Incompetent Tom Homan - another Fox News blowhard - got tens of thousands of Americans killed under Trump 1.0. Now what?

[stevenkesslar]

At the Republican National Convention this Summer, Trump's new border czar Tom Homan promised that Trump would designate drug cartels as terrorist organizations and "wipe them off the face of the earth."

Great!  The parents of countless kids and young adults who died from fentanyl brought in to the US  - many under Homan's past failed leadership - would probably appreciate that.   

The problem with Homan's bluster is that during Trump 1.0 he ran ICE.  And he presided over a massive increase in overdose drug deaths.  With the primary cause being an explosion of deadly fentanyl seeping through the borders ON HIS WATCH.   Homan made America less safe, already. 

Homan is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, thanks to his complete failure to stop more and more fentanyl from pouring in.  Homan has never apologized for his failure.  Homan has never said one single word of apology to the parents or families of the 100,000+ Americans who died of drug overdoses under Trump 1.0,  thanks to his incompetence and failure.

Why would Trump bring an abject failure like Homan back?  Just because he sounds good on Fox News?  And threatens to bully and deport American children?  

On Fox News, Homan also promised recently to illegally deport the American children of undocumented immigrants.  Now he appears to have walked his cruel promise back on Fox News, too.  Maybe the political advantage of picking on transgender kids has run its course, and MAGA blowhards are auditioning new innocent children to target on Fox.

 

 

Drug overdoses have been a problem for a long time.   But the massive explosion of fentanyl deaths happened precisely during Trump 1.0, under Homan's leadership of ICE, as that chart shows.   Here's a report with a video of him in 2017 promising to fix things. Well, he failed.  Fatally, for many dead Americans.

Why reward the guy who failed, and let this happen?  It's an insult to the parents and families of all the Americans who died thanks to Homan's incompetence.   And now he wants to make things right by illegally deporting American children?     I'd rather have a pedophile like Matt Gaetz as Attorney General, thank you.  At least Gaetz didn't get children killled.

This is one more sign, like Hegseth, that Trump values loyalty from Fox News blowhards over competence.  In this case, he values loyalty over proven failure.  With over 100,000 dead Americans as collateral damage during Homan's first flop.  Can we please skip the sequel?

 

US Drug overdose deaths, January 2017:  65,571 Americans

US Drug overdose deaths, January 2021:  94,788 Americans     + 45 % INCREASE UNDER TRUMP AND HOMAN, MOSTLY DUE TO FENTANYL

US Drug overdose deaths, June 2024:  93.087 Americans   - 2 % DECREASE UNDER BIDEN

Results in the last few years are more optimistic than those numbers above suggests.  Or at least they were before Trump won.  Overdoses rose under COVID during Biden's first year, peaking at over 100,000 and plateauing.  So for over a year the trend has been gradually down. 

'Historic' drop in U.S. overdose deaths accelerates as fentanyl crisis eases

Several reports I read credit this to prevention and treatment programs.   Since Trump is likely to try to pare back Obamacare and Medicaid, which provide much of the funding for lower-income prevention and treatment programs, they are now at risk.

Why reward incompetence and death?

[Moses]

4 hours ago, stevenkesslar said:

The problem with Homan's bluster is that during Trump 1.0 he ran ICE.  And he presided over a massive increase in overdose drug deaths.

As per graph in your post it started in 2013. Who was president and head of health dep. in that year?

In 2016 - 2020 CDC made strong efforts to limit sales of opioid drugs. Maybe even too much. It is known fact, you may read that in many scientific researches. For example here https://www.proquest.com/docview/2655994980

[Moses]

Here is result of analysis of opioid crisis by AI "What was the key moment that triggered the opioid crisis in the US?"

[reader]

@stevenkesslar does his research the old fashion way. Will take that any day over artificial intelligence.

The problem with OxyContin was its pain killing effect. It was the unscrupulous practices of Purdue Pharma.

