U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents confiscated hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine that had been stashed in a teenager’s car.
The discovery was made on Christmas Eve at the Calexico West port of entry. A 16-year-old was driving through the port of entry in a 2012 Ford Focus. A K-9 team was working the port of entry and one of the dogs alerted officers to the vehicle.
When officers searched the vehicle, they discovered 220 pounds of meth hidden in the car’s “doors, back seat, quarter panels, rocker panels and spare tire,” WTHR <a href="https://www.wthr.com/article/border-protection-officers-find-220-pounds-meth-stashed-inside-teens-car-christmas-eve">reported</a>. More from the outlet:
Officers removed 205 wrapped packages of methamphetamine weighing 220 pounds. The narcotics carry an estimated street value of $264,444.
The teen was arrested for the alleged narcotic smuggling attempt and turned over to the custody of Homeland Security Investigation agents for further processing.
The teen was transported to the Imperial County Juvenile Detention Center.
CBP seized the narcotics and vehicle.
The incident is the latest in a string of drug busts.
On November 18, a tractor-trailer driven by a 47-year-old Mexican citizen had a manifest claiming the vehicle was carrying “plastic garment hangers.” When the truck drove through the Otay Mesa Cargo port of entry, CBP officers performed an X-ray on the trailer and discovered an “anomaly.” They searched the vehicles with dogs and found <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/truck-supposed-to-be-carrying-plastic-garment-hangers-actually-hauled-10-tons-of-marijuana">10 tons of marijuana</a>, which carried an estimated street value of about $8.4 million.
“The ability of CBP officers to interdict contraband at the port of entry is a perfect example of CBP’s efforts to secure our border,” said Joseph Misenhelter, Officer in Charge at the Otay Mesa port of entry, at the time of the bust.  “CBP officers prevented over 10 tons of marijuana from entering our community.”
A week before the tractor-trailer incident, agents at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport found 24 bottles of shampoo inside a man’s suitcase that were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/truck-supposed-to-be-carrying-plastic-garment-hangers-actually-hauled-10-tons-of-marijuana">filled with liquid cocaine</a>, for a total of 35 pounds of the drug. The estimated street value was around $400,000.
As The Daily Wire previously reported:
<blockquote>In mid-June, federal law enforcement officials in Philadelphia seized 16.5 tons of cocaine, the largest drug bust in the history of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
In September, Virginia police arrested more than 30 people suspected of possessing a massive quantity of fentanyl, enough to kill 14 million people. It was the largest drug bust in Virginia in the past 15 years, with authorities seizing more than 30 kilograms each of fentanyl and heroine, another five kilograms of cocaine, and more than $700,000.
“This opioid crisis is not an issue that is happening someplace else, or to someone else. It’s happening right here in Norfolk,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, G. Zachary Terwilliger, said during a press conference at the time of the arrests.
“We’re not talking about $500 and $600 deals, we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he added. “You know, $20,000 in the trunk of somebody’s car in a gym bag, you know, behind a local restaurant.”
In late October, police in North Carolina arrested four people in connection with a drug trafficking scheme, seizing 6,800 pounds of marijuana, 39 pounds of cocaine, and $200,000.</blockquote>

Meth

Border Patrol Finds 220 Pounds Of Meth Hidden In Teenager’s Car

Drugs

methamphetamine

Mega-retailer Walmart has been forced to apologize after consumers complained about a set of ugly Christmas sweaters, sold on its website, with racy and obscene messages, including a shirt that seems to show Santa Claus snorting lines of cocaine.
The store&#8217;s Canadian website, Walmart.ca, featured a full line of offbeat holiday attire, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6267927/walmart-canada-christmas-sweaters-cocaine/?utm_source=Article&amp;utm_medium=MostPopular&amp;utm_campaign=2014">GlobalNews.ca reports</a>, but the outfit that attracted the most attention was a blue and white sweater with a snowman on it, dressed as Santa Claus, and presiding over a table with three lines of &#8220;snow&#8221; and a small pile of &#8220;snowballs&#8221; on top and the words &#8220;Let it Snow&#8221; printed in white letters. The shirt doesn&#8217;t explicitly say the Santa snowman is snorting illicit drugs, but it&#8217;s pretty well implied.
Social media users got the&#8230;err&#8230;drift.
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Can we&#8230; talk about this? I just wanna know what in the hell this was meant to be if they didn’t realize it looks like a SNOWMAN DOING COCAINE <a href="https://t.co/vLLP2lB4oX">pic.twitter.com/vLLP2lB4oX</a>
&mdash; Gracie Cougar (@cougsge) <a href="https://twitter.com/cougsge/status/1204086857836965889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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“We all know how snow works. It’s white, powdery and the best snow comes straight from South America,” the product description read, at least before the shirt was pulled off Walmart.ca&#8217;s website. “That’s bad news for jolly old St. Nick, who lives far away in the North Pole.”
“That’s why Santa really likes to savour the moment when he gets his hands on some quality, grade A, Colombian snow. He packs it in perfect lines on his coffee table and then takes a big whiff to smell the high quality aroma of the snow,&#8221; it continued.
Walmart stores don&#8217;t actually sell any sweaters by the controversial retailer, FUN Wear, but FUN Wear uses Walmart&#8217;s &#8220;retailers&#8221; feature to hawk its ugly Christmas clothing on Walmart&#8217;s website as a third-party seller. The vast majority of FUN Wear&#8217;s offerings are non-controversial, and most feature licensed comic book characters, <a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Men-s-Joker-Santa-Sweater/196502200?selected=true">like the Joker.</a> But FUN Wear also sells some racier items, <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-walmart-canada-santa-coke-naughty-sweaters-20191208-4jz65q2zcrc5bdt3rifutyyntm-story.html">according to the New York Daily News</a>, and &#8220;cocaine Santa&#8221; was just one of a handful of sweaters pulled down off Walmart&#8217;s site.
&#8220;In addition to 70s-era drug addict Santa,&#8221; NY Daily News reports, &#8220;the sweaters included one showing Mrs. Claus and a de-pantsed Santa in a BDSM pose, captioned &#8216;Santa has been naughty.&#8217; Another had an alien holding an object while Santa lay with his behind exposed on a table.&#8221;
Walmart.ca, however, responded to consumer complaints, pulled the &#8220;cocaine Santa&#8221; sweater immediately, and issued a statement distancing itself from the product.
“These sweaters, sold by a third-party seller on <a href="http://walmart.ca/">Walmart.ca</a>, do not represent Walmart’s values and have no place on our website. We have removed these products from our marketplace. We apologize for any unintended offence this may have caused,” they told GlobalNews.ca.
A number of large, online retailers, like Walmart.com, Amazon.com, and Sears.com, open their platforms to third-party sellers, and the policy routinely backfires, though perhaps not as often as expected given the sheer number of available items.
The &#8220;cocaine Santa&#8221; sweater isn&#8217;t a first for Walmart which, in the past, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/walmart-apologizes-racial-slur-product-description-n783941">has had to pull hair nets</a>, manufactured and sold on its website by a third party, for a racial slur in the product&#8217;s description. Just last week, Amazon was forced to apologize after consumers <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/amazon-removes-holocaust-items_n_5de42cd2e4b00149f7313604">discovered a third party was selling an Auschwitz-themed Christmas ornament</a> on its site.

Black Friday Starts Early As Shoppers Hit The Stores On Thanksgiving Night

Walmart Apologizes For Ugly Christmas Sweater Featuring Santa Claus Snorting Cocaine

Christmas

Walmart

This week, Paul Krugman of The New York Times posited a theory: Red states cause depression and suicide. In a column titled &#8220;America&#8217;s Red State Death Trip,&#8221; Krugman wrote: &#8220;In 1990, today&#8217;s red and blue states had almost the same life expectancy. Since then, however, life expectancy in Clinton states has risen more or less in line with other advanced countries, compared with almost no gain in Trump country. At this point, blue-state residents can expect to live more than four years longer than their red-state counterparts.&#8221;
On this basis, Krugman blasts Attorney General William Barr, who suggested earlier this year that militant secularism lies behind rising mortality in the United States. Instead, Krugman suggested that &#8220;these evils are concentrated in states that voted for Trump, and have largely bypassed the more secular blue states.&#8221;
Krugman&#8217;s analysis here is deeply flawed. It is flawed because it is far too simplistic. First off, states are not good proxies for political viewpoint within states, which would be far more telling: Texas encompasses both Austin and Lubbock, for example. Secondly, Krugman links 2016 voting patterns to 1990 data, but some of the states hit hardest by the opioid epidemic shifted over that same time frame from blue to red (e.g., Ohio, West Virginia and Michigan), demonstrating that voting may have resulted from distress, not the other way around. But more importantly, Krugman assumes that conservatism presages lower life expectancy, rather than that those in lower-income rural areas are turning toward conservatism as a result of the social liberalism pushed forward by the left.
This analysis, as it turns out, is false. The reality is that broad trends over time point to the fact that low-income Americans have been disproportionately affected by the rise of social liberalism: the decline in religiosity, and the concomitant collapse of church and other social institutions have undermined precisely the same people who have been hit hard by the economy. Charles Murray pointed out this phenomenon in his book &#8220;Coming Apart&#8221; nearly a decade ago: America has bifurcated between more highly educated, higher-income Americans (Murray labels them residents of Belmont) and less educated, lower-income Americans (Murray labels them residents of Fishtown). This holds true regardless of race.
And contrary to popular opinion, those who are less educated and in the lower-income bracket, particularly in the white community — the base of support for President Donald Trump — have been disproportionately affected by the excesses of social liberalism. Between 1960 and 2010, the marital rate among Belmont whites ages 30 to 49 declined from 94% to 84%; the marital rate among Fishtown whites declined from 84% to 48%. Similarly, single motherhood increased from 1% of Belmont white college-educated women in 1970 to less than 6% in 2008; for Fishtown women, that number skyrocketed from 6% to 44%.
Most tellingly, secularism increased for both groups but far less among Fishtown residents (from about 29% in 1972-1976 surveys to 40% in 2006-2010 surveys) than Belmont residents (from 38% to 59%). In other words, the wages of social liberalism take a deeper toll on those who require more from social institutions, both economically and culturally. Denizens of The New York Times are far less likely to have children out of wedlock than the supposed religious fanatics they oppose — but they&#8217;re also likely to push both governmental and social policy designed to promote single motherhood, for example. They don&#8217;t pay the price of the policies they push.
Good decision-making and robust social institutions have a lot to do with life success. Promotion of bad decision-making and decay of key social institutions in the name of personal freedom may seem liberating to elitists like Krugman, but there are consequences for those who don&#8217;t draw six-figure paychecks from Manhattan newspapers. Disdaining those who live in red states as victims of their own conservative backwardness isn&#8217;t merely inaccurate; it&#8217;s doubling down on stupid.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-self-coupling-the-newest-frontier-on-the-culture-war">SHAPIRO: ‘Self-Coupling’: The Newest Frontier On The Culture War</a>

