Here.
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Trump threatened to bomb Iranian power infrastructure if the Strait of Hormuz wasn't open by last night, and the latest UKMTO JMIC Advisory Note indicates that it is not open
Normal transits are about 138/day vs. four on March 22 and six on March 23.
Iran is charging $2 million in protection money in exchange for safe passage of some vessels through the Strait of Hormuz
Not only do the Iranians control the Strait, they've turned it into a racket.
Vessels have been tracked passing between Qeshm and Larak, presumably for visual inspection, instead of through the main track of the Strait of Hormuz.
... More than 20 vessels of over 10,000 dwt have thus far made the detour, which goes between Iran’s Qeshm and Larak Islands. ...
More.
Monday, March 23, 2026
Leon Panetta: Trump has no choice but to go big or go home
... He advises Trump to abandon his magical thinking and “face the fact” that he must use the military to open the strait, neutralise Iranian defences along the coast and deploy ships to escort oil tankers through.
“There’s no question there’s going to be lives lost and it’s clearly going to expand the war but I don’t see the alternative. He’s got to do it. He’s talked a great deal about the strength of the United States. This is a test of whether the United States can be able to deal with that situation which otherwise is not only going to prolong the war but create a lot of economic damage to the United States with those soaring fuel prices and cause what some have said is a potential worldwide recession.”
Panetta added frankly: “There’s not much choice. You’ve got to do what you have to do and, if you can open the strait, it might give you a better chance to then have a basis on which you can negotiate hopefully some kind of ceasefire. That’s the only way that he can go at this point; otherwise he will clearly have failed to find a solution.” ...
More.
He's right.
Iranian parliament Speaker threatens to target U.S. financial institutions on Sunday, Trump chickens out by breakfast Monday
Iran threatens U.S. Treasury buyers as Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum looms
Published Mon, Mar 23 2026 12:28 AM EDT
... In a social media post on Sunday, Iran’s Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that U.S.-linked financial institutions holding American government bonds would be targeted alongside military bases.
“U.S. treasury bonds are soaked in Iranians’ blood. Purchase them, and you purchase a strike on your HQ and assets,” Ghalibaf said. “Alongside military bases, those financial entities that finance the U.S. military budget are legitimate targets,” he added in the post. ...
Sunday, March 22, 2026
Two weeks in the news
The economy has Strait of Hormuz deadline for Trump: Two weeks
... For now, the C-suite has its own view of the matter: it’s roughly two weeks and counting for the Trump administration and any allies that join the effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, or corporate executives have to assume that the conflict will drag on until at least mid-year, with all of the negative consequences that come with that for the global economy. That was the conclusion on a call among members of the CNBC CFO Council earlier this week with energy and commodities market expert John Kilduff of Again Capital, who joined CFOs to share his view of the oil price outlook from inside the trader and investor community. ... If the military and government do not have good answers by April 1, “The crunch is coming.” ... by the end of the year, even in the U.S., “We’re going to have a major energy crisis on our hands. … I think the shortages would certainly have come to California by then,” Kilduff said. ... "if this goes on much more than two weeks or so, we’re going to reprice the barrels of oil here considerably higher,” he said. ...
Because they have nothing better to do
ICE agents might as well try security theatre after deportation theatre flopped at the box office earlier.
ICE agents will be deployed to U.S. airports on Monday: Homan
... “We will be at the airports tomorrow, helping TSA move those lines along,” Homan said, adding that ICE will assist in areas like guarding exit doors to relieve TSA agents for screening travelers. “We’re simply there to help TSA do their jobs in areas that don’t need their specialized expertise.” ...
If stuff like guarding exit doors is an area that doesn't need the TSA's "specialized expertise", why are TSA agents doing that stuff in the first place, and why are we paying for it?
Saturday, March 21, 2026
Friday, March 20, 2026
Trump approval hit a record low 41.8% yesterday in the Real Clear Politics average
Disapproval with Trump at 55.9% retests the high from Feb 23.
