Wandering in circles

I'm not sure what Mr. Beagles means with those maps, either.  Except that he didn't post them; read the fine print, Uncle Ken.

The imaginary dividing line I see could be attributed to rainfall but the precipitation maps I've seen have a dividing line at a little bit of an angle.  That line still seems a bit fishy to me; it's too sudden and discrete.  The effect of Gulf moisture may be on point, however.  I wonder if electrically charged moisture particles from the Gulf follow the lines of the Earth's magnetic field towards the north magnetic pole and others drift to the southern pole.  It wouldn't surprise me; magnetism is weird to me, almost magical.

The light patches in North Dakota and Montana are natural gas flares being burned up in the oil shale fields.  Natural gas must be pretty cheap if it doesn't make economic sense to bottle it up and sell elsewhere.  The facilities to do so must be awfully expensive, but why don't they run some generators to provide cheap electricity?  I don't get it; surely there is a better use for that gas instead of burning it up.

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"I don't see complete economic inequality ever happening..."  Was this a brain fart, Uncle Ken?  We already have economic inequality, both locally and globally.

Speaking of which, is there a consensus on globalization, Yea or Nay?  Some nations seem to be trending to a more right wing and isolationist point of view, and I don't know if it will play out in the long term as a good thing.  It's too late to build walls and retreat within our borders as we, as nations, have become more interdependent as time marches on.  I don't think it is possible for any one nation to become totally self-sufficient; those days are long gone.   Maybe Russia could do it, but if we tried we would have to accept a greatly reduced standard of living, I think.  No more flat screen TVs or smartphones for the little people.

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There has been a lot of talk about "job creation," but what does it really mean?  I read recently (forgotten source) "This means that a company can incorporate in Delaware, design goods in California, produce them in China, ship them on a Norwegian ship registered in Liberia, and sell them all over the world."

So does "made in the USA" mean anything if many of it's components are of foreign origin and the product is simply assembled in the USA?  I can't think of any mass consumer product that is 100% American-made; we probably couldn't afford it if it was.  Simple products such as light bulbs are no longer produced in the US;  I have some Philips bulbs that were made in Korea.  And would it still be American-made if it was manufactured with German machine tools?  Pondering these kinds of things is what keeps me up at night, stroking the non-existent beard.

I guess what I'm saying is that shrinking US manufacturing capability doesn't bother me.  Our biggest exports seem to be ideas and entertainment, giving us a bigger global "mind share."  That's got to mean something, and eventually Disney will be the new world order.  I hope we don't find ourselves in "DystopiaLand," as part of a system of corporate feudalism.

None of which addresses the issue of any kind of inequality.  Sorry 'bout that.  The mind wanders...