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?

 

 

If we already won in Iran why is this still happening?

 

Iran Resumes Hanging Protesters

Wall Street Journal

When the Bully Pulpit is the Seat of Polluted Discourse

 

Stephen Miller is full of it, as usual

 Stephen Miller: Every Blue State Has Refused To Share Their Voter Rolls So We Can Remove Non-Citizens

 Map Shows States That Have Handed Over Voter Information to Trump Admin

 

On day six of no talking filibuster someone really should do a welfare check on Senator Mike Lee

 

WTI crude oil at $15.05 on average in 1986 adjusted for inflation to January 2026 would be just under $45, but it's over $93 on March 16

Year to date silver is down 5% and gold is up almost 4%

 

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. 

Reconciliation Is the Strategy To Pass the SAVE Act

Gerrick Wilkins, RealClearPolitics

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

 

LOOMER MEETS THE LAMA...

 

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.

How come this isn't the end of Starmer's government when it was the end of Truss'?

 

Trump thinks high interest rates are all Powell's fault when they are HIS: The war in Iran, the tariffs, the addition of $2 trillion in debt in seven months

 

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.  

Powell's Bizarre Plan To Stay On at the Fed

Larry Kudlow, New York Sun

Senator Ron Johnson, who is implicated in Trump's fake elector scheme, is a fake conservative

 

Move To End Filibuster Now--Before Democrats Do

Sen. Ron Johnson, Wall St. Journal

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. ...