Althouse: "The [coca] economy has collapsed. We plant coca because it is a solution for our survival. But now, no one is buying it."

June 10, 2020

"The [coca] economy has collapsed. We plant coca because it is a solution for our survival. But now, no one is buying it."

Says a Peruvian cocalero, who, we're told, farms coca "for traditional indigenous uses," quoted in "The coronavirus has gutted the price of coca. It could reshape the cocaine trade" (WaPo). I don't really understand how he's the victim of the supposed global market collapse if he's only providing for traditional indigenous uses, but I do accept the proposition that coca farming in Peru is "a solution for... survival."

Are we, the readers of WaPo, supposed to feel bad about the collapse of the coca market? I think so, because the article goes on to say that drug trafficking will come back after the lockdown, but the big operations — the "supersized cartels" — will survive and prosper, and as usual, we are prompted to care about small business... including, apparently, small criminal businesses.

The comments at WaPo find their own path and — surprise! — make it about Trump: "This will be hard news for Trump supporters. If meth and heroin supplies are disrupted, a part of the economy they actually participate in will be taking a hit"/"Notice trump isn't sniffing his runny nose as much as he used to"/"Finally! Something to explain trump's impatience to reopen the country - it's screwing with his cocaine trafficking logistics. Shoulda knowed."

How crazy is America right now? We've had low-level crazy for a while, and then they put us under house arrest for 3 months and they've hidden the faces behind masks, then we all watched video of a mind-bending murder, which was the go-ahead to pour back into the streets en masse and express ourselves — suddenly, emotively, violently — and all the while we were starving for our usual drugs.

68 comments:

rhhardin said...: Media America is just harvesting clicks, more in the field of virtue signalling today, is all.

then we all watched video of a mind-bending murder

It's not a murder.

Women have always been crazy, unable to follow structure over feelings. It's just a question how far it can be pushed before satire takes over as the genre.; 6/10/20, 8:47 AM
Tim said...: TDS is a terrible thing, aided and abetted by the so-called "elite".; 6/10/20, 8:48 AM
Achilles said...: The WAPO is a Chinese propaganda outlet.

Nothing printed in the WAPO is to be taken at face value.

It prints what the globalists want stupid sheep to know.

You can’t even call it “trashy.”

I suppose if you are foolish enough to fall for the Coronavirus scam...; 6/10/20, 8:48 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: "...we all watched video of a mind-bending murder..."

So much for cruel neutrality. Prepare the lethal injection and schedule a later trial.; 6/10/20, 8:48 AM
Michael P said...: I would think raw coca is pretty fungible. That particular farmer might have only sold his crop for traditional indigenous uses, but some other farmer who normally sells for export would now be trying to sell to the local market instead, driving down prices for the first farmer.

I don't know how plausible the first farmer's claim is, but it is at least rationally possible.; 6/10/20, 8:50 AM
Achilles said...: The poll talks about insane. It should focus on how gullible people are.

Right now the biggest problem is gullible people who accept what our media tells them. They are endangering everyone’s freedom with their stupidity.; 6/10/20, 8:51 AM
rhhardin said...: They could switch to cocoa. There's always a market for that.; 6/10/20, 8:53 AM
Fernandinande said...: including, apparently, small criminal businesses.

It's legal to grow and sell coca plants in Peru, Bolivia and Columbia.; 6/10/20, 8:53 AM
Geoff Matthews said...: I'm surprised that you're calling George Floyd's death a murder. Isn't that a legal definition? And in this case, one that is tenuous?; 6/10/20, 8:54 AM
n.n said...: Homicide, perhaps. Murder, unlikely. A contributing factor, probably.; 6/10/20, 8:55 AM
Birkel said...: People usually don't express their misunderstanding of markets so publicly.
That took courage.

Substitute uses and substitute goods are real things.; 6/10/20, 8:56 AM
Fernandinande said...: we all watched video of a mind-bending murder

According to the coroner we all watched a video of someone dying from a mind-bending heart attack.; 6/10/20, 8:58 AM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: a virus from communist China was purposefully released from a lab to kill old people, cats and take down Trump.
It killed the world's economy and made the ultra rich even richer, and the poor - poorer.

