PDS, China Meets Omicron, WW III Summer

      An unpublished commenter complained about yesterday's links (despite my warning), "I'm not sure how useful that article was except as an illustration of Trump Derangement Syndrome."

      It's an interesting take, but recognizing the actual shortcomings and missteps (etc.) of a President and his Administration isn't Presidential Derangement Syndrome, not even when you express a very harsh view.  TDS is simply the second most recent example of PDS, in which Presidents are held to be simultaneously stupid/crazy and criminal masterminds, dangerous loose cannons and puppets of whichever boogeyman is the closest fit (choice of George Soros or the Koch Brothers most recently, though China and Russia are up-and-coming on the PDS Top 40), and alleged to be planning the most outrageously polarizing acts imaginable.  With PDS, one sees not the actual man holding the job but a distorted cartoon and (unhinged-sounding, if the President in question is Your Guy) speculation plays a major part while glaring contradictions are ignored.

      I dislike PDS, and strive to judge Presidents by their actual behavior, openly-expressed policies and verifiable public statements.  This is not nearly as much fun and often leaves me unpopularly defending the incumbent unless they get seriously out of line, but it has the advantage of being firmly grounded in reality and inculcating far less panic.  YMMV.
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      China seems to be getting hit hard by the latest subvariant of Omicron; their policy of strict isolation once cases have been discovered is faltering against the more-infectious strain and it turns out the home-grown Chinese vaccine is particularly ineffective against Omicron.  This comes at a time when that country's rulers are having to think hard about who they want as best friends, the neighboring (and increasingly isolated) autocracy or the free world where all that lovely money for manufactured goods comes from.  Time for Xi and company* to think hard -- and to remember the free world's vaccines and dollars (or euros) are holding up well.  Russia's, not so much.

      It's just one more bit of pressure that, for once, may do some good for global geopolitics.
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      With all that, I still think we have some Summer to look forward to, and Spring as well.  Autumn?  That's way farther ahead than I will speculate.

      What spins up in China may yet come here, and we'll find out the hard way if America's fairly robust acquired and vaccine-created immunity to Omicron will hold up against the subvariant (early numbers look good but I trust nothing about this damn bug).

      What brews up in Ukraine may yet spread.  A lot of the experts think Ukraine has a good chance of running out Russia's clock, as men and materiel run short for the invading army and their home economy falls apart under widespread sanctions.  I hope so -- but a defiant Soviet Union hung on for seventy years despite large scale shunning, horrifying privation and bloody internal unrest.  Their history from 1917 through the end of WW II is a sobering reminder of how much damage that country can absorb.  I hope the experts are right.  Putin is no Lenin -- or Stalin -- and the country he rules over is better educated, more politically engaged and less willing to do without than the early USSR.  My best guess is the war in Ukraine has months of simmering left -- and months of heart-rending damage to innocent people.  Things may take a turn for the worse or they may get better and either way, there's nothing I can do about it.

      Another Spring is pushing through the mud out there, and I intend to enjoy as much of it as I can.
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* Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, and so on.