College and high school students in Hong Kong are occupying the Central district to demand greater freedom in this territory controlled by China.  I have mixed feelings about this.  On the one hand it is good to know there are idealistic young people in Hong Kong who are risking everything to advance democracy, not only in HK but perhaps in China.  On the other hand, if someone gets seriously injured or even die from this, I don't think this fight is worth it at this time.

First, the issue at hand is the election of the chief executive of HK.  Since China took over HK, the CE  has been elected by committee, in other words by those loyal to China.  There was no direct vote by the people.  By 2017, there is supposed to be direct election by citizens of HK for CE.  But word came out recently that the candidates have to be vetted by a committee.  This means that candidates hostile to Beijing will probably not be on the ballot.  This sparks the protest.  The problem as I see it, is that being a communist country, Beijing will not meet the demand of the protestors and will use force if needed.  The timing is also bad as the U.S. and the UK are all occupied with ISIS and Ukraine.  They need China, if not for support, at least do not veto any resolutions in the UN.  So far there is no words of support from the western powers to the protestors.  Given no international support, this is a road that lead to nowhere.  There are reports of injuries already, and given that any change of the mind of Beijing is extremely unlikely, it certainly do not seem worth the risk of life at this time.  At the very least, this election in 2017 is not a backward step.  People of HK can choose the less of 2 or 3 evils rather than have the evil handed to them by Beijing.

Interestingly, at the same time, Beijing was making overture to Taiwan about negotiation for reunification!  President Xi is promising the same one country two system of HK to Taiwan.  Not that Taiwan would have said yes anyway, but the timing of this with the protest in HK is peculiar.  Certainly Xi would not think that what is happening in HK would in anyway encourage Taiwan to come back to China!

Scotland voted to stay in the U.K.  That was not too surprising even though the polls were very close.  I don't think there is much animosity between England and Scotland for the separation to occur.  It is not as if the Scots were suffering under the British flag.  Having won concession for more self rule from Cameron, I think it was best not to split up.

The problem now for Cameron is to back up his promises.  There will be people in his own party who do not support the concessions.  But if he goes back on his words, then there will again be calls for separation.  But if the concessions are given, are we going see demands from Wales, Northern Ireland and even England to have more self rule from the U.K.?  I would think that Northern Ireland has less attachment to the U.K. than Scotland.  So having avoided one crisis, Cameron and future prime ministers may face more in the future.

Canada, Spain, China and Turkey all root for Scotland to vote against independence.  Quebec has had 2 referendums for breaking away and the last one lost by 2 % points.  So if Scotland had voted yes, the Quebec separatist movement would have pushed hard for a future vote again.  In Spain, if the vote is allowed, Catalonia will probably vote to leave Spain.  With the Scotland vote, the Catalonia momentum is stalled a bit.  But I think in the near future, Spain will have to allow the vote.  By not allowing the vote, the anger will grow.  Of course, China does not care about anger in Xinjiang and Tibet and no vote will be allowed.  Nor will Turkey allow a vote for Kurdistan independence, although if ISIS continues to grow, perhaps Turkey would like to have Kurdistan as a buffer zone between its border with Iraq and Syria.  So stay tune for more demands for independence in different areas of the world.

Obama said what he had to say last Wed.   But of course there are no real coalitions out there.  I have not heard anyone willing to put troops on the ground.  So if NATO countries are not sending troops nor are Arab countries, then it is impossible to destroy ISIS.  It will be a prolonged war of attrition.

Couple of years ago I considered Spain to be best sporting nation in the world.  They were the world champions in soccer, second best in basketball and had Rafael Nadal and many other great tennis players.  But since then, Spain has lost badly in the World Cup, lost in the quarter final in basketball as host country, and Rafael Nadal is injured and no longer number one.  So fortunes can come and go quickly.

U.S. wins world championship in basketball by destroying all competition.  This is a team without James, Durant, Paul, Howard, Anthony, Love, Griffin.  Any other country would not field a decent team without seven of their best players.  But the U.S. won easily.  It was felt that since the original Dream Team, the gap had closed significantly between international teams and the U.S.  But with this tournament it seems the gap had widened again.

Been on vacation then away for Labor Day weekend.  Finally caught up with all the work.  Have not been reading and watching the news carefully in these past couple of weeks.  But it is obvious the ISIS and Ukraine situations are getting worse.  There are no good solutions out there.  So I don't blame Obama for not coming up with any great plans.  But I think he has made a lot of mistake in at least public perceptions.  For example, going golfing after the conference about Foley's beheading.  Also having leaked that the administration have no plan yet against ISIS was politically inept.  When there are no good solutions, at least act and talk tough but offer no specifics that can come back to haunt you, such as Assad's use of chemical weapons as the red line.  Look, nobody wants to send troops to Iraq and Ukraine.  So none of the hawks have a legitimate idea either.  For now, continue air power and send weapons.

Nishikori vs Cilic?  Whoever made a bet on this daily double can plan for retirement.  Or he may be investigated for blackmailing Djokovic and Federer.

Can the Big Ten play any worse?