We are, of course, about one month away from the General Election and it's universally agreed that, at least as of right now, the economy is not doing well, which is to say that it's not doing well for average people. Having said that, all the monkeying around Trump has done with the economy has not resulted in a general collapse, as some feared. This tends to give credence to the assertion that some make that the American economy in general is so strong that it tends to keep on chugging along in spite of everything.
Having said that, prices on many things have gone up, and are now at the paint point for average people. Beef prices, for example, are up about 25%. That can't really be blamed on Trump, as its due to a historically low cattle heard, but Trump's efforts to address it were pretty much non existent at first, and the ineffectual when they were tried.
Addressing the price can only really come through a recovery of the North American herd. Trump's constant crazy hatred of Canada and Canadians isn't helping this at all, as Canada is part of the North American market. Mexican cattle, which had been banned from coming into the US due to screwworm, which we're not hearing much about, which is concerning, have started to come back in. That is likely to have some effect.
Petroleum prices have shot up enormously since Trump started an ill advised and poorly planned war on Iran for no real discernable critical objective.
Wars are inflationary by their very nature, but attacking a critical global petroleum supplier is definitely going to be inflationary, and this is set to really start hitting home. Everything in the US, whether it moves by truck, by rail, or in the air, uses petroleum. That impacts the price of 100% of American goods. Gasoline, Diesel fuel and Aviation fuel is way up in price. Heating oil is up 50% to 70% just as we're entering the season where it starts to be used on the East Coast. NOAA, which usus science, predicts a warm winter in the East, like last years, so that might not be as impactful as it could be. The Old Farmers Almanac, which I put no stock in whatsoever, predicts a cold winter.
An interesting side impact of the cost of things is that even Wyomingites are looking at electric vehicles. I overheard a conversation the other day in which two people were wishing to get them, and they're both highly conservative individuals. A report on increasing EVs appeared in one of the local online journals today.
There are still a lot of naysayers out there, but there were when automobiles started to become common for that matter.
Anyway, the Trump Administration has handed out its flood of excuses for all of this, starting at first with "it's Joe Biden's fault". Everything is Biden's fault according to Trump, whom while he routinely falls asleep in public still calls Biden, on occasion, "Sleep Joe".
The it's all Biden's fault is no longer selling very well so the "it's not much to pay to keep Iran from getting a bomb" has been tried and is still being tried, but it's not selling that well . First of all, well informed people know that while Iran is a very secretive state, the evidence that it was about to make a nuke is thin. And frankly Israel's major early role in the war made it pretty clear that this was a joint Israeli American adventure in which the Trumpites had been heavily influenced by Israel. That's adding to an anti Israeli sentiment that's been building in the US for several years and you'll even now hear, in response to the suggestion that it's all worth it to keep Iran from getting a bomb, that maybe we don't really care if Iran has a bomb.
We didn't care enough about North Korea having one in order for the US to attack it, and Trump loves the communist leader of North Korea.
So that excuse isn't working either.
So time to distract.
The government just announced that children under 16 years of age are being automatically enrolled in "Trump" savings accounts. The Government, which has no money whatsoever as it's borrowing piles, will place $1,000 of the money it doesn't have into such accounts, but parents need to claim it.
Will this achieve something?
Well, it might, or might now. Truth be known with inflation being what it is, $1,000 that can't be touched until a person is 18 years old isn't going to seem like that big of a deal right now But it might turn out to be.
Trump also promised people $5,000 if the GOP retains both houses of Congress, but then that would require Congress to do it, and Trump earlier promised everyone a $2,000 tariff dividend. The government handing out cash it doesn't have isn't a good idea and frankly I thought it was a horrible idea when President Biden started handing out cash during COVID. I've heard the Trump proposal compared to that, and that was a bad idea.
The Administration also just sent out $500.00 checks as supposed refunds for Obamacare overcharges. They seem rather strategically placed, however.
