When one of my nephews was a wee lad, he learned the joy of peeing outside. At one point, he excitedly exclaimed, “I’m going to pee on everything — I’m going to pee on the whole world!”
I’m reminded of that story when reading this nonsense:
Within Donald Trump’s government-in-waiting, there is a fresh debate over whether and how thoroughly the president-elect should follow through on his campaign promise to attack or even invade Mexico, as part of the “war” he’s pledged to wage against powerful drug cartels.
“How much should we invade Mexico?” says a senior Trump transition member. “That is the question.”
I’m no expert on Mexico or war, but it would appear to me, as someone who’s spent a couple of months there in the past couple of years, that any “invasion” would be pretty daunting. The Mexican border from, say, Nogales west to Tijuana, is crowded border towns surrounded by huge, dry desert. Heading east from Nogales, there’s a lot of desert until you hit Juarez, then the Rio Grande and Big Bend, which is some of the most remote country in North America. So, an invading army would be faced with urban warfare in those big towns, or having to maintain hundreds of miles of supply lines through the desert. The minute the war started, what the hell would happen to the maquiladoras (US corporate manufacturing plants) in Mexicali, Nogales, Saltillo and other places where cars, appliances, clothing and the like are manufactured?
Even if we’re going to unilaterally have airstrikes and drone attacks on cartels, how the hell would we find them? It would be guerrilla warfare with a pretty determined, wealthy and decently armed enemy.
Why is this in the press all of a sudden? I’m guessing it’s because a 62-year-old Jewish woman who happens to be the current President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, shit in Trump’s Wheaties the other day. After threatening reciprocal tariffs, she did this: [probably paywalled link]
Sheinbaum read out the entire letter, which in its penultimate paragraph said that a U.S. tariff on Mexican exports would be met with another tariff “in response.”
In her letter, the president also:
- Told Trump that Mexico has developed a “comprehensive policy” to attend to migrants who “cross our territory” en route to the United States. She told the president-elect that he “probably” isn’t aware of the efforts Mexico has made to stem migration to the U.S.
- Highlighted that “encounters” between United States authorities and migrants on the Mexico-U.S. border declined 75% between December 2023 and November 2024.
- Told Trump that Mexico and the United States need to jointly develop “another model of labor mobility” that responds to the U.S. need for workers and provides “attention to the causes that lead families to leave their places of origin.”
- Told Trump that if the United States allocated “a percentage” of what it spends on “war” to “the construction of peace and to development,” it would be able to substantially reduce migration.
- Pointed out that Mexican authorities have seized tonnes of drugs so far this year, confiscated more than 10,000 weapons and arrested over 15,000 people “for violence related to drug trafficking.”
- Highlighted that 70% of “illegal weapons” seized in Mexico come from the United States.
“We don’t produce the weapons, we don’t consume the synthetic drugs,” Sheinbaum wrote in her letter to Trump.
“The deaths due to crime that responds to the demand for drugs in your country, unfortunately, we are the ones who … [suffer] them,” she told the president-elect.
Claudia, like her predecessor AMLO, has a daily morning press conference (“mañanera”) where she meets the press to make her statement of the day. When I was following Mexican politics more closely, it was clear that AMLO (who’s a bit of a weirdo, IMO) would use some of that time to grind axes about some of his favorite grudges. Claudia’s latest mañaneras have been on the topics of trade and violence against women. She strikes me as a more serious, more focused leader than AMLO.
Anyway, I hope she keeps it up. She’s got big work ahead of her in a country with a lot of problems.
Also, I thought it was funny that Ryan Cooper and Jon Favreau discussed mañaneras and thought they were a good idea — honestly, they might be, because we could learn something from how Morena (Claudia and AMLO’s party) communicate.
Snarki, child of Loki
Yeah, and Ukraine’s prez has a daily video talk, that gets posted TO THIS VERY SITE!!!
Trump should *never* do this, or we’d have to pry out our eyeballs.
