My Take | Mainstream press pounces when ‘vassals’ speak truth to power
- Leaders of France, Brazil and Mexico slammed for stating the obvious that is usually ignored by the Anglo-US media industrial complex
As sure as night follows day, the editorial knives are out for democratic leaders who have gone off script from the narratives of empire. The Anglo-American press has exploded in a paroxysm of rage over recent remarks made by Emmanuel Macron, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The leaders of France, Mexico and Brazil ordinarily have little in common. But recently they have said out loud what is usually understood but unspoken in polite democratic society.
Macron said Europe must preserve its “strategic autonomy” and that it would be dangerous to follow Washington’s belligerent lead over Taiwan; otherwise, European states would all become no more than US “vassals”.
Lopez Obrador, who goes by his acronym AMLO, said his country was not responsible for the fentanyl drug crisis in the US and that it “has more democracy” than America. He made the remarks as a growing number of US Republicans are advocating military actions from the application of terrorist labels to the deployment of special forces and even an outright invasion in order to target drug cartels in Mexico.
Meanwhile, for Lula, actions speak louder than words. He has not only questioned why international trade should be conducted mostly in the US dollar but he has committed Brazil, the largest country in South America, to be the latest partner to boost bilateral ties with China by settling trade in each other’s currencies.
The dollar’s global dominance is the linchpin of the US empire. That’s why Washington is furious as an increasing number of countries, not just autocratic but democratic ones as well, are using their own currencies in bilateral or trilateral trade, such as the latest trade concluded between France’s TotalEnergies and state-owned CNOOC that involved the sale of 65,000 tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United Arab Emirates and was settled in the yuan.
The perfectly predictable editorial responses from the “independent” press in the Anglo-American sphere follow.
The Financial Times headlined: “The week Macron’s grand diplomatic project floundered: A furore over the French president’s remarks on Taiwan has left him isolated on the world stage as well as at home.” The conservative Telegraph declares: “But if Macron is indeed kowtowing to President Xi [Jinping], there is likely a dirty secret behind it. To an even greater extent than Germany, France’s economy is increasingly dependent on Chinese money.”