Having been born, educated and now nearing retirement from a scientific career in the USA, there are things about this country I am proud of and things that I’m ashamed of. I take ‘pride’ to mean that ‘I value my association with’. I take ‘shame’ to mean my negative reaction to and regret with certain instances of moral turpitude.
What shame I may have in my country’s actions and policies over time isn’t necessarily due to uniquely American traits. We’re humans after all with all of the pluses and minuses that go with it. However, the pluses and minuses in conjunction with our burgeoning economic power over time and the rich natural resources we hold allow us to impose our will with in-house treasure. Conveniently, we don’t have to invade another country for oil or iron ore to drive our industry. However, our lust for cheap oil & gas has led to considerable trouble.
American Pride
I’m proud of the founders who disconnected from Great Britain despite the sacrifices in blood and treasure during the late 18th century and founded this unique republic. While the founders wisely developed a founding document to avoid the problems of monarchy and establish a functioning republic, there were significant omissions such as banning slavery or establishing equal rights for women.
I’m proud of our steady progress in all of the various technologies that have removed the sharp edges from what nature has historically imposed on us: Disease, predation, high infant mortality, brief lifespans and primitive life. In many ways the march of technological advancement has been a benefit to all of us and the rest of the world as well.
I’m proud of the advancement of women, albeit too slow, in our civilization. The march forward is not nearly finished, but to have advanced women from chattel to some level of equality is a plus.
I’m proud of our country for the advancements made towards global peace and prosperity since WWII. The years of our liberal democracy since then are unmatched in history.
I’m proud of the positive global interventions for peace we’ve made since the start of WWI.
I’m proud that my country has been a prominent global influence for peace and justice.
I’m proud of my country’s positive moral actions toward feeding the hungry and spreading medical care.
I’m proud of our periods of military restraint and our caution with nuclear weapons after having once used them.
I’m proud of America’s role in restraining Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Soviet imperialism.
American Shame
I am ashamed of our part in the worldwide patriarchy and the lethargic progress towards equal rights for women.
I am ashamed of the horrors that befell the Native Americans throughout the American settlement of North America. The murderous expansion by fortune-seekers and land-grabbers across the continent and the penury and ten thousand privations forced on them is inexcusable and remains a bloody disfigurement on the American character.
I am ashamed of our part in the slavery industry in the Americas and the number of people who had to die in a bloody civil war to end it.
I am ashamed of my country’s covert meddling into the affairs of other nations as in Southeast Asia, South and Central America, Cuba and elsewhere.
I am ashamed of the many wars and conflicts we have participated in over absolutist ideologies and the deep senselessness of our political parties.
I am ashamed of our enthusiastic part in the development of nuclear weapons and our perverse cleverness in optimizing their design.
I am ashamed of the influence of capitalism on internal and foreign policy and the greedy idolatry it brings.
I am ashamed of the neoliberal right turn the country is presently taking and the acceptance of autocratic enthusiasm asserted therein.
I am ashamed of America’s reelection of a felonious man of low moral character and proven dishonesty and especially the large-scale support he enjoys among voters.
Trump and his MAGA followers are now preparing to decapitate the government of the USA. It is outlined in the Project 2025 document put together by the Heritage Foundation. The overall goal is to increase presidential power and set in place an ultra-conservative government. Part of that plan is populating the federal bureaucracy with politically reliable conservatives in addition to appointments. This is a kind of political ballast designed to keep the GOP takeover sailing along in an upright posture.
I say ‘decapitation’ because our present liberal democracy is in danger of disassembly by the wild-eyed MAGA version of the GOP. Below I have copied a definition verbatim from Wikipedia of a description of ‘Liberal Democracy’. The links were left intact for your convenience.
What is set to happen to the federal government is something that until now has only been dreamt of by libertarian-minded citizens. To complicate matters, very early in the Reagan administration the Moral Majority took up the cause of libertarian republicanism but added its own flavor of supernatural (read protestant) favoritism. Yes, it seems that the invisible Celestial Being had been watching American politics very closely and became alarmed enough to place Jerry Falwell as his earthly avatar. Now the GOP is backed by Jesus himself. What a credential.
I’ve always felt that Trump was best suited to be an after-dinner speaker, which, I’m sure he has done many times. He is an excellent speaker and carries the gravitas of a billionaire TV star. He was the golden boy of NYC until, well, you had a closer look.
Many are saying now that Trump is pulling his cabinet from his junk drawer of supporters. His latest nomination is former WWE CEO and billionaire donor Linda McMahon for the position of Secretary of Education. If you’re wondering what WWE is, it is World Wrestling Entertainment and it turns out that Trump was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013. His history with WWE goes back to WrestleMania IV in 1988. That said, I’m confident that he has never been pinned to the floor while wrestling. Trump comes from the TV entertainment business and well knows the power of celebrity.
McMahon has no evident credentials for any cabinet post in DC, as if that mattered. She’ll just be one of the many lackeys in the obedient wrecking crew in place to decapitate the federal government. She comes from the TV wrestling business which, as we all know, is not so much a sport as a burlesque.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is Trump’s pick to head ___. He seems to be a genuine crackpot with righteous ancestry. During COVID-19 he gained notoriety for his anti-vaccination stance. He was no friend of trump in 2016 either. He was captured on tape saying, while quoting Taibbi’s writing, “‘We may not have that many outright Nazis in America, but we have plenty of cowards and bootlickers, and once those fleshy dominoes start tumbling into the Trump camp, the game is up.” Fleshy dominoes. Love it.
Dr. Mehmet Oz is Trump’s pick to head the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The former surgeon and TV show host got his start appearing with Oprah, eventually peeling off to a show of his own. He comes from the TV entertainment business. His choices and public exposure has led to scandal.
Donald Trump on Monday nominated former MTV “Real World” contestant and current Fox News host Sean Duffy as Transportation Secretary. He comes from the TV entertainment business- Fox News.
Pete Hegseth of Fox News is Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense. Many of us didn’t know that the Secretary of Defense was an entry level position- all these days I’ve been aiming too low. He comes from the TV entertainment business and the House of Representatives.
And perhaps the most ridiculous lackey nomination of all is Matt Gaetz as Trump’s choice for Attorney General, the chief law enforcement official. I can’t bear to think about it. Heavy sigh.
