Day: April 14, 2025

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That was interesting

We just had an earthquake.

That in and of itself isn’t surprising. What was surprising is that I got an emergency alert on my phone and watch about it. A full 10 seconds before I felt it.

Pretty slick!

The dog didn’t like it at all!

He’s wandering around trying to figure out who was stomping around in his yard.

Clearly, peeing on every fence post will scare the evil stomping giant away.

It was a pretty strong roller. The ground kept moving for a few seconds after the initial rolling motion subsided.

Hmm. There’s been a whole string of quakes in the last 1/2 hour in Julian. Looks like the strongest was a 5.2.

That’s a heck of a distance from me. What’s weird about it, it that the rolling I felt seems to have come from the opposite direction.

It’s nice to see the alert system working.

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The stock market hasn’t crashed yet.

In fact, the market looks fairly happy today. It hasn’t recovered its losses this month, but it’s nice to see green instead of red for the day.

The tech stocks I follow, are looking better. I suppose that’s because of temporary tariff exemptions on Phones, and Computers coming out of China.

It’s only temporary and I’m sure companies will be begging for extensions. They’ll probably get them. I’m sure there are some companies that are thinking all they have to do is get extensions that last long enough for Trump to term out of office.

Ultimately, this whole tariff thing may be a nothing burger. 

I hope that it puts everyone on notice that we need to bring at least some manufacturing back to the United States. I’m not holding my breath, but it would be nice.

The trouble may be that with educational standards falling for the last 20 years that have turned college classes into very expensive remedial reading academies, we literally may not have people who can design & manufacture anything. It’s possible the labor unions might be the stumbling block. Or perhaps it will be a combination of the two.

Were I a parent, I’d be encouraging my kids to go to trade or technical schools. It wouldn’t be about the expense of college. I’d be wanting my kids to be capable of getting a job that while dirty, would be in demand and useful.

Straight up manufacturing may be the next booming business sector.

At least a bunch of countries have come to the table to rethink trade practices with the United States. That may be the best we can hope for.