Donald J. Trump, who fancies himself a Wile E. Coyote level genius, is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business.
It certainly doesn't show, or Wharton isn't all it has been cracked up to be.
Having gotten the United States into an illegal war as Bibi Netanyahu talked him into it, Donny appears to have been taken off guard that Iran could and would close the Straits of Hormuz, hit tankers, and hit oil and gas facilities throughout the Middle East.
Why wouldn't they?
Perhaps if Melania lets Barron go see his father over Spring Break, assuming they're not perusing travel brochures entitled "where we can go to live after Don dies where people won't know we're Trumps", and assuming that Barron isn't doing the right thing and enlisting in the United States Marine Corps, they can break out some hex and counter games and play Naval based Superpower v. Land based regional power" and see how that works out.
Anyhow, Donny Trump (did we mention that he fancies himself a Wile E. Coyote level genius?) has lifted sanctions on already loaded oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, which means that Iran now has a source of cash it didn't before the war started.
So, we didn't wipe out their nuclear capabilities in the Twelve Day War, their government hasn't fallen in this one, people have not risen up to toss out the Iranian government, the Straits of Hormuz are closed, we didn't stockpile oil before the war, the price of oil has skyrocketed, and now the Iranians can legally transport some oil
Assuming that Trump isn't secretly trying to destroy the American economy and benefit Iran (and Russia), it's hard to see the smarts in any of that.
Petroleum is back up over $100/bbl, basically because King Donny is a liar.
March 26, 2026
And the war inflation hits packages:
U.S. Postal Service Announces Transportation-Related, Time-Limited Price Change
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service filed notice today with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) regarding a time-limited price change to better align its costs of transportation with the market. This temporary price adjustment will provide needed flexibility for the Postal Service by helping to ensure that the actual costs of doing business are covered, as required by Congress.
While this price increase is a time-limited adjustment, it will provide a necessary bridge to a permanent mechanism to reflect market conditions in prices for competitive products that can support the Postal Service’s ability to achieve the universal service obligation in a more financially sustainable manner going forward.
The planned price change, which was approved by the Governors of the Postal Service on March 24, is an 8 percent increase that would affect base postage prices on the following retail and commercial domestic competitive products: Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage, and Parcel Select. No other products or services would be affected, including First-Class Stamps. Pending favorable review by the PRC, the price change would go into effect at midnight Central Time on April 26 and would remain in place until midnight Central Time on Jan. 17, 2027. At that time, the Postal Service can determine if a different long-term approach is needed.
Transportation costs have been increasing, and our competitors have reacted with a number of surcharges. We have steadfastly avoided surcharges and this charge is less than one-third of what our competitors charge for fuel alone, so even with this change, the Postal Service continues to offer great value in shipping with some of the lowest rates in the industrialized world.
The time-limited price change is consistent with industry practices and will support the Postal Service’s ability to continue achieving its public service mission — providing a nationwide, integrated network for the delivery of mail and packages at least six days a week — in a cost-effective and financially sustainable manner over the long term, just as the U.S. Congress has intended.
The PRC will review the proposed price change before it is scheduled to take effect on April 26. Complete USPS price filings, with prices for all products, can be found on the PRC website’s Daily Listings section at prc.arkcase.com/portal/filings. Price tables are also available on the Postal Explorer website at pe.usps.com/PriceChange/Index.
# # #
March 27, 2026
More than 90% of new renewable power projects worldwide in 2024 were cheaper than fossil-fuel alternatives, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Guess they aren't as woke as Chuck and demented Don would claim.
And this two years ago before the tin pot dictator decided to destroy the world's oil importation system.
March 30, 2026
West Texas is at $100/bbl this morning. Brent is at $115/bbl.
With the Houthis now in the war, there's a fairly good chance the Red Sea will be effectively closed, massively widening the war, and propelling the world into a King Donny causes severe recession.
March 31, 2026
Brent is at $114.88. West Texas at $104.
The price of almost everything is rising.
This is your economy at war. An undeclared war by a demented octogenarian.
