Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[PeterAit]

I saw a comment from someone on Facebook about those Venezuelan "drug" boats. Can those little boats carry enough fuel to reach the USA in the first place? For all we know, if they actually were drug boats, they may have been delivering party favours to the rich gamblers in the casinos in Aruba, only a few tens of km offshore.

Wouldn't it have made more sense for the US Navy to capture the boats, confiscate the drugs, and question the guys?

I presume that no one actually believes this is about drugs.

An analysis I read today agreed that it is not about drugs but about destabilizing the Venezuelan gov't so that Maduro is booted out and someone friendly to the US takes his place. The drug boat stugg goes along with the other military moves and threats toward this end.

[Robert Roaldi]

An analysis I read today agreed that it is not about drugs but about destabilizing the Venezuelan gov't so that Maduro is booted out and someone friendly to the US takes his place. The drug boat stugg goes along with the other military moves and threats toward this end.

In some statement today, Trump alluded to starting a ground campaign, otherwise known as invading another country. But he says a lot of things, I'm sure he didn't mean it. Imagine losing a son or daughter in the Venezuelan war.

I assume that the oligarchs want access to Venezuelan oil then. Did Maduro not hire the correct petroleum subcontractors or does he want to charge too high an oil royalty? Should he have bought more meme coins? Other than oil, why else would an US administration give a shit. There have been political tensions there for years, why care now. Or maybe Trump just wants to keep the military brass busy with a new project, a chance for live fire training, getting the troops battle hardened for later deployment to Portland. Personally, I can't wait for the propaganda campaign. Remember when the Afghanistan war was about building schools for girls, because the US really cared about Afghani school girls. Trump tends to be more crass so we may be spared the worst of that sort of crap, but it might be entertaining.

The ballroom construction is going well so MAGA must be happy about that. Tasteful gold décor too, I hear. Where is he buying the light fixtures and furniture? If it's all US made, he can claim that the ballroom is good for the US economy.

[degrub]

Back door into Columbia as well.

[Rob C]

“good for the US economy”

He can claim that anyway; reality is simply opinion, and the word of the anointed one is what counts. Ask any sheep.

[Robert Roaldi]

Back door into Columbia as well.

Good grief, what for? The coffee?

Let's see, the US Vietnam involvement was about 12 years give or take (1963 to 1975, accurate enough for an online forum), Afghanistan about 18 years, anyone taking book on how long the South American fiasco will last? Truthfully, I'd prefer not to be cynical, but it's difficult not to be.

But there may be room for hope. Trump has stepped back from sending the troops into San Francisco; at least that's the case today. He's now pissed at Canada again, I see. He's upset that Premier Ford of Ontario has placed anti-tariff ads on TV down there, so he has stopped all trade talks with Canada. Is that really a valid reason to stop an international negotiation? What does the twerp think his job is, exactly? Anyway, none of it means anything. They've been going back and forth on this tariff horse shit and it's impossible to know where it's at. So long as Trump is breathing, all negotiations about anything are farce. He changes his mind on things at the drop of a hat. I figure that any country that's still talking to him is just humouring him and they're all just waiting for the obit. There, is that cynical enough?

[degrub]

No, FARC and related. Coca.

[Rob C]

No, FARC and related. Coca.

Reasonably good bananas, though.

[Rob C]

Good grief, what for? The coffee?

Let's see, the US Vietnam involvement was about 12 years give or take (1963 to 1975, accurate enough for an online forum), Afghanistan about 18 years, anyone taking book on how long the South American fiasco will last? Truthfully, I'd prefer not to be cynical, but it's difficult not to be.

I figure that any country that's still talking to him is just humouring him and they're all just waiting for the obit. There, is that cynical enough?

Wars sometimes seem to favour the losers: Germany and Italy had their post-war booms, whereas Britain, nominally the winner, lost just about everything, found itself in almost terminal debt, devoid of its heavy engineering, and with the car industry, what survives of the latter, now in German hands. Add to it the post-war politics that threw out the man who got it the American wartime help it needed just to survive; the new sense of worker entitlement that left-wing politics fostered in order to get power - and hold it repeatedly thanks to the usual amnesia of the average voter - followed by a right-wing party that eventually lost its mind and went rabid.

The “losers” got helped back into their feet with the building of all-modern factories.

Today, there is not a single British party for which I could vote. Such the slope to eventual decline and fall.

[Robert Roaldi]

No, FARC and related. Coca.

What is going on there that hasn't been going on for decades? Why care now?