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma pleads guilty to federal criminal charges

Purdue Pharma could pay up to $8 billion in the settlement related to the opioid crisis.
 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oxycontin-drugmaker-purdue-pharma-pleads-guilty-federal-criminal-charges-n1244155

 

[stevenkesslar]

7 hours ago, Moses said:

As per graph in your post it started in 2013. Who was president and head of health dep. in that year?

Good point.  The chart shows a steady rise of fentanyl overdose deaths under multiple Presidents.  That is an obvious fact.   Overdose drug deaths continued to rise under Biden during the COVID crazy period.   Now they seem to be declining, so that drug deaths are actually below where they were when Biden took office.

Hundreds of Americans die every day of drug overdose, which is tragic.  That said, the trend is good.  It is now getting better, not worse.  But, as I said, Trump may fuck that up if he tries to take an ax to Obamacare and Medicaid, which is where money for many of these drug prevention and treatment programs come from.  It seems obvious that unless the demand for fentanyl decreases, it makes ICE's job of stopping the supply much harder. 

One of the many silver linings of Trump's victory is the the extreme stuff in the Democratic Party is now dead, effectively.  The moderate voices on drug reform have been saying all along that we need both carrots, and sticks.  That is what I think has worked in Europe.  You arrest open air drug addicts, then show leniency if they agree to treatment.  So this is going to be the new dogma.  It won't solve problems overnight.  But it will help set the trend in the right direction.  Just like Bill Clinton set violent crime rates down in the 1990's, and that trend has stuck for decades.  America is way less violent than it was decades ago, regardless of who is President.

Most of the traffickers arrested are Americans, as well.  So it is an American problem on both sides.  It is another stupid and potentially dangerous move for Trump and Homan to be talking about bombing Mexico to interdict supply.  Mexican cartels are for sure a menace, as Kamala Harris can tell you.  But bombing Mexico won't help.

None of this changes the main point of this post:  Tom Homan is a sick, cruel, and failed man.  He should not be allowed near any brown-skinned child, now that he has threatened to illegally deport them.  Even if he walked it back.  Democratic Governors absolutely need to protect American children from this sick, cruel, failed man who has threatened to illegally deport them.

I would give Homan and Trump 1.0 an F on overdose drug deaths.   The problem skyrocketed on their watch.  Almost a 50 % increase in American deaths.  Homan has never said to American parents, "I AM SORRY.  I AM SORRY THAT I FAILED, MISERABLY.  AND YOUR CHILDREN DIED BECAUSE OF MY INCOMPETENCE."

I have no idea what Trump's standard for hiring people is.   But this decision basically says he values incompetence.  Maybe he likes blowhards who looks good on Fox News while they spew crazy and cruel and dishonest bullshit.

I'd give Biden a B-.   There is no way 100,000 Americans dying a year is a victory.  But Biden did reverse a trend that Trump and Homan abjectly failed to reverse, or even control.  Again, almost a 50 % increase in overdose drug deaths on Homan and Trump's watch.  Even though they both promised to do something about it. Under Biden, fewer Americans are dying than last month, or last year.

Immigrant murder convictions 'tens of thousands' higher than ICE's bombshell figures: data expert

It's probably a good guess that nobody knows how many murderers or rapists have illegally entered the US.  ICE sure doesn't.   Even a brief review of articles suggests that they need a lot of new and better technology, which is not cheap.   Kamala Harris would have been great at this stuff.  She understands the importance of doing your homework, and intergovernmental cooperation both within the US and outside it.   It will be no shock to me that a blowhard like Trump will fuck this up again, badly.

Regardless of the correct number, most of the murders occurred outside the US, in whatever country the immigrants came from.  The article profiles a Peruvian murderer that ICE caught and released, until they found out months later what he did in Peru.  Then they found him, and deported him.  Great!  That is what ICE is supposed to do.  Do that.  It would have been better still if they had the technology to find out he was a murderer as soon as they caught him.

Republicans like to take one horrific death by one immigrant while Joe Biden was President and say Biden is evil.   By that standard, Tom Homan is Satan, and he deserves to burn in hell for eternity.  Tens of thousands of Americans died on his watch, thanks to his incompetence.  He should focus on what is killing Americans.  Not what sounds good on Fox News.