Lobo
On the subject of communication, we could use some themes:
Instead of Red/Blue: Gilead states/Free States
Repub Party: Rape Party, Abuse Party, etc
Policies that happen to be good: Broken Clock Policies(Right every so often, but need working clock(party) to validate)
Cabinet Picks: Wrecking crew
Repub Policies: Wrecking ball
Rebup Women like Mace: Handmaids
Please feel free to add, improve,etc.
prostratedragon
Don’t know much about President Sheinbaum beyond that to some she’s too right wing, but boyo do I ever agree with this:
This has been obvious for, oh, only about a century or so.
Harrison Wesley
Given the quality of Team Trump, if he decides to throw down my money’s on the cartels.
Noah Brand
That next-to-last line appears to be “La policia nos asesina” or “The police murder us”.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@prostratedragon: Morena, her party, is generally considered leftist. What that means in practice has to be filtered through the problems in Mexico. AMLO, for example, sure loved to put the military in charge of stuff, as a means of combatting corruption, but of course that brings other issues with it.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Noah Brand: That makes more sense, thanks!
John S.
I wonder how long it will take for Trump to say something awful and/or antisemitic about Sheinbaum. She’s not just a strong Jewish woman who serves as an elected leader — she was also an accomplished environmental scientist.
She is the living embodiment of everything Trump hates.
Poe Larity
Well I’m sure our new climate policy will minimize migration. And we can always restart Agent Orange production for the cartel fields.
Tehran should just start trolling and start sending Scuds to Mexico. After we get bogged down there, sue for peace and return TX to Mexico. Make DC a state so we don’t have to change the flag.
Josie
Anyone who is considering invading Mexico should read about General Pershing’s Punitive Expedition into Mexico seeking to capture and punish Pancho Villa. He was an excellent soldier, but he failed miserably. The land and the people cooperated to send him home empty handed.
Trollhattan
@John S.:
Oh, he’ll hit the trifecta–woman, Jew, Mexican–and it won’t take long. Probably throw in old and not my type if you know what I mean and I know you know.
Steve LaBonne
@Snarki, child of Loki: WE have to learn to ignore him, even if the media can’t manage that. Look how he keeps himself in the news every day when he has no actual power. It’s his one real political skill and aside from feeding his voracious ego it’s essentially a weapon of mass distraction. Personally I propose to have a relaxing holiday season.
Baud
I just hope Trump starts drafting people for his little war, especially the ones who fell for the lie that Harris would draft people to fight in Ukraine.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: Just send all the right-wing militias, I’m sure they’ll be devastatingly effective.
gene108
I did not know Mexico had done so much work to cooperate with the U.S. to stem migration. I try to stay well informed.
Right-wing disinformation in this country is so incredibly overwhelming all other facts that might exist.
Honestly, the biggest headwind in 2024 was the success of the right-wing media organizations to define and control the information flow to most people in this country.
Professor Bigfoot
@Poe Larity: Considering that whole “last stand at the Alamo” was about. white Americans demanding to keep slaves when it was outlawed in Mexico… sure, let ‘em try.
Steve LaBonne
@gene108: I think social media were a bigger problem. The super low info morons who decided the election and who were googling “did Biden drop out” on Nov. 5 don’t follow any mass media, even Faux or NewSmacks.
kindness
So much of the bluster from Trump and his minions is that of an elementary school boy in what they think is swagger. It isn’t.
Gretchen
@gene108: LGM has a piece today about how sports journalism is the only kind of journalism now that has consequences for being wrong. Meanwhile we have people like Bill Kristof and David Brooks who have been wrong about everything since the Clinton administration still on our tvs and legacy media, while people who have been right all along like Marcy Wheeler and Driftglass are still dirty hippies with blogs and podcasts.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@gene108: Yep, and talk about getting no credit for it:
https://www.wola.org/analysis/migration-americas-double-standard-us-border/
frosty
@Steve LaBonne: And here we are again with a post about What Trump’s Done Now. I really have to let these scroll by.
NutmegAgain
Side note: when my kid was little and recently toilet trained, she used to say to me, “mommy I want to go pee like a dog!” Simply meant, outside she would back up to a tree and etc…
Gretchen
Didn’t Sheinbaum say something about if Trump starts deporting people into Mexico she’ll start deporting American expats from Mexico? Or is that just a fantasy?
