Covid
After some three years of rage and numerous mutations and vaccines, we are finally getting to a point where we are ready and able to live with (and coexist) with the virus, albeit with vigilance, I might add. The various rounds of updated mRNA vaccines have worked as well as one could have hoped for. For all the misinformation and disinformation on social media about vaccine scare, it's all but white noise, though such propaganda has been successful in dissuading idiots (a good portion of the populace in US, particularly those Trump blowhards).
No matter, I don't really give a rat about those damn fools. If they choose to die, if they don't mind getting very sick with the virus, then we should just let them be. Why bother persuading or even mandating them to take the vaccines while they scream "Murder!" Nay, if they don't mind dying, we really should just let them die off, thereby cleansing the human gene pool, and do the rest of the world a great big favor. Good riddance.
The covid twist now, isn't coming from western countries, but rather, from China.
So it is that Xi and his CCP minions (including those idiotic Hong Kong government officials who are nothing but kiss-arse) kept reveling in their own success of the so-called Zero-Covid policy, subjecting its citizens with repeated city-wide lockdowns and repeated daily testing. It matters not that mainland chinese are bitching and moaning about it. CCP only reports good news, and everything from Xi must be a success. I'd bet you Global Times (the CCP official mouthpiece) will shamelessly report that even Xi's fart smells better than Joe Biden's.
While all these minions and CCP/Hong Kong officials doing busy-nothing work to boost Zero-Covid stats that would make them look good, spontaneous street protests broke out last month across multiple cities, and then all of a sudden, CCP abandons Zero-Covid (the same damn policy that CCP only minutes ago vowed to be superior to western policies in every possible way), and reopens everything. What a fucking joke. (The good thing about CCP and most of these mainland chinese and Hong Kong officials is that, they are incapable to detecting irony or even feeling shame.)
As it is, China is once again unleashing covid (whatever mutations that its citizens have been brewing for the past few years while its border was closed) onto the world almost EXACTLY three years, on the dot, when the covid virus first came out from Wuhan in Nov/Dec 2019. Now, with the China border suddenly swung open, its minions are pouring out to other countries, bringing with them the goddamn virus once again. Miraculously (or not), CCP official stats report few deaths even though the crematoriums are booked flat-out to burn out all the dead bodies. CCP is once again hiding the truth, the exact same way that CCP had done three years ago.
Who could ever trust a goddamn word from CCP's mouth? As the saying goes, you know when they're lying to you...because their lips are moving.
Economy
Here's the painful part. Inflation has gone through the roof. It isn't so much about the supply chain bottleneck, but it's more due to Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine, resulting in worldwide condemnation (except China, India, North Korea, and Iran, naturally) and various economic sanctions and bans. (More on this below.)
For inflation as high as 10%, give or take, it must be painful for more than a few generations who have taken for granted that inflation cannot rise beyond 2%-3% since that seems to be the case for the past three decades. It must come as a shock for the millennials to realize that inflation can indeed rise, and rise it does, with a vengeance.
To fight the high inflation, US Fed has repeated raised interest rate, pushing up mortgage rate from the lows of 2.5% in 2020/21 (during the Covid stimulus and easy-money period) to now close to 7%. Any sensible homeowners would have refi their mortgage in 2020/21 to lock in the low rate, and so the high mortgage rate now is only going to painful for would-be homebuyers who scream "Murder!" Unlike 2008/09, the current home equity level of US property is at record high level too, hence no homeowner is in a hurry to sell, hence home price stays at elevated level.
As to the rest of the economy, Biden has done his bits in pushing gas price down. For all the red line that he's drawn against Saudi Arabia for the killing of the Washington Post journalist, vowing to make Saudi Arabia a pariah, the state visit of Biden to beg them to increase oil production looks decidedly weak, hats in hand, begging them to help bring down the oil price. Such is the case when people will step on you while you're on your way down; so it is that Saudi Arabia is doing effectively nothing to Biden's request. So much for "fast friends (not)."
2022 sees a big come-down of Big Tech, with big layoffs announced by Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Google, and Big Banks too. The tech sector has been one bright spot during the covid years since high-paying tech workers can keep working remotely, drawing fat paycheck, and enjoying every bit of benefits from remote work. There was even the Great Resignation trending for a while...until the layoff comes. Those who are resigned from the previously safe positions must be kicking themselves in the butt for plunging into the unknowns, and now getting the axe.