Anyhow, stayed tuned for coming attractions. The trade war with Canada is just starting, the war is no where near over, and prices are really set to climb. Trump has less than thirty days to address all of this, or even some of it, which won't be easy at all. Voters who are inclined to vote their pocketbooks are likely pretty much set in their opinions by now.
Grant Street Grocery in Casper Wyoming is the only surviving small neighborhood grocery store in the town and even advertises the same.
Opened in 1921, the store was converted into a specialty grocery store and deli some years ago, and features meats and cheeses, as well as many other items, that are unlikely to appear on the counters of regular grocery stores. It's featured here for its simple sign, as well as being a remnant of something that was once very common, a neighborhood store.
President Trump signed an order allowing for the temporary sale of red diesel, which you tend to only find easily in farm country, for regular diesels. Effectively its a sort of kind of temporary suspension of the Federal tax on diesel.
I'd quite frankly question the Presidents ability to legally do this, but if I see red diesel for sale, I'm buying it.
2026-009Emergency Relief Permits for Transportation of Oversize and Overweight Loads of Agricultural Products
2026-010Executive Order Recognizing and Adopting the Federal Monitor Carrier Safety Administration Hours-of-Service Waiver for the Intrastate Transportation of Gasoline and Diesel Fu
On the red fuel order, some states, or at least Montana, have warned diesel users that they're not lifting their provisions. Also, red diesel stains filters and engine parts, so when the suspension ends, and you take your truck in to be serviced, you may have a lot of explaining to do.
And now this:
Trump is so desperate to put the economic destruction of the Iran War behind him that he's made a deal with Putin to import diesel fuel.
First of all, this isn't enough diesel to make any sort of difference and I frankly do not think it will even occur. But more significantly he's made a deal with a country that is engaged in a completely immoral war against a neighbor and losing, and by doing this, helping them. The US, it might be noted, has just acted to increase sanctions on Russia.
Totally inexcusable.
October 14, 2026
Inflation jumped in September.
Now, it's not Trump's fault. It's Joe Biden's. He set the inflation meter on 10 and then hid the key with the Epstein files, so you can see the problem.
It's not like an illegal war we're losing or tariffs had anything to do with that.
Governor Gordon and Cynthia Lummis came out against the Trump Russian diesel plan. Barrasso, who is now a toady, predictably supported it. Hageman when asked about it cited regulations in the US as the problem, which is absolutely and completely absurd. She'd earlier voted against aid to Ukraine and has been in the Trump camp consistently.
By the way, the price per barrel for crude oil has gone up, as have the price of diesel futures, since Trump announced his "deal" with the Russians.
Today’s action revoking access for journalists from CNN, POLITICO, and MSNOW violates the First Amendment. The implications extend beyond these organizations: a standard used to exclude one news outlet because of its coverage could be applied to any outlet in the future. The American people, through a free and independent press, must be able to scrutinize those elected to power, regardless of whether government officials view it favorably. That’s why courts have repeatedly held that once the White House provides access to journalists, it cannot deny that access arbitrarily or based on the content of their reporting. The WHCA calls on the administration to immediately restore our colleagues’ access.
Jacqui Heinrich, WHCA President
In a really remarkable event, the broadcast media is boycotting the Trump Administration after it banned some press outlets from covering King Donald.
Donny loves, and feeds on, the attention, and it'll be interesting to see how this pans out. Yesterday the White House blew the coverage on the opening use of the helipad so that nobody could really hear what King Donny had to say.
Today King Donny's admin tried to pass off the press ban as being in the interest of national security, which recently has been his default position on everything. That's why King Donny is building a ballroom, that's why we need a Triumphal Arch.
The bloom may be off the red stinkweed of Trumpism as by and large, the public just isn't buying it at all.
Good for the press to finally find its courage. It's been lacking. This Week expresses addressed the Trump ban.
Dr. John trotted out.
