Why do you think I have been gone for so long?
He is your front page for May 19, 2019.
Yup, dead man walking.
"Ongoing D.C. fight tests separations of powers" by Victoria McGrane Globe Staff, May 18, 2019
Subpoenas are flying. Lawsuits are multiplying. Democratic leaders claim the country is in the grip of a “constitutional crisis.” And President Trump is crying foul.
While it may sound like just the latest twist on Washington’s workaday partisan warfare, numerous legal experts and other scholars say the escalating conflict between House Democrats investigating the president and a defiant White House is entering uncharted territory.
The clash, these experts say, has the potential to redefine the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches, and upset the system of checks and balances that guard against any one branch amassing too much power. The snowballing spats ultimately could land in the lap of the Supreme Court, where a decision could alter the relationship between the other two branches of federal government.
I'm sure Israel and the War Machine will get whatever they want, while the pharmaceuticals and other corporations will be left alone as long as they keep contributing that lobbying loot.
(turn in page A11)
“It’s not about Democrats and Republicans at various ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. It’s about protecting your and my liberty by limiting the concentration of power in any of the three branches,” said Kerry W. Kircher, former House counsel for the last Republican majority. “That’s the whole point of separation of power.”
American history is dotted with clashes between the executive and legislative branches of government over the limits of each other’s power. As recently as the Obama and Bush administrations, top officials were found in contempt for failing to comply with congressional subpoenas. What pushes the current dispute beyond these previous episodes, scholars say, is the sheer breadth of Trump’s refusal to comply with congressional investigations.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said Wednesday the White House is obstructing more than 20 congressional investigations, refusing to provide information on topics ranging from the Affordable Care Act, to the administration’s policy on separating immigrant families, to Trump’s financial records.
When are they going to start investigating Kushner (of course, I think we all know why he is off limits)?
“The real issue at hand is the size and scope of the rejection of congressional oversight. That to my mind does not have any precedent in American history,” said Jeffrey Engel, director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. The idea that the nation’s chief executive would say to Congress: “You have no oversight over me, and of my constitutional authority,” Engel said, would be “entirely anathema to the notion of constitutional government” created by the Founders.
The one possible exception, Engel added, was President Richard Nixon’s refusal to respond to subpoenas issued by the House Judiciary Committee in its Watergate investigation. That refusal became one of the articles of impeachment against him.
They are comparing Trump to Nixon when Obama was far worse. Nixon only used the national security and ju$tu$ agencies in an attempt to cover up private criminality; the Obama White House used those same agencies to facilitate spying on an opposing presidential campaign.
Of particular concern for Democrats has been the Trump’s administration’s stonewalling of their efforts to obtain the unredacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, along with underlying documents and testimony from key players.
Are they sure it was Russia and not Israel (and why would they care about elections in Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Angola, Niger, and Tunisia? Talk about a pile of bullshit disinformation)?
Related: Gantz, Netanyahu’s Challenger, Faces Lurid Questions After Iran Hacked His Phone
Are you sure it was Iran?
Somehow, Netanyahu still won and, fortunately, Israel foiled the meddling.
So who was it that hacked Florida again?
Good thing Giuliani was prevented from interfering in the Ukrainian elections (whose new president is a puppet of billionaire oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, whose TV channel aired Zelensky’s sitcom and gave positive coverage to his candidacy).
I wonder if he still got paid for the planned speech to a Jewish group about Middle East policy.
Of course, if it is Democratic campaign corruption it is DISMISSED!
There’s no consensus whether the country is, as Democrats claim, in a genuine constitutional crisis, given the ill-defined nature of the term, but many experts say they believe the country may be headed to one. Some say a true crisis would occur if the courts direct Trump to comply with congressional subpoenas, and he refuses. Others say if Trump’s power grab goes unchecked by Congress or the courts, it would trigger a crisis; or if the Supreme Court — with two Trump appointees — rules in the president’s favor by a 5-to-4 decision, it could call into question the court’s own legitimacy.
Regardless, observers say the stakes of the current battle are high, with Congress in danger of seeing its institutional power severely diminished.
Two of Congress’s primary functions are to oversee the other branches and decide how tax monies get spent.
Nothing about their war powers because both parties are in agreement on that.
