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fentanyl

bad stuff but devil term for border anti-immigrant BS

SEE EXTRA JUDICIAL KILLING

WAR ON TERROR MELD W WAR ON DRUG, ANTI-COMMIE NARCO TERROR GANGS

SEE EARTT 2 // GULF WAR 2 WMD

3 25 trump BS vs cda tariffs; china precursors

border emergency scary brn ppl not enough?  Bidenomics rock

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Right-wing media praise Trump’s made-up excuses for war against Venezuela

Trump massively inflated threat from Venezuelan “narco-terrorists” smuggling fentanyl into the US

Written by Zachary Pleat

Research contributions from Jane Lee

Published 11/24/25

President Donald Trump and right-wing media have been quick to cite fentanyl interdiction as the supposed justification for the administration’s likely illegal strikes against vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, which they have blamed on so-called “narco-terrorists” tied to the regime of President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela. But reporting has shown the Trump administration’s excuses are built on lies — with virtually no fentanyl arriving in the United States via routes currently being targeted by the military in a bombing campaign that has already claimed at least 83 lives.

This isn't the first time Trump and his media allies have used fentanyl as an excuse for his out-of-control policies, as it was used to justify his instigation of a trade war with Mexico and Canada earlier this year. The Trump administration’s military buildup also follows multiple actions that undermine efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking into the U.S.

Reporting based on government data makes clear that Venezuela is not the source of the fentanyl problem America faces

MMA //

  1. ### Fox parrots Trump's “drug war” justification for Canada/Mexico tariffs, even as he weakened fentanyl smuggling enforcement

03/05/25 2:56 PM EST

  1. ### Right-wing media outlets are claiming regime change in Venezuela would be easy. Evidence and history suggest otherwise.

10/29/25 4:26 PM EDT

  1. ### Fox praised and validated Trump's legally questionable boat strikes in the Caribbean

10/29/25 3:31 PM EDT

  1. ### Right-wing media's campaign for military intervention and regime change in Venezuela

09/05/25 6:34 PM EDT

  1. ### Right-wing media concoct their own legal justification for Trump’s extrajudicial strike on Venezuelan boat

09/05/25 10:00 AM EDT

  1. ### An intelligence report debunked MAGA media claims about Tren de Aragua and Venezuela. A Trump official is now under fire for reportedly ordering the report be redone.

05/28/25

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an 4 25

Arlie Russell Hochschild’s Strangers in their own Land, which explored the motivations and resentments of working-class conservatives in Louisiana, was named one of six books to help understand Donald Trump’s win by the New York Times when he was first elected president, in 2016. (Another was Hillbilly Elegy, by now vice president JD Vance, published just a few months earlier.)

Since then, Californian progressive sociologist Hochschild has been struggling to understand the appeal of Donald Trump: particularly to white, working-class men, once a strong Democratic constituency. No writer has worked harder to grasp the gut-level appeal that saw Trump win two elections – and in the process, convert the Republican Party into his personal fiefdom.

*Review: Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame and the Rise of the Right – Arlie Russell Hochschild (The New Press)

The puzzle is greatest when one contrasts the current billionaire cabinet with the fact much of Trump’s support comes from people who are objectively worse off under his policies – including tariffs. Last week, Oxfam America called them “an attack on the global working class” that will harm working-class families in the United States and “inflame inequality”.

In Strangers in their own Land, Hochschild called this “the Great Paradox”. Stolen Pride returns to many of that book’s questions, but in a different era – and a US that seems more fragmented, and far angrier than it was in 2016.

Hochschild explores the world of Pikeville, Kentucky, a poor, overwhelmingly white, Trump-supporting city in the heart of Appalachia: in the “whitest and second-poorest congressional district in the country, a region that had rapidly shifted from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party”.

The American dream’s broken promise

One of Hochschild’s subjects is James Browning, a recovering drug user whose hands are tattooed and covered in rings. “There you have it” he says, “I have a shame hand and a pride hand.” This sums up the basic argument of Stolen Pride.

“Pride and shame,” she writes, “signal the juncture between the identity we hold out to the world, and how the world responds to our identity.” The men she speaks to desperately need a sense of pride, but too often find their failures are the cause of deep shame. The American Dream, after all, teaches them every individual can make it, inherently implying failure is due to individual weakness.

Many of the men she speaks to have experienced unemployment, domestic breakups, jail, alcoholism and drug abuse. (She even manages to speak to one current jail inmate.) Kentucky has one of the highest rates of opioid addiction in the United States – and despite Trump’s attacks on Mexico and Canada, the doctor-prescribed drugs some were addicted to appear to be domestically manufactured.

So many of the men Hochschild interviewed talk of the balance between shame and pride, I began to wonder if they were prompted. On reflection, I suspect this represents Hochschild’s careful selection from a series of very extensive interviews, conducted over roughly six years.

