this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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Somebody definitely used AI to do their homework...
As he based his numbers on trade deficits, I wonder what was actually imported from an uninhabited island. Is there a public source where this might stem from?
He put 10% minimum tariffs on everyone. Somehow they still used "reciprocal" language.
From the Guardian: "The export figures from Heard Island and McDonald Islands are even more perplexing. The territory does have a fishery but no buildings or human habitation whatsoever.
"Despite this, according to export data from the World Bank, the US imported US$1.4m (A$2.23m) of products from Heard Island and McDonald Islands in 2022, nearly all of which was “machinery and electrical” imports. It was not immediately clear what those goods were.
"In the five years prior, imports from Heard Island and McDonald Islands ranged from US$15,000 (A$24,000) to US$325,000 (A$518,000) per year."
So my best guess is that someone is running some kind of money laundering scheme involving fictitious imports... I have no idea how this would work, but those figures are insane.
The Norfolk Island tariffs are also barking.
Thanks. I had been guessing it was the cost of the scientific expeditions on this island, paid by an American university or something, and somehow calculated as imports. But yeah, 1.4m$ im machinery and electrics from an uninhabited island indeed smells fishy.
Nice pun
Rip that guy I guess, he's gotta pay terrifs on that dirty money now
Science. We spend a lot of money on it for science, and they never return any money directly.
Wow what a bunch of freeloaders!
What has science ever done for me?
The reason is simple. They refused to help him out by sending their eggs.
Penguin Tariffs
This is the Liberal Media trying to distract from Trump’s war on Christmas (Island)
That's where Scientists lives. Always discovering new things down there.
Pingu Wil never recover from this.
Why not higher!? Pathetic.. Higher I say! Give them 69% or 420%. Antarctica needs to be taught a lesson and Americam citizens are willing to charge themselves for it. Do not be afraid of the seal teams my friends!
Amazing. The US joins Australia in the exclusive list of "countries that lost a war to birds"
Flightless birds, no less. Can't even claim they had air supremacy.
Linux users : Nooooooo !!!!
How the Kentucky fried FUCK is this not The Onion‽
Because we elected a fascist clown to lead us.
He wasn't elected. Don't spread lies.
Election implies democracy. His cronies bought the election. It was a fascist coup.
77 million Americans voted for him. 85 million Americans stayed home instead of trying to stop him.
My dad was poking fun at this because it's an old "haha look how dumb Trump is" but like, it's literally a tariff on everything on Earth. It's such a small point compared to the huge mess this whole stupid idea is.
That they're literally putting a Tariff on uninhabited islands show us that their process for deciding the Tariff rates is complete total crap.
One doesn't need to understand Finance, Economics and the Ins & Outs of Tariffs to see this as a seriously dumb error and hence a pretty big indicator of the incompetence of those doing it.
Whilst based on the overall actions of this Administration it's not hard to convince the well informed that those in this administration have no clue about what they're doing, this specific mistake is so straightforwardly and obviously wrong that even the ill-informed and under-educated can spot it.
It's not really a small point though. It's a huge signal about how serious these people are.
Like, if a scientific paper has the text "as an AI language model" in it, you can be sure that there's no point in reading the paper deeply. Similarly, tariffs on uninhabited islands tells you that there's no "5d chess" being played here, these people are absolute morons.
Oh for sure, a "apply to everyone" tarrif isn't a well thought out approach just as firing all probationary hires isn't a well thought out approach. Just hate that people are acting like he also put tarrifs on Atlantis or Wakanda or something because he thinks they exist. An apply all rule would include those places, too, but it's stupid because of why you said, not because he's actively choosing uninhabited islands by hand.
It's the 'no brown m+m's' of global economic policy.
Assuming you're talking about the "no brown m&ms" clause that Van Halen had as part of their tour contract. If so, you might not know that it may have been a form of quality control. Van Halen had a big and complex stage show. A typical show would use 3 18-wheeler trucks, Van Halen would use 9 of them.
The complex contract ensured that they had a stage that could support all the weight of the Van Halen show. That any overhead girders were sturdy enough to hang the things they needed to hang. That the electrical system in the venue could support all their equipment. That the doors were big enough to allow the equipment to be pushed through, etc.
If the band went backstage and saw there were brown m&ms in the bowl, they'd know that the venue hadn't carefully read the contract, so they'd need to double check everything else.
I don't see why. The problems with global tariffs notwithstanding, can you explain the downside to setting a tariff on these islands?
My guess is just that they're trying to idiot-proff the tariffs (i.e. prevent someone from putting up a shack on this island and using that to somehow evade tariffs.)
There's no upside or downside to setting a tariff on uninhabited islands. Why not include Atlantis just in case? Why not also set a tariff on Mars, Venus or Pluto just to be sure? Why not also include Middle Earth and Vulcan in case they turn out to be real?
If all they wanted was to ensure that every place in the world was covered, they could have just said that the standard tariff rate was 10%. What's more likely is they used an LLM to generate a list of every place on earth and just put a 10% next to it, showing how unserious they are.
He heard about Emperor Penguins and probably got confused and wanted to start a trade war with the supreme leader
hey, there is 4 researchers there, more respect
Wait until they order their Eggs Benedict
They're not permanent residents, though, are they?
Even if they are, I highly doubt that they're running a successful import/export business in their spare time..
Did they even say thank you?
And the lost city of Atlantis. And Pompeii.
And Wakanda.
and Mordor! what the hey
those damn penguins better pay their due to murica
If penguins are smart enough to "steal from America" I guess everybody can just take their money.
Penguins must pay the Orange Turd has spoken!