#US/Mexico Relations

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Radley Balko at The Watch:

Here’s a sentence I never imagined I’d need to write: It would be a bad idea for the U.S. to go to war with Mexico. And yet here we are. The thing about a candidate as historically dangerous, impulsive, and incompetent as Trump is that he routinely proposes stuff so off the wall that it would tank virtually any other campaign. But because of this, some of his nuttier ideas are overshadowed by everything else he does. In a previous post, I looked at one of these under-the-radar ideas — Trump’s catastrophic promise to deny federal funding to any school that requires kids to be vaccinated. Today, we’ll look at another — the Trump/Republican vow to bomb or invade Mexico. Trump has repeatedly threatened that, if elected again, he will bomb drug cartels and fentanyl manufacturing facilities in Mexico. He has also proposed sending assassination teams or special forces units into the country. He vowed to take these actions with or without the consent of the Mexican government. The Mexican government has been pretty clear about where it stands on this: They would not consent. So let’s be clear about what Trump is proposing: He’s proposing an invasion of Mexico. Which means he’s a proposing a war with Mexico.

Trump’s history with this threat suggests we should take it more seriously than the typical bluster he spouts during one of his campaign rally monoglogues. Rolling Stone reported last year that even then he had already asked his advisors to assemble a “battle plan” to enact shortly after he’s elected. He also reiterated his promise in an interview he and running mate JD Vance did with Fox News last month (Vance is also all for it). The origin of the war with Mexico idea dates back to the end of Trump’s first term, when, in response to rising fentanyl overdoses, he attempted to designate drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, despite the fact that they don’t fit any reasonable definition of a terrorist. He apparently thought this would allow him to bomb the cartels as if they were ISIS cells. It turns out that it isn’t that simple. You can’t simply call people “terrorists” and immediately start bombing the countries where said “terrorists” are operating without first consulting with the leaders of those countries. Mexico’s president promptly and resoundingly dismissed the idea. This apparently irked Trump enough to take the position he advocates today: Just bomb them, anyway.

[...] Destructive, counterproductive policy that treats foreign lives as disposable has long been the hallmark of U.S. overseas drug interdiction. We’ve funded the extra-judicial execution of drug offenders in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. We partnered with South American governments to shoot down suspect drug running planes without regard to the possible loss of innocent life — that is, until the policy claimed the lives of a U.S. missionary and her daughter. In Panama, the CIA (specifically, George H.W. Bush) propped up and facilitated the drug-running operation of brutal dictator Manuel Noriega. When Noriega was no longer useful for fighting communism, the U.S. then indicted him for said drug running, then (specifically, George H.W. Bush) invaded and bombed his country. We killed hundreds of Panamanian citizens in the process.

As for Mexico itself, in the mid-2000s the U.S. incentivized the country’s government to enlist its own military in the drug war. That policy toppled some cartels, but also spawned destabilizing turf wars and violence as rival factions vied to replace them. The winners then and the military have since been fighting for nearly two decades. The death toll is now approaching half a million people. When asked about the carnage, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton basically said in 2011 that tens of thousands of dead Mexicans was a price the U.S. was willing to pay to keep harmful drugs away from Americans. (It did not keep illicit drugs away from Americans.) The arguably most destructive U.S. overseas anti-drug program was Plan Colombia, Bill Clinton’s drug eradication program that poisoned farmland, fostered rampant corruption, and pushed that country into a civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people. This too did not keep illicit drugs away from Americans.

[...]

It will backfire

Even drug cartels have a code. They go out of their way to avoid harming U.S. law enforcement, and they don’t target U.S. citizens. When underlings have violated this code, or when U.S. citizens have suffered collateral harm, the cartels have bent over backwards to make amends. The last thing they want is to bring the full force and weight of the U.S. government upon themselves. This of course doesn’t excuse the times drug violence has harmed American citizens. We should naturally seek justice in those cases. But while what Trump is proposing won’t end the illicit drug trade, it will create an existential threat to the current cartels. It will back them into a corner. Cartels avoid U.S. casualties because they want to remain in operation. If they know the United States is sending its military to kill them, there’s no incentive to adhere to the code. They’re likely to lash out — against U.S. law enforcement, U.S. citizens, possibly U.S. politicians.

[...]

