Recent National Debt Milestones
3/17/26 $39 trillion
10/21/25 $38 trillion
8/11/25 $37 trillion
11/21/24 $36 trillion
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
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.
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