I have no illusion that the Republican Senate will grow some balls and tell Trump to pick someone competent instead.  They should at least direct Homan to STFU and focus on his job.   If he plans to get Pete Hegseth rapists and Matt Gaetz sex traffickers and murderers off the street, my Governor Gavin Newsom will gladly work with him.

People want moderation.  If Republicans are smart, they will do what Rand Paul says.  Send cruel and failed Homan back to retirement.  Or Fox News, where he can not torment children.  And pass a compromise immigration reform bill that deports the bad hombres, and lets the farm workers who grow our crops stay.  And please, Tom.   Stop tormenting children.

That is what the polls clearly say most Americans want.

[stevenkesslar]

Trump says he will quickly impose tariffs of 25% on goods from Canada and Mexico

Trump's mass deportation plans are really shaping up.  And they are going to be wildly popular with Latino men, who gave him his margin of victory.

First, Trump's border czar promised on Fox News to illegally deport the American children of immigrants.   Then he walked it back on Fox News.  Smart move.

Now, come to find out that Latino men, and all of us, can look forward to a 25 % drug war sales tax on Dos Equis, Corona, and avocados.  Not to mention a GM truck.  That could get pricey.

This makes complete sense, given that Trump's 49.9 % mandate is to end inflation, and stop price increases.  🤔

This kind of bullshit is why Homan abjectly failed the first time, and ended up killing 50 % more Americans.  Fentanyl users are American, and most fentanyl traffickers ICE arrests are Americans, too.  A 25 % drug war tax might help reduce trafficking from Mexico or Canada at the margin.  But taxing Corona 25 % is a pretty indirect way to get at traffickers.   

As a candidate, Trump sure didn't mention a 25 % sales tax to fight the immigrant invasion, and stop drug trafficking.  Wonder why?  Harris warned that Trump will raise prices.  And lots of people said, "Trump would never do that!"  Turns out that they were right.  Just like all those Trump voters in 2016 who said Trump would never try to cut Obamacare.

There is one thing we can be certain Trump won't do.  Piss off his ultrarich crypto donors, who facilitate fentanyl trafficking.   They are counting on Trump to boost crypto, make it harder to regulate, and get the US government involved in shaky sounding scams, like crypto reserves.  I mean, it's not like anyone has lost their life savings on crypto, right?   Why wouldn't Trump want to reward his rich crypto donors?

In his ICE reports during his first failed attempt to stop fentanyl from killing hundreds of thousands of Americans in 2017, Tom Homan himself talked about how the dark web and murky crypto exchanges made it much harder for ICE to track and stop the flow of fentanyl into and around the US.   It is no doubt partly why Trump 1.0 saw a 50 % increase in fatal drug overdoses.  

A crackdown on crypto billionaires would be a far more direct way to reduce fentanyl trafficking, since ICE says crypto is the coin of the realm.   But nothing stands between Trump and his top Republican donors.   He's already figured out he can get Latino men to vote for him simply by talking shit on Joe Rogan for a few hours.   Why worry about actually pissing off donors to deliver on promises?  Duh!  Give the donors their tax cuts instead.

Enjoy your Corona, guys!

[Stable Genius]

Speaking of Fox News blowhards:

Ricci Wynne, Fox News darling and SF hater, lands in jail as suspected pimp.

https://sfstandard.com/2024/11/25/san-francisco-ricci-wynne-pimping-arrest/

[Suckrates]

2 minutes ago, Stable Genius said:

Speaking of Fox News blowhards:

Ricci Wynne, Fox News darling and SF hater, lands in jail as suspected pimp.

https://sfstandard.com/2024/11/25/san-francisco-ricci-wynne-pimping-arrest/

 

Well, the best people have to earn a living TOO!   

[Moses]

19 hours ago, stevenkesslar said:

Kamala Harris would have been great at this stuff.  She understands the importance of doing your homework, and intergovernmental cooperation both within the US and outside it. 

She had 4 years in office. Any results? No? Well...