Mexico isn’t our enemy

Depending on how you measure it, Mexico is either our first, second, or third biggest trade partner. Any military action taken without consent of the Mexican government would bring most of that trade to a screeching halt. That risks about $855 billion in annual commerce. It would threaten millions of jobs, particularly in California, Texas, Louisiana, and the industrial Midwest. When Trump threatened to completely shut down the border during his first term, economists warned it would result in a shortage the goods from Mexico, including computers, cars and car parts, gas, chemicals, and produce (goodbye avocados!). Mexico is also a big consumer for U.S. agriculture. So corn, soybeans, poultry, pork, and dairy farmers would also take a hit. We’d also see major interruptions in supply chains that flow through Mexico. When the Border Patrol shut down just one official crossing in San Diego for just a few hours in 2019, businesses in that city lost $5.3 million. All of this economic damage would come in addition to the calamitous economic effects of Trump’s other disastrous campaign promises, like across-the-board tariffs and mass deportations.

Radley Balko perfectly describes why going to war with Mexico is a reckless and costly idea.

[ladyimaginarium]

from mikjikj-mnikuk/turtle island to inuit nunangat to kanata to kalaallit nunaat to anahuac to abya yala to alkebulan to the levant to moananuiākea to sápmi to éire to bhārata to zhōngguó to nihon to aynu mosir to siberia to niugini to nusantara to bandaiyan to aotearoa, from coast to coast to coast to coast, from sea to sea to sea to sea, none of us are free until all of us — men, women, enben, children, queer people, disabled & neurodivergent people, elders, animals and the land and the sea and the sky — are free!!!!

[willgrahamsleftear]

Do y’all know about Photoblepharon palpebratus. Also known as the one-fin atlantic flashlight fish. Do you know it practices symbiotic bioluminescence with an unknown species of biolumescent bacteria. Do y’all know about how bioluminescence works. DO YOU

[exmojoe]

Gotta dress sluttier so I can piss off god, who will then — hopefully — make it rain in a failed attempt to get me to cover up

[rhaaclaws]

Ok that poll reminded me but the amount of posts I've seen on here that are like. Talking abt south American countries or just any place that isn't the US it's like "it's not just a them problem it happens here too" or like "wow can't believe X country has this over us" like shut the the fuck uppppp

[lyxthen]

The Mexican Revolution (aka. The civil war, not the war of independence) has to be one of my favourite periods in history. I am such a nerd about it.

First of all, it has cowbows.

[snail-speed]

Anytime I see a fellow Latino demand reparations from Spain I just get war flashbacks to AMLOver rhetoric. /nbh

[weepingfireflies]

People & countries mentioned in the thread:

DR Congo - M23, Cobalt

Darfur, Sudan - International Criminal Court, CNN, BBC (Overview); Twitter Explanation on Sudan

Tigray - Human Rights Watch (Ethnic Cleansing Report)

the Sámi people - IWGIA, Euronews

Hawai'i - IWGIA

Syria - Amnesty International

Kashmir- Amnesty Summary (PDF), Wikipedia (Jammu and Kashmir), Human Rights Watch (2022)

Iran - Human Rights Watch, Morality Police (Mahsa/Jina Amini - Al Jazeera, Wikipedia)

Uyghurs - Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) Q&A, Wikipedia, Al Jazeera, UN Report

Tibetans - SaveTibet.org, United Nations

Yazidi people - Wikipedia, United Nations

West Papua - Free West Papua, Genocide Watch

Yemen - Human Rights Watch (Saudi border guards kill migrants), Carrd

Sri Lanka (Tamils) - Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch

Afghans in Pakistan - Al Jazeera, NPR

Ongoing Edits: more from the notes / me

Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh/Azerbaijan (Artsakh) - Global Conflict Tracker ("Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict"), Council on Foreign Relations, Human Rights Watch (Azerbaijan overview), Armenian Food Bank

Baháʼís in Iran - Bahá'í International Community, Amnesty, Wikipedia, Minority Rights Group International

Kafala System in the Middle East - Council on Foreign Relations, Migrant Rights

Rohingya - Human Rights Watch, UNHCR, Al Jazeera, UNICEF

Montagnards (Vietnam Highlands) - World Without Genocide, Montagnard Human Rights Organization (MHRO), VOA News

