Heads In The Sand — The Real Cause Of Today's Opioid Deaths

By Josh Bloom — August 16, 2017 @ American Council on Science and Health

 

"I cut it three times and it's still too short" Old carpenter's joke (1)

 

Pretty funny, especially for us do-it-yourselfers, who may not think things over carefully enough before we plunge into a home project like a new deck or replacement windows. This kind of stuff happens when amateurs try to do the work of professionals, and it's often good for a chuckle or two. I mean, who amongst us hasn't hung a door upside down or measured deck boards incorrectly?

But when so-called professionals who act like amateurs screw up public health policy, things become decidedly less funny. Especially for the many victims of political and bureaucratic incompetence and the opportunists who have managed to elevate themselves to sufficiently lofty positions where they actually have enough power to do damage.

 

If you've been paying attention to the nationwide narcotic catastrophe that is now claiming 142 lives every day (and seems to be getting worse), you may be shaking your head in disbelief. If so, it is not without reason. The idea that slapping three-day caps on Vicodin and Percocet prescriptions will in any way decrease overdose deaths is so supernaturally stupid that no one could really believe this nonsense anymore, right? No, wrong.

 

As overdoses soar, states limit the length of

painkiller prescriptions Charleston Gazette-Mail, 8/10/17

 

 According to a new article in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the faulty premise of controlling the overdose dilemma by restricting pain medications is still pervasive throughout the country. So much so that there are now 17 states that have passed laws limiting the number of days of opioid prescriptions, the total number of pills, and the maximum dose, with the goal of putting the breaks on an unprecedented epidemic of overdose deaths. How's that working out? Exactly as you would predict—terribly.

 

Before I discuss the foolish actions that are blindly being implemented by regulators and legislators and how badly they are failing, we need to first understand the real causes of today's opioid catastrophe. Because without a clear understanding of the problem, even a rational plan of attack - let alone a solution - will be impossible. Unfortunately, there is little evidence that public health officials understand what is really going on, which is why we keep hearing the same illogical and hackneyed responses over and over. Here's the real story.

 

Today's opioid overdose crisis began in force in 2010 (Figure 1), in what was a quintessential example of the law of unintended consequences. After years of research, Purdue Pharma finally discovered a new formulation for OxyContin—a significant driver of opioid addiction since its introduction in 1996. The new formulation was difficult to abuse; when users tried to grind up the pills so the drug could be smoked, snorted, or injected it turned into a gum instead of a powder as it had before.

Grinding up OxyContin before and after reformulation. Prior to 2010, the pill was easy to grind up, which defeated its time-release formulation, to give as much as 80 mg (16 Percocet pills) of pure oxycodone, which could be snorted, smoked or injected. The new formulation changed that. Photo: Popular Science

 

Figure 1 (below) shows a clear inverse relationship between the availability of abusable OxyContin and the subsequent mad rush to heroin—a fact that the press, the CDC, and many politicians either don't understand or, choose to ignore. This is beyond obvious. Simply look at the red arrows on both graphs. As OxyContin use dropped (left) heroin overdose deaths soared (right). This relationship is indisputable. Although pre-2010 OxyContin played a significant part in creating a huge population of opioid addicts, it could be argued that the improvement of the pill inadvertently did even more damage. Addicts could no longer get the pure oxycodone they needed and promptly switched to heroin. This switch marked the beginning of the unprecedented surge in heroin (now fentanyl) deaths that now appear on the news almost every day.

Figure 1: The real cause of today's skyrocketing overdose opioid deaths.

Left: OxyContin abuse dropped sharply beginning in 2010 when the FDA approved an abuse-resistant formulation. Source: Pain News Network, Radar Systems.
 

Right: Soaring heroin use immediately followed the reformulation of OxyContin. Note that the number of heroin deaths between 2001-2010 was stable, in the range of 2000-3000 per year.  But between 2010 and 2015, this number shot up to 10,000. It is clear that not only was the onset of today's overdose epidemic not driven by pills, but it was, in fact, driven by the SCARCITY of pills (2). Source: NIH. 
 

Another common fallacy that is now all but "fact" is that opioid pills are now responsible for the surge in overdose deaths in the US, but a bit of digging around on the NIH site tells us otherwise. In 2010, the year that OxyContin became abuse-resistant, 20,000 people died from opioid overdoses. During the ensuing five years, OxyContin abuse dropped and the strict restrictions we now see on opioid pills began to take hold. The result? Between 2010-2015 opioid overdose deaths in the US increased by 65%, roughly 13,000. And even a cursory examination of Figure 2 shows that increase was entirely due to injectable drugs like heroin or fentanyl.
 

Source: Adapted from NIH figures

Figure 2. The increase in opioid deaths from 2010-2015. The 65% increase in deaths arose from heroin and fentanyl, not pills. Overdose deaths from pills remained unchanged during that time.
 

Figure 3 reinforces this conclusion. Pill deaths during that time were unchange

d.

Figure 3: Deaths from overdoses of prescription opioids were unchanged between 2010 and 2015 (pink box). Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH)
 

Yet we still routinely see headlines such as the following:

"Prescription opioids are behind the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in the US"

It is this fallacy that is causing genuine harm, both to people who are addicted to opioids and those who depend on them for pain control. Pain patients suffer while addicts die in greater and greater numbers. Our policies have been an abject failure by any measure. Disgraceful.

Next: Part 2: States Crack Down On Pills To Fight Fentanyl. Crazy.

Notes:
 

(1) Thanks to Jamie Ragusa for this one.

(2) Economic factors also play a big role. Heroin is cheaper than pills. The street value of opioid pills ranges from $5 to $80. A bag of heroin is about $5.

My Take - Normally I don't post the questions or comments from the articles, but this issue has become so politicized I feel it's important to post this question from cha hui • 12 days ago asking:

"so what ideas do you have specifically to deal with this problem? what would you tell law enforce and drug enforcement agencies and politicians do specifically?"  I did so because that was my qestion.

