2021 HOT STOVE

@yaongingy

 Not rare at all. The higher elevations, and much of the state is high elevation, consistently get snow. There are even ski resorts up north. When they point out snow in Scottsdale or Mesa they are talking about the few mountains we have in what is mostly desert, MariCovid County. We were able to look up at the peaks and see it, but most of the area got rain, not snow. Geography is interesting, but in this day and age poorly taught.

A number of years ago I heard the workers in Bangladesh made 22 cents an hour in unsafe, firetrap factories producing Tommy Hilfiger apparel. The factory owner and Tommy were getting rich while the factories had to employ whole families, including children, to keep wages down and make the family able to afford rice to live on. If there were enough people in the family they could afford chicken once a week (sometimes vegetables too!) in their rice. My daughter used to dress her kids in Hilfiger apparel. I pointed that out and she hasn't touched the brand since then. Back in the 60's we had an expression we never should have forgotten, "Buy American, the job you save may be your own." So, if an American made product can be made and sold for $20, the Chinese or an outfit like Hilfiger will produce it for far less and sell it for $17, but the factory owner and brand name marketer will make far more profit than the American company, because they are paying starvation wages. I never buy foreign from those types of companies if I can help it. They have destroyed whole industries (clothing, shoes, etc.) with those practices and the only answer some of our politicians have is "American labor is TOO HIGH". Yeah, right.

You are probably too young to remember, but when Ross Perot ran for president back in '92, he used the example of a company that moved manufacturing operations to Mexico. He said the middle managers went down there to build the factory and get it operational. So, a year later when some board members came down to see it they were impressed with the factory, but asked "Why did you build it in the middle of a slum"? The managers replied, "We didn't. We built it on pristine land, then we hired the workers at the wages you dictated, and the slum grew up around it." 

I realize you are not American, but maybe understanding some of these things will help you understand the culture. BOL  

@JEG53

 Well I guess I get it now. Sad, sad, but could happen to any of us. If I have any brilliant ideas I will speak up, but don't hold your breath.

@KeyElement

 I remember that saying, it was on TV and the % of workers then were Union Workers and made good wages and build the middle class from depression era to WW2 and then to build America, really impressive when you look at amount of years it took to do all this. Where I grew up we had every Company that made something we had it. At one time my Dad worked for Dow, my older Brother worked for DuPont and I worked for Crown Zellerbach, only one non union was Dow but they took care of Employees when they voted out the Union.

Crown was a huge Paper mill that if you ask anyone under 30 about they have never heard of it, and they made everything paper from toilet paper to fertilizer bags but I worked in the Box Plant, cardboard was easier to deal with.In the late 70s we were talking then about how they would cut down the workforce as everytime you did a contract they wanted less workers and for some reason health insurance got tied into jobs, so manufacturing who had big numbers of employees when rates starting going up was a big issue and they wanted workers to pay a share of cost increases which were rising yearly. The end result was the companies like crown which made cheap products could not keep open with those increases that kept growing in 80s and 90s. My factory was taken down years ago and is still dirt I hear, so unless they moved to Ohio where people can work for 9 bucks an hour paper stuff comes from somewhere else also.

In the hotel business which had a weak union in places in 70s contracts were bad, where I had come from in manufacturing where we had 12 holidays and lots of extras to a place with no paid holidays or sick days and wages that were not good, but being in Calif. we were able to build a good union shop over time but went thru lots of changes to get to a point of being middle class, now hotels are using the virus as a job killer, Newsome made it easier for them by locking down the state forever, which I agree should of been done but Trump with his virus is a joke thing has had a big impact on tearing the Country apart. Also the big issue with building the union was the cost of insurance going up, we fought over 20 years and had to put money from wages into insurance but the hotels were also charging 300 a night so they could afford both but it was always a war.

BUY AMERICA THE JOB YOU SAVE COULD BE YOUR OWN      They got rid of that one.

@KeyElement

 I think it is a kid thing or something,

its deleted BTW, so that is at least 3 now @@@@@.

@KeyElement

 I know all of that Key, I have read multiple books on the subject, and I have a bachelor degree, in Economical Engineering.

We are living through capitalism on steroids, fuelled by mindless consumerism. Corporations don't have principles, the reason they can do what they do in Bangladesh, China or Vietman is because those countries have a lower standard of living, thus cheap manual labour is available everywhere. All they care about is their profit margins, that's why outsourcing has been moved to emerging economies, for decades now.

