Things that Have Fallen apart

Everything has been falling apart this week. I almost dread to look at my phone in the morning for fear of what bad news might be coming my way. First of all, the Russian Chorus cancelled its tour to California because of the coronavirus epidemic. Apparently, as many cases have cropped up in California during the past few days as have been reported in Taiwan over the course of these past two months. Since my program has, in the meantime, been issuing warnings left and right, as well as imposing quarantines every now and then, I decided that it would be foolish of me to try my luck, and cancelled my flight.

Right after that happened, Amy Klobuchar followed Pete Buttigieg in dropping out of the democratic primary race, handing Joe Biden a surprising victory in the Super Tuesday primary. Some on the left have raised more conspiratorial ideas about this event – and I agree that it will be surprising if, in the event of a Biden administration, Pete and Amy don’t end up holding some important posts – but I view this more as a tragedy than anything else. It is absolutely impossible to imagine Biden debating Trump, if only for the fact that he is evidently no longer at his peak as an orator. Clocking in only a couple dozen minutes throughout the primary debates thanks to the number of candidates in the race, Biden has avoided much-needed public scrutiny, and his weakness will undoubtedly become far too clear as the race continues. This is not to mention his soft corruption and past stances on war and trade, all of which are practically guaranteed to lose the Democrats the election yet again.

Meanwhile, it has been raining or cloudy for days and days. We are all ready for a break.

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