Here's Josh's response, which demonstrates just how difficult any answer to this is.

Josh Bloom This is both easy and difficult. The "easy" part is admitting that harsh restrictions on prescription opioids have provided no benefit, only harm, especially to pain patients. The entire 2016 CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain has to be thrown out. The CDC and PROP premise that limiting prescriptions will prevent pain patients from becoming addicted is clearly wrong. The data that I showed proves that it does nothing of the sort. Addiction to opioid in pain patients - even those who have been treated long term- is rare, and there is plenty of evidence to support this. Addiction arises from *recreational*, not therapeutic use of the drugs.      

While pill mills must be shut down, the government must stay out of the doctor's office. There cannot be arbitrary limits on dose or number of pills. Doctors who act in good faith should not have to worry about getting on a DEA list (they do). Patients with real needs should NOT have their doses involuntarily tapered down. This is barbaric. The care of patients is none of the government's damn business. Loosening the tight restrictions on prescribing meds for pain patients and the physicians who treat them is essential.     

These new laws and policies punish the innocent to protect the guilty.     

For those already addicted, there is no easy answer. With fentanyl replacing heroin, addicts will die sooner or later. It is inevitable. If this takes wider use of methadone to stem this tide, so be it. The Puritanical objection to "replacing one drug for another" may sound appealing, but this is real life. Harm reduction, not philosophy is what is crucial.           

The war on drugs has never been won. Carrying it out on the backs of the sick and injured is inhumane.

 

NASA senior scientist crushes Gore's new climate-change book

By Alicia Powe About | Email | Archive

A leading climate skeptic’s newly self-published e-book challenging the science behind Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Sequel” is drastically outselling the film’s companion book on Amazon. The former vice-president’s book, “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” was ranked 16,459th among paid Amazon e-books on Friday.  Meanwhile, climatologist Roy W. Spencer’s e-book, “An Inconvenient Deception: How Al Gore Distorts Climate Science and Energy Policy,” was ranked 328th.  In Amazon’s climatology category, Gore’s book was ranked 11th on Thursday, while Spencer’s was ranked first.  “Maybe people are finally wising up to Mr. Gore,” Spencer said on his Global Warming blog...........To Read More.....

Callous CALAS activists against the poor

Anti-mining groups “protect” local tribe against phony risks by trampling on Guatemalan workers

 

Paul Driessen

 

Not long ago, supposed “environmental justice” concerns at least involved risks to mine workers and their families. The risks may have been inflated, or ignored for decades, but they were a major focus.

In one case, a state-run mine and smelter had fouled the air, land and water with toxic contaminants in a Peruvian town for 75 years. Environmental groups raised few objections – until a U.S. company bought the properties and began installing modern pollution controls, implementing worker health and safety practices, cleaning up widespread lead dust, and initiating numerous community improvement projects.

 

Suddenly, anti-mine activists descended on the town. They blamed the company for decades of pollution, claimed corporate officials weren’t acting quickly enough, ignored government foot-dragging on its commitments, pressured banks into cutting off loans to the company, and eventually shut everything down. Thousands of workers were left jobless. The activists and news media celebrated their victory.

 

Today, mining operations in Guatemala have become ground zero for campaigns in which pollution and human health are largely irrelevant, “indigenous people” are the new politically favored “victims” of multinational mining companies, rigged “consultation processes” have become the tactic du jour, and mine workers are among the new “oppressors,” whose health and living standards are now irrelevant.

 

Not only do radical “keep it in the ground” protesters pay little attention to where essential raw materials come from, so long as their favorite tech toys magically appear in retail outlets. They almost flaunt their callous disregard for families that had been dirt poor before a modern mine brought jobs and comparative prosperity – and will be destitute again after the outside agitators have shut the mine down and moved on to their next target. A case in point is the Escobal silver mine near San Rafael las Flores, Guatemala. 

 

Since buying the mine in 2010, owner and operator Canada-based Tahoe Resources has invested more than $1 billion into the mine’s operation and related infrastructures– plus another $10 million upgrading hospitals and schools, planting 32,000 trees, and launching vocational, entrepreneurship, health, nutrition and other programs. More than 1,600 mining jobs and 6,000 indirect jobs brought many millions of dollars in salaries to the region. Locals launched over 100 new businesses. Life was getting better.

 

Company officials say the mine is designed and operated to meet the highest Guatemalan and Canadian health and environmental standards, and there has been no evidence of air or water pollution during Tahoe’s tenure. Anti-mining activists nonetheless launched campaigns against it as soon as it was licensed.

 

Incessant protests and confrontations, arson incidents, forcible detention of miners and police by activists, and assorted legal actions fueled tensions. The agitators are determined to prosecute Tahoe in multiple courts, persuade banks not to extend further credit to the company, send its stock values plummeting, and block Escobal mining operations permanently.

 

What will we do if they shut the mine down? locals ask. Without these jobs, we will be poor again. Our businesses will close, our children will have no future, and people will have to go to the United States for work – just like before the mine created jobs that brought workers back to the area.

The agitators’ newest tactic is to enlist indigenous tribes, claim companies failed to consult adequately with the tribes under Guatemala’s community consultation and plebiscite “consultas” process, use ballot initiatives to claim people around the area overwhelmingly oppose the mine – and rage that the local people’s and indigenous groups’ human rights have been violated, in gross miscarriages of justice.

 

The blatant dishonesty of this process is underscored by the fact that every consultas held between 2011 and 2016 resulted in 93to 100 percent opposition to mining. Indeed, the process was cleverly designed and then hijacked, manipulated and rigged by outside activists and their local allies to foment opposition to mining activity and eliminate mine-dependent jobs, rather than assess true community sentiment.

