Geopolitics and Trump

If you are experienced in the board game Risk, you know that it is for a maximum of 6 players, and you know that one player will disappear from the game quite quickly, and that two more will follow soon enough. Then the game is down to three players, and this usually leads to 2 ganging up on 1, both throwing all their forces against the 1 until that one is gone. 

The world has gone something like that. We are down to three players: the USA, Russia, and China. The EU doesn’t count because it is not a warrior entity and because it is disintegrating where it stands. Japan doesn’t count because it has no military power and Risk is a wargame.

Russia and China have played the game differently than the USA. I think that to some U.S. leaders, and particularly President Obama, the nation state is an inconvenience to be endured until we all come to unity of non-democratic transnational organizations. Russia and China are very keen on their national interests. Their leaders are not willing to sacrifice their national interests to those of globalism.  One tactic used in this 2 against 1 game may have been the Russian hacking that led to the Clinton emails being leaked.

And they are collaborating in undermining the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The creation of the SDR as the new world currency is a step away from the paramountcy of the dollar. The SDR is a basket of currencies, of which China’s yuan is a significant part. This is not some vague concept. Even Air Canada limits your claims to 17 SDRs per kilo of lost luggage (http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/before/contract.html).

The dollar has been doing well lately. It seems that the Trump victory (IF he even becomes President) has boosted confidence in the dollar. I say IF because the electoral college still hasn’t cast their vote. There is talk now that a number of the 307 members that the public thinks are committed to voting for Mr. Trump are wavering. Something similar happened in 1824 (http://gordonfeil.blogspot.ca/2016/10/donald-trump-is-right-game-is-rigged.html). If even 37 of them change their minds, then he fails to get the requisite 270 votes for victory, and then the decision goes to the House of Representatives.  It’s republican controlled, but who knows how many disaffected republicans are in that assembly and who would like nothing better than to “throw the bum out on his ass”?