Ukraine - Human Rights Watch (April 2022), Support Ukraine Now (SUN), Ukraine Website, Schools & Education (HRW), Dnieper River advancement (Nov. 15, 2023 - Ap News)

Reblogs with Links / From Others

Indigenous Ppl of Canada, Cambodia, Mexico, Colombia

Libya

Armenia Reblog 1, Armenia Reblog 2

Armenia, Ukraine, Central African Republic, Indigenous Americans, Black ppl (US)

Rohingya (Myanmar)

More Hawai'i Links from @sageisnazty - Ka Lahui Hawaii, Nation of Hawai'i on Soverignty, Rejected Apology Resolution

From @rodeodeparis: Assyrian Policy Institute, Free Yezidi

From @is-this-a-cool-url: North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA)

From @dougielombax & compiled by @azhdakha: Assyrians & Yazidis

West Sahara conflict

Last Updated: Feb. 19th, 2024 (If I missed smth before this, feel free to @ me to add it)

[aanews69]

All our links in one place:https://sleekbio.com/aanews69Visit our Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/DNPLServicesWe deliver stories. We also give you guides, tip...

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley at Rolling Stone:

“OF COURSE WE aren’t fucking bluffing.” That’s the message one close Trump adviser and former administration official — who requested anonymity to speak candidly — wants to get across to the press and public, when asked about Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign vows of “retribution,” unprecedented force, and militaristic action.  Indeed, this sentiment is shared widely among the upper echelon of Trumpland and the MAGAfied Republican Party, with various officials and conservatives with a direct line to the former president insisting that so-called “moderates” or alleged “establishment” types will be tamed or purged, if Trump retakes power next year.

Rolling Stone spoke with a dozen sources who are playing roles in Trump’s “government-in-waiting” or are in regular contact with the ex-president, including GOP lawmakers, Trump advisers, MAGA policy wonks, conservative attorneys, and former and current Trump aides. They universally stress that the former (and perhaps future) U.S. president and top allies are serious about following through on his extreme campaign pledges. These promises run the gamut from siccing active duty military units on not just American cities but also Mexican territory, all the way to prosecuting and potentially imprisoning Trump foes.

Several of these sources say that a wide range of litmus tests, loyalty screenings, and “guardrails” are already being implemented, or discussed with Trump, to root out so-called “RINOs” (Republicans in Name Only) and MAGA-skeptical conservatives from embedding themselves within a possible second Trump administration. These processes would be largely aimed at drastically curtailing the number of squishy Republican officials who would be able to get in Trump’s ear to, in the words of one GOP lawmaker on Capitol Hill, try to “scare Trump off of what needs to be done or should be.” This lawmaker cited former senior administration officials such as Mark Esper and John Kelly who, at times, urged the then-president to moderate his policy desires.

According to Esper, the then-defense secretary worked to talk Trump out of doing things such as ordering the actual shooting of Black Lives Matter protesters. One idea regularly kicked around Trump’s government-in-waiting is a dramatic increase in the use of “lie detectors” across the federal apparatus, to root out or charge leakers and other subversives. These devices, called polygraphs, are frequently unreliable and inadmissible in courts of law. Then-President Trump and his then-attorney general, Jeff Sessions, mulled expanded use of polygraphs during the first term, when leaks to the media were especially copious.

[...] And, for as much as Trump and the MAGA elite love to rant against “the establishment” in the Republican Party and in Washington, D.C., the former president has something else playing to his advantage for a potential second term: He and his policy ideas are the Republican establishment now, and have been for years, due to his hostile takeover of the party starting in 2015 and the devotion he commands from conservative elected officials and GOP voters. Trump’s outbursts that were once shot down by fellow senior administration officials — including ones about invading and bombing Mexico — are now so thoroughly accepted as reasonable positions in the mainstream of the GOP that there are entire legislative and nonprofit apparatuses pushing the idea.

“Yes, we do really want to burn it all down,” says another Republican close to Trump, referring to the so-called GOP “establishment” remnants who may wish to shackle Trump’s hard-right impulses. When asked about potential court challenges in a Trump second term, this source simply replies: “Who cares?” Still, Trump and his inner orbit are now promising a MAGA laundry list of extreme measures that will invariably face significant resistance, should he take power again. The list runs profusely long, but it includes criminally probing and possibly imprisoning political enemies and the prosecutors who’ve gone after him; unleashing troops on Democratic-controlled cities whenever he wants; cracking down on legal and illegal immigration on a draconian, unprecedented scale; further solidifying his anti-democratic lies about the 2020 election into policy and party dogma; insulating himself from his own array of indictments; and turning the Department of Justice and other nominally independent organs of the U.S. government into his own personal protection racket.