Suicide

SHAPIRO: The Disproportionate Trickle-Down Of Bad Social Politics

On Friday, iconic legacy news institution Newsweek <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/rising-death-rates-among-white-americans-caused-misperceived-threat-their-dominant-social-status-1474038">unintentionally encapsulated</a> leftist myopia and willful ignorance when it comes to one of the great social maladies of our time: Soaring death rates among white Americans. &#8220;Rising death rates among white Americans caused by misperceived treat [sic] to their dominant social status, study shows,&#8221; Newsweek <a href="https://twitter.com/Newsweek/status/1200210310747041794">tweeted</a>.
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Rising death rates among white Americans caused by misperceived treat to their dominant social status, study shows <a href="https://t.co/3zGDznL3cG">https://t.co/3zGDznL3cG</a>
&mdash; Newsweek (@Newsweek) <a href="https://twitter.com/Newsweek/status/1200210310747041794?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The Newsweek piece cited a new <a href="https://m.phys.org/news/2019-11-loss-social-status-linked-mortality.html">University of Toronto public health study</a> for the proposition that &#8220;rising mortality in white Americans is partly due to perceptions that they are losing social status.&#8221; Newsweek quoted Arjumand Siddiqi, lead author of the study and an associate professor of epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health: &#8220;The anxiety of whites is coming from a misperception that their dominant status in society is being threatened, which is manifesting in multiple forms of psychological and physiological stress. &#8230; Status is a major predictor of health so our team hypothesized that it was a perception among whites that Blacks are economically catching up to them, when, in fact, income inequality and other socioeconomic factors continue to affect Black Americans more unfavorably.&#8221; In other words, &#8220;white anxiety&#8221; is to blame for rising drug/alcohol-induced deaths suicides among white Americans.
Well. It couldn&#8217;t have anything to do with our unprecedented national pandemic of transnational <a href="https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-drug-trafficking-investigation/">terrorist organization</a>-linked Mexican cartels syncing up with the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50327998">Chinese</a> to commit de facto <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/trump-right-drug-traffickers-heroin-fentanyl-killing-us/">chemical warfare</a> against vulnerable Americans, could it?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
It&#39;s actually the fentanyl. <a href="https://t.co/91AXUc9c5I">https://t.co/91AXUc9c5I</a>
&mdash; Charles Fain Lehman (@CharlesFLehman) <a href="https://twitter.com/CharlesFLehman/status/1200423168416059393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
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It’s totally not due to our porous border and interior enforcement policies and the way the Mexican cartels, mid-level traffickers, and illegal alien foot soldiers all coordinate a national distribution ring of lethal narcotics like fentanyl, right? <a href="https://t.co/AvrqBwged6">https://t.co/AvrqBwged6</a>
&mdash; Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1200423907083390983?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The reality, as Daniel Horowitz <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/media-willfully-ignores-connection-killer-drugs-illegal-immigration/">wrote</a> back in February for Conservative Review, is that our purported mainstream media vanguards are willfully and deliberately ignorant about the lethal nexus of a weak border security policy, feckless <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-border-wall-nice-interior-enforcement-nicer-josh-hammer">interior enforcement</a>, criminal illegal alien networks operating with impunity throughout the nation&#8217;s interior, and our debilitating drug and overdose epidemics. &#8220;[C]artels not only have control of our border,&#8221; Horowitz observed, &#8220;but operate with latitude on our shores and have endless illegal alien and transnational criminal networks working for them in all our major cities and even mid-sized cities on the East Coast. This is the key to understanding how illegal immigration is driving the drug crisis.&#8221;
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics">statistics</a> lay bare the statistical reality that is our nation&#8217;s crippling narcotics crisis. According to CBP Office of Field Operations (OFO) nationwide drug seizure statistics, seizures of cocaine more than doubled over the course of fiscal year 2015 to fiscal year 2019: From 38,346 pounds to 89,207 pounds. Over the same time span, OFO seizures of methamphetamine increased from 25,495 pounds to 68,585 pound and OFO seizures of fentanyl increased from a negligible 70 pounds to an astounding 2,545 pounds.
There is a well-orchestrated, well-funded, systemic operation to commit chemical warfare upon this nation&#8217;s interior. Indeed, drug trafficking is likely the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-why-no-one-discussing-drug-trafficking-josh-hammer">single least discussed aspect</a> of the crisis afflicting our beleaguered southern border over the course of the past year. We have an unprecedented glut of deadly narcotics pouring into the nation. And recall that a sugar packet-sized dose of fentanyl can kill a whole room full of people.
To be sure, depressingly large swaths of this country&#8217;s citizenry also suffer from an existential crisis of meaning. Loneliness and despondency are on the rise. All varieties of the nation&#8217;s once-proud institutions seem to be <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-who-will-stand-for-the-forgotten-american">failing middle America</a>, en masse. The need for a politics centered around <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-on-chick-fil-a-political-tribalism-and-the-need-for-national-solidarity">national solidarity</a> has never been greater.
But for goodness&#8217; sake, Newsweek, have the human decency to look just  a little harder at what might be greatly exacerbating soaring rates of white depression and suicide in America. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-federal-government-has-no-more-important-josh-hammer">Securing our border</a> once and for all and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-u-s-is-morally-obligated-to-take-on-the-mexican-drug-cartels">cracking down on the cartels</a> is hardly anywhere near a panacea for all the ills afflicting our nation, but stanching the supply of lethal narcotics will surely help. A lot.

Newsweek magazine

HAMMER: Newsweek Highlights The Left’s Willful Ignorance About Our Border And Drug Crises

Illegal Immigration

Leftism

Media

Media Bias

Mexico

Newsweek

Race

Southern Border

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

For much of the 19th century, the British government bombarded China with illicit shipments of opium. In what became known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars">Opium Wars</a>, this passive sort of chemical warfare led to a generation of addicts and put an effective stranglehold on China’s economy at the time.
Now it seems China is resorting to similar tactics here in the U.S. with the synthetic drug Fentanyl — a drug 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin. In a piece entitled “<a href="https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/china-poisoning-america-fentanyl">China is Poisoning America with Fentanyl</a>,” The Heritage Foundation reports that fentanyl is now the leading cause of overdose deaths here in the U.S. Overdoses claimed almost 100,000 lives in 2017 and 2018 and there seems to be no end in sight as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/khan-addiction-fuels-homelessness-crisis-not-lack-sharif-khan">the opioid epidemic</a> expands beyond measure. For comparison, those numbers rival the peak of the AIDS crisis in 1995 according to the <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10091.html">Rand Corporation</a>.
Incredibly cheap to manufacture, the cost ratio of Fentanyl is staggering. An investment of a few thousand dollars can easily yield millions of dollars. It’s no wonder the Mexican Cartels have turned to Fentanyl according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/11/07/what-are-mexican-drug-cartels-fighting-over-chance-sell-fentanyl-here/">The Washington Post</a>:
<blockquote>[M]uch of the current supply of fentanyl pushing the broader opioid crisis to unprecedented heights is being smuggled into the country by the Sinaloa cartel and its rivals in Mexico…Black-market fentanyl and other synthetic opioids smuggled in from Mexico and China have become the <a href="https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2018-11/DIR-032-18%202018%20NDTA%20final%20low%20resolution.pdf">fastest-growing and most lethal drug</a> in America, far surpassing heroin and the prescription narcotics that often serve as gateway drugs.</blockquote>
A key point though is that the majority of fentanyl being produced originates in China. Endless factories abound with little to no oversight from the Chinese government. As a result, the drug is allowed to proliferate with little to no resistance. The <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-opioid-epidemic">Council on Foreign Relations</a> reports that:
<blockquote>Most fentanyl coming to the United States is produced in China, U.S. officials say, and commonly <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/mexicos-drug-war">transited through Mexico</a>. Chinese authorities “have struggled to adequately regulate thousands of chemical and pharmaceutical facilities operating legally and illegally in the country,” says a 2017 <a href="https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/USCC%20Staff%20Report_Fentanyl-China%E2%80%99s%20Deadly%20Export%20to%20the%20United%20States020117.pdf">report</a> [PDF] issued by a congressionally mandated commission.</blockquote>
Whether or not this utter lack of regulations and oversight on the part of the Chinese government is a calculated ploy needs to be seriously considered now. Considering the stranglehold the Chinese government has on its population, it’s hard to imagine that the authoritarian regime has a sudden, profound inability to control the production of such a nefarious substance like fentanyl.
Certainly, the impact the opioid epidemic has had on us here in the U.S. has reached crisis levels. Like the aforementioned Opium Wars of the 19th century, the opioid epidemic here in the U.S. has had a palpable effect on our economy as well. The Council on Foreign Relations also reports that:
<blockquote>Opioids have also begun to take a toll on the economy. Testifying before the U.S. Senate in 2017, Janet Yellen, then chair of the Federal Reserve, linked the opioid epidemic to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-07/opioid-use-explains-20-of-drop-in-american-men-from-labor-force?ex_cid=SigDig">declining labor-force participation</a> among “prime-age workers.” Princeton University economist Alan Krueger wrote that it could account for 20 percent of the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2017/09/07/how-the-opioid-epidemic-has-affected-the-u-s-labor-force-county-by-county/">decline in participation</a> among men and 25 percent among women from 1999 to 2015.</blockquote>
Though our economy is hopelessly entangled with China for the foreseeable future, it’s high time we consider taking a meaningful stand against that regime’s marauding influence over us, especially as it pertains to illicit drugs like fentanyl. As a nation, we are increasingly at the mercy of the pernicious toll of addiction and it seems that the Chinese government is all too willing to contribute to this drug-fueled downward spiral.

