cigarette smoking. over time it will kill you. but marlboros don't cut down young people in their prime. smoking doesn't turn teenagers into zombies. it hasn't destroyed entire towns throughout the midwest and new england. the sacklers are hoping to get off with just 6% of what the tobacco companies paid more than 20 years ago. that feels wrong but it's easy to see why the sacklers are for it. according to bloomberg the sacklers would retain at least $1.5 billion after the settlement. is that justice? no. it's not. but, unfortunately it's now a familiar pattern in american life. a ruling class gets incredibly rich by wrecking our country in this case by killing many thousands of young people. they get caught doing it. details emerge. everyone in washington, new york and los angeles spends a week pretending to be horrified and concerned. and then nothing happens. not a single one of the perpetrators ever goes to jail. nobody is ever really punished. we have seen it again and again. including in the financial