The Trump administration just had its own version of the infamous Wannsee Conference.

 

On January 20, 1942, in a villa located in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee, a conference was held by Heinrich Himmler’s second-in-command, Reinhard Heydrich, who before his assassination five months later in Prague was regarded as the most evil man in Germany, with even Hitler suggesting he had a “heart of iron.” Heydrich headed the Gestapo from 1934 to 1936, during which time it was given the power to detain and imprison anyone on mere “suspicion” that they “might” commit a crime against the regime; what actually constituted a “crime” was anything that “worked.”  

The Gestapo Law, put into effect in 1936, gave Gestapo agents immunity from all laws and accountability. The BBC documentary The Nazis: A Warning From History suggests why this “immunity” was “essential” in carrying out its “mission”; a German curator of a Gestapo archive that had been captured by American troops before it could be destroyed pointed out that Gestapo agents relied heavily on “anonymous” sources making accusations against neighbors and coworkers.

One of these accusers was discovered and interviewed, but when her report was read out to her she professed ignorance about her accusation against a gay woman for being a “danger” to the regime because she wore men’s clothing and was visited by people who were similarly politically  “not normal.” According to Gestapo records, the accused was subsequently “disappeared” based on this dubious report.

While local polizei might require something more than mere “suspicion” to make arrests, the Gestapo was not hindered by such things as requiring “evidence,” let alone warrants; the suspicion of being an Orwellian “thought criminal” was sufficient for arrest, torture and often death. Not surprisingly, Heydrich was also responsible for implementing the Gestapo’s “Night and Fog” operations, in which anyone regarded as a threat to “national security” was “disappeared” without a trace—let alone “due process.”

But what Heydrich was most infamous for was for what transpired at the Wannsee Conference. It was here that the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish Question” was discussed and implemented. Herman Göring, who during his Nuremberg trial seemed to be under the impression that his crimes were not of the “executable” variety, and himself as the Reich’s second highest-ranking official, authorized Heydrich to hold this conference. Representatives of a dozen agencies were invited to provide input and be given their assignments in carrying out their roles in the “solution” to the Jewish “problem.”

The conference was held not to determine if mass murder was “lawful”—it was already understood to be underway, but to impose Heydrich’s overall authority, and to gauge potential “disagreement” about the policy and insure that it was “understood” who they could “legally” deport and what their final dispositions were to be. The fate of those in “mixed marriages” and the status of children derived from them, the degree of “non-German” blood, whether Jews who worked in jobs “vital” to the war effort if there were insufficient German workers to fill them were all discussed

Only one copy of the Wannsee Protocol (the official “minutes” of the conference) survived, found at the Foreign Ministry after the war. It had been scrubbed “clean” first by Adolf Eichmann and then Heydrich of any “specific” suggestions of mass murder, but its meaning was clear to the attendees:

Under appropriate direction the Jews are to be utilized for work in the East in an expedient manner in the course of the final solution. In large (labor) columns, with the sexes separated, Jews capable of work will be moved into these areas as they build roads, during which a large proportion will no doubt drop out through natural reduction. The remnant that eventually remains will require suitable treatment; because it will without doubt represent the most [physically] resistant part, it consists of a natural selection that could, on its release, become the germ-cell of a new Jewish revival.

Europe is to be combed through from West to East in the course of the practical implementation of the final solution. The area of the Reich, including the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, will have to be handled in advance, if only because of the housing problem and other socio-political needs.

The evacuated Jews will first be taken, group by group, to so-called transit ghettos, in order to be transported further east from there.

Eichmann, who later would be “abducted” by Israeli agents and sent to stand trial for his crimes  in Israel, stated that there had been an expectation of opposition to the policy of mass murder, but he and Heydrich were “pleasantly” surprised at the lack of “resistance” to the idea. In fact after the official conference was over, the “small talk” that followed was quite blunt:

The gentlemen were standing together, or sitting together and were discussing the subject quite bluntly, quite differently from the language which I had to use later in the record. During the conversation they minced no words about it at all ... they spoke about methods of killing, about liquidation, about extermination.