Good news- Gaetz removed himself from consideration for Trump’s AG. He has been replaced with former Florida AG and Trump loyalist Pam Bondi.
Woke up to the worst news this morning. Trump has been reelected. To the international community I express my sorrow that for the second time, Trump has been elected President of the USA. There is nothing new to say about the guy that hasn’t already been said thousands of times.
But it gets worse. Trump’s Vice President is his ward, the inexperienced JD Vance, soon to be the former 2022 Senator from Ohio. Vance, contradicting his 2016 opposition to the now 78-year-old Trump, is only a few heart beats away from the Presidency. Setting aside for a moment how he might conduct the presidency, he would also be the leader or at least figurehead of the entire GOP political machine. Do we really think that a greenhorn like Vance would actually set the GOP agenda himself?
It is a given that Russia and previously the USSR has been conducting hybrid warfare in the West long before and during this election. Because of the asymmetric power balance between the West and Russia, Putin will be compelled to continue his deliberate corrosion of Western civilization long afterwards.
It is hard not to feel bad for Ukraine. They were watching our election closely. They understand that the election of Trump puts US spending for their defense in serious doubt. Not only could the money and weapons dry up, but Putin will be emboldened to continue his extermination of everything Ukrainian. Trump’s expressed lack of enthusiasm for NATO will certainly weaken its defensive posture in holding Putin east of present borders. Putin wants to take back what territory the collapse of the Soviet Union lost. That includes all of the now independent countries formerly part of the Soviet bloc. He is empire building and his boldness must be met with equal boldness in opposition.
There are serious repercussions in front of the free world because of this election. Withdrawal of American influence from any given acre or hectare in the world will create a vacuum soon to be occupied by someone, sometimes enemies of the West, namely China and Russia. They are playing the long game.
It is difficult for the USA to play the long game in international affairs due to the frequent transfers of power in the government. Policies puff up and soon collapse. It is difficult for other nations of the world to synchronize with this. Our frequent changes in administration and policy works against us when more patient but hostile nations encroach. It keeps everyone off-balance.
I think many Americans believe that the USA can continue to ride on past achievements and goodwill and that no one will notice. All free nations have to wake up every day and prove themselves anew.
One of the complaints about liberal democracy is that it lacks order and stability. Both China and Russia have stated this openly. President Viktor Orbán of Hungary is fond of referring to his reforms as part of a greater illiberal democracy. One definition of illiberal democracy is “nondemocratic practices behind formally democratic institutions and procedures”. This is just the larval form of authoritarianism.
Of course, liberal democracy is noisy and somewhat disordered. This is the nature of free people. The free exchange of ideas is called brainstorming. At some point time runs out and a consensus is taken and acted upon. Yesterday the national consensus was that Trump/Vance will win the Whitehouse. If the dimmer side of the bell curve votes in larger numbers, then they win. And that is that.
To friends in democratic states around the world. As you watch America’s clumsy slouch into an authoritarian/fascist state in real time, take heed. Level-headed Americans are astonished at the ease with which one insane populist has misled a venerable political party to mutate and turn against the foundational principles of our republic. The US has struggled to conduct a capitalistic democratic republic for 250 years. There have been many rough spots since our founding, some reprehensible. What is happening today is the decapitation of a powerful liberal democracy. The USA has been a prolonged experiment in mostly democratic governance where, in principle at least, today the leadership is elected fairly by all the people, not just property-owning white men.
The USA will be the only nation choosing fascism during a period of economic growth, abundant oil & gas and relative peace. Other nations in the world are battling but the US has no combat troops deployed to fight.
Lest anyone think that the MAGA movement was built from the urging of Trump alone, be aware that there has been a population of angry and disenfranchised white Americans for a very long time. Trump was just the seed crystal around which a concentrated population of teabaggers and other white Americans has crystallized. They have somehow been left behind on the road to a modern, prosperous future. If there was an actual trickle down of wealth that Ronald Reagan promised in the 1980’s, they were left high and dry.
We are witnessing a gradual overthrow by a party led by a man who is well understood to be a serial liar and a shameless, malignant narcissist who, in desperation for power and vengeance, will stop at nothing to take control of the USA. There is a word for what is happening- Lawfare, “the use of law as a means of accomplishing what might otherwise require the application of traditional military force“. This was popularized by Major General Charles Dunlap, USAF.
Trump’s immediate goal is getting even with his enemies. If that weren’t bad enough, he is firmly supported by loyal one third of the electorate. Many other Republicans cannot bring themselves to vote for a democrat for various reasons. The rabid supporters are known as MAGA- Make America Great Again– Republicans. These people see Trump as the key to America’s glorious future, but too intoxicated with revolutionary fervor to see Trump for what he really is- a grasping neofascist.
The 20th century was blighted with fascist dictatorships and even fascist organizations within liberal democracies, particularly in the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s. A partial list can be found here. For some reason, the USSR has been omitted from this list. Today, the latest Russian dictator stands out in his attempt to resurrect the power and reach of the Soviet Union, and he must be stopped.
The origins of conservative and libertarian outrage against American progressivism traces back more than a century, even before the era of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal in the mid 1930s. By the end of the 1800’s, political machines and business monopolies were firmly rooted in the landscape of America. The rising middle class eventually overcame much of this through politics.
Some put the American Progressive Era as between 1896 and 1917. Before this period the US was beset with urban poverty, child labor, Victorian era patriarchy, long working hours and unsafe working conditions. Note to MAGAs, was this when America was great??
The New Deal was a series of public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, aimed at rescuing the U.S. from the Great Depression.
“Major federal programs and agencies, including the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Farm Security Administration (FSA), the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA), provided support for farmers, the unemployed, youth, and the elderly. The New Deal included new constraints and safeguards on the banking industry and efforts to re-inflate the economy after prices had fallen sharply. New Deal programs included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.” Source: Wikipedia.
The 20th century witnessed the United States grappling with a severe depression starting in 1929 which spread worldwide. Later, the US reluctantly engaged in World War II with other allied powers combating Nazi forces in Europe, Africa, and Japanese imperialism in the Pacific. Upon discovering Hitler’s nuclear ambitions, the US, with vital assistance from British and European scientists, developed nuclear weapons using isolated domestic uranium-235 and the synthetic element plutonium-239. Fortunately, the Allied forces managed to defeat the Nazis in Europe in 1945 before the necessity of releasing a nuclear weapon there. By August 9th of that year, Japan was defeated and the war ended. Sadly, it received two atomic blasts.
