Over the past few days I’ve been rewatching the Narcos television series – I’ve mentioned it before and if you haven’t seen it, worth a watch. It covers the battle against the Columbian drug cartels, starting with the infamous Pablo Escobar. It is naturally dramatized but I did check it against reality and its a fairly good depiction of what happened. But it got me thinking that we’ve been going about it all wrong from the get-go.
One of our options is to just legalize all narcotics – let US drug makers produce cocaine, heroin or what have you and let people get high to their hearts content. As the Libertarians would say, this respects personal autonomy and we’d make good revenues from the legal trade as well as making sure the drugs have quality control so people wouldn’t be ingesting actual poison. There is much to be said for this line of thinking but I have considered it and rejected it.
One of the things Libertarians get wrong is how they define “victimless crime”. The Libertarian position is that taking drugs or, say, engaging in prostitution – as long as there’s no physical coercion – is victimless and so not really a crime. As such, we should let people freely engage in these activities and only intervene if someone is being directly harmed by another. But the reason I’m not Libertarian is because I recognize that you don’t have to directly attack someone to do them harm. The millions of addicts we have in the USA cause grave harm every day even if all they’re doing is lying in a pool of their own waste – it is the fact that they are high, filthy and polluting the streets that is the harm. Harms property values. Harms public health. The disorder they represent also attracts crime – not least people looking to rob or abuse the drug addicts, themselves. While our right to believe and say whatever we want is absolute, when you get into people doing things it isn’t nearly as absolute – and if done in the public square then it must in no way impede or harm everyone else who is in or may decide to use the public square at any time. Bottom line, the follow-on effects of having drug addicts are so large that we can’t afford, as a society , to carry the burden of millions of drug addicts. They must cease to be addicts – and as they’ve mostly shown themselves incapable of self control, they must be controlled; primarily in the form of cutting off their access to drugs.
Which we have tried to do, for decades, at enormous cost and zero success. I think this is because we went about it the wrong way.
Our battle has been against the “drug lords”. The cartel bosses; the big guys who are running the operations and making billions per year off it. In theory, going after them makes sense. But only if you don’t really think about it. You see, the problem isn’t people making money off drugs; the problem is the drugs, themselves. It is the drugs we want to get rid of. But we’ve gone after the money made off drugs, instead. But there is a problem with that: Money defends itself.
When you target the latest iteration of Pablo Escobar you’ll find that just like Escobar, the primary thing he has is money. Lots and lots of money. Buckets of money. So much money he doesn’t really know what to do with it all. Escobar had so much money he bought hippos – the descendants of which still live in Columbian rivers and lakes giving everyone who wants to look a hands-on class on species propagation. Escobar was able to operate as long as he did primarily because of bribes. Sure, he also used ruthless violence at need, but the main thing was the money. Anyone who could threaten his operation was first approached with a bribe offer – the killing thing only coming in if the bribes failed. And the killing was quite horrific for two purposes; to punish the particular guy who wouldn’t play ball, of course, but mostly to show everyone that if you didn’t take the bribe (or didn’t stay bought) then the consequences would be the horrible and painful death of (usually) you and your whole family. And Escobar’s successors throughout the entire narcotics trade have taken his lessons to heart – bribes combined with quite spectacular violence.
To get after such people – that is people who have no sense of decency – requires you to get down in the gutter with them. It is a dirty, nasty business staffed by the cruel and the corrupt. And as you work your plans to get the drug lords, you are surrounded by the offers of bribes and the threats of horrific death. To operate among such people you have to take on their coloration. Do you see where this leads? You become your enemy. First in ruthless cruelty against them and finally in going along with them. You take the bribe.
Think how easy that is. Don’t condemn anyone too harshly who took the money. Especially after they’ve been at it for a few years and they see for all their efforts – and maybe a few big targets taken down – the drugs continue to flow. The bribes continue to be paid. The violence associated with it on the lower levels continues unabated. So, maybe that fifth or sixth time the bribe is offered, you take it. The Narcos aren’t stupid; they’ll let you seize a small shipment every now an again. Let you arrest a few minor players (especially if those players have become an irritation). Life will go on; but now you’re not risking anything and that ten grand a month in an offshore account just grows and grows.
And, so, my point: taking down the drug lords is a pointless exercise. Even success is useless. Escobar got his chips cashed in back in 1993 and the drug trade never skipped a beat. Because the bribes continued to flow. The violence, too. And we’ve been at this so long that I’m very confident by this point that huge numbers of our people are on the take. The sheer volume of contraband crossing could not occur without active cooperation in official circles in the USA. And the propaganda machine which works non-stop to keep border control a joke is almost certainly Cartel funded at least to some major degree. We’re really getting the worst of it here; we use to have a drug problem, now we’ve got a drug and corruption problem.
Stopping the problem – drug addiction turned into massive corruption – has always been about keeping drugs out of the hands of addicts. It has been more logistic than anything else. Somewhere along the line, the logistic chain has to be broken. Can’t stop the production of the drugs – that is in South America. Can’t stop the shipment of drugs – most of that is outside the USA and while a complete sealing of our borders would stop it, that isn’t practical given the amount of trade we conduct day in and day out. So, the only place we can break the chain is internal distribution. that is, going after the small time hoods who transport and sell relatively small quantities of the drugs. The mules and the pushers: they have to go.