Her emphasis is almost entirely on the men in Pikeville, though a majority of white women also voted for Trump. I would love to see Hochschild explore this further. That so many women can support a convicted sexual predator in a country obsessed with sexual behaviour is one of the mysteries of contemporary American politics.

By 2021, many Americans – and most Republicans – believed Trump’s claims that he had really won the 2020 election. They saw the rioters at the Capitol on January 6 as heroes defending American democracy. In Trump’s claim the election was stolen, many of those Hochschild interviews saw parallels to what they believed had been stolen from them, by economic and cultural upheavals.

Importantly, many of her respondents saw Trump as a bully — but a bully who stood up for them, against what they perceived as urban liberal elites. When Hillary Clinton spoke of his supporters as “a basket of deplorables”, she reinforced the grievances of people consistently looked down on as “hillbillies” and “rednecks” by people they identified as Democratic elites.

How ‘deep stories’ inform politics

For Hochschild, there are underlying emotional narratives, which she calls “deep stories”, that inform our political positions.

In Strangers in their Own Land, these were identified as a sense of being overtaken by groups, usually educated women and Black people, who benefited from programs of affirmative action. The second Trump administration’s crusade against “DEI” is playing directly to these grievances. In Stolen Pride, this feeling is strengthened by the sense liberal elites are undermining both traditional values and the ability for individuals to succeed.

Eastern Kentucky is coal country, and Clinton’s ill-worded election-trail claim she would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business” was a major factor in swinging voters towards Trump. For men who took pride in their work, the collapse of the coal industry produced a sense of shame: strengthened by a strong belief individuals are to blame for their own misfortunes.

Pikeville was also the site of a neo-Nazi march in April 2017, the forerunner of the tragic Unite the Right march in Charlottesville later that year, which resulted in one death and multiple injuries.

Much of the book skilfully explores the preparations for and reactions to the Pikeville march, which seemingly passed without incident. Some 100 white nationalists turned up and were outnumbered by counter protesters, As Hochschild writes, “Very few Pikeville locals were involved on either side”.

Perhaps the most fascinating figure in Hochschild’s book, and evidence of her skill in persuading the most unlikely people to open up in interviews, is Matthew Heimbach, who led the 2017 Pikesville march, identified as a proud Nazi and co-founded the now-defunct neo-Nazi party, Traditionalist Worker Party.

He also co-planned the Charlottesville march, where he railed against “white genocide” and was sued (with other members of the TWP) for his role in it on behalf of Charlottesville victims. He was found guilty on charges of civil conspiracy in 2021.

“Some years later”, he reveals some of his core beliefs are shaken, especially his attitude toward Black Americans, whom he recognises as often sharing the same sense of dispossession that had fuelled his own anger. “I love Russia and I love Putin,” he told Hochschild, “so I looked into moving there.” As Hochschild remarks: “It seemed that Adolf Hitler was to be replaced in his pantheon by Vladimir Putin.”

Transcending the gulf?

Pikesville is also the home of America’s most famous family feud, between the Hatfields and the McCoys. The feud, which lasted many decades from the late 19th century, “began as a dispute over a stolen pig” and “ended as the longest and fiercest clan fight in the nation”. It has been the basis for a dozen movies, virtually all unmemorable. In 2017, a member of the reconciled clans said if they could settle their differences, “there has to be a way for Americans to get back together as one”.

In the last section of the book, Hochschild looks for ways to transcend the apparent gulf that separates blue and red America. Reading the book after Trump’s return to power, this felt sadly inadequate. Yes, as she points out, most voters are more moderate than the politicians on either side. Sadly, this is not sufficient protection against the rise of the authoritarian plutocracy that now seems to have a firm grip on Washington.

Hochschild wrote this book during the Biden administration and the lead-up to the 2024 elections. I assume she finished it before Trump named Vance as his vice president: a man who first came to prominence with his own account of Appalachian pride and shame. Hochschild doesn’t discuss his Hillbilly Elegy, though it is listed in her references.

Hochschild brilliantly captures the pain of men who feel left behind and conveys something of life in rural Kentucky that goes beyond easy stereotypes. I could feel empathy for many of the people she comes across. But I was unpersuaded there is much room for optimism that the appeal of Trump, and those who follow him, will easily be defeated.

Dennis Altman, Vice Chancellor's Fellow and Professorial Fellow, Institute for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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https://www.alternet.org/cynical-political-ploy-gop-experts/

an 8 23 no lnx GUK

'Cynical political ploy': Experts slam GOP’s 'unequivocally false' claim that Biden is behind opioid crisis

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Maya Boddie August 08, 2023

Republican leaders' attempt to blame President Joe Biden's immigration policies for an increase in fentanyl deaths is a "cynical political ploy" according to critics, The Guardian reports.

