Gee-20 No Win

So let's look at the G-20 Summit:  Obama is there pushing to get some kind of agreement or assurance that the trade imbalance with Asia will not continue.  Let us suppose that it does not and magically becomes pretty equivalent: everyone is happy. The Asians pay more for goods that we sell here that are made out of parts that they make and ship to us.  We pay less for local or imported products because they are really both currently the same with different monikers.  We win.  On the other hand, things continue as they are and the Asians are happy on both counts since they make and export both the components that we use in our version of the fully assembled products that they also export.  We gain in the very short term paying lower prices for imported goods and not buying so-called American products which are inferior and more expensive.  In the long term, we don't get manufacturing jobs moved back to our soil so we lose out.  Obama's (or really the US Gubmint's) solution is to put a tariff on imported products.  This means the Asians sell less and they are unhappy.  We buy less because it is way more expensive and we are forced to make our own version which will probably be competitively priced at Asian price plus tariff.  The Gubmint gains by collecting the tariffs but have to use that money to support the unemployed because we don't have manufacturing jobs on US soil.  Whew!  That has worn me out.  There really isn't a good solution.  We have to let the best products be sold wherever they can.  We still have innovation in the US.  Those new products HAVE TO be made here, and kept here.  The Asians do not innovate.  They ONLY make what we originally engineered better and cheaper and more reliable.  So get ready for HIGHER prices based on a DEVALUED dollar buying imported components or products that have TARIFFS on them to be fair, and fill the Gubmint's coffers.


There, I've pontificated enough for this morning....

But this afternoon I realized that perhaps there are some natural resources (such as cotton or wheat or rice or fish....) that we currently ship to Asia whose prices could climb, as well....  Why are commodities not figured in this trade imbalance ?


BTW, I've now included some important links in the blog.  So far there are two links that help you find out what local car-guy events are about to take place.  Today I added another.  This one provides a means to take out your aggression towards people that park poorly.  They provide an citation that you can print out to leave on their car.  Meanwhile they get some recognition, which (hopefully) will cause them to adhere to normal driver's parking guidelines.

Ready for a white trash Thanksgiving?

- Little sister Sue catches Mama adding a box of Ex-Lax to her special brown gravy to insure that everyone will "be regular" afterward.

- Cousin Jen shows up wearing her new mink stole that has a blaze-orange circle-and-slash painted on the back of it and proudly displays her summons for her court date to answer for beating the crap out of the animal rights activists who ruined her new coat.

- Brother Bobby, who just flew in for Thanksgiving from some unnamed South American country, keeps popping up like a jack-in-the-box and fiddling with his "piece" in a low-profile belt holster while nervously spying from the kitchen bay window up and down the street with binoculars.

- Cousin Mikey shows up with his new bride, his three-quarters sister Julie, who is his sister by his father and his oldest full sister.

- Uncle Max coughs and sputters up in his rusty old pickup and asks those attending if anyone has a fresh pouch of "Redman" chewing tobacco that he can shove down into the transmission to keep it from leaking all the fluid out until he can make back home.

- Aunt Carly shows up with Carole, who is her new "best friend" as well as being her current parole officer and live-in lesbian lover and Domme who is also an associate producer on The Jerry Springer Show.

- Second-cousin Billy Joe brings as his guest his current analyst, who's doing his doctoral thesis in primitive societal familial subcultures.

- Uncle Peter, who's legally blind but can see some shapes and colors and shadows and who also got  drunk before ever showing up with his wife Aunt Millie, keeps "accidentally" nearly falling into all the women and copping feels as he seeks to regain his balance.

- 13-year-old cousin Timmy asks his Uncle Bobby if he can borrow his thermal-melt scale device, so he can check the purity of an eight-ball "rock" he just bought from your Dad. 

Thanksgiving forecast

Turkeys will thaw in the morning, then warm in the oven to an afternoon high near 190F. The kitchen will turn hot and humid, and if you bother the cook, be ready for a severe squall or cold shoulder.

During the late afternoon and evening, the cold front of a knife will slice through the turkey, causing an accumulation of one to two inches on plates. Mashed potatoes will drift across one side while cranberry sauce creates slippery spots on the other. Please pass the gravy.

A weight watch and indigestion warning have been issued for the entire area, with increased stuffiness around the beltway. During the evening, the turkey will diminish and taper off to leftovers, dropping to a low of 34F in the refrigerator.

Looking ahead to Friday and Saturday, high pressure to eat sandwiches will be established. Flurries of leftovers can be expected both days with a 50 percent chance of scattered soup late in the day. We expect a warming trend where soup develops. By early next week, eating pressure will be low as the only wish left will be the bone. 

Anticipation

He laid her on the table
So white clean and bare.
His forehead wet with beads of sweat
He rubbed her here and there.

He touched her neck and then her breast
And then drooling felt her thigh.
The slit was wet and all was set,
He gave a joyous cry.

The hole was wide...he looked inside
All was dark and murky.
He rubbed his hands and stretched his arms...
And then he stuffed the turkey.