Shows you what a charade that is all this in$ide politics in the Globe.
Tussles between the executive and legislative branches don’t usually end up in contempt charges and lawsuits, because the two sides need one another to get things done, “and tend to find a way to resolve their differences,” said Sarah Binder, an expert on Congress and a political science professor at George Washington University.
A presidential administration, she noted, usually has a well-defined policy agenda and anticipates needing Congress to get it enacted, but Trump doesn’t have much of a legislative agenda and Democrats don’t have total power over spending to use as leverage, all of which “limits Congress’s ability to fight back,” Binder said.
With few exceptions, congressional Republicans are siding with Trump. (On Saturday, GOP Representative Justin Amash tweeted that the redacted version of the Mueller report convinced him Trump “engaged in impeachable conduct.”) But an otherwise sharply divided Congress further weakens its ability to assert oversight authority.
In past major constitutional clashes, members of Congress from the president’s party pushed back against executive misconduct. Republican lawmakers eventually turned on Nixon and backed impeachment. When Franklin D. Roosevelt won reelection by a landslide in 1936 and proposed adding more justices to the Supreme Court, “it was the Democratic Party who told FDR that’s a bridge too far,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.
Given the current partisan resistance, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to reject calls to initiate impeachment proceedings. So it may be up to the third branch of government — the courts — to referee the dispute, but legal experts say the fights may proceed slowly in the courts, and possibly leave key questions unresolved before the 2020 election. Indeed, many observers believe Trump is pursuing a legal strategy of delay.
So when are you going to investigate him, Nan?
Have you read the book yet?
At least someone has.
Sarah Binder of George Washington University said there’s another party who can help decide the separation of powers question at the heart of the current fight: voters.
Scholars will almost certainly over-interpret the coming “electoral reckoning,” she said, but if Trump were to lose in 2020, “it would certainly be interpreted as a rejection of this imperial president.” On the other hand, if he wins, she said, it may amount to “an electoral shrug, that sure, presidents can exert these powers and get away with it.”
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Related:
"For all of President Trump’s talk of winning, his lawyers are using a legal argument that many scholars say is a pretty sure loser as his team tries to defy congressional attempts to investigate him. Yet they may end up delaying the investigations with their argument, and that could be a win in itself......"
And they wonder why they are ‘‘not taken very seriously,’’ but even if(!!!!!) regarding the latest war criminal occupant of the White House?
[flip to below fold]
"Was Jeff Koons’s balloon bunny worth a record $91 million?" by Murray Whyte Globe Staff, May 18, 2019
Jeff Koons set another contemporary-art price record at auction when his chromium balloon bunny commanded $91.1 million at Christie’s in New York Wednesday night, and for many, that’s just as it should be.
Koons has been the poster boy of art-world excess for three decades running. He emerged to instant success in the 1980s greed-is-good era, Wall Street at its most bloated and self-adoring. The most bloated except for right now, of course.....
Is that supposed to be funny?
I gue$$ it is if you are an in$ulting eliti$t.
--more--"
Bottoms up:
Mayor Pete and the Order of the Kong
Trying to shove Mayor Pete up your ass.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"Colombian army’s kill orders put civilians at risk, officers say" by Nicholas Casey New York Times May 18, 2019
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The head of Colombia’s army, frustrated by the nation’s faltering efforts to secure peace, has ordered his troops to double the number of criminals and militants they kill, capture, or force to surrender in battle — and possibly accept higher civilian casualties in the process, according to written orders and interviews with senior officers.
At the start of the year, Colombian generals and colonels were assembled and told to sign a written pledge to step up attacks. Daily internal presentations now show the number of days that brigades have gone without combat, and commanders are berated when they don’t carry out assaults frequently enough, the officers said.
One order causing particular worry instructs soldiers not to “demand perfection” in carrying out deadly attacks, even if significant questions remain about the targets they are striking. Some officers say that order has instructed them to lower their standards for protecting innocent civilians from getting killed, and that it has already led to suspicious or unnecessary deaths.
The military tried a similar strategy to defeat Colombia’s rebel and paramilitary groups in the mid-2000s, before a landmark peace deal was signed to end decades of conflict, but the tactics caused a national outrage when it emerged that soldiers, aiming to meet their quotas, engaged in widespread killings and disappearances of civilians.