The jobs that have been lost in the USA will never come back, because that cheap price is a direct consequence of the place where it's being made. Since I am in a former communist country, I know what it means to have everything made in your own country, but we also have capitalism here, so those days are gone for us too. We used to make everything in this country, that isn't the case any more, from our manufacturing we only have left Dacia (cars) which is own by Renault. My country has become an outsourcing hub, like other countries in the region, but we are not at the level of Bangladesh fe, given our proximity to western Europe and that we are a member of the Europen Union, we have a lot of factories which make different parts for the automotive industry. Fe: Continental has several factories around the country, making tiers and gears boxes, Autoliv make parts for cars, Schaeffler make a whole array of parts, like disk brakes, transmission components etc. We also have a Ford factory in Craiova, which makes 2 models. Our strongest field is IT though, a lot of programmers and the only field which is understaffed, but again, outsourcing for more developed countries, because we have cheaper labour.

There have been many stories and documentaries, about the working conditions in counties like Bangladesh or China, though I don't think they have made that big of a difference, most people are mindless consumers. Take Apple fe, now their new iphone costs them 500$ to make and they sell it from 1000$ to 1500$, while the working conditions are outrageous and inhumane. There have been testimonies, from former workers, about the working conditions, the fact that they use child labour, 12 hour shifts and even have installed suicide nets in their factories, but do people even care? Hell no, Apple is the most valuable company on the face of the planet, idiots will camp outside their shops to get their hands on the newest bullshit phone, for what? I have never owned an apple phone and never will, not that I could afford it anyway, it's just sick to see people put so much emphasis on a piece of plastic.

Sweatshops are a common practice in Asia, all the companies have used/use them in a form or another, do you see any athlete taking a stand against those practices? Ignorance is bliss, no one has boycotted Nike for anything, when the NBA tried to stand up for Hong Kong, China slapped LeBron so hard that he turned into their defendant, because they own his ass.

Anyway, the future doesn't look that rosy and China will be a major problem in the near future, they have invested a lot of money in a lot of countries, which gives them a lot of leverage in the world economy...

@yaongingy

 China will take the place of the USA as World Power, and this Virus is what gave them a big jump on us and our old Allies that Trump had disconnected our Country from, it is not an accident on the timing of this outbreak, as China figured Trump would not know how to handle it and Biden wins. Now with Biden in they can make friends again but they took 2 huge steps over our economy.

@JEG53

 The USA is still the #1 economy based on GDP, the projections are China will overtake the USA by 2028, earlier than previous expected.

If you are implying the existence of this virus was planned ahead by China, well that's some unfounded conspiracy thinking right there. The first coronavirus outbreak was in 2003, SARS COV1, but that strain was different from this one, it was more deadly and the people started to show symptoms almost immediately. There are scientific papers from 2007, warning of the dangers of another pandemic appearing, scientists all over the world knew it was just a matter of time before another mutation will make the jump from animals to humans. This doesn't mean a pandemic was inevitable or planned, it's just that given our current circumstances the probabilities of a pandemic were always high. George Bush was asked what was his biggest fear when he was a president, his answer: a pandemic. Obama left a 67 page pandemic playbook for the trump administration, which they totally ignored. The trump administration not only ignored the playbook, they also recalled 2/3 of the team that was in China for pandemic preparedness, just before the pandemic started, not to mention the failure to act for at least a month, this time last year.

They did genome sequencing on SARS COV2, its genome is 80% identical to SARS COV1, the biggest difference is that there are people who get infected with the virus and are asymptomatic, between 30-40%, which wasn't the case for SARS COV1, and this is one of the biggest reasons why this pandemic has been so bad.  I had the virus and I had mild symptoms, nothing bad though, just 5 days with a really sore throat. The prior knowledge of SARS COV1 also helped in the making of the vaccines.

China will recover faster, economically, mainly because they are autocratic and that enabled them to close the country and take drastic majors. Them being autocratic also made this pandemic worse, since they didn't know what it was at first, they silenced all the doctors who ringed alarm bells about a new virus and by the time they acknowledged its existence it was too late, it had already spread across the world. The doctor who first raised the alarm died of the virus.

