Late tonight, Swedish time, I decided to listen to Donald Trump’s announcement regarding his tariffs for the rest of the world. I didn’t hear an awful lot because his voice put me to sleep. Electing someone with low intelligence is one thing but when that’s combined with a lack of decent oratory, you just get a recipe for sleep.
He called it Liberation Day. It certainly liberated me from being awake.
For the short time that I was awake, I heard how he blames the rest of the world for America being in massive debt. He claims that other countries have stolen industry away from the US. He didn’t mention the fact that an awful lot of money hungry US companies were responsible for having their products made overseas because they could exploit the cheap labour costs, particularly in Asia.
Apple, on the other hand, shifted their manufacturing to China because the company needed a country that could pump up volume easily and quickly. This couldn’t be achieved in the US but could in China, so they moved. I found a short, interesting article regarding their thinking here.
For whatever the reason, America should really put the blame on the corporations that caused the manufacturing shift away from the US. But, of course, the wealthy are never wrong in Trump’s eyes. He believes he is one of them and, therefore, must help them get wealthier. In other words, to liberate the poor from their hard earned dollars.
In a way, a trade war could be a good thing in the short term. If fewer people stop buying plastic stuff they don’t need, there will, eventually, be less discarded stuff lying around for millennia, trying to break down. And, imagine the money people could save by buying less rubbish.
Surely, the rest of the world could lower tariffs on everyone but the US and have more people buy more products from them. Let America be as isolated as they want. It’s interesting how America, that saw itself as the greatest country on earth, now wants to be alone and a pariah.
Possibly the greatest advantage to not buying American would be no more chlorinated chicken which, I read today, contains arsenic as well. If Americans are happy eating shit, let them, I say.
I realise that the world is tied up in global trade links but surely things could only get better for the rest of us if we just cut all ties to America and let it drift away. It could be just like North Korea with Kim Jung Trump at the helm of a once great but inevitably poor, miserable nation.
In other world news…
Val Kilmer died today. He was 65. Years ago, an acting friend told me that, while filming The Island of Dr Moreau, he came in contact with Kilmer and said he was an arrogant arsehole while the rest of the cast was okay. They all sort of banded together against the on-set problems. Mind you, Kilmer was having personal problems at the time, which could explain it. Obviously, I don’t know.
He was suffering from throat cancer and died of pneumonia, so at least he is now liberated from medical procedures. He was also quite religious, and death is a liberation of sorts.
And, of course, I can’t forget the ferrets. Today was National Ferret Day in the UK. All Weasels celebrated by raising a glass (or six) to our furry little friends. It is a day during which, all caged ferrets gain their liberty. For a bit.
I didn’t see any ferrets today (I guess they were too busy celebrating) so I took this photo of some crocuses in the Trosa Churchyard instead.
Actually, the churchyard has quite a few spring bulbs erupting all over the place, which is a lot better than the ones I planted in our garden which are just green spikes slowly emerging from the until recently, frozen ground.
