The Daily Dose/May 14, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
And we’re underway.
The trade war President Trump inexplicably but desperately wants with China escalated this week as both countries announced another round of tariffs on the other’s imports. On Friday Trump announced duties of 10% to 25% on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods and this week the Chinese announced retaliatory tariffs of 5% to 25% of $60 billion of US imports.
We’ve said this before: the Chinese government will not pay one penny of the tariffs. President Trump’s blustering that they will is false, merely the latest example of our president demonstrating that he does not know what he is talking about. The Chinese government is not writing us a check nor will America be writing a check to the Chinese.
The money generated by tariffs is not paid by the Chinese government, it is paid by Americans, by the companies importing the materials in the first place and, ultimately, by you and me the consumers, which makes it merely another tax on us, and not a punitive measure directed at the Chinese.
If this is news to you – and it is to some – read it again:
Tariffs are not paid for by governments; they are paid for by the company importing the goods and materials.
All they do is take money out of the economy – capital for businesses and buying power for us consumers – and give it to the government. It is, when you get right down to it, legal theft. Our money is being taken from us, with nothing of value is being given in return for it.
This is a cost a business obliged to pay the tariff will pass right on to us consumers and if you believe competitors who not pay the tariff won’t raise prices too, you might also believe in the Easter bunny. These tariffs will provide no economic benefit and, in fact, will do the usual harm done when businesses face increased costs: jobs will be cut and prices will be increased.
But we’re taking it. Nobody is occupying anything and, with few exceptions, the news media is dutifully providing a blow-by-blow account of this Chinese/US sparring but isn’t standing up and saying “wait a minute, here”.
Friends, every two years we get the government we deserve. We currently have a partisan, fractured, incompetent government that is incapable of doing anything of substance that is any good. We deserve better, of course, but we are not going to get better until we demand it on Election Day.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow tosses out the old cookies at the hotel. Today’s Diary.
As noted, these cookies are virtually indestructible and we could keep trotting them out there for years and I don’t think anybody would know the difference…I put one row of chocolate chip, oatmeal, and sugar cookies, plus an entire box of those fancy fru-fru deals…All of these were probably baked years ago.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
The drivel simply does not stop: please click on the button to read The Diary of a Nobody. $5.99 includes all entries, past, present, and future.
Click here to read excerpts and a sample chapter.
On This Date
In 1939 – Lina Medina of Peru becomes the youngest mother in history, giving birth to a healthy baby boy at the age of 5 years and 7 months. Her son was named Gerardo, who spent the first ten years of his life believing Medina was his sister. Medina, now 85, has never released details of her impregnation and routinely declines all interview requests. Her son died of natural causes in 1979.
In 1913- Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators has his major league record 56-inning consecutive scoreless inning streak broken, giving up a run in the fifth inning of a 10-5 win over the St Louis Browns. It was the first run Johnson had given up since the first inning on Opening Day. Johnson would go 36-7 with a 1.14 ERA in 1913, and his mark is still the American League record. The major league record was broken by Don Drysdale of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who pitched 58 consecutive scoreless innings in 1968 and the record is now held by Orel Hershiser of the Dodgers, who pitched 59 consecutive scoreless innings in 1988.
In 1949 – Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend) by Vaughn Monroe is at #1 on Billboard’s Best Selling Singles chart – a predecessor of both the Best Sellers in Stores and Hot 100 charts – for the first of eleven consecutive weeks. It was one of only six songs to spend at least eleven weeks at #1 in the 1940s and was Billboard’s biggest song of 1949. Riders in the Sky was the fourth of five #1s for Monroe and it also peaked at #2 on Billboard’s country chart
Quotebook
Go for the top. If you aim for second you will end up there.
John F Kennedy
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Steve Hargen of the Cleveland Indians was the first pitcher to strike out Reggie Jackson in a major league game, on June 9, 1967.
Today’s Stumper
Whose major league record for most consecutive scoreless inning did Walter Johnson break? – Answer next time!
