About 10 years ago I was looking for a new acoustic guitar so I went into my favorite music store just to browse.

On the wall was a beautiful brand new Martin D16 RGT that was absolutely stunning.

The tag was marked $849.00 including hard case. I asked the sales guy why it was so low.

He said he didn’t know, but that was the price. I really checked it out and it was flawless.

So I bought it.

A week later I went back to the same store to grab something else and told the kid who sold it to me how thrilled I was with it.

He took me aside and said they had the wrong price on it, it was supposed to be marked $1849.99.

That was closer to what I thought it should be in the first place.

I asked if he wanted me to make up the difference, ( which I would have, mistakes are made and I did a lot of business with that store).

He said “No, the store made the mistake, keep it and enjoy!’

I am still enjoying it.

Last night I was out with friends, and five of us ended up at a table chatting. Turned out that between us, we’d had two heart attacks, one operation to start and restart the heart, one cancer and one pair of replaced knees.

There was a certain amount of grousing about the problems of medical shit, but one thing that nobody mentioned was the cost.

All of us were fit to continue working and paying tax. None of us had filed for bankruptcy. None of us had had to sell our houses or go unemployed so as to qualify for medicade/medicare.

And of course, our ongoing care was built into the system at cost. My husband’s blood pressure meds to stop him having another heart attack cost €10 a month.

So basically, the state gets to keep five productive workers who are back at full strength and can continue to work and contribute and pay tax.

This morning, in one of my Facebook breast cancer groups, an American woman was saying her husband had been sacked and so she had no insurance to pay for her radiotherapy. There were a lot of suggestions, most of which involved putting off her cancer treatment until he had another job and had qualified for insurance. This woman is going to have more difficult and more expensive cancer treatment because of the insurance system. She’s more likely to die (and not to return to work) because of this.

There are plenty of people here on Quora who did everything right, paid for insurance, and still ended up bankrupt when they got ill.

I don’t know.

Yunnan Province, which borders Myanmar, is one of the poorest provinces in China.

I personally feel that we are about to face a massive refugee wave, and I’m very worried.

Because during the previous civil war in Myanmar, tens of thousands of Burmese Muslims broke through the border and entered China, which then caused a surge in local crime rates.

We are very scared.

Stationed in Kunming is China’s 75th Army, which consists of 12 brigades, each with only 6,000 soldiers, meaning this army has just 72,000 troops in total.

But they are a heavily mechanized force, not designed for disaster relief. Facing such a natural disaster, 72,000 soldiers are truly powerless.

More importantly, Myanmar is a sovereign country, and the People’s Liberation Army cannot enter.

China has now dispatched two rescue teams and prepared a large amount of medicine and food.

However, they are unable to enter Myanmar because, even if the Myanmar government allows Chinese disaster relief teams in, there are dozens of rebel armed groups in the area, interlocked in a complex conflict, making it very difficult for humanitarian teams to pass through.

I heard today that the Muse region has already banned Chinese rescue teams from entering. I’m even more worried that doctors might be taken hostage to negotiate with government forces. It’s very tragic.

Also, the roads have been completely destroyed, making disaster relief extremely difficult.

After a great disaster, there is always a great epidemic. I’m very worried that a massive outbreak could erupt in Myanmar.

That would be a tremendous catastrophe.

I was born with mitral valve prolapse. Although I felt it, it never stopped my athletics in school nor gave me much problem. I was on my parents insurance until I was 18.

After that, unless I worked for a mid to large corporation, anything heart related was not covered — and even then I had a year waiting period.

At 12 yrs old, the first signs of PCOS reared its ugly head. After age 18, all gyn issues became a noncovered item. Both my children were cash babies — insurance wouldn’t touch me.

Edit: That also meant all my well woman visits were not covered, nor prenatal care, nor the three miscarriages & eventual hysterectomy…all cash services. We were in medical debt for decades just because of being afflicted with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome).

By the time the ACA came along, I couldn’t buy health insurance at any price, except for the useless ‘catastrophic’ insurance. Now I’m covered completely for the first time since I was 18 yrs old. I’m almost 61, and have breast cancer.

Ryan and the rest of the GOP monsters frighten me stiff.

Trump already imposed tariff of 25% on countries who buy oil from Venezuela. The tariff is not on Venezuela (primary), but those who buy oil from it, such as China (secondary).

China will not be deterred to continue buying oil from Venezuela.

I suspect this 25% will be added onto the tariffs that are already in the book, viz 20% to 25% he imposed during his first term + 20% he imposed recently = 40% to 45% + 25% secondary tariff to raise the tariffs on China to 65% to 70%.

Secondary tariff can be used ad infinitum, say on countries who buy oil from Russia, or who sell stuffs to ABC, on and on.

If he uses this on Russia, it should not affect fuel prices in the US.

But it will affect prices of goods in the US because it raises the tariffs of countries who buy oil from Russia.

China buys a lot of oil from Russia. Suppose it is 25%, it will then raise the tariffs on China’s goods to 90% to 95%.

Another one of Trump’s favourite tariff is 100% on any BRICS country who do not use the dollar in its foreign trade. This is another form of secondary tariff. Again, China will fall foul of it to raise the tariff to 190% to 195%.

China is quite prepared to decouple with the US. You need not worry about fuel prices in the US from the secondary tariff of Russia, but you may have to make do without Chinese goods.