What Donald Trump is doing here is positioning himself as the go-to guy for that constituency that still believes in the War On Drugs.
By default, that also makes him the de facto candidate for the prison-industrial complex.
The War On Drugs and the prison-industrial complex are inseparable twins. One's not gonna last long without the other. The astronomical rise in the prison population since Richard Nixon declared the War On Drugs is what's made the current success of the privatized prison-industrial complex possible.
"El Chapo" and every other so-called drug lord is 100% the product of America's War On Drugs. In spite of that so-called war, Joaquin Guzman and his ilk have been more than successful in supplying the American market with drugs.
Obviously, America has a near-insatiable demand for the stuff. You can't blame that on Guzman.
Nor can you blame Trump for making political hay out of these realities.
These problems would be solved by legalizing drugs.
Showing posts with label Richard Nixon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Nixon. Show all posts
Monday, July 13, 2015
Saturday, December 31, 2011
There's something to be said for MAD
As we bid a bittersweet farewell to all the unfulfilled promise of the year now gone, I find myself getting a little nostalgic for the good old days of Mutually Assured Destruction.
Those were the good old days, were they not? We had the big nuke hardware, they had the big nuke hardware, everybody knew that nobody was going to do anything stupid. Mutually Assured Destruction.
Even in the darkest days of Nixon's downfall, when Tricky Dick was stumbling around the White House in an alcoholic stupor, nothing bad happened.
Same with the last days of Brezhnev. Senility and cirrhosis may have had him firmly in hand, but somehow, that threat of mutual destruction prevented anyone from taking advantage.
One of the biggest stories of the year gone by and the year ahead is the story of the mythical Iranian nuke.
Do they have one?
Are they working on one?
If so, how far are they from having one?
You know the rest of it. It's the number one foreign policy obsession with every GOP candidate. Talking tough on Iran is the caucus cajone test. They're tripping over each other to make the most bellicose statements about the imaginary Iranian nuke.
I personally have taken the worst-case scenario to heart. Let's assume they have a nuclear weapons program. Lets assume they actually build a bomb.
Then what?
Then nothing. There is only one country that has ever used an atomic weapon. Everybody else holds them for their deterrent value.
That deterrent value has worked. It'll work for Iran too.
Those were the good old days, were they not? We had the big nuke hardware, they had the big nuke hardware, everybody knew that nobody was going to do anything stupid. Mutually Assured Destruction.
Even in the darkest days of Nixon's downfall, when Tricky Dick was stumbling around the White House in an alcoholic stupor, nothing bad happened.
Same with the last days of Brezhnev. Senility and cirrhosis may have had him firmly in hand, but somehow, that threat of mutual destruction prevented anyone from taking advantage.
One of the biggest stories of the year gone by and the year ahead is the story of the mythical Iranian nuke.
Do they have one?
Are they working on one?
If so, how far are they from having one?
You know the rest of it. It's the number one foreign policy obsession with every GOP candidate. Talking tough on Iran is the caucus cajone test. They're tripping over each other to make the most bellicose statements about the imaginary Iranian nuke.
I personally have taken the worst-case scenario to heart. Let's assume they have a nuclear weapons program. Lets assume they actually build a bomb.
Then what?
Then nothing. There is only one country that has ever used an atomic weapon. Everybody else holds them for their deterrent value.
That deterrent value has worked. It'll work for Iran too.
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