March 9, 2026 - Pensito

Nate Silver: “According to the AAA, average retail gas prices in the U.S. are now $3.45 per gallon, up about 50 cents from a week ago. However, the problems are likely to worsen significantly as supply chains are disrupted. Traders at Polymarket anticipate that the most likely range for gas prices to land by the end of March is between $4.50 and $5.00. And although there’s a wide range of uncertainty, there’s a 41 percent chance they exceed $5.00 by the end of the month.”

Succumbing to the Law of Transitivity

March 9, 2026 Buck Banks

“When I look at Donald Trump as a person, I see a failed real estate guy from Queens with a lot of natural showman talent, whose obviously poor physical condition is covered by terrible, ill-fitting suits and a lot of makeup. When I listen to him I hear incoherent bluster and self-absorbed whining. None of this makes me experience him as strong. … The strongman is strong because of the law of transitivity. If you accept at a certain point that he is stronger than you, then you are accepting that you are weaker than him. You are joining in the collective creation of the strongman.“

After a short week of bombing — BOOM! — Iran Problem solved!
Then Iran attacked everybody, now it’s too big to be resolved.
But Trump wants to keep the Kurds in Iraq,
To prevent a strategic flank attack.
Said Trump: “This war’s complicated enough without getting the Kurds involved.”

Creating a ‘Toxic Problem’ for the Midterms

March 9, 2026 Buck Banks

“If you combine an economy that people don’t like with a prolonged war that you know nobody in his base believes they voted for, that’s a toxic problem.”

— A Trump ally, quoted by Politico.

Oil Prices May Set New High

March 9, 2026 Buck Banks

$100

“U.S. oil futures have followed their biggest weekly rise ever by surging as much as 20% in Sunday evening trading, vaulting above $100 a barrel for the first time since war in Europe rattled energy markets in 2022,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Day: March 9, 2026

Prepare for $5 Per Gallon Gas

$5.00

Succumbing to the Law of Transitivity

— Timothy Snyder

Curbing the Kurds

Creating a ‘Toxic Problem’ for the Midterms

“If you combine an economy that people don’t like with a prolonged war that you know nobody in his base believes they voted for, that’s a toxic problem.”

— A Trump ally, quoted by Politico.

Oil Prices May Set New High

$100

“U.S. oil futures have followed their biggest weekly rise ever by surging as much as 20% in Sunday evening trading, vaulting above $100 a barrel for the first time since war in Europe rattled energy markets in 2022,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“If you are committing fraud against the American people, all of us in public leadership should be trying to stop it and throw you in prison for enriching yourself off the American taxpayer.”

— Vice President JD Vance, on Fox News.

“Your generation has a great bullshit meter, because you’re fed bullshit online all day. And the Democratic Party brand right now is so bullshit.”

— Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D), quoted by The Atlantic, speaking to college students.

“We are done, Americans are done with endless conflict in the Middle East, spending trillions of dollars, American lives… this is insane and we have to call it for what it is.”

— Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), on CNN.

Numerati

+175,000

“The U.S. State Department announced on Monday that it has revoked more than 175,000 visas during President Donald Trump’s administration so far,” Fox News reports.

$4,600

11

30%

A new American Research Group poll finds just 30% of Americans say they approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president and 67% say they disapprove.

61% to 35%