And by “go” I do mean in a quite literal sense. Gone. No longer around. Dead. Quickly and in large numbers. And at first glance what I’m suggesting might seem cruel. They’re just small fry, right? Not the big, bad drug lords. Sure. But it is the mules and pushers who actually hand out sufficient illegal drugs to cause 100,000 overdose deaths per year in the USA. In Latin and South America the number of people murdered by the drug trade is probably past a million by now. What I’m saying is that a few hundred – tops – dead mules and pushers and the supply of drugs on the streets dries up; and a vastly higher number of people don’t die next year.
It would work because the reason they’re in the business is that it is low risk/high reward. Drive that truck from San Diego to Chicaco. Easy. Sell those drugs in Chicago. Also easy. Probably won’t get caught. If you do, its a bit of jail time but because you’re smart, not too much; you didn’t keep sufficient drugs on your person to make your arrest a major rap. So, what I’m saying is that if we catch a guy selling an ounce of coke: kill him. You seriously would only have to do it a hundred times or so before people got out of the business.
The retail dealer can’t hide. He’s not like a drug lord in his guarded palace with an army of gunslingers and lawyers. He’s just a guy on a street corner (as it were) selling small amounts of narcotics. You can see it; seriously just drive into the more run down areas of any major city and no matter how innocent you are, in a short time you will figure out who the dealers are. He’s also in routine contact with drug addicts – people not well skilled in avoiding surveillance. We could, on any given day, arrest most of the drug dealers in any given city. And if we then placed them on trial the next day and shot them the day after that…week at the outside, nobody wants to move product on the streets any more.
Because that is the thing; it has to be death and it has to be swift. If it isn’t death and if it isn’t swift, just wasting your time. What you’re trying to do is instruct not very bright people. People who have a dim ability to see the future and very limited concern about other people. The only thing that can get their attention is violence. If you do want an alternative to execution you can try flogging. Fifty lashes with a bullwhip. But who shall apply the strokes? And that might not work; might become a macho game with these idiots to see who can put up with it the best. But death is death; these people very much want to stay alive. You put the word out that if we catch you with an ounce of coke then 48 hours later you’re dead, they’ll get the message.
All of this is only if you want to end the scourge of drugs. You don’t have to. It can turn your stomach and you can turn away. But if you want to end it – strictly speaking, make it such a small thing that it has no effect on overall society – then this is what you’ll have to do. They are killing 100,000 a year via OD. More via murder and mayhem. Are your sensitive feelings more important than the 250 or so who will die tomorrow because you didn’t shoot ten drug dealers today?
One day we will again be a serious society – a real country which identifies a problem and applies the appropriate solution even if its a hard thing to do. When that day comes, my ideas here – to one extent or another – will be applied. It is just a question of how long it takes for us to wake up.
Blogs For Victory 
What we could do is, is do a military op inside Mexico like we do in Afghanistan and various places in the Middle East by dropping some hell fire missiles on the drug cartels. We could call it “Operation Cartel Down.”
We do need to finish the border wall, and stop all immigration from South America. Period.
We also need a huge operation drug bust here in the states to intercept the distributors of Fentanyl and other opioid based drugs. They are literally killing hundreds of people every single day within our borders.
They are now mixing animal sedatives/tranquilizers with the black tar heroin and there is no counter to the sedative like there is with narcotics, such as Naloxone or simply Narcan as it is known on the streets. It will reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. Whereas, the new mixtures they’re cooking up you can’t do that. They call it “Tranq” and if I’m not mistaken it’s mixed with a sedative used to tranquilizer elephants, or horses, one of the two.
We also need to go after the Democrats and get them out of the way. Nothing will be solved if we don’t get the party of death out of the picture. Democrats are literally killing this nation, while they go home every night to their fancy suite and have dinner with their wives, or he/her or its, whatever.
There is no GOP anymore Mark, the GOP doesn’t exist. All they want to do is talk, when we desperately need action in the worst way imaginable.
It’s time for all men of good will to stand and come to the aid of their country! If not, what wee little bit of a nation we have left is going to disappear into the annals of history.
You make some valuable points about dangers facing this nation. However, I do not agree that “there is no GOP any more”. I’m seeing a newer infusion of strength and determination into the party. But it shouldn’t be about the PARTY. “The GOP” should just be the visible manifestation of the will of people who demand Constitutional governance and a lawful society. “The GOP” is what we make it and what we allow it to be.
I agree with Jeremiah, we should be saving democracy in Mexico and not Ukraine. Mexico is nearly in complete control of cartels and is almost a failed State, which is presenting a clear and present danger to this country, but was does our elected class do?? Last week the newly installed Gov of AZ was complaining about the railroad container cars the previous Gov had put at the border to stem the immigration tide. Her complaint? He paid too much for them and now the State is selling them at a loss. Wrap your head around that.