Now, another incarnation of the policy is being pushed by the new government against the country’s remaining criminal, guerrilla, and paramilitary groups, according to orders reviewed by The New York Times and three senior officers who spoke about them.
Two of the officers said in lengthy interviews that Colombian soldiers were under intense pressure yet again — and that a pattern of suspicious killings and coverups had begun to emerge this year.
In a meeting recounted by one of the officers, a general ordered commanders to “do anything” to boost their results, even if it meant “allying ourselves” with armed criminal groups to get information on targets, a divide-and-conquer strategy.
Beyond that, officers said, soldiers who increase their combat kills are being offered incentives, like extra vacation, in a pattern they fear is strikingly similar to the unlawful killings of the mid-2000s.
“We have gone back to what we were doing before,” said one of the officers, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals by their superiors.
Still, however, Colombia is under pressure from the Trump administration to show progress in cracking down on drug trafficking, a battle that has shown little progress despite $10 billion in US aid.
Yeah, the never-ending War on Drugs. Hard to show progress when the authorities are working both ends of it. More on that below.
As the pressure mounted, President Iván Duque, a conservative who campaigned against the peace deal because he thought it was too soft on the rebels, replaced the country’s top army commanders in December.
Duque’s government appointed nine officers linked to killings in the mid-2000s, including some who now hold top positions directing military offensives throughout Colombia, according to documents published by Human Rights Watch.....
Next thing you know, they will be calling him another Duterte.
So where have the Colombians failed to fulfill the U.S. agenda? That's the only reason for this piece appearing at this time.
--more--"
Good thing they are an ally against Venezuela, right?
The Globe says that domestic support for the overthrow of a legitimately elected government is crucial -- which makes one wonder why publish the letters at all.
Yeah, what do we do now?
How about leaving people the fuck alone?
"Austria’s vice chancellor resigns after video sting" by Katrin Bennhold and Christopher F. Schuetze New York Times May 18, 2019
BERLIN — Austria’s chancellor called for snap elections after the country’s far-right vice chancellor resigned Saturday over a secretly filmed video from 2017 that showed him promising government contracts to a woman claiming to be the niece of a Russian oligarch.
The episode renewed questions about whether Russia had a direct line into a government at the heart of the European Union.
The video was the worst in a series of missteps that threatened the stability of Austria’s governing coalition. It also raised concerns about whether Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache’s far-right Freedom Party had been actively working to undermine liberal democracy and media freedom in the country while helping Chancellor Sebastian Kurz govern as the junior party in his coalition.
The scandal comes at an important political moment in the European Union. Across the Continent, far-right, populist leaders are campaigning hard before next week’s elections for the European Parliament and seem poised to increase their share in the chamber.
Many of Europe’s populists share the intentions of President Vladimir Putin of Russia to widen political divisions and weaken Western institutions.
Not long ago, these far-right parties were on the fringes of European politics, but like Austria’s Freedom Party, several are now part of coalition governments. Some populist leaders, particularly in the Scandinavian countries and Poland, are wary of Russia, but others are outspoken in their desire for closer ties to the Kremlin.
The Freedom Party has longstanding ties with Russia and a formal cooperation agreement with Putin’s United Russia party.
Without the Freedom Party, Kurz’s conservative party does not have a majority in parliament.
The video of Strache’s meeting was filmed in a villa on the Spanish island of Ibiza three months before the 2017 Austrian elections in which Kurz led his conservative Austrian People’s Party to victory. It exposed in a raw fashion Strache’s apparent eagerness to help Russia with unethical promises for government contracts in exchange for donations to his party.
Apparently filmed without Strache’s knowledge, the footage was obtained and published on Friday by the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel and the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, two respected news outlets. The New York Times could not independently verify the contents of the entire video. The motive and the timing of the recording’s release remained unknown.
Really?
Looks it pretty clear to me!
Der Spiegel would not say how it had obtained the video, but confirmed that it knew the identity of its source, but what is clear from excerpts from the video is the Freedom Party’s willingness to foster close links to Russia, even if in this case the meeting may have been a setup.....
