Potpourri

Martha Stewart would have us believe that potpourri is a bundle of oddments of dead stuff that smells really good, and will make the sale of your home when it reaches the market a raging success. Not always, and herewith a collection of off odors . .

In the choppy wake of a seemingly endless list of accomplishment in international relations and diplomacy, the Weasel of Oriente apparently believes that he has scaled the pinnacle of interstellar geopolitics. It would obviously be foolish to waste this super-powerful leverage, so he is demanding - demanding, mind you - that we immediately return Guantanamo, a long-term lease in which he is complicit notwithstanding, to Cuba. Also, he demands "reparations" for the hardships incurred as a consequence of the Castro Brothers' feckless adventurism in setting up their beautiful island as an implacable enemy of the US, and reckless denial of human rights to its citizens. This, of course, would provide more excuses to not feed the populace, and postpone for who knows how long establishing a supply chain infrastructure that could transform the national economy. , Lo siento chico viejo; you ain't da man.

On another front in the war against stupidity and greed, the overpaid, overfed, and underworked labor forces at West Coast ports are now injuring both import and export trade, costing us jobs and global credibility. Real patriots, this band of bullies; this wing of the party needs to deflate its egos. As long as their excesses are caved in to, our port operations will produce at a rate embarrassing to a third world counterpart, and we will wake up one day to wonder who came in the night to steal our jobs.  Now that we have an agreement that fails to address root issues, and will subject us to another round of upheaval in five years, it will still take months to clear the backlog now bobbing in the harbors.  Some win, huh?

In related news, the great Freedom Fry shortage in Japan is a direct consequence of labor-induced port congestion in the land of fruitcakes from another cosmic dimension. Mayor McCheese's solution has been to boldly fly fries to Asia via air cargo. Seriously, this is why companies have invested billions in high-capacity cargo planes, to ship "food" that will kill you to an otherwise friendly partner? I get the value proposition in moving steel to avoid shutting down production lines, transporting time-critical life-saving pharmaceuticals, quietly moving high-value, low-cube products to point of use, getting mission-vital repair parts to where they are needed to get linchpin operations running, and the like. But, fries? Was this really Plan B to foil the Hamburglar? Or, was it a panicked knee-jerk solution undertaken out of unplanned desperation?

Meanwhile, the posturing convention in Washington, DC, is underway, with grotesque poses apparently being triggered by random inconsequential catch-phrases and key words. None of the triggers appear to be related to long-term and sustainable solutions for the national supply chain infrastructure. I tearfully admit that these, and other, current events come as no surprise whatever. But, we need to get a few things on the table, just in case someone who can do something about them happens to wander in, upright and sober. I'll settle for upright alone if it comes to a choice.