But please, call it a conspiracy.; 6/10/20, 9:00 AM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: The insanity is all coming from the Left. The Establishment GOP is simply craven and cowardly.; 6/10/20, 9:01 AM
rcocean said...: Its the media that's making us crazy. That, and the "Experts" and Democrats. Did we really need to be LOCKED DOWN for 2.5 months? Do we really need to wear masks outside? What is the purpose of wearing a mask outside if you maintain social distancing? Didn't the social distancing everyone did in March, April, May, prove masks aren't required?

Do you realize that outside of the Northeast, only 50,000 people in died of Cv-19 while 250,000 die every month of other causes? 40 Million Californians have had 5,000 CV deaths. Or if you're under 65, your survival rate is 99%?

As for Floyd George and the riots. This was a completely manufactured Democrat/Media event. Imagine if the NYT/WaPo has simply buried this story on page 5 and the Liberal Networks had NOT run the video every hour on the hour. Or had not Televised the riots and excused all the violence and destruction? We have 15,000 homicides every year. WHy is this death plastered over the front pages and THE MOST IMPORTANT Nation-wide issue?; 6/10/20, 9:03 AM
Ice Nine said...: You have not provided the answer that I need, and that is the obvious one: "Quite insane and the Left side is responsible for it."

Which might be preceded by this one, with the option for selecting both: "Insane, dangerous Cultural Revolution/Red Guard level crazy."

Show me examples of anything remotely approaching current Lefty/Democrat-level insanity on the part of the Right/Republicans and I might change my answer.; 6/10/20, 9:04 AM
rcocean said...: Hilarious that liberal/leftists think of Heroin and Cocaine as "Conservative or Red state Drugs". Its the D's like Mayor Pete who wanted to legalize this awful unhealthful drugs. And when he proposed it during the debates, no one, including Biden, disagreed.; 6/10/20, 9:04 AM
iowan2 said...: I don't really understand how he's the victim of the supposed global market collapse if he's only providing for traditional indigenous uses

You understand much better than I, but is sense a correlation, if not causation and the commerce clause rational of SCOTUS /sarc

But, it does illustrate the definition of commodity, why commodities are commodities. The lack of rain in Argentina, makes soybean meal in Dubuque more expensive.; 6/10/20, 9:05 AM
Wince said...: The comments at WaPo find their own path and — surprise! — make it about Trump

How crazy?

Watched the 2017 documentary film 'Burn Motherfucker Burn' last night. Reminded me of how pervasive and deeply ingrained the conspiracy theories were about crack and cocaine centered around CIA/Ronald Reagan at the time. In terms of actual supply, not disparate sentencing.

Now you have Trump portrayed as the bad guy: a president who was actually under attack at the highest levels of the CIA/intelligence/national security establishment, and who redressed the sentencing disparities put in place by his Democrat opponent, Joe Biden.; 6/10/20, 9:07 AM
WisRich said...: I chuckled at the Poll options. I want to believe we're blowing of steam but I just don't know anymore.; 6/10/20, 9:10 AM
Temujin said...: I guess the kids in Brooklyn aren't buying as much as they used to when they had jobs. Paychecks. You know, things that help you live a life. And now that they've burned down the businesses that might have survived Wuhan virus, the cocaine trade will take an even larger hit. We here in the US are the #1 market for this stuff. (again, we're #1 in ways that are not good).

But this gets to a larger picture. Nancy Reagan famously used to say, 'Just say no' and was ridiculed by those on the Left for her simpleton answer to the drug problem. She was right of course. Those who ridiculed her were too busy sniffing through dollar bills to understand what she was saying. But...it starts with the one- each of us. If enough people say no, then simple economics takes over. No demand, prices drop, industry collapses.

Wuhan did this. But I suspect it's just a momentary pause. Those folks in Portland, Seattle, and Brooklyn are going to need something to get going again.; 6/10/20, 9:11 AM
tim maguire said...: I went with 4. We always overestimate the importance of whatever is happening right now and we too often assume that what is currently happening will keep happening or get worse. That's not how it works. The current craziness is within historical norms, very temporary, and most people are not participating in it anyway.