And the GOP is not even a decent opposition party anymore. They agree with Democrats more than they don’t, and the American people always get the short end of the stick. Can anyone honestly say that life in this country is better than it was 20 years ago? How about 30 years ago? Hell no, it’s not even close. And then consider it’s the very same elected class who are calling the shots. They have done nothing but enrich themselves, and impoverish the country. Why is Ukraine and Taiwan so important?? Because Ukraine has been a source of political corruption and money laundering for a couple decades that they need to keep quiet, and over the last 3 decades, we have sold 80% of our chip manufacturing to Taiwan. Why employ Americans with good paying manufacturing jobs when there is a nice hefty paycheck for some politician willing to tell his constituents that it’s cheaper if it’s made overseas.
Re: the drama surrounding Trump. I’m done with MAGA people being labeled as extreme or unhinged. Nothing could be further from the truth. 95% of all the drama comes from those who oppose Trump, not the MAGA people. January 6 was led by unhinged Antifa/Fed infiltrators who caused the chaos. And MAGA people even identified them on the steps of the Capital that day. Has MAGA ever rioted in inner cities or burnt down businesses? Did Trump ever weaponize his DOJ against his opponents? (Of which he had good reason too). No on both fronts. In fact I think anyone would be hard pressed to find any unhinged action on behalf of Trump or MAGA. So why is MAGA hated so much? Because we put liberty over civility, and country over party. I know Mark posted the other day that any GOP candidate is better than a Democrat, to which I am not convinced. I don’t see how Chris Christie or Asa Hutchison, for example, would govern any differently than Gavin Newsome. The Uni Party in DC is real and needs to be dismantled. Sen. Ron Johnson sounded the alarm bell the other day by saying “we are up against some very powerful people” and I believe him. IMO, there’s only one candidate is truly understands this.
I’m done with MAGA people being labeled as extreme or unhinged. Then maybe they can STFU about how it’s “Trump or nobody” and if he isn’t the nominee they will stay home, etc.
Aside from that, you are right. Those four letters have been demonized by the Left, linked to Q-Anon, blamed for a riot they then escalated to an “insurrection” and now to “trying to overthrow the government”. That is starting to backfire on them, a little, I think. However, there is also concern about MAGA from the Right, concern they will tank the election if Trump is not the nominee.
But Trump, and every single one of his supporters, needs to start sending the message that it’s not about Trump, it’s about the country. And that no matter who wins, what matters is the future of the nation and he will enthusiastically stand behind and support whoever is chosen to run for the presidency on the GOP ticket. Without that commitment to the nation and not just to the man, MAGA IS extreme and unhinged.
You say Sen. Ron Johnson sounded the alarm bell the other day by saying “we are up against some very powerful people” and I believe him. IMO, there’s only one candidate is truly understands this. That’s the kind of silliness that makes Trumpists look a little unhinged. Trump has one opponent who has recognized corporate/Leftist power, faced it down and defeated it, and committed to dismantling the Bureaucratic State if elected. Of course, he does it quietly, calmly, effectively, without melodrama. There is literally not an iota of evidence to indicate that he is, for some reason, unaware of the dark forces at work in this country. Claiming that Trump is the ONLY ONE who understands this just makes you look like a giddy fanboi.
… there is also concern about MAGA from the Right, concern they will tank the election if Trump is not the nominee.
That maybe a minor faction of MAGA but it doesn’t represent the majority IMO. I know many who will gladly support DeSantis if he is the nominee. And in terms of supporting the rest of the GOP field, is it extreme and unhinged not to support Chris Christie? Because that will have to be explained to me. Chris is just a lap dog for the Left, Asa still thinks it’s 1990, and Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo just want to wage war with people. I can’t support anyone of them.
The other day, DeSantis said he will begin to “slit the throats” of the Deep State, which I loved to hear, but is that extreme? Did that offend peoples sensibilities? Do you think that turned off voters? What if Trump said that? My only hesitation with DeSantis is his donors. He has a lot of establishment money behind him and I know what that money and alliance did to Bush, McCain, and Romney. It ruined them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah—“DeSantis donors”. But you don’t know what that kind of money did to Bush, McCain or Romney. You saw who supported them and you saw what they did and you made the connection that the one controlled the other.
It’s funny that the two big hits on DeSantis are his donors and his wife’s eyebrows. It seems to me that a man as accomplished as he has been, as much a bold visionary as he is, with so little negative baggage, ought to be seen as a great alternative to a man who, while admittedly strong in many areas, defines “baggage” in terms of political negatives.
And if MAGA is serious about supporting whoever is nominated, they had better start making that clear, loud and often, because Only Trump is not only scaring a lot of people it is turning them off to Trump. A “my way or go to hell and take your country with you” attitude is not what we are looking for.
“What we’re looking for” ??? I don’t like the conformity test implied here. The “only DeSantis” crowd is equally extreme. Let the two heavyweights duke it out the debate stage and the winner takes all.
I don’t like the conformity test implied here. Wow. I’ve seen you distort my comments but this is a new low.
“Conformity test”? You think that saying ” A “my way or go to hell and take your country with you” attitude is not what we are looking for” is a CONFORMITY TEST? This makes no sense to me. No matter how I try to rephrase it to make some kind of sense in the context of your comment, I just can’t.