Why were Jews viewed as “national security” threats by the Nazis (and most Germans in general)? They were “stealing jobs,” their culture was “alien,” they were “poisoning the blood” of Germany and the world, and they were “vermin” who were threatening to multiply into the “great replacement” of Aryan Christian Europe. None of this true, of course; but someone had to be the scapegoat for Germany’s faults, and Jews were “guilty” merely because they were Jews and not “real” Germans.

That was then, but that “warning from history” is being ignored, in fact celebrated by the present occupier of the White House, his henchpersons and even a political party. Here we see this man many supporters speak of as the living embodiment of “God,” while others see him as their “Der Fuhrer” who should run for an  unconstitutional third term, all despite the fact we see this strange, disturbed man on the White House roof, semmingly in the opening grip of dementia:

 

One must work around with someone suffering from dementia with great care. They must be able to “read” his moods and peeves, no matter how bizarre and difficult to define, and discover what pleases him so that they do not suffer one of his demented outbursts on his social media page. 

Unfortunately, what “pleases” Trump is becoming increasingly difficult to decipher (he’s talking about cutting migrant farm workers a “break” again, and 1500 percent cuts in drug prices???), so his henchpersons feel free to do as they please, since he depends upon them to do whatever it is they believe he wants them to do, since he isn't certain what that is himself.  

Thus now we are learning about a “Homeland Security and Department of Defense” conference that took place recently. The “specifics” may be different, but the ideology and motivation behind it was very much similar to that of the infamous Wannsee Conference.

The New Republic first reported this “Homeland Security and Department of Defense Meeting” 1   a few days ago; We are told that the meeting included Pete Hegseth, various other of his “senior advisors” i.e. people he can "trust" not to reveal his difficulty in knowing what his job requires, Gen. Dan Caine (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), three deputy chiefs of staff, the USNORTHCOM commander Gen. Gregory Guillot, the acting ICE director Ted Lyons, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott, and Hegseth’s brother Philip, the “liaison officer” between the DoD and the DHS—and principle “architect” of the substance of this conference. 

The “purpose” of this conference was to insure “100 percent success” of  the “defense off the homeland,” and the military's involvement in implementing the Trump administration's own "final solution" of mass deportation.

Meaning what, exactly?

The conference was "designed" to crack open the participants’ skulls to foster “new ideas for how the two departments can better plan for national security and illegal immigration. Positive outcomes and/or action items include”:

The U.S. military leadership (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and NORTHCOM) need to feel — for the first time — the urgency of the homeland defense mission. They need to understand the threat, what’s at stake, and the political importance the administration has placed on this issue.

A verbal agreement to find places where DoD can detail personnel within ICE and CBP (and vice-versa) to increase information sharing, and specifically support nationwide operational planning capabilities.

A clear understanding of each department’s capabilities, limitations and shared objectives.

The fact that this meeting was motivated by racist and unconstitutional objectives is couched in superfluous language open to “interpretation,” but its purpose  was apparently understood by the participants as being  "necessary" to please Trump (or more likely, Stephen Miller):

The mere fact that this meeting is happening with these participants illustrates just how urgent and cooperative the homeland mission has become. This is a priority of POTUS.

The cooperation between 10th Mountain and Border Patrol is a perfect example of what kind of results we’re capable [sic] when our two departments lock arms and move forward together.

The “threat” is of course couched in simplistic terms and overstated in order to “justify” unleashing the military on unarmed working immigrants and the protestors supporting their right to be treated like human beings; most of those targeted for “disappearance” are (or were) under the mistaken belief that this country offers them asylum to simply live a working life free from threats of U.S.-exported “gangs” and government death squads. The participants, however, were told a different, mostly fact-free, propaganda line:

If I may, I’d like to help illustrate what we’re dealing with here from the DHS side. You’ve seen the rise in attacks on our officers throughout the news by 700%. We’ve got Central and South American cartels and gangs trafficking drugs, humans, and terror into American cities at will These same Transnational Criminal Organizations have now been designated by this administration as Foreign Terrorist Organization’s [sic]. That puts this threat on the same plain [sic] as having Al Qaeda or ISIS cells and fighters operating freely inside America.

