An AUMF Against Mexican Cartels, Rep. Comer Wants to Bomb Mexico & SVB Collapses

In this episode, Alex starts by going over the chaotic weather in California. Then he discusses how Silicon Valley Bank, “among the top 20 American commercial banks, with $209 billion in total assets at the end of last year” has failed after a bank run and a capital crisis that made it the second largest failure of a financial institution in history. Alex questions whether this is a one-off event or the beginning of a financial crisis. For the remainder of the episode, Alex goes into how the kidnapping of four Americans, and the murder of two of them, in Mexico has sparked hawish rhetoric towards Mexico. Now Republicans, some that oppose military force in Ukraine, want to consider using an Authorization for the Use of Emergency Force (AUMF) to be able to attack cartel-owned drug labs. While this AUMF will look different from those used to invade Iraq in 2001, Alex worries that this AUMF will start a new war on drugs that could backfire. Dan Crenshaw, one of the Republicans pushing for this AUMF, says it would be different than the AUMF of 2001 and would look more like how the United States helped Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s.