I'm sorry, what was that last bit?
Yeah, turns out the propaganda pre$$ is nothing but a stenographer for complete set-ups, staged and scripted crisis drills gone live, and false flag fakery.
--more--"
Related:
"Sergei L. Dorenko, a maverick broadcast journalist who became known as the “TV killer” for helping to clear rivals from Vladimir Putin’s path to power but who then fell out of official favor and was thrown off the air, died Thursday in Moscow. He was 59. Mr. Dorenko was on his motorcycle when he suffered a ruptured aorta and crashed into a traffic barrier, according to Govorit Moskva, a radio station he founded in 2014, citing a coroner’s report. The crash occurred shortly before a Victory Day fireworks display was to be held in Moscow to commemorate Russia’s defeat of Germany in World War II. The timing of the crash raised questions in some quarters about whether he had been targeted by officials. Recent deaths of Russian media and political figures connected to the politics of the 1990s have prompted similar speculation that they were killed, possibly because of secrets they may have held....."
If that ain't ever the hypocritical pot hollering kettle, and speaking of state sanctioned murder:
His father died at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas
He is breaking the silence on so many things.
Also see:
Australia’s ruling coalition gets surprise third term
Another rigged election in one of Zionism's vassal states.
"Malta’s prime minister has announced that two armed forces members have been arrested in connection with a fatal drive-by shooting of a migrant from Ivory Coast. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said Saturday on Twitter that an internal investigation would determine whether the men acted alone ‘‘or as part of something wider.’’ It is believed to be Malta’s first racially motivated murder. Lassana Cisse, 42, was killed in the drive-by shooting on April 6 as he walked on a road near a migrant center. Two other men, a 22-year-old from Guinea and a 28-year-old Gambian, were injured in the attack (AP)."
So whatever happened to that Maltese reporter who was blown up in her car while investigating EU corruption, Globe? Why no follow up?
They don't even care about Khassoggi anymore.
Whadda ya' mean who?!!
"An unknown man assaulted actor Arnold Schwarzenegger during a public appearance in South Africa on Saturday, but the 71-year-old appeared to quickly recover and said, ‘‘I’m just glad the idiot didn’t interrupt my Snapchat.’’ Video shows the former California governor with children at a sporting event in Johannesburg when a man makes a flying kick into his back. Schwarzenegger stumbles forward. The man is quickly grabbed by security. Off camera a man shouts several times ‘‘Help me!’’ The video shortly afterward shows Schwarzenegger smiling and shaking hands with bystanders but then walking out ringed by security (AP)"
Go watch the video and ask yourself why the AP skewed the report to make it look like police brutality?
Marchers demand same-sex marriage
The Louvre is flowing from Ireland to Taiwan.
(flip)
[FULL PAGE TOTAL WINE AD]
That explains the the near endless drinking done by the Bo$ton Globe.
(flip)
US warns airliners flying in Persian Gulf amid Iran tensions
The warning appeared rooted in what happened 30 years ago after Operation Praying Mantis, a daylong naval battle in the Persian Gulf between American forces and Iran during the country’s long 1980s war with Iraq. On July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes chased Iranian speedboats, which allegedly opened fire on a helicopter, into Iranian territorial waters, then mistook an Iran Air plane for an Iranian F-14. The Vincennes fired two missiles at the airplane, killing all aboard.
The U.S. war crime for which Bush the First (now frying in hell) would not apologize.
This may surprise you, but I want the war to get going. I've reached the conclusion that the only way out of this mess is for the EUSraeli Empire to be destroyed.
I know the psychopathic rulers will order nuclear strikes as they go down the drain; however, it will all be worth it. The world will then be run under the auspices of a Russian-Chinese-Iranian-Turkish axis that will be far better than what we have now in the West (technological tyranny and massive looting called wealth inequality). It will be a One Belt, One Road world, but at least it will be a world worth living in.
As India’s election wraps up, a village is caught between 2 parties
The people of Bogakhali are the latest casualties of the violence, voter intimidation, and sectarian politics that typically accompany Indian elections. Compared with previous years, these elections have been relatively peaceful.
WTF then, NYT?
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Electricity arrives at remote homes in Navajo Nation
What about the floods?
