There were two great sporting contests in the past week: the T20 World Cup and the American presidential debate. And in the case of the winners, it was a case of third-time lucky. India had been in two cricket finals before in the last year, the World Cup and the World Test Championship, and had lost in both. The only difference between yesterday and the previous occasions was that it wasn’t a Down-Under tea, facing them, but South Africa. So what does that say about the Quad, where both Down-Under countries, Australia and New Zealand, are in the military alliance with India and the USA. Against who? China, I suppose.
Trump was probably third-time lucky, even though he had not faced anyone from Down Under. The first time, back in 2016, in the debate with Hilary Clinton, he came off the worst, though he won the election. In 2020, he debated Joe Biden, probably came off worse, and lost the election.
This year, he probably won in the debate. Because Biden showed that he’s 81 years old, and his memory isn’t what it used to be. He isn’t suffering from senile dementia, but it seemed only a matter of time. That should make Vladimir Putin of Russia and Kim Jong-Un of North Korea extremely nervous because this is a man with a finger on the nuclear button. In fact, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany should be more nervous. I mean, what if Biden forgets the Cold War is over, and decides to nuke East Germany, forgetting that German Reunification has taken place. Or if he thinks it’s still World War II, and Germany has to be defeated somehow?
Trump, it might be noted if going for the youth vote. It seems the American youth are impressed by an orange complexion. I hope that doesn’t mean our own Peter Pan, the 72-year-old Imran Khan, will turn orange at some future date. He must be watching carefully how he does getting that vote. Just a reminder, but by the time the next election rolls around, in 2029, Imran will be 76. That isn’t too much, and it’s not as if losing brain function is much of an issue. Of course, Imran wants Biden to lose. Remember, how well he got on with Trump, and how he didn’t get the phone all from Biden he craved.
Speaking of elections, I see the Mumbai Match-fixers, earlier the Bombay Bookies, have reached out to Rishi Sunak. It seems that one of his MPs, and some of his staff, had a flutter on the election date, just before he called an election. Obviously, by getting the date unexpectedly right, they made scads of money. No one was silly enough to make the ‘patriotic bet,’ that the Tories would win.
I’ve heard of the game ‘being in the book’, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a ‘poll in the book.’ I suppose it’s lucky that China seems to have settled down to a system of fixed-terms. Chinese, I’ve heard said, are inveterate gamblers, but it seems the British have overtaken them.
I see they’ve let Julian Assange go in a plea bargain. The founder of Wikileaks going free should have caused more fuss in a country where its revelations caused a government to fall, but no one seems to have noted the future implications for whistle-blowers/. You can’t blow a whistle unless there’s a paper or a channel to blow itin.