After Biden revealed yesterday that he’s been negotiating with Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon, Iran and others for more than a year to get a ceasefire, did all those vote-withholders who thought Biden could have ended the Gaza war with a phone call or One Weird Trick, admit that the region is a lot more complicated than they thought? No, I didn’t think so.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Never heard this little nugget of bullshit before. Before election day, the ads were all about gender-affirming surgery for prisons.
Steve LaBonne
@Gretchen: Yes, she said that.
mrmoshpotato
@Steve LaBonne:
Gonna need to dig deep graves in the Mexican desert for all those gun-humping, Trump trash, obese bastards.
Chris
A lot of the time, “war” when American leaders need to flex their muscles means you fire a few missiles, conduct a few air strikes, order a few special forces raids, and then declare victory. Preferably this is done in hostile countries on the other side of the ocean like Syria or Yemen, not friendly countries right on our doorstep like Mexico, but I certainly wouldn’t put it past Trump to do it to Mexico.
Why would you ever need to find the cartels? Just fly your drones around over the Sonora desert until you find some water towers, or gas stations, or heck, wedding parties, then drop some bombs on them, announce that they were cartel strongholds and the cartels have been crippled, then hold some rallies so the MAGAts can chant “USA! USA! USA!” Anybody who points out that it’s all crap will be an egghead intellectual who’s just trying to stab our troops in the back. And if it really is a wedding party and there are some CNN videos of dead children in the wreckage, so much the better: you get to rave about how it proves you’re a Strong Leader who’s willing to Do What Must Be Done to confront the cartels, and not a Weak Kneed Sissy who’s too soft and sentimental to shoot the hostage. Here, let’s pass it over to animal control expert Kristi Noem to elaborate on that.
Ruckus
@John S.:
I believe shitforbrains hates everyone that does not at the very least put him on a 200 ft pedestal. And lick his butt. He is the epitome of someone who thinks their shit doesn’t stink – and it doesn’t, stink isn’t a strong enough word to describe him. My moniker for him barely scratches the surface.
Old Man Shadow
Who knows how fucking serious it is, but yes, airstrikes in Mexico killing Mexican citizens would fucking cause a massive backlash against the United States and its interests in Mexico including violence against US citizens. Any US tourists there would be in danger from local rage and the cartels who would now be inclined to take hostages or exact revenge killings.
I would normally think the guardrails would stop this shit, but God only knows at this point. The entire administration just might be staffed with idiots who think they can lob bombs and kill brown people with impunity and the rest of the world including the target country will just shrug.
Geminid
@Josie: George S. Patton of WWII fame was in on Pershing’s Mexican expedition.
satby
@Baud: ironically, Mexico has a mandatory conscription for males over the age of 18, though it’s not really military service per se. More like community service with basic weapons training. And there’s a corollary volunteer service for women. Cartel fighters wouldn’t be the only force an invader would face.
Redshift
I’m generally pretty skeptical of suggestions any of TCFG’s proposals are negotiating tactics or something (because of Trump’s Razor – most things he wants to do for really stupid reasons, so “he wouldn’t do that because” is just irrelevant.) But this is one case where I think it’s nothing just than BS.
piratedan
I think it all comes down to greed once again. The US takes in a LOT of labor, both skilled and unskilled. The trades in Arizona (and I suspect Colorado, New Mexico, California and Texas) are chock full of folks that are first or even second generation immigrants. Some have clawed their way into the middle class and see those that follow as a threat to their livelihood (not all mind you) not to mention their newly assimilated identity. The US wants the workers, but doesn’t want to pay for it (remind you of anyone in particular?) and if there were a few degrees less greed involved, people would have work, they wouldn’t be exploited and there would be a path to citizenship or even a sharing of resources and workforce so Mexico could thrive as well.
obviously not gonna happen anytime soon.
I do wish the National Guard troops sent from Arkansas and Kansas well in Northern Mexico, there is some notoriously rugged country down there.