Don't let social media or the shitty state of journalism blind you to the larger picture.; 6/10/20, 9:14 AM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: "My side" isn't doing anything. The progs are in full conquer mode and no one is trying to stop them. Most people are publicly licking their boots hoping the mob with pass them by.

Note Althouse's use of the word "murder." The word pedant just casually throws out the accusation. If she is talking about Floyd then there is no evidence, at this time, his death was a planned killing. Floyd's neck was not damaged and his breathing was not interrupted by the officer's actions.

Now, in fairness, Althouse may have been talking at the death of Chief Dorn. That case there is substantial video evidence of murder.

But in both cases let's wait and see what the facts.; 6/10/20, 9:16 AM
RNB said...: The phenomenon of compulsive Trump-fixation does not prove the country is insane. It does, however, prove those compulsively fixated on the evil of Donald Trump are insane.; 6/10/20, 9:17 AM
Lance said...: We've had low-level crazy for a while...

Kavanaugh hearings, Crossfire Hurricane, Mueller, Ukraine, impeachment. This is not "low-level". Nor is it even the usual opposition. This is different from when Republicans opposed FDR, or Democrats opposed Reagan. Democrats learned all the wrong lessons from Clinton, Lewinsky and Starr.; 6/10/20, 9:19 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Yes, the big cartels will survive and flourish, but the mom and pop cartels are toast.; 6/10/20, 9:20 AM
daskol said...: If this is insanity, well, then I guess you really don't like the way Dems get out the vote and build enthusiasm ahead of important elections.; 6/10/20, 9:21 AM
daskol said...: It's just that it doesn't usually "work" this well, feeding on months of pent up energy.; 6/10/20, 9:21 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I hate to tell the WaPo readers the truth, but the people in the sticks who are drug addicts are mostly Democrats, when they vote at all.; 6/10/20, 9:23 AM
Kai Akker said...: The comments Althouse quoted seem less venomous than normal. Just people doing their daily work. Maybe they're still in good moods from the riots; but those comments seem a little short of their normal position on the hatred scale.; 6/10/20, 9:27 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Why are you picking on the word "murder" when there are many points of hyperbole in that sentence?

"We've had low-level crazy for a while, and then they put us under house arrest for 3 months and they've hidden the faces behind masks, then we all watched video of a mind-bending murder, which was the go-ahead to pour back into the streets en masse and express ourselves — suddenly, emotively, violently — and all the while we were starving for our usual drugs."; 6/10/20, 9:29 AM
Michael K said...: `There was no "none of the above" choice. This is the left fringe of the Democrat party taking over the DNC. The rest of us will be fine. All we see is a rerun of 1968, this time as farce.; 6/10/20, 9:31 AM
Kevin said...: Looks like America picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!; 6/10/20, 9:31 AM
Michael said...: May or may not have been murder. Was not “mind bending” in either case.; 6/10/20, 9:34 AM
chuck said...: The craziest people have tenure or union support in the schools. Crazy isn't going away anytime soon. What I find interesting is how easily King county voters have given up the vote in Seattle. Guess they would rather be ruled than have to choose.; 6/10/20, 9:35 AM
Fernandinande said...: I'm surprised that you're calling George Floyd's death a murder. Isn't that a legal definition? And in this case, one that is tenuous?

They're being charged with murder because they held him down rather than rushing him to a hospital.; 6/10/20, 9:36 AM
tim maguire said...: Ann Althouse said...Why are you picking on the word "murder" when there are many points of hyperbole in that sentence?

