Biden green-lights deployment to Mexican border + More

The US president signed an order allowing active duty reserve troops as needed to fight international drug trafficking

Biden green-lights deployment to Mexican border

Related:

Message to the Congress on Executive Order on Authority to Order the Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces to Active Duty to Address International Drug Trafficking

U.S. says it ‘infiltrated’ the Sinaloa drug cartel in the fight against fentanyl

Fentanyl Is Smuggled for U.S. Citizens By U.S. Citizens, Not Asylum Seekers

FDA Cracks Down on Animal Tranquilizer That Is Sometimes Mixed With Fentanyl

FDA Cracks Down on Animal Tranquilizer That Is Sometimes Mixed With Fentanyl

This is why fentanyl is used in black-market opioids in the first place. Users did not demand a substance that is 40 times more potent than heroin for recreational use; prohibitionist policies made it more challenging to procure pain medication, leading pain patients to seek out heroin. Heroin, however, is a crop drug, which makes it expensive to produce, ship, and buy. Fentanyl is synthetic, making it cheaper to produce, ship, and buy. When the law makes it harder to get legal pain pills, everybody adapts, and you get illegal fentanyl with no quality control.

Related:

The opioid crackdown leaves chronic pain patients in limbo

They Call Me a Drug Seeker. Here’s What Their Opioid Policies Did to Me.

The new CDC guidelines aren’t much better.

Drugs flood Europe through the Armed Forces of Ukraine

According to the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), the volume of drug consumption in EU countries has increased markedly this year. And this is despite the fact that in Europe, as a result of the activities of law enforcement agencies, hundreds of illegal drug laboratories are being liquidated, and more than 150 people have been arrested in the recent period alone.

Drugs flood Europe through the Armed Forces of Ukraine (archived)

Video via TFIGlobal

Bad News For The Internet: Congress Looking To Sneak In Dangerous ‘Save The Kids!’ Internet Bill Into Year-End Omnibus

Over the last week or so, I keep hearing about a big push among activists and lawmakers to try to get the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) into the year-end “must pass” omnibus bill. Earlier this week, one of the main parents pushing for the bill went on Jake Tapper’s show on CNN and stumped for it. And, the latest report from Axios confirms that lawmakers are looking to include it in the lameduck omnibus, or possibly the NDAA (despite it having absolutely nothing to do with defense spending).

Bad News For The Internet: Congress Looking To Sneak In Dangerous ‘Save The Kids!’ Internet Bill Into Year-End Omnibus

Related:

KOSA Would Let the Government Control What Young People See Online

DOJ, Senate Leader Continue To Stoke Irrational Fear That Drug Dealers Are Targeting Kids With Multicolored Fentanyl

People who fail to understand the basics of supply and demand continue to insist suppliers want to kill potential customers.

DOJ, Senate Leader Continue To Stoke Irrational Fear That Drug Dealers Are Targeting Kids With Multicolored Fentanyl

The DEA is just looking for more 💰 for the idiotic war on drugs! Most likely, they’ll just imprison more people for nonviolent offenses!

USAID’s New Stage of Pressure and Interference against Venezuela + PSUV Approval Rating Almost Triples That of All Opposition Parties Combined in Venezuela

USAID’s New Stage of Pressure and Interference against Venezuela

Related:

Latest Poll: PSUV Approval Rating Almost Triples That of All Opposition Parties Combined in Venezuela

Venezuelan Foreign Minister: Washington Intends to Silence Venezuela’s Fight Against Drug Trafficking (+Statement)

What’s wrong with the USA?

China has been, variously described as a rising power, a sleeping dragon and a collapsing economy. Most of the rhetoric is driven from the US. Inside their government, both the Senate and Congress have anti-China hawks, their State Department seems to see a threat at every turning point and their military seems to believe that a defensive People’s liberation Army is a bad thing as it threatens US interests. Books reports and documentaries are created about mass dissatisfaction which extended academic research seems unable to identify.

What’s wrong with the USA? (archived)

Americans Can Now Expect to Live Three Years Less than Cubans

Americans Can Now Expect to Live Three Years Less than Cubans

Source: Ian Bremmer

The decline means that several countries have caught up with or surpassed the U.S. According to World Bank data, Cuba’s life expectancy is 78.9, and China’s is 77.1, although both figures are from 2020 rather than 2021.

Other countries that are ahead of the U.S. in terms of life expectancy include: Colombia, Uruguay and Chile; Costa Rica, Panama and Puerto Rico; and Turkey, Greece and Albania.

Cubans have access to free healthcare, which is one of the key socialist principles. The country has a high ratio of medical professionals and focuses on prevention and primary care.

Related:

List of countries with universal health care