Ruckus
@gene108:
They have been doing this for quite some time, but like everything else it takes time to deal with massive amounts of humans. And reasonable thought. So our side really is missing half the problem, oh wait, our leader is missing both sides. He’s not even a shot in the dark, he’s like the back side of Mars.
Chris
@Poe Larity:
At this point, Mexico would probably pay us to keep Texas.
Redshift
@Josie: My wife’s grandfather was on Pershing’s expedition!
mrmoshpotato
@Gretchen:
Yup. It’s a shame we don’t have any big league left wing media in the US.
gene108
@Steve LaBonne:
I count social media as part of the right-wing media, as they have paid influencers and podcasters that broadcast mainly through social media, like the Daily Wire and more I cannot think of off hand.
Chris
@Steve LaBonne:
The Oracle at Delphi would’ve had fun with this.
“Oh Great General Ammon Bundy, if you invade Mexico, that war will be a resounding success!”
::after credits scene::
“You said the war would be a success!”
“Yeah, but I didn’t say for who.”
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
They will just cart them out to sea and dump them overboard. Not going to waste land. 200 miles from closest shore aught to be far enough.
Baud
As with anything else, who knows what Trump will do? I assume US and Mexican law enforcement are constantly coordinating on drug issues. I could easily see Trump claiming a standard law enforcement operation is his “invasion” and that it was a bigly success.
Redshift
@Lobo: I’ve been referring to Republicans as the Punishment Party since W at least, because they’re sure the answer to any problem for someone to be punished. (I was going to add “no matter how many times it fails,” but that’s true for all conservative beliefs.)
Ruckus
@Old Man Shadow:
They seem to think that they are the whatever’s gift to mankind.
What they actually are is waste. They think their shit doesn’t stink but it’s just because that’s all that they can smell – because there is so much of it.
Melancholy Jaques
@gene108:
This combined with a very large percentage of the country being willfully ignorant.
Social media is filled with posts saying Harris/Democrats should have said [fact or issue] followed by multiple replies showing that Harris/Democrats did say [fact/issue] repeatedly.
different-church-lady
America voted for insane. So insane is what we’re going to get.
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
And the American media will accept that as fact and repeat it endlessly. Cf. The surge worked! in Iraq.
Melancholy Jaques
@different-church-lady:
Given the slim margins that decide elections, I object to the synecdoche.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: A “law enforcement operation” carried out on another country’s soil without its permission is an act of war. Expect Mexico to treat it as such and respond accordingly. It won’t just blow over.
barbequebob
@Gretchen: Yes, and sports journalists understand that “they all do it”, for example, in baseball batters make an out or get a hit/walk, and what differentiates the good batters from the bad, is how often they do it. In other words they are sophisticated enough to understand that real analysis looks at rates or frequencies of different behaviors or outcomes, rather than lazy generalized absolutes.
TBone
It’s tragic that Jeffrey Epstein died without knowing he could have been attorney general.
– Borowicz
Josie
@Redshift:
How interesting! Did he ever talk about it?
different-church-lady
@Melancholy Jaques: Given that control is a binary state, there’s no effective point.
different-church-lady
@Steve LaBonne: Apparently Joe Rogan is the only voice that counts.
dc
@Gretchen: American expats are immigrants in Mexico. No one calls Mexicans who live in the US, whether temporary workers for a season, here to work for a number of years, here to find a path to citizenship (i.e. permanent), documented or not, rich or poor, expats. They are always immigrants as are U.S. nationals living in other countries. Expat is a way to avoid calling themselves what they are.
dc
@Old Man Shadow:
It would cause a massive backlash in the U.S. too. I for one would be on a warpath against it.
Baud
@Steve LaBonne: Well, my hypo wouldn’t be without Mexico’s permission. It would just be a joint operation.
...now I try to be amused
@Gretchen:
I wish I could remember the blogger(s) who said that years ago. That blogger also mentioned that Keith Olbermann and Charles P. Pierce were sports journalists before they went into political punditry. And then there are the people at Defector, also better than the average political pundit.
