King of Pain

Bombing Fentanyl, MBS meets BS

The fentanyl crisis in America started when a highly addictive drug used in hospital settings became the latest and most dangerous pain killing opioid that pharmaceutical companies marketed for prescription. Americans were already hooked on opioids, often sold by pill mills just off the highway. The crackdown on these pill mills and the over-prescribing of opioids, along with the legalization of marijuana in some states, motivated drug cartels to shift their focus to the now surging demand for illegal fentanyl. “Old supply chains moved heroin from poppy fields to central markets in major U.S. cities; traffickers in the 2010s built new supply chains bringing synthetic products such as fentanyl sourced with chemicals from China to American consumers wherever they lived — including the rural areas and small towns struck by the opioid crisis. Which is to say: fentanyl traffickers were responding to consumer demand. They did not create it. The opioid crisis initially struck white areas not because of a conspiracy to destroy heartland America. Rather, it was a devastatingly ironic result of white Americans’ privileged access to the medical system. Physicians’ willingness to recognize and treat their pain opened their communities to pharmaceutical companies’ flood of opioids.” Given this brief history, it will not surprise you to learn that the best way to fight the fentanyl crisis is not by using the US military to bomb small boats near Venezuela. In fact, bombing other supply routes (like the ones actually being used to traffic in fentanyl) won’t work either. Killing pain is notoriously hard. Killing painkillers is even harder. “In a world where people and goods circulate freely, there will always be ways for a tiny powder to travel with them.” David Herzberg drops a few truth bombs about our strategies, past and present, in the NYT (Gift Article): I Am a Drug Historian. Trump Is Wrong About fentanyl in Almost Every Way. (In fairness, he’s not the first politician to fit that description when it comes to the war on drugs.) “American politicians have long been drawn to more emotionally satisfying stories like the ones where foreign traffickers are to blame for the decline of rural and small-town America. Again, drugs are not unique: The MAGA movement has many other such morally simplifying stories, about Big Pharma’s vaccines as the cause of chronic disorders or about tariffs as a magical solution to unemployment. These stories may serve the needs of politicians, but they can’t fix the actual problems.”

+ Judge formally approves opioid settlement for Purdue Pharma and Sackler family members who own the company.

+ For some more background in this issue, I recommend the books American Pain by John Temple and Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe. Also, Don Winslow’s article: El Chapo and the Secret History of the Heroin Crisis.

2

MBS Meets BS

“Hosting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House, President Trump brushed off the murder of a journalist by Saudi agents by saying, ‘Things happen.’ Fighter jets and business deals are on the leaders’ agenda today.” Trump also attacked the journalist who asked about the issue. Another meeting at the White House, another international embarrassment. Here’s the latest from the NYT and The Guardian. (MBS also indicated that he would be investing $1 trillion in America. “$1 trillion, is roughly the size of Saudi Arabia’s entire annual economic output.” It would also barely cover the cost of the gold now lining the Oval Office.)

+ Meanwhile ... Trump Organization Is Said to Be in Talks on a Saudi Government Real Estate Deal.

3

A Not So Clean Bill of Health

“The analysis deemed 109 hospitals most exposed to the coming Medicaid cuts, because they share three risk factors: They serve vulnerable communities, their finances are already fragile, and more than a quarter of their patients rely on Medicaid. Of those hospitals, 85 percent were in urban areas.” NYT (Gift Article): When the G.O.P. Medicaid Cuts Arrive, These Hospitals Will Be Hit Hardest. People often wonder if we could ever have another Civil War. But we’re already in a legislative Civil War.

+ Border Patrol Expands North Carolina Operations to More Liberal Cities.

4

Separate and Unequal

The great economic divide is also becoming a physical divide. WSJ (Gift Article): The Ultrarich Are Spending a Fortune to Live in Extreme Privacy. “In the Bentley Residences condo tower under construction in Sunny Isles Beach, north of Miami, car elevators will deliver residents straight up to their homes and deposit vehicles in adjoining ‘sky garages,’ avoiding the need to deal with parking valets and reception areas.”

5

Extra, Extra

Antipodeez Nuts: “The House is headed toward a vote Tuesday afternoon on legislation to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, the culmination of a monthslong effort that has overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership.” I offered my take on Trump’s change of heart on this matter yesterday: “What’s up is down. Yin, meet yang. Strike that, reverse it. A little bit country, say hello to a little bit rock ‘n roll. After an extreme effort that played out everywhere from social media tirades to strong-arming in The Situation Room, Donald Trump went full Contradictator.” Antipodes Nuts.

+ Elimination Die it: “Health officials on Monday linked for the first time the measles outbreak that began in Texas with another in Utah and Arizona, a finding that could end America’s status as a nation that has eliminated measles.”

+ Bullet Point: More divisiveness, hate, and fear isn’t bad news for everyone. More liberals, people of color and LGBTQ Americans say they’re buying guns out of fear.

+ Ed’s Dead, Baby. Ed’s Dead: “The Education Department plans to announce Tuesday that it will move parts of the agency to other federal departments, a unilateral effort aimed at dismantling an agency created by Congress to ensure equal access to educational opportunity but long derided by conservatives as ineffective.”

+ Immune Reaction: “On Tuesday, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai warned of ‘irrationality’ in the AI market, telling the BBC in an interview, ‘I think no company is going to be immune, including us.’ His comments arrive as scrutiny over the state of the AI market has reached new heights.” Industry players from corporate CEOs to Wall Street bigwigs are trying to get investors to ease up a bit so we can have a gentle pullback instead of a massive drop.

+ Villain US: Pro Publica: The White House Intervened on Behalf of Accused Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate During a Federal Investigation.

+ Decency’s Descent: In 1954, the phrase “have you no sense of decency” sort of shocked Americans back toward the right track. Today, that question would be viewed laughable. Trump responded to a question from a female Bloomberg reporter about the Epstein files by saying, “Quiet Piggy.” Here’s the video. This is what the journalist’s fellow reporters have come to accept. This is what the GOP has come to accept. And apparently, this is what America has come to accept, since it was barely news.

6

Bottom of the News

“The four giant pairs of glasses are simple and striking: rendered in the crosswalks of an intersection in Lubbock, Texas, in white paint, tidy inside the bounds of the crossing lines. For years, they’ve been a beloved part of the city’s quirky downtown, a testament to its native son, the rock ‘n’ roller Buddy Holly. Are they road murals? Are they public art? Or are they a safety hazard? Whatever they are, the streetbound specs are now verboten, a casualty of the Trump administration’s crackdown on artistic displays on the nation’s roadways.” NYT (Gift Article): Lubbock Will Remove Buddy Holly-Themed Crosswalk After Federal Crackdown. At some point, this rampant idiocy has to end. And well, that’ll be the day.