Fentanyl

KHAN: China, Fentanyl, And The New Opium War

China

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) suggested late last week that she would &#8220;snatch&#8221; patents from private companies if they did not abide by her orders so that the government could &#8220;take over.&#8221;
&#8220;My plan, as a candidate for president, on these drug prices is as follows: We are going to set drug prices based on fair market,&#8221; Harris said during a campaign stop in Iowa on Friday. &#8220;So, essentially what we&#8217;re going to do – and you can visit the website if you will, and if not, get you some documents – but essentially what we&#8217;re going to do is set drug prices so that American consumers are charged a price for drugs that&#8217;s the average price that&#8217;s being charged around the globe.&#8221;
&#8220;And there&#8217;s a huge difference, insulin being an example,&#8221; Harris continued. &#8220;The other thing is this, if people don&#8217;t want to cooperate with that, I&#8217;m also going to do the next thing, which is this: A lot of drugs, prescription medication, was born out of the federal funding for the research and development of that drug. Your taxpayer dollars.&#8221;
&#8220;So, for any drug where they fail to play by our rules, and if that drug came about from federal funding for what&#8217;s called &#8216;R&amp;D,&#8217; research and development, I will snatch their patent so that we will take over,&#8221; Harris continued.
The audience asked if Harris was legally allowed to do that, to which Harris responded, &#8220;Yes, we can do that! Yes, yes, we can do that! Yes, we can do that. The question is whether you have the will to do it. I have the will to do it.&#8221;
WATCH:
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Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris on if drug companies do not comply with her mandatory set drug prices: “I will snatch their patent so that we will take over” 
Audience asks: “can we do that?”
“Yes, we can do that! Yes, we can do that! &#8230; I have the will to do it” <a href="https://t.co/gpU8nnGt6h">pic.twitter.com/gpU8nnGt6h</a>
&mdash; Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1198113793848438784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) responded on Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/DanCrenshawTX/status/1198292802087661571">writing</a>: &#8220;Nope. Patents are unequivocally protected in the US Constitution. Even if they weren’t, it doesn’t take a genius to understand that stealing people’s property after they make it means THEY WON’T MAKE IT ANYMORE. Fewer drugs, fewer cures. Bad policy.&#8221;
Trump Campaign Rapid Response Director Andrew Clark <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewHClark/status/1198068326129446912">wrote</a>: &#8220;A) No, actually, you cannot do that. B) Also, the government does not (and should not!) manufacture drugs. C) This is terrifying.&#8221;
Washington Examiner editor Jay Caruso <a href="https://twitter.com/JayCaruso/status/1198239311268847616">wrote</a>: &#8220;It’s funny how candidates complaining the need to stop Trump and his authoritarianism are promising to behave like authoritarians.&#8221;
Lawyer and National Review contributor Dan McLaughlin <a href="https://twitter.com/baseballcrank/status/1198048989486161921">wrote</a>: &#8220;Democrats think the President heads the legislative branch.&#8221;
Psychology professor Geoffrey Miller <a href="https://twitter.com/primalpoly/status/1198279707810127872">wrote</a>: &#8220;TFW you realize a presidential candidate doesn&#8217;t understand anything about intellectual property, research funding, incentives, unintended consequences, game theory, or killing gooses that lay golden eggs.&#8221;
Scott Adams <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/1198245785701236738">wrote</a>: &#8220;Audio seems slowed to make her seem not-too-bright, but I think that was overkill in this case. The content makes the case.&#8221;
Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies, <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkSKrikorian/status/1198231814952947712">wrote</a>: &#8220;Our future People&#8217;s Commissar of Pharmaceuticals.&#8221;
Harris&#8217; presidential campaign has been on a downward trend for months after reaching its peak in June after Harris attacked former Vice President Joe Biden during one of the Democratic debates.
“Because her bump was based largely on the one event, it wasn’t really baked in, and voters looked around for another candidate that might excite their interest,” Monmouth University polling director Patrick Murray <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/11/20/20953284/kamala-harris-polls-2020-election">said</a>. “The bigger problem is that she did not have the kind of base in the early states that would have helped sustained her momentum in Iowa and New Hampshire, if not nationally.”

Kamala Harris

Harris Proposes Government ‘Take Over’ Of Private Industry If Her Orders Not Obeyed

2020 Election

Socialism

A tractor-trailer crossing into the U.S. from Mexico was discovered to be carrying more than 10 tons of marijuana – that’s an estimated street value of $8.4 million.
Around 9 a.m. on the morning of November 18, a tractor-trailer driven by a 47-year-old Mexican citizen drove through the Otay Mesa Cargo port of entry. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer looked over the truck’s manifest, which said it was carrying a shipment of “plastic garment hangers.” The officer directed the driver to undergo an x-ray examination. During that examination, CBP officers found an “anomaly,” according to <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/cbp-officers-find-over-10-tons-marijuana-hidden-cargo-shipment">a press release</a>, and brought in a dog to search the vehicle. The dog alerted the handlers to the trailer, and officers climbed inside to conduct a search.
After searching through a few rows of boxes, CBP officers discovered 858 packages of marijuana, wrapped in plastic and stacked from the floor to the ceiling. The packages contained more than 10 tons of marijuana for an estimated street value of about $8.4 million.
“The ability of CBP officers to interdict contraband at the port of entry is a perfect example of CBP’s efforts to secure our border,” said Joseph Misenhelter, Officer in Charge at the Otay Mesa port of entry.  “CBP officers prevented over 10 tons of marijuana from entering our community.”
CBP officers seized the marijuana as well as the truck, trailer, and cargo shipment. The driver’s B1/B2 visa was also cancelled and he was turned over to Homeland Security.
This is simply the latest drug bust for CBP.  Last week, officers uncovered 24 bottles of shampoo inside a man’s suitcase that contained <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/border-patrol-found-400k-worth-of-liquid-cocaine-in-shampoo-bottles-at-houston-airport">35 pounds of liquid cocaine</a> – an estimated street value of $400,000. The man was intercepted as he attempted to retrieve his luggage at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The man, a 26-year-old Columbian citizen, was sent back to his home country once the drugs were seized.
In mid-June, federal law enforcement officials in Philadelphia seized 16.5 tons of cocaine, the largest drug bust in the history of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
In September, Virginia police arrested more than 30 people suspected of possessing a massive quantity of fentanyl, enough to kill 14 million people. It was the largest drug bust in Virginia in the past 15 years, with authorities seizing more than 30 kilograms each of fentanyl and heroine, another five kilograms of cocaine, and more than $700,000.
“This opioid crisis is not an issue that is happening someplace else, or to someone else. It’s happening right here in Norfolk,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, G. Zachary Terwilliger, said during a press conference at the time of the arrests.
“We’re not talking about $500 and $600 deals, we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he added. “You know, $20,000 in the trunk of somebody’s car in a gym bag, you know, behind a local restaurant.”
In late October, police in North Carolina arrested four people in connection with a drug trafficking scheme, seizing 6,800 pounds of marijuana, 39 pounds of cocaine, and $200,000.

18 wheeler semi-truck on the highway at night

Truck Supposed To Be Carrying ‘Plastic Garment Hangers’ Actually Hauled 10 Tons Of Marijuana

Customs and Border Patrol

Former NBA champion Lamar Odom revealed his struggle with porn addiction in an exclusive interview with <a href="http://www.covenanteyes.com/">Covenant Eyes</a>, calling the fight worse than even quitting drugs.
“It’s just like if you’re addicted to drugs, you know, that first time can lead to an addiction. And I was definitely addicted to porn and drugs,&#8221; Odom said in the interview, as reported by <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/newly-engaged-lamar-odom-breaks-silence-about-porn-addiction-im-not-a-liar-anymore">LifeSiteNews</a>.
Odom entered rehab for drug addiction after he was found unresponsive in a Las Vegas brothel in 2015, having suffered two heart attacks and twelve strokes. Though he cleaned himself of drug addiction, Odom&#8217;s addiction to pornography came to a head after meeting his now-fiancée, life coach Sabrina Parr, who challenged him about the addiction upon seeing him watch it in her presence.
“Hello! I’m right here. What are you doing? Why are you doing that?” Parr recalled saying to Odom at the time, according to Covenant Eyes.
“She just brought it to my attention like, no you’re not going to be in a bed with me and watch porn,” Odom said of his relationship with Parr. “And she started asking me, you don’t desire me? Obviously, she’s very beautiful. It was just something that was hard for me to answer.”
Parr recalled the shame Odom would often feel when she brought up the subject.
“Anytime I would bring this up to him, he would experience a lot of shame. A lot of shame,” she said. “Later I learned he didn’t have the answers because he’s never been asked these questions. Ever.”
Odom&#8217;s porn addiction would manifest itself in some rather destructive ways, as he would often watch it while sleeping with other women and would even be late to the NBA bus on game days just to watch another porn scene. Most painfully, Parr recalled Odom often reaching for his phone to watch porn more often than he reached for her.
“He was reaching for his phone more than reaching for me,” she said. “And I had a problem with that. Because I’m like, I want to be 100% desired especially if I’m lying right next to you.”
Parr gave Odom an ultimatum, and, fortunately, he chose her over porn — a struggle that has not often been easy. In fact, quitting drugs came easier.
“I think it was a little easier to give up drugs, because I don’t think you can die from watching porn, even though you kill relationships, people that you really love,&#8221; said Odom.
After some unsuccessful attempts to regulate Odom&#8217;s porn usage, they eventually discovered Covenant Eyes, which allowed them to implement high-tech filtering software onto his devices. Though every day has been a struggle, Parr said that he has made efforts to focus that energy on something positive.
&#8220;He would do that. Meditate. Watch a movie. Take a walk. Exercise. Something else to calm him down,&#8221; said Parr. &#8220;And just watching him learn these things is the turn-on. Is what makes me attracted. To watch him overcome this and not be like oh, we’re dull because this porn is gone. He’s found other ways. That was the difference between a very low relationship to now we’re very high.”
Odom ultimately thanked God for bringing him back to equilibrium.
“God brought me back, hopefully for me to tell my testimony and help as many people as I can,&#8221; he said. “Just by sharing my story and telling them that they can overcome anything if they put God first and family first. And I’m living proof of that.”

Lamar Odom Visits Young Hollywood Studio

NBA Champ Lamar Odom Opens Up About His Struggle With Porn Addiction

Lamar Odom

U.S. Customs and Border Protection were surprised to discover liquid cocaine packaged inside 24 bottles of shampoo inside a man’s suitcase at the Houston airport.
The bottles totaled 35 pounds and contained $400,000 worth of liquid cocaine, Fox 10 Phoenix <a href="https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/400k-of-liquid-cocaine-found-hidden-in-24-shampoo-bottles-in-luggage-at-houston-airport-cbp">reported</a>. Officers at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport discovered the drugs, thanks to a K9 unit, and questioned the man who was carrying them, a 26-year-old  Columbian citizen, after he picked up the checked luggage. From Fox 10:
<blockquote>CBP says officers questioned the passenger, and that interaction led them to conduct a baggage search where they discovered the two dozen shampoo bottles concealing the liquid cocaine valued at $400,000.
Authorities say a K9 alerted to the bottles in a manner to indicate the presence of narcotics, and a test conducted by officers indicated the substance was cocaine.
“Our officers are the first line of defense at our ports of entry, so they are trained in the various smuggling methods people use to bring illicit goods into the U.S.,” said CBP Port Director Shawn Polley.  “We take every opportunity to intercept those illicit goods before they enter our communities, in this case it was 35 pounds of liquid cocaine.”</blockquote>
The drugs were seized and the man was sent back to Columbia, the outlet reported.
This was just the latest large drug bust this year.
In mid-June, federal law enforcement officials in Philadelphia seized 16.5 tons of cocaine &#8212; the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/record-bust-feds-seize-33000-pounds-cocaine-worth-ryan-saavedra">largest bust</a> in the history of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
“A U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations-led multi-agency inspection of shipping containers aboard the MSC Gayane resulted in a substantial cocaine seizure in Philadelphia on June 17, 2019,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement. “Authorities continue to process the seized cocaine and continue its inspection aboard the vessel in the Port of Philadelphia. Authorities have made two arrests, and will release a final tally and additional details when this operation concludes.”
U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain added: “This is one of the largest drug seizures in United States history. This amount of cocaine could kill millions – MILLIONS – of people. My Office is committed to keeping our borders secure and streets safe from deadly narcotics.”
In September, police in Virginia arrested more than 30 people who were suspected of possessing “enough fentanyl to kill 14 million people,” <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fentanyl-drug-bust-investigators-seize-enough-fentanyl-to-kill-14-million-people-in-massive-bust/">according to CBS News</a>. The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/35-people-arrested-virginia-having-enough-fentanyl-ashe-schow">reported</a> that it was the largest drug bust in the state in the past 15 years, and authorities seized more than 30 kilograms each of fentanyl and heroine, along with five kilograms of cocaine and more than $700,000.
“This opioid crisis is not an issue that is happening someplace else, or to someone else. It’s happening right here in Norfolk,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, G. Zachary Terwilliger, said during a press conference at the time of the arrests.
“We’re not talking about $500 and $600 deals, we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he added. “You know, $20,000 in the trunk of somebody’s car in a gym bag, you know, behind a local restaurant.”
And in late October, police in North Carolina <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/6800-pounds-of-marijuana-39-pounds-of-cocaine-200000-seized-as-part-of-drug-trafficking-scheme">arrested four people</a> in connection with a drug trafficking scheme. In that bust, authorities seized 6,800 pounds of marijuana, 39 pounds of cocaine, and $200,000. One of the four who was arrested was charged with trafficking heroin.

