Alan Zweibel

You think they're lying about such easily verifiable facts? Are you seriously claiming there was no such program? Or that there was such a program but it was a big success? If so, I'd say you're afflicted with a serious case of Pavlovian denialism.

David Gentile had been found guilty for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of investors. In court filings, prosecutors said that Mr. Gentile and Mr. Schneider over several years used private equity funds controlled by Mr. Gentile’s company, GPB Capital, to defraud 10,000 investors by misrepresenting the performance of the funds and the source of money used to make monthly distribution payments. More than 1,000 people submitted statements attesting to their losses, according to prosecutors, who characterized the victims as “hardworking, everyday people,” including small business owners, farmers, veterans, teachers and nurses. https://archive.ph/avtTG Another case of professional courtesy

The proposed deployment of an international force in Gaza, seen as a crucial feature of President Donald Trump’s plan to bring peace to the enclave, is struggling to get off the ground as countries considered likely to contribute soldiers have grown wary Concerns are mounting in foreign capitals over whether soldiers could be put in a position where they may be required to use force against Palestinians, with several countries backpedaling on troop offers. Indonesia, which had announced it would send as many as 20,000 peacekeeping troops, is now looking at providing a much smaller contingent, according to officials in Jakarta, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the ongoing discussions. https://archive.ph/FAqec Surprise, surprise.

But your answer was irrelevant to the claim made by troubledandgrumpy and irrelevant to my pointing out the inaccuracy of his claims?

Juan Orlando Hernández, whom Mr. Trump called a victim of persecution, helped orchestrate a decades-long trafficking conspiracy. It ravaged his Central American country. He once boasted that he would “stuff the drugs up the gringos’ noses.” https://archive.ph/FDm1Y

You should take up that issue with TroubleandGrumpy. He's the party who made the claim. And so far, farmers aren't having a lot of success in recruiting replacements. The Trump administration's solution is to allow more foreign agricultural in but pay them less. In other words, making American agricultural workers less competive or having to settle for less.

What's predictable is your deflection. The fact is that Trump pardoned someone who knowingly helped to fund Hamas. For that action you have offered no defense.

I have never denied that Hamas is a bad organization. Most Palestinians living under their rule think so, too. Israel, on the other hand, was so fond of Hamas that it helped Qatar funnel cash to Gaza to subdue the locals unhappiness with Hamas' rule and to prevent its replacement with the Palestinian Authority. And your excuse about not knowing enough is pathetic. If you don't know by now, it's because you don't want to.

To point out the unlikelihood of the possible explanation you proposed.

You really need my comment about the following from riclag explained to you? "Brilliant, The important take away is here, "Most recent surveys show him with approval from the vast majority of conservatives". That it's less important that Trump is disapproved of by a majority of Americans. I guess if you consider the prospect of the midterm elections unimportant, that might make sense. And why would that be the case?

When The U.S. Government Tried To Replace Migrant Farmworkers With High Schoolers Problems arose immediately for the A-TEAM nationwide. In California's Salinas Valley, 200 teenagers from New Mexico, Kansas and Wyoming quit after just two weeks on the job. "We worked three days and all of us are broke," the Associated Press quoted one teen as saying. Students elsewhere staged strikes. At the end, the A-TEAM was considered a giant failure and was never tried again. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/31/634442195/when-the-u-s-government-tried-to-replace-migrant-farmworkers-with-high-schoolers

But that's always been the case.

And there was also that utter creep George Santos, the ex Republcian congressman and fraudster sprung from prison by Trump and freed of the court judgement that he repay his creditors.

How about Trevor Milton? He was convicted of defrauding investors. Prosecutors had asked a judge to mandate that Milton repay over half a billion dollars to those investors. Before the judge could rule, Trump pardoned him. Which meant that Milton not only didn't have to serve jail time, but that he had to repay his investors nothing. Coincidentally enough, Milton and his wife contributed $1.8 million to Trump's campaign.

So, you're defending Trump for pardoning an enabler of Hamas? Or just engaging in a really really dumb deflection.

Why would that be? If the economic situation is worsening why would the be less of an outflow of the not so wealthy? If anything, those will lower disposable income than the super wealthy would feel more pressure to leave.

This reads like a press release from the Trump Administration. Actually from the first Trump Adminstration. This information is about programs during the first Trump administration which is when the Truth Initiative and Safer Prescribing plans took place. Nothing to do with the second Trump administration. Apart from these minor quibbles, you're doing great work. Here are some links to actual current information. Tracker: Federal Cuts to Overdose Prevention & Addiction Treatment https://drugpolicy.org/resource/federal-cuts-threaten-overdose-prevention/ Trump cuts have decimated the federal addiction and mental health agency https://www.statnews.com/2025/10/30/samhsa-grant-cuts-staff-reductions-impact-analyzed/ The Trump administration has barred certain federal grants from funding some harm reduction programs, sparking concerns among health advocates. https://archive.ph/aZiqn Trump team revokes $11 billion in funding for addiction, mental health care https://www.opb.org/article/2025/03/28/mental-health-and-addiction-funding-on-the-federal-chopping-block/

Shares of Trump Media & Technology GroupShares of Trump Media & Technology Group which operates the president’s Truth Social platform, have tumbled 75% since Trump’s inauguration. Digital “meme coins” named for Trump and first lady Melania Trump are down 86% and 99% since inauguration day, respectively. And one of the Trump family’s crypto ventures, a token called World Liberty Financial, has dropped roughly 40% since its September launch. https://archive.ph/ooMqT

So, even though the numbers were virtually the same, you think it's likely that a lot more wealthy people left and fewer of the less wealthy didn't?

Ii raise several specific issue to show the flaws in your reason and your ignorance of the facts, and this is all you've got? It's laughable.

Rattlesnake is so ignorant about this topic that he apparently doesn't know that Venezuela is a very minor player in supplying North America with cocaine. As people who study this sort of thing know, most cocaine comes to the US via Central America and Mexico or from the Pacific coast. Shipments via Venezuela mostly end up in Europe. So why is Trump trying to stop cocaine from going to Europe? If Rattlesnake had any genuine inklings on this subject at all, he would know that this just doesn't make sense. That whatever the reason Trump is going after Venezuela, the drug attacks are pretextual. Unless, of course, Rattlesnake believes that Trump is genuinely so concerned about the Europeans that he's willing to devote resources to protecting them rather than Americans. And, of course, there is the issue of whether interdiction actually can put a serious dent in the drugs trade. But that seems to be an issue outside of Rattlesnake's ken.

I think that's what's reasonable to assume is that someone like you who has demonstrated that he has so little acquaintance with the facts that he can claim "Trump is the first President to actually fight the plague of cartel drug trafficking, do you acknowledge this fact?", is also someone who doesn't like being shown up by his ignorance so he resorts to to BS about avatars. Show some guts and debate using facts and reason for a change. So far, all you've shown is that you've got nothing.

Still more intellectually undistinguished deflections. I'll say this for you: You're consistent.

Anybody making a dumb generalization like this should refrain from alleging intellectual deficiencies in others.

When was this halcyon era when farmers didn't hire illegal aliens to harvest their strawberries? And all the other fruits and vegetables?