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So this interview's really interesting in retrospect, I think Graeber got Trump's relation to empire completely wrong because he ignored the implications of his own most important point, which is the tension between
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Trump's desire for a weak dollar (to rebuild the manufacturing sector, which Graeber mostly seems to ignore in favor of real estate make work for some reason) vs his finance allies' desire for a strong dollar to underwrite the value of their
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
assets. The only way to resolve this contradiction is by trying to force other countries to increase the value of their currency Reagan style (Plaza Accords) at gunpoint, but you can't actually do that to China because China has nuclear weapons
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
and isn't an American military protectorate. The solution to this is to play American nationalism against American finance and launch a nationalist anti-China campaign, which manifested as the trade war. This I think was the most important part of
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Trump's strategy, it's why he was tweeting about China even after the burning of the prescient in Minneapolis and didn't really start fully focusing on the protests until he got driven into his bunker. What's interesting is that Biden, who's
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
backers are in large part the financial class, decided to take up the nationalist anti-China line in response to COVID as a weapon against Trump. I think that's because between the two forms of American populism the policy proposals of left
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
populism (which is a distinct thing from socialism but this isn't the place to expand on that) and the racist core of right populism the racism is more palatable to Biden's allies, especially since the war with China shit can be played up in the
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
media while actual relations are normalized to the point where finance can extract its profits. This of course involves throwing Chinese Americans to the fucking wolves but that's a price Biden and Trump are willing to pay.
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