Border Patrol Found $400k Worth Of Liquid Cocaine In Shampoo Bottles At Houston Airport

Texas

The savagery of the Mexican drug cartels revealed itself once again this week, with the vicious murder of a police officer who was involved in the botched arrest against kingpin Joaquin &#8220;El Chapo&#8221; Guzman&#8217;s son last month.
According to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/mexico-police-el-chapo-shot-155-times-cartel-killing">Fox News</a>, a 30-year-old officer, named only by police as Eduardo N., died on Wednesday by 150 bullets during a daylight assassination in Culiacan, Sinaloa. The killing came three weeks after the cartel successfully forced the police into releasing El Chapo&#8217;s son during a violent shootout that left eight people dead and more than 20 wounded. More from <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/mexico-police-el-chapo-shot-155-times-cartel-killing">Fox News</a>:
<blockquote>Mexican newspaper Excelsior shared CCTV footage from Wednesday’s attack that showed the police officer parking his white vehicle outside a shopping center. Moments later, a red vehicle pulls up alongside him and armed gunmen men leap out, firing rapidly from close range.
Within 30 seconds, the gunmen fired 155 shots at the police officer, before leaping into the vehicle and running off, the outlet reported.
Officials said the officer was a member of Sinaloa’s State Preventive Police who had been assigned to protect Undersecretary of Public Safety Carlos Alberto Hernandez Leyva.</blockquote>
The targeting of Eduardo N. undoubtedly sends a message that the cartels will target anyone even tangentially involved in the crackdown on their operation, considering that the officer was only part of an anti-drug security unit patrolling the region at the time of the arrest and was not directly involved in the operation.
As the cartel violence in Mexico boils to unprecedented levels, President Trump has called on the country&#8217;s leader <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/3-women-6-children-from-u-s-mormon-family-massacred-by-mexican-drug-cartel-trump-responds">to declare war</a> on the cartels with the full aid of the United States. His pressing call occurred shortly after three women and six children from a U.S. family were killed in the Mexican state of Sonora earlier this week.
&#8220;A wonderful family and friends from Utah got caught between two vicious drug cartels, who were shooting at each other, with the result being many great American people killed, including young children, and some missing,&#8221; Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
&#8220;If Mexico needs or requests help in cleaning out these monsters, the United States stands ready, willing [and] able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;The great new President of Mexico has made this a big issue, but the cartels have become so large and powerful that you sometimes need an army to defeat an army!&#8221;
&#8220;This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth,&#8221; the president concluded. &#8220;We merely await a call from your great new president!&#8221;
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has soundly rejected Trump&#8217;s call to war.
&#8220;The bad cannot be confronted with the bad. The bad needs to be confronted doing the good,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We believe that the most important (thing) is life, protecting the lives of everyone; the lives of the military, the lives of the presumed delinquents, and the lives of civilians. If we had acted as they asked, implored us, there would have been more than 200 dead.&#8221;

MEXICO-US-RELIGION-MORMON-ATTACK

Cartels Murder Cop Who Aided In The Arrest Of El Chapo’s Son

Mexican officials say they have made an arrest in response to the horrific massacre of nine American citizens — three women and six of their young children — in the Mexican state of Sonora.
&#8220;The suspect was holding two bound-and-gagged hostages in the hills of Agua Prieta in Sonora state, the ministerial Agency for Criminal Investigations (AMIC) said,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/06/americas/mormons-attacked-us-mexico-border-wednesday/index.html">CNN</a> reports. &#8220;The suspect had several rifles and a large amount of ammunition, including a number of large-caliber weapons, the agency said in a statement posted to its official Facebook page.&#8221;
Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Peniche Espejel confirmed the arrest in a radio interview on Tuesday. &#8220;We are waiting for some more intelligence in order to issue an official statement,&#8221; he said, declining to confirm more details about the suspect&#8217;s potential role in the ambush of the family.
While Peniche Espejel pointed to the Los Jaguares cartel, which CNN describes as a newly formed offshoot of the Sinaloa cartel, as potentially being behind the attack, U.S. officials have indicated that rival cartel La Línea is under scrutiny.
While some officials have said that the attack may have been a result of mistaken identity, former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda told CNN that the LeBarón family&#8217;s history of conflict with the cartels suggests that they may have been targeted.
&#8220;They had stood up to the drug cartels, and they did have certain frictions either with the cartels or with neighboring communities over water rights,&#8221; said Castañeda.
&#8220;Their long-standing tensions, and apparently the woman who was driving in the first car that was attacked was an activist,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;She was someone who was very active in her community, defending her family, her fellow members of the community against cartels, on the issue of water rights.&#8221;
After having received protection from federal police since 2011, said Castañeda, the protection was reduced earlier this year.
As reported by <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/11/05/least-women-children/">The Salt Lake Tribune</a> Monday, a total of nine members of the LeBarón and Langford families — U.S. citizens who are a part of the Sonora-based La Mora community — were killed in the cartel ambush. Gunmen opened fire on vehicles carrying several family members and subsequently lit the vehicles on fire, with some of the victims still inside.
&#8220;Maria Rhonita Miller and four of her children died on a road in northern Mexico, according to [Lafe Langford Jr.] and social media posts,&#8221; the Tribune reported. &#8220;The bodies of Dawna Ray Langford, 43, and Christina Marie Langford, 31, were found later Monday, Lafe Langford Jr. said. The bodies of two of Dawna Ray Langford’s children, Trevor, 11, and Rogan, 3, also were recovered Monday.&#8221; Among the children murdered were Rhonita Miller’s twin 6-month-old babies and two children aged 10 and 12.
&#8220;On the morning of November 4th, 2019, three mothers in three vehicles, with fourteen children between them, set out from LaMora, a small family community in the mountains of northeastern Sonora,&#8221; Kendra Lee Miller, a relative of the victims, wrote in an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kendraleemiller92/posts/10162303510900316">account</a> of the attack posted on Facebook Tuesday. &#8220;Two of them to see family in Chihuahua, and one of them to pick up her husband from the airport in Phoenix, AZ. They never made it. They were ambushed by the Mexican cartels; shot, burned, and murdered in cold blood. These were innocent civilians, American citizens simply trying to live peaceful lives.&#8221;
&#8220;For 11 hours, their families all over Sonora, Chihuahua, and the Midwestern US waited in fear and horror for any news of possible survivors,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;The first vehicle was found full of bullet holes and completely ablaze. Nita and the four of her seven children she had taken on the trip were burned to mostly ashes and only a few charred bones left to identify that all five had been inside. It appeared that one tried to escape as the front passenger door was open and the remains were partially in and out of the vehicle.&#8221;
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<div class="zn-body__paragraph">Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/3-women-6-children-from-u-s-mormon-family-massacred-by-mexican-drug-cartel-trump-responds">Trump Declares ‘WAR’ On Mexican Drug Cartels After 3 Women, 6 Children From U.S. Family Massacred</a></div>
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Cartel Attack

Cartel Attack On U.S. Family: Suspect Arrested; Official Says Family May Have Been Targeted

What is national security if not the obligation of a sovereign nation to secure its citizenry against the threats posed along the border by a lawless neighboring state overrun by murderous transnational criminal organizations?
Following the horrific <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/3-women-6-children-from-u-s-mormon-family-massacred-by-mexican-drug-cartel-trump-responds">overnight news</a> of nine Americans — three women and six children — killed across the Mexican border when they found themselves caught in the midst of a cartel turf war shootout, this is the question that ought to be on the mind of every American policymaker. The bipartisan foreign policy clerisy may seem <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-why-do-political-elites-care-more-about-turkeys-border-than-they-do-about-our-own-border">disproportionately focused</a> right now on a centuries-old Islamic sectarian war raging along the Turkish-Syrian border, but it is long past time for our leading foreign policy and national security hands to turn their attention to a much nearer and more immediately harrowing threat: Mexico.
The unfortunate but sober reality right now is that Mexico is best described as a failed state. One longstanding defining characteristic of a modern nation-state, after all, is a monopoly on the use of force; truly sovereign states are not overrun with drug-peddling marauders, terrorist militias, or other roving bands of vigilantes with the collective willpower and requisite military-style hardware to take &#8220;enforcement&#8221; matters into their own hands. There is a reason that the Old West was called &#8220;<a href="https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-old-west">wild</a>.&#8221;
Under this rudimentary criterion of what is necessary for national sovereignty, modern Mexico fails the test. The Mexican government does not have anywhere remotely resembling a monopoly on the use of force within its own territory. On the contrary, transnational criminal organizations flourish throughout the country, physically hold territory like mini-ISIS &#8220;caliphates,&#8221; literally <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/gun-battle-involving-el-chapos-son-highlights-growing-challenges-to-mexican-government-control/2019/10/19/e39d57be-f1b3-11e9-bb7e-d2026ee0c199_story.html">out-gun the Mexican government</a> in live shootouts, control vast swaths of the the illegal alien human trafficking corridors currently <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/happens-illegal-aliens-mexican-cartels-shut-government/">wreaking so much havoc</a> on America&#8217;s territorial integrity, and collectively have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/conservative-favorite-rep-chip-roys-maiden-floor-josh-hammer">&#8220;operational control&#8221;</a> of large chunks of the U.S.-Mexico border.
And now, American citizens — women and children, that is — are paying the ultimate price due to Mexico&#8217;s inability to control its own emerging anarchy. American citizens are paying the ultimate price due to Mexico being an inveterate narco-state full of kleptocratic politicians who are invariably either too venal or too reckless to actually take the fight to the cartels.
To be sure, President Trump ought to double down in his efforts to build a physical border wall separating our nation from the failed state to our south. But Trump should go further. It is far past time for the U.S. State Department to formally designate the leading Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. As Daniel Horowitz has persuasively <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/time-designate-mexican-cartels-terrorist-organizations/">argued</a>, these cartels are no longer run-of-the-mill drug mules — they are full-on paramilitary terrorist organizations and some even have close organizational ties to international jihadist outfits like <a href="https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-drug-trafficking-investigation/">Hezbollah</a>. Such a State Department formal designation would, as a threshold matter, more easily permit the various levers of the federal government apparatus to crack down on the cartels’ financing sources.
But Trump should go even further still. He should rally congressional Republicans to pass a formal authorization for the use of military force, similar to the post-9/11 AUMF of 2001, that effectively declares war on the leading Mexican cartels. In what world does it make sense to intervene in and referee Islamic civil wars overseas whilst allowing a failed state on our very border to allow murderous criminal rings to run amok and kill vulnerable U.S. citizens? In what world does it make sense to waste precious blood and treasure on trying to make a Madisonian democracy out of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-never-forget-911-we-need-rethink-how-we-josh-hammer">Kabul</a> while there is a corrupt and violent wasteland claiming American lives right in our own backyard?
Ranchers across our beleaguered border have long suffered from the effects of cartel violence; now, they are joined by the members of an innocent Utah family that tragically found itself stuck in the middle of a cartel turf war shootout. The situation in Mexico is rapidly escalating into a national emergency, and the Mexican government itself has repeatedly shown itself over the decades to be incapable of rooting out its own domestic rot. The time has come for the U.S. government to step in and defend its own sovereignty and security alike. Indeed, the U.S. government is actually morally obligated to do so.

