Nacha Cattan, of the Huffington Post writes,
MEXICO CITY -- Fighting among the Zetas gang and other vicious drug cartels led to the deaths of more than 40 people whose bodies were found in three Mexican cities over a 24-hour span, a government official said Saturday.
At least 20 people were killed and five injured when gunmen opened fire in a bar late Friday in the northern city of Monterrey, where the gang is fighting its former ally, the Gulf Cartel, said federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire.
Eleven bodies shot with high-powered rifles were found earlier Friday, piled near a water well on the outskirts of Mexico City, where the gang is fighting the Knights Templar, Poire said. That is an offshoot of the La Familia gang that has terrorized its home state of Michoacan.
Poire said an additional 10 people were found dead early Saturday in various parts of the northern city of Torreon, where the Zetas are fighting the Sinaloa cartel headed by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
"The violence is a product of this criminal rivalry ... surrounding the intent to control illegal activities in a community, and not the only the earnings that come with it, but also with transporting drugs to the United States," Poire said in a news conference.
More devastation caused in large part from the insane, racist, classist, and reckless drug laws in the US that pours enormous profits into illegal infrastructures, funding criminal gangs, subverting foreign police forces, and government, as well as wrecking havoc on American drug users and the family.
This blood is on our hands, to some extent, as the Mexican political leaders have taken to telling us more frequently.
The constant demand for illegal drugs, with the associated astronomical flows of illegal money, is corrupting the governments, political systems, militariees, police forces, and entire cultures of many adjacent supply side countries.
And, the illegality of drugs also provides funding for illegal smuggling infrastructures and terrorists organizations that could easily exploit them.
It is not the drugs that it is causing these tragic consequences, it is our drug laws, and our unwise, racist, and classist "War on American Drug Users."
When are Americans going to smarten up, and take responsibility for these destructive drug laws, that have proven themselves to be counter-productive, and inhumane for more than 40 years?
This quote is from my closing paragraph in this dairy last week.
10 Years After Drug Decriminalization Portugal Says Treatment Works Better Than Punishment
As we learn more about the devastating impacts of using criminal and military enforcement as our primary response to drug problems, it is becoming apparent to many that our punitive, and primitive drug laws are doing more harm to the American people than the drugs themselves.
Our so-called "War on Drugs" is really a "War on American Drug Users" and their families.
Statistics show our drug laws are racist, and classist as people of color, other minorities, and the poor are disproportionately prosecuted.
In a country that does not provide adequate mental health care, they are also immoral, IMO, as many of the users are self-medicating depression, pain, and other ills, they have no other treatment options for.
And, they are ruthlessly stupid, cruel, and self-destructive. It costs nearly $50,000 per person per year to keep someone incarcerated. And, the US has over 2 million prisoners, the highest of any modern industrialized country by far. Nearly half are in for drugs. We should be using this money for social programs.
President Obama should pardon all Federal and State prisoners who are being held due to non-violent drug offenses. And, also instruct is Drug Czar to cease federal prosecutions for marijuana and other trivial drug offenses.
And, to renounce last weeks announcement that the DEA is going to resume raids on medical marijuana dispensaries licensed by states that have legalized medical marijuana.
Let us pray that there is not a just God, because if there is, we Americans are going to be roasting in hell, or purgatory, for an extensive period, for our destructive and irresponsible stupidity, as well, as for, the misery and destruction we are inflicting on so many innocent people. Our own American children, and adults who use drugs, as well as those in foreign countries do not need a "Drug War" against them. They need social services, mental health, jobs, and functional societies that give them a fighting chance to start reasonable lives and build better futures for ourselves our children.
I am sick and tired of reading reports of deaths every day in the newspapers, and hearing from my son, and step-daughter and there friends how many more young peoples lives we continue to destroy because we and our political leaders do not have the courage, and sense of responsibility to do what we know is right, for fear of electoral consequences.
