I wouldn’t get out of bed for ten-percent, so when ‘Liberation Day’ came and went I hit snooze. “Ten-percent? Like slapping us with a wet feather. This is going to hurt you more than it hurts us.”
But then conscience grabbed me by the detestables and I forced myself awake to hit the road for a day-hike at Mt Hay. The plan was to summit Mt Hay and take in the Walls, a 13 kilometre Grade 4 circuit that I absolutely didn’t need to do.
My timing was good, because I caught sunrise.
Segue: For added gravitas I should translate my personal maxim of ‘making life harder’ into something Latinate, perhaps some sexy-ass-sounding Latin itself
Vita minus facilis.
Yeah.
Returning to the point, there are no negatives to bushwalking, not least its benefits to my mental health. Just the act of carrying weight and walking on rough ground refills the Introvert’s Cup and restores my equanimity.
A kilometre or so into the hike, already feeling more equanimitous (?) I looked down at my Salomon hikers and thanked them for their service. Salomon is a French company that manufacture in Vietnam, which was just slapped a 49% tariff.
“Sucks to be you,” I panted, grinding up another spur. My favourite boots just got a whole lot more expensive in America.
So what is the Orange Man hoping will happen? The French company Salomon SAS is owned by Finnish conglomerate Amer Sports, which in turn is owned by Chinese consortium Anta Sports.
Does Donny really think the French, Finns and Chinese will all go, “Oh too good for us Mister Orange Man, you win!” and relocate the entire operation to fucking Utah?
I reached the Wall without any clear answers. Which didn’t matter, because the view scattered my thoughts and took my breath away.
Speaking of orange.
In 2020, China imposed tariffs on Australian exports after our government joined the call for an investigation into the outbreat of COVID-19.
At the time, hysterical media fearmongering stoked concerns of national economic downturn and industries collapsing.
None of that happened. Even the worst affected industry — wine exports — has bounced back.
Tellingly, the Chinese sanctions overwhelmingly failed because most Australian exporters found new and better markets. You could almost say the experience made us stronger and more resilient.
Why would it be different this time?
Especially as the US are a much smaller market for Australian exports now than China were in 2020?
If anything, the risk for Australia now is our overreliance on Asia for our exports.
Such were my thoughts as I trudged through the overgrown undergrowth atop Mt Hay.
I found the trig at 1062 metres and wondered why anyone would think to graffiti ‘GAZA’ onto the structure. It seemed as pointless as it was perverse, and evoked nothing except faint annoyance.
“Just fill your cup,” I reminded myself, and ground my annoyance underfoot into the basalt cap of Mt Hay as I started the walk out.
I couldn’t use my GoPro much as the footing was treacherous and wet after recent rains, so I didn’t record my conclusions as I arrived at the car. But I had made up my mind.
This isn’t going to hurt Australia at all.
When the Orange Man sits down to his next quarterpounder, I hope he remembers why he’s paying 50c extra for delicious Australian beef, because he like every other fat American is going to keep eating it.
They can’t get enough.
They love our Aussie beef.
As for the equinimity of the penguins on Heard and Mcdonald Islands? You hear about that? Donald Trump is a dickhead wrapped in a moron inside an idiot. I suspect the penguins won’t mind being slapped with a wet feather, either.
Oh, and where’s the tariff on Russia, Donald?