Milk Tea Lines, HK, Trump, Bare Midriffs, Pedestrians

• In North America, I remember going to a Crispy Creme Donut shop and seeing long lines. In China, I have heard tales and witnessed long lines at milk tea shops. I had a student once tell me that they went to Shanghai for the day to buy some milk tea. The day entailed taking the train out to Shanghai (probably about a hour and a half), going to the shop, waiting in line (for many hours), finally buying the milk tea, and then taking the train home in the evening. I have seen lines in Wuxi as well for the opening of some popular milk tea chain. Talking about this with a student, I was told that these lines I had witnessed may have been the result of the milk tea shop paying people to stand in line to create the frenzy. Someone told her that someone they knew had been pay a thousand rmb to stand in line for a day. I thought this amount paid for one person could not possibly be, though I could believe a Chinese company using this tactic to create a frenzy for their product. (Another possibility that a colleague mentioned to me was that a person could make that much money by standing in line for the customers. That is, they do actually wait in line to buy tea for other people.)
• “Bad people in Hong Kong are trying to make it independent from China.” That was one student's take on the HK situation. They have also told other teachers that the Americans are paying Hong Kongers 3,000 rmb a day to protest.
• What do I think about Trump? I didn't initially hope for him to become president. I did hope that he would beat Hilary. I currently prefer him to all the other candidates currently running against him for the 2020 election. The only sort of candidate who I would prefer to him would be one who I believe could better accomplish the policy goals that Trump said he had during the 2016 election campaign. A Republican who ran for the presidency in 2020 based on progressive or establishment objections to Trump would not be worthy. The best objection to Trump I have read are from those who supported him and have been disappointed by his not being able to achieve the policy goals he stated in the 2016 campaign. These critics says that his mistakes and omissions have resulted from he not really understanding how government works and not using the powers he does have to battle the entrenched bureaucracy that is clearly against him.
• The hysteria from Trump's election is a result of his having put a “R” behind his name. Nothing more. If Ted Cruz was elected, we would be witnessing CDS (Cruz Derangement Syndrome).
• On many occasions, I have written how on hot days, many local men will take off their shirts or roll them up halfway to expose their stomachs. I am sure that I have reported witnessing many specific incidents of this in blog. So if I am to make another entry in this blog about another specific incident of midriff-baring, I should have something new to report. Here it goes. I was standing at a crosswalk at a street corner down the street from the entrance to the complex containing Casa Kaulins, when I saw a plump local man with exposed stomach trying to cross the street. He was tottering like he was drunk and clutching at his stomach like he was a pregnant woman posing for an expectant mother portrait. He seemed menacing and my instinct was to avert my glance. When the walk signal appeared, I quickly crossed the street, not bothering to see if he was able to cross the street in good time.
• The local authorities are trying to get cars to stop for street-crossing pedestrians. At certain pedestrian crossings monitored by cameras, signs have been posted stating that drivers caught not yielding will be fined. If the authorities can get local drivers to stop their long-standing habit of not slowing down and swerving around pedestrians, I would honor them. But it is hard to change culture. Many local pedestrians are intimidated by cars and not accustomed to being yielded to, so when driving and stopping for pedestrians, I often have to honk my horn at them to get them to cross. They will stand there stupidly waiting for all the cars to pass. As a pedestrian, I have come upon groups of locals standing at a pedestrian crossing waiting for traffic to pass. I have had to take the initiative and begin crossing the road and force cars to yield to me. They inevitably do and the local pedestrians will then follow me.