Overturn of Roe v Wade
Perhaps one of the greatest regression of social movement has been the overturn of the Roe v Wade by the US Supreme Court this year. It's astonishing since abortion rights have been such a fact of life for decades now that everyone has come to take it for granted, yet social progress can take the sudden turn, thanks and no thanks to the packing of conservatives to SCOTUS by Donald Trump.
I can't fathom what else will be on the chopping board.
Blue Wave, Red Wave
One of biggest cliffhangers in 2022 is the midterm elections. Democrats were all but resigned to the fact that the Blue Wave that allowed them to retake the House majority in 2018 was going to be a Red Wave in 2022 due to the record low approval ratings of Biden, inflation (at 40-year high to close to 10%) and gas price surging. And with the Fed rushing to rein in the inflation with successive interest rate hike, mortgage rate is soaring to close to 7%. Whenever economy doesn't go well, incumbents always suffer. As Bill Clinton would have it, "It's The Economy, Stupid!" How true.
Thanks goodness for Joe Manchin putting his foot down on the brake, effectively killing the BBB Bill (Build Back Better) that would have piled on even more permanent spending and freebies in social welfare, all in the name of social justice. Bright young things like AOC have no freaking clues that once upon a time, there's something called Inflation; she (like all of her cohorts) expects inflation to stay low (as it had been for the past three decades), that that government spendings have no bearings on the large scheme of things. How wrong they are.
Now that inflation is at alarmingly high level, the Fed has stopped calling it "transitory," everyone knows damn well that Washington has overshot in the Covid stimulus by dropping free cash to everyone, in the name of supporting the economy. True, that effort had prevented cardiac arrest in the economy, but the over-stimulation also skews drastically in other sectors, namely, outrageous property price surge, stock markets boom for very bad reasons (hello, meme stocks), and yes, cryptocurrency like bitcoins too.
And then Biden rushed to claim the woke mantle by dismantling Title 42 (which arguably was one of the best piece of work by the idiotic Trump) without any policy change to deal with the illegal migrants surge in the southern border. Biden, much like those idiotic AOC crowds, refused to face the fact that migrants would rush the southern border like storm surge once the guardrails are dismantled.
GOP had been preparing for a Red Wave to overwhelm the Blue Wave. True, GOP wins back the House majority, but at a much smaller margin. Instead of a Red Wave, it's more like a tinge of pink. But if Biden and the woke crowds think that this is a Democrats victory, they are seriously mistaken. Nay, the Red Whimper was really an unforced error by GOP in putting out very weak candidates (all of whom aligned with Trump), and voters responded in kind.
Personally, I've been scouring Independent candidates who are conservative fiscally, and moderate socially. I'm absolutely sick of GOP, yet I'm equally tired of Dems, taking voters for granted. All those prison reforms that hamstrung law enforcement in prosecuting criminals, and advocacy of open borders, even stupid woker-than-thou attempts to renaming schools or removing standardized tests by default, I'm simply can't abide by. It's as stupid as it comes.
I used to think that Democrats policy are more amenable to me. I no longer get that feeling.
Implosion: Crypto, SPAC, Meme Stocks
Not so long ago, everyone seems to be able to demand government for anything in the name of covid. That ranges from rent moratorium, loan forgiveness, free stimulus checks in the mail, free help on payroll, the pork-barrels goes on. So much of those liquidity has spilled into the stock market, allowing all those Reddit-bros to take on hedge funds and Wall St pros and push meme stocks, various useless shitcoins, and even SPAC to ridiculous height.
Not anymore.
The SPAC index has gone down the toilet, so have the meme stocks (like AMC). Those crypto bros are bracing for the crypto winter that has seen even the most reliable bitcoin going down. But, no one is shedding them any tears. It's really just useless and mindless. The rapid collapse of FTX and Alameda only exposes the massive con and fraud that has really been going on. In case anyone should wonder how some 20something young adults can suddenly "create" billions of dollars seemingly out of thin air, well we now know the "financial engineering" (the euphemism and buzzword of the day is fintech) is really all just plain-old fraud. There's really no magic about it. It's even worse than the case of WeWork.
Yet, again and again, VC and Silicon Valley is always at the thick of things. Everyone is too dumb to ask questions, in case they miss their chance to jump on the bandwagon. SoftBank being the Exhibit A of such idiots.
Russian Attack on Ukraiine
Perhaps the most outrageous event of the year, is the unprovoked attack on Ukraine by Russia. No doubt that Putin wants repeat his trick of annexation of Crimea, with Ukraine being unable to do anything about it. Putin has expected the Ukraine attack to be fast-and-furious, shock-and-awe the Ukrainians into submission, and then Russian army can row its tanks and march its troops into Ukraine, one of the biggest prize in the former Eastern Bloc.