 

Banners depicted a sample ballot marked “NO” and proclaim that shutting down mining is “necessary for life.” Ballots were explicitly worded to solicit negative responses. Even worse, many ballots highlighted the “No” vote in yellow, suggesting to voters it was the “correct” answer. The dishonesty is even deeper.

 

Community meetings held before the vote were little more than disinformation and agitprop sessions, designed to advance the anti-mining sentiments of activists from wealthy nations. Mine owners, foremen, environmental directors, community development coordinators, even workers and their families were not invited or permitted to participate. They could not correct misinformation; ask or respond to questions; explain health, safety and environmental safeguards; discuss economic, employment, living standards and other benefits to the community; or otherwise ensure fair, balanced, complete and open discussions.

 

Workers and others who wanted to speak out at other times were greeted with threats and intimidation.

 

The deck was stacked. The well-funded and coordinated agitators behind the consultas had no interest in ensuring that local people were actually consulted and given opportunities to learn the facts. Their goal was and is to block mining projects, regardless of how many jobs would be created, living standards improved, and health, safety and environmental safeguards implemented by mining operators.

 

Can anyone recall a case where activists ultimately supported a mining project, following consultations or improved mining practices? I did not see it happen in Peru, and it is not happening in Guatemala. The agitators simply change the issues, ramp up their demands and move the goal posts.

The anti-mining agitators do not care whether a consultation process is fair, open and complete; that a mine would be safe and non-polluting; or that it would ensure good jobs and improved schools, hospitals, homes, living standards and opportunities for thousands. They simply do not want mines in any targeted area, anytime or under any conditions.

 

Their current ploy is to say that Guatemala’s Ministry of Mines did not consult adequately with Xinca tribal groups that live miles from the mine, before it issued the mining license. The Guatemalan courts agreed with the activists – and shut down operations.

 

If the closure becomes permanent, 7,600 workers would be left jobless and their families destitute. Their growing anger, frustration, hopelessness and sense of betrayal are reaching a boiling point. Several miners recently went on a hunger strike, to protest what the activists and courts have done. Will Guatemalan, Canadian, U.S. and international jurists, legislators, journalists and real human rights advocates pay any attention? Call for social and environmental justice? Time will tell. But don’t hold your breath.

 

The entire operation was orchestrated by several local pressure groups, led by CALAS – the Centro de Acción Legal Ambiental y Social de Guatemala: Guatemalan Center for Environmental and Social Legal Action. However, the real organizing, money and strategizing came from far outside the country.

 

The real power behind the throne has been Oxfam America, joined by a cabal of likeminded American, Canadian and European pressure groups, all of which masquerade as “civil society” and “environmental justice” organizations – and their financial backers. Together, they have poured millions of dollars into the anti-mining, anti-worker, Keep the Poor Impoverished campaigns.

From 2009 to 2015, Oxfam pumped over $9 million annually into its Central America/Caribbean programs. The New-York based Moriah Fund contributed nearly $15 million over a ten-year period to these and other international NGOs, while the Fund for Global Human Rights added over $3 million.

 

Unbelievably, the European Union contributed more than $17 million to Guatemalan pressure groups between 2007 and 2011! And to top it off, the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture is another major sponsor – using U.S. tax-dollar donations to the UN. How the heck did “failure to consult” become “torture” – akin to what the SS, KGB, ISIS and other criminal outfits routinely engage in?

 

For callous CALAS and its allied pressure groups and despicable benefactors to violate the human rights of so many Guatemalan working class families is bad enough. Do the courts really have to pile on?

 

Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org), and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power - Black death and other books on the environment. A new updated Spanish eBook translation of Eco-Imperialism will be available by September 1. (August 2017)

                                                   

Teaching Economics to Texans: Three Cheers (and Three Videos) for Price Gouging

August 27, 2017 by Dan Mitchell
 

I generally use Texas as a good example when discussing public policy. Particularly compared to places such as California.

I like the sensible attitude about guns, but the absence of an income tax is particularly admirable when considering economic issues, and I confess to being greatly amused when I read about jobs and investment escaping high-tax states like California and moving to the Lone Star State.

But being more pro-market than California is a low bar to clear. And I’ve written that government is too big in Texas.

And now, because of Hurricane Harvey, I have another reason to criticize the state.

Texas has a law against “price gouging,” which means politicians there (just like the politicians in places like Venezuela) think they should get to determine what’s a fair price rather than allow (gasp!) a free market.

The state’s Republican Attorney General is even highlighting his state’s support for this perverse example of price controls.

Price gouging by Texas merchants in the path of Hurricane Harvey has drawn the attention of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who said Saturday that his office is looking into such cases. …”We’ll be dealing with those people as we find them,” he said. …Paxton issued a warning about price gouging Friday as the hurricane approached the Texas coast. Texas law prohibits businesses from charging exorbitant prices for gasoline, food, water, clothing and lodging during declared disasters.

Paxton is right about Texas law, but he is threatening to enforce a terrible policy.

To help explain why Texas law is bad and why the Attorney General is misguided, here’s a video from John Stossel on so-called price gouging.



It’s disgusting that Mississippi arrested John. The guy should have received a medal for putting his money at risk to serve others.

To augment Stossel’s analysis, here’s a video from Learn Liberty that explains why politicians shouldn’t interfere with the price system.



And here’s Walter Williams discussing the role of “windfall profits” and how high returns encourage the reallocation of resources in ways that benefit consumers.

The bottom line on this issue is that buyers understandably want low prices, particularly in emergency situations.

But that makes no economic sense. However, since buyers generally outnumber sellers, politicians will always have an incentive to demagogue on the issue.

I’m not surprised when we get economic illiteracy from certain politicians. Nonetheless, it’s very disappointing when Texas lawmakers sink to that level. I hope Mr. Paxton at least is feeling guilty.

