old man emu

It's crystal clear that Trump has absolutely no idea what a tariff is, or more importantly what their function is. Tariffs are a good thing for a country that is trying to establish the production of the tariffed item within its own borders/economy. Tariffs on imports are designed to raise the price of imported goods to discourage consumption within the country which imported them. The intention is for citizens to buy local products instead, thereby stimulating their country's economy. When a country has developed production to the extent that there is a production surplus, then prices within the country can lower according to the old Supply/Demand pricing seesaw. For years we have marveled at how cheap consumer goods and food were in the USA compared to our own prices for the same things. Onetrack has pointed out that American business has chased the bottom line by relocating manufacturing to low wage countries. In most businesses, wages and ancillary labour costs contribute a high percentage to total costs. The costs of building manufacturing sites and installing plant can be amortised over a long period, and at the end of that period, the sites and plant might well continue to be used for production. By seeking the bottom line by minimising labour costs, US business has moved jobs out of the country, leading to unemployment of US citizens. If the citizens are unemployed, they don't have the money to by consumer items, no matter where they have been made.

Now he's put a 90-day pause on the second tier tariffs. It's hard to tell if his playing with tariffs is a political or economic strategy. Think about this. Over the past week stocks have been sold at fire sale prices. There are two parties to a sale: the seller and the buyer. Who was doing the buying? It had to be people with ready money. Think Warren Buffet. Now Trump has paused the tariff start and the market has shot up, making those who bought low now much richer. Politics or profiteering?

This is the bronze statue outside the NSW Parliament house. There is also the bull on Wall Street New York

Is that a variation of the insult, "Ya Mudda wears army boots!"?

I really can't do anything because the risk to the monitor is too great. The way the monitor is sitting is acceptable. My gripe was simply that the screw was glued in. If that screw had come out, I would have been able to have the monitor exactly as I wanted it. Now I simply accept Plan B.

With the screws surrounded by plastic???

What sort of idiot puts Loctite on a grub screw in the height adjuster of any sort of stand? I scored a computer desk for nix. It has an overhead cabinet and the floor limits the distance between it and the desk top. My monitor is about 10 mm too tall with the stand's height set as it was previously. There are three screws which hold the stand at a required height. Naturally, when I tried to loosen the screws, two of the three came loosened, but the third would not budge. So now I have to have the screen tilted back at the top slightly. I can view the screen, but it is not what I really wanted.

You've probably seen that chart Trump showed when he was announcing the tariffs to be applied to each country. How did the Trump administration come up with those various figures? Well, they are the result of a mathematical formula using some basic data and some assumptions. The formula was first published around the time of Trump's first administration and it was developed by both the USA Dept of Treasury and some university School of Economics. The published paper, being an academic not political creation seems to be unbiased. Now, I know most of you are not mathematicians nor economists, so you might think that the equation is all Greek to you. But the presenter here is an Australian whose videos in the past have dealt with general maths subjects in a ways that are easy enough to follow. The video is about 18 minutes long, but I recommend that you watch it and in the end I think you will agree with me that what the Trump administration has come up with is economic claptrap.

I think the decision flowchart was something like this: 1. Was the item imported into the USA? a. Yes - Go to Question 2 b. No - End 2. Slap a tariff on it.

Funny you should mention Pope lawnmowers. As I kid I can remember Dad mowing our front lawn with a push mower, with the sweat pouring off him. (Not my Dad) Then one day the Pope mower arrived, with its 2-Stroke engine. I think that by that time I was big enough to be able to push it around, so Dad was relieved of one job. The Pope did not have a grass catcher, so the cuttings still had to be raked up. Those mowers with 2-stroke engines were a pain. They were always difficult to start due to oiled-up plugs, which was probably due to poorly tuned carby, but what home owner knew how to tune them. Eventually the 2-strokes were banned and we went over to 4-strokes which were easier to start, most of the time. Now the battery-powered mower is on the job. The advice I have heard from a professional lawn mower bloke is that the battery-powered mower is best suited to the lawn fanatic who is prepared to mow a lawn weekly. My sister has just bought one so she can mow close around the house. She reckons it's great because it is so light, but the BIL has a big 48 inch petrol-powered monster for mowing the much larger areas beyond the house.

I think that the change from what we were over 50 years ago to what we are now is simply a result of the evolution of a society in response to external inputs. It might seem to be a case of lost innocence, but I think that it is inevitable, especially given how intimately the means of electronic communication and rapid international travel have greatly reduced Australia's 'tyranny of distance'.

I just realised that because last Summer was so hot and dry, it stopped the flies from breeding. I hardly saw one the whole time, and I have horses in paddocks close by. As well, there were no mosquitoes.

Here' a bit of optimism from 1950.

Are you saying that I'm all piss and wind?

Que sera, sera.

She could potter around making your urn, while you chisel out her coffin.

The works of writers and composers only lives on if people continue to publish their works. I listen the ABC Classical every day and it was only a day or so ago that a work of the German composer, Engelbert Humperdinck was played. He is famous for the opera Hänsel und Gretel.

Yep. The next four years are going to make the five years of WWII look like a holiday on a tropical island. Even if the Democrats get back in in 2029, it will take years to repair the political and economic damage of the Trump years. Anyone know what Nostradamus foretold of these times?

No. Shrinkflation is when your psychologist stops bulk billing and name their own price.

Reduction in the size of a product while the cost remains the same is still inflation.

We know that one day each of us will die. Of course we all want to live for as long as possible, but we don't know the length of that 'long'. As for what happens to our bodies as they decompose after death, I would like to do my bit towards reducing global warming by having my carbon sequestered in the ground, not expelled from the chimney of a crematorium. I wonder how long it takes for a properly buried body's chemicals to become available to Nature.

But who is there to replace him? Vance would be worse than a puppet. He's be an automaton, programmed to do the bidding of those behind Project 2025. I don't think that the US constitution allows for the removal of the Executive Branch and its replacement following an election. I think we are stuck with the Republicans until January 2029. I can't see the Democrats leading a storming of the Bastille.

Apart from putting a tariff on penguins on an isolated Antarctic island, the Trump administration has been diligent in making sure that no island is missed.

I had a fish filet for dinner tonight. It came from Vietnam. A lot of our frozen or canned food comes from there or other 'developing' Asian countries.

Burial or cremation depends on a lot of beliefs. It is my belief that cremation obliterates you from history. Therefore I wish to be buried, to have a place that will exist until Earth's oblivion. On the other hand, my sister wants to be cremated. What we want done with our remains is a very personal thing. I can accept that this could lead us into a debate in this thread, but it would be a debate without resolution.