The perception that it was a racially motivated murder (when, in fact, it may have been none of those things) is key to the street situation. There may have been lots of hyperbole in that sentence, but "murder" still manages to stand out.; 6/10/20, 9:39 AM
Calypso Facto said...: "all the while we were starving for our usual drugs"

Except Floyd George. That bogarter managed to find more than his system could handle.; 6/10/20, 9:39 AM
Ice Nine said...: >>Ann Althouse said...
Why are you picking on the word "murder" when there are many points of hyperbole in that sentence?<<

Grade school level excuse for saying it.; 6/10/20, 9:40 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I want to believe the right answer is 4, but I am beginning to suspect the answer is 1. Watch Tucker Carlson's opening 10 minutes from last night- he makes the depressing point that no one is standing up to the crazies. "The worst are full of passionate intensity, and the best lack all conviction."; 6/10/20, 9:42 AM
Kai Akker said...: I checked "quite insane." The political insanity matches up with the financial insanity on Wall Street. They are both unusual extremes.; 6/10/20, 9:48 AM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: Trump is a Russian spy and a coke head.

*I heard in on Maddow!; 6/10/20, 9:50 AM
Sebastian said...: "How crazy is America right now? "

Wait, so you cite examples of TDS and you ask if "America" is crazy?

But yes, America was crazy to shut down irrationally to flatten the curve, if it would only save one life.

The coca example is a bit silly, but the fallout of American decline will be felt more elsewhere. Not that any of the alarmists or health experts will take any responsibility for the poverty and hunger and sickness they caused.; 6/10/20, 9:50 AM
RichardJohnson said...: Fernandinande
It's legal to grow and sell coca plants in Peru, Bolivia and Columbia.

I worked in Argentina several years after coca leaves were made illegal there. This was not far from the Bolivian border. Chewing coca leaves had been a daily habit for many sober, responsible people in that area. They were not about to stop chewing coca leaves just because the government suddenly decreed coca leaves illegal. Several supervisory YPF (Argentine government oil company) personnel on the rig where I worked went about their jobs with a bulge in their cheeks- a bulge which probably wasn't tobacco. A YPF office supervisor- a grandfather- brought some coca leaves to our staff house. (Not at our request- on his initiative.) About all coca leaves did for me was to make my mouth numb. Just like in a dentist's office. That's the only time I tried chewing coca leaves.

My understanding is that coca leaves give you more energy but no high- more caffeine than amphetamine. I imagine that coca leaves, like coffee, would help one stay awake at 4 a.m- the dead hour for those who work at night.; 6/10/20, 9:51 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “Why are you picking on the word "murder" when there are many points of hyperbole in that sentence? ”

Because you are a retired law professor and thus should know better. This is something that every law school student should have learned first term (or so) in their Criminal Law class. At best, you can say at this point, before the trial, is that Floyd died. It may have been a homicide, and might even have been murder. Maybe. But probably not. Most likely some level of manslaughter. But maybe not even that. It is possible that he could have keeled over dead even if the police had never touched him, with about half an average lethal dose of fentanyl in his system, compromised lungs from COVID-19, and sickling red blood cells reducing O2 transportation.; 6/10/20, 9:59 AM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: Don't let social media or the shitty state of journalism blind you to the larger picture.

6/10/20, 9:14 AM

One metric I am looking at is Trump's performance in the primaries.

Right now, in Georgia:
63 percent of D vote in: Biden 549,771, Sanders 68, 639
70 percent of GOP vote in: Trump 696,511.

Combine Sanders and Biden votes and Trump still wins. And how many of those Sanders voters will switch to Biden in November? Some will, but not all by a long shot.

Trump has absolutely crushed turnout numbers in every single primary for an incumbent President this year. He has doubled and tripled the numbers Obama got in 2012.

In PA he got the most votes for an incumbent President in State history - and that was during the lockdown.

Yet the polls, the media, and idiots like Inga and Howard and ARM want us to believe that most of the country now hates Trump.

Actual voters are telling us something very different.; 6/10/20, 10:00 AM
Jupiter said...: "then we all watched video of a mind-bending murder".

Correction. We were all shown a video of an arrest during which a man may have died, and told it was a mid-bending murder. By people who lie for a living.; 6/10/20, 10:17 AM
mikee said...: The organized nature of the protests over the past weeks indicates this series of riots is likely only a test run for protests around the elections, to delegitimize Trump inhis second term. Look for another spark to re-ignite the flames of faux protest around October 15.; 6/10/20, 10:32 AM
Fernandinande said...: I worked in Argentina several years after coca leaves were made illegal there. This was not far from the Bolivian border. Chewing coca leaves had been a daily habit for many sober, responsible people in that area.