GOP liars portray passing routine legislation under reconcilation rules as a standard part of the process when the gimmick is restricted to budgets and wasn't used for the first time until 1980
Now they want to make everything fall under reconciliation in order to make an end run around the filibuster.
The Byrd Rule codified in 1990 makes legislation extraneous to the budget process, like the Save Act, ineligible for the process.
Mad King Ludwig unendorsed Jeff Hurd CO-3 on Feb 21 as a RINO, but one month later il Donaldo Trumpo gives him his total endorsement
Trump is clearly 25th Amendment material and belongs nowhere near The Football. Unfortunately his cabinet happily wears the Florsheims he gave them.
Loon meets loon
Dalai Lama:
So, I might take rebirth as an insect, or an animal—whatever would be of most value to the largest number of sentient beings.
Trump creates an emergency by attacking Iran, turns right around and declares an emergency to by-pass Congress and sell weapons to Persian Gulf states even though we need another $200 billion from Congress for weapons
Trump invokes emergency powers with $23 billion in Gulf arms sales as Iran war wages on: WSJ report
... For some of the deals, the American government invoked the emergency clause of U.S. arms control law, a mechanism that allows the executive branch to proceed without the standard 30-day congressional review period, according to the report.
The Trump administration learned nothing from its fight to a draw with the Houthis last year
... Iran is still believed to have a vast stockpile of mines, cruise missiles on trucks and hundreds of undamaged boats in hidden facilities with deeply dug tunnels along the coast and on islands, said Farzin Nadimi, an expert on Iranian defenses at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“I think it will take weeks to reach a point where there can be safe operations in the strait,” he said. “Even then, a lot of the Iranian assets will survive.” ...
Houthi militants in Yemen, who are aligned with Iran, waged a two-month campaign last year with missiles, drones and unmanned boats against international shipping that parallels Iran’s closure of the strait. The U.S. struck more than 1,000 targets in Yemen, but never succeeded in halting Houthi attacks fully until the two sides declared a truce in May. ...
More.
Larry Kudlow has really devolved, falsely calling Fed Chair Powell the Fed’s first forever board member
Larry knows that's a lie.
He knows it's Senator Thom Tillis who is stopping Kevin Warsh from getting a Fed chair confirmation hearing, not Jerome Powell.
But he never mentions that.
Truly disgraceful.
I guess Larry wants no one in charge at the Fed when Powell's term expires on May 15.
Meanwhile Alan Greenspan remained as Fed chair in 1996 pending confirmation for his next term, which took almost four months, and Marriner Eccles stayed on as Fed chair for over two months after his term expired, and on the board of governors after that from 1948-1951. G. William Miller stayed on as Fed chair for over a month in 1978 after his term expired, and Chair Powell himself had to wait over three months in 2022 for confirmation to his second term.
But Larry doesn't mention any of that either, because he's a liar.
Powell is doing his duty while Mad King Ludwig tries to wreck everything he touches, and Larry Kudlow has become nothing but Trump's partisan hack.
The New York Sun and Real Clear Politics should be ashamed of themselves for circulating this trash.
Thursday, March 19, 2026
Gold and silver are on sale today lol
Gold and silver sell-off accelerates as inflation fears grip global markets
... fears about the Iran war and inflation gripped global markets ...
... The moves in gold and silver come amid broader risk-off sentiment, which has seen global equities and government bonds fall in tandem. ...
Fetterman voted for this numbskull Mullin, who will be an improvement over Noem, if you can imagine that
At least we hope so.
Trump’s DHS pick Markwayne Mullin advances out of Senate committee after tough confirmation hearing
... The vote was 8-7, with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, chair of the Senate panel, the lone Republican vote against the nomination and Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., the lone Democrat voting in favor. Republicans hold an 8-7 majority on the committee. ...
Paul’s “no” vote came after he lashed out at the nominee the day prior. Mullin recently said he understood why Paul’s neighbor physically attacked him in 2017 and called Paul, a libertarian-leaning Republican who often does not vote with his party, a “freaking snake.” Paul called Mullin “unrepentant.”