Border Patrol truck

HAMMER: The U.S. Is Morally Obligated To Take On The Mexican Drug Cartels

Crime

Foreign Policy

In a harrowing and tragic account posted on Facebook Tuesday morning, a relative of an American family massacred by a Mexican drug cartel in Sonora, Mexico on Monday provided more details about the cartel&#8217;s senseless acts of violence and the families&#8217; selfless acts of heroism in the ambush.
The attack, which may have resulted from the cartel members mistaking the family&#8217;s vehicles for others, left nine people dead — three women and six of their children — but due to the actions of family members, several people caught up in the attack survived, including Faith Marie Johnson, the 7-month-old child of victim Christina Marie Langford Johnson, 29.
As reported by <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/11/05/least-women-children/">The Salt Lake Tribune</a> Monday, a total of nine members of the LeBarón and Langford families — U.S. citizens who are a part of the decades-old La Mora community based in Sonora, Mexico — were killed when a cartel ambushed their three-car caravan. &#8220;Maria Rhonita Miller and four of her children died on a road in northern Mexico, according to [Lafe Langford Jr.] and social media posts,” the outlet reported. “The bodies of Dawna Ray Langford, 43, and Christina Marie Langford, 31, were found later Monday, Lafe Langford Jr. said. The bodies of two of Dawna Ray Langford’s children, Trevor, 11, and Rogan, 3, also were recovered Monday.&#8221; Rhonita’s twin 6-month-old babies and two children aged 10 and 12 were killed in the attack. Lafe Langford Jr., who spoke with the media about the attack, says three other children suffered bullet wounds.
The Tribune noted in its report Sunday that earlier reports that baby Faith had died &#8220;turned out to be incorrect.&#8221; As highlighted by <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/11/05/7-month-old-baby-miraculously-survives-mexico-cartel-massacre/">The New York Post</a> Tuesday, a family member&#8217;s detailed account of the attack reveals how the infant survived.
&#8220;A 7-month-old baby survived a volley of gunfire unleashed by drug cartels in Mexico — thanks to one final, selfless act from her mother before the woman was killed,&#8221; the outlet reports. &#8220;Hours after Christina Marie Langford Johnson, 29, was gunned down, relatives discovered her infant daughter Faith — unscathed and still strapped to her car seat inside the bullet-filled car.&#8221;
Kendra Lee Miller, a relative of the victims, writes in an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kendraleemiller92/posts/10162303510900316">account</a> on Facebook about the discovery of Faith hours after the attack, her mother&#8217;s quick-thinking actions apparently having saved the child&#8217;s life. Family members &#8220;found Christina&#8217;s baby Faith with the vehicle around her riddled with bullet holes,&#8221; Miller writes. &#8220;Somehow she had remained untouched, and alive. She was in her car seat, which looked to have been hurriedly placed on the floor of the vehicle by her mother for protection.&#8221;
After apparently moving Faith&#8217;s car seat to a safer position, Christina, Miller explains, &#8220;jumped out waving her arms to let the attackers know that it was women and children in the vehicles. She gave her life to try and save the rest.&#8221;
&#8220;On the morning of November 4th, 2019, three mothers in three vehicles, with fourteen children between them, set out from LaMora, a small family community in the mountains of northeastern Sonora,&#8221; Miller&#8217;s account begins. &#8220;Two of them to see family in Chihuahua, and one of them to pick up her husband from the airport in Phoenix, AZ. They never made it. They were ambushed by the Mexican cartels; shot, burned, and murdered in cold blood. These were innocent civilians, American citizens simply trying to live peaceful lives.&#8221;
&#8220;For 11 hours, their families all over Sonora, Chihuahua, and the Midwestern US waited in fear and horror for any news of possible survivors,&#8221; the account continues. &#8220;The first vehicle was found full of bullet holes and completely ablaze. Nita and the four of her seven children she had taken on the trip were burned to mostly ashes and only a few charred bones left to identify that all five had been inside. It appeared that one tried to escape as the front passenger door was open and the remains were partially in and out of the vehicle.&#8221;
Along with Christina&#8217;s quick-thinking and selfless acts, Devin, the son of another one of the women murdered in the ambush by the cartel, &#8220;hid his 6 other siblings in the bushes and covered them with branches to keep them safe while he went for help.&#8221; Devin managed to escape and gave &#8220;the first news anyone had heard of his and Christina&#8217;s families.&#8221;
&#8220;Devin&#8217;s uncles armed themselves with guns and returned to try and find the hidden children, knowing many of them were injured,&#8221; Miller explains. &#8220;They didn&#8217;t get far before realizing they would be risking death, since there had been continual shooting for hours, all over the mountains near LaMora. The group of men waited a while for reinforcements, and around 7:30, found the hidden children. They found Christina&#8217;s baby Faith with the vehicle around her riddled with bullet holes. Somehow she had remained untouched, and alive. She was in her car seat, which looked to have been hurriedly placed on the floor of the vehicle by her mother for protection.&#8221;
&#8220;The search didn&#8217;t end there. Mckenzie, the 9 year old who&#8217;d gone for help, was missing,&#8221; Miller continues. &#8220;Soldiers who&#8217;d by then arrived, and the men of LaMora and nearby towns searched for two hours in the dark until they found her around 9:30. The five of Dawna&#8217;s children who were injured were picked up by a waiting ambulance and treated at the local hospital until a helicopter sent by Mexican military came to pick them up. Their father David who had by then arrived from Tucson, Arizona, accompanied them to be life flighted to another helicopter waiting at the US border, from there to be transported to Phoenix. Devin, his brother Jake, and Christina&#8217;s baby Faith, all uninjured, are now in the care of their aunts and grandmas in LaMora.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/3-women-6-children-from-u-s-mormon-family-massacred-by-mexican-drug-cartel-trump-responds">Trump Declares ‘WAR’ On Mexican Drug Cartels After 3 Women, 6 Children From U.S. Family Massacred</a>
Below is the full text of Kendra Lee Miller&#8217;s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kendraleemiller92/posts/10162303510900316">Facebook post</a>:
<blockquote>On the morning of November 4th, 2019, three mothers in three vehicles, with fourteen children between them, set out from LaMora, a small family community in the mountains of northeastern Sonora. Two of them to see family in Chihuahua, and one of them to pick up her husband from the airport in Phoenix, AZ. They never made it. They were ambushed by the Mexican cartels; shot, burned, and murdered in cold blood. These were innocent civilians, American citizens simply trying to live peaceful lives.
For 11 hours, their families all over Sonora, Chihuahua, and the Midwestern US waited in fear and horror for any news of possible survivors. The first vehicle was found full of bullet holes and completely ablaze. Nita and the four of her seven children she had taken on the trip were burned to mostly ashes and only a few charred bones left to identify that all five had been inside. It appeared that one tried to escape as the front passenger door was open and the remains were partially in and out of the vehicle.
On another part of the road, about 10 miles ahead, were Christina, with her baby Faith in her vehicle, and Dawna with nine children in hers. They both were fired upon from ahead and Christina jumped out waving her arms to let the attackers know that it was women and children in the vehicles. She gave her life to try and save the rest. Dawna and two of her boys were also killed in the gunfire.
After witnessing his mother and brothers being shot dead, Dawna&#8217;s son Devin hid his 6 other siblings in the bushes and covered them with branches to keep them safe while he went for help. When he took too long to return, his 9 year old sister left the remaining five to try again. Devin arrived in LaMora at 5:30 pm, 6 hours after the ambush, giving the first news anyone had heard of his and Christina&#8217;s families.
Devin&#8217;s uncles armed themselves with guns and returned to try and find the hidden children, knowing many of them were injured. They didn&#8217;t get far before realizing they would be risking death, since there had been continual shooting for hours, all over the mountains near LaMora. The group of men waited a while for reinforcements, and around 7:30, found the hidden children. They found Christina&#8217;s baby Faith with the vehicle around her riddled with bullet holes. Somehow she had remained untouched, and alive. She was in her car seat, which looked to have been hurriedly placed on the floor of the vehicle by her mother for protection.
The search didn&#8217;t end there. Mckenzie, the 9 year old who&#8217;d gone for help, was missing. Soldiers who&#8217;d by then arrived, and the men of LaMora and nearby towns searched for two hours in the dark until they found her around 9:30.
The five of Dawna&#8217;s children who were injured were picked up by a waiting ambulance and treated at the local hospital until a helicopter sent by Mexican military came to pick them up. Their father David who had by then arrived from Tucson, Arizona, accompanied them to be life flighted to another helicopter waiting at the US border, from there to be transported to Phoenix.
Devin, his brother Jake, and Christina&#8217;s baby Faith, all uninjured, are now in the care of their aunts and grandmas in LaMora.
We lost 9 today. Right now we are waiting, for the morning, for answers, for justice.
Dead:
Rhonita Maria Miller September 15, 1989, 30 yrs 
Howard Jacob Miller, Jr. July 12, 2007, 12 yrs 
Krystal Bellaine Miller, September 25, 2009 10 yrs 
Titus Alvin Miller, March 13, 2019 &#8211; 8 months 
Tiana Gricel Miller, March 13, 2019 &#8211; 8 months 
(twins) 
All shot and burned in their vehicle. Only ashes and a few bones remain.
Father/husband is Howard Sr, who was in North Dakota at the time of attack. The three siblings left behind in LaMora being babysat at the Miller grandparents: Tristan, Amaryllis, and Zack.
Dead:
Christina Marie Langford Johnson &#8211; November 23, 1987, shot dead, 19 days away from 32 years
Survived:
Faith Marie Johnson April 9, 2019, 7 months old &#8211; was found in her car seat that seemed to be put on the floor, by her mother to try and protect her, uninjured,
Dead:
Dawna Ray Langford, June 19, 1976, 43 years 
Trevor Harvey Langford April 4, 2008 11 years old, 
Rogan Jay Langford, February 17, 2017 2.5 years old 
All shot to death
Survived 
Kylie Evelyn Langford, March 8 2005, 14 years &#8211; shot in the foot
Devin Blake Langford, July 6 2006, 13 years &#8211; uninjured, walked approximately 14 miles to LaMora to get help, after hiding his bleeding but living siblings in the bushes, and covering them with branches
Mckenzie Rayne Langford, January 12 2010, &#8211; 9 years &#8211; grazed on her arm- sent by her sister Kylie for help when Devin didn&#8217;t return soon enough, got lost, and walked approximately 10 miles, for about 4 hours in the dark before she was found by the search parties
Cody Greyson Langford, October 1 2011, 8 years- shot in the jaw, and the leg, his condition was worrying, but at last word, not critical
Jake Ryder Langford, May 22 2013, 6 &#8211; uninjured
Xander Boe Langford, June 4 2015, 4 &#8211; shot in the back
Brixon Oliver Langford, February 15th 2019, almost 9 months &#8211; shot in the chest, open flesh wound, bullet graze on wrist</blockquote>

