Open Thread - 10-31-2025 - Drug War still
Morning. Not sure why the content of today's Open Thread is such a downer. Intended to write a uplifting thread on the value pets bring to our lives. Whether the pet is our own, a frequent visitor in our lives or a one time meeting those relationships can change our lives.
Instead its about fentanyl. The current excuse for instigating military, trade and diplomatic pressure around the world. Terror is so passe.
Reuters published a series of articles on fentanyl last year you might find interesting regarding the scope of the issue. Fentanyl started becoming a widespread public issue in 1984 with the first prescription topical patches providing longterm pain relief. Before then it was primarily a hospital problem, especially with anesthesiologists.
We bought everything needed to make $3 million worth of fentanyl. All it took was $3,600 and a web browser Rueters July 25, 2024
The problem for regulators: Many of the same chemicals used to make fentanyl are also crucial to legitimate industries, from perfumes and pharmaceuticals to rubber and dyes. Tightly restricting all of them would upend global commerce. And because of fentanyl’s potency, even small quantities of these precursors can produce vast numbers of tiny pills using a simple manufacturing process – rendering the ingredients, the final product and the supply chain easy to conceal from authorities.
Anyone with a mailbox, an internet connection and digital currency to pay the tab can source these chemicals, a Reuters investigation found.
Part 2: How fentanyl traffickers are exploiting a U.S. trade law to kill Americans
Part 3: Trump camp says China is ‘attacking’ U.S. with fentanyl. They aim to fight back
Part 4: The shadowy ‘brokers’ helping Mexico’s cartels smuggle fentanyl chemicals from China
Part 5: A fentanyl antidote is saving lives. But it isn’t ending the fentanyl crisis
Our northern neighbor is a larger conduit of illicit drugs into the US than previously disclosed publicly. Rest assured U.S. Homeland Security has been monitoring the situation with a years-long undercover operation.
From BC Bud to Ecstasy, Meth, and Fentanyl: How Canada’s Vast Landscape and Permissive Laws Were Progressively Exploited by Chinese and Mexican Cartels
The Bureau Oct 17, 2025
OTTAWA — Over the past month, The Bureau has traced a pattern of numerous cases linking Canada—especially Vancouver’s port and airport—to methamphetamine pipelines feeding overseas markets including New Zealand and Australia. Reporting uncovered prosecutions showing methods engineered to exploit not only Canada’s transportation infrastructure but also its international image and brand.
...
“To make things even easier it was common knowledge that Canadian ports are not secure and bringing precursor chemicals into Canada without detection would be easy,” they said. “Once in Canada the chemicals were then easily transported to countless locations, rural and urban, for processing and distribution world wide.”
...
“Adding to the ease and desire of operating in Canada are lenient criminal sentencing guidelines based on decades of case law that has shortened prison sentences,” they said. “A drug trafficker convicted in China for example could face the death penalty. In the USA this same criminal might receive a 20-30 year sentence. In Canada the jail sentences are much lighter. The lower risk makes Canada very attractive to criminals.”
Trump may have another motive in extreme war on drugs escalation Sky News Oct 26, 2025
Venezuela isn't involved in this fentanyl business in any meaningful way, and I know this because I have reported from the Sinaloa cartel's fentanyl production labs in Mexico.
...
President Trump is right that Venezuela is now a large supplier of other illegal drugs, especially cocaine, but they come from countries like Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, which are the largest producers of the coca leaf in the world (the coca leaf is what cocaine is made from).
...
President Trump claims these boats from Venezuela are heading to the US, but in reality they are mainly heading to the nearby islands of Trinidad and Tobago, and from there they largely go to West Africa and Europe - mostly Spain and Portugal.Drugs heading to America either pass through Mexico over the border into the US or are transported via the Pacific Ocean route through countries like Ecuador. In this instance, Venezuela isn't involved.
The next geopolitical hot spots to watch in the news as US tries a new plan disrupt China.
The Stage Is Set For A US-Instigated Security Dilemma Between The Eurasian Rimland & Heartland Zerohedge Oct 30, 2025
US-backed NATO, Pakistan, and the “Asian/Containment Crescent” of Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines are poised to respectively face off against Russia, India, and China across this century.
...
Far from remaining divided, principally as regards China and India with all the complications that their continued rivalry would entail for Russia’s own balancing act, Eurasia’s three most powerful civilization-states are increasingly coming together to revive their dormant Russia-India-China (RIC) format. This platform is significant on its own but it’s also crucially the core of BRICS and the SCO, which play complementary roles in gradually transforming global governance as explained here.These RIC-accelerated multipolar processes can’t be countered through direct military force, however, but the way in which the Pentagon might try to slow everything down is through provoking arms races. NATO’s, Pakistan’s, and the “Asian/Containment Crescent’s” (Japan-Taiwan-Philippines) US-backed military buildups (partial in Pakistan’s case) could help achieve this vis-à-vis Russia, India, and China as could reinforced US military presences (or a formal return in Pakistan’s case) in each.