“Let the two heavyweights duke it out ” Yes, but one of the “heavyweights” has, so far, refused to agree to “duke it out”, retreating instead to the social media platform he owns. Where he can lob infantile snot-nuggets like name calling and puerile insults.
And again with the “fanboi” ?? What in the hell is that? Do I have to be an “unhinged fanboi” to legitimize your argument? I get it that you don’t like Trump … but I don’t care. Never Trumpers are much more extreme than MAGA.
I get it that you don’t like Trump Then you don’t get anything. Not a damned thing. It’s this simple minded binary “this OR that” mentality that I find frustrating.
Yeah, I “don’t like Trump”—which is why I have been repeating for YEARS now how much I like what he did as president, how I wish we could just drop him into the White House right now, etc. Restating what someone has said to try to make debate points is foolish, but more the point signals an awareness that this kind of chicanery is the only hope to score a point or two.
It is this “fanboi” adulation that is marked by the knee-jerk switch to claims that simply do not hold up to reality. Such as claiming I “do not like Trump” Such as dragging in “Never Trumpers” to try to slap that identity onto me, a solid Trump supporter for a long time now. It’s that irrational desperate need to simply dismiss any rational objective analysis of Trump’s chances that mark the fanboi mentality.
What you find so threatening, probably because it would challenge you to step aside from your emotions and look at things objectively, that leads you to such arbitrary dismissiveness, is the fact that a lot of hard-core Trump supporters lack that emotional commitment that overrides everything else, and have the ability to take a hard look at the actual facts.
There is a hard ceiling of Trump support. It has been cited as 46% all the way up to more than 50% These are people who would crawl across broken glass to vote AGAINST Trump no matter who his opponent might be. These are people who would get out of their sickbeds to defeat him, no matter what. These are not people who give a flying F about Joe Biden or what he has done, who just see themselves as the saviors of the nation which means defeating Trump. Period. They are not rational. You can force feed them hours upon hours of testimony about how evil and corrupt Biden is and it wouldn’t matter. Their goal is not to elect Biden—it is to defeat. humiliate/destroy Donald Trump.
That leaves you with about half of the nation, give or take a few percentage points, which will be evaluating its choices. And those choices will include a guy with a sordid history and tons of personal baggage in the process of fighting multiple felony charges or someone without that history and that baggage and those looming legal battles who seems like a good guy who can get things done. My perspective is that even though Trump has been dealt a bad hand, even though he has been persecuted and abused and treated worse than anyone in the history of American politics, even though he was a great president who could and would do things necessary to fix the problems of this country, we have to play the hand we’re dealt And that may very well be that we have to accept that he is fatally flawed as a candidate, and move on.
And it’s not as if there is no real alternative. It’s not as if there is a choice between Donald Trump and Chris Christie. No—what there is is Trump 2.0. Just as focused, just as aware of the dangers and problems facing this nation, but without the negatives and with a bigger and more developed skill set of legal and political knowledge.
What he doesn’t have is a rabid mob of zealots willing to roll the dice on the hopes that a sense of fair play in this nation will carry their Golden Boy across the finish line, in spite of all the stacks of things against him. And what he doesn’t have is a Leftist media intent on getting him nominated, because of its own internal intelligence saying he will be the easiest to defeat.
No you don’t like Trump, only because of the reaction he invokes in others … he is a divisive guy to be sure. I could be wrong, but that’s the way it appears to me. Your characterizations of “fanboi” and “Golden Boy” though definitely show a frustration and disdain for Trump and his supporters, which is fine. I think you’re wrong in thinking that throngs of people will crawl over broken glass to not vote for him. I am convinced that the reason there are 4 indictments and an effort to put him in prison is because they knew he won the 2020 election and they simply can’t risk a repeat of that. Trump received more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016, which suggests to me, many more Democrats than we know voted for him in 2020.
I haven’t heard any candidate, with the slight exception of DeSantis, accurately identify the problem with our foreign policy and the Military Industrial Complex war machine, the money laundering operation in Ukraine, the CIA domestic surveillance machine, the FBI, the Mexican cartels, and the increasingly authoritarian Democrat party. DeSantis does a decent job addressing these issues, but he has measured his tone re: the war in Ukraine. I can easily vote for DeSantis but he will owe some people. All politicians owe someone for their generous donations, and that’s one reason why Trump is so appealing to many people … he owes no one.
I also don’t think I’m the emotional one here, again I could be wrong lol. I’m closely considering two candidates, but so far I’m still leaning Trump for the reasons I mentioned. I can still be easily vote for Ron and if he is the nominee, then good for us. I like the prospect of putting youth up against age.
I think if people could dial down the drama, and focus on what Trump accomplished (which I do), rather than what he says and the reactions he invokes, we could get to a good place. Republicans like Chris Christie and Mitt Romney who constantly take shots at him are just as bad as Democrats.
The way I see it – there are communist authoritarians on one side, and a capitalist, blustering male chauvinist on the other. That’s not a difficult choice for me, and that may very well be the choice we have to make. Trump still leads the primary by a significant margin. In fact, it’s not even close.