Taken4Granite
@Chris: I think the Oracle would have to say something a bit more ambiguous, like, “If you cross the Rio Grande you will destroy a mighty fighting force.” Which is what she allegedly told Croesus when he was thinking of invading Persia. But the key part about not specifying which force would be destroyed is accurate.
Chris
@TBone:
Heck, it’s tragic that Al Capone died without knowing he could have been President.
Quicksand
@prostratedragon: In other words, what Harris had been working on as VP.
Chris
@Taken4Granite:
Yeah, I was definitely riffing off of Croesus.
Any prediction can come true as long as you phrase it just right!
Melancholy Jaques
@different-church-lady:
As an American, I don’t like being lumped in with people who voted for a convicted felon and sexual assaulter who tried to overthrow the government.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud:
Weak!Suzanne
Exactly right.
The demand for fentanyl that comes across the southern border is….. Americans’ fault. It’s not something Mexico does to us without our permission.
Captain C
@Old Man Shadow:
And such retaliation would probably not be limited to within Mexico, but would likely take place within U.S. borders and at border checkpoints.
OlFroth
There is no doubt that we could defeat Mexico in a war, but why would we want to? They’re a staunch ally, and one of our biggest trade partners. But lets say we did invade, and defeat Mexico. Then what? Do we annex Mexico? And if we did annex Mexico, all those Mexicans would become US citizens. Would they align with the party of their invader?
Steve LaBonne
@OlFroth: It would make the occupation of Iraq look like a stroll in the park.
JaySinWA
This Stonekettle piece has been linked to here before, but his description of what happened in the past with the war on drugs is pretty descriptive of the “been there, done that” invasion/cooperation of foreign countries in service of our war against drugs.
His narrative is about the claim that using tariffs will have an impact on illegal drug prices, but his discussion of his background as being part of the drug wars is relevant to this post.
artem1s
@Harrison Wesley: I say let loose the Minutemen who have been cosplaying at being big men border patrols and bragging about how tough they are on drug runners.
different-church-lady
@OlFroth: We should just buy Mexico.
different-church-lady
@Melancholy Jaques: Neither do I.
Sucks to be us.
George
@Melancholy Jaques: I second your notion. “America” did not elect the Orange Numbnuts. Nor did “we” elect him, as I’ve seen some commenters write. The GOP did with an assist from under-informed and/or malicious normies.
Time to point fingers at them and cross ’em off our Christmas card lists.
@mistermix.bsky.social
On the “threat” of minutemen: Any traveler in Baja is familiar with military checkpoints. They’re manned by the Army, and those guys are, to a man, in great shape. (The Mexican Army also has women soldiers but I’ve never seen one at any of the couple dozen times I’ve gone through a checkpoint.) The guys going through the car are unarmed, but they always have backup in the form of a soldier with a machine gun that is almost as tall as them. The public loves them, too. Multiple times, I’ve seen friendly waves and horns being honked greeting soldiers in the backs of trucks. They also drive up and down the road in convoys led and followed by pickups with machine guns in the back, and the guy manning the gun is wearing goggles and face protection because it’s shitty hard duty on a hot day. They are tough.
These are real soldiers in a real army with real public support who would destroy gravy seals.
The Lodger
@Snarki, child of Loki: Trump did a daily briefing during COVID. It was *NOT* considered one of his accomplishments.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@piratedan:
No need to suspect in Colorado. We just had a concrete apron setup and poured in the alley out back (to big a job for us to even try and do ourselves). The company owner is from Mexico, lives in the neighborhood to my north, one that’s still, albeit barely, majority Hispanic. His crew, all Hispanic, some spoke English, some didn’t. My wife and I always talk to the crew.
His crew is typical of pretty much most work crews in the trades here in Denver. Every roofer, concrete person, deck/patio, fencing and more are all Hispanic, again, most from Mexico.
This state’s economy, would implode if the working Hispanic population (total comprises 23%) decided to not work for a day or 3.