P.S. But I’ll close on an upbeat note by sharing my collection of Texas-themed humor: Here, here, here, and here.

 

Feel the Bern: Hunger eats away at Venezuela’s soul as its people struggle to survive

Emma Graham-Harrison Saturday 26 August 2017

 

This the reality of a Socialist Paradise

Hunger is gnawing at Venezuela, where a government that claims to rule for the poorest has left most of its 31 million people short of food, many desperately so. As night falls over Caracas, and most of the city’s residents lock their doors against its ever more violent streets, Adriana Velásquez gets ready for work, heading out into an uncertain darkness as she has done since hunger forced her into the only job she could find at 14.

She was introduced to her brothel madam by a friend more than two years ago after her mother, a single parent, was fired and the two ran out of food. “It was really hard, but we were going to bed without eating,” said the teenager, whose name has been changed to protect her........The number of children with severe malnutrition who were admitted to the hospital rose from 30 in 2015 to 110 last year, and looks set to climb further this year based on figures from the first half of the year, she said. There has been a subtle shifting in the nature of the problems parents face. Formula for babies who can’t be breastfed was hard to track down anywhere last year, with shortages so severe they claimed the lives of newborns...........To Read More......


My Take -  The long-term effects on malnourished children is incalculable because so much development occurs in the first few years of life.  Nutrient deficiencies early in life can have major implications for these young children and the society in which they live. 

We must understand there's so much foundational development taking place in these children’s first years of life the lack of proper nutrition will not only have short term consequences - but major long-term consequences that will plague a society for decades. 

Immunization deficiencies.  Growth problems. Cognitive issues such as ADD, poor learning ability, lower IQ, difficulty socializing, poor problem solving abilities and even a difficulty in language development.  None of these issues can be resolved with proper nutrition later in life. This is the doom of these poor children This is the crime against humanity Chavez, Maduro and their socialist mob are guilty of.

Let's see if the World Court goes after them. 

 

Invasion: Canada’s Open Borders and Refugee Camps

Who stands on guard for Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, for Hemmingford and Emerson? And for Canada? In days gone by, armies kept invaders out of a country instead of accommodating them. But under Prime Minister Trudeau, the Canadian military is there to facilitate the invasion of Canada. Borders exist to protect a country. We see that in Europe. We see it in America and Canada. And leaders who refuse to protect the border are really refusing to protect the nation that it represents.

By Daniel Greenfield l August 23, 2017

Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle. 1,477 people live in this little corner of Quebec with its apple orchards, elderberry fields and small wineries. But now 400 migrants can cross the border in a single day.
On the other side of the border is New York. There the language is English. In Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, the language of choice is French. But these days you’re a more likely to hear Arabic, Urdu or Haitian French being spoken here as Roxham Road fills with clots of migrants scampering out of America.

They’re not the leftist American celebs who threaten to leave for Canada if their side doesn’t win the election. Instead they’re the illegal and dubiously legal who got the message from President Trump.
The overloaded Mounties at the border crossing are being forced to cope with the jabbering illegals, grifters and fake refugees of Trump’s migrant surge. But where Obama’s migrant surge swelled America’s southern border with incoming migrants, Trump’s migrant surge is expelling them north.
The Syrians, or anyone claiming to be, are coming. So are the Sudanese, Somalis and Haitians. This is an informal border crossing and so the rules that might protect Canada from this horde don’t apply. Quebec has become the weakest link in the Canadian border with the vast majority of border migrants invading the “True North” through vulnerable points like the dead end of Roxham Road.......To Read More.....

Elites to Trump: Stand Still While We Punch You

They still can’t understand why a Republican would be “crazy” enough to fight back.

George Neumayr August 25, 2017

One of the media’s favorite shams is to trot out some grave-looking, slow-talking Washington mandarin like Jim Clapper to question the moral and mental “fitness” of Donald Trump to lead the country.

It is impossible to watch these oh-so-pained interviews without laughing. Clapper, after all, is a confirmed perjurer whose deliberate lie to Congress about collecting personal data on Americans went unprosecuted because of the crookedness of Obama’s Justice Department. Yet CNN’s histrionic man-child Don Lemon treated Clapper like a moral colossus, listening with bated breath as he slowly unburdened himself of his deep anxieties about the president. .............Unlike a long line of neutered Republican presidents who cowered before the media, Trump refuses to be a chump. That is a mark not of insanity but of commendable self-respect.........To Read More........

The Very Strange Indictment of Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s IT Scammers

by Andrew C. McCarthy August 21, 2017 1:45 PM @AndrewCMcCarthy

 

 It leaves out a lot of highly pertinent information. Let’s say you’re a prosecutor in Washington. You are investigating a husband and wife, naturalized Americans, who you believe have scammed a federal credit union out of nearly $300,000.

 

You catch them in several false statements about their qualifications for a credit line and their intended use of the money. The strongest part of your case, though, involves the schemers’ transferring the loot to their native Pakistan. So . . . what’s the best evidence you could possibly have, the slam-dunk proof that their goal was to steal the money and never look back? That’s easy: One after the other, the wife and husband pulled up stakes and tried to high-tail it to Pakistan after they’d wired the funds there — the wife successfully fleeing, the husband nabbed as he was about to board his flight.............. Read more

Primary GOP Obstructionists to Oblivion

By J. Robert Smith August 26, 2017

The old Bobby Kennedy saying, “Don’t get mad, get even,” needs to guide the grassroots. Congressional Republicans getting on board President Trump’s legislative agenda is imperative. Passing the President’s big ticket legislative items will cement a new majority. That gives the establishment the chills, a subset of whom are DC-owned Republicans. Those Republicans are the chief reason Trump’s legislative agenda is stalled.

