Decision Point

(Decision Point)

When things get tallied, former President Donald Trump will have had millions of dollars in legal fees. It is a good thing that his "mugshot" is selling so well that he could convert the merchandising rights to his likeness to assume the whole obligation. That being said, a second Trump non-consecutive term, if it were to happen, could prove the most significant political event in history. Indeed, there seems to be some anticipation of that very fact. Canada is "planning" for the U.S. to make a far-right turn. should Trump win again and the GOP is returned to Congress with Majority numbers. In any event, fast forward to what was just recently un-thinkable, Donald Trump gets elected the 47th President of the United States.


One of the things Trump has promised is to end the Ukraine War. That eventuality is still months away and the formality of winning in 2024 still needs to be done. Til then, the war will continue and recent analysis would seem to indicate that Ukrainian forces are rallying and in a classic example of mobile warfare, a three-pronged armored offensive is overwhelming or at least is making significant progress, And, this attack is being effected with reserves available.


Not the scenario Vladimir Putin had been expecting. One can remember the attempted coup by the Wagner Group when it marched on Moscow some weeks ago. Its leader, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, had been appropriately "coped" by the Russian President. Is Russia in some kind of dis-array ? The Wagner contingent remains in the field and with the probable assassination of its leader at the hands of Putin, who's to say that force might not head back north ?


And what about China ? The Peoples' Republic has been like Italy in the two World Wars. Because Rome choose belligerency, thinking aligning with the Allies in 1915 or Hitler in 1940, Italy's territory could be extended. From that, by 1945, Italy was in ruins and was under Allied occupation. Now China is feeling the effects of backing a non-winner at this point. Its economy is slowing. It has been leveraging itself as a part of its overseas infrastructure development program.


The Peoples' Republic has the ambition to have the yuan replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency. It has added Saudi Arabia to its own BRICS trading block as a challenge to the G-7. But Beijing cannot fulfill these ambitions all at once. So, as Moscow continues to struggle with a war that was supposed to end after a few days Beijing cannot sever its connections so easily. So, when the time comes, what will be the decision ?

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