Those involved with diligently crafting these legal and policy blueprints — including at an array of conservative think tanks aligned with Trump — will often brief the former president and provide regular updates and ideas for his campaign. They also frequently insist that if Trump is reelected, the policy rollouts won’t be slapdash the way they were circa 2017, given that Trump now has so much institutional backing for his agenda. For instance, various lawyers in the upper ranks of Trumpland have long been mapping out how to achieve the former president’s dreams of imprisoning prosecutors like Jack Smith, Letitia James, and Alvin Bragg, to the point that they’ve already identified specific parts of the U.S. criminal code that they can exploit in increasingly convoluted ways, if only to provide Trump and the Justice Department with a road map for terrorizing those who’ve crossed him.

Sources with direct knowledge of the matter say Trump has not just been having discussions and briefings with government-in-waiting types and former senior administration officials — Trump has been actively soliciting new ideas for how they can do things that didn’t work the first time around, including demanding novel legal theories for eliminating birthright citizenship. Numerous legal scholars argue that Trump cannot do that via executive order, which is why the former president is eager for MAGA-friendly lawyers to concoct outlandish work-arounds.

[...] A similar process is already playing out on the campaign trail. Under the leadership of Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, the Republican National Committee has reportedly been asking job applicants if they adhere to Trump’s “big lie” conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was “stolen” through fraud. 

Numerous sources with direct knowledge of the situation say it is widely expected in Trumpworld that if the ex-president wins back the White House, hard-right conservatives in the vein of Stephen Miller and Mike Davis will be handed positions of considerable power and influence. And these Trumpists are very open and explicit about their intentions, and often dismiss allegations that they are just trolling. Davis, a prolific tweeter, has threatened to indict, detain, denaturalize, and deport a handful of Trump critics with whom he argues on Twitter, including former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan and Tim Miller, a former GOP operative and now a journalist at The Bulwark.  

As Trump has faced criminal prosecution in a number of cases, Stephen Miller, a former senior policy adviser in the Trump White House, has called for Republicans to “return lawfare in kind” against their Democratic opponents. Casting Democratic policies as criminal conspiracies, he told Fox News in April 2023 that Republicans in Congress should “begin crafting criminal referrals to the Department of Justice which can then be taken up in 2025 under an honest DOJ.” Miller has also tried to brush away claims that Trump’s apocalyptic talk on immigration is mere bluster.  “Any activists who doubt President Trump’s resolve in the slightest are making a drastic error: Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to implement the most spectacular migration crackdown,” he told The New York Times in late 2023.

Read this Rolling Stone article: The MAGA movement’s efforts to make Donald Trump’s 2nd term much more extreme than his first one is a very scary prospect.

[aplpaca]

Do you have any cool bird facts

female raptors (eagles, hawks, falcons, etc) are larger than male raptors in pretty much all species. this happens even in groups not closely related to each other (ex: hawks and falcons), so its beneficial enough in their niche that its evolved independently a few times, though its unsure exactly what that benefit is atm (bc unlike males being larger in a lot of mammals, female raptors dont make a habit of fighting each other or using size to attract mates as far as we know). ex: heres a male and female Cooper's Hawk

somewhat mentioned above but falcons are more closely related to parrots than they are to hawks

Gray Catbirds and American Robins have been witnessed raising young in the same nest at the same time. In one instance (reported by Mulvihill and Murray), they were recorded caring for the young of both species in the nest, and when the Catbird young fledged, the adult Catbirds continued to provide food for the not-yet-fledged Robins. heres a pic of the nest from the report

the worlds oldest known bird as of 2024 is a wild Laysan Albatross named Wisdom who's 72-73 years old (at minimum, we dont actually know her birth date, just that she was at least 5 years old when she was banded in the 50s) and still raising chicks. here's her with one of her chicks

also Albatrosses have wingspans of up to 3.5m/11.5ft and have been recorded flying 49,700 miles without touching land (they do land in the water to eat tho)

this is from personal experience but if you walk around in a north american grassland for long enough, you Will get jumpscared by a Mourning Dove bc they make their nests on the ground in the grass and like to hang out on the ground in the grass and they also like to wait until youre right overtop of them to freak out and fly away from you