Save for Fox News and that ilk, most of the “free press” is reporting that the large majority of immigrants are being scooped-up at worksites and have nevr been charged with committing crimes (being “illegal” is still only a “civil” offense). We discover that ICE in fact is not “prioritizing” so-called “traffickers” in “drugs, humans and terror” in U.S. cities, which is being vastly overblown because it is just “words” and words have no real meaning beyond sounding “cool” to the people enunciating them. 

There is no effort to endow immigrants the humanity those who participated in this conference themselves clearly lack, or any comprehension as to why we have this “problem”—farmers in need of workers from anywhere, this country’s racist immigration and temporary work visa policies—all subject to easy fixes if this country just did the right thing (look how easy it is for foreign nationals to get H-1B visas for jobs that American do want to do).

Instead, what we see is racism, cruelty and brutality couched in terms of a mostly non-existent threat that sees any “resistance” to violent and unconstitutional  actions by this country’s version of Gestapo thugs, who clearly act as if they too are immune from any laws and accountability, who now like the cowards that bullies are require military interventions against unarmed civilians. 

Worse, there was no “plan” for an “end game”—just a permanent state of authoritarian rule supported by military-backed de facto martial law against an on-going, non-existent "threat:

It hasn’t been perfect, and we’re still working through best practices together, but I think it’s a good indicator of the type of operations (and resistance) we’re going to be working through for years to come. If DoD and DHS are going to be so closely aligned on this homeland mission, meetings like this to set expectations and increase our coordination from the top down and at all levels is crucial.

This conference’s mission was to insure that everyone was on the “same page,” and that they all have the same “interpretation” of the “threat”—and that the military is ready and willing to do what is necessary to not only engage “terrorist gangs” for which there is little evidence that cities are actually being “terrorized” by them, but how they can “legally” and violently suppress protests against ICE violence and attacks against U.S. citizens and immigrants with legal status for simply following what they were told to do. We have of course seen the result of unleashing the military on civilians without proper "instruction":

 

Of course what Hegseth and the conference participants were not willing to admit was that what they are really “up against” and “limited by" in ramping up the "support" of the military is not protestors and working, law-abiding immigrants, but the courts and public opinion:

If nothing else comes from this meeting, I want us all to come to a common understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish together, what DHS, CBP and ICE are up against and exactly what help they need from DoD, where DoD can best support with personnel and planning, and what limitations we all have.

Immigrants—including the “illegal” variety—commit fewer crimes than citizens, yet to make this country “safe” again, “DHS and DoD will need to be in lockstep with each other” in order to raid warehouses, farms and food processing plants. Anyone who takes “pride’ in that and thinks this makes America “safe” are the ones we should be made safe from.

As in the Wannsee Protocol, we are told that “Due to the sensitive nature of the meeting, minimal written policy or background information can be provided in this briefing memo." The off-the-record "small talk" afterwards was not to be revealed, but Hegseth was certainly thinking "big," wanting to know what DHS and ICE wants "his" troops to do on a “national” scale. Just tell us what we are allowed to do instead of just standing around like we were in Los Angeles wasting tax payer money, so my guys can kick and beat on some of that brown ass too.

The likelihood is that the military itself wants nothing to do with this, but Hegseth takes his marching orders from whatever disease is infecting Trump’s mind at the moment, and he just runs amuck with it like every one else in this administration. This phony received two Bronze Stars despite the fact he apparently never faced enemy fire (he received the medals for “civil affairs” and “training”), and his combat infantry badge is an insult to 61,000 soldiers who were killed and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yet here Hegseth and his brother are trying to persuade DHS  and ICE to provide them a "defensible" rationalization to allow the military to fight a “war” that only exists in the crazed minds of people like Trump, Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem, almost wholly against defenseless, frightened people trying to survive in this world, attacked on the streets by thugs who exercise the same terroristic immunity from law or accountability that the Gestapo operated under—with one exception: Gestapo agents didn’t wear masks like your ordinary bullies and cowards as we see here, courtesy of Meidas Touch: 

 

