As of yesterday – Sunday – the cost of a barrel of crude oil was about $116. By the time you read this, today – Monday – it may have sailed higher as the stock market opens and the news breaks about American combat troops having reached the War Zone.
It already costs close to $100 to fuel up a typical full-size truck or SUV and around $60 to fuel up a typical small crossover. Like the outgoing tide of a tsunami, the cost of other things – such as groceries – hasn’t surged, yet. But the tide is going to come in because the buying power of the dollar is about to go down, again. Inflation is going to surge, because Trump’s stupid, evil war is causing other countries to buy oil from the Iranians using other-than-dollars. This will undermine the dollar.
Trump, meanwhile, has egged that on by lifting the sanction on the selling of Iranian oil. It is almost as if Trump’s purpose is to destroy the dollar and with it, whatever remains of middle and working income America. This is quite something given it was precisely that demographic that got rolled into voting for their own enserfement. They believed what they thought they heard when they ought to have remembered what they knew about Trump. 
So many of them – me among them and mea culpa for that – pushed to the back of our minds what Trump did back in 2020. “Two weeks to top the spread” became an “emergency” that did not end until years later and it took Joe Biden to end it. Trump wore the Face Diaper, sometimes – thereby telegraphing his approval of Face Diapers. He was, at the time, the president and did not have to wear the Diaper. There was never a law requiring the wearing of Diapers. Just “guidelines” issued by gesundheitsfuhrers such as Dr. Fauci. Not only did Trump give the presidential podium to this evil quack, he has allowed him to enjoy a quiet and remunerative retirement. No one responsible for the “COVID” operation has so much as had to pay a fine – including Trump, the pusher of the “beautiful” vaccines that “saved millions of lives.”
He continues to say that, too.
The Diaper on – and off – thing is illustrative of Trump’s technique. He does one thing – along the lines of something his supporters like – and then does exactly the opposite, leaving his followers baffled and disoriented. They point to the thing they like and hold onto it as evidence of his good intentions and make endless excuses for the thing he did that they did not like. The “Democrat Hoax” line regarding the Epstein Stuff is another example. It is a brilliant tactic if your object is to mind-diddle your duped followers.
So many of us let it all slide into the recesses of our memory, hoped for the best and voted for him, again. It is appalling testimony to the power of the spray-tanned golem to put one over (over and over). But when people are having to pay $60 to fill up a small crossover and $100 to fill up a pick-up, the con loses its puissance. They begin to see – like Rowdy Roddy Piper in They Live – which is one of those rare movies that actually depicts how things really are.
But will enough see in time?
We are, arguably, already at the point that Party Line Democrats were back in 2023, when it had become obvious to people not in the grip of that cult that “Joe Biden” had become a liability. He was falling down stairs, talking to dead people who weren’t in the audience. The cult (the other cult) finally shook itself out of its torpor after that last debate with Trump and rudely shoved Biden off the ticket, replacing him with Kamala Harris.
It came too late for the Democrats.
Now the Republicans are in essentially the same position. A worse position, arguably – because Biden was merely senile; a kind of pathetic figure. Trump is a dangerous figure – not just politically, either (in terms of the generational damage he is doing to the nationalist-populist movement he pretends to lead).
He might end the world before this is all over.
. . .
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I sense a lot of anger. People, do not despair because the conflict(war) in the middle east has been going on for at least three thousand years and will continue after we die.
We the people of and from Europe should not get involved with the various tribes of the world. It will be our undoing. Trade with them Yes but do not get involved with their internecine squabbles. They will try to draw us in but resist that temptation.
Trump should listen to that advice but it is too late because his offspring have married into that race of people and that will be our undoing.
Trump it turns out gave us some bones but threw us into a quagmire of stupidity.
A patent example of fulminating mental illness:
The United States of America is in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran. Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately “Open for Business,” we will conclude our lovely “stay” in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet “touched.” This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year “Reign of Terror.” Thank you for your attention to this matter.
