It's breezy but dry in Ashland, Virginia. I've been watching trains there on YouTube.

Do we get the employment report a week from today?

Good morning to you.

as cool air from the north pushes it down!

And yup - BLS UE scheduled for next Friday Apr. 3rd.

(ETA - link to their schedule - https://www.bls.gov/schedule/news_release/empsit.htm)

80s yesterday; 40s today.

Cold front moving through this morning with showers and dropping temperatures today. After 80 yesterday, into the 40s this afternoon.

Much of the area sees a freeze tonight and a chilly start to weekend.

Warming up again thereafter.

Full forecast: www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2026...

— Capital Weather Gang (@capitalweather.bsky.social) 2026-03-27T11:00:01.674Z

like so many rolls of paper towels.

this idiotic, malevolent government.

The cost of war with Iran
According to one estimate

The purchase cost may be a small portion overall by the time they are used.
Storage, maintenance and evaluation will add to the cost.


But, we don't have enough money for a single-payer health care system.

we are using $100,000 Hellfire missiles to shoot down $7,000 Iranian Shahad drones. Iran reportedly has 80,000 drones.

I read where we have fired 5 years worth of Tomahawk Cruise missiles. It takes time to build a Cruise missile and China controls a lot of the rare earth minerals needed in its construction.

apparently causing the USA to become wide open with less security, but hey Hegseth denies competent and qualified 2 black and 2 women promotions tho.

... Pete? You DO realize that Tomahawks don't grow on trees, right? And that production of these weapons takes time and money? Let's put particular emphasis on TIME. Has the rate of production been ramped up significantly to ensure that we don't run out of the damned things? Because if you let that happen, we'll REALLY be in the shit! The list of countries that Trump has threatened and/or offended is long, indeed, and so is the memory of his belligerent behavior. If your staggering stupidity leaves us even partially defenseless, there are geopolitical entities that will not hesitate to take advantage of that grievous error in judgement.
Take that to the fuckin' bank, you moron.

It is the year 2026 and high officials in the US government ask "how can we make multiples of an industrial product?" Not that we should be awash in armaments and making war on this day. But wow... do we need to restore this country's industrial base or not? I mean you can go to Colonial Williamsburg and see a guy shoe a horse and heat up the horseshoes in a furnace! But we have laptops in landfills but NO RECORDS of how an early 70s factory manufactured vacuum cleaners, or how a Saturn V rocket was built? We just FORGOT and dumped all that knowledge into landfills and then start firing off cruise missiles and say... "Hey could you order some more up from China?"


Every American Needs to Be Aware of This book
“Apple in China,” Patrick McGee

This was planned before Trump took office just like Iraq was being planned before Bush took office. Bush was an oil man and Trump lobbied the oil industry and received about $175M in campaign contributions.

If we had a legitimate watchdog in the SEC they would investigate trading of Raytheon stock
as well as the oil trades just 15 minutes before the illegal war started.

This is why I added Raytheon to my IRA stocks last year. I figured that Hegseth would be bribed into using
their products and that Trump would eventually provide the the pretext. I'm sure both of them have managed
to put a sweetheart provision in the budget for most defense contractors. There's too much corruption
to keep up with at this point.

I forgot about the oil stocks, though. Should have seen that coming. Windfall profits are almost too easy to manufacture.

... 89% in price alone since The Felon took office. 54% just this year. And that's not counting dividends, which are pretty good.

Valero is a good play. Refining margins are through the roof.

...doesn't seem to have done a lot of damage to their stock at this point....

We shall see.

don’t decide to attack us in some way. We are weakening our military, our government is in complete disarray, the citizens are either very pissed of numb, and our security departments have been decimated, we cast off our allies, and we have a leader that is clearly insane.
Every day we fall deeper and deeper into the abyss and I think they are just sitting there patiently on the sidelines watching us fall apart and waiting for the right moment.
Just my opinion.
One other thought. Don’t be surprised is the attack we make on Iran is not at Kharg Island but rather at Isfahan where the uranium is. A marine assault on Kharg would be disastrous because the amphibious ships would be sitting ducks and the 82nd can go either places. Isfahan, by the way, would also be a disaster. Even if we could secure Isfahan how would we get the uranium out? It is surrounded by mountains.

"Some at the Pentagon" know we're being ruled by incompetent television clowns.

It's not his money

"But we're having so much fun, and you'll be sorry
if you don't let us destroy and kill anything we want."

OK, guys, carry on.