The US came away from the World War II period full of itself and bursting with optimism. Technologies that were spawned by the war like radar, jet engines, high performance aircraft, industrial production of every kind and a can-do spirit led to a boom in single family homes, babies, and consumerism. By the late 1940’s, television was well along the way and behind it, computers, and new designs in automobiles. Americans were puffed up and excited about modern life while much of Europe and Japan were still cleaning up after the massive devastation caused by the war. The remoteness of North America and its seemingly inexhaustible natural resources left it almost untouched by the war.
By the Reagan years in the early 1980s, religious conservative and libertarian groups were organizing and linking up to form what would become a powerful political machine. This conservative, evangelical Christian Zionist nationalism group has methodically wound itself up and this very day proposes to make the USA into a theocratic state. They have money and fanatical adherents willing to risk a civil war for their faith. They will support the state of Israel to the extent that it makes way for the second coming of Christ. This is the core of Protestant Evangelical Christian eschatology. Like all religious warriers, they believe they are fulfilling God’s very own plan. I think the 21st century is going to be difficult.
Many of us think this would be laughable bullshit if it weren’t so serious. To grease the skids of their feared ‘apocalypse’ involving a final battle in Israel, they see Trump as one who could aid the beginning of this nightmare. To their credit, many confess they will have to hold their noses while voting for him. An apocalypse of sorts may happen, but it is more likely to be of the usual unholy variety.
In eastern Europe, once Trump withdraws US assistance to Ukraine, Putin will do the predictable and step up his plans for the take-down of the Baltic states and Poland as well. Putin is already well underway with his hybrid warfare. His meddling in the US elections is one element of hybrid warfare. The goal is to shake the world’s confidence in liberal democracy.
Once his move has begun, NATO will be obligated to come to their defense. It is hard to predict whether or not the threat of NATO’s backing will fend off a Putin invasion if the US backs out or takes a neutral position to Putin. Putin’s military, already greatly weakened, would be even closer to claiming that the state is in danger of collapse. The collapse of the state is Putin’s criterion for the release of nuclear weapons. NATO will respond in kind to a nuclear threat, and it will likely get out of control.
The US and Russia each have a nuclear triad that requires presidential approval for a strike. Even if the command centers of both countries are in ashes, the ballistic missile submarines will still be mission ready. Imagine, if in a conflict, that the US and NATO will have to rely on Trump and his White House staff to be Commander and Chief of US forces. Trump is a man who, as President, has a long history of ignoring the advice of military specialists preferring to ‘winging’ on his own.
What in Trump’s past behavior and utterances makes anyone confident that he is qualified to make decisions in any other matter of warfare? Should he have access to the nuclear launch codes or to top secret plans?
Of course, there will be military general staff and advisors around him as would be the case if Harris is elected. But Trump was notorious for not reading his daily intelligence reports nor much of anything else. He spent a lot of time on Airforce 1 traveling to play golf at his resorts.
Harris has a disciplined and educated mind as well as the native intelligence and organizational savvy to listen to the experts and make decisions with the best and latest information. Being a district attorney and prosecutor, California Attorney General, California Senator and Vice President, she is well versed in the law at many levels and can be relied upon to follow it.
International friends, protect your liberal democracies from those who would degrade them into autocratic states under the guise of law and order. A democratic republic is messy, noisy and will test your patience. This is not a bug; it is a feature. Rejoice in it.
See that pale blue dot as a single pixel? It is a picture taken by Voyager 1 in 1990 at a distance of 3.7 billion miles from the sun. A band of idiots living there are about to do something very stupid and self-destructive tomorrow, 5 November 2024. Source: Nasa photograph.
There is an interesting substack post by historian and NYU prof. Ruth Ben-Ghiat discussing the latest filing by Special Counsel Jack Smith that was just unsealed and released by Judge Tanya Chutkan. The full 165 page document can be found here. Boiled down, the filing makes the case Trump is not immune from prosecution.
Ben-Ghiat summarizes-
”At its core, the defendant’s scheme was a private one,” the prosecutors’ document reads. “He extensively used private actors and his campaign infrastructure to attempt to overturn the election results and operated in a private capacity as a candidate for office.”
On that basis, the filing argues that Trump is not entitled to the immunity from prosecution granted him by Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and other far-right ideologue-justices of the Supreme Court; that ruling would grant immunity for “official acts” executed as president.
The article goes on to say that Trump uses a ‘personalist’ model of governance where his personal, legal, political and financial needs take precedence over the party and the nation. And his needs are endless. The GOP is his personal storehouse of resources. His close followers are individuals who are strongly loyal to him and his mystique. He can convince others to conduct unsavory or even criminal acts, and when they fail, he’ll find someone else. This is not without precedent in the history of authoritarians.
The word ‘Lawfare‘ seems appropriate to Trump’s method courtroom delays and litigating to the hilt to sow confusion, expense and delay. it works, but is hugely expensive. Trump has been a wellspring of billable hours for the legal profession.
I just read that conservative influencers and even former president Trump have been referring to VP candidate Walz as ‘Tampon Tim’ over the state law mandating free menstrual supplies be available in grades 4-12 in Minnesota schools. The issue for some is that these supplies be made available to all needing access to the products, including transgender students, in whatever restrooms commonly used by students.
Editorial
I grew up in an America where such juvenile and scurrilous name calling would at least be kept out of the public discourse. It fell under the heading of “Mature and Common Decency” that most adults adhered to. That the insulting appellation “Tampon Tim” is being bandied about by a former US president in a presidential campaign watched by the world and being eagerly repeated by news outlets as infotainment. Even worse is the large population of MAGA citizens who accept and even encourage Trump’s troubling behavior. Trump is riding a wave that was already there waiting for someone like him.
Section 1. [121A.212] ACCESS TO MENSTRUAL PRODUCTS. A school district or charter school must provide students with access to menstrual products at no charge. The products must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12 according to a plan developed by the school district. For purposes of this section, “menstrual products” means pads, tampons, or other similar products used in connection with the menstrual cycle.
The response by the Trump horde has been vigorous and execrable. Even #45 himself is calling Walz ‘Tampon Tim’ in the open.