Per The Guardian:

The speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, tied the sharp increase in fentanyl seizures and deaths to the record number of undocumented migrants entering the US last year, and blamed the White House for letting them in. So did Congresswoman Mary Miller when she claimed that Biden and the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, 'opened our borders and flooded our streets with fentanyl.'

Furthermore, according to the report, "Republicans held a congressional hearing in July into the Biden administration's 'open border policies' after the party's members on the homeland security committee released a report accusing Mayorkas of a 'dereliction of duty.'"

READ MORE: Lawmakers readying bipartisan bills to authorize Pentagon resources to combat fentanyl: report

However, Mayorkas deems the Republicans' claims "unequivocally false," according to The Guardian. "The vast, vast majority is thought to be smuggled through the ports of entry and tractor-trailer trucks and passenger vehicles."

The Guardian notes 2024 Republican candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has also blamed the public health crisis on Biden,and previously "brought dozens of sheriffs from across the US together in Arizona in June to peer into Mexico and claim that the president's easing of [former President] Donald Trump's restrictions on migrants seeking asylum had opened the door to a flood of the drug killing about 200 Americans a day."

The news outlet reports "Ninety of" the sheriffs "signed a letter praising the Florida governor's position as Republicans increasingly link the growing toll from opioids to 'Biden's open border'"

Criticizing the GOP leaders' claims, U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva (R-Arizona) said DeSantis' border visit "was motivated by hate and fearmongering 'to pander to the same old race baiting anti-immigrant extremist politicians and officials in southern Arizona,'" according to The Guardian.

READ MORE: O’Rourke condemns Texas migrant traps: Biden 'must step in' because Abbott 'has blood on his hands'

University of Texas, El Paso Center for Law and Human Behavior Director Victor M. Manjarrez Jr., told NPR last year while "it's true that fentanyl is crossing the border," the drug is "not coming over on the backs of migrants, who are often turning themselves in to seek asylum."

READ MORE: Survey cites gun violence as America’s top health threat

The Guardian's full report is available at this link. NPR's report is here.

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Trump attorney’s protective order response proves he seeks 'freedom to disclose witness interviews': experts

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no lnx an 7 23 tex trib

Texas A&M suspended professor accused of criticizing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in lecture

Kate McGee,James BarragánandThe Texas Tribune July 25, 2023

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Texas A&M suspended professor accused of criticizing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in lecture" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Joy Alonzo, a respected opioid expert, was in a panic.

The Texas A&M University professor had just returned home from giving a routine lecture on the opioid crisis at the University of Texas Medical Branch when she learned a student had accused her of disparaging Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick during the talk.

In the few hours it took to drive from Galveston, the complaint had made its way to her supervisors, and Alonzo’s job was suddenly at risk.

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“I am in a ton of trouble. Please call me!” she wrote to Chandler Self, the UTMB professor who invited her to speak.

Alonzo was right to be afraid. Not only were her supervisors involved, but so was Chancellor John Sharp, a former state comptroller who now holds the highest-ranking position in the Texas A&M University System, which includes 11 public universities and 153,000 students. And Sharp was communicating directly with the lieutenant governor’s office about the incident, promising swift action.

Less than two hours after the lecture ended, Patrick’s chief of staff had sent Sharp a link to Alonzo’s professional bio.

Shortly after, Sharp sent a text directly to the lieutenant governor: “Joy Alonzo has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation re firing her. shud [sic] be finished by end of week.”

The text message was signed “jsharp.”

For free speech advocates, health experts and students, Texas A&M’s investigation of Alonzo was a shocking demonstration of how quickly university leaders allow politicians to interfere in classroom discussions on topics in which they are not experts — and another example of increasing political involvement from state leaders in how Texas universities are managed.

The revelation comes as Texas A&M is reeling over concerns that the university allowed politically motivated outsiders to derail the hiring of Kathleen McElroy, a Black journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, to revive the journalism school at Texas A&M. The subsequent outcry over how Texas A&M handled the situation prompted the university president to resign last week, and the interim dean of arts and sciences stepped down from that role but will remain a professor.

In an email obtained by The Texas Tribune through a public records request, Alonzo told Self the investigation had been kicked off by a student “who has ties to Texas A&M Leadership.”

The Texas A&M system confirmed the series of phone calls and text messages that led to Alonzo’s investigation was kicked off by Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, a graduate of UTMB’s medical school. The Tribune confirmed her daughter, a first-year medical student at the time, attended Alonzo’s lecture. Buckingham served six years in the Texas Senate with Patrick, who endorsed her run for land commissioner last year, and she recently attended Sharp’s wedding in May.

Buckingham declined to comment.

