I recently finished 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin. A great, relatively short book (compared to what I usually read). It tells the story of the run up to and aftermath of the 29 crash. Told as a narrative focused on a dozen or so key characters. Doesn’t cover the whole depression, just the crash and subsequent prosecutions and hearings, etc culminating in Glass-Steagle. Great read. [image: 1768031824071-img_9857.jpeg]

His son was also quite gracious in the transition.

From [Nation] February 28, 2014. (https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/us-border-agents-intentionally-stepped-front-moving-vehicles-justify-shooting-them/) US Border Agents Intentionally Stepped in Front of Moving Vehicles to Justify Shooting at Them The Los Angeles Times obtained an internal review of US Border Patrol’s use-of-force policies, which US Customs and Border Protection has refused to release publicly (members of Congress have seen a summary). While the Times did not offer the report in full, the paper did publish previously unseen snippets that portray a law enforcement agency operating under loose use-of-force standards and little accountability. The review was completed in February 2013 by the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit that develops best practices for law enforcement use-of-force policies. It examined sixty-seven use-of-force incidents by federal border agents near the US-Mexico border that resulted in nineteen deaths. Here are some key findings of the review, revealed by the Times Thursday: Border Patrol agents have intentionally and unnecessarily stepped in front of moving cars to justify using deadly force against vehicle occupants. Agents have shot in frustration across the US-Mexico border at rock throwers when simply moving away was an option. Border Patrol demonstrates a “lack of diligence” in investigating incidents in which US agents fire their weapons. It’s questionable whether Border Patrol “consistently and thoroughly reviews” incidents in which agents use deadly force. The report is especially scathing in its critique of agents who’ve stood in front of moving vehicles, recommending that they “get out of the way…as opposed to intentionally assuming a position in front of such vehicles.” The authors add: It should be recognized that a half-ounce (200-grain) bullet is unlikely to stop a 4,000-pound moving vehicle, and if the driver…is disabled by a bullet, the vehicle will become a totally unguided threat… Obviously, shooting at a moving vehicle can pose a risk to bystanders including other agents. The report recommends that Border Patrol bar agents from shooting at vehicles unless their lives are threatened and also from firing at rock throwers. An internal response by Border Patrol, also obtained by the Los Angeles Times, rejected both these recommendations. The agency said a ban on shooting at rock throwers would endanger agents because they work “in rural or desolate areas, often alone, where concealment, cover and egress is not an option,” and that a ban on shooting vehicles would empower drug smugglers to run over agents. The response echoes statements made by Border Patrol chief Mike Fisher in November. At least twenty-one people have been killed by Border Patrol agents working on the US-Mexico border since 2010. In 2012, agents shot at a 16-year-old boy multiple times in the back, killing him. The latest fatality happened this month, when a border agent near San Diego shot and killed an undocumented migrant for throwing rocks, one of which struck the agent in the head. In all these cases, it’s unknown as to whether any of the agents involved were disciplined, as CBP does not make that information public.

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Short answer: there is no single cause. The sharp decline starting in summer 2023 is real, but it reflects several forces hitting at once, some intentional and some accidental. Here’s the cleanest way to understand it. ⸻ Naloxone saturation finally crossed a threshold This is probably the biggest contributor. By mid-2023: • Naloxone was OTC, cheap, and everywhere • Police, EMTs, shelters, libraries, bars, and users themselves had it • Multiple doses per event became common practice What changed wasn’t naloxone existing — it was ubiquity + speed. Enough overdoses were reversed before hypoxia became fatal that deaths dropped rapidly. Key point: Naloxone doesn’t reduce overdoses — it reduces fatal overdoses. The curve you’re seeing is deaths, not use. ⸻ The fentanyl market changed (quietly but decisively) This is underappreciated. Evidence from toxicology and drug-checking shows: • Lower fentanyl purity and variability • Fewer ultra-potent analogs (e.g., carfentanil spikes) • More xylazine-adulterated but less acutely lethal mixes Why? • Supply chain disruptions • Shifts in Mexican production and distribution • Dealers responding to customer death backlash (dead customers don’t buy) The drug supply became more predictable, which paradoxically saves lives. ⸻ People adapted their behavior After years of carnage, user behavior changed: • Test doses • Never using alone • Staggered dosing • Widespread fentanyl test strip use This is Darwinian harm reduction — brutal, but real. Once a critical mass of users changes behavior, death rates can fall fast even if addiction rates don’t. ⸻ Medication-assisted treatment finally scaled By 2023: • Buprenorphine prescribing barriers were relaxed • Methadone access expanded in many states • Jail/prison initiation programs increased MAT doesn’t eliminate use — it reduces lethality, especially fentanyl lethality. Again: fewer deaths, not necessarily fewer users. ⸻ There is some statistical compression — but not enough to explain this Yes, there are: • Reporting lags • Provisional data effects • Cause-of-death coding delays But: • The decline is too large and sustained to be an artifact • Independent datasets show the same inflection This isn’t just bookkeeping. ⸻ What this is not • Not a sudden success of the “war on drugs” • Not primarily incarceration • Not abstinence • Not moral reform It’s engineering, distribution, and adaptation, not virtue. ⸻ The uncomfortable but accurate summary Overdose deaths fell not because fewer people use opioids, but because we finally made opioid use less fatal. That’s why the drop is steep and sudden — once survival probability crosses a threshold, curves bend fast. If you want, I can: • Break down which states drove most of the decline • Explain why deaths from xylazine didn’t rise in parallel • Or compare this to historical declines in HIV deaths once ART scaled (the pattern is eerily similar)