“As a woman there is no greater threat to a woman’s health than leaders … who support putting tampons in men’s bathrooms in public schools,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Tuesday. [Bold typeface mine] Source: CBS News.
Help me trace cause and effect here. ‘As a woman (ok, gender specific here) there is no greater threat to a woman’s health (a threat that could lead to what exactly?) than leaders … who support putting tampons in men’s bathrooms in public schools.’
What is the nature of the threat? Is it more threatening than male violence by murder, rape or physical abuse, because murder, rape and physical abuse is pretty bad already, right? How could a ‘tampon threat’ play out? What could men/boys do with a tampon, a wad of compressed fiber on a string, that would rise above an immature prank? A prank that would likely be played on boys by other boys?
Oh, right. Karoline said that the threat was from ‘the leaders … who support …’. So, what kind of harm could women suffer from a leader who makes free feminine hygiene products available in the public schools? Her statement obviously signals ‘danger’ from tolerance for transgenderism. The matter of gender dysphoria is listed in DSM-5-TR as a recognized condition, but not a mental illness. The Journal Psychiatry has a short and readable paper on diagnosing gender dysphoria. From the article, Gender dysphoria is ‘a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and primary and/or secondary sex characteristics.’
Conservative protestant evangelical leaders and many GOP politicians who rage about the illegitimacy of gender transition have taken the path of idiocy and are happy to be there. Gender dysphoria is a medically recognized condition based on a minimum set of criteria. Those so afflicted often lead lives of misery that frequently ends in suicide.
This sounds like little more than a regression to the Victorian age taboo about discussing the female body and its physical processes. Or the entire subject of sexuality.
In this case I tend to think that being a female making ridiculous claims about an exclusively female topic does not afford refuge from criticism, but only boils down to a person being a dipshit trying to influence others by stoking brainstem-level fear. This is the usual Republican means of grabbing power.
After reading a biography of the Russian Marshal of the Soviet Union, Georgy Zhukov, it becomes apparent that there are parallels between Soviet tactics in WWII and those used in the Putin-Ukraine conflict. Beyond the deployment of similarly vintaged tanks and weaponry, General Zhukov was notorious for committing his forces to battle with little regard for casualties. Similarly, Putin’s military has been characterized by the use of inadequately trained and equipped conscripts. Additionally, it has been reported that Putin’s forces have positioned troops behind the front lines to prevent or even target any deserting or retreating frontline soldiers. Zhukov’s approach often involved rapidly advancing battalions and armor to the front with minimal planning, depending on the attrition of Nazi forces. This tactic was typically executed under Stalin’s direct orders, though sometimes initiated by Zhukov independently.
The conflict between Putin and Ukraine has evolved into a war of attrition. Initially, Putin thought he could swiftly deploy tanks and troops as he did in southern Ukraine in 2014, seizing territory through sheer intimidation. However, he miscalculated the armaments, determination and tenacity of the Ukrainian forces. Since 2014, tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have received training from Western nations. By February 2022, they were significantly better prepared and less intimidated by Putin’s military. In conventional warfare, the Russian military turned out to be a paper tiger, at least with its conventional non-nuclear forces, that is. The Putin-Ukraine war is still unfolding but Russia will come out of it severely stunted win or lose and possibly with new leadership. Whatever the outcome, the winner will have a great deal of de-mining to do. The conflict continues to unfold, but regardless of the outcome, Russia is likely to emerge greatly weakened, potentially with a change in leadership.
Putin is a smart guy. Certainly he knows the consequences of releasing as much as a single low yield tactical nuclear weapon, even if it’s limited to a demonstration. Pandora’s box would swing wide open and out would slink an ever-expanding series of repeats of above ground nuclear blasts until a city would be hit. Then all out nuclear war could happen in the old eye-for-an-eye fashion. Dark days would follow indeed.
Putin surely realizes the dangerous situation his county is in with mounting military losses, the brain-drain of skilled workers leaving the country and a crumbling oil and minerals-based economy. Yet he wears the neutral expression of the Sphinx in public because he must. He has painted himself and his nation into a corner. He even resorted to making nice with the plump North Korean dictator which must have been a nauseating demotion for him.
A bit of history
The Magna Carta was an agreement signed in England on June 10th, 1215, at Runnymede along the River Thames. This agreement had the unique provision of the enforcement of limitations on the sovereign. Rather than a simple recitation of grievances by the barons, the Magna Carta contained ‘security clause 61’ which provided for the barons the authority to seize the castles and lands of King John and hold them until such time as he held to his responsibilities as agreed upon in the signed document.
The Magna Carta was not just a contract between wealthy barons and King John, rather it was a step change towards political reform that provided for enforcement on the King. From Wikipedia–
“First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Stephen Langton, to make peace between the unpopular king and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift and impartial justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons.”
Unfortunately, the distrust between the barons and the Crown, compounded by the annulment from Pope Innocent III, led to its swift failure. Just a few months after the agreement fell apart, the First Baron’s War erupted. However, this was not the final chapter. The document was reissued in successive versions, with the more radical language removed, in 1217, 1225, and finally in 1297, when its remaining elements were incorporated into England’s statute law. It was not unique in its attempt to limit the power of the Crown; similar efforts were seen elsewhere. Over time, the Parliament of England enacted laws that overshadowed the original document, diminishing its significance.
Back to Russia
The point of highlighting the Magna Carta, despite its failure, is that nothing of this type of significance happened in the history of Russia, at least until the Bolshevik Revolution. Perhaps this comparison is too facile, causing real historians to choke on their Starbuck’s latte. But allow me to finish. The Magna Carta was not entirely unique for its era. However, it was notable for including a provision that enforced the good faith by the King. It represented a collective bargaining effort by the 25 barons with King John to alleviate some of the monarchy’s oppression and, in doing so, progress the political atmosphere for a short time with fits and starts. As kings often do, King John protested to the Pope, who then exerted his authority in a manner only a Pope could. The Pope excommunicated the Barons and nullified the agreement, having been persuaded by King John that it undermined the Church’s authority.
Russia seems not to have a tradition of producing successful popular uprisings to the power of the Tsar. of course, the Bolshevik revolution is the shining counterexample. Not in the sense of overthrow so much, but as an enforceable agreement to relieve a measure of oppression by the monarchy at all levels. In contradiction to this sweeping generalization is the case of Tsars Alexander I and II. Alexander I introduced minor social reforms but he was a strict Russian nationalist and Slavophile. Many of the reforms he instituted early in his career were retracted later.