And who is this against, again? Violent terrorist gangs? Where are they? In this country TdA members are such a tiny number that law enforcement admits they are a third-string “threat”  engaged in relatively “petty” crimes, while the U.S.-bred MS-13 represents less than one percent of all gangs membership. Here in Seattle, gang violence isn’t unknown, although how it is “perceived’ is a matter that might leave one with the idea that the perpetrators are just “misunderstood” youths. For example, the 2020 shooting between members of two gangs during rush hour in downtown Seattle left one dead and seven injured, all of them innocent bystanders…

 

…resulted in the acquittal of one of the shooters of murder (guilty only of "unlawful possession"), another pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter, and another a “juvenile” whose sentence was not reported. None received a sentence longer than four years; one may suspect that the shooters viewed any prison sentence as a measure of their gang “cred.” 

But it isn’t Hispanic gangs, which have a tiny presence in Seattle, that is generally involved in such shootings, and this is true according to FBI statistics across the country, despite what DHS claims. It is more likely that the vast majority of people in this country have not only not actually seen any of that “terrorism” by Hispanic gangs (not to deny it is happening in Latin America), but only “heard” of it by the constant drumbeat of lies by such as Leavitt and McLaughlin, which are becoming more tiresome and eye-rolling by the minute. MAGA of course consumes the lies by the truckload because they themselves are consumed by racial stereotyping.  

Like the Jews in Nazi Germany who were “guilty” for simply being “Jewish,” Hispanics in this country, according to MAGAmaniacs, are “guilty” for simply being Hispanic, and in many places now (and likely soon to be countrywide) all Hispanics will be (potential) targets simply because they have been set-up to be the most vulnerable to racist attack, and some people do “get off” on cruelty and violence they believe is “deserved.” We are told that "ICE Special Response" teams are preparing to invade Seattle, and non-gang member, native-born U.S. citizens like myself who "look" like the "target" should be wondering what protection they have against these violent masked thugs in this city.

So when ICE tells us that Hispanics with tattoos are all “violent gang members,” these generalizations are not expected to be used to point out the hypocrisy of those employing them, For example, you are not allowed to wonder what’s with this guy:

 

If you didn’t know him, you’d think this “tough guy” was some white nationalist, neo-Nazi thug. The thing is that, somewhere deep down inside of him, he really is one.

Admittedly Hegseth is too much the idiot to be the Heydrich of this fascist regime (Miller maybe), but the full embrace of Nazi-style fascism cannot simply be chalked up to “coincidence.” The worst kind of evil lurks  hidden within many of the human species; it only needs to be unleashed by someone (Trump) who “normalizes” it, and allows it to inform “official” policy just as it was in the aftermath of the Wannsee Conference.

The Trump administration "fixes" can be seen to be ways to conceal the ugly truth of what they are doing

 

Donald Trump the “genius” businessman was saved from his incompetence by numerous bankruptcies, although he was able to avoid personal bankruptcy by insuring that it was his "companies" and those fool enough to invest their money in his “brand” that were the ones who suffered. Analysts who studied his business activities have determined that he would have made more money if he had done nothing at all with his inherited wealth.

Thus it is Trump who is the "stupid" one who now needs Fed chairman Jerome Powell to save him from himself, and lowering the interest rates won’t be the "magic" bullet Trump thinks it will be, given all the others things he has done to interfere with the economy; Robert Reich pointed out that lowering interest rates won’t necessarily make home buying cheaper because Trump's tariffs are raising prices for imported building material, thus cannot stop home prices from going up even more. And lowering interest rates also threatens to increase inflation that Trump as expected falsely claims is going down when the oposite is occurring--numbers he blames on "leftist" statisticians who need to be fired.

It is Trump's tariffs (technically illegal, but the Republican Congress doesn't care), his upending of the job market (that shocking revision of the jobs created in May and June from 290,00 to only 33,000 certainly the result of the effect of cutting job-creating programs, mass layoffs of federal workers, and mass deportations) and the increase in inflation after he boasted that the prices are actually "lower" shows that Trump is flailing about and still looking for people to blame for his erratic, thought-defying decisions, refusing even to admit he is getting poor advice from far-right Project 2025 types. Trump’s firing of the Labor Department’s statistician only does one thing: now making any numbers related to employment to be nothing more than whatever makes Trump “happy”—just throw in another 500,000 for the hell of it.

