November 17: Mr. Xi goes to San Fran

In which, China and America’s leaders have a meeting of the… something in the Golden State, Gaza hospitals are bigger than I thought, and a turning point in Asia’s forgotten war.

Mr. Xi goes to San Fran 

The much anticipated meeting between Presidents Xi and Biden came and went in San Francisco with apparent breakthroughs on reestablishing military contacts and “curbing” fentanyl production (curbing, not eliminating, Mr. President?). What a successful meeting, what a win for the Biden administration! Only…

Those deals had been agreed upon prior to the Xi-Biden meeting. In other words, the only real success of this meeting is that it happened and avoided any major fireworks… and maybe we’ll get some pandas.

The more interesting stories actually happened around the meeting such as the city of San Francisco’s sudden realization, and determination, to clean itself up and do something about its homelessness population. Surprising that it took the impending visit of a foreign dignitary for city leaders to suddenly find with political will. Certainly, it doesn’t appear as though the interests of the city’s citizens are top of mind. And, according to Gallup, concern about personal safety and crime spikes is rising for close to two thirds of Americans. Ahead of an election year, that can’t be good for Democrats.

And, in another interesting sideshow to the San Fran Summit, that illegal Chinese business that was operating in Reedley? Surprising to some, but not to readers of this newsletter, that business has connections to the CCP. No word on whether that was discussed by Xi and Biden, but it was apparently soft pedaled by the FBI and CDC.