This edition is arriving late, after work hours and a couple of interviews for upcoming podcast episodes. Last night’s Vice Presidential debate was difficult to watch, primarily because Pence is so infuriating. Pence has chosen as his public persona the Gee-Shucks Hoosier. As a fellow Hoosier, nothing could be more grating.
If it continues this way, the US will be friendless and belligerent. Maybe it can keep a belligerent India on its side and bully Japan and a few other Asian countries into a confrontation with China it can't win. Everyone else is smiling wanly and backing away, as fast as possible for the door or a wall. Some of the allies who are really locked in will have to find ways to play friend to both the US and China without being crushed by either. It's hard to see things relaxing, as we go back to the geopolitics of 1917 with climate change bearing down in a world of simmering wars and fires.
If it continues this way, the US will be friendless and belligerent. Maybe it can keep a belligerent India on its side and bully Japan and a few other Asian countries into a confrontation with China it can't win. Everyone else is smiling wanly and backing away, as fast as possible for the door or a wall. Some of the allies who are really locked in will have to find ways to play friend to both the US and China without being crushed by either. It's hard to see things relaxing, as we go back to the geopolitics of 1917 with climate change bearing down in a world of simmering wars and fires.