For more than a decade, the United States has faced a relentless and heartbreaking increase in fatal drug overdoses driven by synthetic opioids. A new analysis suggests this trend has suddenly reversed due to a major disruption in the global supply chain of illicit fentanyl. Published in Science, the study indicates that regulatory actions taken by the Chinese government, following high-level diplomatic engagement with the Biden administration, may be the primary driver behind this unexpected decline in mortality.
I wish this were true. But after Iraq? After Vietnam? A Cold War that nearly wiped out the entire human race? After CIA sponsored coups from Brazil to Guatamala? Henry Ford was passing out copies of “The International Jew” all over Germany during the 1920s. Roosevelt forced the Platt Amendment down Cuba’s throat. McKinley oversaw a genocide in the Philippines. Polk gave us the Annexation of Texas and the revitalization of the North American slave trade. Anyone ask Andrew Jackson what happened to all the Cherokee down in Florida?
America is a country with unlimited do-overs. Our brand is never tarnished. We are always and forever a Shining City On A Hill even as Ronnie fucking Raygun is sponsoring nun rape down in Nicaragua.
The events you’re describing are the history of every major world power. The global power that hasn’t participated in numerous atrocities does not exist.
The difference here is the loss of domestic rule of law and its cascading downstream effects for global cooperation and trade, which yes, will create significant future problems for the US and its brand. This will become more evident in a year to a year-and-a-half when the post-tariff trade agreements take effect, for a start. China is the obvious beneficiary.
But could get a whole lot worse a whole lot faster depending on how far Donald decides to push his unilateral warmongering, and whether or not Congress does anything about it.
Almost as though power is accrued at the expense of the vulnerable.
The only countries that the US has alienated are ones it is explicitly sanctioning. Nobody else is actually cutting ties.
China’s the trade-alternative for countries under US sanctions, precisely because Trump’s done a ham-fisted job of diplomacizing with his counterparts overseas. But a future Pete Buttigieg administration can patch that up if he chooses. There is more to be gained by doing business with the US than with Venezuela or Iran or Cuba. Chinese leaders know that and act accordingly.
Sure. Or it could come to a grinding halt if Trump loses control of Congress and falls into lame duck status three years early. Already, we’re seeing sharp divides even inside the GOP, which already operates on thin margins in the face of a Dem election wave.
Plenty of precedent for an unpopular President to get sidelined by skilled and ambitious legislators. And the US has demonstrated time and time again that it has the manpower and the infrastructure to rebound quickly under strong, competent leadership.
We’re almost certainly going to face a nasty recession going into the next few years. But we’re still a massive, hugely populated, highly technical, heavily industrialized economy. Losing unipolar status isn’t the end of the empire. A bad few years of economic contraction isn’t the end of the world.
Now… the long tail of climate change… that’s another story. If the Colorado River dries up before it reaches Arizona, we’re going to see some shit flying.
A lot of the manpower has been sacked. Replacing those people and getting them to a point of strong competency will take years and years and a lot of money.
Second best time to plant a tree is today. #guesswebettergettowork
There might be a difference now. The US has always warmongered, but it did know who it could gonafter without consequences. Geopolitically, Vietnam, Iraq, and all these other countries hardly mattered. These could be attacked and nobody would lift a finger to stop it.
Greenland would be different. That would damage the relationship with its European allies a lot. A relationship the USA has depended on for a long time.