They need to be primaried into nonexistence. Like the sanctimonious and condescending . That’s the grassroots’ goal in 2018: send as many GOP obstructionists packing as possible. Rep. Mark Meadows, who leads the U.S. House Freedom Caucus, is trying to leverage fear to get Ryan and McConnell off the dime this September. Said Meadows in aBreitbart article

If Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell can’t get the president’s agenda done, I don’t know that they get to keep theirs, nor do I know if I get to keep mine. We’ve got to deliver. It’s critically important we do that in a way that conservatives have long espoused,” he said.

Meadows is alluding to the GOP losing its congressional majorities in November 2018. Majorities tagged as “Do Nothings” are more prone to lose..........To Read More....

My Take - I've stated I think the 2018 midterms will be a bloodbath for both parties....with one big difference. For the Republicans the blood bath will be in the primaries and not the general election.  For the Democrats it will be just the opposite.  Conservative Republicans are upset at the "conservatives" they're sending to Washington and would like to change them. Liberal Democrats are generally satified but there is a large vocal minority who feel the "leftists" they're sending to Washington aren't left enough.  The 2018 election is going to polarize the political landscape more than the nation has faced since the Pre-Civil War era. 

Democrats will swerve far more to the left and the Republicans will swerve far more to the right. There is another big difference. The leadership in the Democrat Party will remain the same and continue moving left.  The leadership in the Rupublican Party will be moving faster to the right with new people at the helm, if not after the 2018 election certainly after the 2020 election. 

Death Cultist Calls for Trump's Impeachment

By Daren Jonescu

Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich is calling for Donald Trump's impeachment "as soon as possible." His argument, in a nutshell: Trump is almost as deranged and mentally unstable as…Robert Reich. Here is his initial argument in his own words (from an August 18 blog post):......."Abuse of power," "mental impairment," "unhinged sociopath." Well, well. Might we take a moment, then, to do the very unprogressive thing, and apply these same kettle-judging standards to the pot? "Let's be clear," as Reich would say. There is already enough evidence to commit Robert Reich to an insane asylum on grounds of sociopathic delusions of grandeur and intent to commit geronticide......To Read More.....

Progressives Facing Existential PR Damage from Charlottesville

By Pem Schaeffer

Moral superiority is the lily-white garb donned by progressive true believers to shore up their self-image as charitable guardian angels of lesser beings.  It feeds on constant virtue-signaling to keep the image pure, broadcast to an array of identity groups who eat up their public self-reverence.

The archenemy of their moral superiority is the merest hint of moral equivalence (whatever that is!) with apostates on the right.  Such a suggestion is an existential threat to progressive supremacy and simply must not be abided.  Embrace of their supremacy demands they reflexively label challengers as bigots, racists, sexists, evil, Nazis, homophobes, climate-deniers, transphobes, or whatever else fits the circumstances of the moment.

Almost without exception, embracing moral superiority doctrine and its specific tactics, besides signaling the virtuous superiority of the user, is intended to summarily end debate or discussion.  Rather than respond to counterpoints or questions coming from non-believers, it's easier to cast the respondent as morally inferior.  Such thinking allows progressive supremacists to lift up the likes of Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd to legendary status in the annals of liberal socio-political purity. ........Read more

Editor's Request

Please boycott and do NOT use $1 and $20 bills depicting slave owners on them. Send to me. I will dispose of them properly. Thank you..

All Roads Lead to Jihad

By Daniel Greenfield Thursday, August 24, 2017 @ Sultan Knish Blog (Emphasis added by me. RK)

 

Cambrils, Spain.

The road to September 11 wended its way through this Spanish town where Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker, met up with Ramzi bin al-Shibh, the former refugee to Germany and current Gitmo inmate, who had been serving as Osama bin Laden’s point man for the attacks that would kill thousands.

The hotel where Atta and Osama’s man met is a few blocks away from where the Muslim terrorists climbed out of their crashed car, drawing knives, axes and machetes, before a police officer working overtime to earn extra money shot most of them dead on the spot outside the Club Nautic.

The distance between where Atta was planning 9/11 and the latest terror attack in Spain is 110 meters. Stroll past a pub, a hair salon and a real estate agency in this seaside resort town and you’re there.

Cambrils hadn’t been the original target of the terrorists. Their dream target was the Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona. When their bombs went off prematurely, they went to Cambrils and Las Ramblas in Barcelona because it was likely to have foreign tourists that they could run over, stab and mutilate.

The consistent pattern of the big Islamic terror attacks in recent years, from the Boston Marathon to the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, from Bataclan to the Manchester Arena, from the Champs-Élysées to London Bridge, is to look for nightlife spots or crowds of tourists all packed into the same place.

The Sagrada Familia, which at completion will be able to hold 14,000 people, would have been a target closer to the scale of September 11. When Pope Benedict arrived in ’10, 6,000 people were able to fill the cathedral. Around 10,000 visitors tour the building every day. Had the terrorists been able to move their original plot along, the way that Atta and Al-Shibh did theirs, thousands might have died.

The message of Driss Oukabir had been clear. “Kill all infidels and only leave Muslims who follow the religion”.

That’s always been the “sacred” mission of Islam. The bloody chapters of the plot played out in Cambrils, where the terrorists were gunned down as they tried to butcher pedestrians, Barcelona, where pedestrians were run over in a van, and Alcanar, where the terrorists squatted a house and filled it with gas canisters and TATP explosives before the whole thing was accidentally blown sky high.

But the Jihad didn’t come from these places. It came, as always, from an Islamic population center and its satellite mosque.

Ripoll, Spain.

Like the river that adjoins it, the history of this small Catalan town of 11,000 flows back to the beginning of human history. Dig in the right places and you can find everything from bronze axe heads to Roman tombs. These days you can also find Muslim terrorists squatting in their mosques and plotting murder.

The small Spanish town has a Muslim population of 1,000. Or 9% of the population. That’s far above the national average. It also produced 8 of the 12 suspects in the Barcelona attacks.

