Cows rule

...but it sounds like the sort of thing old dog would enjoy researching.

Uncle Ken knows me too well.  We finally have a topic that is literally a can of worms and I did some digging.  There is a little misinformation in previous posts.  The old world earthworms didn't wipe out the North American variety; the glaciers did that 10,000 years ago and earthworms in the southern states did fine and were unaffected.  There are more than a hundred species of earthworm in North America, about sixty of which are the invasive species from Europe.  From what I've read so far, the biggest problem with the new invaders is their impact on forests.  In new growth forests these voracious newcomers chow down on leaf litter to the extent that the nutrients can wash away in the rain and can lead to erosion; the ideal deep forest ecosystem is thus thrown out of whack.  Farmland and gardens are the main beneficiaries of of the worms, but that's about it.  If your lawn is lumpy you can blame the earthworms, likewise if your sidewalk or driveway starts to subside.  Adding a lot of burrows to the underlying soil has a negative impact on a lot of man-made structures, but I think the jury is still out.  Here's a couple of sources that I found: (1) (2) .

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There has been some talk about California dividing into three states, but that idea isn't getting much traction from what I've read, and now there is new spin on the idea: returning Federal land to the Native Americans.  It's an intriguing idea and I like it but nailing down the details might prove impossible.  Still might be worth a try, though.

There isn't as much federal land as I thought; this recent graphic from Bloomberg shows the land use in the US and it's very revealing.  The single biggest use of land is for cows.  What surprised me is that about twice as much land is used for livestock feed than for the food we humans eat.  Graphics like these raise more questions than they answer.  If we have so much timberland I wonder why we import so much from Canada; maybe we have the wrong type for what we need the wood for.  Not paper anymore, I think, at least not newsprint.  You can follow the link to Bloomberg for more details.

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Mr. Beagles keeps referring to "Red China" but I don't think it's very red at all these days.  It's like they're communist on paper but for all practical purposes they are authoritarian capitalists.  How else to explain their great number of billionaires, hundreds more than the US?  Like it or not, China has become the global manufacturing giant with impressive capabilities.  If Mr. Beagles were to go through his household and toss all the products made in China or has Chinese components he may be disappointed with what remains.

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This tariff business is making my head spin.  I've been following a site that deals with the global automotive industry and the car guys are going nuts.  What's considered a German car these days?  The largest exporter of cars from the US is BMW if I'm not mistaken.  And what about Ford?  They make cars in Mexico using a lot of American components so there will be extra tariffs coming and going.  NAFTA may have had it's problems but they were trivial to what may be coming down the road.  I suspect that the only outcome, for sure, is that everything will be costing more as the rich continue to get richer.

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Sorry, but I still don't like Avenatti and I don't care how he polls.  I suspect there is someone in Congress right now who has been lying low, not drawing attention to him/her self and will rise like a star in the heavens...I can dream, can't I?