“I just wonder if someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that has struggled to accept limits to the proper use of force,” Paul said. ...
Fetterman declined to speak to reporters outside the hearing room following the vote, instead referring them to a statement posted to his X.
“In January, I called on the president to fire Noem —and he did. I truly approached the confirmation of my colleague and friend, Senator Mullin, with an open-mind,” Fetterman said in the post. “We need a leader at DHS. We must reopen DHS. My AYE is rooted in a strong committed, constructive working relationship with Senator Mullin for our nation’s security.”
Noem has been lambasted by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for her leadership. And polling on the Trump administration’s immigration policies flagged in the winter after two U.S. citizens were killed by federal agents during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis in January.
Mullin, signaling a break from his predecessor said Wednesday that he would require immigration agents to obtain judicial warrants to enter private property. He also seemed open to rethinking Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s role in immigration crackdowns. ...
How war escalates to consume the state: Things don't go right after two weeks (!) and suddenly Trump needs NATO to come to his rescue and Congress to fork over an additional $200 billion which we don't have
All because of one, supremely disordered soul.
‘We will remember’: Trump warns countries to help secure Strait of Hormuz as shipping stalls (Mar 16)
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
The U.S. national debt topped $39 trillion yesterday, five months after topping $38 trillion, seven months after topping $37 trillion
Recent National Debt Milestones
3/17/26 $39 trillion
10/21/25 $38 trillion
8/11/25 $37 trillion
11/21/24 $36 trillion
Trump cooperated with Israel in attacking world's largest gas field in Iran, giving Iran an opening to retaliate against Persian Gulf neighbors' oil and gas assets
They've lit the world on fire. They're madmen.
WATCH: Iranian gas, oil infrastructure at Iran’s South Pars and Asaluyeh hit in Israeli air strike
Facilities linked to Iran’s gas and oil industry in South Pars and Asaluyeh were targeted in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday, a source confirmed to The Jerusalem Post.
The South Pars gas field is the world’s largest natural gas reserve and is jointly operated by Iran and Qatar.
An Israeli official told the Post that the attack was coordinated with the United States, adding that the target was Iran’s largest gas facility in Bushehr. ... Those Israeli strikes were coordinated with the United States, Axios reported a senior Israeli official as saying. ...
Mad King Ludwig threatens to pull out after breaking everything
We have a petulant child in the Oval, not a president.
CNBC now says inflation is a problem with February core wholesale prices up 3.9% year over year vs. 3.6% in January, Iran war effects pending
Wholesale prices rose 0.7% in February, much more than expected
... On a 12-month basis, headline PPI inflation was at 3.4%, the most since February 2025, while core was at 3.9%, according to the BLS. The Federal Reserve targets inflation at 2%. ...
None of the inflation data so far has captured the price increases associated with the war. But it has indicated that even before the attacks, inflation was a problem. A report last week indicated that consumer prices rose at a 2.4% rate in February. Separately, the Commerce Department said its main inflation gauge [pce], which the Fed uses as its forecasting tool, was at 3.1% for core and 2.8% for headline. ...
We know, Kevin
... It would hurt consumers, and we'd have to think about, you know, if that continued, what we would have to do about that. But that's like really the last of our concerns right now ...
Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, selectively allows a trickle of ships to pass
... The blockade has squeezed shipping traffic to a trickle, with just 21
tankers transiting the route since the war began on Feb. 28, according
to S&P Global Market Intelligence, compared to more than 100 ships
daily before the conflict. ... Iran has continued to ship millions of barrels of crude oil to China since the war began. ... From March 1 to March 15, a total of 11 China-linked vessels transited
through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence,
mostly general cargo ships ...
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Plutocracy: 73% of U.S. Senators are millionaires vs. 7% of Americans, median net worth is 70+ times higher
You have the government you deserve lol.
