Failing Trade War Creates Opening for Democrats in Iowa Meanwhile on TikTok, Chinese manufacturers are telling Americans to buy cheap knockoffs direct from the factory, reducing the impact of Trump's tariffs by cutting out the retail middlemen. via the Washington Post, the New York Times, NBC News, and the AP.
THE BIG NEWS Rule of Law in America Hangs on Fate of Kilmar Abrego Garcia
Drone Strikes on Mexico? Donald Trump May Turn Out to Be an Even Bigger Warmonger Than George W. Bush
On top of threatening to invade Panama and Greenland, "annex" Canada, and "take over" Gaza while abandoning the defense of Europe, the Trump administration is now floating a simultaneous war with Mexico. NBC News reports that White House, Defense Department and US intelligence officials are "considering launching drone strikes on drug cartels in Mexico," with or without the cooperation of the Mexican government. Responding to the news, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum affirmed yesterday that "We do not agree with any kind of intervention or interference."
Experts point out that bombing Mexico would accomplish nothing, apart from stoking the most brutal impulses of Trump and his advisers, and may even strengthen the cartels' position. Meanwhile, under questioning by Senate Democrats, top Pentagon for special operations official Colby Jenkins declared that even though the White House has designated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, the US military does not have the authority to launch drone strikes inside Mexico. There is also the small matter that, as NBC observes, unprovoked US drone strikes on Mexico "would arguably violate international law."
There seems to be no limit to Republican warmongering. The Miami Herald reported this week that the Venezuelan military claims to have uncovered a "US plot to fabricate an incident at an ExxonMobil offshore platform in the contested waters between Venezuela and Guyana to justify an armed conflict." The military "statement came a day after Vice President Delcy Rodríguez accused the United States, the Guyanese government, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, and Erik Prince — founder of the private military firm Blackwater — of conspiring to launch a military operation against Venezuela." Who knows if it's true, but you can't give this bunch the benefit of the doubt!
Finally, the Washington City Paper and the Washington Post report that Trump may be getting a long-sought birthday wish this June, with an old-fashioned imperialist-style military parade through Washington, DC, complete with US Army parachutists jumping out of planes and landing on the National Mall to entertain the great big special boy. For as famously squeamish as Trump is, he sure does seem to get off on the idea of other men inflicting violence on his behalf. As MR discussed this week, he's also juicing the military budget. "Trump's anti-war message" was always a lie, but pray he doesn't make it an even more obvious one.
PS I am more worried about the pharmaceutical tariffs, my GERD cant take it.
Economists are predicting recessions not only in the US but in many countries after Donald Trump claimed emergency powers to impose blanket tariffs on imports from most of the rest of the world.
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