Well, I’m hanging up my keyboard, at least as far as Mid America Publishing is concerned. I haven’t done a real good job lately distracted by back pain after 2 knee replacements. Sounds complicated but so what?
I willtry to continue to send something to this list and that should add some flexability.
Below is some on Joni Ernst, our war-monger big spender Iowa Senator. I replied to a column she wrote about fentanyl. I wrote to her and she replied in that order. What a joke that she might have thought her reply actually addresses my letter,
FEBRUARY 22, 2023
Joni Ernst: It’s time to address our fentanyl epidemic with solutions equivalent to the problem.
Earlier this month, during a visit to the California-Mexico border, Border Patrol agents told me that they had recently been forced to release a smuggler caught with 50 pounds of fentanyl – enough to kill 11 million Americans – because that sector of the border lacked the capacity to detain them.
According to these agents, our border is so overrun that not every apprehended criminal can be detained. Beds in detention facilities are being prioritized based on the seriousness of the crime committed – and space is full every single day.
These agents detailed the stress they undergo daily. Simply put, the Biden administration is not only failing our men and women in green – they are failing the American people. Their policies have incentivized a greater flow of illegal immigration, human smuggling, and lethal drugs.
Tackling the fentanyl epidemic is complicated; but complicated can’t mean complacency. Complicated should not deter us from taking action. Here’s what I propose.
Step 1: More resources for our Border Patrol agents
Border Patrol is in desperate need of more resources. During my recent visits to both San Diego, California, and McAllen, Texas, I heard how our agents are overwhelmed and undermanned. In San Diego specifically, their Port of Entry has 34 lanes of traffic, with 70,000 vehicles and 20,000 pedestrians crossing each day. Drug detecting canine units expedite the screening process, but there are not nearly enough units to ensure each car is properly screened.
In desolate regions of the border, like in Texas, our agents rely on surveillance technology. However, the methods they deploy are significantly out of date, and they often wait months on parts to upgrade their capabilities to spot migrants and cartel activity. Giving our Border Patrol what they need to do their job is an easy ask, and one that my Democratic colleagues should support.
Step 2: An interagency task force
The Biden administration should create an interagency task force – located in Mexico – to curb the flow of illegal drugs, namely fentanyl. It’s a similar strategy that has been deployed elsewhere in the world to combat other hard narcotics, such as cocaine. Allowing more than 30 U.S. agencies to operate in Mexico would ensure maximum coordination and attention to combat the fentanyl epidemic.
More specifically, the interagency lead should be a Cabinet-level position, and in near-daily contact with the White House, working to improve information sharing and to reduce the fentanyl supply. The Office of National Drug Control Policy previously functioned in a cabinet-level capacity, but the role was de-elevated. Creating a task force with a clear mission is going to take assertive and aggressive leadership by this administration, and I’m hopeful they might actuallylisten and do it.
Step 3: Prosecute the criminals fueling these crises
Finally, we need to start properly prosecuting the criminals fueling our border crisis and fentanyl epidemic. Currently, cartels use “spotters” – individuals who aid their illegal activity at the border by surveilling Border Patrol. Spotters monitor stretches of the open border and report on Border Patrol movements, equipment locations, and other law enforcement activity. I say we crack down on anyone who aids and abets these dangerous cartels by increasing fines and jail time.
We also need to heighten the charges for drug dealers who distribute deadly fentanyl and the individuals profiting from the fentanyl epidemic. Fentanyl continues to kill Americans at a rate of 196 people a day. If a criminal willingly distributes fentanyl to unknowing victims and that individual overdoses or dies, they should face felony murder charges.
We are way past-due for a response that is equivalent to the problem. With the record-breaking border crossingswe’ve seen over the last two years, we cannot afford to waste any more time. I hope President Biden will agree, and work with us to take action.
In a column on page 5 of the March 1 Chronicle Senator Joni Ernst says “it’s time to address the fentanyl epidemic…” I contend that if we actually cared about the over 100,000 people who overdosed last year we would approach it in a different way than we have in the last 99 years.
Dear Joni,
For years I’ve asked drug warriors to tell me if they know of an addict who quit dope because it was not available. The answer was always silence. Dope addicts quit when they want to, not before.