And that may very well be that we have to accept that he is fatally flawed as a candidate, and move on.
I just don’t agree with that and that’s where our differences lie. I think Trump will receive more votes in 2024 than he did in 2020. Democrats are guaranteeing that. What is going on now in this country is so UnAmerican, and so dangerous that most people are taking notice. Hispanics and Blacks will break in big numbers for Trump, and inner city voters will either sit it out, or vote for change. Trump will get somewhere in the neighborhood of 73 million votes, and the 81 million ballots Biden allegedly got in 2020 will not materialize. Just my opinion.
So you are saying that even if he IS determined to be fatally flawed as a candidate you will still support him?
No consideration of what it would take to be considered “fatally flawed as a candidate”?
January 6 was led by unhinged Antifa/Fed infiltrators who caused the chaos
Agreed. It was blatant, a setup from the get-go. The day Trump announced another Ego Rally, the dark forces were at work, planning how to use this to their advantage. Trump brought on all the angst and melodrama and hysteria surrounding January 6 by making one of the most horrendous political blunders in history, and setting up a perfect storm that would inevitably be used against him.
Ted Cruz and others had been working in Congress to advance the idea of delaying certification, and at that time even Pence appeared to be on board with what had been presented to him–not demanded by Trump, but presented by Cruz et al. Cruz had a great presentation ready to go, which skillfully laid out the problems and offered Congress a way to appear truly invested in election integrity by taking the time to allow for some investigation into at least some of the allegations of fraud.
The very idea that what was REALLY needed was a few thousand people outside hollering and chanting and waving signs was not a rational analysis of what would be needed to tip the balance but just another LOOK HOW MUCH THEY LOVE ME!!!! exhibition, oblivious to the many opportunities this would be presenting to his enemies.
All across the country people were shaking their heads at the hubris of this decision, knowing it would not end well. Trump surely had intelligence about mutterings of infiltration by troublemakers—hell, he asked for the National Guard for crowd control. The moment this was denied, he should have seen the writing on the wall and called it all off, and let the cooler heads in Congress work on the problem through the mechanisms of Congress.
But he wanted to bully Congress, bully Pence, intimidate and herd them into doing what he wanted, so he could then take credit for having the power to force this to happen. And he laid out a huge opportunity for Antifa, the feds, anyone wanting to damage him, to swoop in and turn it into the shitshow it quickly became. The riots of January 6 were wholly predictable and wholly avoidable.
Of all of the things that make me question his judgment, his determination to try to bulldoze Congress with a mob stands out as the most reckless, the most ego-driven and the most damaging both to himself and the nation. Look at the chances he set up for ongoing melodrama and conflict. No matter how many things I find in Trump’s favor—-and they are many, and compelling—-this example of bad judgement is heavy on the other side of the scale.
… his determination to try to bulldoze Congress with a mob stands out as the most reckless, the most ego-driven and the most damaging both to himself and the nation. Look at the chances he set up for ongoing melodrama and conflict.
So the elite and powerful in this country (Deep State, Media) create a “pandemic” (hint: it’s all bullshit), shut down schools, closed businesses, imposed universal mail in voting, rioted, burnt down inner cities, staged an FBI led fake “insurrection”, killed people, impeached Trump twice over manufactured grievances, labels him a white supremacist and a direct threat to the nations democracy … but Trump is the reason for the “ongoing melodrama and conflict” ???
Wow, we definitely don’t see eye to eye. At least on this issue.
Failed effort to segue from what I said to something completely different. It’s as if you lump every problem into one amorphous issue you can then take swings at.
I was, quite clearly and unambiguously, talking about the melodrama based on the Leftist narrative of J6—which was, quite clearly and unambiguously, based on the simple fact that Donald Trump called on his loyal band of followers to go to Washington DC and rally/protest at the Capitol. Period.
This was a separate, discrete (yes, I know how to use the word—-look it up) event totally separate from the other issues you try so desperately to drag in to muddy the waters.
I notice, in a discourse pattern evidently taken from that of the Left, you steadfastly refuse to address the actual points I made, preferring instead to set up a bunch of silly straw men you can then flail away at.
But calm yourself, clear your mind, and consider the sheer volume and intensity and even apparent validity of the claims based on the riots of January 6 and the damage and, yes, MELODRAMA, of that day and its subsequent barrage of hysteria. Only that day. Not the pandemic, not other riots, not mail in voting, none of the other extraneous garbage you dragged in. Just that one day. Look at the memes, narratives and messaging that were created by the acts of that one day. Insurrection. Effort to overturn the election. People died. Effort to overthrow the government. House hearings/Cheney grandstanding/Kinzinger weeping/nonstop smearing of Trump and every one of his supporters. People held without trials in solitary confinement. All going back to his calling of his tribe to DC to try to influence the actions of Congress.
