From: bill.sloman@ieee.org   
      
   On 6/01/2026 6:33 am, john larkin wrote:   
   > On Sun, 4 Jan 2026 14:33:30 +1100, Bill Sloman    
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 4/01/2026 7:55 am, john larkin wrote:   
   >>> On Sun, 4 Jan 2026 06:56:45 +1100, Bill Sloman    
   >>> wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>> On 4/01/2026 3:00 am, E.Laureti wrote:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Bill Sloman  posted:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>> On 3/01/2026 7:56 pm, E.Laureti wrote:   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>> Bill Sloman  posted:   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>> On 1/01/2026 9:16 pm, E.Laureti wrote:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>> This is a promise rather than an achievement. Donald Trump promised to   
   >>>>>> Make American Great Again. He's just had president Maduro of Venezula   
   >>>>>> kidnapped with his wife, which isn't the sort of act usually described   
   >>>>>> as great. It looks a lot more like criminal racketeering.   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Putin protesta   
   >>>>> non è più il primo   
   >>>>> a pulirsi il culo con la carta Onu  :-)   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Putin protests   
   >>>> he's no longer the first   
   >>>> to wipe his ass with the UN Charter.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> He wouldn't be so undiplomatic. Trump probably has more to fear from the   
   >>>> US Supreme Court. Kidnapping a country's president looks very like an   
   >>>> act of war, and you ought to get congressional approval to do that.   
   >>>   
   >>> Yes, we should have had hearings and votes in both houses of Congress   
   >>> before we sent in the marines to snatch Maduro.   
   >>   
   >> Actually Trump should have asked a few congressmen how the house would   
   >> react to such an act of childish bullying. Any sensible adult would have   
   >> given the same answer, but sensible adults don't flatter Donald Trump   
   >> with the enthusiasm he needs and expects, so he avoids them.   
   >   
   > If DT is successful in cutting off the cocaine and fentanyl imports in   
   > to the US, the sellers will shift more to exporting to europe. That's   
   > happening already.   
      
   Dream on. As long as Americans are unhappy enough to want to buy drugs,   
   somebody will find a way to sell them what they want.   
      
   > Given that about 100K americans die from drug overdoses a year, Maduro   
   > is a mass murderer and we have a moral obligation to stop the drugs,   
   > any way that works.   
      
   It's a public health problem, and America doesn't have universal health   
   care. That makes the Republican politicians who hate paying for health   
   care for the poor the "mass murderers" in this context.   
      
   https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-from-drug-use?tab=table   
      
   The US sat at 27.7 per 100,000 in 2021. The UK was at 7.7 and Australia   
   (where people have more money to spend on recreational drugs) was at 7.9.   
      
   "Harm reduction" works a lot better than a "war on drugs" but costs more.   
      
   --   
   Bill Sloman, Sydney   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)