Selective Justice: Pirate Streams, Drug Boats, and Epstein’s Elusive Clients

For more than fifty years, the United States has waged a war on drugs at home and abroad. Despite trillions spent and countless lives disrupted, drugs remain plentiful, and violence has escalated. One reason is that prohibition converts peaceful transactions into black‑market operations controlled by cartels. When governments destroy a vessel based on suspicion, they become judge, jury, and executioner. Due process evaporates; there are no trials, only explosions broadcast on social media. The strike on the Venezuelan boat should alarm anyone who believes in the rule of law. It also invites doubts about the target’s identity: the crew may have been fishermen, smugglers carrying contraband other than narcotics, or dissidents the Venezuelan government wished to see eliminated. “Trust us” is not an answer.