So much fodder for the Left, all thanks to a massive blunder of judgment by Trump
So you blame Trump for wanting to hold a rally/protest at the Capital on Jan 6? Just on the surface, I don’t see anything wrong with that. I honestly think Trump imagined a peaceful protest of supporters who all wanted to challenge the veracity of the 2020 election and possibly expose the irregularities. Again, I see nothing wrong with that. And remember, Trump NEVER incited violence. His words were careful that day but his distrust of the integrity of the election was obvious, as was everyone’s. If the Feds/Antifa/Nancy Pelosi did not get involved, nothing would have ever happened.
I don’t blame Trump at all for that.
Of course you don’t blame Trump for that. You don’t blame Trump for anything.
There was no reason to have a rally on January 6, as Congress was dealing with the certification issue. No reason except to make a statement of “see how many people love me”!
The purpose was not “to challenge the veracity of the 2020 election” or even to “possibly expose the irregularities.” Mobs can’t do things like this. Mobs are huge collections of people. There is no discussion involved, there is no investigation, there is no exposing of anything. The purpose of a mob is to demand WE WANT THIS. A mob is a show of force. And the stated purpose of the rally was to pressure Congress into doing one one single thing: That was to postpone certification. Period. Nothing else. It’s ridiculous to now claim that the purpose of gathering tens of thousands of people together to make their wishes known about the actions of Congress was really to “challenge the veracity of the 2020 election”. Or to “expose irregularities”. Nonsense. It was to tell Congress to stop certification for ten days. Not ask. Tell. Demand.
And naturally, Congress would be fine with being ordered around by a bunch of protesters.
Oh, I don’t doubt that Trump envisioned a peaceful rally of adoring fans all gathered to show Congress how many people wanted him to win. That is not the point, oh Point-Misser. The point is that, given the emotional climate of the nation at that time, given the high stakes of the election, given the stridency with which each side had staked out its territory, and given the absolute NEED of the Left to damage Trump in any way possible, having a big Ego Parade outside Congress was a massive misjudgment of the risks involved. The rally was not an error of motive. It was an error of judgment.
While tens of thousands of people got all giddy and excited about going all the way to DC to stand up for their guy because they were so deeply invested in supporting him, millions more shook our heads and said “this is not going to end well” because it was just so freaking obvious. Anyone who could not predict troublemakers dressed like Trump supporters acting to smear Trump, and his supporters, and the rally, and turn it into a violent shitshow of mammoth proportions, and also BY THE WAY totally tank any possibility of Congress going along with Cruz’s proposal for fear of looking like they got forced to do this by a mob at the gates, is too clueless to be our president.
OF COURSE If the Feds/Antifa/Nancy Pelosi did not get involved, nothing would have ever happened. There is no DUH!!!!!! big enough to use to respond to that. Any thinking person would expect this to happen. Millions of thinking persons predicted that it would happen. It was the single most predictable, inevitable, thing to happen on that day. And everyone knew it. The DC cops knew it. The Capitol Police knew it. The FBI knew it. And Trump knew it. But he went ahead anyway.
You can’t just set up a potential disaster that can easily be hijacked in dozens of ways to harm you and the country and affect the outcome of the entire election because you love standing in front of adoring crowds eager to do your very wish and then say “But if these bad people had not done what they always do it would have been fine”. Right. Name a disaster other than a natural disaster that couldn’t have been avoided if only the people involved had done something differently. If only Antifa had decided not to act like Antifa, if only the same feds who committed perjury and a fraud upon the FISA Court to set up the massive Russia Hoax had decided to stop there and not continue to try any means to take Trump down, if only Nancy Pelosi had decided to help Trump out instead of sabotaging him, then all we would have had would have been another Trump version of a tent revival, with lots of emoting and declarations of love and loyalty and it would have been a true kumbaya moment.
The man who wanted to be the leader of the free world and the commander in chief of our military and the CEO of the entire country hitched his wagon to a series of wistful “what-ifs” that simply defied reason, and history, and awareness of the volatile political climate of the country, and understanding of the nature of Congress, and comprehension of the nature and energy of his enemies. His lack of understanding and awareness of the pitfalls of his plan, and the driving force of his ego keeping him from pulling the plug and changing the site of the rally to someplace far from the Capitol once it was made clear to him that Pelosi wanted to sabotage the event and he would not have the National Guard there illustrate a man so rigid, so unbending, so incapable of admitting that a decision was wrong and then moving to correct it that to many this characteristic is a disqualifier for the presidency.
(And this same rigidity and inability to admit to a mistake is likely to take him down for good when it involves his ongoing insistence that Operation Warp Speed was brilliant and he was brilliant and it was all so darned brilliant. The Left will probably wait till he is locked in as our nominee before dumping that on him.)
I lived in Lahaina Maui for a couple of years back in ’80’s and am heart broken over it’s destruction. From the aerials I can see the neighborhood I lived in which was just a couple blocks up from the harbor, and it is completely destroyed. Lahaina was the most historically beautiful town I had ever seen and now it’s gone. Why? I hate to get political over this but I can’t help wondering if the political landscape was different, Lahaina may still exist. Hawaii is a deep blue State with mental giants like Mazie Hirono representing them. Anyway, reports are that the west side of Maui was well known to be a fire danger due to dried out grasslands and current lack of precipitation. Couple that with antiquated and poorly maintained electrical lines, and a fire department that reportedly has just 100 firefighters for the entire Island, and you begin to see the problem. I think an investigation needs to begin on the dereliction of duty and some heads need to roll. Americans MUST demand better governance …. all across the country
Americans MUST demand better governance …. all across the country
Well, Americans do get to choose their government, and when they choose the Left they get Leftist governance and all the ineptitude, corruption and profoundly stupid people who come with it.
