This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

TACO = Trump Always Chickens Out. Who says Wall Street doesn’t have a sense of humor? It is a brave strategy to have. Dangerous and brave. To assume an insane President won’t act insanely, because he always chickens out. Until one day goaded by Wall Street, he doesn’t. “Oh, it’s alright! He always juggles hand grenades like that.” Another Orwellian example of imagining the truth to be something it is not.

Wall Street is comatose to what is actually going on. Tariffs today, no tariffs tomorrow. Whether there are or aren’t tariffs, is beside the point. The damage is already being done. Retail stores and small business can’t plan for the future. No one in their right mind is going to order heavy for Christmas without knowing the final cost. Tariffs raise prices and reduce sales. How much? The answer my friends is blowing in the wind.

Maybe TACO or maybe bankruptcy. Write that purchase order and find out. Maybe after you receive your order and pay for it, TACO lowers tariffs again. Sorry, no rebates. Maybe after you place your order the Taco raises tariffs, and your sales projections are suddenly all out the window. When in doubt, don’t! Better empty shelves and a healthy bank account than warehouses filled with overpriced junk you can’t sell.

Or perhaps your order won’t arrive in time for Christmas or New Years. It’s only money, roll the dice! Add Airbnb to the list of endangered species. Along with hamburger stands, automobiles and vacation rentals, as discretionary spending is in trouble. Christmas is going to look like the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. And blaming it all on Joe Biden won’t help much.

All the signs of a disaster are in place, and everyone always assumes there is one big reason for a disaster. When actually, it’s usually caused by a series of small events. Had there been a moon, the Titanic might have seen the iceberg sooner. Maybe, if the ocean hadn’t been so still, they might have seen the waves lapping against Iceberg. So, add unsure and inconsistent pricing, plus nervous consumers. Plus, a negative consumer sentiment fearful of the future equals a train wreck.

Southwest Airlines ditches its first bag flies’ free policy. Why? Pricing pressure. With wholesale prices on gasoline at record low levels on the international market. Why drill for expensive oil in the United States? Trump has whipped inflation the same way a pistol cures cancer. Home prices aren’t going up anymore. In some markets like the doomed state of Floriduh, the reckoning is already upon them. Investors getting out while they still can. Did you hear about the Condo building nearing collapse evacuated in Floriduh? No, of course not. Free Press or Chamber of Commerce?

June 1^st is the beginning of hurricane season and politicians are out on the stump warning their citizenry to prepare like they’ve never prepared before. Because FEMA now stands for Financial Emergencies Might Arise. Just gut the budget, it’ll be alright. When politicians begin waving their arms and warning ahead of time, it ain’t no coincidence. It’s called getting ahead of a disaster.

Is 86 proof Pete Hegseth using illegal wiretaps? Is RFJ Jr. (Robert Francis Junkie) making stuff up? Did  Kristy Noem finish high school? Ice isn’t deporting migrants fast enough, so heads must roll (The destroyer landed on its side). It is a picture of dysfunction with everyone running in separate directions. Maybe a better acronym would be WUSS = won’t understand simple shit.

But Wall Street can’t see through the tax cut nice dreams to see an iceberg on the dark moonless night. “Oh boy! We’re going to get ice cream! Don’t worry about the moron, he’ll chicken out.” Ice cream or crow and the answer my friends is blowing in the wind.

Wall Street lives in a delusional dream land. Oh, don’t worry, he’ll chicken out. Vladimir Putin threatens War because of Trump’s big yap. But Russia doesn’t have the conventional forces to carry that threat out. They do however, still have a nuclear arsenal. Don’t worry, Trump always chickens out.

The Russian Foreign minister says that “Trump doesn’t understand” and he is correct. There cannot be a negotiated settlement with Ukraine. The Russian are all in and cannot walk away with a negotiated peace, it is win or die. The Russian economy hangs by a thread. Its industries destroyed and its banking system obliterated with near worthless currency and 21% interest rates. It’s population numbers so askew, it is off the charts. It is questionable if Russia can even continue as a nation. Most of a generation of young men (18 to 55) have fled, been wounded or died. Don’t worry Trump always chickens out. A collapsing world power probably won’t hurt anything. Mama always said, “Don’t push on someone with nothing left to lose.”

Don’t worry, Trump will chicken out before Putin does something stupid. Due to drone strikes in Moscow, the Russian government has fled to the Ural mountains. Does that sound like a strong, stable  government to you? Or Oligarchs running for the hills trying to save their own skins?

Trump specifically mentions ejecting Chinese students from Harvard. Just one more arrow in Trump’s quiver of economic war on China. China bullies its way around the Philippines and eyes Islands surrounding Taiwan. But don’t worry, Trump always chickens out. But Donald Trump has no original ideas, he only listens to the people who brown nose him and tell him the things he wants to hear.

Wall Street’s confidence in the future is heartwarming. Trump always chickens out! Don’t worry, nothing bad can happen. This ship is unsinkable!

“There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by readin’. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.” ― Will Rogers