The Government's Addiction

Charlie Savage reports that the DEA is ramping up its militarization efforts around Latin America:

The D.E.A. now has five commando-style squads it has been quietly deploying for the past several years to Western Hemisphere nations — including Haiti, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Belize — that are battling drug cartels, according to documents and interviews with law enforcement officials.

The program — called FAST, for Foreign-deployed Advisory Support Team — was created during the George W. Bush administration to investigate Taliban-linked drug traffickers in Afghanistan. Beginning in 2008 and continuing under President Obama, it has expanded far beyond the war zone.


“You have got to have special skills and equipment to be able to operate effectively and safely in environments like this,” said Michael A. Braun, a former head of operations for the drug agency who helped design the program. “The D.E.A. is working shoulder-to-shoulder in harm’s way with host-nation counterparts.”

 The DEA has hit-teams now. What could possibly go wrong?

“It could lead to a nationalist backlash in the countries involved,” [University of Miami professor Bruce Bagley] said. “If an American is killed, the administration and the D.E.A. could get mired in Congressional oversight hearings. Taking out kingpins could fragment the organization and lead to more violence. And it won’t permanently stop trafficking unless a country also has capable institutions, which often don’t exist in Central America.”(emphasis mine)

In short, the Obama administration's answer to the Drug War is to get more violent and put more agents in harm's way, the benefit of which will be...more violence. It's not like this hasn't been tried before:

The FAST program is similar to a D.E.A. operation in the late 1980s and early 1990s in which drug enforcement agents received military training and entered into partnerships with local forces in places like Peru and Bolivia, targeting smuggling airstrips and jungle labs.


The Reagan-era initiative, though, drew criticism from agency supervisors who disliked the disruption of supplying agents for temporary rotations, and questioned whether its benefits outweighed the risks and cost. The Clinton administration was moving to shut down the operation when five agents died in a plane crash in Peru in 1994, sealing its fate.

Best case scenario: country A sees a wave of US-backed military raids and violence. This country restores its "capable institutions" and  after countless firefights with law enforcement and one another, leaving scores of innocents dead, the resident drug operation finds more fertile ground to operate in country B, which lacks similar capable institutions. America still gets its drugs and the bloody fight continues in a new country. This predictable and oft-repeated result is called the "balloon effect."

Like a gambler at a casino who just doesn't know when to quit, the United States continues to double-down on its hopeless efforts to use violence to solve its 'drug problem.' Any objective observer of the situation can clearly see its futility and the consequences of pursuing this course of action. Yet the gambler continues, thinking this time it's gonna work. Any short term gains are completely illusory, but they are used to justify even more of the same.

It's time we start thinking about an intervention.

bellum medicamenti delenda est

I May Have Been Robbed by My Government

No, it's not hyperbole:

In an apparent crackdown on Internet gambling, federal authorities in New York have frozen or seized bank accounts worth $34 million belonging to 27,000 online poker players, according to representatives for the players and account holders.

In an operation that began last week, the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York froze or issued seizure orders for bank accounts in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Arizona held at Wells Fargo, Citibank, Goldwater Bank and Alliance Bank of Arizona.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office had no comment.

The accounts are managed by Allied Systems Inc., and Account Services, which handle cash for popular online poker sites, including Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars, Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker. Though the money belongs to the poker players, it is held for them in accounts managed by the two service companies.

Account Services, which had an account worth $15 million frozen in its San Francisco bank, doesn't accept deposits, but writes checks to players who are cashing out, said lawyer for the company, Jeff Ifrah. As a result, thousands of players receiving checks from the company won't be able to cash them, he said.

Emphasis mine.

I don't think "pissed" quite covers how I feel right now.

I love my job, but it's never gonna make me rich. I make extra money on the side by playing a game of skill for money. Even if it were clearly illegal, which it is not, it shouldn't be. Everyone plays voluntarily, risking their own money. On the whole, their skill level is the determining factor on whether or not it is a profitable venture. I fail to see how robbing me of my earned money is remotely related to the idea of justice.

This is bullshit on a stick.

UPDATE: I have just been contacted by my gaming provider. This is a redacted version of the email I received in response to my question about whether or not my money was safe:

Hello Jonathan,

Thank you for writing.

According to our records, you have made the following cashout requests recently:

June 01 [amount redacted] [electronic transfer]
June 09 [amount redacted] paper cheque (currently being processed)

In regards to your [electronic transfer] cashout, we are working with our [electronic transfer] processor to confirm the status of recently processed cashouts. Updates will be communicated to our players by email.

In regards to your paper cheque, [game provider] uses a number of processors and a variety of methods for players to cash out their funds. You can rest assured that your money is always safe in your [game provider] account, and you will always have access to your funds and the ability to cash out.

Please note that once your request has been approved, you may deposit your cheque at your bank as per normal.

If there is anything else we may assist you with, do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

[name redacted]
[game provider redacted] Cashier Specialist

Mood Music Monday

Recently, I was able to pick-up my favorite hobby after a prolonged hiatus. Suffice it to say, I had a good weekend.

March Madness Called Off

I wrote this to the office NCAA Bracket pool I organize. (I know they're illegal. If you feel that strongly about it, arrest me.) I happen to be in the lead, and as I try to make the points updates entertaining, I came up with the following, which a player and reader of my blog suggested I make public:

Dear March Madness participants,

President Obama believes that competition is hurting America. Because excellence and failure are incompatible with our way of life and that we all owe our national wealth and greatness to redistribution policies—and that the President’s pick to win it all, UNC, will fail miserably once they run into Big East competition—all forms of achievement and competition are hereby banned by executive order.

In response, the NCAA has suspended all competitive play in March Madness after the first round this year. That means—by way of alphabetical supremacy and the fact that, clearly, Pittsburgh would have won it all—I declare myself the winner. The Zachs will receive their second and third place monies—I haven’t decided in which order to place them yet. I may just give it to the players who didn’t fare so well in the tournament because they are so clearly helpless and deserving of other people’s money.

Oh, and please ignore all the basketball games that continue to be shown on television. The NCAA hasn’t told fans yet, but I assure you, the exhibition games you see mean nothing. All the athletes are playing for the love of sport and to make everyone feel like a winner. This also means that the “One Shining Moment” montage of excellence at the end of the tourney will more closely resemble ESPN’s weekly “Not Top 10 Plays” of gaffes, blunders and missed dunks because, well, they tried and that’s what’s important.

You will all be receiving your participation ribbons in the next 4-6 weeks via US Mail.

Sorry to do this to you after the rules were established, but that’s just how America operates now.

Have a good day and thanks for playing!

Jonathan

Cojones Grande!

Radley has a great post over at reason (money quote):

But to call for tossing online gamblers in prison while pushing for new casinos in the same bill? Points to Patrick for testicular fortitude, I guess. And for at least being open and transparent about his bald protectionism.