Mattis Quits

Here4money said:
over something that clearly is not a national emergency; .
More...
I think that can be open for discussion.

Thousands are dying from fentanyl. Meth is certainly getting in. Heroin... despite the ever increasing, insatiable demand, a bindle now costs less now than a 6-pack of Tecate, ironic that both are coming in from Mexico. Our youth are being poisoned and we are losing (by far) way more each year than what we are losing in our numerous military actions around the globe. More than the entire Vietnam War in one year almost. And its getting worse.

2017 was an all-time record. 2018 topped it by September.
It can be argued that's a pretty strong case for a "national emergency". Illegal immigrants aside. We won't have a country left if we don't stop this drug bullsh*t. Its the southern border man. It needs to be secured.

From CDC.gov:

1. Deaths Attributed to Drug Overdose in the US, 2017

Opioids were detected in 47,863 reported deaths, and are predicted to be involved in 49,031 deaths.
Synthetic opioids, excluding methadone, were detected in 28,644 reported deaths, and are predicted to be involved in 28,644 deaths.
Heroin was detected in 15,585 reported deaths, and is predicted to be involved in 15,941 deaths.
Natural and semi-synthetic opioids were detected in 14,553 reported deaths, and are predicted to be involved in 14,940 deaths.
Cocaine was detected in 14,065 reported deaths, and is predicted to be involved in 14,612 deaths.
Psychostimulants with abuse potential were detected in 10,420 reported deaths, and are predicted to be involved in 10,703 deaths.
Methadone was detected in 3,209 reported deaths, and is predicted to be involved in 3,286 deaths.
 
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vanzandt said:
I think that can be open for discussion.

Thousands are dying from fentanyl. Meth is certainly getting in. Heroin... despite the ever increasing, insatiable demand, a bindle now costs less now than a 6-pack of Tecate, ironic that both are coming in from Mexico. Our youth are being poisoned and we are losing (by far) way more each year than what we are losing in our numerous military actions around the globe. More than Vietnam in one year almost. And its getting worse.
2017 was an all-time record. 2018 topped it by September.
It can be argued that's a pretty strong case for a "national emergency". Illegal immigrants aside. We won't have a country left if we don't stop this drug bullsh*t. Its the southern border man. It needs to be secured.

From CDC.gov:

1. Deaths Attributed to Drug Overdose in the US, 2017

Opioids were detected in 47,863 reported deaths, and are predicted to be involved in 49,031 deaths.
Synthetic opioids, excluding methadone, were detected in 28,644 reported deaths, and are predicted to be involved in 28,644 deaths.
Heroin was detected in 15,585 reported deaths, and is predicted to be involved in 15,941 deaths.
Natural and semi-synthetic opioids were detected in 14,553 reported deaths, and are predicted to be involved in 14,940 deaths.
Cocaine was detected in 14,065 reported deaths, and is predicted to be involved in 14,612 deaths.
Psychostimulants with abuse potential were detected in 10,420 reported deaths, and are predicted to be involved in 10,703 deaths.
Methadone was detected in 3,209 reported deaths, and is predicted to be involved in 3,286 deaths.
More...


Meanwhile, an article in today's WSJ says Medicare overpaid CVS, Humana, and some others 9 billion.

Where oh where could we ever find the money to address some of these crises? ..........wait...teacher, I have my hand up. I have an idea.


Trump did just force China to criminalize fentanyl though. So that is in the plus column. Maybe they will ignore it, or maybe they will start executing the shiite out of violators as they do for other drugs. We shall see.
 
vanzandt said:
I think that can be open for discussion.

Thousands are dying from fentanyl. Meth is certainly getting in. Heroin... despite the ever increasing, insatiable demand, a bindle now costs less now than a 6-pack of Tecate, ironic that both are coming in from Mexico. Our youth are being poisoned and we are losing (by far) way more each year than what we are losing in our numerous military actions around the globe. More than the entire Vietnam War in one year almost. And its getting worse.

2017 was an all-time record. 2018 topped it by September.
It can be argued that's a pretty strong case for a "national emergency". Illegal immigrants aside. We won't have a country left if we don't stop this drug bullsh*t. Its the southern border man. It needs to be secured.

From CDC.gov:

1. Deaths Attributed to Drug Overdose in the US, 2017

Opioids were detected in 47,863 reported deaths, and are predicted to be involved in 49,031 deaths.
Synthetic opioids, excluding methadone, were detected in 28,644 reported deaths, and are predicted to be involved in 28,644 deaths.
Heroin was detected in 15,585 reported deaths, and is predicted to be involved in 15,941 deaths.
Natural and semi-synthetic opioids were detected in 14,553 reported deaths, and are predicted to be involved in 14,940 deaths.
Cocaine was detected in 14,065 reported deaths, and is predicted to be involved in 14,612 deaths.
Psychostimulants with abuse potential were detected in 10,420 reported deaths, and are predicted to be involved in 10,703 deaths.
Methadone was detected in 3,209 reported deaths, and is predicted to be involved in 3,286 deaths.
More...

