[Hopalong]

The ChiComs are, as you know, already using that particular song and dance internally, and seem to be having some little success in getting opponents, at home and abroad, as well as some international corporate clients, singing along.

In the old Soviet Union, too, when at last the regime was falling, the leftists in the press and other media almost immediately began to identify the diehard Commies as the "conservatives."

The decisive sign, however, is, in my opinion, again as with the old Soviets, when the Communists start hawking "spiritual values".

How does it go now, "I am a creme-filled jelly doughnut"? No, that's not it. Oh yeah—"Ask not what Communism can do for you, but what you can do for the Communists."

Best regards. S&W R.I.P.

[Hopalong]

Those who indulge occasionally in cards or other games of chance (excepting state-run lotteries, which are not games of much chance at all), or perhaps used to once upon a time, will recognize a similar phenomenon. One also sees it with some novices on the trading floor.

Novices because, it alomst goes without saying, they don't tend to last long.

Yep, gotta know when to hold them and when to fold them. And it also pays big at times to know how to sandbag, and at other times how to lay in the weeds.

Best regards. S&W R.I.P.