[Tanada]

You know the author Larry Niven came up with a set of rules for a successful life and as I recall one of the rules is
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Don't throw things at an armed man, and don't stand next to somebody else who is throwing things at an armed man.

[americandream]

That's fairly obvious, is it not? But like everything in life, we would be advised to refrain from blowing off bearing in mind our own tendency in the West to visit assault on others (whole nations in fact) in an equally dumb manner and to squeal with the most vocal of outrage when they react.

Instead we shoud be seeking to encourage civil standards in all our dealings to the best degree capable of being achieved. One of those standards being that restraint needs to be exercised when dealing with children to the fullest extent reasonably possible, no ifs or buts.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'Y')ou know the author Larry Niven came up with a set of rules for a successful life and as I recall one of the rules is
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Don't throw things at an armed man, and don't stand next to somebody else who is throwing things at an armed man.

[Newfie]

I doubt we will end up in a border war against Mexico. However I can see Mexico asking for help in the border regions.

An NPR report recently opened the possibility that the current Mexican Army/Navy participation is less about quelling the drug traffic in general as in suppressing the 2nd tier organizations in favor of the predominant one. If true that is very disturbing. If successful it could mean that things quiet down in Mexico, but the government becomes a pawn of the major drug gang. That would be a huge problem for the US.

Another toughie for Obama.

[americandream]

Successive US governments nurturing corrupt and brutal Latin American regimes who were nothing more than sovereign ganglands for nepotism, graft and criminality including drug cultivation and is it any wonder that most places south of your border are in virtual anarchy.
No amount of border patrolling will remedy this situation and it will take nothing short of your own degradation as a human to seal your border to an endemic problem such as continent wide mismanagement to the south. Personally, thats too high a price to pay for me. There has to be a concerted effort by all working folk in the Americas to take your continent back. Nothing else will work and you will eventually end up with a wasteland for a home.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'I') doubt we will end up in a border war against Mexico. However I can see Mexico asking for help in the border regions.

An NPR report recently opened the possibility that the current Mexican Army/Navy participation is less about quelling the drug traffic in general as in suppressing the 2nd tier organizations in favor of the predominant one. If true that is very disturbing. If successful it could mean that things quiet down in Mexico, but the government becomes a pawn of the major drug gang. That would be a huge problem for the US.

Another toughie for Obama.

[Ibon]

Legalization of drugs.

[Dreamtwister]

If by "war" you mean "US government retreating", then it's already underway. The feds have already ceded control of everything south of Phoenix to Mexico. Or rather, the drug gangs and human traffickers.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Such a deal! How would you like to be able to fill up at $2.80 a gallon?

Gasoline prices like that are available but there’s one catch...they’re in Mexico.

But 1200 WOAI’s Michael Board says plenty of south Texans are ducking to avoid the bullets from the gang wars, to gas up at prices which are as much as a dollar lower than prices in the United States.

“When Piedras prices are under ours, a segment of Eagle Pass residents go to Piedras Negras to fill up,” says Chad Foster, the former Mayor of Eagle Pass and currently a real estate agent who sells property on both sides of the Rio Grande.

Why is gasoline so much cheaper across the Rio Grande? Two main reasons. First of all, Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil company, controls prices with the assistance of the Mexican government, which is not keen to see the price of gasoline go up too high for fear of public unrest. Also, Mexican environmental laws are not as strict as laws in the U.S., and gasoline sold in Mexico is not required to have many of the special blends designed to hold down air pollution, which jack up U.S. prices.
http://radio.woai.com/cc-common/mainheadlines3.html?feed=119078&article=8438992

[dolanbaker]

One of the ironies is the fact that Libya (used to) has the largest fuel subsidy in The MENA region.

[pedalling_faster]

given the cost of being hit by a bullet or kidnapped, that $1 a gallon they save ... not worth it ?

except maybe for US citizens that cross the Rio Grande on business anyway.l

[Keith_McClary]

On Iraq's Border, Sailors of the Desert Smuggle Subsidized Gasoline
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '&')quot;Of course this is illegal, but nobody cares," said one sailor, Salleh Hammadi, who was preparing to make his second run to Jordan of the day in his vintage Chevy Brougham. Filling his trunk with a huge extra tank, he can carry almost 60 gallons of fuel at a time. After tipping the border guards with small bills, he still clears about $20 a trip, he said - not bad at all compared with the unemployment he faces back home in Ramadi.

[ColossalContrarian]

While they're filling up their tanks they may as well pick up some prescriptions as well. Lord know's you can't get them in the US, especially if you don't have health insurance!