Mexican Federal Police, Sonora

Mom’s Selfless Act Saves Young Child’s Life In Mexican Cartel Attack On U.S. Family

Police in North Carolina have arrested four people in connection with a drug trafficking scheme that resulted in the seizure of thousands of pounds of marijuana.
The Catawba County Sheriff’s Office stated that the investigation lasted for six months and included the collaboration of multiple agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and the police departments of numerous North Carolina counties and cities (a full list below).
WBTV reported that the investigation resulted in the seizure of 6,800 pounds of marijuana intercepted at the United States-Mexico border. It also nabbed 18 kilograms (more than 39 pounds) of cocaine and $200,000.
“Jose Garcia, 31, Juan Olmos, 46 and Michael Proffitt, 36, have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and trafficking in cocaine,” the outlet reported. “Garica [sic], Olmos and Proffitt are incarcerated in the Catawba County Detention Center.”
Officials determined Garcia was in the United States illegally and is being investigated by Immigration Customs and Enforcement.
In addition, Crispin Fair, 50, was charged with trafficking in heroin.
The full list of agencies involved in the list were, according to WBTV:
<blockquote>Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Catawba County Sheriff’s Office, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, Alexander County Sheriff’s Office, Burke County Sheriff’s Office, Newton Police Department, Longview Police Department, Hickory Police Department, Greensboro Police Department</blockquote>
This multi-county drug bust came just days after another major bust in the state involving additional counties.
WLOS <a href="https://wlos.com/news/local/update-more-than-2-dozen-arrested-in-4-county-drug-bust-involving-sbi">reported</a> that more than a dozen people were arrested in connection with another drug ring. Three of the more than 12 arrested, Fabian Carrillo Blas, Abel Carbajal, and Mark Leman Tobe, were alleged to have “conspired to distribute large quantities of cocaine,” the outlet reported.
“As a result of the investigation, approximately nine pounds of methamphetamine, three pounds of cocaine, smaller amounts of heroin pills and marijuana were seized, as well as several firearms and more than $90,000,” WLOS reported.
This operation also included the Drug Enforcement Administration, as well as “the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), Asheville Police Department, Henderson County Sheriff’s Office, [and] Haywood County Sheriff’s Office,” the outlet reported.
This year has seen numerous large-scale drug busts across the country. In September, police in Virginia <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/35-people-arrested-virginia-having-enough-fentanyl-ashe-schow">arrested 35 people</a> and seized “enough fentanyl to kill 14 million people,” CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fentanyl-drug-bust-investigators-seize-enough-fentanyl-to-kill-14-million-people-in-massive-bust/">reported</a>. That bust also nabbed more than 30 kilograms of heroine, five kilograms of cocaine, more than $700,000, and 24 firearms.
In June, federal law enforcement officials <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/record-bust-feds-seize-33000-pounds-cocaine-worth-ryan-saavedra">completed the largest drug bust</a> in the history of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The officials seized more than 33,000 pounds of cocaine &#8212; an amount that could have killed millions of people. Just two people were arrested in connection with the massive drug bust.
Most of the drugs are coming from south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Man Holding Cocaine

6,800 Pounds Of Marijuana, 39 Pounds Of Cocaine, $200,000 Seized As Part Of Drug-Trafficking Scheme

North Carolina

Chaos and violence have broken out in Mexico, even more than usual. The <a href="https://twitter.com/JimmySecUK/status/1185013332769759232">footage</a> looks like something out of a war zone. This latest bit of anarchy began when Mexican law enforcement officers managed to arrest Ovidio Guzmán, one of the top drug lords in the country and son of the notorious kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Unfortunately, Guzmán’s cartel was not willing to let the son end up in a U.S. maximum security prison like the father. Dozens of gunmen, armed with everything from machine guns to grenade launchers to sniper rifles, invaded the city where Guzmán was captured and started murdering police officers. The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-el-chapos-son-arrested-in-mexico-cartel-violence-erupts">reports</a> that the cartel militants also went searching for the family members of Mexican military personnel.
Finally, the Mexican government capitulated, raised the metaphorical white flag, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/17/el-chapo-violence-breaks-out-in-mexican-city-amid-rumours-of-sons-arrest">released the younger Guzmán</a>. The president of Mexico assured the public that his administration is &#8220;doing really well&#8221; in its crime fighting strategy, explaining that they &#8220;don&#8217;t want war.&#8221; But war is exactly what he has on his hands, whether he wants it or not, and releasing a notorious drug lord back into the clutches of his cartel is, one might argue, the exact opposite of doing really well. It is, in fact, a disgrace, a travesty, an embarrassment, and a signal that Mexico is a failed state. The drug cartels run the show, and after having so much success with the &#8220;take over the city and start shooting people&#8221; strategy, they will surely resort to it again.
I don&#8217;t know what Mexico&#8217;s next step should be (though refraining from releasing any more drug lords might be a good start), but I do know what the United States’ next step should be: build the wall, finally. Really build it. Most of the wall building that has happened so far under Trump&#8217;s watch &#8212; despite how Trump himself sometimes presents it — has consisted of <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administration-border-wall-three-new-contracts-rio-grande-valley-sector-1462252">replacing</a> existing fences with slightly better fences. There has not been much in the way of actually new wall — or fence, or barrier, or whatever we&#8217;re calling it now &#8212; and certainly we haven&#8217;t seen the grand, 2,000 mile-long wall across the entire southern border like we were promised.
Of course, every thinking person always knew that the Great Wall of America wasn’t going to happen, but there are still plenty of places along the border where a wall can be, should be, and so far hasn&#8217;t been built. It would seem that now, with the Mexican government all but officially surrendering to the cartels, is as good a time as any to get started.
There has never been any rational objection to building the wall. There are some practical reasons why a wall across all 2,000 miles probably isn&#8217;t feasible (or necessary, given the natural barriers that exist along some portions of the border), but there is no valid argument in principle against erecting physical barriers wherever they are possible and needed. Those arguments always come down to vague emotional appeals and clichéd sloganeering about &#8220;building bridges, not walls.&#8221; But this is not the time for clichés. Mexico is collapsing, and we have to shield ourselves from the debris.

Border wall prototypes.

WALSH: Mexico Is A Failed State Run By Drug Cartels. It’s Time To Finally Build The Wall.

Serious gun fire erupted on the streets of Culiacan, Sinaloa, after Mexican law enforcement officials reportedly captured Ovidio Guzman, the son of convicted Sinaloa cartel drug lord Joaquín &#8220;El Chapo&#8221; Guzmán.
Journalist Robert Arce was the first to report the unredacted mugshot of Ovidio Guzman who &#8220;sought to take control of the Sinaloa cartel along with his older brother, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, after their father was captured and extradited to the United States in 2017,&#8221; according to the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-10-17/chaos-in-mexico-as-el-chapos-son-a-leader-of-the-sinaloa-cartel-is-reportedly-captured">Los Angeles Times</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
SCOOP: Here is the unredacted mugshot of Ovidio Guzman, the son of convicted Sinaloa Cartel drug lord El Chapo, who was just arrested in Culiacán, Sinaloa <a href="https://t.co/ILD5XICR48">pic.twitter.com/ILD5XICR48</a>
— Robert Arce (@robertrarce) <a href="https://twitter.com/robertrarce/status/1184987109947363328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
In his report at Breitbart, Arce <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/border/2019/10/17/el-chapos-son-captured-sinaloa-cartel-assaults-police-hq-for-rescue-attempt/">wrote</a> that sources confirmed that the arrest is what &#8220;sparked an intense deployment of Sinaloa Cartel gunmen to the scene of the incident and later the offices of the Federal Prosecutor’s office in [an] attempted rescue effort.&#8221;
A source told The Daily Wire that family members of military personnel were being warned that truckloads of cartel gunmen were searching for the relatives of Mexican army personnel in retaliation for the capture of El Chapo&#8217;s son.
On social media, numerous posts showed intense gun fire erupting around the city as innocent bystanders rushed to find cover.
Cartels appear to have set fire to numerous vehicles in a road block that they set up in an effort to prevent backup from Mexican authorities from arriving on scene.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Continúan las agresiones en <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a>. <a href="https://t.co/3sHdy8d750">pic.twitter.com/3sHdy8d750</a>
— Juan Pablo Pérez Díaz (@PerezDiazMX) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerezDiazMX/status/1185005020355293184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nuevo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Nuevo</a>: Fuentes de la SEIDO señalan que el detenido es Ovidio Guzmán López.
Se espera su arribo a la Ciudad de México.
En un intento por detener su traslado, quemaron autos para usarlos como barricadas. <a href="https://t.co/zonxKKU3ZH">pic.twitter.com/zonxKKU3ZH</a>
— Carlos Zúñiga Pérez (@Carloszup) <a href="https://twitter.com/Carloszup/status/1184975977975300099?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
Other footage showed what appeared to be automatic fire:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Así las cosas al norte de <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a>. Momentos exactos de la balacera captados por el compañero reportero Policiaco, Ernesto Martínez. <a href="https://t.co/o53uBLqCWr">pic.twitter.com/o53uBLqCWr</a>
— Juan Pablo Pérez Díaz (@PerezDiazMX) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerezDiazMX/status/1184946085468332032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
Other photos showed vehicles that were apparently destroyed by the cartels:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a> zona de guerra. Enrique Cabrera y Enrique Félix Castro. <a href="https://t.co/OUzFLtk08X">pic.twitter.com/OUzFLtk08X</a>
— Juan Pablo Pérez Díaz (@PerezDiazMX) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerezDiazMX/status/1184967639640076288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
Bystanders trying to flee the area after intense gun fire breaks out:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
Reportan enfrentamientos entre militares y hombres armados en <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a>.
No se sabe el origen del enfrentamiento. <a href="https://t.co/s4iFLTl4Nm">pic.twitter.com/s4iFLTl4Nm</a>
— Carlos Zúñiga Pérez (@Carloszup) <a href="https://twitter.com/Carloszup/status/1184954604657827841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
A man opens fire using what appears to be a .50 caliber sniper rifle:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/M%C3%A1s?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Más</a>: El enfrentamiento inició en el Sector Tres Ríos, pero se ha extendido a otros puntos de <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a>.
Vean el tipo de armas que se están usando. <a href="https://t.co/sLXtMeUTHk">pic.twitter.com/sLXtMeUTHk</a>
— Carlos Zúñiga Pérez (@Carloszup) <a href="https://twitter.com/Carloszup/status/1184955221161730054?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
Other video showed cartel gunmen armed with .50 caliber machine guns mounted on top of trucks driving around the area:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/M%C3%A1s?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Más</a>: Otro video de los hombres armados que participan en las balaceras en <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a>. <a href="https://t.co/UNDnnYR0yX">pic.twitter.com/UNDnnYR0yX</a>
— Carlos Zúñiga Pérez (@Carloszup) <a href="https://twitter.com/Carloszup/status/1184958364993933313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
More intense gun fire:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nuevo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Nuevo</a>: Versiones a través de whatsapp y radio, señalan que autoridades federales detuvieron a Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, hijo de “Él Chapo” Guzmán.
Los enfrentamientos siguen. <a href="https://t.co/vsEiNhFFz5">pic.twitter.com/vsEiNhFFz5</a>
— Carlos Zúñiga Pérez (@Carloszup) <a href="https://twitter.com/Carloszup/status/1184960633202192387?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
The Mexican military arrives on scene:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/M%C3%A1s?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Más</a>: Sigue el despliegue de militares por <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a>. <a href="https://t.co/Eoyna6wZXZ">pic.twitter.com/Eoyna6wZXZ</a>
— Carlos Zúñiga Pérez (@Carloszup) <a href="https://twitter.com/Carloszup/status/1184963628564434945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
Innocent bystanders hide in a supermarket as gunfire erupts:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/M%C3%A1s?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Más</a>: En medio del miedo y el caos, habitantes de <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a> intentan resgardarse de las balaceras en un centro comercial. <a href="https://t.co/l6rrNgf9nU">pic.twitter.com/l6rrNgf9nU</a>
— Carlos Zúñiga Pérez (@Carloszup) <a href="https://twitter.com/Carloszup/status/1184967879478972416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
The fighting continued into the night:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Al norte de <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a> sector Humaya siguen las balaceras. <a href="https://t.co/zJw1K8CJFo">pic.twitter.com/zJw1K8CJFo</a>
— Juan Pablo Pérez Díaz (@PerezDiazMX) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerezDiazMX/status/1185006815651565568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
The Los Angeles Times added that the Sinaloa Cartel – which has long been the most prolific drug trafficking organization in the world – has faced increasing challenges to its dominance from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
The CJNG is suspected to be behind a massacre on Monday in the western Mexican state of Michoacan.
&#8220;The federal public security ministry said 14 police were killed, though its Michoacan state counterpart reported that 13 officers were confirmed dead and three injured,&#8221; <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-violence/more-than-a-dozen-police-killed-in-ambush-in-violent-mexican-state-idUSKBN1WT23A">Reuters</a> reported.
Reuters added that photographs of the crime scene &#8220;showed large placards signed by &#8216;CJNG&#8217; left on police vehicles.&#8221;
CJNG reportedly warned law enforcement in the area to not support rival criminal organizations.