Does anyone think that the US has the stomach for a guerilla war in the Colombian mountains? Are drones useful in dense forests? I wonder what model drones are favoured by the cartels?

Surely the ideas that the illegal drug trade can be curtailed by either trying to control the producers or jailing the users have lost their allure by now. FFS, American troops were on the ground in Afghanistan for nearly 2 decades and the heroin poppy harvest continued through all of it. Not only has neither strategy worked, they haven't even come close. The only outcome of the war on drugs was to create really wealthy international drug cartels. Did filling up US jails with people trying to buy weed accomplish anything other than to enrich the private prison industry.

And as the intakes of cash for the cartels was proving to be a logistical headache in its own right, along came the crypto-boys pretending to be libertarians who wanted the government out of the finance game, but instead became the bankers of choice of the world's criminals. And some governments want to de-regulate crypto even more because of, you know, freedom.

I see that Peter Thiel is fearing the anti-Christ. Musk is fearing Cybertruck lawsuits. You'd think he'd be hurrying off to Mars.

I just saw on the "news" that the US is bringing an aircraft carrier fleet to the Caribbean just as the New York Times reports that the drug along the Pacific coast dwarfs the Caribbean trade. But I'm sure we all feel safer now. Remember the good ole days when Trump believed that fentanyl was coming from Canada. I guess while the fleet is in the Caribbean, it can take a detour and do something about Panama.

[Robert Roaldi]

Patrick Boyle's take on Argentina's problems and the US involvement, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRUEqQmQoP0.

[Rob C]

Surely the ideas that the illegal drug trade can be curtailed by either trying to control the producers or jailing the users have lost their allure by now. FFS, American troops were on the ground in Afghanistan for nearly 2 decades and the heroin poppy harvest continued through all of it. Not only has neither strategy worked, they haven't even come close. The only outcome of the war on drugs was to create really wealthy international drug cartels. Did filling up US jails with people trying to buy weed accomplish anything other than to enrich the private prison industry.

And as the intakes of cash for the cartels was proving to be a logistical headache in its own right, along came the crypto-boys pretending to be libertarians who wanted the government out of the finance game, but instead became the bankers of choice of the world's criminals. And some governments want to de-regulate crypto even more because of, you know, freedom.]


So what are you gonna do? Curl up and die?

Build more prisons near the southern border, lots more prisons.

That will provide jobs in construction, maintenance, administration and policing, keeping the money earned and spent within the same country; offer a visual message to those naughty people to the south of said border. I don't think weed's a thing worth bothering about too much - there are far bigger and harder fish to fight in that particular sea. The failure with the fight so far is the same as the failure here in Spain to control illegal short-term holiday letting of property (it makes buying for the middle classes impossible, and as they have to pay tax, puts legitimate operations such as hotels at a massive disadvantage): there are so many people in positions of power benefitting from the business. Will turkeys vote for Christmas, as the old questions goes?

Frankly, to beat it, you need a benign dictatorship. Then, of course, you need an intelligent populace too. Both seem unlikely, so perhaps all those guns in private hands really do have solid fact behind the assumed need to own them. In the circumstances, I guess I would, too.

[Robert Roaldi]

Surely the ideas that the illegal drug trade can be curtailed by either trying to control the producers or jailing the users have lost their allure by now. FFS, American troops were on the ground in Afghanistan for nearly 2 decades and the heroin poppy harvest continued through all of it. Not only has neither strategy worked, they haven't even come close. The only outcome of the war on drugs was to create really wealthy international drug cartels. Did filling up US jails with people trying to buy weed accomplish anything other than to enrich the private prison industry.

And as the intakes of cash for the cartels was proving to be a logistical headache in its own right, along came the crypto-boys pretending to be libertarians who wanted the government out of the finance game, but instead became the bankers of choice of the world's criminals. And some governments want to de-regulate crypto even more because of, you know, freedom.]


So what are you gonna do? Curl up and die?

Build more prisons near the southern border, lots more prisons.

That will provide jobs in construction, maintenance, administration and policing, keeping the money earned and spent within the same country; offer a visual message to those naughty people to the south of said border. I don't think weed's a thing worth bothering about too much - there are far bigger and harder fish to fight in that particular sea. The failure with the fight so far is the same as the failure here in Spain to control illegal short-term holiday letting of property (it makes buying for the middle classes impossible, and as they have to pay tax, puts legitimate operations such as hotels at a massive disadvantage): there are so many people in positions of power benefitting from the business. Will turkeys vote for Christmas, as the old questions goes?

