Brexit, EU, a China Mistake, No Plastic Bags in MB, Chinese Fire Engines, Wuxi Old Navy

• One of the tragedies of democracy is how local municipal level elections get such low voter turnout rate while higher level elections get more. In a sane world, local elections would matter more than national elections. That is, we would live in a distributionist world. For afterall, it is the people near us who affect our lives. And yet we put place all our hopes in figures who are so far removed from us that they might as well be abstract. Politicians love this. The focus on personalities that these high level elections produce, causes the public to be blind to the effects of the insufficiently discussed policies on their real day-to-day lives. As well, local politicians can get the benefits of being in the government without having to make hard decisions. Get someone at a higher level to make the decisions! Blame it on Trump!1 It explains why the political class in the UK are so against Brexit.

• Why would anyone want to be part of the EU? It is a bureaucratic monstrosity unaccountable to the people it is supposed to serve. The people who support the EU, don't see it as what it really is. For thede people, the EU is fairy dust. To be part of Europe for them is to be against the bad things like racism, and to be for diversity and brother slash sister hood.

• Was coming to China a mistake on my part? I did meet my wife here and Tony was born. On that count, it wasn't a mistake. However, I have come to the conclusion that the world opening up to Communist China on trade was a big mistake and I should be ashamed of myself for having participated in it. China never got better as a civilization and the economic benefits for the west were negligible. Only certain elites running companies where they shafted their countrymen benefitted. And Communist China is becoming a menace not only to the Chinese, but the rest of the world. My only defense is that I haven't really made a difference here. I was merely a fly on the wall, a passive individual.

• I just read that Manitoba (the province I would return to if I went back to Canada) is planning on banning plastic bags. Damn! Damn! Damn!

• Chinese Fire Engines are like Chinese grandmothers. They are loud but they don't go very fast.

• The Wuxi Old Navy store has only been stocking pants with 32 legs. Either that, or all the pants with 34 legs have been quickly purchased. It was only two years at the Wuxi Old Navy, that I bought a pair of jeans for the first time in China. They had jeans with 34 waist and 34 leg. Alas, that didn' last.