Catalonia was once occupied by the Moors. It’s under Islamic occupation again. Half of the ISIS arrests in Spain have been made in Catalonia. In a few decades, Catalonia went from consisting of Catholics and atheists to a 7% Muslim population. That amounts to around 510,000 Muslim settlers in the region.

To put that into perspective, there are more Muslims in Catalonia than in some European countries. From their perspective, Catalonia is Al-Andalus. It’s an ancient Islamic territory that is rightfully theirs.

37.5% of Muslims jailed for terrorism came from Catalonia.

“I tell you, Spain is the land of our forefathers and, Allah willing, we are going to liberate it, with the might of Allah,” an ISIS terrorist had declared.

Muslim demographic migration and settlement has been conquering Catalonia. But the Islamic State has been less patient about swamping Spain through birth rates and asylum requests.

The Jihad in Ripoll came from its mosques which were centered around Imam Abdelbaki Es Satty.

Imam Abdelbaki Es Satty might be dead or alive. Some think he died when the explosives in that squatted house in Alcanar blew up. Others think he might have made it to Morocco where he had told acquaintances that he was bound. Or perhaps he once again made it under the radar to Brussels.

The Moroccan Imam had started out as a drug smuggler. He had reportedly served time with one of the ’04 Madrid train bombers. Links have also been drawn to the Brussels airport bombing last year. The mosques who hired him and whom he was associated with are denying any knowledge of his mission.

One mosque’s president claimed that terrorism was the act of “crazy people”. He insisted that, “Islam is peace.” The latest Islamic atrocities however contradict that tired nonsensical cliché.

Abdelbaki Es Satty was Moroccan. As were most of the terrorists. Four sets of brothers made up much of the Spanish terror cell. Beyond religion, the Jihadists were also a tightly knit clan. A family.

While the Moroccan Muslims were out for blood in Spain, a Moroccan Muslim went on a stabbing spree targeting women in Finland. It’s unknown if there was a connection, but as with Atta and Cambrils, the terror routes are transnational. Catalonia is a perfect Islamic terror hub because of its proximity to France. Satty veered between Morocco and Brussels while plotting terror in Spain.

While Europeans debate about the EU, Muslims already live in a world of open borders. They swarm in on boats from Libya to Italy, they travel from Turkey through Eastern Europe to reach Germany, they move between the emerging terror hubs of Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Sweden. They cross over from America into Mexico and from Canada into America. And then back to Canada.

In Ripoll, Mayor Munell insists there's no integration problem. “There is no problem of living together.”

There are never any problems. Just unexplained explosions. Screams and booms. The sound of bones breaking against a wall and the angry roar of a motor. And, above them all, the cry of, “Allahu Akbar.”

Meanwhile the same lies are told and retold.

The terrorists were irreligious. The Islamic community claims to know nothing about them. Or about Satty. The president of one of the mosques sneered, “I doubt if any of them could tell you the color of the carpet in the mosque.” If only they had come more often, they wouldn’t have turned to terror.

But the names of two of the terrorists are listed as donors to the mosque. And it’s the Imam who turned them on to terror.

Still it’s easier to ignore the terrible truth of Islamic terror. Even when it hits close to home.

In Cambrils, in Alcanar and Barcelona, the world briefly changed. The fifth Jihadist in the Cambrils car managed to stab a woman in the face before he was taken down. In Alcanar, body parts fell from the sky. Younes Abouyaaqoub, the last wanted member of the cell and the driver of the Barcelona van, shouted, "Allahu Akbar."

And then the police shot him.

The dead will be buried. The surviving terrorists will be imprisoned. The families of the victims will grieve. And in the towns and cities of Catalonia, another Islamic cell will start building more bombs.

 

Antifa’s Violent Racism Gets Official Designation from U.N

By Andrew West August 24, 2017

The reality of America’s radical leftist problem has finally come to light in recent weeks, as groups such as Antifa continue to divide our nation. Following the election of 2016, the democrats woefully attempted to combat the “Donald Depression” by cranking forward with a number of ambitious plans aimed at bringing America back together. Unfortunately, these plans were derailed by Hillary Clinton’s incessant and undeniable corruption.

In a great many cases, the world took a collective look inside and dismissed the trendy little organization as an entirely unworthy worry Now, in the wake of the manufactured Battle of Charlottesville, the political left is continuing to push their “social justice” nonsense to create excuses for their violence. Their latest tirade has received quite a bit of attention, including quick look from the United Nations........To Read More....

My Take - Another good reason for abandoning the U.N. 

Black Lives Matter tells White People – ‘Give Us Your Stuff!’

By Jeff Dunetz August 23, 2017

Hey, we want your stuff! That seems to be the new motto of Black Lives Matter (BLM). They don’t mention whether or not they will start shooting us if we refuse like, you know like they incite people to do with cops. Chanelle Helm who is the “co-founder and core organizer of Black Lives Matter Louisville” gave a list of ten things they want. The list, which I assure you I will not be following and neither will anyone with a brain, includes a demand of white people to give up their homes to black people after the Charlottesville riots.......To Read More...or as much as you can stand----- or---- maybe even understand.

My Take - Fortunately we always have apologists and excusers to help us understand those who are not the brightest pebbles in the brook in leadership positions - Snopes.

Does it ever make you wonder how bright their followers are?  Did you ever wonder what kind of person would vote for Maxine Waters????  Or better yet - Rep, Hank Johnson who thinks Guam might fall over into the ocean if there are too many troops stationed there.  Of course he was just kidding.....Yeah......Right! 

Limiting Taxpayer-Financed Vacations and Political Junkets

August 26, 2017 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty
 

When I write about politicians in their role as politicians (rather than their policy prescriptions), it’s usually to mock them for venality, corruption, immorality, sleaze, incompetence, or hypocrisy.