(flip)
Abortion debates prompt rape testimony from female lawmakers
Time to hop aboard the Pink Railroad, ladies.
Of course, access to abortion has always depended on “where you live and how much money you have,” but it is not the end of the story.
See:
Alabama law foreshadows 2020 abortion clash
Missouri lawmakers send strict anti-abortion bill to governor
Sorry for aborting those without reading them.
(flip)
"Biden rejects Democrats’ anger in call for national unity" by Steve Peoples Associated Press, May 18, 2019
PHILADELPHIA — Joe Biden’s moderate message highlights his chief advantage and chief liability in the early days of the nascent presidential contest, which has so far been defined by fierce resistance to Donald Trump on the left and equally aggressive vitriol on the right. Biden’s centrist approach may help him win over independents, but it threatens to alienate liberals who favor a more aggressive approach in policy and personality to counter Trump’s turbulent presidency.
‘‘I want aggressive change. I’m not hearing that from him yet,’’ said 45-year-old Jennifer Moyer of Blandon, Pa., who attended Biden’s rally and said she’s 90 percent sold on his candidacy. ‘‘I don’t want middle of the road.’’
She doesn't want middle of the road and wants aggressive change, but she's 80% for Biden.
C'mon, hey!
Do you guys make these people up or what (and yes, he is still writing for the Globe)?
The event was the culmination of a three-week campaign rollout that began and ended in Pennsylvania, home to Biden’s campaign headquarters and where he was brought up. The 76-year-old native of working-class Scranton, Pa., has climbed to the front of the crowded primary field, in part by ignoring his Democratic rivals and focusing on his ability to compete with Trump head-to-head next year.
Isn't that putting the cart before the horse?
In the fight to deny Trump reelection, no states will matter more than Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, three states the Republican president carried by razor-thin margins in 2016.
Biden is betting big that voters in the Midwest and beyond will ultimately embrace his optimistic appeal.
That’s far from certain.
Biden’s campaign security team estimated that the Saturday event, which closed down a Philadelphia thoroughfare and attracted a huge police presence, drew an estimated 6,000 people. Compared with events held by some of his top rivals — and certainly Trump’s rallies — the crowd was large, but not overwhelming.
Some in his party’s energized left wing, watching from afar, were skeptical of Biden’s strength atop the field and his message of unity.
‘‘It’s hard to imagine how Joe Biden is not angry,” said Adam Green, cofounder of the liberal group known as the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which has long supported Elizabeth Warren’s presidential ambitions.
I'm not angry anymore. I'm indifferent to the charade that passes for news now.
‘‘Has he been living in the Trump era? Kids are being torn away from their mothers’ arms at the border,’’ Green continued. ‘‘It’s completely legitimate to have righteous outrage at this horrible Trump moment in history, and to want a candidate who will channel that anger toward positive change.”
Oh, yeah, that Trump immigration plan that is going to double the amount of immigrant work visas while the "labor force participation rate fell to 62.8 percent in April from 63 percent the prior month, meaning a smaller percentage of the population is working?"
It's the plan developed by his son-in-law and White House adviser, Jared Kushner, the de facto chief of staff and chief political adviser -- which explains a lot regarding the chaos in the administration and why certain people are in the positions they are and why others have been brushed aside), as well as why the president has lost his base trying to MIGA. Nothing but praise for the boy ‘‘superstar who has impressed so much.’’
Talk about a betrayal of his voters to service a slave labor slum lord son-in-law.
Of course, other than that it's booming economy, blah-blah-blah, and if the economy remains strong, it could be Trump’s best argument as he tries to replicate his narrow path to victory in the Electoral College in 2016,
(Now wave women and kids at them before heading north):
Members of the Palestinian band Dawaween perform during a musical event calling for a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest hosted by Israel, on the rubble of a building that was recently destroyed by Israeli air strikes, in Gaza City (Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images)
Was in my printed paper last week with no accompanying article.
I know, I know, I should feel fortunate they put it in the paper at all.
It was easy to see signs of anger in recent days as Biden courted Democratic primary voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina as part of his inaugural national tour. At a house party in New Hampshire last week, Biden took a question from a woman who called Trump ‘‘an illegitimate president’’ and said he should be impeached.
