I am very pleased and impressed to see what’s going on in China. As you’ve probably heard, a critical mass of the citizenry has had it up to the proverbial “here” with their government’s ceaseless repression. As horribly-suppressed as any kind of free thought or expression is in The Middle Kingdom, videos and updates are still managing to make their way past the brutal Chinese censors.
My zeal for what’s going on has many origins, but chief among them are a lifelong disdain for government and an admiration for the individual human spirit. I realize that some form of government is necessary, but I want it to be as small, weak, and non-intrusive as possible. The Chinese Communist Party, as you well know, is none of these things. Only North Korea is worse, and not by much. Still, we’re actually able to see images like these.
The timing is particularly interesting, because just today I was re-reading my Harmony at Gunpoint post from early last year, in which I related, in horror, the impressions I got from the book I just finished reading called You Will Be Harmonized. Suffice it to say that the Chinese leadership has been almost universally evil, and I would put Chairman Xi in the same hall of shame as Stalin and Mao. These students are representing the very best of humanity, which comes in the form of spirit and courage. I have no idea if it will lead to anything positive, but God bless ’em for trying.
In the meanwhile, the S&P futures are showing some small signs of worry now that they’re open again.
Tech stocks are similarly (very modestly) down. I suspect that absolutely shitshow over at Foxconn is having Apple increasingly worried. Ya know, for all of Apple’s pious mewings about respecting 57 genders and waving rainbow flags, it might be nice if they would actually, ya know, speak up against more important stuff like state-sponsored torture and universal oppression. But I guess such protestations aren’t good for Timmy Cook’s asset value.
Crude oil has been pounded back to the same “OPEC rumors” lows from last week.
As for the market overall, all I can say is that we as HELL better start weakening this week, but this goddamned market is basically at a point where it HAS to inflect. If not, I guess we’re all under Chairman Xi’s thumb in one way or another.