Today, I want to plead with them to exercise self-restraint. Some folks may have seen the stories about President Trump using up the Secret Service budget because of all his vacation trips to his various resorts.

There’s nothing illegal about his actions, but I wish Trump (as well as his predecessors and successors) would sometimes pause and think about whether they’re squandering other people’s money.

But since it’s highly unrealistic to expect politicians to have empathy for taxpayers, maybe we need some reforms. Here’s some of what I wrote in a column for Fortune.

…the Secret Service is way over budget because of President Donald Trump’s frequent vacations… It’s easy to zing Trump for being a hypocrite, as he previously complained about the cost and duration of President Barack Obama’s vacations. …But let’s look at this issue from the perspective of taxpayers. Every time the president hops on Air Force One for a weekend getaway at one of his resorts, that involves a major shift of manpower by the Secret Service, along with major outlays for travel, lodging, and other costs. …it’s time to consider some sensible reforms that could limit the agency’s burden on taxpayers.

I came up with a couple of ideas, which could be implemented by attaching conditions to the spending bills that fund the White House and the Secret Service.

…Congress should put an annual limit on expenditures for unofficial White House travel. …the average American gets 10 paid vacation days a year. …Presidents are not average, of course, so they should get taxpayer-financed protection for around four weeks of vacation. Any more than that would still have a Secret Service detail, but the president would have to pick up the incremental expenses… There should also be similar restrictions for the presidential family, especially with regard to overseas business trips. If Trump’s children feel it is necessary to go overseas to sign a deal, then the company at the very least should pay half the cost for Secret Service protection.

In other words, if the President wants to go to one of his golf clubs every weekend, he would always have full protection from the Secret Service, but he would pay for the added expense. It could come from his own pocket, or from his campaign coffers.

I don’t care, so long as there’s a limit on how much taxpayer are hit.

But what if Trump takes more official trips? Wouldn’t that require more money for the Secret Service?

That’s possible, but I also suggested in the article another way to save money that wouldn’t sacrifice security.

Another reasonable reform would be to…protect taxpayers by limiting the number of other administration staffers that go on junkets. …cut in half the number of political advisors, speechwriters, and flunkies that have turned White House trips into costly boondoggles.

The bottom line is that presidential junkets shouldn’t turn into an excuse to have hundreds of non-Secret Service staffers tagging along at high cost.

And I stressed in the article that I’m not picking on Trump.

They would be permanent reforms to address the systemic problem of wasteful spending and administrative bloat in Washington. This problem existed before the current president. And in the absence of reform, it will be an issue with future administrations.

To emphasize this point, here are some excerpts from a 2014 article from the U.K.-based Guardian (h/t: Mark Steyn) about the excesses of one of Obama’s European trips.

President Barack Obama’s visit on Tuesday will strain the city like never before with €10m ($10.4m, £8.4m) of Belgian money being spent to cover his 24 hours in the country. The president will arrive on Tuesday night with a 900-strong entourage, including 45 vehicles and three cargo planes.

The article didn’t say how many of the 900 staffers were Secret Service agents, but I’m guessing maybe 200 or 300. Heck, even if it was 400 or 500, why did taxpayers have to pick up the tab for another 400 or 500 (or more) staffers who weren’t there for security-related reasons?

Yes, presidents need to have staff to conduct business, but we live in a world with advanced communications technology.

I’m a former congressional staffer, and I’ve had lots of friends work for various administrations, so I understand that a nice overseas trip can be fun for people who otherwise toil in obscurity.

But as the risk of being a curmudgeon, I don’t want taxpayers to foot the bill. I want there to be a mentality of frugality. And if politicians won’t adopt that mentality (and they almost certainly won’t, as shown by this example), then it would be nice to attach some strings to limit their excesses.

P.S. I grouse about goodies for American politicians, but I’d probably be even more upset if I was a taxpayer in Europe.

 

Muscovite Prostitute Dossier STILL Unverifiable After Senate Testimony

By Andrew West August 23, 2017

The left’s persistence regarding their wild Russian conspiracy theory is fading quickly after each and every piece of their pathetic puzzle falls away. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been toiling away for weeks on an investigation supposedly linked to the Trump campaign’s connection to the Kremlin, based solely on the wildly illogical liberal theory that The Donald is a Russian double agent who became President of the United States.

In reality, Mueller’s probe has undergone seemingly endless redirections, with concerns coming from the administration about the legitimacy of the entire debacle. Mueller has been granted access to a number of personal pieces of information regarding Donald Trump, none of which fall into line with the Russian theory, possibly in hopes of gaining other ammunition against the Commander in Chief for when the left finally throws in the towel on this Kremlin nonsense......To Read More.....

Cartoon of the Day!

Cleveland Browns Facing Massive Veterans Boycott After Anthem Antics

By Andrew West August 25, 2017

Even with washed up footballer Colin Kaepernick sitting jobless on the sidelines, the NFL is not without its controversial anthem protests.

Kaepernick’s bizarre behavioral change during his unexpectedly final season in the NFL was nothing more than a cheap publicity stunt meant to drum up support for the undeserving quarterback who was destined for the bench.  By lashing out at police with his derogatory clothing choices, and by disrespecting the men and women of our armed forces by refusing to stand for the National Anthem, Kaepernick locked up his place in liberal history and ensured that he would see his final 15 minutes of fame before withering away into obscurity.

Unfortunately, even with the NFL giving the has-been QB the cold shoulder this year, a number of heirs to the anti-American throne have emerged, including twelve Cleveland Browns players who took a knee during the Star Spangled Banner at Monday night’s preseason shindig.....To Read More...

 

Can President Macron Save France

August 25, 2017 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty
 

Back in April, I looked at the candidates running for the French presidency and half-jokingly wondered which one would win the right to preside over the country’s decline.