Section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as Amended, on Natural Gas Transmission, Processing, Storage, and Liquefied Natural Gas Capacity
Presidential Memoranda
April 20, 2026
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF ENERGY
SUBJECT: Presidential Determination Pursuant to Section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as Amended, on Natural Gas Transmission, Processing, Storage, and Liquefied Natural Gas Capacity
On January 20, 2025, I issued Executive Order 14156 (Declaring a National Energy Emergency), under the National Emergencies Act. That order found that hostile foreign actors have weaponized America’s reliance on foreign energy and used it to cause dramatic swings in international commodity markets, leaving the United States and its allies dangerously exposed. It emphasized that America must develop its capacity to supply reliable, diversified, and affordable energy to international allies and partners to compete with hostile foreign powers, strengthen relations with allies and partners, and support international peace and security.
Consistent with that declaration, I find that ensuring sufficient natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity is critical to sustaining United States defense operations and ensuring allied energy security. Inadequate pipelines, processing, storage, or natural gas and LNG export capacity would leave the United States and its partners dangerously exposed in times of crisis.
Therefore, by the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 303 of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (the “Act”) (50 U.S.C. 4533), I hereby determine, pursuant to section 303(a)(5) of the Act, that:
(1) natural gas and LNG capacity, including gathering and transmission pipelines, compression, processing plants, underground storage, LNG liquefaction, storage and marine load, export facilities, and critical distribution infrastructure, are industrial resources, materials, or critical technology items essential to the national defense;
(2) without Presidential action under section 303 of the Act, United States industry cannot reasonably be expected to provide these capabilities for the needed industrial resource, material, or critical technology item in a timely manner due to financing constraints, long-lead equipment and construction schedules, permitting delays, and infrastructure bottlenecks; and
(3) purchases, purchase commitments, financial support for the development of production capabilities, or other action pursuant to section 303 of the Act are the most cost-effective, expedient, and practical alternative methods for meeting this need.
I have declared a national emergency under Executive Order 14156, and I further determine that action to expand domestic natural gas transmission, processing, storage, and LNG capacity is necessary to avert an industrial resource or critical technology item shortfall that would severely impair national defense capability. Therefore, pursuant to section 303(a)(7) of the Act, I waive the requirements of section 303(a)(1)-(a)(6) of the Act for the purpose of expanding such capability.
You are authorized and directed to implement this determination, including making necessary purchases, commitments, and financial instruments to enable these projects, and to publish this determination in the Federal Register.
DONALD J. TRUMP
April 27, 2026
I listed to all three weekend shows. They were grim.
This Week made it clear we're headed into an economic crisis thanks to the damage to oil infrastructure. It may take years to repair and prices are not going to decline very soon, if ever.
King Donny before he was a national embarrassment, and just working on being a family one.
April 30, 2026
Secretary of Defense Hegseth testified the war had cost the US $25B so far.
We clearly have absolutely no idea how to get out of it or win it.
May 1, 2026
Iran responded to King Donny's threats to ramp up the war on Iran, now in a ceasefire, with threats of their own.
They seemed rather unimpressed by Donny.
Donny's administration says it doesn't have to comply with the sixty day provision of the War Powers Act due to the ceasefire.
May 3, 2026
Iran sent the US a fourteen point peace plan.
May 4, 2026
The U.S. rejected Iranian peace proposals and is now going to escort ships through the Straits of Hormoz. Iran threatened to strike the ships and has already claimed to have hit a U.S. Navy craft with missiles, which the U.S. denies.
cont:
Iran attacked ships in the straits today with small surface vehicles and it resumed drone strikes on the UAE.
May 6, 2026
Yesterday was Taco Tuesday, and so we have this headline from the Tribune.
Well of course we do. Trump's an ignorant man with extremely limited world experience with a cabinet of sycophants. This was a war run by ignoramuses.
Trump paused his latest version of the illegal war with his escort program in the Straits of Hormuz. We have no way out of the war that anyone in D.C. grasps.
The US has clearly and absolutely lost this war, not succeeding in a single one of its objectives. At this point, absent ground operations, this is humiliating US defeat, worse than the loss in Vietnam.
May 7, 2026
Taco's flip on the most recent operation is because Saudi Arabia denied the US use of its airspace.
It seems to be the case that Taco didn't inform the kingdom of the operation before coming up with it.
cont:
So, now we're hitting targets in Iran again, the war we won several weeks ago, and which was definitely over before we started blockading Iran.