Frankly, to beat it, you need a benign dictatorship. Then, of course, you need an intelligent populace too. Both seem unlikely, so perhaps all those guns in private hands really do have solid fact behind the assumed need to own them. In the circumstances, I guess I would, too.

I lean to de-criminalizing all drugs. There will people whose lives will suffer but we have those now. I don't buy the argument that it will be easier to get so more people will use them. They were never that hard to obtain and still aren't.

After all, we allow people to believe that vaccines don't work.

At least when you de-criminalize you remove the criminal profits, that imo cause more harm than the drugs. At the very least, it's worth a try. After 50-60 (or more) years of prohibition and incarcerating accomplishing little to nothing, you have to acknowledge defeat and try something else. Alcohol continues to wreak a terrible toll and we don't try to stop that. Well, the US did once and the Ken Burns's documentary tells you all you need to know about that. We trust adults with the handling of alcohol and are happy to live with the bad effects, why are drugs different. It's only cultural conditioning, I think. I am no expert on the subject, this is only my opinion, primarily based on the fact that everything else has not only failed, but has failed spectacularly. If the current prohibitions had moved the needle enough so that we could be optimistic that doing more would be helpful, but I don't think that's the case.

[Rob C]

Well, alcohol may be legal, as is tobacco, but that state of grace has done nothing to stop either from ruining lives and killing millions of people. Okay, not usually with guns, but through use of the products themselves. Having said which, I have to confess that I sure didn’t turn up my nose when I got the chance to make calendars for some of the booze producers. But then I still drank back in those days, and still would, if my health hadn’t been screwed by cholesterol trying to block my pipework.

One good thing about the local public health system clinics here is that they display posters telling you about the connections between cancer, heart diseases and both those drugs of which I write here.

Tobacco I gave up quite easily when my wife’s uncle, who smoked, died of throat cancer after symptoms similar to ones I experienced after some years, and I was never more than a ten-a-day guy. Fear is a strong motivator.

[Robert Roaldi]

No one seems to be talking about NFTs anymore.

[Rob C]

No one seems to be talking about NFTs anymore.

I guess there’s a whiff of buyer shame locked somewhere deep down in that rabbit hole.

Wait until crypto dough goes tits up, and then the crisis of 2008 will seem but as the feed of chickens.

Today, sitting at my table in the local bar reading (as best I could) the local rag, a one-eyed black cat appeared from the ether and onto my lap. Not having noticed its approach, I got the fright of my life, but managed to conceal it well from the rest of the regulars enjoying their whatevers. From lap to top of newspaper, the poor creature arched its back and pretty much demanded that I rub its head and neck, which once having been responsible for twenty-something cats (that grew from two abandoned kittens) I understood was actually not a request as much as the order to proceed, which I obviously did. Having just bought this week’s lottery tickets, I rest my faith.

[degrub]

You now have your "familiar" for All Hallows Eve ! 

[Rob C]

You now have your "familiar" for All Hallows Eve ! 

Let’s hope it brings good and not ill!

Rob

[Robert Roaldi]

Trump is so, like, articulate https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3iFHv5bY_yE.

I gather everyone else has seen this but I was busy the last couple of days. Trump must have a real problem with geography. He says he's going to kill anyone bringing drugs into the US, but he's sinking these boats near the South American continent, nowhere near the US shores.

There's no bottom to this guy, is there. Every few days, some new low.

I wonder if there was ever any blow at Epstein's parties.

[degrub]

Well, that is where the factories are. They have to sneak them to/through the islands or up the Central American coast through Mexico, either side.

[Robert Roaldi]

Well, that is where the factories are. They have to sneak them to/through the islands or up the Central American coast through Mexico, either side.

Still though, it's a bit narcissistic to think that every shipment anywhere is headed to the US and needs sinking. Besides, I'm sure there are probably plenty of domestic drug factories.

They should at least capture one shipment and show the drugs on camera as "proof of concept". And it seems a bit extravagant to move an aircraft carrier fleet to the area to go after a few small boats. The drone crews were doing just fine on their own, weren't they? Not enough visuals, maybe?

It's the big picture that's confusing to me. Greenland, Panama, Canada, Venezuela, Mexico, Ukraine, now Venezuela, who's next and why. Can anyone see a pattern here?

The latest diversion about Trump going for a third term is bizarre. It's not reliable to judge from public appearances, but it's hard to believe that he'll be healthy enough to run in 2028. He is already occasionally as incoherent as Biden was.