But once the field was winnowed to two candidates, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, I wrote that voters should pick the socialist over the socialist. My title was sarcastic, but I was making a serious point that Marine Le Pen had a very statist platform, whereas I cited evidence that Macron had some sensible proposals.

Mr. Macron aims to rebalance the economy by cutting 120,000 public sector jobs, streamlining the pension system and dropping state spending back to 52 percent of G.D.P. Mr. Macron leads an emerging centrist consensus that recognizes that…the main obstacle retarding France’s economy is its attachment to a welfare state culture of…generous benefits. …Mr. Macron…once said that stifling taxes threaten to turn France into “Cuba without the sun”.

Indeed, in addition to the reforms listed in the Macron has proposed to lower France’s corporate tax rate to 25 percent, and he also want to liberalize labor markets.

All of which seems rather surreal. After all, Macron was a minister in the failed socialist government of Francois Hollande, so who would have thought that we would be the one to lead an effort to shrink the burden of government?

Yet consider the fiscal agenda President Macron is pushing.

France’s 2018 budget will focus on cutting taxes to boost economic activity as the government seeks to cement its support among the business community, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said. …Philippe told RTL Radio on Wednesday he wants to lower levies that “hurt the competitiveness of our country.” Government ministries this week received letters setting out their spending limits for 2018. President Emmanuel Macron is seeking cuts of 20 billion euros ($23 billion) and tax reductions of 11 billion euros next year… “We have to get out of the spiral of public spending,” government spokesman Christophe Castaner said in a separate interview on France Inter. “France has been addicted to ever increasing spending, paid for by taxes.”

Wow. I wish the Republicans in Washington were as sensible as these French socialists (actually, since they created a new party, it would be more accurate to say they are former socialists).

But there is precedent for this kind of surprise. It was the left-wing parties that started the process of pro-market reforms in Australia and New Zealand. And it was a Social Democrat government in Germany that enacted the labor-market reforms that have been so beneficial for that nation.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that French voters may have buyer’s regret.

The Wall Street Journal recently opined on this topic.

…the question isn’t whether Emmanuel Macron can save France. The question is whether France can save itself. Voters have the best chance in a generation to revive an economy in decline, yet they seem to quail at the critical moment. …voters are having second thoughts about economic reform. Mr. Macron’s approval started falling in July after he announced plans to cut housing benefits—by €5 a month for each recipient. Feminists are in arms over his plan to reduce the government’s women’s-rights budget to €20 million ($23.6 million) from €30 million. That’s before he gets to the labor reforms that will dominate the autumn.

Shifting from the editorial page, the WSJ has a report on the growing opposition to reform.

As Emmanuel Macron sets out to shake up France’s rigid labor market, the young president is losing the public support he may need to weather protests by the country’s powerful unions. …Mr. Macron will have to tread carefully in rolling out his labor reforms in September. For months, the 39-year-old president has been in talks with powerful labor unions in a bid to contain planned street protests. Now the prospect is growing that the ranks of those demonstrations could swell with students, retirees and other segments of French society… Mr. Macron’s government wants to make it easier for French firms to hire and fire workers. …The hard-left General Confederation of Labor, France’s most militant union, is already calling for strikes and demonstrations.

It’s not surprising, of course, to see opposition from those seeking to protect their privileges.
Though it theoretically shouldn’t matter since Macron’s party has a huge majority in the French Assembly.

That being said, politicians do have a habit of buckling when faced with voter unrest.  And Macron is committing some unforced errors, as reported by the U.K.-based Telegraph.

Emmanuel Macron spent €26,000 (£24,000) on makeup during his first three months as president of France, it has emerged. …Le Point reported that his personal makeup artist – referred to only as Natacha M – put in two bills, one for €10,000 and another for €16,000.The Elysee Palace defended the high fee saying: “We called in a contracter as a matter of urgency”. The same makeup artist also applied foundation to Mr Macron during his presidential campaign. Aides said that spending on makeup would be “significantly reduced”. …Le Point put the overall figure for Mr Hollande’s makeup at €30,000 per quarter. Nicolas Sarkozy, meanwhile, paid a whopping €8,000 per month for his, according to Vanity Fair.

Since it appears that these costs are borne by taxpayers, this is all rather depressing.

Macron, however, at least can claim that he’s not the most frivolous with other people’s money. Monsieur Hollande won the prize for waste when you add his hairdresser to the equation.

…all these sums pale into comparison with the £99,000 Mr Hollande paid his personal barber. The huge amount sparked accusations of “shampoo Socialism”. …The hairdresser, Olivier Benhamou, was hired to work at the Elysée Palace in 2012 for the duration of Mr Hollande’s five-year term.  Mr Benhamou also reportedly enjoyed a housing allowance and family benefits.

As I wrote about this last year and suggested that this narcissistic waste made Hollande eligible to win the “Politician of the Year” contest.

But let’s shift back to the serious issue of economic liberalization.

To be blunt, France’s economy is suffocating from statism. I’m not even sure what’s the biggest problem.

• Is it bloated public sector that consumes more than half of the economy’s output?
• Is it a tax system that is so onerous that households sometimes pay more than 100 percent of their income to government?
• Is it cossetted bureaucrats, symbolized by the functionary with a car and driver who nonetheless still racked up giant taxi expenses?
• Is it class-warfare policies that target the rich but wind up hurting the middle class?

The answer is “all of the above,” with is why France desperately needs pro-market reform.
We’ll learn later this year whether Macron can save his country.

P.S. The story that tells you everything you need to know about France was the poll last decade revealing that more than half the population would flee to America if they had the opportunity.
P.P.S. If it wasn’t for France, we never would have had the opportunity to enjoy this very clever and amusing Scott Stantis cartoon.

P.P.P.S. Or watch this rather revealing Will Smith interview about French taxation.