Biden jokingly asked if she’d be his running mate, before shifting the conversation to another topic. A spokeswoman later said Biden does not believe Trump is an illegitimate president.
You can't say Creepy Uncle Joe isn't qualified for the job.
He is ALREADY DECEIVING VOTERS and the primaries are more than six months away!
I wonder if that angered the lady.
Ahead in the polls in the early days of the 2020 contest, Biden is unlikely to embrace a more aggressive approach in the near future.
That's how Clinton lost, duh!
Referencing the health care battle under former President Barack Obama, he noted Saturday that he knows how to win ‘‘a bare-knuckle fight,” but later added, ‘‘We need to stop fighting and start fixing.”
‘‘If the American people want a president to add to our division, to lead with a clenched fist, closed hand, and a hard heart, to demonize the opponents and spew hatred — they don’t need me. They’ve got President Donald Trump,’’ he continued. ‘‘I am running to offer our country — Democrats, Republicans, and independents — a different path.”
Before he took the stage, longtime admirer Bradley Skelcher, of Smyrna, Del., praised the former vice president’s optimistic message, but he described himself as “damn angry” about the Trump presidency.
‘‘We need calm. You don’t want anybody like me running the country,’’ Skelcher said. ‘‘Somebody needs to calm us down a little.’’
Why?
There a threat of violence?
--more--"
Also see:
Biden’s entry into the Democratic race provides a jolt to the Sanders candidacy
It's Balz-y propaganda from the Washington ComPost that tells us Biden lead Sanders in the polls by a whopping 41 percent to 15 percent.
The bigger the lie, I guess, except that doesn't hold anymore with the jewsmedia, so help me God.
The prevailing narrative now being provided by the agenda-pu$hing pre$$ is that Sanders' authenticity has made him unfavorable, despite the loyalty of his followers (you know, if you are going to shovel tons of bullshit, it is helpful if you don't contradict yourself in the same print edition).
As for Biden, he can't even hold a Stop & Shop rally:
"Biden appeared about 90 minutes into the event, as a light ran began to fall and the crowd had started to thin out. He spoke for about eight minutes, sounding like a candidate for office, ending with a promise that “we will take back this country.”
Did anyone ask him about the crime bill (he passed the buck to states!)?
Related: "I Am A Zionist. You Don't Have To A Jew To Be A Zionist."
So either way we get a crypto-Jew president. Some choice.
But you know me. I'm just a racist and conspiracist because I watch Tucker.
(flip)
"Heroin is vanishing as fentanyl swamps streets" by Abby Goodnough New York Times, May 18, 2019
BALTIMORE — Heroin has ravaged this city since the early 1960s, fueling desperation and crime that remain endemic in many neighborhoods, but lately, despite heroin’s long, deep history here, users say it has become nearly impossible to find.
So nothing has really changed in 50 years of the War on Drugs, huh?
Other than certain intere$ts got rich.
Heroin’s presence is fading up and down the Eastern Seaboard, from New England mill towns to rural Appalachia, and in parts of the Midwest that were overwhelmed by it a few years back. It remains prevalent in many Western states, but even New York City, the nation’s biggest distribution hub for the drug, has seen less of it this year.
The diminishing supply should be a victory for public health and law enforcement alike. Instead, in cities like Baltimore, longtime users who managed to survive decades injecting heroin are now at far higher risk of dying from an overdose. That is because synthetic fentanyl, a deadlier drug that is much cheaper to produce and distribute than heroin, has all but replaced it.
The dramatic rise of fentanyl, which can be 50 times stronger than heroin, has been well documented, but its effect on many older, urban users of heroin, who had been able to manage their addiction for years, has been less noticed. The shift from heroin to fentanyl in cities has contributed to surging overdose deaths among older people and African-Americans and deeply unnerved many like William Glen Miller Sr., who first tried heroin as a 13-year-old in West Baltimore.
Yeah, bring on the safe injection sites so Bo$ton can become San Francisco!
What becomes clear is the War on Drugs is meant to fail. It's all about keeping the public addicted so that the authorities can clean up on both sides. The world's largest drug smuggler is the CIA, folks, and the ill gotten booty helps fund further black budget projects while the treatment side enables those intere$ts to get paid as well as further tyranny -- all for the public good, of course, be it the vaccines, prescription pills, pot, illegals narcotics, or alcohol (see above)!