Mexico Drug Cartel Violence

WATCH: El Chapo’s Son Arrested In Mexico, Cartel Violence Erupts

Violent crime in America, despite experiencing an overall <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/tables/1tabledatadecoverviewpdf/table_1_crime_in_the_united_states_by_volume_and_rate_per_100000_inhabitants_1993-2012.xls">dramatic decline</a> since the 1990s, has started to <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/25-years-crime-wave-back-republicans-refuse-talk/">surge back</a> over the past few years. Amidst this distressing social trend, alas, America&#8217;s <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/rnc-blasts-kamala-harris-not-pro-criminal-enough/">erstwhile</a> &#8220;law-and-order&#8221;/tough-on-crime political party has been ideologically and financially captured by pro-criminal libertarians who ally with the Left to spout hackneyed, outmoded orthodoxies like the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-dont-let-kim-kardashian-fool-you-america-josh-hammer">alleged (non-)issue</a> of &#8220;mass incarceration.&#8221; The most tangible result of this unholy alliance was the bipartisan 2018 passage of the harrowing First Step Act jailbreak law — a law enactment which President Donald Trump, viewing the <a href="https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20191004/he-was-released-early-from-prison-in-february-now-hes-wanted-for-murder-on-federal-hill">murderous early results</a>, apparently already <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/trump-reportedly-regrets-passage-jailbreak-first-step-act-gullible-conservatives-supported/">regrets</a>.
Alas, the leftist/libertarian alliance on &#8220;criminal justice&#8221; issues, just highlighted during last night&#8217;s Democratic Party presidential primary debate when Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) touted her work with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on the crime-abetting issue of &#8220;<a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/jailbreak-epidemic-gang-member-released-6k-bail-now-accused-raping-12-year-old-girl/">bail reform</a>,&#8221;continues unabated. Which brings us to prominent libertarian lawyer/legal commentator <a href="https://www.cato.org/people/clark-neily">Clark Neily</a>, who has been on a roll, of late. Neily, who spent years with the rabidly <a href="https://ij.org/center-for-judicial-engagement/">pro-judicial power</a> libertarian legal group <a href="https://ij.org">Institute for Justice,</a> now works for the equally <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/proper-judging-means-principled-engagement-not-judicial-deference">pro-judicial power</a> libertarian Cato Institute. Neily&#8217;s title at Cato is &#8220;Vice President for Criminal Justice&#8221; and, based on his recent musings, he appears to embody the zealous leftist/libertarian jailbreak alliance.
The precise target of Neily&#8217;s recent ire is the prosecutor. More specifically, Neily is convinced that far too many prosecutors become federal judges — and that not nearly enough criminal defense attorneys become federal judges. In a highly revealing but nonetheless sober-minded recognition of his core readership for such anti-prosecutorial musings, Neily has published on the subject at both <a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/studies/are-disproportionate-number-federal-judges-former-government-advocates">Cato</a> and, just this week, at left-wing <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/too-many-prosecutors-federal-judiciary.html">Slate</a>. The latter piece goes so far as to call for an outright &#8220;moratorium&#8221; on the nomination of former prosecutors to the federal bench.
I am not a former prosecutor. But I do have the benefit of education at a top law school and the experience of serving as a law clerk for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. And I believe Neily is severely misguided in his anti-prosecutor crusade.
Crucially, Neily&#8217;s Cato <a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/studies/are-disproportionate-number-federal-judges-former-government-advocates#summary-previous-studies">study</a> makes no attempt whatsoever to control for education, intellect, or legal credentials. To many lay observers, this may seem anodyne — after all, can&#8217;t former prosecutors and defense attorneys/public defenders, as classes of attorneys, be presumed to have roughly equivalent legal acumens and credentials? Well, no. For generations, gifted law students of all political stripes have seen the prosecutorial career path — be it via the Department of Justice (DOJ), local U.S. attorney&#8217;s offices, state attorneys general offices, or even local district attorneys — as a prominent avenue for vocational success. The DOJ <a href="https://www.justice.gov/legal-careers/entry-level-attorneys">Honors Program</a> has long been viewed as one of the most prestigious entry-level attorney tracks in the nation, and scores of lawyers hoping to one day be considered for a federal judgeship have routinely sought U.S. attorney&#8217;s office experience as a means of padding their resumes and evincing a demonstrable commitment to public service. Again, this holds true for lawyers and judges of all political persuasions and partisan affiliations: As but two prominent examples for those on the Left, 2016 failed Barack Obama U.S. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland is a former federal prosecutor and current presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) is a former California attorney general.
This is simply not nearly as broadly true for those who pursue careers in the criminal defense bar — be they in private practice or working as public defenders. Leftists and libertarians can gnash their teeth and wail all they&#8217;d like, but the reality, as I <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1176324820771819520">tweeted</a> last month, is that in no sane world is the median defense lawyer of the same acumen and credentials as the median prosecutor. Representing drug traffickers, gangbangers, and felons in possession of firearms is not a dream job. Again, my claim is that this holds true for prosecutors and the defense bar, viewed as a class — obviously, there will be innumerable individual dispensations to such a broad rule, when comparing class sizes of this magnitude. But anecdotally, based on (1) my own personal experience knowing many individuals who have become prosecutors and defense lawyers, (2) my own law clerk experience and thinking back to a comparison of the median prosecutor&#8217;s brief and oral argument versus the median defense attorney&#8217;s brief and oral argument, and (3) discussing the issue with other former federal appellate law clerk friends, I feel eminently comfortable making such a claim. We should feel comfortable establishing a rebuttable presumption that prosecutors, considered as a class, have superior legal credentials to defense attorneys. Based purely on my own experience, I cannot even begin to count the volume of public defender&#8217;s office legal briefs I read that were of an immensely shoddy quality.
At a bare minimum, libertarians and leftists who would seek to place a moratorium on nominating prosecutors to federal judgeships ought to be asked how they can be so sure that they are not sacrificing legal acumen or credentials. I understand that such logic is arguably circular — anti-prosecutor libertarians and leftists could respond that such a moratorium may prophylactically disincentivize smart law school graduates who may aspire for judgeships from pursuing prosecutorial careers. But the salient point is that the general prestige of many prosecutorial career paths is so deeply ingrained in our legal culture. That is not something that can be easily reversed, and I highly suspect the criminal defense bar and its apologists have no particularly compelling argument to offer for how they might be able to do so.
Prosecutors do not write our nation&#8217;s criminal statutes — they merely enforce them. To the extent leftists and libertarians — hooked as they are on the anachronistic talking points of &#8220;mass incarceration&#8221; and &#8220;low-level non-violent offenders&#8221; — have substantive issues with our criminal statutes, they ought to lobby policymakers. By all accounts, considering both <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/needs-leftists-gop-texas-gov-greg-abbott-endorses-radical-ban-box-pro-criminal-mandate-employers/">state-level initiatives</a> and the aforementioned First Step Act, the pro-jailbreak cabal is quite successful in its lobbying efforts. Pro-jailbreak forces are wrong, on the policy merits, but that is an issue that can be debated in the political space. But it would be dangerous for justice and the rule of law, absent pro-jailbreak forces&#8217; ability to overcome the rebuttable presumption about the credentials of disparate vocational classes, for such forces to also take out their frustrations as part of the judicial nominations process.

Judge gavel with Justice lawyers, Businesswoman in suit or lawyer, Advice and Legal services Concept.