Millionaires Are Overrepresented in the U.S. Senate — By a Lot
... “The Senate is packed with multimillionaires, and the fact is some of them have lost touch with the real world challenges faced by Americans all over the country,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, told NOTUS in a statement. “It is part of the reason that we have a tax system that favors people who make money off of money and penalizes those who earn a paycheck through hard work. We need to change that.”
Van Hollen is one of at least 11 senators whose median net worth is less than the median household net worth of their respective states, according to a NOTUS analysis of senators’ financial disclosures and U.S. Census Bureau data. Van Hollen has a median net worth of $7,500; the median Maryland household has a net worth of $152,400. (Census Bureau data does not include median household net worth for seven states: Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.) ...
The median net worth in the Senate is nearly $4.4 million — more than 70 times the Census-reported median U.S. household net worth, which similarly excludes equity in primary residences. ...
The median net worth for members of the Senate Democratic Caucus is more than $2.9 million, while for Senate Republicans, it’s nearly $5.7 million. ...
A full table for the current Senate is here.
So, Mr. Potter doesn't need George Bailey after all
Trump slams NATO allies for not joining Iran war effort, says U.S. never needed their help
... In a Truth Social post earlier Tuesday, Trump said he was “not surprised” at NATO because he views it as a “one way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us.”
“Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID!” Trump wrote. ...
Monday, March 16, 2026
This is completely unpatriotic because it helps China, just like Mad King Ludwig's Ukraine policy is completely unpatriotic because it helps Russia
Michael Savage used to warn us about the enemy within. Unfortunately America elected him.
80-90% of Iranian oil is bought by China, the proceeds from which Iran uses to buy raw materials from China to make ballistic missiles.
Trump is insane.
U.S. is allowing Iranian oil tankers through Strait of Hormuz: Bessent
Sunday, March 15, 2026
The Middle East Maritime Region threat level remains critical as of 3/15/26 with zero attacks in the Arabian Gulf or Strait of Hormuz in the last 72 hours and next to no transits
Historical transits is approximately 138/day with just 3 observed in the last 24 hours.
Reported here.
Trump urges allies he's been insulting for over a year to send help to get oil flowing again from the Persian Gulf
... This should have always been a team effort.
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Ann Coulter believes in an anti-war myth of her own making, says an anti-war Trump won a huge majority in the 2016 Republican primary in pro-war South Carolina when 67% voted for anybody else
... Waging pointless wars around the world and being the world's policeman. How many times do we have to vote on this?
I mean, Trump was attacked for the things he said in 2016. Remember, he
said, Jeb's father lied us into war. The Wall Street Journal and New
York Post assured us that that was going to kill him in South Carolina,
biggest military state in the country.
That was in the South Carolina primary. Next day, primaries hold. Who
wins? Huge, huge majority. Donald Trump. We have voted on this over and
over and over again. Now what? We've already had how many? Seven
Americans die, not to mention 166 school children in our name for a war
that does not make one American safer.
Here.
Even today, strong approval of Donald Trump is only a 30% proposition at Rasmussen Reports.
SPX/GDP, then vs. now
SPX(average annual)/GDP(trillions of dollars), then vs. now
1938: 131
1942: 52
1964/1965: 118
1982: 35
2000: 139
2009: 65
2019: 135
2025: 202
Median 1938-2019: 81
This ratio has been above 139 for six consecutive years 2020-2025, which is unprecedented for the era shown. Even so, return places third because dividends are puny in the age of obscenely overpaid dirty rotten CEOs and management.
Return: nominal/real, average per annum, dividends fully reinvested
12/1942-12/1965: 15.43%/12.30%
12/1982-12/2000: 16.66/12.97
12/2009-12/2025: 14.09/11.23
Ronald Reagan didn't make America great again, and neither has Trump
Ronald Reagan didn't make America great again, and neither has Trump.
Real GDP Compound Annual Growth Rates
1947-1984: 3.652%
1984-2017: 2.675%
2017-2025: 2.416%
Friday, March 13, 2026
That right there is a stagflation headline
Fourth-quarter GDP revised down to just 0.7% growth; January core inflation was 3.1%
Economic growth was much slower than expected in the final three months of 2025 while core inflation rose to start 2026, the Commerce Department reported Friday. ...
