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North West Bylines
Home Politics Opinion

After midnight

Tariffs for everyone from midnight, even the penguins are not spared.

Keith Johnson by Keith Johnson
06-04-2025 05:25
in Opinion
Reading Time: 2 mins read
A A
Close-up picture of black and white penguin with a red beak and yellow feathers on the head

image by Jerzy Strzelecki. CC BY 3.0

Share on Bluesky
My fellow Americans,
Not a pretty picture. It’s
Liberation day. Looted, pillaged,
Raped, plundered, ripped off
For more than fifty years.
But it’s not going to happen
Any more. Not going to happen.
Foreign cheaters, foreign scavengers,
Tearing apart once beautiful
America. Tearing. Apart.
China sixty-seven percent.

But now from midnight, we will
Impose a tariff on the
Heard and McDonald Islands.
Very, very tough traders.
Inhabitants: cheater penguins,
Scavenging seals, petrels –
Very stormy. Very stormy.
Albatrosses; and penguins
Creating filthy pollution havens.
Rotting fish. Who’s going
To clear them up? America?
Devouring valuable fish stocks,
Depriving of catches our great fishermen,
Brutalised by waddling scavengers
Ripping us off. Waddling.
Fat seals wasting precious blubber,
While factories in Michigan
Close down. Petrels,
Producing eggs. Nutritious.
Food for Americans. Left to become,
Baby petrels. Wasted.
And albatrosses, seeking
American necks to hang round.
Over the years, we’ve lost
Dozens and dozens of dollars.

Yes, but no more. No. After midnight,
It’s tariffs. You will pay, Heard.
You will pay, McDonald.
Ripped off. Sleepy Jo Biden.
Not going to happen.
Get that war ended.
Greenland. A terrible thing.
God bless America. Very
Very rich. Yes no.
Thank you. Penguins.
    I love Bylines!  I’ll buy you a coffee!
Pink three-eyed alien holds a tariff sheet while the white three-eyed fluffy pet looks on.
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Keith Johnson

Keith Johnson

Keith Johnson is an Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at Lancaster University. Before he retired, his main interest was in foreign language learning and teaching, and he published widely on that topic. In retirement he became interested in the history of the English language and in the language of Shakespeare. His books on these topics include The History of Early English, Landmarks in the History of the English Language, and Shakespeare’s English. In his spare time Keith plays the oboe, and is a member of Sedbergh Orchestra. He lives in Cumbria. Follow Keith on BlueSky

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