Happy Friday! It’s the end of the week, the sun is out with bright blue skies, and the stock market had a good week. What else could you ask for? Well, I’ll let you answer that one.
Don and Mel are on their way to Italy for Pope Francis’ funeral as I write this. I just wonder how that’s going to go after he walks into the church in front of the world leaders in attendance, most of whom he has trash talked over the past 100 days, and then finds out that he will be seated in the third row looking at the back of the heads of the Argentinian president, Catholic royals, and other Catholic non-royals. My bet is that he is going to raise a big stink to get seated up front, as he doesn’t play second fiddle to no one. Hee, Hee. When Joe Biden attended Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and was seated in row 14, Trump mocked him saying that if he was still president, he would have been seated much closer to the front. If Pope Francis were in charge of making the seating arrangements for his funeral, my guess is Don would be placed in the back row and homeless and impoverished people would be seated in the front rows.
I sure am glad that I’m just an old retired guy and not a U.S. pork producer. China just raised the effective tariff rate on pork shipments to 172%. On top of that, China has cancelled 12,000 metric tons of pork from U.S. pork producers. Last year, China was the U.S.’s third-biggest market for pork, importing some 475,000 metric tons valued at more than $1.1 billion. While this trade war is going on, China has been strengthening relations with other European countries to make trade agreements that will leave U.S. producers in the dust. We are so lucky to have this stable genius working his butt off to Make America Great Again.
And, once again, we are left with confusion about these tariff talks. Trump claims that Chinese President Xi called him to try to make a trade deal and that talks are underway. China says not true. “At present, there are absolutely no negotiations on the economy and trade between China and the U.S.,” Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yadong told reporters Thursday. I think that Don has met his match in The Art of the Deal and he is getting very nervous as he’s getting his ass kicked.
Meanwhile, the FBI has begun to carry out it’s mission to go after folks who don’t bow to this regime. Today it was a judge in Wisconsin. She was arrested on two felony counts for allegedly obstructing justice by helping a migrant avoid arrest by ICE. You or I could be next.
Finally for today. Ron Desantis has found a solution for the labor shortage Florida finds itself in after the immigration crackdowns. Change the child-labor laws to allow teenagers to work more. If passed, it will let 16- and 17-year-olds work for more than eight hours on school nights and end a 30-hour weekly work limit for teens while school is in session. It eliminates all restrictions on the number of hours that teens can work. “What’s wrong with expecting our young people to be working part-time?” DeSantis said during an immigration roundtable event last month. “Why do we say we need to import foreigners, even import them illegally, when, you know, teenagers used to work at these resorts?” This is being done under the guise of giving teens life experiences. I say, BS. This is being done for employers benefit because of the loss of employees who have been deported or quit working because they don’t want to risk getting swept up by ICE. We gonna Make America Great Again.
With that, I will head downstairs to turn on the television and watch the Bucks vs. the Pacers. Have a great evening! Ziggyman
Mountain Man Musings 