HAMMER: In Defense Of Prosecutors

Constitution

Department of Justice

Federal Government

Guns

Homicide

Judicial Branch

Judiciary

During Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate, Amy Klobuchar (D-WI) told debate moderator Marc Lacey that opioid manufacturers should be held responsible for the opioid epidemic. 
“The people that should pay for this, that should pay for the treatment, are the very people that got people hooked and killed them in the first place, and that is the people that are manufacturing these opioids,” said Klobuchar. 
Former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) agreed with Klobuchar, stating that the opioid crisis would continue “until we hold those responsible accountable.”
But when Lacey asked Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) about what she would do about the opioid crisis, Harris declared that drug company executives should be sent to jail, calling it a “matter of justice.”
<blockquote>LACEY: Senator Harris, you want to hold the drug manufacturers that fueled the crisis accountable. Are you in favor of sending those drug company executives to jail?
HARRIS: I am. And I will tell you, as a former prosecutor, I do think of it as being a matter of justice and accountability because they are nothing more than some high-level dope dealers. They have been engaged &#8212; 
*Applause.*
HARRIS: And I’ve seen it happen before. I’ve taken on the pharmaceutical companies when I was attorney general of California and led the second largest department of justice. I’ve seen what they do. The biggest pharmaceutical companies, the eight biggest companies and insurance companies last year profited $72 billion on the backs of people like the families that we are talking about, that have been overwhelmed by this crisis, which is a public health epidemic. 
And they knew what they were doing, they were marketing false advertising, they knew what they were pushing in communities in states like Ohio, without any concern about the repercussions because they were profiting and making big bucks. And yes, they should be held accountable, this is a matter of justice. 
And so as president of the United States, I would ensure that the United States Department of Justice understands that you want to deal with who is really a criminal? Let’s end mass incarceration and end that failed war on drugs, and let’s go after these pharmaceutical companies for what they’ve been doing to destroy our country in states like Ohio. </blockquote>
Harris has previously been criticized for her failure to promote &#8220;justice&#8221; as Attorney General of California. 
On Monday, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-14/kamala-harris-offices-fought-payments-to-wrongly-convicted">Bloomberg</a> published a report showing that Kamala Harris’s office refused to pay a man who was wrongfully convicted of rape, and even tried to force him into joining the sex offender registry list. Gerald Schwartzbach, the man’s lawyer, told Bloomberg that Harris’ office “penalized an innocent man with technical arguments,” which he calls “contradictory to the whole purpose of the criminal justice system.”
Last August, as the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-most-searched-name-google-once-again-paul-bois">Daily Wire</a> reported, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) became the most-searched Democratic presidential candidate on Google after she brought attention to Harris’ problematic record as a prosecutor. 
<blockquote>GABBARD: I want to bring the conversation back to the broken criminal justice system that is disproportionately negatively impacting black and brown people all across this country today. Now Senator Harris says she’s proud of her record as a prosecutor and that she’ll be a prosecutor president.
But I’m deeply concerned about this record. There are too many examples to cite but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.
She blocked evidence — she blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California.</blockquote>

Kamala Harris: Jailing Drug Company Executives ‘A Matter Of Justice’

Amy Klobuchar

Beto O'Rourke

The forgotten American is the blue-collar taxpayer who attends church on Sundays. He toils diligently so that he can put bread on the table for his family and children, but he lives paycheck-to-paycheck on a tight budget. He is frustrated that neither major political party seems attuned to the quotidian trials and tribulations that necessarily come, in today&#8217;s society, with raising numerous children while fiscally constrained. Who will stand not with the cronyist interests of Silicon Valley or the corporatist interests of Wall Street, but for the economic interests of the forgotten American family man?
The forgotten American is the law-abiding patriot who has never had a skirmish with law enforcement more dire than a speeding ticket. He proudly exercises his Second Amendment right and owns firearms to protect home and hearth. But he also believes it is a core function of government to ensure law and order by locking up murderers, rapists, sex offenders, drug traffickers, burglars, and other appalling criminals. He is frustrated that neither major political party seems attuned to the fact that deterring crime and removing the worst of the worst from the streets is an indispensable tenet of the American social contract. Who will stand against the leftist/libertarian <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/trump-reportedly-regrets-passage-jailbreak-first-step-act-gullible-conservatives-supported/">jailbreak alliance</a>, and will stand athwart the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-dont-let-kim-kardashian-fool-you-america-josh-hammer">under-incarceration epidemic</a> that wreaks havoc on the safety of the forgotten, law-abiding American?
The forgotten American believes in sovereignty and the integrity of the nation-state. He accepts the truism that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-federal-government-has-no-more-important-josh-hammer">to lack borders is to lack a nation</a> itself and, as such, he opposes illegal immigration. He believes that the federal government&#8217;s response has been woefully inadequate to the phenomenon of augmented transnational criminal cartels trafficking economically motivated faux-asylee human migrants <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-smugglers-and-cartels-profited-23-billion-josh-hammer">for profit</a>. He is frustrated that neither major political party seems committed to deploying the resources necessary to protect the republic&#8217;s territorial and <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/media-willfully-ignores-connection-killer-drugs-illegal-immigration/">narcotics-related</a> integrity against the siege of military-style, Hezbollah-intertwined cartels. He is distressed that neither major political party seems attuned to those who oppose the social transformation without representation that is imposed via the diktats of judicial amnesty. Who will stand not with the open-borders lobby, but with the forgotten American who values the nation-state and wants to see criminal aliens deported en masse?
The forgotten American keeps his copy of the U.S. Constitution in his bedside nightstand. He has read this simple, straightforward document and he cherishes the unbounded political wisdom embedded therein. He is a big proponent of the Tenth Amendment and believes that politicians and lawless judges alike have been complicit in fundamentally distorting the original relationship between the states and federal government that James Madison once described in <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed45.asp">The Federalist No. 45</a>. But he has also read the Supremacy Clause of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlevi">Article VI</a> of the Constitution, and he therefore understands that sanctuary state and sanctuary city jurisdictions across the nation operate today in <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1179456465179942913">subversive, neo-Confederate</a> fashion. Who will stand against the modern-day analogue of John C. Calhoun-style thought and will instead stand for the uncountable forgotten American victims of sanctuary jurisdiction-abetted violent <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/washington-couple-sue-seattle-releasing-career-violent-criminal-savagely-beat/">crime</a>?
The forgotten American is both pro-science and pro-common sense. He knows from rudimentary biology, the <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/8165/jewish/Chapter-1.htm#v27">Book of Genesis</a>, and observable human nature alike that there are two distinct genders: Male and female. He has immense compassion and sympathy for those suffering from gender dysphoria, but he believes in neither bestowing social affirmation upon mental illnesses nor in incentivizing doctors to violate the Hippocratic Oath via genital mutilation &#8220;surgery.&#8221; Furthermore, he worries greatly about the fact that biological males may well soon be permitted to enter his daughter&#8217;s high school girls&#8217; locker room with impunity. Who will stand not with the de-civilization agenda of those would seek to redefine and ultimately eviscerate God&#8217;s man/female biological complementarity, but with the forgotten American who believes in biological and biblical truth?

Border Wall

HAMMER: Who Will Stand For The Forgotten American?

Conservatism

LGBT

Transgender

On Tuesday, Southern California&#8217;s West Hollywood will be celebrating the grand opening of America&#8217;s first-ever cannabis cafe, similar to those found in Amsterdam.
Opening on Tuesday at 12 p.m on West Hollywood&#8217;s North La Brea Avenue, the Miley Cyrus-backed Lowell Cafe will be offering up a variety of eats and cannabis products for marijuana enthusiasts looking to transform their private recreation into nightlife.
“For over a century we’ve been forced to hide cannabis consumption out of public view, but that time is now over,” says the Lowell Farms’ website. “We’re proud to announce Lowell Café — America’s first cannabis cafe serving farm <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/category/food-and-beverage">fresh food</a>, coffee, juice and cannabis daily. Sit on our patio, order a meal, have a conversation and experience cannabis together.”
According to a <a href="https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/miley-cyrus-backed-cannabis-cafe-brings-amsterdam-to-hollywood-1.1323335">Bloomberg Report</a>, customers will be offered a variety of ways to enjoy their cannabis, including pre-rolled joints.
&#8220;The pot can be smoked in pre-rolled joints or vaped — even as the industry is grappling with a spike in lung damage and deaths linked to vaping,&#8221; reports the outlet. &#8220;The cafe’s opening also offers an extension to the cannabis market, where sales are largely confined to dispensaries and online orders, and tests the appetite for a more open and public consumption of a product that’s still illegal in many jurisdictions.&#8221;
David Elias, co-founder of Lowell Herb Co., the cafe’s owner, told Bloomberg that Lowell Cafe will hopefully allow marijuana users the chance to enjoy cannabis outside the corners to which they have been formerly relegated.
“Cannabis consumers have always been relegated to getting their cannabis in a plastic bag while you can go to a dinner party with a beautiful bottle of wine,” said Elias. “People want to smoke a joint with their friends in a cafe like they can over a beer — not in the alley or in their car.”
However, Elias noted that the business will have to adapt in the given political climate. California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed an executive order vowing to spend more than $20 million on a vaping awareness campaign (the cafe offers cannabis-laced vaping products).
&#8220;It’s a tricky situation,” Elias said. “It’s something we’re learning about everyday, and helping to form our decisions based off the information that’s available to us, which is very limited.”
Below are some photos of the establishment:
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</a> 
 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B1EswaqhQOX/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">#LowellCafe is a welcoming space for those who are #cannabis connoisseurs and those who are canna-curious and looking to experience cannabis in a welcoming atmosphere. We will be opened to the public September 2019. Which aspect of the Lowell Cafe are you most excited for?</a>
<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lowellcafe/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Lowell Cafe</a> (@lowellcafe) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2019-08-12T18:08:11+00:00">Aug 12, 2019 at 11:08am PDT</time>
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 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2222FABE8g/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">The first cafe in the the U.S. where cannabis can be legally purchased and consumed! Hope you’ll join us soon 🙏🏾❤️💪🏾. #lowellcafe #cannabiscafe #cannabiscommunity #womenincannabis</a>
<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/canna_queen71/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Chef Andrea Drummer</a> (@canna_queen71) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2019-09-26T02:09:46+00:00">Sep 25, 2019 at 7:09pm PDT</time>
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Since California legalized marijuana, parts of the state have seen a push for marijuana-themed lifestyle and retail options. Similar pot lounge proposals have popped up in San Francisco and Oakland. Since much of the state prohibits pot smoking in public places, the lounges would be an alternative social space.
The marijuana industry <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/26066/marijuana-industry-stop-using-word-pot-because-it-paul-bois">beg</a><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/26066/marijuana-industry-stop-using-word-pot-because-it-paul-bois">an a campaign of political correctness</a> as well, advising people to stop using the word “pot” when referring to the drug because it’s an offensive term. According to <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-marijuana/2018/01/17/marijuana-industry-gets-blunt-stop-using-the-word-pot/">Anchorage Daily News</a>, the marijuana industry has grown very self-conscious of the stereotypical image of “the stoner” and wants to clean up the stigma.
“Marijuana still carries a stigma that surfaces with the use of old slang like pot and weed,” reported ADN in 2018. “For many, the words evoke an image of lazy, not-so-bright people who puff their lives away.”
The industry wishes people would start using the more scientifically-minded name “cannabis” instead.

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