Pravda is the Russian word for truth. That is what I want to 'talk about' today, truth. There are some truths that the average person either does not know or simply ignores. First, let's go into pravda.
Pravda was the name of the newspaper in the old Soviet Union. It was, essentially, a propaganda tool for the Soviet government as is Tass which is the agency tasked with ALL news dissemination in Russia. Any news running contrary to what Tass approves is ruthlessly suppressed. This is in no way different than what was happening in the old Soviet Union and it shouldn't be a surprise to people. The Russian government wants certain things overstated and others understate, similar to what MSNBC, CNN, and the New York Times does, even if they have to do a retraction later. Why? Because almost no one pays attention to the retraction, just the initial story. In Russia, one person really controls the media. Here, it seems to be an entire political party.
Vladimir Putin was a lieutenant colonel in the KGB. The KGB, for those who might not know, was the foreign and domestic intelligence force for the Soviet Union and was feared by the Russian populace in general. Their thugs were tasked with suppressing and eliminating any political opposition (sound familiar?)
When the KGB was finally disbanded, it was morphed into a different intelligence agency, the FSB whose nominal responsibility was mostly foreign, but they still have an internal division. A great many of the KGB operatives that were 'let go' became a part of what we know as the Russian mafia. In fact, many, if not most, intelligence analysts say that the KGB is the heart of the Russian mafia. (opinion)Do you think that it's possible that someone like the President of Russia might have contacts in that criminal organization?
Let's move on to other truths. It seems like there are more train derailments than ever. But that isn't the truth. The graph below shows the number of train derailments for the decade leading up to 2022.
As you can see, train derailments actually peaked in the 1970's. So why does it 'feel' like there are more than ever? The media is to blame. It really is that simple. Derailments, no matter how small, are now news and the media has decided to play them up big. That isn't speculation, it's a fact based solely on the graph above.
However, there is something very concerning that has increased significantly over that last decade.
This should terrify you. Why is there such a dramatic increase in drug overdoses either accidental or purposeful? What is driving these numbers? By far, the majority of these overdoses were by opioids. The government has taken steps to try to reduce the death by opioid numbers, but the preliminary data is showing that synthetics are simply replacing them. There are, from observation, two root causes. The first is a mental health crisis. We are living in an age of negative news overload. There is no longer just factual news presented, it is almost always editorialized. That causes anxiety and anxiety can lead to the desire to escape.
The second is the availability of these new drugs. It has become impossible to stop the influx of drugs at our southern border. We are shown on the news huge drug busts, but for every one of those, how many loads make it through? To give you a rough idea of just how much might be getting in, fentanyl seizures at the border are up 480% in 2023 alone. Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine. A side note, seizures of marijuana is down to almost nothing since so much of it can be obtained legally now in the U.S. That doesn't mean its use is down. According to the National Institute of Health, it is up, “Daily marijuana use also reached its highest level reported in 2022 (11%), which was greater than five years (8% in 2017) and 10 years ago (6% in 2012). Reports of past-year marijuana use among adults aged 35 to 50 also reached an all-time high in 2022 (28%)” I won't editorialize on whether that's good or bad.
Why is so much more getting through at the southern border? Here is another statistic for you.
It isn't really possible to tell how many get through, this chart is just the ones that the Border Patrol catches. Note, this data comes from a left-leaning source so accuracy is NOT guaranteed.
The truth here is, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS are up A LOT. Speculating as to WHY this is happening is not the purpose of today's post.
We are in an election year. Both candidates and parties are going to be slanting the news toward what will help them win. Some will run on one platform and promises, others will run on another. I am only going to show you some facts.
Shouldn't we be living longer?
Take this data as you will.
KM
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