Except that this time, Ukraine finally stands its ground, with a surprisingly effective war-time leader in Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Not only was he able to rally his own troops, but he's been able to rally foreign countries (both leaders and citizens) to support him.
EU is but a bunch of mostly good-time-charlies with weak spines. Has it not been for the US push, Germany would still delude itself into thinking that it can complete the Nord Stream 2 and keep the cheap Russian gas flowing into Germany as if it's business as usual. As If. At least Germany is now coming around. Sweden and Finland are also rapidly realizing that their formerly "neutral" position is really untenable. Afterall, with the backing of NATO (and by proxy, US/UK assistance), they won't stand a chance to any attacks by Russia. Other former Eastern Bloc countries like Estonia and Poland understand the Russian mentality well, hence they have come to stand by Ukraine far more readily and steadfastly than the other EU members to the west.
In contrast with the steadfast and solid support from US and UK, France (the second largest EU member in economy) looks so pathetic. Macron mouths the word of Ukraine support, yet his advocacy of "diplomatic approach" only means Ukraine should just roll over and play death, letting Russia take whatever they want to take. I don't have any respect for peacocks like Macron. Even a 10yo can tell you that if you let a bully do whatever s/he likes, it'll only mean the bully will only come back for some more. But, an imbecile like Macron wouldn't know that, would he now.
I pray that Ukraine will beat back the Russians and retake all the lost land, including Crimea (from the prior annexation).
The Joke in UK politics
Talking about EU, one cannot go without suppressing a snigger about what Truss and Kwarteng had done in UK. Their attempt to ramp through policy without scrutiny totally backfired. While I don't doubt her sincerity in trying to reinvigorate British economy, her policy was rooted in fantasy, ignoring the reality of high inflation, lowering taxes to pray that trickle-down economics would work (well, it doesn't, and GOP has proved this over and over again for years that it simply doesn't work), all while increasing welfare when treasury coffers is being emptied out. The duo even had the audacity to call the bluff and expect the wider markets to bend to their will. Well, it doesn't either.
In short order, the two were gone, with Truss firing Kwarteng (for [ironically] implementing HER policy), and then Truss herself resigning. Good riddance.
It's just too bad that the whole country in UK has to suffer for their mistake.
The Perils in Taiwan
When it comes to geopolitics, Taiwan is arguably in the same perilous position as Ukraine. While Ukraine has to face down the polar bear of a threat from Russia, Taiwan has to endure the sabre rattling by China.
The geopolitical aggression of CCP is nothing new to all of its neighbors, unilaterally drawing the nine-dash line to claim most of the neighboring countries' territorial waters as its own, even building its own battle station by creating a man-made island in the middle of the South China Sea. China has also been making bullshit noises every time it doesn't get its way, like when Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan and CCP sent fighter jets and war ships to try to circle Taiwan to prevent Pelosi from landing. China's act is every bit as outrageous and unacceptable as Putin's attack on Ukraine. It's no wonder that Taiwan has found kindred spirit in Ukraine.
Perhaps it's high time for US to finally abandon the One-China policy, deliberately making the support of Taiwan ambiguous in order appease China. We now know full well that China, much like Russia, can't be appeased until it takes everything from everyone else. We must not let that happen.
The Lost Cause in Hong Kong
I have kind of tuned out on all the news from Hong Kong, all of which is very bit depressing. Forget about all the judicial independence, professional civil servants, competent executive branch, rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, great education system, professional medical service, etc. All those seem to have disappeared right in front of my eyes.
It took some 150 years for Hong Kong to get to its cosmopolitan state and advance economy, but it takes less than 2 years for CCP to tear everything down.
Worse yet, we now know that all those so-called competent civil servants are all just kiss-arse. What hope would Hong Kong still have when the government would arise children as young as 9 for speaking their minds? Every time when I think of this, I can only say xyf9w3sdjfhasdurkakjsdfknlnfd (or some choice words in place of Fuck You).
On a Personal Note
Covid has given me a heightened sense of mortality. So it is that we're getting the estate planning stuffs in order. It has to be.
And I've put all the financial matters in order too.
If I have an outside interest or hobby, I would probably retire by now. Unfortunately for me, I've focused so much on work that all my prior hobbies have fallen on the wayside. I have to think long and hard on what I want to do with my time if I were to retire since I no longer have much interest to travel anymore. (Well, maybe there's still a couple of places I'd like to see again, but that's not going to be for long term.)
More soul-searching...
