- by New Deal democrat
Two years ago in a post entitled "Those who cannot see must feel", I wrote:
That's the translation of an old German saying that I used to hear from my grandmother when I misbehaved. It is pretty clear that, over the next four years, the American public is going to do a lot of feeling .... The results will range somewhere in between bad, disastrous, catastrophic, and cataclysmic, depending on how badly foreign affairs are bungled ....
I have some hope ... because both China and Russia are smart enough to figure out that they can get what they want by bribing Trump without resorting to armed conflict.Although I never published it here, below is the conclusion of an email I sent to several correspondents six months ago:
Ever since Trump's election, the lyrics of Al Stewart's song about the 1937 Spanish Civil War, "On the Border," have been going through my mind:
"On my wall, the colors on the maps are running ..."
and I have thought that 2019 is the time of maximum peril to Taiwan and Ukraine.
The midterms were less than three weeks ago. Today Russia blocked the Kerch Strait, entrance to the Sea of Azov, effectively cutting off one of Ukraine's ports. Ukraine says its navy is leaving port.
Between now and the end of 2019 is the most dangerous time, because any potential U.S. Foe will want to have any aggressive move be a fair accompli by the time the 2020 U.S. Elections are underway, let alone by the time a replacement for Trump can be inaugurated.