A few hours after Texas A&M started looking into the complaint, course leaders at UTMB sent an email to students in the class saying Alonzo’s comments “about Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and his role in the opioid crisis” did not represent the opinion of the university.

The email also included a “formal censure” of Alonzo, although it did not specify what she said that was offensive.

Neither UTMB nor Texas A&M would confirm what Alonzo said that prompted such a reaction, and UTMB students interviewed by the Tribune recalled a vague reference to Patrick’s office but nothing specific.

UTMB declined to comment for this story, and Alonzo declined to be interviewed.

Ultimately Texas A&M allowed Alonzo to keep her job after an internal investigation could not confirm any wrongdoing.

In a statement, Texas A&M University System spokesperson Laylan Copelin said Sharp’s text to Patrick was a “typical update,” saying it is not unusual for the chancellor to “keep elected officials informed when something at Texas A&M might interest them.”

“It is not unusual to respond to any state official who has concerns about anything occurring at the Texas A&M System,” said Copelin, who said the system followed standard procedure to look into the claim.

Patrick did not respond to a request for comment.

Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit legal group focused on protecting free speech on college campuses, said “it would be highly inappropriate for a university to conduct an investigation if a faculty member says something critical of a state leader or a government official.”

“That is, I think, a misuse of institutional resources, and it’s one that will have a chilling effect and that has a chilling effect even if you wind up clearing the professor,” Steinbaugh said.

A day after the complaint about Alonzo’s talk, Marcia Ory, a professor at Texas A&M Health and co-chair of the university’s Opioid Task Force with Alonzo, warned about the long-term consequences.

“The incident in Galveston yesterday is probably an indicator of how sensitive and politically charged this topic is and the need to tread lightly and be aware that anything can be taken out of context,” Ory wrote in an email to Jon Mogford, vice president of Texas A&M Health.

“It’s a shame because all we want is to make people aware of harm-reduction strategies that can save lives, especially among youth and young adults who are especially vulnerable these days,” wrote Ory, who did not respond to a request for comment.

An expert with a solid reputation

Alonzo has spent more than two decades as a pharmacist in Japan, Missouri and elsewhere, and has taught college students in Texas for more than a decade. She now teaches at Texas A&M while working as an ambulatory care pharmacy director at a free health clinic in Bryan.

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She has helped bring millions of federal research dollars to the university, and last year Texas A&M’s pharmacy school named her the early career researcher of the year.

One of Alonzo’s recent projects focuses on training people to use Narcan, a nasal spray that reverses opioid effects and can save lives in overdose cases. She’s also advised state leaders on other public policies that could improve the fight against opioid overdoses.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid often illegally manufactured by Mexican drug cartels, is a growing problem. Between 2019 and 2021, overdose deaths involving fentanyl in the state rose nearly 400%.

This year, Gov. Greg Abbott declared cracking down on fentanyl as one of his seven priority issues for the legislative session.

Lawmakers allocated $18 million over the next two years toward providing naloxone, an opioid-reversing drug, to police, schools and community organizations on the front lines of the epidemic. To improve the government’s response to overdose spikes, they also passed laws requiring police and other public entities to report overdoses to a public health agency.

But instead of backing other recommended strategies to reduce overdose deaths, such as legalizing test strips that can detect the presence offentanylin other drugs, lawmakers focused on a more punitive approach, approving laws that increase criminal penalties for providing fentanyl that leads to an overdose death.

Public health experts like Alonzo have largely supported harm-reduction efforts rather than increasing punishments for drug users. As the crisis intensified, Alonzo often received urgent emails from Texas school districts and law enforcement agencies eager for training and naloxone kits. In the past, she estimated she had given away more than $4.5 million worth of naloxone through her training sessions.

Statement of formal censure

Self, the professor at UTMB, scheduled Alonzo to give the lecture to the first-year medical students months in advance.

“I can’t tell you enough how much the students value this presentation,” Self wrote in October, according to emails obtained through an open records request. “I get feedback all the time from them telling me how important they view this talk. They’ll come up to me even months later to tell me.”

On March 7, the two started the day with breakfast at the laid-back Mosquito Cafe in Galveston before heading to the lecture, which was mandatory for students to attend.

The lecture was not recorded, but according to presentation slides obtained by the Tribune through an open records request, Alonzo gave students a broad overview of the opioid crisis and the science behind opioids. She walked them through how to prevent opioid deaths, how to recognize an overdose and how to administer naloxone. She even touched on what to do if a police dog was exposed to fentanyl.

The slides show that Alonzo discussed how a lack of infrastructure limits the state’s ability to respond to the crisis, noting that many Texas counties lack a medical examiner; reporting on opioid deaths by emergency rooms is infrequent; and many law enforcement agencies and local health departments don’t track opioid deaths.

