Is The Narcobiz Too Big To Let It Fail?

In an earlier post I mentioned that it costs a US family of four US $8,000 a year to support military expenditures.

Another huge expense driving Americans into poverty is the War on Drugs. The Narcobiz in the USA is estimated to have an annual turnover of 600 billion dollars, which makes it the same size as the officially declared military budget.

The costs of the War on Drugs are huge. Border crossing controls, Coast Guard interdiction programs, police investigations and operations. court costs, prisons, air interdictions are paid for by taxpayers. Yet, only about 10% of the drugs are discovered and destroyed.

The profits of the Narcobiz are so huge that it corrupts all levels of society. Judges, politicians, police are all on the take. Contractors love the Narcobiz as the jailbiz is a profitable enterprise. If drugs were legalized, many jails would close and bribes would dry up.

Legal drugs would put out of business the wealthy and politically well connected Druglords including the money launderers in Wall Street lobbyists and lawmakers.

Legal drugs would be taxed. With a hundred percent tax would still be cheaper to the addicts, this would reduce narco related crime and  put about $8,000 dollars a year into the pockets of every family in the USA.

Why won’t governments legalize drugs? Corruption, for these people the Narcobiz is just too large to let it fail.

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A traitor in the White House causes the murder of CIA agents

KINGMAKER

a novel by Alexey Braguine

Train Wreck Or Over The Cliff?

There is one thing most literate people in the USA and the rest of the world agree on is that the United States is in deep trouble. People equate the US situation as a train out of control, or even a train wreck.

The trouble is, if it was already a train wreck, that would be good news, the worst has happened and the solution would be rescue and repair. What is really happening is a train out of control speeding on a down hill rail line which ends at the edge of a cliff.

Saving the train is complex. The brakes are weak, The engineer never drove a locomotive before. The assistant is drunk. The first class passengers who hired the driver are egging him to go faster. The rest of the passengers who are riding in open flat cars at the back of the train can’t be heard.

The Real Problem.

The country is going through several predicaments.
1 A huge debt problem
2. Economic crisis
3. Political paralysis
4 Corruption
5 Social inequities
6 Growing social unrest

The sum of these problems amounts to a desperate situation, which brings to question the survival of the country as a political entity unless drastic measures are taken.

Both, Executive Branch and Congress are beholden to special interests and no longer represent their constituents. This corruption is the major hurdle to fixing the problems.
The Super Committee, which is to fix the debt problem is a good example of doing nothing while time is running out.

The Executive Branch and Pentagon are doing little to reduce the obscene amount of military spending (1.3 trillion annually, if we include hidden and war costs).
The State department is spending huge amounts of money to bribe or influence governments in its quest to become an imperial power in Central Asia (Silk Road Project)
Then there is the super bloated bureaucracy. These non productive spenders are the major culprits for the budget deficit. Just cutting the military budget by half would bring great relief to the economy and the US would still be outspending Russia by five times and China by thee. Could this prevent the US from going over the cliff? No, but it would slow the train down.

The other major problem is the Wall Street Banksters. I leave that aspect to people who understand the problem better than me.

 

Alexey Braguine is the author of Kingmaker, a geopolitical thriller

Wall Street Protests

In the last twenty years the US has experienced profound changes, few of which have been for the better. The only bright spot was President Clinton’s surplus budget, which was quickly smashed following the 9/11 hysterical panic.

Misguided wars, economic and financial policies that resembled ponzi schemes brought about and economic train wreck. How could this have happened in an open, democratic society that prides itself for honesty and hard work?

Ten years ago it became evident that the circle of wealth was shrinking, more money was held in fewer hands. Huge profits increased at the expense of the middle class. Real estate prices skyrocketed and the US got its famous toxic bubble. Corruption, social injustice, excessive military spending grew out of control.

What I could not understand was, how come the US citizenry was tolerating the economic abuses. The situation in the US was beginning to look like that of some Latin American countries in the nineteen seventies, which brought out massive protests, terrorism and uprisings against the established oligarchies.

With the Arab Spring events in Algeria, Egypt and Syria, the question of the passivity of the American population intrigued me more and required some digging into American philosophy.

Unlike in Europe and Latin America where the population depends on the government for education and social services, in the US there is a culture of self reliance, one improves one´s situation by one’s own efforts. In other countries people blame their government, in the US people blame themselves for failure.

With Occupy Wall Street protests, the picture in the US is changing. The protests are growing but are weak. The protesters objectives are vague, but the protests should be taken seriously, not by arresting protesters but addressing the causes..

The problems are serious. The US is going through a grave economic crisis and political paralysis to solve it. Great inequalities have taken hold. The people are becoming aware that they have been swindled by oligarchs, lobbyists and their political and government minions.

If I was rich, I´d be worried. Very worried.

Alexey Braguine is the author of Kingmaker, a geopolitical thriller. Available through Amazon