Compared to this, the Allied landings at Gallipoli in World War One were an absolutely stunning success.
Maronite Catholic Jacelyne Khoueiry and six other Lebanese Christian women defended a building in Martyrs' Square in Beirut from an attack by 300 Palestine Liberation Organization fighter.
Khouneiry would go on to command a female Christian unit of 1,500 members before laying down her arms in 1986. She'd go on to found charitable and prolife organizations and participated in a 2012 synod on the Middle East and the 2014 Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. She was appointed to the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
Porfirio Díaz issued a "manifesto" declaring that he would eventually resign as President of Mexico but not until Madero's efforts to overthrow him ceased.
A promise to leave that came about in a war caused by a promise to leave was not likely to be successful.
Socialist Magonistas deployed outside of Tijuana in preparation to attack the small village.
Gary Cooper was born in Helena, Montana. His English born father was a lawyer, rancher, and would become a Montana Supreme Court justice.
Cooper was well educated, and his early education was in the United Kingdom. He was a member of the Church of England growing up but converted to Catholicism, having been introduced to it by his daughter and then estranged wife, two years prior to his death. He died in 1961.
Allis-Chalmers was incorporated.
German troops defeated Chinese cavalry in a battle at Kalgan (now Zhangjiakou) in the Hebei Province of China.
Supposedly the first Christian sermon in the Black Hills was preached at Custer City, South Dakota by Methodist layman Henry Weston Smith.
He would be murdered that following August.
While this was notable, I'm frankly really skeptical that this was the "first". American histories of the settlement of the West tend to pretend that when European Americans first shows up they were the first people of European ancestry to show up, which is very far from true. The Corps of Discovery, for instance, merely re-trod ground that the French Canadians had been hiking for years. Catholic missionaries had been in the region, moreover, for decades by this point.
The GOP is really playing with fire here. It's correct that as a private organization the government shouldn't tell it who it can and cannot endorse. But then, the laws of the state shouldn't give a preferential position to a private organization, let alone a political party. As a "major party" it has a role in nominating replacement for some positions and has pride of place in primaries. When challenged in court, and it could be, this might be the first step towards an open primary in Wyoming. That is, one with no parties noted at all.
In other races, the amount of money being violently hurled by Chuck Gray and Reid Rasner at the House race is simply nuts. Weekly flyers now arrive, printed obviously by the same company, by both candidates, and television ads appear constantly. Frankly Rasner's television ads are a little better than Gray's, the latter of which basically amount to a swooning expression of love, albeit by a man who comes across as so angry its unhinged, and absolute fealty to Donald Trump. Rasner has, in my view, less than zero chance of winning the seat, but if he has any success at all it will be due to his media blitz. At any rate, both campaigns are largely self funded, which gives rise to the "well, it's their money" comment. None the less, the expenditure of this sort of money is obscene and is reason enough that neither man should win office . . . any office.
The Star Tribune ran an article about the Democratic candidate taking on Art Washut, one of the best members of the Wyoming legislature. Stewart McAdoo turns out to be a South Carolinian, so we'd put him in the carpetbagger category, and he's running on the predictable Democratic seas of blood support of infanticide.
April 30, 2026
Protect Wyoming ran an ad this morning in the Tribune against Bill Allemand.
Hunters and fishermen should really oppose Allemand, who following the corner crossing ruling of the Federal Court sponsored a Draconian bill on hunting trespassing. While he claims no present interest in it, he's from a well known Powder River Basin Wyoming ranching family, a region of the state that features very limited land access. He's fighting a charge for drunk driving in Johnson County presently.
He's being challenged by Bar Nunn Mayor Peter Boyer, who got cross wise in a Bar Nunn town council meeting according to news reports. Allemand quixotically adamantly opposed a proposed nuclear generator project north of the small Natrona County Casper bedroom community. The WFC seemed to align with that opposition, showing it thinks so little that its only concept of the energy industry is grounded in fossil fuels.
Democrat Keenan Morgan is also running against Allemand. Morgan and Boyer are from Bar Nunn, Allemand from Midwest. The district covers a large amount of territory but uniquely features three small towns, Midwest, Edgerton and Bar Nunn, with Bar Nunn being by far the largest of the three. House District 58 also includes a sliver of Casper and the large unincorporated area north of Highway 20/26 in Natrona County.
