China Syndrome: As if a pandemic, war in Ukraine, high fuel prices, and inflation were not enough, rising unrest in China over the government’s “zero covid” restrictions is feeding economic uncertainty. The US stock markets took a dive yesterday.

  China is the world’s largest manufacturer and the globe’s second largest economy. It made a third of the world’s goods in 2021. And millions of Chinese are straining under policies to stop the spread of Covid that have them constantly and arbitrarily tested and sometimes locked inside their homes and apartment buildings.

  Added to that, the totalitarian regime of Xi Xinping has clamped down on books, movies, and computer games, becoming a national fun sponge.

  With street protests spreading in Chinese cities, the turmoil has the potential to interfere with production and distribution of such things as integrated circuits, machine parts, household appliances and more. All that stuff that China makes for the world.

  China is critical to the global economy, but John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, told the press yesterday, “We don’t see any particular impact right now to the supply chain.”

  But the financial markets now see a risk in investing in China and being so dependent upon it for manufacturing. The one bright spot for the moment is that China’s voracious appetite for oil is at least temporarily easing and helping to lower the price.

The War Room: Secretary of State Antony Blinken and diplomats from European countries are meeting in Romania to coordinate NATO’s support for Ukraine’s war  against Russia over the coming winter. The group is expected to discuss further weapons shipments to Ukraine and repair Ukraine’s electricity missile-damaged electricity grid. 

  Behind the battle front, Ukrainians continue to find evidence of murder and war crimes committed by the Russian occupants. In Pravdyne, a village near the city of Kherson, investigators found the remains of six men who had been buried in a common grave.

Railroaded: With a national railroad strike set for December 9th, President Biden called on Congress to impose the deal rejected by the rail unions to avert a shutdown of the country’s freight railroads.

  “I am calling on Congress to pass legislation immediately to adopt the Tentative Agreement between railroad workers and operators – without any modifications or delay – to avert a potentially crippling national rail shutdown,” Biden said in a statement. 

  The deal negotiated in part with the administration was voted down by four railroad unions representing most of the union members. The rail workers are extremely unhappy that the deal does not include paid sick leave.

Econ 101: The cryptocurrency lender BlockFi, which has deep financial ties to the failed FTX cryptocurrency, has also filed for bankruptcy, becoming another domino to fall in the business of money that doesn’t exist.

  Crypto is a digital currency … a nonexistent currency — that rises and falls in value according to demand and computer-driven speculation. In July, two of BlockFi’s competitors, Celsius Network and Voyager Digital, collapsed within a week of each other. 

   BlockFi claimed to have more than 450,000 clients. It specialized in quickie loans granted without credit checks and backed by both cryptocurrency and investment accounts that paid high interest on crypto deposits. In other words, they loaned virtual money, backed by virtual money, and paid interest in virtual money. They are now virtually non-existent. 

Trump World: The latest dustup about Donald Trump is about his dinner last week attended by White nationalist, anti-Semite, and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, as well as rapper Kanye West at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate. West, otherwise known as “Ye,” posted a video Thursday on Twitter in which he claimed that Trump “is really impressed with Fuentes.” 

  Fuentes, who attended the January 6^th rally and supports Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen, once said,  “All I want is revenge against my enemies and a total Aryan victory.”

  Trump now claims that West brought Fuentes to dinner and he didn’t know anything about the man. It’s a classic Trump excuse he has used many times when he makes friends and accepts support from unsavory characters.

  Asa Hutchinson, the Republican governor of Arizona, said on CNN, “You could have accidental meetings. Things like that happened. This was not an accidental meeting.” 

On the Pitch: The US meets Iran today in a win-or-go-home game that carries the weight of political implications. Iran is annoyed with the US over its support of protesters in the Muslim-dominated country while the Iranian team faces possible discipline back home for refusing to sing their national anthem at the opening match. 

Pele’s Hair: Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano which covers half the island of Hawaii, has erupted for the first time since 1984, sending rivers of red hot lava down its slopes.

  From a distance at night, the tip of the volcano glows like a sunset.

  Authorities say the lava would have to flow for months before there’s any danger to homes. In the meantime, they have warned that toxic gas, volcanic ash, and strands of lava glass known as Pele’s Hair could be carried downwind.

The Spin Rack: Nineteen year old Payton Gendron, who killed 10 Black people in a racist massacre at a Buffalo supermarket last May, pleaded guilty to all charges yesterday and can expect to spend life in prison without the possibility of parole. — In his first company “town hall” since returning as The Walt Disney Company’s chief executive, Bob Iger said he has no plans to sell the company to Apple. — The World Health organization responding to complaints that “Monkeypox” is racist is changing the name of the disease to “Mpox.”

Below the Fold: Fans of Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” have noticed that the significant bulge in the pants of actor Tenoch Huerta, obvious in the movie trailer, was edited out in the final cut. Evidently the producers didn’t want male moviegoers to feel less than Wakanda. 

-30-