The first revision of the GDP reading was a sharp step down from the previous estimate of 1.4% and well below the Dow Jones consensus forecast for 1.5%. It also marked a considerable slowdown from the 4.4% gain in the prior period. For the full year, GDP posted a 2.1% increase, or one-tenth of a percentage point lower than the previous reading. In 2024, the economy rose at a 2.8% pace. ...
On the inflation side, readings for January were mostly in line with estimates, though they showed price increases running well ahead of where the Federal Reserve would like. ...
Core pce inflation has been range-bound around 3% since Dec 2023. For 2009 through 2020 it averaged half that, 1.5%.
The compound annual rate of real GDP growth since 2017 has been 2.416%, almost 34% lower than the post-war rate for 1947 through 1984 of 3.652%.
The rate for 1984 through 2017, also using today's data, was 2.675%, also higher than the rate since the Trump tax reform eight years ago.
Trump has not made America great again, any more than Reagan did.
Thursday, March 12, 2026
Trump's voting legislation faces defeat in the U.S. Senate next week
Trump is convinced illegal aliens vote in large enough numbers to prevent Republicans from winning even though he and the Republicans swept into office in 2024 and control the executive and legislative branches of government.
Trump-backed SAVE America Act will get a Senate vote next week, Thune says
The legislation is expected to fail unless a change is made to the filibuster, which requires 60 votes on most measures considered by the Senate. ...
For months Trump, GOP hardliners and online influencers like Elon Musk have railed against opponents of the bill and called repeatedly for a change to the Senate filibuster rule to ensure passage in the upper chamber. Thune supports the legislation but has rejected those calls, saying changing Senate procedure could have unintended consequences. Speaking from the Senate floor Thursday, he made no mention of changing the chamber’s rules, all but assuring the proposal will not pass. ...
Anticipating the bill’s failure in the Senate, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who introduced the legislation, and other proponents have engaged in a pressure campaign to revert back to a “standing filibuster,” which requires dissenting members to actively hold the Senate floor to block legislation and could, in theory, allow for the passage of the bill with a simple 50-vote majority. ...
Fox News on Mar 11 was still letting a former NSC staffer repeat the false assertion in Energy Secretary Chris Wright's Mar 10 erroneous and quickly deleted post
Energy Secretary Wright says U.S. ‘not ready’ to escort oil tankers through Strait of Hormuz yet
... Wright’s comments come after a post on his social media account wrongly claimed on Tuesday [Mar 10] that the Navy had escorted a tanker through the Strait. The post was quickly deleted from his account, but it sent oil prices plunging more than 17% at their lows Tuesday.
President Donald Trump promised on March 3 that “the United States Navy will begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, as soon as possible.”
Tanker traffic through the Strait remains at a standstill as ship owners fear attacks by Iran. The closure of the Strait has triggered the largest oil supply disruption in history, according to analyses from consulting firms Rapidan Energy and Wood Mackenzie. ...
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Mad King Ludwig to release 172 million barrels of oil from SPR lol
That will take the level below 250 million barrels, enough to last the country just twelve days in an emergency.
Iran war: Trump will release 172 million barrels of oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Cornyn is the scoundrel Texas deserves
Sen. John Cornyn flips on the filibuster to pass SAVE America Act as Trump weighs endorsement
Cornyn, who spent years defending the filibuster, is locked in a competitive GOP runoff in Texas against Ken Paxton, who has aligned with Trump on the issue. ...
You will not be any wiser for having read it
The best part was the professor who lamented Epstein's typos while he himself misused the word disinterest:
“It was nihilistic almost in its total disinterest in communicating,” Bessner said.
The dumbasses at Fox don't know the meaning of decimates, showcase an NSC liar THIS MORNING who says U.S. Navy escorted ships through Hormuz yesterday when they did not
To be fair, they're just repeating what our ignoramus in chief says.
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