One of the unintended(?) consequences of prohibition is stronger drugs because it's easier to smuggle a concentrate (cocaine, crack) than the raw material (leaves).; 6/10/20, 10:43 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Changing tact a bit from Ann’s faux pas of prematurely and judgmentally calling Floyd’s death a murder, I do find the craziness interesting. The end goal for the Democrats at the center of this is retaining the House, removing Trump from the White House and flipping the Senate in November. The (obviously fudged) polls we constantly see show this to be entirely possible (I personally don’t believe that Trump is in that much trouble, but am worried more about the Republican majority in the Senate).

I don’t see all this BLM/AntiFA violence helping matters a bit for the Democrats. What we mostly seem to have is a bunch of radical White Maoists (and some criminal elements in the Black communities) running wild throughout Dem controlled cities assaulting and killing police with impunity, chasing the middle class and industry out of those cities. The Blacks who were originally incited by their leaders to loot and riot, are waking up to the reality that they have just shit in their nests. Bad. It may take decades to rebuild what was burned out in a couple days. And in the meantime, they will be living in food deserts, where they have to buy their food at Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores. No jobs and no food, but plenty of murderous gang banging criminals. Good job there. Of course, many of the AntiFA thugs can just go back home and live in their parents’ basements in the suburbs.

I have seen predictions (Q?) that there may be 3-4 more of these events before the election. That they are queued up and are, or will be, ready to go. Maybe we can have a Palsi, Schifty, and Wadler impeach Trump again. Maybe for his failure to prevent the pandemic. Not sure what else they can pull out. These riots were long planned and prepared for - at least since last summer. They were just waiting for the green light, and that turned out to be the death of George Floyd in police custody. But it almost assuredly would have been something else, and probably within a few weeks of when these riots started.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Democrats aren’t the only ones with cards to play right now. ObamaGate is in the process of blowing up right now, and AG Barr has assured us that we will have a lot of names and facts before the election. It certainly leads into the Obama White House and maybe even the Oval Office. And if it does, that means that China Joe Biden, the Dems’ presumptive nominee, is implicated in the biggest political scandal of the last century. The gross abuse of power for partisan advantage, while trying to destroy, or at least delegitimize their successors in office, dwarfs Crooked Hillary’s mere sale of our foreign policy for ClintonDollars.

And maybe that is it - they know what is coming, and are desperately trying to keep everyone from seeing how horribly they behaved te last time they were give te keys to the White House. We shall see.; 6/10/20, 10:51 AM
GingerBeer said...: It's WaPo. Everything in the Comments is about Trump.; 6/10/20, 10:59 AM
Charlie said...: There are mind bending murders everyday in the world. We are very selective about what we are "shown".; 6/10/20, 11:02 AM
Howard said...: America has never been more saying that it is right now Ann Althouse. Your Stockholm syndrome has turned you into a quisling. I love mixed Scandinavian metaphors; 6/10/20, 11:16 AM
narciso said...: A little perspective

https://mobile.twitter.com/FrenchCivilian/status/1270245745803870208; 6/10/20, 11:53 AM
Sam L. said...: Wellll, the WaPoo is iusane.; 6/10/20, 11:53 AM
cubanbob said...: mikee said...
The organized nature of the protests over the past weeks indicates this series of riots is likely only a test run for protests around the elections, to delegitimize Trump inhis second term. Look for another spark to re-ignite the flames of faux protest around October 15."

Trump is having the DoJ look into Antifa. The TDS Left needs to win in November to avoid criminal prosecutions.; 6/10/20, 12:04 PM
cubanbob said...: Coca leaves are used by the indigenous people of the Andes not only for energy but to help them with altitude sickness.; 6/10/20, 12:08 PM
Nichevo said...: Ann Althouse said...
Why are you picking on the word "murder" when there are many points of hyperbole in that sentence?