Tsar Alexander II , however, instituted many liberal reforms but is possibly most revered for his Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861. In the US, he is remembered as the Tsar who sold us Alaska. He was a supporter of the Union in the American Civil War and even sent ships to New York Harbor and San Francisco Bay to deter Confederate warships. Eventually he was assassinated in Saint Petersburg on March 13, 1881. The first assassin’s bomb thrown under his armored carriage left him dazed but uninjured. The second assassin’s bomb thrown shortly thereafter delivered the fatal injuries as he stepped out to investigate. The third assassin’s bomb was unused.
Zooming forward to the present, what actions can the Russian populace take regarding Tsar Putin? After centuries of political oppression aided by new thinking, modern technology, and nuclear weapons the current Tsar has built a deep and wide moat around himself and his allies within the Kremlin establishment. Beyond this moat stands a population conditioned to obedience by fear, a legacy of decades of Soviet rule. I believe that national pride will deter them from emulating Western forms of civil society and governance. And why can’t they develop an authentically Russian something-something ‘democracy’, or whatever? Russia has deep foundation of cultural, artistic and scientific achievements to take pride in, despite its history of authoritarian governance. Whatever Russia eventually does, it will be heavily Slavic and Eastern Orthodox.
Russians are just as pleasant and smart as everyone else in the world, obviously. Russian hospitality is first rate as I have personally experienced. They just have the heavy blanket of oppressive leadership over them that continues to drag through the generations. Even if Putin falls out of power, there is a line of replacements cut from the same cloth. Perhaps a leader of a reform movement could rebuild Russia? It could happen but just as likely it could revert into a system that is better at prosecuting a war of aggression and suppression of the population. The replacement of Putin could be good for the world, or it could go sour. The world has to wait it out and see. In the meantime, it is critical to keep Putin out of Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states.
The Putin government is like a toxic gas- it will expand into all of the space available. After the decades-long stand down in tension since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the problem of an aggressive Russia arises again. The West must remain the sturdy counter example to the authoritarian culture of Putin’s Russia. We in the USA, especially, need to do a better job as the shining city on the hill. Lately the shine is wearing off.
Note: Not residing in Russia, I cannot grasp the full extent of the events and mood unfolding there. All that remains is to perch on a power pole across the polar cap and try to discern fact from fiction.
>>> Let’s ask a very basic question about today’s Russia. Why can’t Russia Putin play nice? <<<
Like most, I have anxiously watched Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The prevailing Russian narrative is trying to say that the sovereign nation known as Ukraine has historically been a part of Russia or some earlier Russian empire, a view promoted by Putin. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin directed the Bolsheviks to seize the territory now recognized as Ukraine. The goal was to claim territory for the Soviet Union, but also territory that was extremely fertile. Stalin ordered that Ukrainian industry and agriculture were to be collectivized. An independent Ukrainian government was briefly established but just as quickly collapsed. After several years of intense Ukrainian resistance and significant suffering, Lenin conceded and established Soviet Ukraine, enabling its incorporation into the Soviet Union as a constituent republic.
In the current action, with the support of an extensive security apparatus, Vladimir Putin has resolved that what is now Ukraine will be assimilated into a growing Russian empire. The process will methodically transform its Ukrainian identity through Russification, transforming it into southwestern Russia. Ukraine is expected to become an agricultural hub and potentially a strategic forward base for further military operations into Poland the Baltic states, and likely Moldova.
Why does Putin desire Ukraine when there is considerable open land to the east and north? Well, it’s the geography. The land beyond to the north and east of Moscow consists of vast stretches of challenging subarctic taiga and arctic permafrost, much of which is now thawing, making it unsuitable for roads, urban development, agriculture, and industry. In contrast, Ukraine boasts rich, productive farmland with significant annual grain exports. Additionally, along its southern coast, including Crimea, Ukraine possesses the only warm water ports available in the region, other than possibly the Neva River to the north which are vital for commerce and the military.
Historically, western European colonization was driven by the prospect of trade opportunity including raw materials, cheap labor as well as power projection. Like all countries, Russia would like room for its prosperity to grow. It is desirable that agricultural and industrial capacity also rise. However, Russia has learned the hard way the value of having a buffer zone between Moscow and Western Europe. The relative ease with which both Napolean and Hitler crossed the Eastern European territory enroute to Moscow, Leningrad and other cities through greater Russia did not go unnoticed by Stalin. By absorbing the Eastern European territories after WWII, Stalin built a picket fence protecting the Soviet state.
As the Nazi’s Operation Barbarossa was failing and Stalin’s Red Army began pushing the Germans into a westward retreat, the Soviets took advantage of the opportunity to install Soviet political structure in captured Nazi territory like the Baltic states, Eastern Europe and the eastern half of Germany. While Stalin did not share Hitler’s enthusiasm for exterminating Jews, he did act to eliminate preexisting local political structures which included substantial Jewish presence. This meant executions and large-scale banishment of politically unreliable people to the Russian gulag system. Poland was hit particularly hard by both Hitler and Stalin because it was directly between Russia and Germany and had a large Jewish population.
The above map shows the population density of Russia. A substantial fraction of Russians live in the southern and western regions of the country. If you assume that people are living there because it is at least somewhat livable, then the map shows the extent of land poorly suited for habitation.
Map of Russia showing areas that are 90 % populated by ethnic Russians.
Russia has a great deal of acreage but the livable turf is much smaller.
Putin views the world partially from the old cold war perspective. It’s Russia against the aggressive, corrupt and immoral west, but without the fever dream of a Soviet-style socialist world. Putin’s state-controlled media endlessly repeats that the west wants what the Russians have and stokes the fires of fear. For the Soviets, “aggressive, corrupt and immoral” included resistance to Soviet influence.
In my many years of trying to be as informed as possible in many areas in a free and open society, not once have I heard anyone suggest “Gosh, I wish the USA could occupy Russia (or the USSR) as an American territory and take all of their stuff.” Imagine the scope of the folly in stupidity of such an attempt. It is mindbogglingly absurd to believe that one could or would want to do such a thing. Russia is for the Russians. Maybe one day they will hit upon a way to craft a free and open society.
