By John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with
Zugzwang is the position between adversaries when one is forcing the other to make the next move, but whatever move he makes will be his defeat.
President Donald Trump (lead image, left) is in it.
The only way out for him is to play for time, disguising his predicament with as much noise, camouflage, and confusion as his supporters can manage.
When this happens to presidents, everyone who can deserts him while throwing up subterfuges, shams, and smokescreens. This is what Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the leading candidates to succeed Trump in two years’ time, are doing.
Those whose corrupt fortunes tie them to Trump and his successor, Eric Trump, have no alternative but to do all they can to damage the Democratic Party alternative. This requires a combination of making war against Iran, Russia and China; making peace to reduce the price of oil, fertilizers, and inflation at home; making the European, British, and Asian allies nervous enough to keeping paying and stay loyal.
Inside the Deep State — where the supply of money depends every budget season on action, not inaction; operations which Congressional committees like to vote for, not those they dislike and vote against — there is a loosening of vertical command and oversight from the White House, an increase in experiments, adventures, trial balloons, faits accomplis, stabs in the back. The Central Command operation on Monday, May 25, for example, was announced as “self-defense strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.” It achieved nothing militarily. Politically, however, it drew Trump’s prompt endorsement: “Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are proceeding nicely! It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all — Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before.” He then added a reminder of who his real targets are: “The Dumacrats and Media have totally lost their way. They have gone absolutely CRAZY!!!”
Trump also warned his successors and their campaign financiers that he isn’t a lame duck yet. “Just finished my 6 month physical at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. Everything checked out PERFECTLY. Thank you to the great Doctors and Staff! Heading back to the White House.”
Zugzwang is also the position in which Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping find themselves uncomfortably. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too.
If Russia, China and India each face wars with multiple adversaries led by Trump, what is to be done to conserve their domestic political power and maintain enough escalation control on their battlefields to deter Trump’s adventurism. When a Ukrainian press agency asked for China’s reaction to the escalation of Russian strikes against the Ukrainian leadership in Kiev on Sunday, the spokesman for Foreign Minister Wang Yi responding for President Xi answered: “China’s position on the Ukraine crisis is consistent and clear. Dialogue and negotiation is the only viable way out. We call on parties concerned to work together for deescalation as soon as possible and accumulate conditions for restarting dialogue and negotiation.”
Saying nothing, doing nothing is a zugzwang, too.
In Tuesday’s podcast with Nima Alkhorshid, aired live at 7 am US ET, the discussion focuses on the political meaning of the Oreshnik strike against Kiev, the US attack on Bandar Abbas and Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz, and the end-of-war negotiations running simultaneously. Click to listen or view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcgzWcvRHwU
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcgzWcvRHwU
TRUMP’S WARS AND PEACE DEALS ARE ZUGZWANG DEFEATS IN VOTER POLLS
Source: https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/donald-trump/issues/israel-palestinian
SERGEI SHOIGU’S STATEMENTS REFLECT ZUGZWANG FOR PUTIN
Source: https://tass.com/politics/2136583 For more excerpts of Shoigu’s May 26 speech, click to read: https://tass.com/politics/2136629 and https://tass.com/politics/2136709
CHINA’S ZUGZWANG RESPONSE – SAY NOTHING, DON’T MOVE
“Ukrinform News Agency: The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that the Russian military is preparing massive missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital. In its statement, the Russian side explicitly threatens foreign diplomats in Kyiv with these attacks. I’d like to ask how China comments on Moscow’s threats to escalate Russian war in Ukraine and whether it will evacuate its diplomats from Kyiv?
Mao Ning: China’s position on the Ukraine crisis is consistent and clear. Dialogue and negotiation is the only viable way out. We call on parties concerned to work together for deescalation as soon as possible and accumulate conditions for restarting dialogue and negotiation. AFP: Just a general question on the Middle East. The U.S. military says it has launched new strikes on Iran targeting this time Iranian missile sites and boats it says were attempting to place mines. What is China’s take on that?
AFP: Just a general question on the Middle East. The U.S. military says it has launched new strikes on Iran targeting this time Iranian missile sites and boats it says were attempting to place mines. What is China’s take on that?
Mao Ning: We urge relevant parties to honor the commitments to ceasefire, solve disputes in peaceful ways, and continue to work for solutions that accommodate the legitimate concerns of all parties through dialogue and negotiation so as to enable peace to return to the Middle East and Gulf region at an early date.”
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