The GOP hauled out the uninspiring Dr. John Barrasso, majority whip, to justify the GOP's malfeasance.
Dr. John is a pretty uninspiring speaker. This was no exception. He attempted to justify the press ban saying that the press had an obligation to report fairly.
That's a really dangerous position for a local politician to take, quite frankly. He didn't sound like he really meant it as he knows that they do report fairly. What he also knows is that they don't report, locally, too deeply, at least they haven't until recently. They're starting too thanks to the online journals which have been a lot more proactive in digging things up than the print media ever was.
Barrasso is turning out to be a worthless Senator for the state. He has four more years to serve. My suspicion is that this will be his last term, if the 74 year old Senator lives through it. I think people are tired of him and he won't want to go down in defeat. He'll retire and move somewhere else, as he was never really from here to start with.
Dr. John was in Iowa where he was campaigning for a Republican candidate there. Wow, the Midwest must really like bland if somebody thinks Dr. John is going to help. Asked about what is going on, the doctor mustered up this reply:
Well, people all around the country are feeling the pain. I’m hearing it in Wyoming with our farmers and ranchers as well. But people vote about what’s going on in their life and their future. And we know we need to do more. We need to get more money into people’s pockets. That’s what Republicans want to do. But let’s talk about what we have done. And that is we’ve prevented a $4 trillion tax increase. We’ve gotten rid of taxes on tips and social security and on overtime. And we know what the Democrats would do if they were able to take over. They would put all those taxes back on for the purpose of paying for health care for illegal immigrants. So they want to put on taxes on waitresses, on nurses who work overtime, firefighters, and on our seniors. I mean, there’s a huge difference between where Republicans want to take this country and where Democrats want to take this country. Those Democrats that are so unpopular in your poll, why? They want to eliminate Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They want to defund the police. They want to get rid of the military. They want to open the borders. They talk about opening the prisons and putting these prisoners back in our communities. That doesn’t make us safer, it doesn’t make us more prosperous. And that is the difference between common sense and the craziness. And I think that’s what this election is going to be about.
And
Well, we’re always looking for ways to put more money in people’s pockets. And I hear it in Wyoming all the time at the grocery store, at the gas station, people are paying more. And we need to do more. And that’s why we need more American energy production, we need to get rid of regulations, we need to do more with permitting. That’s legislation we’re working on now. The president and the Republicans are focused on all of those things at the time that Democrats have gone so far to the left that they don’t want to do those sorts of things. And I’ll tell you, once this war in Iran is over, diesel prices are going to go down and stay down under President Trump. But they would stay up forever under the Democrats and specifically diesel in Wyoming, I was in Meeteetse, Wyoming last week, talking to ranchers and farmers there, diesel’s over $6 a gallon now. But in California, it’s over $8 a gallon. And the difference is the rules, the regulations, all the climate issues in California. If the Democrats took over, prices would go up to those levels which are over $2 higher in California than they are in Wyoming right now.
So, inflation is going up and fuel prices are killing us, but the Democrats are bad because Dr. John says so.
Not very inspiring.
Not only that, but Barrasso has joined the GOP liars club. Raise taxes so we could give healthcare to illegal immigrants. Bullshit. Taxes do need to be raised, but because we aren't paying for the government.
It's almost as if Dr. John had a list of things he had to say, so he made sure he said them all as quickly as possible.
And diesel being $6.00/gal in Wyoming isn't made better by it being $8.00/gal in California. Oh, we feel so good about that here.
Beef
A popular Trump line right now is that you don't mind paying more for fuel as you don't want Iran to have a nuke.
M'eh.
Secretary Rollins took a similar tone on the price of beef.
Instead of eating less beef as the price continued to rise, Americans began to eat more beef. And even though the price of a pound of ground beef was $6.50, most Americans say, 'I'm good with that. I want this protein for my family.' So they continue to buy.
Um, sure.
When, by the way, did everyone start calling meat "protein". Knock it off.