I first realized the depth of Hawaiian corruption when the state slipped in and quietly rewrote some laws and changed how others were titled, to support Obama’s Hawaiian birth claims.
In recent news … the FDA has approved Ivermectin for use against Covid. So in reality, they’re telling you that they completely overhyped Covid for political purposes. And the mandated “vaccine” and mask mandates were just compliance tests
Moderator, please remove the dangerous misinformation re: Ivermectin posted by Forty. Thank you
Doctors are free to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID-19, a lawyer representing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in August 2023.
“FDA explicitly recognizes that doctors do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID,” Ashley Cheung Honold, a Department of Justice lawyer representing the FDA, said during oral arguments on Aug. 8, 2023 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
It’s all Russian disinformation. And “quack doctors”?? Don’t you believe in science?
Lol I’m just messing with you. You know what was meant in the post but I did get a kick out of your reaction to being a “science denier”. That’s taboo in your circles I’m sure.
A well written good overview of life in these United States these days, with commentary on Hawaii.
Good article, and just another good example of how stupid people can really screw things up. Now, just imagine those same people flying planes, or performing surgeries. Which is soon to happen. What could go wrong?
The United States is in a cold civil war that could easily turn hot. We are on the precipice. America is a dysfunctional, authoritarian tinder box right now much like Venezuela was in 2003, all thanks to one political party that methodically infiltrated Americas institutions, dumbed down our children, sold our manufacturing base to foreign countries, ushered in millions of low skilled, uneducated labor, and turned the Justice system against their detractors. The great American experiment is over
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12389537/Georgia-grand-jury-delivers-10-indictments-Trump-election-probe.html
Do you suppose anyone will have the presence of mind to tell these folks that THIS IS WHAT THEY VOTED FOR ?????
Black people in Oakland are living in a lawless nightmare of streets turned into shooting galleries – thanks to radical ‘Defund the Police’ anarchists. We can’t let them condemn us to this hell
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12405767/BISHOP-BOB-JACKSON-Black-people-Oakland-living-lawless-nightmare-streets-turned-shooting-galleries-thanks-radical-Defund-Police-anarchists-let-condemn-hell.html
And you know what? In the next election these same terrified, victimized people will be harvested for their ballots to vote for every Dem on the ticket.
Denver never had a serious ghetto problem, but there was (and is) a predominantly black neighborhood, and there was a lot of crime and violence there. So the people who lived there demanded that the city DO SOMETHING, and the city upped its police presence and started being more aggressive in arresting criminals.
And then the city got hit with all sorts of hysteria because so many of these cops were white. It was racist, it was Whitey picking on the poor black man. So the city did a big hiring program to attract black recruits to the police force, and started using more black officers in the neighborhood.
Uh-oh. Now the eeevil racists at City Hall were trying to turn black people against each other by sending black officers into a black neighborhood. “It’s so WRONG to pit brother against brother!”
Fine. Police presence was reduced. And then, of course, the inevitable outrage at the callousness of Whitey, not even caring if those poor black folk got shot or robbed.
When every single thing is seen through the filters of racism and victimhood, nothing that is ever done will be acceptable. These people are going to have to figure out what really matters to them, and then step up to the plate and act on it. That would mean accepting white police officers in their neighborhood and actually helping them. And I don’t see it happening. I see a lot of media-focused outrage but so far no movement in which neighborhoods volunteer to name criminals and where they hang out so they can be rounded up and taken off the streets. I have yet to see black bystanders cheering police as they arrest black people, even when those arrestees are openly violent and dangerous.
These people are going to have to take the first steps to clean up their neighborhoods. The Defund movement was just the last example of the Us vs Them mentality of the ghetto, and every single iteration of that mentality has contributed to the fact that when push comes to shove these people tend to circle the wagons and defend their own, even when “their own” have been terrorizing them
IMO, Democrats are simply blaming policing for their failures. Democrats control most major urban areas and have for decades, and in that time, life for everyone in those areas is measurably worse. Very few job prospects and those that exist are low paying, there is neglected city infrastructure, failing schools, increased gang activity, etc. Portland and SF are almost unlivable, but Democrats will do everything they have to to deflect the blame. That’s the only thing they are good at.
So this guy stole from retirees and pensioners and donated $100 million to Democrats and their causes, and none of that stolen money has been returned. Not one dime. But that’s all ok because Trump is the real danger. Hard to believe how f**ing stupid Americans have become.