Chris
@artem1s:
Honestly, fuck the brownshirts. Let’s throw ICE and CBP at them. They’re the ones who can’t stop telling us how dangerous their job is and how they’re the only line of defense saving us all from the scary cartels, aren’t they? So put them on cartel duty and make them actually do the job that they claim they’ve been doing.
different-church-lady
Nor would he give a shit if he was. The issue only matters to him as a means to get the rubes to give him power. It’s not a problem to be solved, it’s an hot-button issue to be utilized.
catclub
@Melancholy Jaques:
yeah. When Trump did NOT get a majority of the votes that is not a big turn to his version of insane.
OTOH : the electoral college IS our continuing version of insane.
kalakal
I would hope that the Fuck All to be Proud of Boys would be the first echelon.
jackmac
Invade Mexico? One of the stupidest (of many awful) ideas to come out of Trump’s piehole. A full scale invasion could turn the northern cities of that country into Lebanon. It would turn a longtime reliable ally and friend into an enemy. Even small scale action on Mexican territory also instantly alienate millions of Mexican-Americans living north of the Rio Grande and leave the United States’ reputation and worldwide influence in tatters.
It can’t happen here? Under Trump it sure can.
artem1s
@Chris: the more the merrier.
NotMax
Sending Cruz to reconnoiter Cancun?
//
Harrison Wesley
@different-church-lady: I thought that money was to buy Greenland. And I try so hard to keep up…
Ksmiami
@Chris: give them Texas and Florida. Seriously- let’s rectify the Treaty of Hidalgo!!!!
Ksmiami
@catclub: I think we should work to Dismantle our current government system. It shields the powerful, ruins the rest. It doesn’t work anymore. And once you realize that new versions/upgrades are possible, it is freeing.
catclub
@Ksmiami: I don’t. The collateral damage to innocents
would be enormous and the payoff distant and uncertain.
Martin
@Melancholy Jaques: I would help immensely if Democrats would not shut out their left wing. Republicans don’t. In fact, that’s where Trump got most of his voter growth from. We always express outrage that Trump goes on a show that has hosted some nazis, but unfortunately the nazis get to vote.
But there is no outreach to the left flank by Democrats, which is who have the loudest voices on social media, have podcasts, have regular shows with big audiences. Democrats won’t fund them, won’t talk to them, and won’t even acknowledge them. They have millions of followers, and are routinely critical of Democrats around the kind of stuff you would expect – being too subserviant to capitalists, being slow or paying lip service on civil rights issues, etc. I think some of it is misguided, but a guy like Hasan Piker has an audience the size of Iowa. These folks collectively can put up the couple hundred thousand votes needed to swing an election and Democrats won’t touch them because they keep reaching out to the right, which further pisses them off.
If you don’t know who people like Destiny are, you might want to plug in a bit. Destiny’s audience isn’t that much smaller than someone like Maddow – who can pull in an interview with Biden or Harris. Destiny is important to know because he’s both influential and problematic. His views aren’t easy to nail down as they’ve shifted a LOT. He’s moved from having pretty standard alt-right views to having a mishmash of progressive and non-progressive views. Without Democratic politicians to engage with him – and you can engage with him, and he does change his mind, he’s kind of free to be the only voice these people hear – and there’s a lot of them.
A lot of what people miss about social media (and YouTube and Twitch are social media) is the appeal to these individuals is that they don’t get a voice because they are an authority and have fully formed and unyielding ideas (lets call these people ‘elites’ for emphasis). They get a voice because they were willing to start a channel and throw you in the middle of a stream of consciousness that is to certain people entertaining. It hits some of the same chemical pathways as watching reality TV, but comes with a side of politics. And so you can watch Bernie Sanders talk to Theo Von and you can watch Theo Von questioning some of his beliefs. No, you can’t expect Theo to pop out the other end as a stalwart like Chris Hayes, but Democrats kind of presuppose he’s going to pop out like Tucker Carlson, which he may well do if the only people talking to him are Tucker Carlson.
This is not a rarified space like a TV slot where you need to go in clean and have your argument all perfectly laid out. It’s a cheap space anyone can occupy and therefore it’s messy and imperfect, and you need to be on your game. And you’ll probably take some hits in the process, but that’s how it goes. Whats interesting to the audience is the process of thinking through these things and how arguments go back and forth. That mostly doesn’t exist in the traditional media space, not even in a debate. And it’s a space Democrats almost completely concede to Republicans.