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Keith_McClary', '[')url=http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/21/international/middleeast/21smuggle.html]On Iraq's Border, Sailors of the Desert Smuggle Subsidized Gasoline[/url]
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '&')quot;Of course this is illegal, but nobody cares," said one sailor, Salleh Hammadi, who was preparing to make his second run to Jordan of the day in his vintage Chevy Brougham. Filling his trunk with a huge extra tank, he can carry almost 60 gallons of fuel at a time. After tipping the border guards with small bills, he still clears about $20 a trip, he said - not bad at all compared with the unemployment he faces back home in Ramadi.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', 'Y')eah, and guess WHO is paying that subsidy, uhah.

[Pretorian]

well what did they expect, tell them to win the war next time

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')Mexican drug cartels continue being the greatest criminal threat to America and are largely to blame for the current opioid crisis striking most of the nation, a new assessment by the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration revealed.

In their 2017 National Drug Threat Assessment, the agency claims that Mexican drug cartels remain unchallenged in their hold of the drug market in the U.S. and continue to expand their territory from the Southwest border into areas like New England. Once the drugs are crossed into the country, they are distributed by gangs managed or influenced by Mexican cartels. The DEA claims that the greatest drug threat to the city of Chicago comes from cartels since they control the flow of heroin, methamphetamines, marijuana, and cocaine without competition. Other areas that have seen a stronger influence by Mexican drug cartels include Pittsburgh and Indiana.

According to the DEA, in the past 10 years, the drug landscape has changed with the dramatic increase of opioids; the agency claims that drug poisoning deaths typically tied to overdose or to emerging drugs like fentanyl are spiking. In 2015, 140 died every day from drug poisoning, the report revealed.

One of the alarming admissions made in the assessment points to the Sinaloa Cartel having active cells and at least one leader operating in Phoenix, Arizona, to oversee the distribution of drugs. While drug cartels tend to avoid carrying out brazen acts of violence in the U.S. in order to not attract attention, violent cases have taken place in the country, the DEA claims. For the most part, cartels will hire out U.S.-based gangs to carry out other attacks and not draw attention.

The report does not seem to mention the complicity of Mexican officials at various levels of the government. As Breitbart Texas reported, two former governors of Tamaulipas are current fugitives of the U.S. Department of Justice on money laundering charges, while several other governors and politicos were outed as cartel surrogates. Current Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto was named by various news outlets in Mexico for receiving campaign money from Juarez Cartel operators, Breitbart Texas reported.

The report identified six major drug cartels as being the ones with the most influence north of the border:

Sinaloa Cartel — Once led by the famed Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the criminal organization is currently led by Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, El Chapo’s family, and Rafael Caro Quintero. The drug cartel is considered to be the one with the largest footprint in the U.S., where the criminal organization has established routes into Phoenix, Los Angeles, Denver, and Chicago.

Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) — An offshoot of the Sinaloa Cartel, the CJNG has rapidly become one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico. According to the DEA, CJNG’s rapid expansion is characterized by their willingness to engage in violent confrontations with Mexican Government security forces and rival cartels. The drug cartel operates in border cities in Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, and Baja California and has distribution hubs in the U.S. cities of Los Angeles, New York, and Atlanta.

Juarez Cartel — Based out of the Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, the criminal organization operates primarily through West Texas and New Mexico. It’s drug distributions hubs include El Paso, Denver, Chicago and Oklahoma City. A turf war between the Juarez and Sinaloa Cartels is to blame for the 2010 spike in murders in that city.

Gulf Cartel — Another of the older cartels in Mexico, the criminal organization operates primarily out of South Texas moving marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine to Houston, Detroit, and Atlanta. In South Texas, the Gulf Cartel coordinates with local gangs to not only handle local distribution, but also carry out attacks and assassinations against targets throughout the nation, the DEA revealed.

Los Zetas — An offshoot of the Gulf Cartel, the criminal organization crosses their drugs through the states of Coahuila and Tamaulipas to deliver them to Laredo, Dallas, New Orleans and Atlanta. The cartel underwent a series of schisms that led to the criminal organization’s diminished influence, but still maintains busy smuggling corridors.

Beltran Leyva Cartel — Another offshoot of the Sinaloa Cartel, the criminal organization operates in the Mexican states of Guerrero, Morelos, Nayarit, and Sinaloa and has working relationships with Juarez , Los Zetas, and CJNG to access smuggling corridors. The BLO runs distribution hubs in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta.

While the assessment identifies cartels as the biggest threat, the study provides a dark forecast where the criminal organizations will continue to expand their operations in the country.

“It is anticipated that Mexican TCOs (drug cartels) will continue to grow in the United States through expansion of distribution networks and interaction with local criminal groups and gangs. This relationship will insulate Mexican TCOs from direct ties to street-level drug and money seizures and drug-related arrests made by U.S. law enforcement.”