When I see a wonderful child I've watch grow up, with a tremendous future ahead of them, arrested and then destroyed by our criminal justice system because they made some immature decisions, is makes me sick, and livid. We have become a hideous, and uncompassionate people. A cruel and stupid, people. And, we should expect our collective Karma to catch up with us.
Please do not look at strories like these sensless bloody gang wars, and ask, "what wrong with those Mexicans?" Ask, what is wrong with us, that we still perpetrate counter-productive drug laws, that make the price of illegal drugs so high, these gangs will do anything to control the financial flow. We are causing this people. This blood is own our hands. This is the kind of world we are choosing to create.
And I can pretty much guarantee that we will not be successful in our efforts to fix our economy, our deficits, or health care system, or foreign policy including wars we all know are fairly useless, no matter how many diaries we write here. But these are symptoms of a much deeper sickness we are not even discussing.
Because, those are all much harder problems, than decriminalizing marijuana, and moving away from a drug war towards social service, and mental health approaches as all knowledgeable bodies have recommended.
Yet, the latest word in the last couple weeks, is that President Obama's Drug Czar has announced the intention to resume against medical marijuana clinics with legal licenses in state that have legalized medical marijuana! Our own Democratic Executive branch isn't even moving in the right direction!
This is a shame. And, a symptom of a much deeper sickness in our political system. Not just a lack of wisdom, and courage in our political leaders, shame on them.
But, a deep pervasive sickness, like a cancer, that it is getting worse. We have no hope of making problems on any of these many crises that threaten great harm to our common good, until we realize these are but symptoms of this deeper problems, and the tips of the icebergs.
And, this gives us all the clues, and warnings we need to know things are going to get much worse before they have any chance of getting better.
This criminally irresponsible, approach of both parties triangulating each issue, through a micro lens of short-term political advantage, rather than seriously striving for the common good of all, is going to leave our country, our people, our culture, and our children "shredded." The depression we are heading quickly for will be worse than the last, in all likelihood.
Because, our government, and political leadership is vastly more dysfunctional.
We are not even seriously trying to achieve what we know or suspect is the common good our our own people, let along Mexicans, or any other people of the world.
We do not even accept any personal or collective responsibilities for our values, even when they stare us in the face every day.
We do not have a lot more time to wake our selves up, and try to change.
We do not have much more time to wake up these moran, lackluster politicians, tell them to get off their asses, and start doing the right thing for the common-good, everywhere we can see it, as fast as possible, without regard to which party gets credit.
We need an urgent mad dash in the direction of our long-term common good, by every abled body person, ASAP, and on every issues. Even if we did this now, with now debate by magic, we do not have enough time by our conventional way of thinking.
Because when we non only see no action on a problems where the direction of goodness is so clear, but see a Democratic DEA repeated the worst errors of the police eenforment-military intervention strategy to relaunch the War on American Drug Users, by raiding legal sate liscensed medical marijuana dispensories, we might as well not even try discussing these harder problems. We are screwed, beyond hope.
Hunker down.
And, I look forward to meeting you all, in person finally, in hell, where we belong.
Cheers.
PS One bit of optimistic news. This post here describes research showing that our friends in the animal kingdom are going wild, and acting like animals getting stoned, drunk, and eating hallucinogens. So there may be some hope for a bipartisan bill to hire more park rangers, and build more jails to arrest these animals, and put them in jail.
Imagine the outrage American will have when they realize these animals are allowed to have a lot more fun we are. I'm still waiting for confirmation of a second source, but I've heard many of these animals are doing this cavorting fully naked!!!
Surely, the GOP will agree this needs to be stop immeditaly. Alternatively, maybe this will provide a incentive to bring our troops home the wars, so they can hunt down and kill these criminal, nudist, animals, wreaking havoc in the forests, stoned, and on wild crazed drug binges? This may not be as much fun for them as tracking down, and raiding incarcerating, and even killing our children, and other American drug users, but it may be a way they can withdraw gradually.