What a coincidence: Oil empire capitals Riyadh and Moscow both under attack at the same time

 Ukraine launches heavy Moscow drone attack as Russia votes

Flames, smoke seen near Riyadh airport; Houthis claim attacks on Saudi capital 

 

April 2024

 

I remember when most Americans called themselves middle class even when they weren't

The change mirrors the correct perception that America isn't what it used to be. 

 

The Term Working Class Is Useless

Monica Potts, The New Republic

 

... working class has always referred to people who earn hourly wages, often in unskilled or low-skilled jobs (or jobs perceived as not requiring skills, which is an entirely other conversation). Their bosses largely control their workdays. They don’t own assets, except maybe the house they live in, and don’t have investments or another financial cushion to rely on if they lose their jobs. They can work their way into financial security over time but are vulnerable to their factory or office closing—and, even worse, to finding that their skills aren’t easily transferable or are becoming entirely outdated in a rapidly changing labor market. They just don’t have a lot of economic power. They’re not quite in poverty, but also not quite middle class.

This is how I’ve always defined it, and some experts I spoke to recently do, as well.

But unfortunately . . .

 

... The Pew Research Center released a report just before Labor Day revealing that 60 percent of Americans—across education, income, occupation, and racial and ethnic groups—say they’re “working-class.” ...  

It used to take one breadwinner to buy a new house, then both spouses had to work, now you need 3.5 welders

$9.248 trillion: The value of all U.S. Treasury securities held by all foreigners in July 2026

 Up 1.5% from a year ago, down 2.5% from the February high.

This is so stupid: 66% surveyed said they favor capping Social Security benefits so that no retired couple would receive more than $100,000 per year

 

 Social Security reform plans could sway voters in battleground Senate races, survey finds

... About two-thirds of respondents — 66% — said they favor capping Social Security benefits so that no retired couple would receive more than $100,000 per year, the poll found. ...

Fewer than 36,000 beneficiaries fall into this category, OUT OF 71.3 MILLION!

It's 0.05% of all retired couples.

This will accomplish NOTHING except to punish a few people who played by the rules ALL THEIR LIVES only to be denied at the end of them.

What an insult.

... 72% said they support increasing the payroll tax cap by 1% for all income above $184,500. ...

So if I make $1.185 million my cap is $194,500? That's all?

Sign me up! 

People don't realize that the cap should be $300,000 today to capture 90% of aggregate income as originally intended.

Americans as surveyed are obviously too stupid to add anything substantive to this discussion.  

LOL Kudlow and Ingraham: The trades are making close to $200k per year, why aren't Republicans in Congress taking credit?

 Because Republicans in Congress, contrary to popular opinion, aren't all stupid, you dopes.

Fox’s Laura Ingraham Alleges ‘Many Republicans Secretly Want Trump To Lose’ Congress

... “One of the most incredible statistics is the Trump administration, in one year, has grown personal incomes more than Biden in four,” Ingraham stated, alluding to Census Bureau data released this week.

“That is correct,” Kudlow replied.

“Why aren’t Republicans screaming this from the rooftops?!” Ingraham exclaimed.

Kudlow replied by saying people in trade professions such as “pipefitters, electricians, welders, carpenters [are] making close to $200,000 a year.” Ingraham responded by saying that now is the “best time ever for men without college degrees.” ...

First of all, Ingraham says personal income, which is not the median household income data released this week.

Real personal income grew by 7.4% from the end of 2020 to the end of 2024 compared with only 2.1% from 2024 to 2025.

She means real median household income, which grew by only 1.9% in the four years 2020-2024 but by 2.6% in the one 2024-2025.

But one can forgive the American people for not being overly excited about that 2.6% increase because it is still part of a picture since the 1980s showing structural long term weakness, while the 2025 increase of 2.6% pales in comparison to Trump I performance in 2019 at 7.2%.

He campaigned on a return to that and has not delivered it so far. 

 

Meanwhile Kudlow's claim about trade incomes approaching $200k is just crazy.

Top pay in the skilled trades is for the building trades, and their average national mean wage is nowhere near $100k let alone $200k. It's north of only $65k.

And the mean is lower for the other trades.

For installers, maintenance workers, mechanics, and repairers it's $58k. For welders, fabricators, and assemblers it's $47k.

The building trades represent only 4.1% of the workforce.  

Altogether the trades represent just under 14% of the workforce. 

The votes of these 21 million matter a lot, but even assuming Kudlow's fanciful incomes, Republicans aren't going to win with them alone.