Ned F
We know TRup loves his WWF, and it’s stars. Most of his bluster is right out of the WWF playbook. I’m waiting for hin to rip his shirt off, *Shudder* But all his fans would love it.
And didn’t we do all this not too long ago? I think it was called the War on Drugs.
Quinerly
Deleted.
Central Texas
RE: “finding them” (the cartels)
We wouldn’t. Funerals, weddings, baptisms, saint’s days, are all more photogenic and attractive to the budding drone warrior who is expected to find targets and eliminate them, not get all introspective about the culture. Besides, five will get you ten that at least some of the cartels are heavily financed by money from north of the border and we would not want to screw up a bidness arrangement. More likely, given the Trump scum, the only argument would be over the split.
Betty
@Gretchen: It has always struck me as ironic that Americans believe they are entitled to live anywhere they want while being outraged that someone else might like to have that privilege as well.
Gloria DryGarden
@JaySinWA: thank you for this article.
im thinking history classes in USA could do a more thorough job of teaching the causes, effects, and repercussions of prohibition, and help students make parallels to the current drug “wars” . This article lays it out clearly
i wish I’d learned more of this kind of thing in history class.
this social engineering idea, mean to punish everyone who isn’t a sycophant? That’s weird. I don’t understand.
i know it’s late, a dead thread. This whole topic of how Mexico is sanely addressing out international relationship.. is so very interesting
Martin
@Betty: The brexiters are learning that same lesson the hard way. They thought they would retain their free movement across Europe and only block Europeans from the UK. No, their cheap holidays are dead. Their ability to get a job in Amsterdam is gone.
Gloria DryGarden
I’m completely enthralled by international relations, the interplay of influences, how leaders elsewhere deal with the USA. I long to understand more; it’s complex, and intricate, and has long lasting effects.
And it proves to me that the USA, although a massive economic and military superpower, does not control everything. In fact, we can’t. And there is sometimes sanity and clarity, in following news from other places.
meanwhile, the desert is a tough and dangerous climate. It can kill you, if you don’t know what you’re doing, or you time things badly.
I have American friends who live as expats in Mexico. This is going to matter personally.
kalakal
@Martin: There were literally morons who’d retired to a place in the sun, usually Spain, who voted for Brexit and then were amazed to find out they were no longer eligible to stay there. The sort of people who can live for many years in a ‘foreign’ country and make no attempt to assimilate They only hang out with fellow British immigrants don’t learn the language, only eat at ‘British Pubs’ while complaining about ‘foreign’ food etc. Then there was the wails of protest by Brexiteers when they found out they now had to wait in long passport queues whereas before they’d just strolled through when entering an EU country. Little Englanders.
Martin
@JaySinWA: Something to correct there: the vast majority of tomatoes in the US come from California. CA grows twice as many tomatoes as Mexico does. But the largest trade of tomatoes is from Mexico to the US. Still, 80% of our tomatoes are domestic.
CA has been reducing tomato production due to a variety of issues. Water is one. Labor is always one. But increasing heat means that it’s harder to pollinate plants, so yield is lower in hot years than cooler ones (this was a hot year). Mexico is having the same problem there.
Tomato crop prices were down 20% this year – similar to most crops (did you all notice the savings at the store? No? Funny how that is.)
Roberto el oso
@Ksmiami: As a Texan who has lived for long periods in Mexico, I am all for this idea. But youse guys can keep Florida. While we’re at it, Arizona should be returned as well.
Roberto el oso
The cartels are rightly loathed by the majority of Mexicans, as well as by Mexican-Americans. But, if US boots attempt to start marching over Mexican soil, Stephen Miller and Hegsteth and those other smug pricks will quickly find out the true meaning of ‘fifth column’.
Kristine
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
I need to remember this.
Anthony
Mexico’s armed forces are meant for internal order, not fighting the US Army, so any invasion would probably be very peaceful. However, I doubt anything like that would achieve its stated goals, and would be “you broke it, you bought it” on a much bigger scale than Iraq and Afghanistan combined.