PHARMA CARTEL MEXICANO

by Ken Grossberger, PhD

The Mexican drug cartels, as a collective, are some of the largest suppliers of pharmaceutical grade drugs to the US. Reports state that record amounts of fentanyl were illegally exported to the US in 2023. Last year, these reports tell us, about 240,000 pounds of drugs were seized by the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) including over a billion fentanyl doses. All this came through our southern border and was consumed in the United States.

This is a huge market. All of the US government attempts to interdict the flow across the border, all of law enforcement attempts to apprehend the offenders, all of the diplomatic attempts to get help from the Mexican government, have all been of little or no avail under the current administration. President Biden has shown little taste for doing anything meaningful at the border and has even taken Texas to court to stop their attempts to stop the flow. Clearly, the tsunami of illegals (sorry, the “deprived newcomer future Americans”) and the avalanche of drugs crossing the border are apparently what he wants. Nothing effective has been done by the White House as the problem worsens, and Biden is left in desperation to blame Trump and the Republicans.

So we look at another option. A French drain (not to be confused with the French Connection), is a technique whereby a structure constantly gets flooded, so instead of trying to stop it, the water is let in through a drain, and then it is let out by the same drain. In other words, control the flow. Why not do the same thing at the border? Let the drugs in but regulate it, and then tax it. If we’re not going to stop it, we might as well make some money from it. Maybe Biden can use some of his proposed almost 100,000 IRS agents to collect taxes from the cartels. If he doesn’t want to secure the border, at least he can get some revenue out of it (“the rich should pay their fair share”). So let’s make a cartel out of the cartels. As Pharma Cártel Mexicano (stock symbol PCM) grows, Biden can get a brokerage to put together an IPO and Americans can then invest, hopefully making enough money to pay for the drug rehab for relatives addicted to the fentanyl that illegally came across the border in the first place.

THE DEMOCRATS RHETORICAL LOOPS

Ken Grossberger, PhD

In order to make excuses for their failed policies, the Democrats, and their Not-So-Mainstream- Media allies, have, either in coordination or due to some neurotic impulse to repeat their word or phrase for the day, routinely blurted out responses in reaction to criticism of their positions. Once that word or phrase is spoken by a leader, by the White House, or by some other lefty forum, the talking heads all start saying the same thing.

Remember the increases in energy costs due to Biden’s policy decisions? It was called the “Putin Price Hike.” And Biden’s deflection from the Democrats’ failures in Congress blaming the GOP? He said, “this is not your father’s Republican party.” And Biden’s flip on soaring inflation? He whispered, “Bidenomics is working.” And the multiple catchphrases repeated by his Homeland Security Secretary and others, “the immigration system is broken” and “the border is secure”, and not to forget “the border is closed.”

This constant repetition, with the presumptive force of rhetoric, perhaps satisfies the base, but further antagonizes the political right, and frankly puzzles the political center. Each of these lines is severely challenged by facts and believability. To whom are they speaking? They can only win their base once; the right and the center just aren’t buying into these. This not-so-subtle attempt at deflection is mawkishly transparent at best and ludicrous at worst.

Repeating nonsense doesn’t make it less nonsensical. Perhaps it satisfies having said it, perhaps it reassures when it is repeated, but it surely insults when measured against reality. The White House and the Democrats get stuck in these rhetorical loops because quite often they have no other answers.

The Big Dance

The art of lying is such a staple of politics that we accept it as a natural act, like the rising of the sun. Thus most national elected officials have dismal ratings in the polls: the President, Vice President, the leaders in the Senate (both parties) and the leaders in the House (both parties). Trust is a thing of the past and many of those who vote strain to choose the least damaging of the worst.

The Biden team is an example of such deceit, on steroids (as the President likes to phrase things). So he clearly thinks he conjured up the big rhetorical flip taking the Republican-manufactured sarcastic term “Bidenomics” and now uses it as a symbol for this miraculous economy he keeps touting. As his team cherry picks through the data for good stuff (“it’s working” Biden whispers) and ignores the bad stuff (e.g., huge spikes in the cost of just about everything and the dramatic increase in the national debt), he is performing the rhetorical choreography of the “the big dance” designed only to make his administration look good. So Bidenomics is better termed Bidenoptics. Every time he whips out his Bidenomics double talk, he is dancing. The border is closed, he knew nothing of Hunter’s business deals, etc. He continues to dance through the political tulips.

Even more embarrassing is White House Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s recent statement that the record setting sea of illegal immigration at the southern border in December is typical for the end of the year. Or “we need Congress to pass comprehensive immigration” as an excuse for the dramatic increases in border crossings under the Biden administration. These deflections are in line with today’s political word games, based on the dance, and not the truth. The American public is being waltzed down the proverbial road because the Biden team, like too many politicians, will continue to blame the person who put the cookie jar on the kitchen counter, not the person who put his hand in it. The same goes for the economic scene where Bidenomics has hit the middle class and working poor pretty hard. The White House excuse machine is not going to talk people out of their pain with some not-so-clever reverse sloganeering. Politicians have a political blind spot: all they have to do is get the right frame, the right explanation, the palatable clarification or the rhetorical justification, and no one will notice that what they say just isn’t true. They’re dancing, and we the people get a continuous show.

Is there a day of reckoning coming? Will the voting public finally reject the old school politics of deception and vote the rascals out? Are voters finally exhausted from the dance and looking to demand substance only? Lincoln might not fare well in today’s political environment, Franklin Roosevelt might. Reagan did. Carter didn’t. But those leaders were from different eras where there was at least a modicum of civility and restraint. Not that they didn’t have their own brand of shenanigans, or rhetorical sleight of hand. But nothing like the psychotic rearranging of reality of the Biden-Trump era.

Will this be the election cycle where voters dump the fibbers and elect the truth tellers? Perhaps the adults in the room will manifest themselves in such a way that this election will be more about self-interest and the needs of the county, and not power and cosmetics. But in the meantime time the big dance continues.