While GDP went up during the last quarter, it is an "advance" calculation, and as we have seen before that is subject to "change"--not just downward, but WAY downward. The combination of a softening of the job market and rising inflation spells trouble for the future--and Trump can only blame himself, not Joe Biden or Powell. His trade “deals,” as noted are of the “just promise me anything so I don’t look the fool I am” variety. We recently saw Karoline Leavitt go off her usual juvenile insults and ridiculous hyperbole script and mumble and stumble trying to read a statement on tariffs and those trade “deals” which leads one to question her ability to read "hard" sentences, much like her "boss."

None of this had to happen. And as history has shown us, 10 of the last 11 recessions were instigated by Republican administrations, which failed to realize that real economic growth is spurred by putting money into the hands of middle to lower income consumers, not billionaires who just pocket the difference.  Everything Trump does must have a benefit to himself personally--whether it’s to his narcissism, his racism or his need to wreak vengeance on those who  question  that fragile ego by daring to expose his lack of intellectual capacity to understand that decisions based solely on partisan and personal politics have consequences.

You name it, Trump and his stooges have broken it because they have the maturity of pampered children. If they whine and complain about cleaning their rooms or putting their garbage in the trash can, they are appeased by their parents just to make them quiet—while the “mess” just gets worse and worse, until someone in the future must clean it up. 

Of course when things are not “cleaned up” and allowed to fester, the “fix” doesn’t always solve the problem. In this post here 1  a few months ago  I talked about an issue I contacted the Kent Parks Department about. I received a notification over a year later that it was “fixed.” I hadn’t visited this location since I reported the issue, and this weekend I happened to be walking past it and I decided to check it out, maybe sit on that bench and take in the scenery I had pleasant viewing of before:

 

What I saw instead was this:

 

The bench was gone, and raspberry bushes were allowed to completely obscure the view of the wetlands and the wildlife that lived in it. Here is a sign suggesting that there was still a trail to walk on...

 

...but the only “trail” that wasn't completely covered by brush was this one…

 

…which merely led to a tent a vagrant was living in. Besides the clean-up of the garbage dump I reported, the “fix” included blocking the path to the viewing area from the street with these boulders:

 

 

 It is clear that the people in charge decided to put in a permanent “fix,” not just to insure that someone didn’t drive a vehicle in there to dump a load of trash, but to prevent park workers from going in there to remove the brush obscuring the view. The removal of the bench for people to sit on and take in the view was clearly an understood result of the "fix." 

How to interpret this? The dumping of this garbage could be seen as what the world might see as the result of environmentally-destructive "deregulation"; on the other hand, the "fix" defeats the original intent of the location--and everyone "loses."

Was this necessary? No! I had gone up there intermittently for 20 years, and other than the usual food junk people left up there, the only “serious” disturbance was the one I reported:

 

Note the bench that was placed on the concrete that is now missing from the second image. If something like this had occurred frequently, like once a month, then maybe I could understand why they wanted to shut this down and prevent the majority of visitors from engaging with nature to escape the harsh reality of the country we live in today.

This wasn’t a “fix” for what Walt Whitman opined about in Leaves of Grass, where humans “sweat and whine about their condition,” and “lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins”—well not everyone does, like Trump, his henchpersons all those who voted for him—and lie about “discussing their duty to God,” and are “dissatisfied…demented with the mania of owning things,” and the many who “kneels to another,”—like  evil beings who present themselves in human form like Trump:

 

This is the future facing us, unless enough voters say we have now seen what anti-intellectual/anti-science/anti-human decency Trumpism/fascism is, and that is not what makes this country “great.”  No one is "superior" unless they "prove" it in a measurable way, regardless of race or ethnicity. People who clearly are not "great" leading this country only sink this country deeper into self-destruction when their motivations are evil.