The Soviets were ardent promoters of global socialism. Although not overtly socialist, Putin appears more focused on preserving Russian culture and dominance from across a substantial territorial buffer with the West. He asserts his aim to shield Russia from Western cultural influences and what he perceives as a “belligerent” military stance.
The “belligerent military stance” of the West amounts to NATO responding to Soviet adventurism and their habit of hybrid warfare. They would say the same thing from their perspective, but which side was the more authoritarian?
Historically, Russia has endured invasions by King Charles XII of Sweden, Napoleon, and later Hitler. The history of the Kievan Rus from 830 to 1241 is jammed with bloody feuds, wars and invasions. From the Principality of Moscow in 1281 to the end of the Tsardom in 1917, and even beyond into the era of the Soviet Union and into Putin’s time, near continuous conflict has plagued the Russian people. Fortunately, Russia’s northern geography and harsh winters have often played to its advantage, compelling invaders into prolonged conflicts and misery with eventual withdrawal. But not always.
Most nations would like to have global hegemony. Putin is fond of saying that Russia has suffered greatly from American and Western hegemony since WWII and hopes to put an end to it. He has reestablished a Soviet-like security state apparatus with strict media control when he assumed power after the 8 years of Yeltsin’s chaos following the collapse of the Soviet Union. He is trying to resume for present day Russia the former Soviet Union’s international status but largely without the manpower and resources of the former adjacent Soviet states.
Source: The Fuller Project. Unexploded cluster bomb in Ukrainian wheatfield.
Like his Soviet predecessors, Putin both envies and worries about overreach of western hegemony and is moving to unseat the West. For that matter, so is China. This is only natural. I believe they resent western influence generally. The English language as the global lingua franca and the US dollar as the standard international currency are seen as an annoying affront to their own cultures, sovereignty and political significance. Again, this is only natural. And so is the temptation to use power projection or coercive propaganda to achieve their own hegemony. Casualties would be considered the West’s fault for being in the way.
Both Russia and China have long been critical of the West for internal propaganda purposes but to be fair there has been some valid criticism as well. In truth, the US has done some bone-headed things that we should not be proud of and that hardly serve to highlight our presumed “special” nature. But in fairness, most all cultures can look back at regrettable conduct in their history. Neither Chairman Mao’s China or Stalin’s USSR have sparkling clean histories either. Often the benefit of hindsight doesn’t come into focus until far down the timeline.
The Soviet Union in the person of Joseph Stalin, had brutalized Ukraine previously in an attempt to halt its independence. The Holodomor, meaning death by starvation, of 1932-33 is estimated by scholars to have killed 3.5 to 5 million people. This period of time is marked by forced collectivization of agriculture and industry in the USSR and Ukraine. Collectivization meant taking control of farmland owned by the peasants (especially the Kulaks), many times banishing them to the gulags never to be seen again. Already by 1931, Moscow had taken 42 % of the Ukrainian grain harvest, forcing some locations even to turn over seed for the following harvest. By early 1932 some districts in Ukraine were already experiencing famine. The governing committees in Ukraine in 1932 believed that the 6 million tons of grain demanded by Moscow was unachievable, yet they ratified the plan anyway.
The current brutal murder and devastation of Ukrainian citizens and their infrastructure and agriculture will take a generation or more to repair even if Russia prevails. Russia has done great damage to the Ukrainian environment in addition to the many casualties. Much of the country is cratered, littered with destroyed vehicles and war debris, denuded of vegetation, and rendered deadly by the landmines.
The great equalizer among the leading nations is Mutual Assured Destruction, or MAD, by virtue of the threat of the use of nuclear weapons for mutual annihilation. Sometimes just called “the bomb”, it was indeed invented by an international cast of scientists and engineers using American uranium and Plutonium and first used in successive releases by the US on Japan near the end of WWII in the Pacific theater. This will darken a stretch of American history indefinitely. Some continue to argue that the bombing was not necessary because Japan was soon to surrender, but it happened, and nothing can change that. However, to our credit, the US has never used it since and has actively sought with other nations to suppress the proliferation of nuclear weapons and remove the hair triggers for their use. That said, the US remains a no-first-use country but will participate in the principle of Mutual Assured Destruction as needed.
A Nuclear Sidebar
Very soon after the discovery of nuclear fission in December, 1938, in Nazi Germany by German-born chemists Hahn and Strassmann, and Austrian-born physicists Meitner and Frisch, the theoretical potential of using the vast energy output of nuclear fission for a bomb was quickly realized. On May 4, 1939, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, H. Von Halban and L. Kowarski in Paris filed for three patents using a fission chain reaction. Two involved power generation and the third was for an atomic bomb, patent No. 445686. Fission was experimentally discovered in Dec. 1938, theoretically explained in January 1939, and a patent for the atomic bomb was filed on May 4, 1939.
The point of this atomic interlude is to highlight the short time interval between the discovery of nuclear fission, conceiving the idea of the atomic bomb and filing for a patent by scientists. On August 2, 1939, a letter written by Leo Szilard and signed by Albert Einstein was sent to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning that Germany may be developing an atomic bomb. This led to the Manhattan Project and America’s entry into nuclear weaponry.
During and after the Manhattan Project, Stalin’s spies detected and infiltrated the American bomb project and presumably used important stolen information for their own nuclear program. This was an important shortcut benefitting the Soviets greatly. The first Soviet atomic bomb burst so soon after the war shocked the world.
Humans have a gift for the invention and use of weapons. I’m sure it has always been that way for humans. The inclination for war and conquest is also an ancient instinct. It is hard to see how aggression will ever change. In view of this distressing thought, how are we to proceed?
Looking forward
In the short term we in the west must continue to discourage Putin’s expansionist push. A win for Ukraine will set a precedent that might even unseat Putin. It is up to the many good people in Russia to be rid of him. However, Russian citizens will have to struggle against the vast authoritarian political machine in place just like the Poles, East Germans and the other Soviet states had to do in the late 1980’s. The intimidation and resources of the Putin authoritarian state are a huge obstacle.
My guess is that in general, doing the “right thing” in a culture of normalized authoritarianism, bribery and corruption is more difficult to accomplish than doing the “right thing” in a free and open culture where doing the right thing is occasionally practiced and always admired.