President DONALD J. TRUMP
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2026/03/war-on-iran-and-then-what.html
Don’t miss the cartoon just below Trump’s deranged brain fart.
We are ruled by a babbling fool. His puppet strings are pulled by the indicted war criminal Netanyahu. His threatened actions are clear-cut violations of the Geneva Conventions, incorporated into U.S. federal law. If carried out, such high misdemeanors unquestionably would constitute grounds for impeachment, removal from office, and criminal prosecution.
This lost-puppy zionist flake is even farther gone than Trumpstein:
‘During his briefing on the Iran war last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested that Americans take a knee and pray to Jesus for the success of U.S. forces in the Middle East. A few days later, he read out a sermon praying that “wicked souls” be “delivered to the eternal damnation” in the fight against Iran.’
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5803295-hegseth-christianity-military-pentagon/
What a scandal. What a disgrace. God is not mocked by the sorry likes of Pete Hegseth.
Hogsbreath is welcome to go f*ck himself.
He ought to be able to manage it, all things considered.
Failing that, perhaps he should consider sucking off dogs, or even dead rats.
You never know, Petey, it might be quite a thrill, and just what you are looking for.
Mark Twain had a thing or two to say about that.
I’m not going to tell anyone how to pray or to whom, just pointing out that alternatives exist:
https://americanliterature.com/author/mark-twain/short-story/the-war-prayer
This is Pete Hegseth’s twisted version of Christianity — scourging the faithful via Satan’s right-hand man, Netanyahu:
‘On Sunday morning, Israeli authorities blocked the highest official of the Catholic Church in Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from celebrating the start of Easter Week at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where it is believed that Jesus was crucified and resurrected.
“For the first time in centuries, the Heads of the Church were prevented from celebrating the Palm Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” the Pizzaballa’s office said in a statement. It added, “This incident is a grave precedent, and disregards the sensibilities of billions of people around the world who, during this week, look to Jerusalem.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/outrage-grows-over-israeli-restrictions-to-jerusalem-sites-during-holy-week/ar-AA1ZI8SF
Ol’ Pete is like the Roman solider who offered Jesus a vinegar-soaked sponge on a stick at the crucifixion. Satan salutes his devoted servant! 🙂
Persia is one of the oldest civilizations on Earth.
It was here long before the Jewnighted Estates of Amaleka, and it will be here long after the latter has been absorbed by the sands of time.
“Carefully refined, and sealed over.’
— J.D. Morrison
“Look on these works, ye mighty, and despair.”
— P.B. Shelley
Love your quotes. Here’s another:
“Bazan oil refinery in Israel’s northern city of Haifa is on fire after a second apparent Iranian missile strike of the war. Trump says US response ‘coming shortly.'” — ZH
Bazan … badabing, badaboom! 🙂
Why Even Trump Insiders Admit He’s ‘An Idiot’ | Inside Trump’s Head
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e86jT8Wc8Rg
I’m looking across my street at a neighbor’s campaign sign:
TRUMP-APPROVED
BIGGS
GOVERNOR
Andy Biggs is a Freedom Caucus, R-party Congress Clown from Arizona. Now he’s running for the R-party nomination for governor, in the July primary.
The ‘Trump approved’ bit made me laugh my ass off. Yeah, it’ll attract the last tattered remnants of the MAGA faithful. But for the independent voters Biggs needs to win, it’s the kiss of death. Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs will win a second term easily, as the R-party swirls down the toilet bowl with a gigantic flushing sound. *whooooosh; gurgle, gurgle*
Biggs made a rah-rah post on X, supporting Trump’s war in its early days. It’s a sad example of how politicians who seemed to be on our side on many issues, now casually sell out America to comply with the warmongering, crusading ethos of the Repugniclown party, extending all the way back to its most famous reprobate son, the syphilitic mass murderer Ape Lincoln.
Saw a meme that said “filled the tank up for $70 this morning”. It was the lawnmower.
