Hey there,
Thought that for this week, I'd share some local news items that have backed up over the summer, but first, have a story that has been bugging me something fierce that I need to share.
At Babydolls school, when you come into high school as a Freshmen, they assign everyone a teacher to act as a Student Advisor. This Advisor will follow you throughout high school so if they don't leave, you have them for 4 years. This Advisor gets a handful of kids, like 6-8, and they meet every few weeks in a group to talk about stuff. Not a grade counselor or college advisor, but a person that can take the kids emotional temperature to make sure all is well with them. A great idea as it gives the kids one person that can get to know them in a way so they can tell if they are coming off the rails.
The dude she has was also her math teacher one year and we meet with him at parent teacher conferences each year so have gotten to know him relatively well over the years. He's always seemed quirky to me, and as he is an avid runner, I never really trusted him, but for the most part felt he was benign. Had daddy/daughter dinner the other night and B-doll shared a story about how 'disappointed' she was in her Advisor. Last week, when the election was done but not decided, they had a conversation about it. Not clear if someone asked, or if he volunteered it, but the Advisor said that he didn't vote. Well that sure is being a great role model for the kids at an American school. He goes on to add that if he did vote, it probably woulda been for 45. Then he volunteered that he'd vote for him as he couldn't vote for Biden as he announced he was going to nominate a woman VP before he began his search in earnest.
First, fucking bullshit. I never really considered this guys politics or moral compass, but that "reasoning" is code for every piece of shit white guy take that they are being usurped by everyone that isn't a piece of shit white guy. I guarantee you this boob thinks he's an open minded guy too. That he can overlook all of 45's heinousness, 230k and counting dead should be more than enough, and site Biden choosing to select one of the extremely high qualified women to be the first female VP in history as his reason to overlook all of it sickened Babydoll, and me by extension. And that he felt cool enough with his take to tell this to a young woman of color? I called him a boob, but that is way too nice cause I like boobs. Am planning my strategy to take this garbage out.
OK...so what has been happening around these parts? .
A couple of weeks ago, Taiwan passed 200 days without a single case of C-19 being transmitted locally. You can read about it here. Still get cases coming in from overseas, but since everyone is quarantined upon arrival in a textbook demonstration of contact tracing, they don't get out to infect the rest of us. Taiwan sits at 500 cases total and 7 deaths. This news made the rounds internationally and I had several U.S. friends send it back to me asking how they/we did it. Certainly no secret and have detailed it in this space a few times, but the most obvious thing that I could share was that the folks here wear the masks with fervor. That the outgoing president decided early on to make mask wearing a political issue, one that Biden will find difficult to turn around since some are so willing to be in the cult that they cannot absorb common sense, that would be the place to start.
Another story about Taiwan (here is the local version of it) that made certain news sites and I had to answer was that Taiwan stood out as one of the few countries that "favored 45". I was asked if/how that was possible and had to confirm that it was. There is a certain element of the population here that thinks 45 is tough on China, and sees his selling of arms to Taiwan and that he sent an official here a couple months ago as evidence of some unwavering support of Taiwan. That official was HHS Secretary Azar and was the highest ranking official to visit Taiwan since 1979, and that was a huge deal to the locals as it should have been as any international recognition here is treated like being bestowed some holy legitimacy. As an example of that, check out this story from the paper today that shows Kamala sitting with her Taiwanese counterpart at a lunch on prosecuting drug offenders in 2015 as evidence she is pro-Taiwan. Here is another where the local press is weighing in on a possible Biden defense secretary pick saying she is good cause she has stated that the US could sink the Chinese navy in 72 hours. Oooof.
That Azar trip was ostensibly one for him to come here to learn strategies on how to deal with the Covid. Obviously that was total BS as nothing was ever mentioned about the visit or what he learned since, and any person remotely fluent in geopolitics knows it was a stunt to piss off China, which it did of course. The folks here are so desperate to be acknowledged that they will swallow any tripe that legitimizes them. I know it was not mentioned in the States, and was quickly swept under the rug here, but in John Bolton's book (remember when that came out a couple of months ago that seems like years), there was a passage where he talks about how 45 feels about the Taiwan/China issue. Here is the full story, but the relevant paragraph is:
Bolton wrote that Trump has blown off China's human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong and downplayed the U.S.'s commitments to Taiwan. In a quote released by NPR, Bolton claimed Trump seemed to think very little of Taiwan: "Although it came in several variations, one of Trump's favorite comparisons was to point to the tip of one of his Sharpie [marker's] and say, 'This is Taiwan,' then point to [his desk in the Oval Office] and say, 'This is China.'"
Anyone that is not oxygen deprived knows 45 wouldn't lift a fat stubby finger to defend Taiwan. Poke China and sell some bullets? No problemo. I don't blame the locals for being suckered in, but they are still suckers nonetheless and react the same way suckers everywhere react when their suckitutde is pointed out.. I think that is the takeaway from this era but what has always been true...that there are gullible, easily impressionable, intellectually incurious people in every corner of the planet and amongst every creed, color and gender and they are being hyper-exploited by cell phones and social media. Anyhoo, the Taiwanese falling for 45's seeming devotion to the island reminded me of Lisa Simpson when Springfield Elementary's teachers went on strike.
Before moving on from poking the Chinese bear, local Costco was name checked for this.
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