The US is using tariffs to force Canada and Mexico into stopping alleged cross border flows of fentanyl.
One view is that this signals the US genuinely wants to protect its population from fentanyl.
But another is that the US wants to become the global supplier of fentanyl. 🧵
After the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, Afghanistan’s poppy fields went from a minor portion of global opium production to supplying the vast majority of the world’s consumption.
When the US finally left in mid 2021 and the Taliban retook control, opium production plummeted.
But while opium requires copious labor and vast fields of poppies to generate a significant yield, enough synthetic opioids to supply entire countries can be produced in a single lab by a few chemists.
It’d be hard to imagine a better drug for raising dark money.
I’m sorry, but positing that Trump is some rogue agent acting in brash opposition to imperial interests is swallowing the kayfabe almost as hard as his fans.
When faced with the demands of a hostile US, what are “allies” going to do? Say no and join the global south? Be serious.
The rise of Trump and Trumpism cannot be fully explained without first recognizing how, over the last two decades, American politics has been shaped by the rise of China. 🧵
Despite both parties preferring to deemphasize foreign policy in their campaigns, US foreign policy is the engine driving domestic policy. This is because modern US domestic politics is fundamentally a game of dividing up the plunder that foreign policy secures.
This plunder arrives in the form of persistent federal govt budget deficits which are maintained via the exorbitant privilege of the US dollar’s position as global reserve currency, an arrangement forced upon the rest of the globe in the ashes of the world wars of last century.
US-backed attempts at foreign destabilization always try to leverage *real* grievances, not to bring any resolution to the aggrieved. Quite the opposite, they attempt to intensify.
The only correct position for the western left to take is to oppose *ALL* forms of intervention.
Yellen is once again traveling to Beijing, this time to try to get China to curb “overproduction”.
What's the real goal? 🧵
The goal of this pressure campaign is to somehow convince China to self-sabotage the foundation of their budding prosperity—their means of production—thereby eliminating the competition.
Why don't the capitalist countries try to out-compete China on commodity prices instead?
They've tried!
But due to decades of offshoring productive capacity and hoovering up their best and brightest minds into the financial and "tech" sectors, regaining a competitive edge will require a lot more effort than simply throwing money at the problem.