UNITED STATES President Donald Trump has announced that he, or really the US, will impose a “major” tariff on pharmaceuticals.
The word “major” is vague but it can be suggested that it will be in the 30% to 50% range rather than the general 10%.
This is shameful. In an ideal world, any neccessary medicine would be free but that’s not realistic, so the best that can be hoped for is cheap and readily available.
Costs should be minimised not subject to extra tariffs basically at the whim of an individual.
Our savings may be taking a hit but that’s not likely to be life changing, whereas a decreased access to medicine will cost lives.
The world’s leader is leading everyone into chaos and catastrophe. Well done, President Trump.
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A bit obvious except during elections
A package of salmon from a major supermarket contained the warning that this “Contains Fish”, which I had hoped it would.
Why can’t we get this extreme honesty, or basically any honesty, from our politicians?
Australia is currently in the pre-election stage where everything is promised by every candidate. The promises made before the recent American election are in most cases unfulfilled except for the destructive tariffs recently imposed.
Honesty in elections is as real as my unicorn farm.
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No messing around with science
Scientists have recreated the American dire wolf using DNA from a tooth and a bone, but why?
The wolf is of no specific value in the environment and is, or will be, a dangerous wild animal.
Scientists are always trying to make the world a better place but on the other side, there are numerous movies and conspiracy sites that show the problems that scientists could cause. Fortunately the movies are fictional and the conspiracy sites are farcical.
With the world’s problems, climate, food production, pollution, and more, it might be best to skip returning animals that nature, sometimes with the help of humans, allowed to disappear.
When we are all safe, healthy, well fed, educated and sheltered, then scientists can bring back the dodo and the T-rex but maybe not the megalodon.
As a retired science teacher I want my ex-students to see the great achievements that I told them science could produce rather than a few lost animals.
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Attack of the killer penguins
Hannibal lead his force of 37 elephants, and soldiers, over the Alps to invade Italy and onto a bloody war.
What will happen when a few thousand of the McDonald’s Island penguins march on Washington to protest the imposed tariffs?
It won’t be that easy to organize as there are no humans there to provide support and since since many are King penguins, the leadership team might be very large.
They will have to swim there but they could stop by Australia and collect some snakes, spiders and jellyfish, all of whom are poisonous to act as an early strike team.
This could all be prevented if the White House would acknowledge that McDonald’s Island was put on the list when President Trump ordered some McDonald’s food and the notetaker mistakenly put it on the official tariff list.
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A little spot
Like quite a few Australians, I have holidayed on Norfolk Island, a very small island about 1,600 km (1,000 miles) from Australia.
It is a beautiful island, with a horrific history as a cruel penal colony and its only real industry is tourism.
It, however, has been hit with a 29% tariff, by President Trump, on non-existent exports. There are a number of other such islands.
There are many that find the new tariffs offensive, inappropriate, unnecessary but in this case just plain stupid.
How many other Trump-led initiatives will be regarded in the same way?
I think the fourth category will poll the highest./PN