"Why are you stopping me when everybody else was speeding too?"

Shorter Althouse: "I haven't the [education|character] to admit when I'm wrong."

(h/t: Robert Shaw as Quint in Jaws, 1975); 6/10/20, 12:11 PM
Static Ping said...: We currently have our corporate masters and the mob enforcing strict censorship, which is "legal" because it is not the government but just as effective.

We have reached fascism. This is going to end very badly.; 6/10/20, 12:31 PM
Leland said...: America is fine. A portion of America has always been insane and they are being encouraged now to act oct their insanity rather than seek help. The vast majority of Americans don't read the NYT or WaPo. They can see that the NYT and WaPo are very supporting of the criminal elements of our society getting back in business whether to loot or sell drugs, but FU and your White Privilege if you want to gather the family and friends together, eat at a favorite eatery, or visit your local church. We acquiesced to the demands to shelter for health reasons, but we didn't become crazy in the interim.; 6/10/20, 12:32 PM
Bill Peschel said...: Why are you picking on the word "murder" when there are many points of hyperbole in that sentence?

As already pointed out, you are a law professor who lectures us when we misuse legal terms. Since that sentence has no qualifier (as in "The American left believe they saw a mind-bending murder ..."), the assumption is that is your judgment.; 6/10/20, 12:51 PM
RichardJohnson said...: rcocean
As for Floyd George and the riots. This was a completely manufactured Democrat/Media event.

Several years ago a Minneapolis cop SHOT and killed a woman who had called 911. There was no outrage over this incident, in spite of the cop's misconduct being much more egregious than Chauvin's misconduct. Because the cop was Somali(black) and the woman white, there was no street outrage over this. (The cop got 12 years in prison, so the legal system functioned. But no street/Media outrage over her being killed.)

When you compare the Democrat/Media reactions to these 2 examples of a civilian dying at the hands of a Minneapolis cop, the only conclusion is that yes, the outrage was manufactured.; 6/10/20, 1:17 PM
FullMoon said...: then we all watched video of a mind-bending murder

If that type of restraint is murder, then it follows that the thousands of times it has been used is attempted murder.

Class action suit and/or mass arrests of police in there somehow....; 6/10/20, 2:38 PM
FullMoon said...: Mark Twain wanted to corner the market

https://www.scribd.com/article/361719547/Mark-Twain-Cocaine-Kingpin; 6/10/20, 2:49 PM
FullMoon said...: The murder of the retired cop was supposedly streamed on Facebook. Murder of white guy kicked in the head available, along with stills of young white punk taking a running kick at victims head.; 6/10/20, 2:51 PM
Jim at said...: Just judging by my chats with my apolitical friends in Texas, Minneapolis, Ohio, LA and North Carolina? The entire country is quite insane.; 6/10/20, 3:10 PM
buwaya said...: This is not just a fad among young white women who are of a certain American caste (which is in an existential struggle with the majority white American caste), but that every American INSTITUTION has effectively declared open war on that caste, the American volk. And none of them can now undeclare this hatred as they are trapped by their words, to punish any prominent person or institution that even mildly steps out of line.

It isnt those marching in the streets you need to worry about.

This was a long time running, but these are irrevocable steps. There is a solid wall of enmity now arrayed against you, the white volk of America.

Btw, I use "volk" because there is no adequate word in English for the concept of a people as a unified mass of commoners that carry with them the cultural essence of a nation. I would use the Tagalog "tao", that has such a political meaning too, but its even more foreign to you. "Pueblo" in Spanish is recognizable but with the wrong set of meanings in the US.

Suggestions for a better English alternative very welcome.; 6/10/20, 4:28 PM
ken in tx said...: Word meanings change over time. "Thou shalt not kill" in the King James Bible actually meant "You shall not commit murder". Newer versions of the Bible say that. Previously, merely causing death was called 'slaughter', not killing, as it is used today. So it seems that the word 'murder' is going through a similar process. It will no longer mean the unjustified, premeditated, killing of a human being. It will merely mean that somebody died. They were murderized.; 6/10/20, 9:12 PM