This means the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers Texas a nonreporter when it comes to opioid data, which makes it more difficult for researchers to receive grants to tackle the issue. (Alonzo gave her presentation before the Legislature passed new reporting laws this year.)

The lecture ended around noon. Afterward, students gathered at the front of the class to grab free naloxone kits provided by Alonzo. Some stuck around to ask Alonzo questions.

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The course’s instructors gave no indication anything had gone awry.

Alonzo got in her car and started her two-and-a-half-hour journey home.

At 4:22 p.m., as Alonzo was learning that a controversy was brewing, a course coordinator sent an email to the entire class distancing UTMB from comments Alonzo allegedly made about Patrick. The subject line read, “STATEMENT OF FORMAL CENSURE.”

“The statements made by the guest lecturer do not represent the opinion or position of the University of Texas Medical Branch, nor are they considered as core curriculum content for this course,” the email said.

“UTMB does not support or condone these comments. We take these matters very seriously and wish to express our disapproval of the comment and apologize for harm it may have caused for members of our community,” the email continued. “We hereby issue a formal censure of these statements and will take steps to ensure that such behavior does not happen in the future.”

The email did not specify what comments had led to the censure.

The trouble had started several hours earlier when Buckingham called Patrick to alert him that an A&M professor had made negative comments about him during a guest lecture at UTMB, said Copelin, the A&M system spokesperson. Buckingham then called Jenny Jones, the university system’s vice chancellor for governmental relations.

Copelin said a text message had alerted Buckingham of the comments, but he did not provide information on who sent the text message.

Patrick then called Sharp and Kevin Eltife, the chair of the University of Texas System’s board, Copelin said. The call between Sharp and Patrick was short. Patrick’s chief of staff, Darrell Davila, followed with the text to Sharp that linked to Alonzo’s faculty page. Eltife declined to comment.

Sharp asked then-A&M President M. Katherine Banks to investigate Alonzo’s comments.

Copelin said Sharp’s request went through the chain of command at A&M’s Health Science Center and ended up with Kevin McGinnis, the system’s vice president and chief compliance officer.

At the same time, the government relations team alerted the Health Science Center and the pharmacy school, which are affiliated with Alonzo, Copelin said.

A&M officials received a copy of UTMB’s censure statement and reached out for more information, but UTMB did not cooperate, Copelin said.

“By the close of the day, McGinnis decided to put Alonzo on paid leave and investigate to determine what really happened,” Copelin said in a statement.

As the situation developed, A&M officials updated Patrick and his team.

At 4:43 p.m., just 15 minutes after UTMB sent its official censure letter, Jones alerted Patrick’s deputy chief of staff, Marian Wallace, that the investigation was underway.

“joy alonzo placed on administrative leave pending firing investigation this week js,” read the message from Jones obtained by the Tribune through a public records request.

Copelin said the university’s handling of the complaint against Alonzo followed standard procedure and appropriately updated the relevant lawmakers on the investigation’s progress.

“The investigation into the matter was a reasonable step to take, particularly after UTMB issued a public statement ‘censuring’ one of our faculty members,” he said. “In fact, it would have been irresponsible not to look into it.”

Texas A&M would not answer questions about what specific policy Alonzo may have violated with her comments or provide documents pertaining to the investigation, citing state law that allows a university to withhold such information if a person is cleared of wrongdoing.

The timing of the complaint came as the legislative session was heating up. Universities, including Texas A&M, were making pitches to lawmakers to devote some of the state’s multibillion-dollar surplus to fund special projects.

Alonzo’s predicament also comes as Texas universities are dealing with increasing government involvement in ostensibly independent public universities, particularly at the hand of Patrick, whom Alonzo was accused of criticizing. This year, Texas lawmakers banned diversity, equity and inclusion offices on college campuses, a priority for Patrick.These offices target underrepresented groups on campus to help them succeed, but critics accused them of pushing “woke,” left-leaning ideology on students and faculty.

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Patrick also prioritized a bill that would limit certain conversations about race and gender in college classrooms. When professors at UT-Austin publicly reaffirmed their academic freedom to teach critical race theory last year, Patrick pledged to ban tenure in public universities. Ultimately, that proposal was unsuccessful, but faculty say the broad attack on higher education has made Texas a less appealing and more difficult place to work.

Students scramble to understand what happened

When students at UTMB received the email hours after the lecture, several started texting each other, trying to figure out what Alonzo had said that was so offensive.

According to one student who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the school, some students wondered if it was when Alonzo said that the lieutenant governor’s office was one of the reasons it’s hard for drug users to access certain care for opioid addiction or overdoses.

A second student who also asked to remain anonymous for the same reason said Alonzo made a comment that the lieutenant governor’s office had opposed policies that could have prevented opioid-related deaths, and by doing so had allowed people to die.