Huge
The video footage of the helipad unveiling reveals it to be huge.
I didn't really have an appreciation of its size until I saw the video.
I really don't know what to make of the helipad. In some ways it makes sense and it was well done. I also think that the President doesn't need a giant Sikorsky helicopter and that all the prior Marine Corps 1 helicopters were gigantically overblown as well. One of the smaller business helicopters would be plenty large enough, quite frankly.
They wouldn't have all the countermeasures, I know. Well, too freaking bad. The President is supposed to be the chief executive of limited powers, not an emperor. Flying around in an armored helicopter just gives that much more of a delusion of the opposite.
Speaking of monumental works, I had an exchange, on Twitter, with a MAGA over the ballroom. It was interesting, as her mind was so completely closed and she was utterly incapable of realizing it.
Besotted
She was convinced that anyone opposed to the ballroom had to be a "liberal" who "hated" Trump. I'm opposed to it. I hate what Trump is doing to the country, but I don't hate a living soul. We are required in Christianity to exhibit agape towards our enemies, and frankly Trump is the enemy of decency in a lot of ways. We should pray for his well-being and salvation.
In the exchange I gave my reasons for opposing the ballroom. Well, some of them, not all of them. The list would be large.
The principal reasons I detest the ballroom, I'll note, is because of the illegality of its construction and the illegality of the destruction of the wing where it is located. I'm not a fan of the wings of the White House in general. I think the whole thing ought to be restored to some prior appearance.
I also think the bunkers that were put in and those being built ought to go. As with the helicopter, building a bunker is something that shouldn't be done unless it's done for every single American.
I didn't go into it but I also detest the overblown size and the intended interior embellishments are in horrifically bad taste.
The latter, of course, can and will be removed, if the monstrosity stands.
Anyhow, while I have very wide ranging views, I'm generally very conservative. Indeed, Trump and the MAGAs are not conservatives at all. At this point, they're populist of the fascist variety.
Her argument, lifted from Trump, was that the ballroom would benefit future Presidents. I asked how, and she couldn't provide how. Even though I don't believe it will benefit a living soul, and that it will rightfully be blown to the ground by a future administration, I could make up reasons to support that argument.
Most revealing, however, is that her basic worldview, which came through very clearly, is that if you claim to be an American you have an absolute duty to love Donald Trump. If you don't, you are a traitor.
During World War Two there was a Marine Corps officer who received the Silver Star for heroism. He was later killed in the war. He was also a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and was an admitted communist.
I have no doubt he loved his country.
For that matter, Sterling Hayden, the famous actor, also was a Marine Corps officer, and a member of the OSS, who was briefly a member of the Communist party.
I have no doubt that he loved his country.
I doubt that Donald Trump loves his.
And I know that those who love Donald Trump so much they see everything he does as correct do not love their countrymen. And if you hate your countrymen because of their political beliefs, you hate your country.
Fairytale balls
One of the interesting things about the "benefitting future Presidents" line is that it fits into the Trump narrative perfectly. Trump sees himself as a sort of monarch and the White House as a palace.
It's just supposed to be a house.
No. 10 Downing Street doesn't have a ballroom. 24 Sussex Drive doesn't have one either. The Hôtel Matignon doesn't have one either. Even the Novo-Ogaryovo Estate doesn't have one, and its quite lavish.
The Kremlin does. So does Buckingham Palace.
Hmm. . . . .
That really shows us a glimpse of Trump's mindset. And contrary to what MAGAs like to imagine, no prior President has ever asked for a dedicated ballroom.
It's all just a weird fantasy and a glimpse into the American inferiority complex. We may have rebelled against a king, but in some ways we never got over being besotted by them. Even to this day we follow what the British royal family is doing as if it matters to us at all.
So here you have it.
Abolitio nominis
Back during Roman times, the Senate could issue a decree of abolitio nominis, although it's pretty unclear to me if they called it that. It was an abolition of a leader's name to the full extent possible.