‘When people are having to pay $60 to fill up a small crossover and $100 to fill a pick-up, the con loses its puissance.’ — eric
Ultimately, people ‘vote their pocketbook.’ The two decadent legacy parties have spent the last 60 years managing (and even encouraging) America’s slow-motion decline from its all-time crest in living standards during the mid 1960s.
Trump is operating straight from Democrat LBJ’s ‘guns and butter’ playbook, with ‘military Keynesian’ war expenditures piled atop LBJ’s chronic-deficit, Medicare/Medicaid entitlement machine. We’ve come full circle, in other words. As third-party candidate George Wallace remarked about the D’s and R’s, ‘There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between them.’
In 2018 — Trump’s first midterm election challenge — Repukes lost 40 seats in the House. Forty seat flips is a good bet again in 2026. It will put Democrats firmly in charge of the House.
D-party committee chairs will implement investigations of Trump’s epic mismanagement and corruption. Like Gulliver in Lilliput, the orange-maned colossus — the world’s greatest military strategist, in his own mind — will find himself tied down and consumed by a thousand angry chihuahuas. Let him bleed! 🙂
Yes, Jim H, people vote their pocketbook. Or, as James Carville (aka “Serpent Head” to his wife) “IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID”.
another thing Carville said during the Paula Jones flap was, “You drag a $100 bill through a trailer park and you never know what you’ll get.” (Ghislane Maxwell, call your office)
Yes, Jim, people will vote for their pocket books. Unfortunately, being pissed off and angry at the Republicons, they stupidly forget that in voting them out (bwa ha ha) and replacing them with openly avowed Communist Democrats, that they are still getting exactly what they had before, and worse. Maybe the voter can console themselves with the fact that at least the Commie Democrats will outright shoot them, rather than just stab them repeatedly and saying they are your friends despite the pain.
Trump has always been a con man and a bullshitter, but I still can’t believe that he did this on his own without (((someone else))) calling the shots.
If for no other reason than the fact that his ego is so massive he does not want to go down in history as a major fuck-up who put the final nail in the coffin of America.
The problem is that (((they))) control both parties and have for decades, since Clinton at least — if not before.
And the opposition is, although different, equally bad in its own way. The “No Kings” protest the other day showed exactly who the opposition was, and still is — freaks, weirdos, trannies, Karens, and nutjobs who want to flood the country with illegal Third World immigrants.
When Obama was elected after Dubya’s Iraq shitshow, I thought “OK, these people have been against war for years, now let’s see what he’ll do.”
He deployed 100,000 ground troops to Afghanistan is what he did, and had war every single day of his eight-year presidency. He executed the Libyan head-of-state, he executed American citizens with drone strikes, he put troops in Syria, and Hillary Clinton wanted to shoot down Russian jets over Syria.
Oh, and he overthrew the democratically-elected Ukrainian government which led to the Russo-Ukraine war.
So much for the “alternatives” when the “opposition” is in power.
Trump said a LOT of things that made perfectly good sense, particularly in his first term. Now he is a different animal entirely. There is no doubt he has been compromised and is being controlled by Bibi, in my view. Prior to this war I thought that if they had anything on him, they would have used it in 2016. Now I am certain that (((they))) are forcing Trump to give them their war, and they couldn’t care less if it wrecks the economy and destroys the middle class. The (((oligarchs))) will do just fine sipping drinks in their multimillion-dollar beachfront homes in Gaza.
‘[Trump] has been compromised and is being controlled’ — X
You can see this as the attack on Iran unfolds, despite the tight lid of censorship imposed by both Israel and the US.
In characteristic zionazi fashion, the Israelis once again are attacking Iran’s civilian infrastructure, such as energy facilities and schools, and assassinating Iran’s leaders. That’s exactly what they did in Gaza, and are doing now in Lebanon.
Israelis cannot help themselves. Their hate-cult ‘religion’ programs them to undermine, plunder and destroy the rest of humanity, whom they regard as degraded cattle placed on earth for their convenience.
