The head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, has been arrested.
From what I can tell, he’s probably a pretty bad guy who should be put away for a long time.
And yet, when you look at the practical results of this arrest, the overwhelming consensus is that one or both of these two things will happen:
- His second in command will take over and there will be no discernable impact in the activities of his criminal organization
- Criminal rivals will attempt to exploit any perceived weaknesses with a massive amount of violence and bloodshed.
So it’s hard for anyone to get too excited about the arrest.
When you reach a point where the net benefit to society of arresting a dangerous, violent criminal is, at best, zero, then perhaps it’s time to admit that you have some seriously broken policy.
Eerily silent…in the Bad Old Days, an arrest like this would see the ONDCP machine kicking into high gear about how we’d finally turned the corner in the War on Drugs…
It’s silent because DEA was working with the Sinaloa cartel. “El Chapo†must have outlived his usefulness or DEA made a deal with someone else.
The major stockholders of the Sinola cartel have already got a new CEO in place,,or he will be after contract negotiations are complete,,,some problems with perks like bullet proof cars and drones,,,I am sure they will iron them out.
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2014/2/25/144719/456/crimenews/Mexico-Denies-DEA-Participation-in-Chapo-Guzman-Take-Down
Is El Chapo Guzman really the Bad Guy? Should we not consider the criminal acts of the ‘DEA MAN’? …
(Music accompaniment from the Fugs, CIA Man © 1965)
***
Could it be quiet because they don’t want to give us a forum? They know what we will say, how many letters to the editor will be printed, blog entries written and articles published all pointing out the logical fallacies of what they say and do. They know that they can’t help but look bad, so better to keep quiet until you have something substantive to report. Is anyone else feeling powerful today?
.
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After a bit of reflection I have to admit that I’m enjoying a vicarious sense of power for the last couple of days. But it’s not attached to anything even remotely Mexican. It was Governor Hickenlooper announcement that he was planning to spend $150 million (give or take) that really gave me a warm fuzzy. Game, set, match unless I miss my guess. Free revenue from people who a politician discounts as having any value to his re-election or other whims is 100% pure political crack. It won’t be long until they’re all jonesing for a taste.
It’s a point system, same as busting dispensaries and going straight for the client list. One “El Chapo†will turn in hundreds of clients and lieutenants and grunts at a point a piece. That racks up a bundle for DEAth. Cashing in on the “look what a great job we’re doing” spare changing Congress. “El Chapo†alone is only one point, same as the small peddlers.
Anti-weed screed in Christian Post reveals ignorance, shocking nobody
Colorado governor warns other governors of pot legalization
Legalizing limited amounts of pot for personal use and cultivation has been a great idea, raising millions in tax revenue and creating a newfound sense of freedom for people who choose to use cannabis. But Colorado’s governor feels much, much differently.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper told his peers at the National Governors Association that they shouldn’t rush into changing their laws any time soon. Read More >>
Colorado Pot Market Exceeds Tax Hopes
Colorado’s legal marijuana market is far exceeding tax expectations, according to a budget proposal released Wednesday by Gov. John Hickenlooper that gives the first official estimate of how much the state expects to make from pot taxes.
It’s always 4:20 in Denver, at least while Union Station is under construction
11 Legendary Figures Who Smoked #Pot
Hickenlooper looks weak. I predict a strong campaign opposing him in the next election, both from within his own party and from without.
Well, this may be good news from Washington. The “Kill Medical Marijuana” Bill HB2149 has been removed from the Senate hearing schedule. This don’t mean it’s 100% certifiably dead, but live bills don’t get dropped from the schedule without explanation.
For the Mexicans and the DEA: Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss.
The murder and rape and torture of the innocent means the DEA jobs are secure. If they truly wanted to stop all the drugs, they’d napalm every possible space that can yield a single poppy or pot plant or coca shrub.
Remember when Rage Against the Machine called the 2006 Mexico War, back in like 97′ or 98′, the ‘Powder War.” . . . it was off their ‘Evil Empire’ album . . . the Greatful Dead with RPG’s and sawed off shotguns. Would the Americans call the Jews fleeing Hitler, illegal immigrants? You know, I’m hardcore about keeping illegals out, but not when there’s this damn south of the border war.
Actual fact: during WWII there was a boatload of Jewish refugees which was not allowed to land them in either the US or in Canada. They were forced to return to Germany where most of them were killed by the Nazis. This event was one of the most shameful in our two histories, and betrays just how thin this veneer of civilization really is.
Makes me ashamed that we didn’t let them stay until the end of the war. Go ahead and put them back on a boat, but not until Hitler is dead–at least.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/supreme-court-police-searches_n_4854440.html
Now you can go to jail for refusing to allow a cop to enter if your 3yr old child says its OK for them to enter or if a cop thinks he heard another occupant say its OK.