The Roman Senate well knew that it couldn't really erase an Emperor's name from history, so it was symbolic. But it is worth noting that some very early societies effectively nearly did achieve just that. The purpose was to express maximum public disdain for the disgraced person.
It's easy to think the US never attempted anything like that, but perhaps it slightly has in the case of the removal of Confederate monuments which started some years ago, and then generally stopped under Trump, whose world outlook doves relatively well with a lot of Confederates or at least Dixiecrats, which is what he really is. At the time, I was of mixed view as erasing history bothers me, and that reflected the history of the attempt at reviving Confederate reputations. I find that effort horrific, but I thought having a reminder of it served a purpose. And, also, quite frankly as times change the views of various persons from the past change as well. Thomas Jefferson was a great man, for instance, but it's pretty clear that he was also screwing his late wife's enslaved half sister when she was only 14. He was 44. She was his youngest daughters nanny. The children from the illicit union were born into slaver.
That's warped.
So, suffice it to say, leaders of the past have some warts on them.
But things like rebelling for slavery or ignoring the legalities of things while in office that are open and obvious at the time are another matter. Jefferson was a domestic creep, and there's no defending that, but the weird mores of his culture made that less weird than it would seem now, although there were plenty of rumors at the time and it's hard not to regard the liasons as starting off, at least, as a type of rape. Anyhow, the Confederate monuments came up mostly in the 1910s. It's my view now they ought to all come down. Trump has brought me to that.
Trump is such a horrific person that some sort of decree of abolitio nominis needs to be made when he's gone. The American instinct is always "well, let's all reconcile".
Let's not.
Recognizing mistakes is one thing. Lots of MAGAs who should have known better are now crossing over into sanity as their own wallets are looted by Trump's policies. I don't care what brings them back into some sort of reality, I think they ought to be welcomed back. But diehard MAGAs and people who are going to serve Trump until the last days of his administration, not so much. Karoline Leavitt, for example, can be forgiven, but not readmitted to decent society. Vance and Rubio should be made to retire from politics.
But because Trump has shown such disdain for the law, he should be made an example of. And the first part of that is to declare his second presidency a legal nullity. Given his status as an insurrectionist, there's a legal grounds to do that. Every order, commission, appointment and whatever that depended on his signature should be immediately declared to be null, void, and of no effect by the next President, irrespective of the impact. Every "agreement" entered into should be declared a nullity, including agreements with foreign powers. The ballroom should be blown down, and the triumphal arch as well, but the next administration immediately.
Yes, it's extreme, but the correction to fascism is extreme.
Real balls
The first inaugural ball was held for George Washington in 1789 in New York. Washington D.C. did not exist yet, of course. It was an unofficial ball which, if we must have these, is how they should be in my view.
The first official one was in 1809 for James Madison. It was held at Longs Hotel. Balls didn't occur at all in 1853, 1913, 1921, 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944, and 2021. I don't think they should be held at all anymore, but when they are, there are numerous official balls. Clinton had fourteen one year, which is absurd.
Inflation
The GOP is seriously worried about inflation as everyone is seriously worried about it. It's flopping around like a fish on the deck trying to explain high fuel prices to MAGA bases like agriculture and truck transportation.
It's not going to work.
It took hitting their own pocketbooks but all of a sudden truck drivers are mad at Trump. Well, they ought to be, but it's too late. Trump's not able to help.
Farmers and ranchers, who started to be angry a while back, are angry once again for the same reason, and in the case of farmers they're upset about potash, most of which comes from Canada, now being tariffed.
Oops.
King Donny tried to claim that we were going to get potash from Belarus. That claim survived a few hours until the Belarusians said, nope, we don't have any to sell you.
The claim on fuel, of course, is that it'll all go down when the war is over. Given as the war is getting worse, not over, there's not much stock that can be put in that claim. And the potash situation can only be solved by not being an asshole to Canada.