Bald Eagles don't get their fully white heads and tails until theyre about 5 years old

A lot of birds have been observed incorporating cigarette butts into their nests, and a study in Mexico on House Finches found that this actually results in drastic decreases in parasites affecting young compared to nests without them

Cedar Waxwings (and Waxwings in general) just look so smooth. they look like someone airbrushed them. look at this shit

in Jacanas, females lay eggs in multiple males' nests, and then the males raise the young by themself. Also they carry their babies under their wings like this

Horned Guan. Theyre endangered and live in a small area of central america. both the males and females have the little horn fez, the males just have taller ones

[g0ldenstar]

idk y but my entire instagram reels feed is like. all in spanish?????

[xtruss]

Close-Up Video Shows Texas Floating Barrier Has Circular Saws

— By Khaleda Rahman | August 9, 2023 | Newsweek

Migrants walk after crossing the Rio Grande River into the United States in Eagle Pass, Texas as seen from Piedras Negras, Coahuila State, Mexico on August 4, 2023. Democratic Rep. Sylvia Garcia has called the installation of the barrier "inhumane." Guillermo Arias/AFP Via Getty Images

The wrecking ball-sized buoys that make up the floating barrier that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott installed in July in the Rio Grande have circular saws between them, according to a video posted by Rep. Sylvia Garcia.

"Appalled by the ongoing cruel and inhumane tactics employed by @GovAbbott at the Texas border," Garcia, a Democrat, wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, alongside the clip. "The situation's reality is unsettling as these buoys' true danger and brutality come to light. We must stop this NOW!"

Mexican authorities said last week that two bodies had been recovered from the river in recent days, including one that was caught in the floating barrier. One body was found stuck in the lines of orange buoys, Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said in a statement on August 2. A second body was recovered about three miles upriver from the buoys, The Associated Press reported.

A repost of the video by Laiken Jordahl, a Southwest conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, amassed more than 8 million views.

The center is an environmental group where Jordahl works to protect wildlife, ecosystems, and public lands throughout the Southwest desert and U.S-Mexico borderlands, according to its website.

"Abbott has installed circular saws between the Rio Grande border buoys to maim or kill anyone who attempts to climb over," Jordahl wrote in the post. "Two bodies have already been found trapped in the floating barrier. He wants more migrants to die."

Jordahl told Newsweek: "Each day the floating wall, saw blades and concertina wire are allowed to stay up, more migrants will be injured or killed and more wildlife will suffer.

"Governor Abbott is turning this beautiful river into a death trap for people and wildlife. Our wildlands and communities will not be turned into war zones. Abbott must be stopped."

The U.S. Justice Department is suing Abbott over the barrier, after warning that it violates federal law and raises humanitarian concerns for migrants crossing into the country from Mexico. The lawsuit is asking a court to force Texas to remove it.

"We allege that Texas has flouted federal law by installing a barrier in the Rio Grande without obtaining the required federal authorization," Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement in late July.

"This floating barrier poses threats to navigation and public safety and presents humanitarian concerns. Additionally, the presence of the floating barrier has prompted diplomatic protests by Mexico and risks damaging U.S. foreign policy."

[worldspotlightnews]

Blaze kills at least 39 people at migrant detention center near Mexico-US border | CNN

CNN  —  At least 39 people died in a fire at a migration center in Mexico’s northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, officials said Tuesday. Authorities said the fire at the office of National Migration Institute (INM) occurred after they picked up about 71 migrants from the streets of the city. The cause of the fire or the victims’ nationalities have not been released by Mexico’s National…

[quillsword]

Should the Monroe Doctrine Still Exist?

Should the Monroe Doctrine Still Exist?

Yes. Y’all come back… Okay, okay, I’ll explain. It’s in the US’ best interest not to allow its enemies to have significant inroads on the American continent. You need that explained, too? Didn’t they teach you kids anything in college? The reason the US has rarely been invaded is its geography. To get to us you have to either cross an ocean or take over Canada or Mexico first. None of that has…