To a westerner like me, Russian withdrawal from Ukraine seems like the optimal solution to Russia’s present economic and military race to the bottom. Even in winning, Russia will inherit a devastated region that will require vast resources and a decade to repair, as well as a population of angry and vengeful citizens looking to kill a Russian or two. Then there are all of the land mines to contend with. There is amputation or death by landmines in the future for many unsuspecting people regardless of who wins.
A cessation of hostilities led by Putin is likely to end his career. Thus far, Putin’s invasion has led to over 500,000 Russian casualties, of which there have been over 80,000 Russian fatalities. In a way, this pales in comparison to Stalin’s murderous handiwork, but the comparison is really more like “terrible versus really, really terrible.”
Whether or not Putin is a reanimated Soviet leader or “just” another Tsar isn’t a question to dwell on. He is a creature of his time who happens to be a former Soviet KGB officer but has rejected Marxist/Leninism and rules by a roughly mafia-style kleptocracy behind closed doors in the Moscow Kremlin. For Russian citizens, the rule of thumb is if you stay out of political business, the government will stay out of your business.
Wow. The evolving kerfuffle around Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK Jr.) leaving a dead bear cub in NYC’s Central Park is another odd chapter in this guy’s bio. He had posted a video on X where he recounted a story to Rosanne Barr about the bear cub incident.
Harvesting roadkill for food is not something people often do in the big city, but up the holler it is occasionally indulged in. I lived for a time outside of Durango, Colorado, where an elk herd would winter-over north of town along the Animas River. My experience was that elk were a little different from skittish deer in that a bull elk would just stand in the road and stare at you as you closed in on it. Not only would the damage to your vehicle and the elk be serious, but the height of an adult elk assures that it would slide over the hood and through the windshield and into your face. An unpleasant scenario to be sure.
One morning while commuting into Durango I passed the carcass of a large bull elk lying alongside the road, dead as a door nail. On my return commute that evening the elk carcass had been replaced by a large pile of glistening pink entrails. It was a bonanza for some lucky sod. I learned later that this was fairly common and was told that the forest service (or some other lucky group) even had a special disposal facility for roadkill.
It is worth noting that RFK Jr. mentioned that he is a falconer. It stands to reason that a falconer might be inclined to collect roadkill to feed the falcon. Our natural instinct to avoid handling roadkill might be overridden by a falconer.
He did say that he was going to take the bear cub home, skin it and put the meat in his refrigerator. He didn’t mention eating it. Maybe he was going to use the meat to feed his falcon. From personal experience I can say that bear meat is less than choice eating. As a starving undergrad living off campus, I was gifted some bear sausage which I made into chili. It was awful- the sausage spices were meant to cover up the taste, but it just didn’t work. I fried the bear sausage first before adding to the chili and it stunk up the whole apartment.
The stashing of the bear cub carcass in Central Park by RFK Jr. and his drunken friends was meant to be a prank, he claims, relating to recent published accounts of bicycling fatalities there. He said the intention was to make it look like a bicyclist hit the bear. I don’t know, if I were with drunk buddies late at night, it might well seem funny to me too, especially since the carcass was in the trunk anyway.
Nonetheless, a story like this going public for a politician can only detract from their campaign and should have been left unrevealed and deep in the murky depths of time. The revulsion to an animal carcass can only translate into revulsion to the candidate.
Though not at all a fan of RFK Jr., I can sympathize with him just a tiny bit on this fiasco, anti-vax flake though he is.
The news service Reuters recently published an article on the ease with which the raw materials for the production of the opioid Fentanyl. From their $3600 expenditure on raw materials they estimate they could have produced $3 million worth of Fentanyl.
For an estimated 74,702 Americans in 2023, Fentanyl provided them with a narcotic experience prior to death. The lethal dose is reported to be 2 milligrams for an adult. It is 20 to 40 times more potent than heroin.
Outside of medical use Fentanyl should be described as a highly (neuro)toxic substance rather than just an opioid. Yes, it is an illegal narcotic, but it is also a potent deadly poison. Hidden with other illegal drugs in pill form, it is just a highly toxic contaminant.
On January 5, 2024, I posted a piece titled “A Bit of Fentanyl Chemistry” which is reproduced below. It turns out that the Janssen synthetic chemistry I wrote about then is quite close to what the investigators at Reuters had in mind for their story. In the world of chemical commerce, a process using easily available raw materials is highly favored.
My take-home message from the Reuters story is that unless China seriously clamps down on those who export the raw materials, all that is left to do is to suppress demand. The import of Fentanyl raw materials is aided by deceptive packaging and small quantities needed. Worse, Fentanyl raw materials have other uses in pharmaceutical chemistry and are too useful to completely shut down. The death and incarceration that Fentanyl can bring in the US does not appear to be sufficiently convincing to the at-risk American population. Nothing new here.
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A recent raid on a clandestine drug lab in the Hatzic Valley east of Vancouver, BC, netted 25 kg of “pure” fentanyl and 3 kg which had already been cut for street use. Precursor chemicals used to manufacture the fentanyl were also seized. Along with the drug, the raid also seized 2,000 liters of chemicals and 6,000 liters (about 30 drums) of hazardous chemical waste, according to an RCMP news release 2 November, 2023.
The police said that the seizure represented 2,500,000 street doses.
In August of 2023 the police in Hamilton, Ontario, announced the results of Project Odeon. This was a large-scale sweep of illicit drug production in the Hamilton and Toronto area. From January 1, to July 30, 2023 there were 606 incidents related to suspected opioid overdoses and 89 suspected drug related deaths in the Hamilton area. Twelve people were charged for a total of 48 criminal charges. The police disclosed the following items that they seized-
An operational fentanyl drug lab at 6800 Sixteen Road, Smithville.
A dismantled fentanyl drug lab at 4057 Bethesda Road, Stouffville.
Approximately 3.5 tons of chemical byproduct from fentanyl production.
800 gallons of chemicals commonly used in the production of fentanyl
Lab equipment commonly used in the production of fentanyl
64.1 kg of illicit drugs, including 25.6 kg of fentanyl, 18 kg methamphetamine, 6 kg of ketamine
A loaded, Glock firearm and ammunition and four extended magazines
Over $350,000 of seized proceeds, including cars, jewelry, furniture and cash
Fentanyl is a synthetic drug first prepared in 1959 in Belgium by Paul Janssen (1926-2003). Janssen was the founder of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, now a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. In addition to fentanyl, the Jenssen team developed haloperidol, the ultrapotent carfentanil, and other piperidine based congeners. Piperidine itself is a DEA List 1 substance in the US.