It'll be interesting to see how Allemand, who has a semi uncontrollable temper, reacts Protect Wyoming's advertisement.
May 1, 2026
Maine Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the race for the Democratic Senate ticket. A popular Governor, she was being upstaged by Graham Platner for the bid to replace 72 year old Susan Collins. Mills is 77 years old, so the race shows the steadfast refusal of Boomers to know when the heck to get out and let the young have a place.
Platner is an oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran who is a tender 41 years old, an age that would have been regarded as far from young in any era but the current one. As an oyster farmer from Maine this race is showing the interesting rise of some strong agrarian interests on the coasts, with Mary Peltola of Alaska, a Blue Dog Democrat, campaigning on the following:
It's Simple:
The fight for
Fish, Family, Freedom
depends on fixing the rigged system in DC
May 2, 2026
Teacher Brian Costello has announced his bid for House District 37, currently held by Steve Harshman who is running for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Harshman is also a teacher. He will be running against far right wing gadfly Ross Schriftman and Democrat Betsy Erickson.
Schrifman is a Wyoming native.
Conicidentaly Protect Wyoming ran an add on Harshman in today's Tribune:
In House District 57 Luc Colgrove announced a bid for the seat occupied by Julie Jarvis and formerly occupied by Carpetbagger Jeanette Ward, who is trying to get the seat back.
This stands a pretty good chance of being the political equivalent of pulling the pin on a live grenade and then dropping it in your own foxhole. There's a really good argument there that could lead to the state Supreme Court simply wiping out party dependent primaries under Wyoming's law, and creating a judicially mandated open primary.
Indeed, I hope that happens.
Part of what's amusing here is that Chuck Gray and Reid Rasner, both of whom assert their undying love for Trump whenever possible, are on opposite sides of this issue with Rasner claiming the "establishment" is trying to stop him. Politicians are big on opposing "the establishment". Gray likes the new provisions, Rasner does not, probably because Gray is bargaining on the WFC to endorse him with the Confederate Seal of Approval. Gray was an original WFC Cornfederate, so Rasner is probably correct here that the "establishment" is trying to stop him, if the WFC is the establishment, which of course they'll deny that they are.
Ballow is frank she's opposed. She's been pretty quiet up until recently, but there's a good chance that she will secure the nomination.
May 6, 2026
Trump backed sycophants did well in Indiana where Trump intervened to punish Republicans who didn't vote for redistricting. The result will help march the GOP right off the cliff its headed towards in theall.
This shows the extent to which the GOP is actually dead, replaced by a group of worshippers who follows the words of their leader, rather than reality.
In contrast, Democrats won big in special elections.
And we have this:
Yes, they are. They're frankly really irritating.
May 7, 2026
Elissa Campbell is running for reelection in Wyoming House District 56.
Reid Rasner went to Gillette to speak this week at a meet and great at the city's Prime Rib restaurant and drew a whopping huge crowd of three people, according to the Tribune.
Three . . . pretty much tells you where that campaign is going.
At it he suggested that the 50/50 proceeds swap currently existing on public land rental proceeds be made 90/10 with the State getting the 90. He claimed there's a lot of support in D.C. for this. There isn't.
Rasner has been dumping a ton of money into his campaign and apparently Chucky accused him of spending his mother's money. I'm not a Rasner fan but that's ironic for Gray, who also is spending money that came in some form from his family. Rasner denied the charge sort of, asserting that he's a highly successful businessman without really fully denying the claim. Whatever the truth or distruth of it, it is circulating the internet now. Anyway you look at it three candidates who should not get this office, Gray, Rasner and Freiss are dumping piles of money into it.
Albany County overwhelmingly approved a 6th Cent ballot issue.
And the Weston County Commissioners, to their credit, said nope to the three GOP picks for Clerk.
The current system, it might be noted, required the party of the outgoing clerk to nominate three choices, and if the Commissioners can't pick one, the district court judge does from the outgoing person's party. The GOP's recently fit over complying with state law raises the question of whether this is constitutional. It likely isn't.