To say the existence of this virus was an intentional act by China is wrong (there is also no evidence of that, yet), scientists have been on record for years about the dangers of a new pandemic, that's why the USA had a team dispatched in China, so they could closely monitor the situation and be ahead of the curve. This virus was just the perfect storm, we have had pandemics before and we will have them again, that's why preparedness is vital moving ahead, especially since this virus is nothing, compared to others who have a 60% death rate.

Good topics and convo guys, but back to baseball.

Here's one that made me laugh, someone needs to fire their agent. The White Sox offered Joc Pederson 10 mill for a 1 year contract, he refused, wanted more. A few days later he signed with the Cubs for 7 mill, one year deal.

Nolan Arenado is going to the Cardinals.

Adam Wainwright is back for one more year.

Jeez....start talking about actual baseball, and the crickets come out.

You killed our conversation, own it!

Didi Gregorius agreed to a two-year, $28 million contract with the Phillies. Matt Moore also joins the Phillies on a one-year, $3 million contract.

Eddie Rosario has had agreed to a one-year, $8 million deal with the Tribe.

Happy now?!

@yaongingy

 No I do not believe China set this up, plus how would they know that Trump would not do what previous President had done in this kind of issue before him, but seeing how the GOP is fighting President Biden on ways he is trying to control the mess left him and the Trumpsters that have been elected to office, Tanaka going back to Japan is a good move the way the USA is going.

That was just a rant based on Cabin Fever like Key said,plus I was talking to work and with the opening of some things by Newsome my Hotel has already decided not to open for outdoor food or drinks,so my mood sucked that moment.

I am working on my list of teams for sac to know who I will root for.

Very much so. 1 for killing the convo, 2 for getting you to talk baseball again 

I see that Jeg wrote something after you. He even tried to put something in bold. I might read it later 

@JEG53

"I am working on my list of teams for sac to know who I will root for."

There are 30; be sure not to miss any 

 Baseball related topic

Reality gut check for Joc 

@KeyElement

 What kills me is that he could of played on a winning team for 3 million more. 

He better hope bars reopen on the North Side, because I'd be spending a lot of time there if I were a Cub.

@undermysac

 That is what I think his agent is pizzed off about. He busted his arse to get him a 10 mill offer and the idiot turned it down. Reality sunk in, i.e., there are no more 10 million offers still out there. Take the 7 and bust your arse to have a good season. Maybe next year will be better, but you will have to start from a lower negotiating point. The good news is it will be easier to look good on the Cubs.

If there is a happy side for Joc he can just remember (or be reminded) that he will make 70X what Mickey, Willie, Stan, and Ted got in their prime; even though he can't carry their LaJoc Strops.

@KeyElement

Refuse 10 mill and sign for 7, shocking they offered 10, good job by Agent and then he gets face slap by his Balls, take the 7 mill.,still overpaid. He better have a hell of a year,

Cubs are out of being one of my teams, should of made him take 1/2, 5 mill. would of been to funny.

@JEG53

 So...down to 29 teams? 

@undermysac

 Nah, heck, if the flubs have a win streak of 5, or take 7 of 10 at any point before September, he will make room for them again. It will be Labor Day before any team is officially eliminated.

@undermysac

 Yes Sir sac,

@KeyElement

Well Key your not really that far off .

So betting CBB I have not been doing,1 bet in 2 weeks and that was because I had some money in betus so I bet one and won,

but today I was reading a thread on NC St and SYR.,ST with 5 guys out and top 2 players and Syr missing 3, not sure who they were as far as starting or whatever, looks like a great shot at a -6 on Syr. at home, but of course NC St puts up 47 points in FH, shit makes no sense and with 8 players out has to be virus related.Why are they playing, so Schools do not lose TV money.

Got a text from a worker from my Hotel, on a phone call with him he told me about this Girl at front desk calling in sick, but because hotel working with as less employees as possible the Mgr. calls her up and tells her she is taking to many sick days and has to come in, she ends up going in and also worked next day when another Mgr. is going to write her up for not working, to which she told the moron I did work.So of course you know where we are going, on her way home from work feeling bad and goes to hospital and she is positive for virus. 2 shifts at least everyone she checked in or out she did it. Now where did they go, Arizona or Chicago maybe, unreal.

@JEG53

 "Now where did they go, Arizona or Chicago maybe, unreal"

@undermysac

 Thought you would get it, someone else will not,