As I’ve said in many fora, on many different topics, SCOTUS more often rules in favor of government aggression and its unconstitutional actions than it does in favor of the Constitution or the people.
That is because SCOTUS is OF the establishment, so their natural bias is toward maintaining the status quo. To look at the situation logically and without bias is too hard for them, because then they would have to question the establishment and the status quo. This would be seen by the establishment as a betrayal, and SCOTUS is like all other herd animals who can’t imagine not being part of the herd. Because the herd might not accept what they say, and subsequently it might affect their membership, they won’t go there.
What would be required to ‘go there’ would be some courage, wisdom and independent thought, all of which is culled from lawyers through their education and training. Creative, independent-thinking lawyers never become judges, the establishment fears them too much to allow that. The ones who are consistently establishment-centric are the ones selected to be judges, and the most extreme of these, the ones the establishment can count on to do what the system requires, are the ones appointed to SCOTUS. To expect anything other than establishment-friendly decisions from this group is unrealistic.
It gets worse:
The Big, Bad Freeze
The Supreme Court just made it easier for the government to take your assets before you even go to trial.
http://goo.gl/G3X6aD
History tells me: We’ll make them Pay. They should have never made me swear an oath to protect my Constitution against all foreign and DOMESTIC threats–nor should they have allowed me to go to college under the GI Bill.
Light-up Nation: What Israel can teach America about medical marijuana
Israel sets a new standard for legal medical marijuana research, production and sales
http://tinyurl.com/m6l85sz
Just over six years ago, in the lush Upper Galilee of northern Israel, the nation’s first large-scale harvest of legal medical marijuana was flowering on the roof deck of Tzahi Cohen’s parents’ house, perched on a cliff overlooking the bright-green farming village of Birya.
Until then, fewer than 100 Israeli patients suffering from a short list of ailments had been allowed to grow the plants for themselves, but this marked the first harvest by a licensed grower.
The Cohen home soon became a temple in the area for believers in the healing powers of cannabis — a legendary family operation that, in this early golden era, served as a grow house, a pharmacy and a treatment center all in one.
In “Prescribed Grass,†the 2009 documentary that would open the eyes of Israeli politicians to the vast potential of medical cannabis, a group of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) veterans, suffering from army wounds such as phantom pains and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), are shown sitting around a table at the Cohens’ house.
There, they help trim the harvest, smoke their medicine
from a small glass bong and sing the miracles of cannabis. ‘snip’
Israel is so far ahead of us in research it will take some strong ketchup,,but so far we have them on CBD and epilepsy,,,no mention of them treating anyone using CBD’s anyway.
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What a great read!
Thanks for that Clay.
It really points out that all progress really needs in this situation is a willing government, and of course it’s a really big slap in the face for Uncle; had to be said though.
What Israel can teach America about medical marijuana?
Who do you think taught Israel?
Americans got them started…
Former Santa Cruz resident helps lead Israel’s state-run medical marijuana program ecp
April M. Short gtweekly.com 02 October 2013
Santa Cruz County Good Times Weekly
articles
Israel’s state-run medical marijuana program
MAPS’ Medical Marijuana Research
MAPS Announce Orphan Drug Designation for Cannabis
Inside the Remote Farm That Supplies WAMM
Robert Anton Wilson
Rabbi Ties Jewish Faith to Medical Marijuana
Orthodox Rabbi Says Medical Marijuana Is Kosher
On Indications of the Hachish-Vice in the OT
Just What The Jewish Doctor Ordered?
Fire is the ultimate purifier
threads
Sanjay Gupta
Using Pot To Save Brains!
High Times Over for Marijuana Mine
Time Line: In the Matter of Lyle Craker
Crop of the Future?
Big and Little Texas News
Russian drug czar says:
marijuana legalization would lead to nuclear meltdowns
Hemp ‘Eats’ Chernobyl Waste
Come on Putin, out of the closet. We know you’re in there.
We also know why you want prohibition to continue…
U.S. Drug War Destroys Rain Forests
Don Imus supports Kinky Friedman for Texas Agriculture Commissioner
Texas senate candidate says
marijuana advocates have their heads up their asses
“As this society degrades, I hope they can learn to speak a second language and that language had better be Chinese because if marijuana is your biggest issue then you are screwed and it pains me that you would take your country with you. your views will get this country in a place that liberty will become but a memory.”
The stupid, it burns.
I followed the stupid links, and got all the way to his facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mappforussenate?ref=stream&hc_location=stream where he wrote:
Apparently he’s been having a rational discussion, and has already turned around. Maybe his IS a real candidate for government work…
OR, Maybe he got some advice from Gov.Perry and realized, using that paragraph then a few sentences or so later say:
No, ya see – I believe in ‘drug courts’, I mean – we shouldn’t be locking up young people in prison for a joint or two…
(But, Locking them in a “rehab facility” on the other hand is apparently *Totally* Kosher! Because you know, It’s so NOT “incarceration” – it just looks that way.)