Massive Corruption in the D E A

Sixty Minutes devoted two whole segments (thirds) to the way money now corrupts the DEA, which I guess is Dept of Drug Enforcement.  It was about 2011 and they stopped accepting new cases and a total log jam occurred and nothing got done.  It was as if some “force” said “You don’t have enough evidence” all of a sudden even when presented with ample evidence.  Others said that it was a vagueness of the law.  So they pushed a law through congress making it impossible for the DEA to crack down on suspicious drug distributors.  You know like ordering a quarter million prescriptions of oxy-conton in a town of four thousand people or something.  The distributors have made it clear that they set the legal tone and if they want to push opioids on an unsuspecting population then they can.  This bill to ease up on congress sailed through with seemingly no opposition.  It’s as if the entire congress had been bought off by the drug companies.  It passed on a voice vote of “unanamus acclamation” and President Obama signed the bill in 2015.  The thing is not a single Republican candidate used it against the President in the 2016 campaign.  What happens is that all the DEA people defect to the other side and start working for the drug lobby.  When once they worked to clean up the country of drugs now they are working hand in glove with the drug lobby.  It’s disgusting. 

BETRAYAL IN OUR OWN RANKS:  Last week the Washington Post did one report on how they had fact-checked Trump’s message on Iran and found it to be accurate.  Now I don’t believe the post.  I feel as though they have betrayed the liberal cause.  They are claiming that Iran really did aid the Talliban and Al Qaeda and how Iran protected Bin Laden’s son.  According to Thom Hartman Iran announced that they would arrest the perpetrators of 9 – 11 if we would just give the word but instead Bush acted hostelly toward them.  I don’t think Hartman would lie about something so important.  I don’t think a Shiite would work so hard to protect Sunny Muslims.  Right now Norman has come on and he’s saying to give up hope of any early removal of President Trump from office.  My message is “keep the faith”.  “Don’t give up hope”.  President Trump had lunch with Mitch Mc Connell today in Washington and they held a press conference with both of them saying what great friends they are and how they have been friends for a long time.  I think this is conservative PR out to dishearten liberals.  Pretty soon some of these fatalist democrats will be giving up on a democratic congress.  We have to start working right now or this too is in danger of not happening.  But “Time is not an endless river” or whatever Norm claims it is.  We are not the Viet Cong.  We can’t afford another protracted thirty year struggle.  The Republicans don’t need time on their side because when an endless supply of cash funding you don’t need to think in hasty terms.  But for liberals time is of the essence because like an infection, if you ignore or minimize it, it will only get worse and more entrenched.  Think about it. 

On Days of our Lives, Samantha almost filed charges against John and Paul for attempting to dig up Will's grave but when Raphael came he talked her out of it.  I’m surprised these two hugged knowing the bad terms they left on a couple of years ago.  Nicole is now into the unenviable position of lying to Clowie, which I wouldn't do.  I'dd tell Clowie the whole ugly story and trust her to keep it confidential.  I'd feel a lot better being able to confide in someone for what Brady has done to her with his emotional blackmail.  And Clowie might even side with me that Nicole should call Brady's bluff and not be cowed by the blackmail.  Eli was hired on by Hope as Raphael’s partner as detective.   I wonder if they are going to bring back Samantha’s three surviving children on the soap opera.  When last Samantha was on the show it was right after E J died.  This would be late 2014.  At that time Johnny and Alley were about eight and nine at best.  Sydney was about four.  Logic would dictate that now when they bring them back Sydney will be seven and Johnny and Alley will both be either eleven or twelve.  But they don’t have eleven year old kids on this show.  It’s against someone’s religion.  They routinely skip from about age eight to age seventeen or on the verge of graduation from High School.  They won’t be able to use the same actors. 

THE FOLLOWING IS FROM THE WASHINGTON POST  The permanent campaign has long been a staple of politics in this country, the idea that running for office never stops and that decisions are shaped by what will help one candidate or another, one party or another, win the next election.  President Trump has raised this to a high and at times destructive art. He cares about ratings, praise and success. Absent demonstrable achievements, he reverts to what worked during the campaign, which is to depend on his own instincts and to touch the hot buttons that roused his voters in 2016. As president, he has never tried seriously to reach beyond that base.  These moves will earn him accolades from the people who supported his candidacy last year, which might be the principal objective. But neither action solved a problem. It will be left to others to do that, if they can. In a few hours, the nation and the world got a double dose of what Trump’s frustrations can mean in terms of their impact on important issues.   Those were only two of the moments that defined the president’s disruptive style of leadership in just one week. It was, after all, only a week ago that the president started aTwitter war with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). The tweets resulted in Corker firing off a snarky tweet in return and then bluntly calling out the president’s character and fitness in a New York Times interview in which he warned that the president’s recklessness could result in World War III.   It was also within that week that the president, with an assist from Vice President Pence, escalated and perhaps seized the advantage in his feud with professional football players who kneel during the national anthem. Amid outrage from his critics, Trump has managed to turn an issue that once was about police violence in minority communities into a cultural battle about patriotism, the flag and pride in the military. His critics are now on the defensive.  The week saw one other example of Trump’s governing by pique. Hours before the steps he took on health care, he lashed out again at critics of his handling of the hurricane cleanup in Puerto Rico, tweeting that he would cut back the federal response. Like many of his tweets, it is no doubt an idle threat, but one nonetheless designed to give a jolt of displeasure to the status quo.  Trump’s Twitter feed is an obsession, both for a president who finds release through 140-character blasts at opponents or enemies and for a media trained to jump at the moment the tweets light up smartphones. But his actions on health care and Iran were reminders that the most consequential steps are those in which he is attempting to reverse course on policies without a clear sense of a path to success.