As we see in the Trump administration, "anyone" who feeds the vanity of a man who requires constant reinforcement of his intellectual inadequacies is considered qualified for any job they are themselves unsuited for (i.e. Hegseth, RFK Jr.). Even those who "suited" for their jobs (Miller, Noem) are only so because they are the living embodiment of the evil of their positions. 

And yet we are told what the Trump administration is doing is to "fix" what is "wrong" with this country. What is "wrong"? Social and economic justice, free trade and freedom of expression. Shockingly, NPR and PBS are set to shut down in September because Republicans stupidly, blindly allowed Trump "claw-back" of its previously approved funding for the next two years. 

Why? Because like all the rescissions of funding for projects that reflect well upon America, we no longer live in a country that recognizes that everyone has a "right" to their opinion on how this country is run, and no one's opinion is greater than the one that grants them the right to live their life as they wish.Trump, Republicans and the far-right Supreme Court is trying to take that away from us in then name of "fixing" what they see as "wrong." 

But what they are really doing is hiding the view in distance that would tell us that there is something "better" out there than what they want us to know.

Putting a 30 percent tariff on Mexico because it isn't "doing enough" to stop American drug use just shows you how ignorant Trump really is about everything

 

Since polls show that not everyone—especially those who voted for Trump—is disturbed by news reports and scenes of ICE thuggery perpetrated against Hispanics in this country (80 percent in this country who are U.S. citizens, including those of “Mexican” descent), we shouldn’t be surprised by the  explosive growth of neo-Nazi “clubs” in this country and in Europe 1 …

 

…and whites-only “return to the land” communities  2 which harken back to the Nazis “blood and soil” propaganda, which Hitler envisioned to create a “farming class” that would work in conquered lands in order to feed all those Germans repopulating the world. Joseph Goebbels and his wife did their part, bringing six children into the world—only to poison them all and themselves in Hitler’s Berlin bunker as the Soviet Army was closing in on them. Of course this is all quite ironic since most farm workers in this country are Hispanic migrants, helping to feed those very white people who despise them.

But it isn’t just white Trump supporters; it is my impression that some black people, principally older ones, who do not like the fact that “attention” is being taken away from their belief that their lives “matter more,” and are angered that the media is spending too much time showing that it isn’t people with black skin who are being pummeled and dragged around on the streets and in businesses, but mostly hardworking Hispanics. DHS spokespeople can lie all they want about all the “criminals” they are brutalizing, but the images and statistics tell a much different story.

Hispanics can be “disappeared,” but the truth cannot be: it is Hispanics who are what sick neo-Nazis like Miller, Homan and Noem are using for stand-ins for what Jews were in Nazi Germany, with ICE and CBP Gestapo agents and storm troopers carrying out their orders in the most brutal ways because brown-skinned people are a subhuman species who have no “human” rights. For some people, this disturbs them only in the sense that it is happening to them, and not to “us,” and thus it is a question of who is really the victim of racism more than others these days.

In the meantime we have been told that the Trump administration and the EU have reached an agreement for a "framework" of an agreement. This "agreement" only benefits "big oil" and the defense industry--not American businesses which also have to deal with those tariffs. Trump in a press conference with the EU head absurdly criticized wind generators, obviously because he thinks they are a threat to “big oil” profits and his contempt for climate change mitigation. 

We'll see how long this "deal" lasts with someone as easily upset by any suggestion of being made to look like an ignorant fool--especially given the fact that EU spokespersons are already now saying that Trump's "targets" are only just that, since the EU doesn't have the authority to force European businesses to follow the "framework" and increase its purchases of American product.

On the other hand, the "deals" Trump made with Canada and Mexico he has already reneged on, putting  a 30  percent  tariff on Mexican goods because, well, despite the fact that hardly anyone or anything is getting through the border these days, Mexico still must be punished because it can't control this country's addiction to illegal drugs that goes back to the time when the Sears catalogue advertised heroin as a cough suppressant and cocaine as a cure for hay fever.