We lose as many people by firearm yet that is not a national emergency. Ascribing synthetic opioid deaths on the southern border porosity is disingenuous at best.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/firearm_mortality/firearm.htm

https://thehill.com/policy/healthca...deaths-reach-highest-level-in-nearly-40-years
 
Here4money said:
We lose as many people by firearm yet that is not a national emergency. Ascribing synthetic opioid deaths on the southern border porosity is disingenuous at best.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/firearm_mortality/firearm.htm

https://thehill.com/policy/healthca...deaths-reach-highest-level-in-nearly-40-years
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Nice deflection. Okay, we have two national emergencies, and I can argue the second has some serious underpinnings in the first. Perhaps the wall would help with drug/gang related deaths too.
Pretty sure it would. Gonna debate that?

https://graphics.suntimes.com/homicides/
 
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vanzandt said:
Nice deflection. Okay, we have two national emergencies, and I can argue the second has some serious underpinnings in the first. Perhaps the wall would help with drug/gang related deaths too.
Pretty sure it would. Gonna debate that?

https://graphics.suntimes.com/homicides/
More...

It would hinder arms trafficking into Mexico yes. I don't think it would nip gang violence as you'd just be making a high demand product more profitable by reducting its supply.

And my argument was not meant to deflect, simply to point out that it could or could not be a serious problem depending on your politics. Righties say 40k deaths per year is not enough to warrant gun reform.... They'll probably argue it's not enough deaths to legislate sugar, salt, or fat content in food either which probably claims more lives thorough health problems and much like drugs, are consumed voluntarily.

And to correct myself, looks like the cartels are moving serious volume of synthetics now, which was different from a few years ago when I looked into the problem.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/sd-me-fentanyl-pipeline-20180617-story.html

As an aside: shit, we're in the wrong business.

With fentanyl, you need about 20 times less product to achieve the same high as heroin.

One kilogram of pure fentanyl from China, costing about $3,300 to $5,000, can be turned into a diluted powder sold on San Diego streets at a $300,000 value, according to the DEA. As it travels farther away from the border, the value skyrockets.

If it is in pill form, 1 kilogram of pure fentanyl can be made into 1 million pills containing 1 milligram of fentanyl each. Sell each pill for $10 to $20 a piece on the street and that is a $10 million to $20 million product.
 
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https://thehill.com/policy/defense/...-trump-white-house-on-north-korea-iran-report

Mattis ignored orders from Trump, White House on North Korea, Iran: report

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis declined to carry out orders from President Trump or otherwise limited his options in various attempts to prevent tensions with North Korea, Iran and Syria from escalating, The New Yorker reported Monday, the latest account of Trump’s own officials trying to check his worst instincts.

"The president thinks out loud. Do you treat it like an order? Or do you treat it as part of a longer conversation? We treated it as part of a longer conversation," a former senior national security official told The New Yorker.

"We prevented a lot of bad things from happening."

In 2017, following a series of North Korean ballistic missile tests, Trump ordered the Pentagon to begin removing the spouses and children of military personnel from South Korea, where the U.S. military has a base. An administration official told the magazine that "Mattis just ignored" the order.

In another instance in the fall of 2017, as White House officials were planning a private meeting at Camp David to develop military options for a possible conflict with North Korea, Mattis allegedly stopped the gathering from happening. He ignored a request from then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster to send officers and planners, according to a former senior administration official.

The accounts, included in a profile of national security adviser John Bolton, reveal that the former Marine Corps general routinely sought to downplay any potential conflicts across the globe.

Mattis resigned from his Pentagon position last December, one day after Trump announced that he would withdraw troops from Syria, a decision Mattis opposed.

The defense chief also sought to ward off possible conflicts in the Middle East.

As Iraq was preparing for parliamentary elections in late 2017, McMaster was worried about any meddling from Iran and asked the Pentagon to give options to counter such a move.

A former McMaster aide said Mattis later sent a Pentagon official to the White House without any options in hand.

"I asked him what happened to the options," the former aide told The New Yorker. "He told me, 'We resisted those.' You could feel everyone in the meeting go, 'Excuse me?'"

Mattis also reportedly prevented Gen. John Nicholson, then head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, from meeting Trump.

After Bolton replaced McMaster, he asked the Pentagon for multiple options in April 2018, after Syrian President Bashar Assad dropped chemical weapons on civilians in a suburb of Damascus. Mattis gave only one option, a limited strike with cruise missiles, which angered Bolton.

Administration officials told the magazine that Mattis was likely attempting to limit information to Trump so he could not make ill-advised decisions.

"There are a lot of people in the administration who want to limit the president’s options because they don’t want the president to get anything done," a former senior administration official said.
 
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