Putin has trapped Trump in a whirlwind of bad news

1. Trump needs to win the election, and to do that, he needs good news.

2. Putin knows this and is therefore blackmailing Trump with bad news.

3. Trump is trying to buy good news from Putin, but Putin is asking for too much. That price alone is bad news.

4. In other words, Putin has trapped Trump in a bad-news dilemma: if you don’t buy it, it’s bad; if you buy it at a high price, it’s bad; and he won’t sell it cheaply. It would be worth grabbing Putin by the collar and shaking him hard, because the U.S. holds the cards. But Putin is a good poker player, while Trump is only good at golf—and even then, only on his own course.

5. So, a message was sent to Putin from Washington, but he didn’t appreciate it. Now it’s his move, and he appears ready to raise the stakes on the European stage. It’s important to note that Europe has many vulnerabilities but little preparedness. This is where the rules of Go come into play: a single well-placed stone threatens the opponent in several directions at once.

6. Once again, we see how it’s possible to have the strongest armed forces on the planet and, at the same time, a strategic weakness that allows Iran, North Korea, and Russia to gain the upper hand. At the same time, the U.S. is weakening its ties with allies: Europe, Canada, South Korea, and others.

7. Dictatorships beat democracies not because dictators face no limits on evil, and not because dictators face no time constraints. Democracies lose because they don’t know what they want.

8. That is why democracies need institutions whose lifespans extend beyond political terms—so as not to forget what you want.

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