Took the plunge this fall and bought a Harvest Right freeze dryer. Their price have dropped and it is getting harder to lift the pressure cooker or hot waterbath when preserving food. Very impressed with ease of use and taste of preserved food. Solves my challenge of preserving current farm harvests to use in future years.
This article covers the pros and cons pretty thoroughly.
Harvest Right Freeze Dryer Review – Is It Worth the Money in 2025?
Comments
The infamous war on drugs
.
is an unending crusade by law enforcement agencies
to cover-up the complicity of various branches (CIA, etc.)
of the government in the flow of controlled substances
onto US streets. Grass, hashish, opium, booze, meth and
now fentanyl. There are certain forces at work to numb the
minds of the discontented. Plus an excuse to lock-up the
more radical elements at will. This one of my pet peeves.
(speaking of pets)
Thanks for the OT!
Zionism is a social disease
Good morning, soe!
Once upon a time, a certain deputy showed up at a certain place where a bar was known to sell alcohol with no license, had an illegal gambling room, and sold drugs. The deputy would take a paper bag full of cash from the owner, take it to the sheriff to be divied up among the deputies. Friday night, 10 pm., and this went on for years. The sheriff also entertained officers from other counties at a dog fight ring out in the national forest. The sheriff's son, a deputy, robbed a pharmacy and his charges just disappeared.
If anybody is so naive that they do not understand the drug trade would not exist without kickbacks to cops offering protection, and would do well to read up on the drug trade issue.
The deputy carrying the money bag eventually found Jesus. He pulled up at my house, told me he had gotten baptized, admitted to me what he had been doing, and promised it would not happen again. He resigned, moved on to ranching with his family.
A sad shit show, friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Fear of retribution may have driven him
.
into the arms of jesus. Unfortunately for him,
it only calms the conscience at superficial levels.
Unless he can erase his memories, past actions
remain part of his being for an eternity.
Zionism is a social disease
The sheriff came to see me and hire me to help him with his
son's criminal case. He had just been released from federal prison.
Meanwhile, a guy that installed my gutters was doing probation in an adjacent county for being in possession of 8 oz. of marijuana. Thing is, he was carrying 2 lbs. The rest of the pot never made it to the evidence room.
This happens coast to coast, all day, everyday.
Jesus may forgive, but not me.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Assume you are a member of the county
.
.
L&O community in good standing. To maintain that status,
one must occasionally look the other way for the
sake of optics.
Zionism is a social disease
Bibimbap in Gyeongju- APEC scenes
...sans our leader.
Bimbimbap, a traditional dish of various leftovers, lettuce, rice, various other veggies, and topped off with an egg and a little soy sauce, is used as an analogy to contemporary Korean popular music and why it enjoys international popularity. Mostly because it is eclectic borrowing styles from other popular music cultures while still (allegedly) maintaining it's Korean appeal. This was in the keynote speech by a BTS singer RM.
There is a segment at (9:30) of his speech in the video below-
I enjoyed the entire video. I like Chris Norlund's channel on youtube, expecially during this APEC conference. The contrast between the Trump visit and the conference afterward among world leaders I thought was striking. Bessent looked like the odd man out. One caveat on Chris a US citizen living in Busan with his Korean wife, is that his views on the US democratic party are conventional and so I take them with a grain of salt. I'm not sure South Korea "crushed" Trump's negotiators. I saw another video which said, they made a 20 billion dollar a year concession on the 350 billion cash demand. I don't really understand it. I think everyone is just hoping the problem will go away.
The temple they discuss in Gyeongju, Bulguksa, from the old Shilla kingdom is over 1200 years old, not twelve thousand. This is common problem converting numbers in Korean. The date his spouse Yeji is referring to is probably a reference to the Unified Shilla Kingdom period. Also, the titles of their videos are clickbait, but then living in Busan is expensive. I think his videos are worthwhile enough to draw an audience without hype. The crown replica given to Trump by President Lee is a representation of the classical Shilla Crown. Once, I watched a history of this crown design, which is believed to have roots in ancient Persia.
Crowns of Silla
President Lee opened the APEC reception with a makgeolli toast. This is the traditional low alcohol content fermented rice drink. Ms. So told me nuruk that is also used to make the drink is malt. It is traditionally consumed from a bowl rather than cup or glass. 건배 Geonbei! 乾杯 Cheers! Bottoms up! (literally dry (your) cup in Chinese).