Obviously, Israel’s fresh daily war crimes in Iran do not serve the interests of Orange BLOTUS, as he desperately tries to backpedal from his epic blunder. Donnie actually thought Iran was going to fold on the first day, Feb. 28. Now he describes the Iranians as ‘strange’ for fighting back, with their existence at stake. Deal-maker Donnie has no concept of taking a stand on principle — he doesn’t have any!
How did the Israeli jewel wasp (population 9 million and falling fast) hijack the brain of the mighty US? (population 342 million)? It is one of history’s more bizarre stories. But nearly every American, including the tens of millions of hispanic migrants in recent decades, has been exposed to the insidious, tribal master-race propaganda of the Old Testament/Tanakh.
It’s a tragic story. Humanity’s collective consciousness has gone down a dark, depraved rabbit hole. It needs a total reboot, freed of these pernicious myths.
That’s the truth: “Deal-maker Donnie has no concept of taking a stand on principle — he doesn’t have any!”
OT but did you see this? An HK drug maker called “Insilico” has reached a 2.75 billion dollar deal with Eli Lilly to bring its drugs developed with “generative AI” to market.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/29/eli-lilly-reaches-deal-to-bring-ai-developed-drugs-to-global-market.html
From link:
This collaboration allows us to explore novel mechanisms and accelerate the identification of promising therapeutic candidates across multiple disease areas,” Andrew Adams, group vice president of Molecule Discovery at Lilly, said in a statement. He called Insilico’s AI-enabled discovery “a powerful complement” to Lilly’s clinical development.
—-
Fake drugs for fake diseases. 2.75 billion! LOL.
Ha. Of course. If I were a sociopath I would have thought of this.
Pharma has been using computer models to identify molecules that are worth testing for decades. Mostly to find out what bonds well to a particular site on a particular enzyme, and eliminate possibilities that don’t look likely to work. Saves money on expensive & failed trials.
No idea if this is an actual LLM that generates target molecules, or if this is just slapping the latest buzzword on existing technology, but this is not really some radical new development and they still have to test it (supposedly) before releasing it to the market. The testing and what passes for statistical analysis during/afterwards is another story…
Hi X,
Comedian Jimmy Dore, who is by no means a “Right Winger”, had his own take on a previous “No Kings” rally a few months ago….
https://rumble.com/v70me1c-what-was-the-no-kings-protest-aboutthe-jimmy-dore-show.html?e9s=src_v1_s%2Csrc_v1_s_o&sci=c9a91610-94ce-4ece-8dc5-f9c5f57b6e4e
“We’ve got one who CAN SEE”
Wonderful movie. This line describes perfectly how I have felt almost my whole life, at least since my mid-teens when listening to the blather coming from family and friends of my parents, I always felt so ALIENATED from their ways of thinking, often uncomfortable enough to simply just drift out of the room and/or go outside to get away from it. I am dreading being around my Trump supporting relatives, such as my aunt who is basically a very nice person but has totally drank the Kool-Aid. Too many of these same people who come off as nice on the surface would try to verbally browbeat me into submission when the find out I do not agree, which WILL NOT WORK.
I developed one hell of a defense mechanism due to this which is that I am not going to let others win the argument and/or force me to pretend to agree with them. I may change my opinion on things as more information becomes available, but I will not let them win. The equivalent of the glasses Rowdy Roddy Piper found. Sorry for the rambling but I seriously needed to vent:)
I can also proudly say I never voted for the Orange Douchebag.
Ditto all that, MQ –
Though my spider sense failed me in 2024. The only upside is it was a lesson learned. Never (ever) again.
My spidey-sense didn’t fail me, exactly, I talked myself out of following it. For reasons that have turned out to be lies. Uttered by someone who was supposedly different.
I wish I’d voted for Afroman.
At this point I’m pretty much just voting 3rd party or staying home.