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A third student who also spoke on the condition of anonymity said Alonzo talked about how policies, like the state’s ban on fentanyl test strips, have a direct impact on the ability to prevent opioid overdoses and deaths.A push to legalize the test strips died earlier this year in the Patrick-led Senate despite support from top Republicans, including Abbott.

All of the students interviewed said they felt Alonzo’s comments were accurate and they were not offended by anything in the presentation.

In a statement provided by Copelin, the A&M system spokesperson,Alonzo said “her remarks were mischaracterized and taken out of context,” but she did not confirm exactly what the comments were.

“She added that she had no issue with how the university handled the situation,” Copelin said.

The third student at UTMB said the email from the school was frustrating because it was unclear which comments the university found problematic.

“We’ve been left wondering exactly what it was they objected to,” the student said. “That vagueness just leads to some more self-censorship, since it’s hard to tell what is and isn’t allowed.”

Steinbaugh, an attorney with the legal nonprofit FIRE, said schools have the right to criticize an employee or guest speaker for statements they make, but issuing a formal censure sends a strong and unambiguous message.

“That is a suggestion that if you repeat this language or these criticisms, then you will be subject to disciplinary consequences that go beyond formal censure,” he said. “That is a way to really put an exclamation point on the chilling effect.”

In a statement last week to faculty who were upset about the fallout over the botched hiring of McElroy to the journalism department, Sharp expressed concern about outside influences in the hiring and promotion of faculty, saying it was “never welcome, nor invited.”

Sharp said he only participates in hiring questions over the school’s president and vice chancellors for agriculture and engineering.

“Other than that, I don’t believe it is my place to be part of the hiring process for faculty,” he wrote.

Fear of a chilling effect on life-saving information

A few hours after Alonzo reached out to Self about the trouble she was in, she finally heard back. But the tone of the email was notably different from the earlier cordial exchanges.

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Self said she did not record the lecture and noted that “all further correspondence will be funneled through our Office of Education.”

Self referred a request for comment by the Tribune to UTMB’s media relations department, which declined to discuss the situation.

Meanwhile, emails obtained through an open records request show that opioid experts and advocates across the state started sending Alonzo letters of support that evening.

“I’ve never seen her to be anything other than professional, knowledgeable, and compassionate,” wrote Kathy Posey, who helped start the Montgomery County Overdose Prevention Endeavor, an opioid overdose awareness group made up of people whose family members have been addicted to opioids or died from an overdose.

Lucas Hill, a clinical associate professor of pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote in his letter that Alonzo was not a divisive educator.

“While I was not present during her guest lecture at the University of Texas Medical Branch this morning, my interactions with Dr. Alonzo gives me great confidence that she engages learners in discussions of controversial topics with the professionalism and restraint described in established principles of academic freedom,” he wrote.

The stakes are high for professors who simultaneously work in their fields and teach, many of whom, like Alonzo, do not have tenure. And it raises concerns that medical experts working on high-stakes issues like the opioid crisis might withhold important, life-saving information out of fear of reprimand or punishment.

“When we’re dealing with basic life-saving interventions, chilling effects can have much more deep consequences,” said Aaron Ferguson, an addiction treatment expert in Austin who works with researchers at public universities to combat opioid overdoses. “People don't feel emboldened to share basic science that could save people’s lives.”

“Some members of the audience” were offended

On March 21, two weeks after she was placed on paid leave, Alonzo received an email saying her leave had been lifted.

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The following day, pharmacy school Dean George Udeani said in a memo to Alonzo that during the lecture she “related an anecdote and an interaction with a state official.”

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“I understand that your comment did not assign blame. However, some members of the audience felt that your anecdote was offensive,” he wrote.

“While it is important to preserve and defend academic freedom and as such be able to discuss and present to students and the public the results of research observations and strategies, you should be mindful of how you present your views,” Udeani said.

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https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/12/pharma-lobby-poured-millions-into-darkmoney-groups/

pharmaceutical companies’ top lobbying group funneled millions of dollars to prominent “dark money” groups that pushed industry friendly messages to lawmakers and 2020 voters.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America raised nearly $527 million last year and spent roughly $506 million, new tax returns obtained by OpenSecrets reveal. That’s a record haul for the organization, which is funded by the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.

The trade association made its largest political donation of 2019 — $4.5 million — to the American Action Network, a dark money group that backs House Republicans. The conservative nonprofit and its pharmaceutical industry donor share disdain for proposals to regulate the price of prescription drugs.

The same year it received PhRMA’s donation, theAmerican Action Networklaunched several multi-million dollar ad campaigns opposing President Donald Trump’s proposal to let Medicare negotiate drug prices. This year, the group launched multi-million dollar ad campaigns opposing House Democrats’ bill to lower drug prices and ads boosting vulnerable Republicans who supported an alternative bill considered much friendlier to drugmakers.

