in the not so distant past, the british intentionally used opium - manufactured in british india - as a weapon of mass destruction against the chinese, and it worked extremely well. it essentially destroyed the chinese revival after the mongols in it's tracks, leaving the chinese insular and unable to keep up with a changing world. the british just wanted hong kong as a trading colony; they almost got wiped out by the russians and japanese in succession.

the chinese have no doubt learned from this, and would have reason to weaponize opium, or synthetic opium, and use it against the british, which are now the americans, as a tactic of revenge. that actually makes sense.

but there's no real evidence of this. the chinese are exporting the precursor materials, but they're made for cleaning supplies, and the chinese export everything.

this is not in the realm of fantasy, but looking into the eyes of nicolas maduro and seeing a plot to dismantle america with addiction is not real, and the data's just not there.

assad was worth standing up for, as he was the only moderate in the area, and the alternative was the bloodthirsty islamic fascists that biden let walk into damascus. the venezuelan opposition is not so scary, and maduro is as big an asshole as they get.

trump's behaviour is illegal, and he should be called out for it, but you won't see me lift a carpal tunnel damaged pinkie to stand up for the dictator of venezuela. this guy is a doofus. bolivarianism died with chavez.