All posts by Mike

Tariffs and the Moral High Ground

Does the moral high ground even matter anymore? It feels like the past decade or so has been an exercise in trying to convince us it’s no longer a thing anymore. The end justifies the means. Everyone’s mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.

Let’s look at just one single thing today- Tariffs- and explore what’s happening.

The current administration is using tariff’s to punish other countries, making their products either too expensive to sell or getting them to sharpen their accounting pencils even more than they already have, finding ways to treat their employees (those in China specifically) even worse than they already do, and rolling back costly efforts to make their facilities safer and less-polluting.

Where is the moral high ground in that? Is there an alternative that would help put manufacturing elsewhere (a small amount of which might move to the US), while at the same time benefitting the people working in those factories? And the cities that are being choked by pollution and seeing increasing health issues due to callous handling of waste?

I believe the answer is yes. We can have both. Create laws for imported products that require similar (but scaled back a bit to reflect economic realities) measures for employee safety and environmental protection as found in the US. There could be a tariff on those industries ignoring such practices, and an international commission tasked with measuring compliance.

The price of Chinese goods would necessarily increase. Pollution on the world stage would decrease. Human beings who happened by luck of the draw to be in China would benefit from better health. The US would benefit from doing something to better humanity overall.

That’s my thinking. Get away from everything being about punishment and an us vs them mentality and look for a way that’s the win is for both the US and humanity.

Almost 38 minutes = 100% effort? 2 old guys going slow.

It’s not really that cold out; year’s past we would have seen a number of days at or below freezing, but so far this year, according to data from Purple Air, we’re just barely touching it, temps from 31.5-33.5 being pretty common at the coldest spot along Kings, just before the climb. It’s been quite a few years since we’ve seen a 27F show up, and a very long time since that day we saw 23F. Fortunately, at or near freezing, my electrically-heated gloves are still up to the task.

Kevin (ex-pilot) says he would have wimped out if I weren’t riding. Normally I’d check in the morning to make sure he was going to be out there, but why? I know I have to be there, I have to get out in the real world and ride as much as possible. Otherwise the scale is not my friend.

Somehow I forgot to use my inhaler prior to the ride, but not sure I felt much difference. The other change I made was moving my blood pressure meds from the evening to morning, hoping they might have more effect that way. Is high blood pressure really an issue when sleeping?

We did have a rabbit ahead of us, which I used to think was fun but now, not so much. You almost don’t want to find yourself gaining ground, pushing yourself harder, but that’s something that likely will never change. It’s in my DNA. We did catch her before the mid-point, about the same time I started losing steam and watched her and Kevin ride on ahead. Soon as they were out of sight Kevin apparently dropped her; at the end of the climb I had her in my sights, about 45 seconds ahead. She seemed to have no interest in conversation or riding with two old guys and just kept on going, probably descending 84 since otherwise we’d likely have seen her ahead of us on parts of West Old LaHonda.

Fog! First day in a few weeks we saw a pretty heavy marine layer along the coast, extending inland several miles, with just the tops of the hills poking through. Thankfully not where we were riding; cold and dry isn’t so bad, cold and wet is another thing entirely.

Rain. Supposedly coming our way, but not quite yet, not in time to make a mess of things Thursday. Showing rain from Friday through Tuesday, so Sunday’s ride could be questionable… may be back on the trainer. That’s the one area I’ve “given in” over the past year. Rain rides, especially solo rain rides, just aren’t likely to be something I look forward to anymore. We’ll see.