The alliance between drugmakers and GOP groups isn’t new. PhRMA has given $14.6 million to the American Action Network since 2016. In that time, the American Action Network became a major contributor to GOP causes. During the 2020 election cycle, it gave $26.4 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the House Republicans’ top super PAC that helped unseat several freshman Democrats.

In several key 2020 races, the American Action Network battled with a Democratic group that also received funding from drugmakers. PhRMA gave nearly $1.6 million to Center Forward, a dark money group aligned with moderate Blue Dog Democrats, last year. That nonprofit provided most of the funding for an allied super PAC that spent $3.3 million supporting House Democrats. The pharma-backed GOP and Democratic groups went head-to-head in several key House races, including a tightly contested New York race that has come down to a handful of votes.

Late last year, as Congress debated drug pricing bills, Center Forward flew House staffers to San Francisco to meet with drug company executives. The nonprofit’s board members have also lobbied for pharmaceutical interests. Republicans in Congress are the most vocal opponents of efforts to have the government regulate drug prices — a measure that would damage drugmakers’ profits — but Blue Dog Democrats also pushed back on more aggressive proposals to lower drug prices.

Drugmakers bankroll groups pushing industry talking points to Trump

Prominent drugmakers have spent much of 2020 developing vaccines to fight COVID-19, and the threat of drug pricing legislation in Congress has died down amid the pandemic. But Trump has continued to push forward with executive actions on prescription drugs opposed by the pharmaceutical industry.

PhRMA deployed creative tactics in an attempt to persuade Trump against following through on his campaign promise to aggressively lower drug prices. During the Trump era, the trade association has bankrolled conservative groups that have access to the president.

The American Conservative Union, which hosts the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, received $150,000 from PhRMA in 2019. Led by Trump ally and corporate lobbyist Matt Schlapp, the conservative nonprofit launched the Coalition Against Socialized Medicine late last year to oppose efforts to regulate drug prices and enact single-payer health care proposals.

Nearly all of the coalition’s members received funding from drugmakers within the last two years. Big pharma’s trade group gave $505,000 to American Commitment, $78,500 to Americans for a Balanced Budget and $60,000 to the Taxpayers Protection Alliancelast year alone, according to new tax returns. The Taxpayers Protection Alliance launched a six-figure ad campaign last month aimed at killing “surprise” medical billing legislation and calling it a “handout” to big insurance companies.

New tax returns also show that pharmaceutical manufacturers’ trade group gave $200,000 to the National Sheriffs Association, a nonprofit representing thousands of law enforcement officials. The group launched a six-figure ad campaign last year warning against Trump’s proposal to import drugs from foreign countries, a measure bitterly opposed by drugmakers. Those ads specifically targeted Trump, airing in Washington, D.C., on his favorite Fox News programs.

Trump ultimately approved a plan to import drugs from Canada in September, but its scope was limited. He also moved ahead with a rule that would allow Medicare to negotiate the cost of drugs based on the price foreign governments pay, another measure strongly opposed by drugmakers.

Still, while Trump has moved ahead with industry-opposed measures, his GOP allies in Congress have not made drug pricing legislation a priority. Republican lawmakers and their aides are consistently fed opinion pieces and ad campaigns from conservative groups urging them to reject “socialist price controls.”

Republicans ran political ads in 2020 that mirrored talking points from major healthcare industry players. Super PACs aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) attacked Democrats’ over their support for a public health insurance option, a proposal that could hurt drugmakers’ profits. Those ads cited a study from the Partnership For America’s Health Care Future, a conglomerate of insurers, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies that received $300,000 from PhRMA last year.

Longtime pharmaceutical ally gets seven-figure gift in retirement 

One of PhRMA’s largest 2019 gifts was a $2 million donation to the Orrin Hatch Foundation, athink tank and research library launched by former Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). The trade group gave $140,000 to the foundation between 2017 and 2018.

Hatch, who retired in January 2019, was known as the pharmaceutical industry’s “man on the Hill” by the end of his 42-year tenure. Hatch helped shape current laws that regulate generic drugs and opposed measures to limit drugmakers’ monopoly protections. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Hatch was considered the major roadblock to drug pricing changes proposed by Democrats and Trump.

the pharmaceuticals and health products industry gave $2.8 million to Hatch’s campaign committee since 1998, more than any member of Congress who didn’t run for president.When Hatch faced a primary challenge in 2012, PhRMAgave $750,000 to a super PAC boosting his reelection campaign.

During Hatch’s final years in office, his allies reportedly asked pharmaceutical companies and K Street lobbyists for donations to fund the Orrin Hatch Foundation. In 2018, the foundation invited major corporations, including pharmaceutical giant Merck, to a luxury mountain resort for a fundraiser.

