Just when we thought that Oct cannot get any more interesting, more unexpected things happen…
Traditionally, this month scares the financial markets as it is one of the most volatile and bank traders look to achieve their budget by the end of this month before the year-end holidays and closure of the bank books. But then again, 2020 is a year we have all never seen before and cannot wait for this terrible year to end soon…
The 1st US presidential debate on Tues, 29 Sep was a real shit fest. The 90 minutes was practically a shouting match between 2 toddlers vying for the most powerful position in the world. The moderator was trying to control the situation unsuccessfully as both candidates interrupted each other. Trump was at his bullying worse, cutting into Biden more than 100+ times. I think the strategy was trying to pressure Biden to stumble, stressing him to stutter and justifying that he was not fit to govern.
Trump was back into his usual tried and tested lies, avoiding talking about policies which is his weakness. Biden was drawn in to act non-presidential too, calling Trump a clown and telling the president to shut up a few times. The attacks went personal as Biden’s sons were also fair game. This debate was supposed to be for the candidates to articulate their plans and policies but it was a wasted effort. Each had a few minutes to talk about a number of topics but Biden’s train of thought was constantly interrupted by the orange one.
The main highlight of the debate was when Trump refused to condemn white supremacists and telling the Proud Boys group to “Stand back and stand by”. Amazing that this even happened in such a debate. There was initial universal condemnation of the debate as shameful while Trump thought that he had won until most commentators pointed the finger at him for ruining the debate by displaying unpresidential behaviour.
The vice presidents will have a go at debating next Thurs on 08 Oct. I cannot wait for Kamala (Alamak spelt backwards), an ex-prosecutor, to tear Pence a new asshole when they clash. Pence is a bit wooden like Goh CT during the televised debates a long time ago where the opposition chewed him up while he just stared blankly ahead.
Then before the dust settles down, Trump dropped the bomb that he and FLOTUS have COVID19 late Thurs, 01 Oct. This curveball really threw the already messy political situation into limbo as we are just about a month before US elections. What would happen now that he is incapacitated, that all campaigning has to be suspended? Will he use this excuse to make the results invalid, just like what he was trying to do for all mail-in votes?
Everyone wishes him well and speedy recovery, but he is in the high-risk group (> 70 years old) and slightly obese. Was this absolutely preventable? Of course, it is! He is tested daily but refuses to wear masks and encourages reckless behaviour by continuing to have mass rallies of his supporters without masks or social distancing measures. The irony of it all is that he is killing off his supporters by exposing them to the virus unnecessarily.
He is the main reason that America is currently in such a bad state of affairs for COVID19, having a high number of cases and deaths. How can the most advanced developed country in the world handle this so badly as compared to many smaller and developing countries? Denials and conspiracy theories plus the right to not wear masks (1st amendment) were deemed better than scientist recommendations. The 1st wave never ended and the 2nd started. Lockdowns were wasted as everyone reopened too soon and they went back to square one.
The virus does not discriminate. Anyone is fair game. You let a small window open and the whole group is F%$ked. Even during the 1st presidential debate, all of his supporters including his family refused to wear masks in the enclosed room. How reckless is that? His camp is now blaming it on Hope Hicks and trying to do contact tracing. The worse part of it was that he knew he was exposed on Thurs morning but yet continued to go to a fundraising event that afternoon. Exposed persons should have gone into 14 days quarantine immediately, not continue to endanger others. The UK even just started a 10k fine recently for people who tested positive but refused to go on quarantine.
The next few days will be critical as he was injected with experimental antibodies drugs – not bleach LOL… The elections are in turmoil now as more of the White House team now tested positive and most would have to be quarantined as they were exposed. Imagine one side of the political parties suddenly went quiet overnight?!?! Will they blame their loss on the virus and try to invalidate the results? Strange times when people get desperate…
Back to part 2 of my Oxford journal. I returned the rented car mid-week and spent a few quiet days in the apartment doing my business calls for Myanmar and the consultancy group townhall. Myanmar is now experiencing a surge in its first wave as cases grow exponentially to 15k from just under a few hundred 3 weeks ago. Cases now average about 1k per day and they can only do 4k of testing a day. That is a 25% positivity rate!! Who knows how many more cases are there for a country with a 55 million population.
My son’s school term is starting this week as he gets begins his orientation program. While I would like to spend time with him, he will be too busy and I do not want to impose on him. I moved to a new apartment in the city which is just a short walk to his dorms for the next 2 weeks. They upgraded me and I was pleasantly surprised to have a newly renovated and modern apartment within a 300 years old well preserved building in the heart of Oxford city. Time to slowly explore this great place which has been the center of education for hundreds of years.
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