Chris' earlier video concerning the Trump-Xi meeting reflects the strained atmosphere in the body language of the two. There is quite a bit of commercial promotion concerning his press secretary shopping for makeup. One of the first museums I visited in South Korea was a private one, owned by a cosmetics company, with exhibits hundreds of years old, emphasizing the culture of beauty in South Korea. No surprise that cosmetic surgery is commonplace in SK, but I don't think it improves appearance much, and is highly overrated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMhp-REPqts&t=819s
BTS and Cold Play below. Not exactly my thing, but I understand why young people are attracted to it. The older generation would say, Se sang eh!, 세상에..., what in the world!
Thanks for the OT Student of Earth! We are trying to find a new place to live, it's very challenging with all the environmental hazards, storms, fire, flood risk, etc. Moving again will be another ordeal. The news seems like it comes from a sci-fi novel. Really difficult to take on a new life at this late stage.
語必忠信 行必正直
One wonders
Is fentanyl now the opium of the people?
if so, is religion now the fentanyl of the people?
in addition
Is China really a major source of fentanyl?
Is china a major source of fentanyl precursors?
if so, are the precursors intended for legit purposes?
If China yes, is this karmic payback for the opium wars?
Halloween tonight, and Candy becomes the temporary opium of the people
or, should you prefer
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Legends have it
.
all hallows eve
was a use for the youth
to scare away the bad spirits
by raising cain in the cemeteries
before all saints day. They were rewarded
with sweets by the adults if their hell raising
prevented the revered g'rups returned with
their souls intact. Why are the deceased only
hallowed one day a year? Probably because
it is creepy to haunt a boneyard.
Zionism is a social disease
Heh. It appears that betweem the 4th and 9th centuries
there were various xtian celebrations of the dead and all saints/all souls depending on where one lived and what year it was, then the western xtians got their act more or less together and decided upon uniform date for all, so one might say that it was a church decision to limit it to one day. All I know aboot the dead is that they were one helluva good band. They, however, were more closely aligned to the Egyptian traditions surrounding the deceased.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
you funny mon
.
first real laugh I got all day
thanks for your human being-ness.
Agree with the dead perspective ..
remember this? you may have been there.
these folks are not dead but very much alive!
Zionism is a social disease
Heh, very much alive. Recall the song but not the
venuem but, as they say, if you remember ... or something like that.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Our little town is going nuts
with their celebration. The main square around the court house will be full of pedestrians and traffic will be nuts for 3 hours.
Meanwhile, in a city 30 miles away, an elderly woman was passing out some kind of paper to little kids. It was saturated with fentanyl and the children all had to be taken to the er.
Wasn't it poisoned Halloween candy that changed packaging to tamper proof forevermore?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
around here
.
they have adopted the concept of
'trunk or treat' which is where a bunch of
mamas / dadas will fill their car trunks with
sweets and meet at the ball field. The kiddies
go from trunk to trunk to fill their baggies.
Saves on gas and time I guess. More controlled.
Not quite the same vibe as putting on a costume
and ringing a door bell, never knowing if you would
get a 'trick' response. Had to do an improvisation of
row-row-row your boat to get a candy or caramel
apple. Fun!
Zionism is a social disease
Maybe a little note --
Sky News is of course the Australian equivalent of FOX News: basically a Murdoch product, lots of lies.
Anyway, I guess they were into the War on Drugs thing on Judge Napolitano's podcast:
I see multiple options. One is that if people take drugs, that's their business, which is of course how the pseudo-conservatives typically deal with "food insecurity," which is to say mass starvation, or, for that matter, the inability to afford health insurance and thus the mass vulnerability to untreated health problems. If the masses are fkd up through lack of adequate nutrition or lack of access to healthcare, that's their business. Note the complete absence of social responsibility in such a position.
Being in favor of a War on Drugs, on the other hand, implies that one has cherry-picked the notion of social responsibility for the sake of, for instance, asset forfeiture laws, where they accuse individuals of dealing drugs and use said accusations to dispossess "suspects" of their properties. Pseudo-conservatism is all in favor of social responsibility when there are profits to be made in pretending to be "socially responsible."
Generally, the imprisonment of "criminals" does not, by itself, reduce the general occurrence of "crime." (It's in scare-quotes because "crime" is a catch-all term covering everything from shoplifting to genocide.) If you want to deal with recidivism, you need programs like those under the umbrella of restorative justice, which is neutral with regards to imprisonment. But imprisonment makes politicians look good to those who prefer revenge to safety, and it makes prison-builders rich.. In sum, very few people in political circles really believe in social responsibility, while the system as a whole rewards creatures of money.
"PayPal is evil" -- Max Blumenthal
Agreed
.
money creatures care not
to address the needs of the drug
dependancies that exist in society
if there exists a 'drug problem' in
the US, perhaps it would be better
to address those issues before bombing
south american countries and shifting the
blame in that supposed solution?
social needs versus political reaction is a
bridge not often taken in this system.
Zionism is a social disease