I have nothing better to do on a ‘pouring down rain’ Sunday afternoon, so I’ll just sit here and so some reflection of current events.
Starting with Friday. It was not a good day for stock market investments in my and your individual and retirement accounts as the market tanked “big time,” with the S&P 500 experiencing its worst day of 2025. I just don’t know how ‘sleepy’ Joe could have let that happen to us. Our current PINO (President In Name Only) would like to put the blame on ol’ Joe, but he’s going to have to own this one, starting with the market’s concern about tariffs. DJT may think ‘tariff’ is the most beautiful word in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, but many economists, analysts, and market portfolio managers disagree. We also have had recent corporate earnings reports which have come in lackluster as consumer spending has slowed down. In an article on CNBC’s website Friday, Steve Cohen, the billionaire CEO of Point72 hedge fund, sees Trump’s aggressive trade policy, his tough stance on immigration, and the DOGE cost-cutting moves as negatives for the economy and will likely result in a pullback in the stock market leading to a significant correction. He says, “Tariffs cannot be positive, okay? I mean, it’s a tax,” and “On top of that, we have slowing immigration, which means the labor force will not grow as rapidly as … the last five years.” With regard to DOGE, he says, “When that money has been coursing through the economy over many years, and now, potentially it will be reduced or stopped in many ways, this has got to be negative for the economy,” Also on Friday the US Index of Consumer Sentiment for February was released and showed a drop in consumer confidence. The Index on Friday’s report was 64.70, down from 71.70 the previous month. This is a report that details consumer attitudes, buying intentions, vacation plans, and consumer expectations for inflation, stock prices, and interest rates. Donald in the past has said that the stock market is a gauge on the state of our economy and the performance of the president. If that is the case, DJT should be ‘largely, hugely’ concerned.
We had another Friday night massacre, like the “Valentine’s Day Massacre” of a week ago. This time it was centered on military Generals, not “putty knife toilet seat s**t scraping” Park Service staff. Friday night Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, four-star Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., and announced he will nominate a retired three-star general to succeed him as the nation’s top military officer. General Brown has over 40 years of military experience and was a former combat pilot. He became the first Black man to lead a branch of the military as Air Force chief before becoming the chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 2023. This move was not unexpected, as Pete Hegseth said earlier that “we need to start by firing the Joint Chiefs of Staff” for supporting a “woke” agenda that undermined military readiness. But, General Brown was not the only military leader fired on Friday. In total, six Pentagon officials were fired, including Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy, the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force General Jim Slife, and the top lawyers for the Army, Navy, and Air Force were all given the boot. Starting next week, the Pentagon plans to cut 5,400 civilian probationary workers. These firings are seen by Congressional Democratic leaders and former military leaders as a direct attempt to politicize the military. I would venture to guess that there are a bunch of “beautiful” military leaders walking around today with their “you know what puckered up” thinking “I might be next if I don’t bow to the King’s wishes.” I have to disagree with Secretary Hegseth, I believe the actions that he and the King are enacting are undermining our military readiness much more than the crime of promoting DEI.
And now we have news outlets reporting a COVID-like bat virus has been discovered in the Wuhan lab in China that was associated with the 2019 pandemic in which 1.2 million Americans died from COVID-19. It is reassuring to know that RFK Jr is now in charge of Health and Human Services and will be right on top of this. I might suggest calling your financial adviser on Monday morning and picking up some Pfizer and Moderna stock before this next pandemic hits. Or you might want to wait and see what anti-vax snake oil treatment Robbie comes up with. I’m sure it will be worth a bowl of popcorn.
My favorite event of the week, though, has been Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) calling out Elon
Musk for his new requirement that all federal employees defend their jobs or else get fired. “This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk – except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a dick,” she wrote on X. It was a response to this X post from Musk.
I’m sure the chaos this next week will include: The United States Postal Service takeover; pentagon and more military leader firings; a peace ‘undeal’ in the Ukraine-Russia war; trying to gain support from MAGA’s by gaslighting about receiving a $5,000 dividend check as a result of DOGE savings; the DOGE crew wanting the key to Fort Knox to decide whether selling the gold in there would be an efficiency; and finally, what advice Baron will give his daddyo this week. Have a great evening and keep Pope Francis in your prayers. With that I will leave you this to ponder. Our partners getting ready for a “night on the town.” Ziggyman
Mountain Man Musings 