The BRAVE NEW WORLD is HERE!
“It doesn’t take a second for it to hit you,” said Miller, 64, describing the unfamiliar punch of fentanyl. “All I remember is pushing in the needle, and three hours later I am getting up off the ground.”
I guess being a drug addict is a career choice.
He was speaking from a nursing home bed in northern Baltimore, where he spent several recent months recovering from pneumonia and contemplating addiction treatment in another state. Heroin had a lulling effect, he and others said, but fentanyl is killing many of their peers. The claim is backed by federal data showing that the rate of overdose deaths involving fentanyl increased by nearly 54 percent in 2017 for people 55-64 — more than for any other age group.
So who is paying for his care, and why are these people who should know better still doing this shit?
“Clients we’ve known for years are dying,” said Derrick Hunt, director of the Baltimore City Needle Exchange Program, which has two vans that serve 17 locations around the city. “Everywhere I go, this person passed, that person passed.”
Clients, huh?
Not patients?
Tell$ you all you need to know.
The reason fentanyl is everywhere is economic: Dealers and traffickers can make far more money from it than from heroin. Instead of waiting months for poppy fields to grow in Mexico and farmers to harvest the brownish-black gum, which then gets refined into powder and shipped north, traffickers here and in Mexico can order fentanyl from China, or precursor chemicals to make it in clandestine labs, generating far more doses with far less labor.
Can we get out of Afghanistan now?
This is not an elegy for heroin, a dangerous drug in its own right that spread from cities into suburbs and rural areas about a decade ago, when addictive prescription painkillers became harder to get, but for longtime urban users like Miller, many of them African-American, its disappearance is taking a particular toll. From 2016 to 2017, the fatal overdose rate from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids increased by 61 percent among black Americans, compared with a 45 percent increase for whites.
The number of overdose deaths involving heroin has been dropping, even as overdose deaths overall have kept climbing because of fentanyl.
It's in Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
Related: Opioid overdose deaths in Mass. fell again in 2018
Yeah, whatever.
Where is my grain of salt?
Data on drug seizures similarly suggest a diminishing of heroin. In Baltimore, Todd Edwards, spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s local district office, said law enforcement was now seizing more fentanyl than heroin, and in a Philadelphia neighborhood called Kensington, which has been hit particularly hard by opioid addiction, users report that “they can’t find heroin anymore,” said Patrick Trainor, a spokesman for the DEA there. “It’s pretty much been replaced.”
Fentanyl may still be mixed with heroin or other drugs, but increasingly, it arrives pure — either as powder or pressed into counterfeit pills resembling Percocet or Xanax. It can be diluted with more filler than heroin can because it takes far less fentanyl to have a powerful effect.
Oh, yeah?
What filler do they use?
“At the dealer level right now, fentanyl is like a magic dust — it’s a moneymaker,” said Jon DeLena, associate special agent in charge of the DEA’s New England field division.
“We were hearing people start to say, ‘I want the old stuff again, I want the brown,’ meaning heroin,” he continued. “But traffickers just started mixing fentanyl with something that had a brown tinge to it. They’re never, ever, ever going to go back to selling heroin around here again.”
Mexican poppy cultivation reached a high in 2017, according to the DEA, but several news outlets have reported that the price of opium paste — the part of the poppy that gets turned into heroin — has dropped sharply over the past year, a sign that criminal organizations are increasingly focused on fentanyl.
Ray Donovan, who leads the DEA’s New York office, said he believed China’s recent decision to ban all variants of fentanyl as a class could ultimately force traffickers to refocus on heroin. But because China has not banned many of the precursor chemicals needed to make fentanyl, others believe the effect could be minimal.....
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My addiction is wasting time reading the Globe every morning, imho, although I stopped after reading that article. Didn't even waste the pen ink.
They are $inking like $tone now.
I mean, there is no way you can take her seriously, nor the hot air that comes from the commencements. Time to find somewhere else to live. Bo$ton is a cancer on the soul.
Sorry, kids, I'm sending back the lunch (so to speak).
Anybody else have any ideas?