A report by David Kuntz PhD whose specialty is “analytical toxicology” has written a study entitled “Opioid History with Fentanyl Evolving Trends: How We Got Here” 3  he points out that back in the “old days” the fascination with new “wonder drugs” that were fit even for children were being sold over the counter, in newspaper and periodical advertisements, and of course in those Sears catalogues:

 

 

Of course there was also Radithor, which was claimed to bring back the vigor of youth...

 

...which if taken in high quantities might result in this:

 

How about some history: The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 did not actually ban heroin, cannabis or cocaine per se, but just be “correctly” labeled for “usage.” The 1914 Harrison Act again did not “ban” the use of cocaine and opioids like heroin, but restricted their use through the means of determining who legally could receive licenses to distribute them. The 1924 Anti-Heroin Act was the first such law to ban a drug for both medicinal and purposes otherwise. Although the original principle source of opioids like heroin is that milky substance held inside the pods of the poppy flower; the actual growing of the plant and the seeds inside them are not “illegal,” in fact the seeds are used for cooking. 

Fentanyl was an opioid that was created in the U.S. in 1959 as a more powerful painkiller than morphine, and remains “legal” to use for medical purposes; its potential for abuse was only established with the focus on “less” dangerous heroin and other drugs that are illegal entirely.

Of course the Great Depression had to be blamed on someone, and people who claimed that Herbert Hoover wasn’t doing enough to help them were probably on “drugs,” or so seemed the belief of the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics founded in 1930, Harry Anslinger. This fanatic served in that capacity for over three decades, advocating a “jail ‘em and throw away the key” approach to those who used illegal drugs.  Users of even marijuana were all “violent criminals” and “murderers,” according to Anslinger—and mostly they were minorities like blacks and Hispanics, which “explained” why they were mentally “deficient,” even “insane,” and prone to “violent crime and murder." White “kids” were of course their “victims” as well; they were all “innocents” preyed upon by the morally inferior races.

The Nixon administration started its own “war on drugs” for cynical political reasons. John Ehrlichman admitted to Harper’s magazine that

The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.

But that was then. Drugs use had to stopped at their “sources.” Cocaine, for example, principally came from Colombia, where the coca plant was largely harvested. The “war” against the cartels, such as Medellín Cartel founded by Pablo Escobar, eventually led to their fall, only to be replaced by crime groups, many taken over by the very paramilitaries who the government employed to destroy the cartels. The result of this “war’ was to reroute drug trafficking from the Caribbean air and water routes instead through Central America and hand them off to those Mexican cartels—which previously operated “peacefully” under the ruling PRI party in Mexico—and expanding their role from mere “couriers” to “wholesalers”—“handling” drug traffic not just originating from South America, but China and India as well.

The violence and ramping-up of murder we are seeing in Mexico today seems to have originated in 2000 with the breaking of the PRI party with the election of Vicente Fox of the conservative National Action Party, who with the “help” of George Bush started his own “war on drugs.”  Felipe Calderon followed him, but again failed because he didn’t understand the “problem.” Mexico has no “national” police force, and “everyone” knows that local police “work” for the cartels—and if you want to live, don’t piss off the cartels; in the last election, 30 political candidates were murdered because they claimed they were going to “do something.”

But ultimately, the real problem is that if there wasn’t a “market” for a “product,” there wouldn’t be a “business” to supply it to begin with. Back in 2010, Jorge Castañeda wrote for the Cato Institute that

Everyone in Mexico knows that we can’t win this war. The government, acknowledging this, has begun to say that drug trafficking and violence can’t be solved until the United States does two things, knowing full well that those are impossible. One is reducing the demand for drugs. It is well known that U.S. demand for drugs over the past 40 years has remained pretty much stable, although the types of drugs consumed have changed: marijuana was the drug of the 1960s and 1970s, cocaine and crack were the drugs of the 1990s, and methamphetamine is the drug of the first decade of the 21st century. However, the overall number of users has remained pretty much the same. If the United States hasn’t been able to reduce drug consumption in 40 years, it’s very unlikely that it will be able to do it now.

Thus Trump’s tariff increase is just “punitive” for no rational reason. Trump ought to know that; he can’t even control his proclivities for contempt of laws, civil society, human and civil rights, the Constitution, etc., etc., etc.