While the foundation will serve as a library to catalogue Hatch’s government service and provide civic education, it has also put out policy reports on pressing issues. Its most recent report delves into how lawmakers can craft “sensible solutions to both foster innovative biologics and curb skyrocketing drug prices.”

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https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/07/sheriffs-target-trump-w-ads-stop-prescription-drugs/

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bringing in prescription drugs from other countries to reduce prices is an idea that has gained traction across the political spectrum, from Sen. Bernie Sanders to President Donald Trump.

But the proposal, generally criticized by pharmaceutical companies, has faced additional opposition on the airwaves in recent weeks from a different kind of group: the National Sheriffs’ Association.

The association, a 501(c)(4) group representing thousands of law enforcement officials, has spent more than $500,000 in the past few weeks to air TV ads opposing the importation of prescription drugs, according to FCC filings compiled from OpenSecrets’ political ad database.

The ads, which mostly target adults over the age of 55, have aired in the Washington, D.C., metro area on the local CBS and NBC affiliates, as well as on cable channels including ESPN, HGTV and Fox News. The ad buy included more than 600 spots, including dozens on shows that the president is known to watch, such as Hannity, Fox & Friends and Tucker Carlson Tonight.

“We protect our communities from illegal imported fentanyl:{ and counterfeit pills that often come from other countries,” }one ad:{ says.“Opening our borders to foreign drug importation will only increase the threat of counterfeits and escalate this crisis.”}:

The association has previously cited research sponsored in part by pharmaceutical companies to support these statements. It has also, as recently as at least 2016, received grants from these companies to support some of its operations.

In ahearing in front of the House Appropriations Committee earlier this year, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said he had little worry about consumers buying drugs from Canada, but that the agency remained concerned about online pharmacies that purported to be from America’s northern neighbor.

Research on counterfeit drugs from economist Roger Bate, visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has found that foreign online pharmacies that are credentialed consistently export safe drugs.

Importing prescription drugs from abroad is illegal in most cases, although surveys suggest that millions of Americans do it anyway. States are allowed to import cheaper drugs from foreign countries, but only if the Department of Health and Human Services verifies their safety.

Trump pledged to lower drug prices during his 2016 presidential campaign and has sought to fulfill this promise during his presidency, though prices have remained mostly the same. On Thursday, the White House backed off a proposal that had been at the centerpiece of its efforts to reduce prices and would have eliminated industry rebates, encouraging drug makers to pass discounts to patients instead.

The president has endorsed importing drugs from countries such as Canada on several occasions, but such a program has yet to be developed at a national level.

The National Sheriffs’ Association adopted a resolution opposing drug importation legislation in July 2017. When the Trump administration proposed a working group to explore safe ways to import drugs in August 2018, the association sent the president a letter outlining its members’ concerns. It argued that allowing imported prescription drugs would likely increase the flow of false or dangerous drugs into the United States and worsen the opioid epidemic.

“Already overburdened law enforcement and regulatory capacity would be unable to ensure a safe prescription drug supply under importation,” the letter said.

The association issued another statement reiterating these concerns this past January, after members of Congress on both sides of the aisle introduced bills that would allow patients and pharmacists to import drugs from Canada and other major countries.

To explain the dangers posed by importation, both the letter from last August and the statement from January cited a study published in June 2017 by the Freeh Group, an international risk management firm. That study was commissioned by the Partnership for Safe Medicines, a 501(c)(6) organization with more than 60 members, according to its website. Those members include both 501(c)(3) nonprofits and other 501(c)(6) groups, such as the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the premier trade association of pharmaceutical companies and the industry’s largest lobbying group.

The National Sheriffs’ Association, meanwhile, is a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, so it is not required to disclose its donors and does not do so voluntarily. According to IRS filings, it raised $7.1 million in revenue from October 2016 through September 2017.

In the past, the association has partnered with pharmaceutical companies for other purposes. In 2016, it received a $350,000 grant from Purdue Pharma to train sheriffs to use naloxone, the opioid-overdose reversal drug, and a grant of an undisclosed amount from biopharmaceutical company Alkermes, Inc. to raise awareness about the opioid epidemic among law enforcement officers.

the association did not return requests for comment as to whether the recent anti-import ad campaign was part of a partnership.

Such 501(c)(4) groups are allowed to engage in political activity, so long as politics do not become their primary activity — a guideline that has been interpreted to mean that up to 49.9 percent of their funds can be spent on politics.

The ads in the sheriffs’ association campaign are classified as issue advocacy ads, since they are political in nature but do not expressly advocate for a candidate. FCC filings list prescription medication as the issue of national importance in each ad.

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