Republicans don't have a problem communicating a message. 

They have a problem seeing reality.

Here's the reality.

The median sales price of an existing single family home in August 2026 was $434,800. 

Using the old formula of affordability which said you can afford a home which is 2.6 times your annual salary, you'd need a job paying $167,231 to afford that one.

Or 3.5 welding jobs.

Like Marco Rubio said, you need more welders. 

Middle East tanker transits Sep 10-16, 2026: Strait of Hormuz 1.3/day, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait 8.3/day

WTI: $101.07

BRENT: $103.83

GASOLINE USA: $4.47

 

UKMTO JMIC Advisory Note Update 097 rolls out a new graph of U.S. facilitated transits of the Strait of Hormuz

 Update 097 JMIC Advisory Note 17 September

They are still working out the kinks. At the bottom "Bab-el-Mandeb Transits Last 90 Days" goes on the graph following.

Evidently one has to add the orange trend line and the red line to approximate the true picture of transits, but the red line does not indicate it is a total 7 day rolling average like the orange line.

Remember this is total transits, too, not just tankers. 

A unique and confusing situation to say the least.

 

 

The cult is the basis of culture, and our cult worships money

 

Housing affordability: The percentage of a new house purchased by the median household income is up for a third year in a row in 2025

 Median household income for 2025 was published yesterday at $87,460, which means it's time to see how much house it bought: 21%.

The average new house sold for $415,400 in 2025. 

Still not early 1990s affordable, but better for a third year in a row to 21.05%, just slightly under the 2019 level of 21.45% in the FRED chart.

 

 

"Give us another chance"

 

OMG, Is she kidding?

 I swear they put her up on the right as a commentary on the guy on the left.

What happens under Republican control?

Mad King Ludwig happens. 

 

Like hell he did

 Trump says he told Warsh to vote for hike with the rest of Fed board: ‘It’s not going to matter’

Your reminder that your million bucks in August 2026 is worth less than $30k in 1913

 Have a nice day.

The U.S. House is in recess until after the November elections and will have worked just 15 days in over four months

The U.S. Senate remains at work in September. 

A cryptocurrency regulation bill, the Farm Bill, and a reconciliation measure including additional Iran War funding and election security all await Senate action. 

 House races for exit, avoiding vote on Hegseth impeachment 

... Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus who lost the South Carolina GOP gubernatorial and special Senate primaries, wrote on X that canceling another day of votes is “unacceptable.”

“The House has now canceled at least 63 scheduled voting days this Congress, including nine days this month alone, and now we’re leaving Washington until after the election. The Founders did not envision taking this much time off and still getting paid,” he wrote.

“If Members of Congress want to go home and campaign instead of doing the job taxpayers sent us here to do, then their campaigns ought to be paying them, NOT the American taxpayer,” he added. “We still have work to do.”

With the House now gone, much of that work will be kicked to the lame duck, which is scheduled to begin on Nov. 9. ...

 

 

 

 

OMG, What have we done?

 VP Vance: "We Can Not Let Our Mideast Foreign Policy Be Subservient To The State Of Israel"

Yeah, especially when it's subservient to oil jockeys. 

I can still make a grass-fed one at home for $1.62

 

Victor Davis Hanson finally found Gates of Vienna I see

 

 Victor Davis Hanson: 50,000 Terrorist Incidents Since Bush Said "Islam Is a Religion Of Peace" -- "Quran Is Not The Sermon On The Mount"

Yu No Hu: They're sending a message to an already existing bad actor

 U.S. confirms for first time it has weapons deployed in space

... “It’s a strategic consideration to not disclose what exactly this is,” Juliana Suess at the German Institute of International and Security Affairs and an expert in space security told CNBC.

The capability of the weaponry could range from reversible interference, such as jamming, to kinetic, permanently destructive effects, she said.

“This could be anything. The only thing that we know is that it is based in space, so this is not a sort of missile based on Earth that could hit a satellite in orbit.” ...

Add another $1.8 billion minimum for blockade costs to date, not to mention all the knock-on costs in the tens of billions to economies and consumers globally

 Iranian foreign minister will head to China for talks, as Pentagon reveals financial cost of war 

... The Iran war cost an estimated $33.4 billion as of June 29, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, which released a lead inspector general report to Congress on the Iran war Monday tracking the conflict up to the end of June. That includes $184 million in physical damage to U.S. diplomatic facilities in four countries — Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — from Iranian strikes, it said. ...