pieces together in even more frightening context: Previewing his address, our president decried the country’s lack of unity, spanning back several presidents, and touted his ambition to be the great unifier. Then he went on; “I would love to bring our country’s back in a great form of unity without a major event–very tough to do. I would like to do it without a major event because usually that major event is a bad thing. Unity is what I’m really striving for, to bring the country together.”
Reading Goldberg’s column in this context brought terror to my soul. In his desperation to be free of the Russia investigation and his driving boundless need to be the most “tremendous success” in presidential history, would our president actually start a holy war?
Arthur Swanson
Ardsley, New York 7 hours ago
President Trump is foreshadowing his next move. We need a “unifying event” to bring this country together and for him to get the love he so desperately graves and that he believes is owed to him. Republicans in Congress need to act immediately to limit his authority to deploy nuclear weapons. Otherwise, consciously or unconsciously he is going to get us into a war, probably with North Korea. He had producers to reign him in when he got too crazy on “The Apprentice”. Chillingly, right now, he has free reign to write whatever final script that he wants.
UCB Parent
CA 22 hours ago
It seems to me that we need legal protection now not only for the special prosecutor, but for the leaders and personnel of the FBI. (I am thinking of those agents that Trump has been demonizing.) How else can it remain independent of the White House? Otherwise it could become a mere instrument of the President’s power, which is more or less what Trump demanded of Comey. Of course the same could be said for the career staff at other federal agencies, such as the EPA. All are vulnerable to a President indifferent to the truth and the rule of law.
This comment was in response to an article describing how senior officials at the FBI seem to be pushed out day after day under Don’s administration. It is because of the investigation at the FBI that started before the election, based on a drunken conversation between a diplomat and a loyal American who reported it to the FBI. Despite Republican propaganda, the “Steele dossier” is far from being debunked and was not news to the FBI; they had already started looking into potential Russian attempts to blackmail Donald J. Trump from the years before he was a candidate for President. Don borrowed a lot of money from Russians to stay afloat and keep his projects going after American banks stopped lending to him. His casino bankruptcies and other failed financial dealings made him persona non grata to banks in this country, so he cast about elsewhere. Currently he is financed through Deutsche Bank, which has been implicated in numerous money laundering scandals. Don the Con has not said a harsh word about any Russian in the last twelve years.
“I believe that Donald Trump in the White House will be more abusive to the constitution than Barack Obama and that’s saying a lot.”
That was before he was offered the job of Secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency. Now former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has some more obsequious things to say about Don the Con. After his ascension to chief steward of America’s environmental quality, he changed his tune to suit the type of butt-kissing statements expected from Don’s sycophants:
“After meeting him, and now having the honor of working for him, it is abundantly clear that President Trump is the most consequential leader of our time. No one has done more to advance the rule of law than President Trump. The President has liberated our country from the political class and given America back to the people.”
No-one has done more to advance the rule of law down the road to hell, paved with good intentions towards his own ego. “Most consequential” , “done the most to advance the rule of law”, “liberated our country from the political class”, “given America back to the people.” Apparently these phrases have double meanings; the hidden message is: “Most powerful narcissist in the world.” We are doomed if the people who know the truth about Don don’t rise up en masse to overthrow him in November.
By then, Don’s minions will have come up with a plan to steal the mid-term elections; such tactics as starting a war with North Korea, setting up a disinformation campaign to paint the Democrats as Communists (or worse, Eurocrats), and using social media to turn swing voters are under consideration or already underway. Not excluded yet are direct hacking of election databases maintained by the States to disenfranchise potential anti-Trump voters, or even indicting Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama for “crimes” committed during their time in power. Remember, the Republicans had a contingency plan to impeach Hillary before she could take the oath of office if she won the election. What is more, the Republicans have already succeeded in immortalizing Antonin Scalia, the second most racist Supreme Court Justice in modern times, in the person of Neil Gorsuch.
(quotes courtesy of axios.com; image courtesy of pixabay.com)