Sam Bankman-Fried is charged with using stolen customer funds to donate $100M to mostly Democratic causes during 2022 midterms
He is only in prison for intimidating witnesses lol. He was out on bail for his financial crimes with no set court date. But both of your boot licking posts are noted and laughed at. Here’s some more interesting info … geez I wonder why he picked the Bahamas to set up shop?? Any guesses? Hint, it’s a way to get around campaign contribution restrictions. So in reality. SBF is will be charged with lying to investors … and not for sending stolen money to Democrats
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan filed another indictment against FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried Monday, dropping another count against him.
Prosecutors had previously indicated their plans to drop the one count of conspiracy to make unlawful campaign contributions against Bankman-Fried last month in a letter to the court.
“The Government has been informed that The Bahamas notified the United States earlier today that The Bahamas did not intend to extradite the defendant on the campaign contributions count. Accordingly, in keeping with its treaty obligations to The Bahamas, the Government does not intend to proceed to trial on the campaign contributions count,” prosecutors wrote in the July letter.
This is the second time prosecutors are culling charges that Bankman-Fried will face at his trial -— set for October — due to diplomacy issues with the Bahamas, where he was arrested last year.
Prosecutors opted in June to sever five other charges against Bankman-Fried that were not included in his extradition from the Bahamas.
Bankman-Fried still faces seven counts, including fraud charges and money laundering, connected to the alleged yearslong scheme to defraud FTX and Alameda Research lenders and investors.
Prosecutors maintain that Bankman-Fried conducted an illegal campaign finance scheme in connection to the charges that are moving forward to trial.
Lick his boots?? How so? I’ve simply asked for one person to tell me what his crime is?? And all I’ve heard is … “well he shouldn’t have done that. Or he shouldn’t have said this. Or he combed his hair wrong. Or and oh yea he is a white supremacist” – all very boring, tedious, redundant shit from the same people who again have yet to tell me what the fuck the crime is. I also just have to say that your, and so many others, diabolical focus on Trump is unhealthy, disturbing, and sick. People really need to get some mental health counseling.
And you are the king of bootlickers Forty. There is not one big government narrative that you haven’t bought into hook line and sinker. So get out there buddy and save the planet and democracy because darn it, you can do it.
Well tell me?? What is the crime??
Allow me to educate you, it was not a crime to hold a rally on J6, and Trump never used language to incite violence. Not once. Nor did he physically threaten or attack electors or anyone else, and he left Washington peacefully. However, I would love to see Trump’s lawyers depose Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and find out why they failed to protect the Capital that day. The other 3 “indictments” simply go to Trump’s state of mind. They allege he “knew he was lying”, when in reality there is not one shred of evidence to even suggest that. From day 1, Trump has always contended that he won, and that the election was stolen from him, but on this issue as well, I would love to see Trump’s lawyers depose Ruby Freeman and find out why a water main line break in the building caused a shut down of the counting, and why opaque placards were put on the windows to obscure any viewing. But outside of these two issues, which have resulted in 4 indictments and a ridiculous number of charges, there is not one fucking crime Trump has committed. I challenge you to correct me, but you can’t and neither can anyone else. So if my support for someone who is being targeted by big government and being falsely prosecuted is labeled as being a fanboi or bootlicker, well then so be it. I’m in good company. You? Not so much
You actually made sense, till the end when you fell into petty snark. So if my support for someone who is being targeted by big government and being falsely prosecuted is labeled as being a fanboi or bootlicker, well then so be it. I’m in good company. You? Not so much
You might want to stop and think about the fact that employing the tactics of the Left to try to argue for a position on the Right pretty much destroys your effort. You simply cannot address what I say without restating my position, falsely (what we call “lying”) so you can then fight your invented straw man. But you go right ahead preening in imagined moral purity by pretending that observing the overwrought emotional basis for much of Trump’s support is the exact same thing as approving what is happening to him, so you can be morally superior by contrasting your defense of him.
Your passionate expositions of Trump’s chances might be well founded. But they might just be wishful thinking, based on your deep and abiding emotional connection to Trump the man. You might be right in thinking that outrage at his treatment will result in people voting for him. I hope you are. But your adamant refusal to understand that this might not happen, that the millions of strident Trump haters might be joined by people who either think these indictments mean he is corrupt or just don’t want a president mired in such ongoing drama and conflict, is what I am talking about.
You state your hopes and dreams as if they are fact, when they are just what you want to happen. And then you twist any effort to point out any alternative as some negative, as in the snotty little comment I quoted. There is at the very least the possibility that being in the company of rational people who are capable of seeing and analyzing objectively without being dominated by hyperemotional wishful thinking IS being in good company. You? Not so much.
That, my friend, is an insult,
Oh I’ve insulted you way better than that. C’mon give me some credit lol
I am old enough to remember when Al Gore challenged the 2000 election and took his case all the way to the supreme court … and the Republicans allowed it. But that was a different time with people of much stronger character running things.
Al Gore conceded when the Supreme Court ruled. Republicans allowed the challenge to complete it’s natural course. Democrats on the other hand decided to shut down any inquiry, label those who questioned the results as a threat to democracy, and to indict their opponent. There’s a huge difference.
And I’ll remind both of you that I am 42-0 when it comes to conspiracy theories lol. Everything my gut has told me that last 3 1/2 years has proven to be all true.