Even there, the diehard MAGAs are convinced that the Canadians have been picking on us for decades. This is just flat out false. The border was basically duty free until Trump came in and tore up the very deal that he'd arrived upon with Canada during his first term.
The entire thing has caused now desperate Republicans to ponder taking extreme measures on topics they don't grasp. There's a move, for example, to ban the exportation of diesel fuel.
The refining of petroleum products doesn't work the way people think it does and the price is very heavily dependent upon the cost of the raw product. The refractions that become diesel and jet fuel are there no matter what. There's pretty good reason to believe that banning the export of diesel fuel doesn't do anything to its price, and might just raise it.
We may, of course, get to find out.
Frankly, at this point, my prediction is fuel prices are never coming down. The wars gone on too long, and too much damage has been done to Middle Eastern infrastructure to change that.
This might have some good side benefits, however. One might be the acceleration of the switch to electric vehicles. I actually overheard somebody whose family is employed in the petroleum industry discussing a desire to get an electric vehicle yesterday. Another may be a switch to rail transportation, which is a much better means of transporting goods in the first place. In agriculture, there are means of relying on petroleum less, and that may start to occur more and more in livestock production at least. A lot of the television farmers and ranchers that are interviewed look like they've never walked a day in their life, they might start to. The end of ATVs and driving everywhere may start to arrive.
Maybe a slight "think this out" trend might start to. Truckers and farmers who voted for Trump are getting exactly what they deserve. Unfortunately, the rest of us have been dragged along with them.
Diesel fuel prices have shot up since King Donny thought that beating Iran would be a cheap and easy matter, and hence attacked them.
What the war is about is not really clear. King Donald has given multiple excuses for it but with the price of fuel shooting up, he's latched on to the "Iran was going to get a bomb" line. According to an article in Scientific American Iran was, in fact, nowhere close to being able to do that.
And there are other reasons to suspect that was only in the background. The war really looks like an idea that Bibi Netanyahu had knowing that Trump was pliable and probably that the administration was packed with far right wing Evangelicals who see whatever Israel does as sanctioned by God to some degree. You can't blame Bibi for that, it was a golden opportunity to knock a major Israeli enemy down a few pegs, if not out of the enemy category entirely.
It didn't work.
Right now, we're stuck in what looks like an endless war with Iran. All the conventional theories about how to win the war are wrong. The war turns out to be as Clausewitzian as any. In order to win, we'd have to invade the country with ground troops and not even King Donald is up for that.
In the meantime, the economic warfare Iran is conducting is working really well. Iran has brought its clients, the Houthis, into the fight, and they've hit Saudi Arabia. The US has done nothing about that, in spite of a Saudi request for assistance. Indeed, we've apparently told the Houthis, who have "Death to America" as part of their slogan, that we'll turn a blind eye to that spat. The Saudi military is not widely regarded as a very good one, which is problematic as they are being put in a situation in which they may well have to conduct a ground invasion of Yemen.
So the price of diesel is way up.
Of course, King Donald and his flunkies insist that its up as Ukraine his hitting Russian petroleum facilities. That claim is partially true, but they've been doing that for years now. The price didn't start to skyrocket until recently.
King Donny, you own this.
And that will impact the price of everything. The trucking industry likes to boast that "everything comes by truck". Well, a lot does, and that's a problem. Everything that comes by truck is going to have its price go up. Everything that goes by rail will as well.
In short, everything.
And we haven't even touched on the costs to agriculture.
So, in desperation, some members of Congress have noticed that the US experts diesel fuel. If we prohibit that, the price will go down, right?
Probably not.
Petroleum products in general are one of scale. If there's less of a market, refiners might just switch to something else. And of course the price of petroleum itself will likely not go down.
And hence this.
Diesel, and gasoline, prices may be Trump's one real lasting legacy.
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.