I would make an exception to vote for this guy but alas, not my district.
https://x.com/VladTheInflator/status/2038264574194200710
I had misgivings about voting for Trump again in 2024, one reason being he couldn’t stop bragging about those COVID jabs having been “Warp Speeded” in his first go-round as president despite the truth about them having become too obvious. He was also yet ANOTHER president who had Neocons in his administration setting foreign policy; e.g. endless war.
I thought of voting for Robert F Kennedy, Jr when he was running for president, given he was dropping truth bombs on various issues, including Tony Fauci via that book Kennedy published a few years ago, but the Democrat Party establishment refused to allow anyone to challenge Joe Biden for the D nomination, so Kennedy decided to run as an Independent instead. If the Democratic Party was smart, they would have let primaries take place, as Joe Biden was a very unpopular president even with D voters, and Kennedy was getting around 20% support. Had it been an RFK v Trump election in 2024, the Democrats may have won.
Now that Kennedy is HHS Secretary, I personally find him one of the few bright spots of the 2nd Trump administration, as previous HHS Secretaries appear to have been little more than shills for Big Pharma, particularly on vaccines. It was also thanks to him and online programs like The Highwire that I’ve learned that a lot of the food we get at grocery stores contains poison disguised as “food”. However, some of the other members of the administration have become a disappointment, particularly Kash Patel, Pam Bondi, and even President Donald Trump himself. Even Dan Bongino, who quit as Deputy FBI Director not too long ago, has become a disappointment after he effectively toed the line for the establishment regarding Jeffrey Epstein and “The Epstein Files”.
I agree, John –
It’s not all bad. RFK, Jr. is one example. The thing is, though, Trump is going to destroy by association anything that smacks of “MAGA” by the time he is done. The backlash is going to be severe. I worry we are going to end up with something far worse than Biden. I see Trump as someone like the last Russian Czar, who was an arrogant and stupid man who ensured the revolution that enslaved Russia for the next 75 years.
Hi Eric,
There are people who think that RFK Jr is also baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad, particularly because they’ve bought into the “Safe and Effective!” narrative and other propaganda on vaccines and Kennedy merely looks into the decades long system of giving MULTIPLE doses of different vaccines to children and other issues involving health and vaccines. But as COVID made painfully clear, the federal “Public Health” agencies have been captive agencies of Big Pharma for a long time; something people on “The Left” used to speak out about. And then of course the FDA has also been allowing Big Food companies to put poisons in various ultra processed foods for years via a loophole called GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe). One would think that government agencies that claim to be “Looking out for Public health” would be advocating actual lifestyle choices that improve health instead of looking out for the interests and bottom line of the pharmaceutical industry and pushing poisons like seed oils, but prior to 2025 they pushed guidelines and advice beneficial to “Big Food”/ “Big Pharma” instead of REAL human health.
I can very much sympathize, Metal Queen. Every time I go see my dad, I get the Fox News script read off at me and anything I say to the contrary ignored or spoken over. But I’ve always had this terrible habit of thinking for myself. Cult spells have no effect on me. Too bad that we must continue to deal with those who do not have such resistance.
My sympathies to you as well. I can’t even be in the same room where Faux Noise (or C[IA]NN, or MSDNC) is blaring. I talked to my aunt recently and told her I really didn’t have any interest in doing anything on Easter (which I don’t celebrate, anyway). It is that bad. I would rather just hang out with my dogs at this point.
I completely understand that, MQ. Dogs rarely give unwanted lectures. I must walk on eggshells around my aunts as well, they being evangelistic Christians with all the insufferable baggage attending that mania, including Israel worship, the 6,000 year old Earth, etc.
Yikes. I have cousins like that who I have no idea how their brain works to believe what they do. My aunt (one of them is her son) is not particularly religious but her and her boyfriend are die hard Trumpers. That did not bother me too much until this pointless evil war. Now it is something that is going to be seriously hard to look past.
This war and its atrocities being done in our name is making it extremely difficult to hold my tongue among such company, MQ. It’s painful and testing every time someone refers to what “we’re” doing in the Middle East. “Our” military, etc. Who is “we”? Those forces have been usurped by Israel and their psychopathic friends. “We” no longer have a military.