@Doctor-Phibes said in Speaking of how shit the UK has become: @jon-nyc said in Speaking of how shit the UK has become: Like here with the woketards and magats. Sadly, not everybody has the long history of defending free speech that the Roman Catholic Church can boast about. Moderator!

It’s a War budget, not Defense. Please edit appropriately.

I can hazard a guess. A reversal in the house and senate. Followed by impeachment hearings, resulting in another swing back in 2028.

@jon-nyc said in Elon says you'll have all the stuff you want and then some.: Probably not the best investment advice. Snort…

@Mik said in The Iran Nuclear Program thread: So they think Tucker broadcasts are going to calm everyone down? Maybe it's a warning about what kind of person could visit if the regime is overthrown.

Interesting article. I spent quite a bit of time in Kazakhstan in the 90s. Was there for over two months in 2007. It’s a huge country only slightly smaller in land mass than the the US lower 48. Much the country is a sparsely populated arid wasteland; the southwest regions that produce oil and gas and the dead Aral Sea basin can only be described as an environmental Hiroshima. The northern portions of the country were until Stalin, part of Russia. Much of population in the North are either Russian, Russian speaking and assimilated Ukrainians or Muslim Tatars. Since independence ethnic Kazakhs have been moving into the north in numbers so that in urban centres like Pavlodar it is now close to a 50/50 split between Slav and Kazakh. In the 1990s Astana was proclaimed the nation’s capital and the seat of government moved from he south easterly located Almaty to the north. The move was in large part to offset fears of future Russian revanchist efforts. The Kazakh government has remained cautious about its minority Russian population and has avoided alienating it linguistically or culturally. The result is that so far there has been minimal discontent among the ethnic Russian. The Kazakh regime is careful not to antagonise the Kremlin. I would say its relationship with Moscow is similar to the relationship between Janos Kadar’s Hungary and the USSR. Hungary enjoyed a much more open (by communist standards) economy than other Warsaw Pact states but the fundamental supremacy of the Communist Party remained the polity of the Hungarian state. Brezhnev and company had no issue with that arrangement. In fact it welcomed the consumer goods and agriculture products Hungary was able supply the decrepit and supply impoverished Soviet consumer market. I vividly recall the huge queues that would form outside Moscow food markets whenever a shipment of Hungarian processed food products happened to appear on the shelves. As is I therefore I don’t really see Putin wanting any time soon to retake the northern territories formerly a part of Russia. Likewise the rest of the country. Even he really doesn’t want or need 14 million more resentful Sunni Muslims in the Russian Federation.

Latest Making Sense podcast with Sam Harris has John McWhorter as a guest. They talk about the state of woke, where it’s receded and where it remains. From the show notes: Sam Harris speaks with John McWhorter about language, ideology, and moral certainty. They discuss the rise and persistence of "wokeness" and DEI, the legacy of George Floyd's death, the role of social media in amplifying moral panic, how identity shapes perceptions of Israel-Palestine, the linguistics of Donald Trump, the rise of casual speech, conspiracy thinking, positions McWhorter has reconsidered, and other topics.

No haven’t seen any of it.

@jon-nyc said in Britain now seen as an Islamist hot spot: The word you're looking for is 'Pakis'. Er, no. I'm really not. Your Canary-Wharf pals might have come from a different part of the country than me. We had a name for them, too, incidentally....

@jon-nyc said in And you thought your in-laws were messed up: Poor Tony Blair. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

@Mik said in The Venezuelan Oil Thread: ... I suspect companies are going to want to see Venezuela stabilized and on a capitalist track Does "state capitalism" count?