Carfentanil is just modified fentanyl. Graphics: Will O. de Wisp
The elephant in the room with fentanyl is its extraordinary potency as an opioid. In pharmacology, potency is a quantitative measure of the amount of dose needed to elicit a specific effect on an animal or human in terms of dose weight per kilogram of body mass. Potency is subject to variability across a population and rises to an asymptote which can be difficult to pin down. For these reasons potency is reported at 50 %. For highly potent drugs like fentanyl, the measure is expressed as milligrams or micrograms of dose per kilogram body weight (mg/kg or mcg/kg body weight). One milligram per kilogram is one part per million (ppm).
When matters of toxicity arise, it is important to remember the maxim that “the dose makes the poison”. This observation traces back to Paracelsus in the mid-sixteenth century.
“All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison.”
Fentanyl acts much like morphine in regard to its affinity for one particular opioid receptor. Morphine is commonly the “standard” with which other opioids are compared. For instance, fentanyl is said to be 50-100 times more potent than morphine. Only 2 mg of fentanyl is equivalent to 10 mg of morphine. Carfentanil is more potent still at 10,000 times the potency of morphine.
Morphine is an agonist which activates the μ-opioid receptor. Activation of this receptor with morphine produces analgesia, sedation, euphoria, decreased respiration and decreased bowel motility leading to the earthly delights of constipation. Fentanyl is thought to interact with this receptor as well.
Original fentanyl synthesis by Janssen. Graphics: Will O. de Wisp
So, how is fentanyl synthesized? See the synthetic scheme above. I’ll just comment on the Janssen synthesis and some issues. I have no idea of how it is made out in there by the Mexican cartels and in ramshackle American trailer parks. The synthesis above has some steps that may be undesirable for backwoods or jungle operations like hydrogenation. In the first step, aniline will be needed to make the phenyl imine. It’s pretty toxic and stinks to high heaven. Next, lithium aluminum hydride is needed to reduce the imine double bond to an amine. This innocent looking grey powder is very hazardous and should only be used by an experienced chemist. It is also available as a solution in tetrahydrofuran. The next step is the formation of the amide with propionic anhydride. While the reaction entails a simple reflux, you still have to isolate the product. Once you have recovered the amide, the benzyl protecting group on the piperidine nitrogen must be removed. It allowed amide formation exclusively on the upper aniline nitrogen and has served its purpose. Finally, the piperidine nitrogen must be festooned with a phenylethyl group and phenylethyl chloride was used to afford the fentanyl product.
In chemical synthesis generally, substances are prepared in a stepwise manner and with as few steps as possible to give high isolated yields. To begin, one must devise a synthesis beginning with commercially available raw materials as close to the target as possible. If the product has many fragments hanging off the core structure, it’s best to solve that problem early. Synthetic chemistry is almost always performed in a non-interfering solvent that will dissolve the reactants and allow the necessary reaction to occur. A low boiling point is preferable for ease of distillation. An important side benefit from a solvent is that it will absorb much of the heat of reaction which can be considerable. Left on its own, a reaction might take its solvent to the boiling point by self-heating, generating pressure and vapor. The benefit from evaporation or reflux boiling is that as a solvent transitions from liquid to vapor there is a strong cooling effect which helps to control the temperature. An overhead condenser will return cooled solvent to prevent solvent loss.
You can do any chemical synthesis in one step with the right starting materials. Unfortunately, this option is rarely available. The next best option is to take commercially available starting materials through a known synthetic scheme. People who run illicit drug labs are never interested in R&D. They want (and need) simple chemistry that can be done by non-chemists in buckets or coke bottles at remote locations. Chemical glassware can be purchased but sometimes the authorities will be notified of a suspicious order. This is especially true with 12 liter round bottom flasks.
The most difficult and risky trick to illicit drug synthesis is obtaining starting materials like piperidine compounds in the case of fentanyl and its congeners. In the case of heroin, acetic anhydride shipments have been investigated for a long time because it is used to convert morphine to heroin- an unusually simple one-step conversion. Solvent diethyl ether is similarly difficult to get outside of established companies or universities. Many other common drug starting materials are difficult to obtain legally in the US or EU by the criminal element. However, China is thought to be a major supplier of starting materials outside the US and EU. Countries with remote coastlines, loose borders, lackadaisical or corrupt law enforcement reduce the barriers for entry of drug precursors.
China in particular has a large number of chemical plants that make diverse precursors for legitimate drugs. Unfortunately, some of these precursors can also be used for illicit drugs or existing technology adapted for this use. Precursors can be sold to resellers who can do as they please with them. Agents may represent many manufacturers and can mask the manufacturer’s identity and take charge of the distribution abroad. Shady transactions become difficult for authorities to detect and trace. The identity of illicit precursor chemicals are easily altered in the paperwork to grease the skids through customs. Resellers can repackage chemicals to suitable scale, change the paperwork and jack up the price for export. It has been my experience that many if not most Chinese or Japanese chemical manufacturers conduct business through independent export agents. However, behind the curtains there often a byzantine web of connections between companies and agents, so you may never know who will manufacture your chemical. As an aside, this complicates getting technical information from the manufacturer since the agent will not disclose a contact at that manufacturer.
Highly potent drugs like fentanyl must be taken in very small dosages which means that kilo-scale batch quantities of drug result in many individual sales per kilo. Small quantities of highly potent drugs are more easily smuggled than bulky drugs like weed with its strong odor.
There is a down-side to the illicit manufacture of drugs like fentanyl. It is quite toxic at very low dosages and must be handled with the greatest of care lest the “cook” and other handlers get inadvertently and mortally poisoned. Good housekeeping helps, but I have yet to see a photo of a tidy drug lab.
Fentanyl can be sold as a single drug but perhaps is cut with a solid diluent that some random yayhoo decided was Ok to use. Other drugs of abuse like heroin may be surreptitiously spiked with fentanyl to kick up the potency. In either case, a given dosage may or may not be safe even for a single use. There is no way for a user to know. Also, the concentration or homogeneity of mixed solids may be subject to wide variation. For more than a few people, their first fentanyl dose will be their last.
Lamentations on Chemistry 