Morning, BaDnOn!
I like to think I am open minded; at least, I try to be. But certain topics – flat earth, the “flood” and Noah’s Ark – are difficult for me to discuss with believers for the same reason I would have trouble listening to an adult believer in Santa Claus tell me all about Santa’s workshop and his sled, etc. I am very much open to the idea of “more than we can see.” Because of course there is more than we can see. I don’t dismiss the possibility of something other than materialism/naturalism but I do require facts – not stories. Especially silly ones.
Morning, Eric!
I’m right with you. Though I’m a scientist and continuously seek knowledge of the nature of the Universe, I am never so arrogant to claim I “know it all” and understand that many things *are* not and perhaps cannot be known by us.
I’ve consistently learned that the more I learn, the more it seems there is to learn.
But I’ve also sat through enough pseudo-scientific documentaries and whatnot that it’s obvious some people do *not* continue their research once they squeeze the evidence to fit the tales in their holy books. Then, of course, they’re eager to show the rest of us their “findings”. :p
It makes you wonder if some of that is promoted to keep a segment of Americans deliberately dumbed down, a sort of right-wing version of Ebonics.
This country is in real trouble.
I just checked our local gas prices. The highest was $4.60 for Reg and $5.50 for Premium. Lowest was $4.20 Reg and Costco was $4.16 Reg. We’ll see what will happen soon as we live in interesting times. This war with Iran could get real nasty soon. Trump is getting some bad advice from his Neocons just like Bush Jr. did. Trump is destroying the Republican party mostly because of the influential Israeli lobby.
Once Kharg Island goes up in flames as we “liberate” it we’ll have $7 gas and $10 diesel.
Once again the Orange Grifter is manipulating the market with his pronouncement this morning that he’s “very close to a deal” with Iran, so all his cronies in the know make a bundle with the knee-jerk reaction of the stock market. Methinks the war criminal in chief is the one begging for a deal since Iran just blew up a few KC135 tankers and a very expensive AWACS plane.
Well, the G.R. Ford, the pride of the U.S. Navy, will evidently be out of service for ~ 2years.
That weren’t no “laundry fire”, folks.
“Will enough see in time” for what? The government, like the police, are an overpowered occupying force. See what you like, hate it or love it. Vote or don’t vote. Nothing will change. As George Carlin said, “They gotcha by the balls”.
Morning Lord James,
My hope is that (unlike during “COVID”) people – enough people – will at least passively resist, by not going along with it. Mental refusal can be as important as physical refusal.
Hi Eric,
I’ve seen speculation that authoritarian governments may try to implement “Climate” or “Energy” lockdowns similar to the lockdowns foisted on us during COVID due to the Iran War. Will enough people push back against any attempts at such lockdowns? I hope so, as governments who pushed “COVID lockdowns” kept moving the goalposts and tightened draconian diktats until enough people said “NO MORE!” and pushed back.
“It is almost as if Trump’s purpose is to destroy the dollar and with it, whatever remains of middle and working income America.”
I maintain this was precisely the primary purpose for the scamdemic, which accomplished many things for the Communists but none so enduring as inflation. Masks are a distant memory, even vaccines are seldom discussed now, but the inflation that the economic shutdown and wild money printing fostered are still here today–and growing worse with every new venture Trump embarks upon.
Communism always rolls in with a wave of inflation to destroy the remnants of a nation’s middle class (a necessary prerequisite for totalistic government) and once the Communist government is firmly established, the inflation remains permanent (as it did with the Soviets). To quote a famous EP Autos resident, “Inflation is the new scamdemic.”
Growing up aspiring to buy a new Cadillac was normal. Today more and more people are aspiring to buy a prime rib roast or drive across state to visit Aunt Rose at Easter. I’m not sure what that says about us but I suspect nothing good.
Lots of predictions out there on what the war will do to food prices but it might be worth considering on stocking up just in case.