The rash of overdose deaths is because illegality makes it impossible to know the strength of the drug. If the drugs were legal they could be made less harmful by a private testing service like Underwriters Laboratories and paid for with fees from drug companies.
Concerning Mrs. Ernst’s claim of an unsecured border, we have 160,000 troops stationed overseas. The most important job of the federal government, controlling the border, is on the back burner. We shouldn’t sacrifice our own security at the border while defending wealthy nations overseas.
Drug addicts who decide to get clean should be able to seek help without fear of law enforcement. Taxpayers should not be saddled with the costs of the drug war.
So, Mrs. Ernst, bring the troops home to defend the United States and screen potential new citizens. Let the other countries of the world be responsible for their own defense. And let taxpayers pay for essential services instead of playing failed babysitter for the world and a bunch of miserable dope addicts.
Dear Mr. Groszkruger,
Thank you for taking the time to contact me about our nation’s immigration policies. It is important for me to hear from folks in Iowa on policy matters such as this.
America has been, and always will be, a nation of immigrants. I believe that the vast majority of those coming to our country are doing so to create a better life for themselves and their children, and for that I have great sympathy. However, we are also a nation of laws, and it is essential that we enforce those laws to ensure the protection of our homeland. Accordingly, we must secure our borders in order to verify that anyone entering our country is doing so in accordance with the law.
In addition to illegal immigration, the law enforcement personnel stationed on our borders must confront drug smuggling, human trafficking, and the threat of terrorism on a day-to-day basis. There are a number of ways we can approach these issues. Importantly, I support resuming the construction of the border wall and increasing funding for our law enforcement personnel at the border.
Please know that I will keep your views in mind as this issue continues to be reviewed by the Senate. Feel free to contact my office with any further information, as I always enjoy hearing from Iowans.
Sincerely,
Joni K. Ernst
United States Senator
alternativebyfritz 
What is “Mid-America Publishing”? And what sort of articles/commentaries were you providing to them? Also, are you saying that the knee surgeries somehow triggered your back issue? Maybe try acupuncture and “cupping” for you back. Today’s traditional medical doctors have only been trained to look for physical problems that can be treated by writing a prescription for a pill or syrup. They are trained to abdicate any other forms of thinking about the dynamics of physical problems to Big Pharma, their always-there salvation. “Germ theory” is coming under increasing scrutiny since the fake pandemic and more of science is wanting to learn about “terrain theory.” Good luck with the back situation! Ms. Ernst is so very typical of today’s politicians. She was only elected because only a single opponent was chosen (likely by non-voters] to challenge her and that person was viewed by voters as even a worse candidate. With only a single opponent, her election is by no means a mandate. Her response to you was clearly a form letter sent-out by a lowly, likely volunteer, worker. She most assuredly never received, let alone read, your missive. The response was almost completely non-responsive, as you state. Moreover, the points the response made are as though she (or her underling) were writing to an 8-year-old who has neither the knowledge or intellectual maturity to see through the bullshit. The response was filled with the oft-used cliches, tropes, platitudes, and bromides so popular with politicians, especially GOP politicians, today. America is a nation of “immigrants”? Yes, and until 1965, those immigrants were confined to people from European countries. Illegal immigrants come here to create a better life for them and their children? Yeah, because the U.S. provides far more varieties of free stuff that no other country managed by sane people will offer. And, “we are a nation of laws’? Far from it, if watching the corrupt activities of our Department of Justice over the last, especially three year, but also since 2011, is any indication. She wants to stop the flow from Mexico of Fentanyl by creating another bureaucracy that will quickly become as bloated, as corrupt, and as useless as Homeland Security, its TSA, and today’s INS governing bodies. Who the hell is she kidding? And, of course, she, or the form letter, doesn’t go anywhere near addressing the legalization of Fentanyl and other street drugs. Oh no, that would cause too many loyal government (read “democrat-voting”) swamp departments to collapse because there would be no need for them. Ms. Ernst is just the typical mediocre, uninformed, unthinking (they leave the thinking to their ivy-league, college-graduate advisors) politician that fills most elected posts in the U.S. today. And the populating is the witting or unwitting victims of their ignorance and debauchery. We get what we tolerate!