TSA Pay -- Holy Mackerel -- If The Story Is Accurate -- I Love the Way The New York Times Spins This Story -- Now Asking Why Trump Didn't Do This Five Weeks Ago -- LOL -- March 26, 2026

Locator: 50332TSA. 

Link here. 

From The New York Times:

No executive order, emergency or otherwise, would be required to access those funds, which were enacted into law last summer, but Mr. Trump appeared eager to claim credit for releasing them. It was not clear why he had waited more than five weeks after the Department of Homeland Security was shuttered to direct that they be used to pay T.S.A. employees. 

Well, why not? Mr. Trump appeared eager to claim credit for releasing them -- it appears he is releasing them. LOL. 

NPR calls it an "extraordinary act." 

TNYT: should have been done five weeks ago.

NPR: it would be an extraordinary act.

Okay. 

It would be extraordinary if Trump moved funds from DOD to Homeland Security.  

Iran: by the way, Trump reminds reporters who are calling this "excursion" a "war": "it's not a war. Only the US Congress can 'declare war' under the War Powers Act." Paraphrasing.  Playing 5D chess. Trump has two weeks to get things done with being distracted by Congress. Members have gone home for two weeks. 

Market: could this be the best of both worlds? Peace breaks out and the market surges. But WTI remains at $100 for an extended period of time. Can the market surge with $100 oil? Yes, I think so.

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TSA -- ICE 

We'll never see this story in The NYT. It gets tedious.

March Madness Meltdown:  

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The Strait

It looks like President Trump is getting ready to declare "Mission Accomplished" and let the GCC and Iran sort this out. 

Looking more and more like a "Truce -- Korean Outcome" -- a TKO.

Instead of North Korea (China) and South Korea (US), we now have GCC (US) vs Iran (China). 

Wow. 

Meanwhile, the Pentagon (i.e., Mr Hegseth) is considering another 10,000 GI’s being sent to the Mideast to give the President more options.  

March Madness -- Sweet 16 -- March 26, 2026

Locator: 50331SPORTS. 

How in the world does a coach not know that he's a man short on a basketball court -- ????

Five doesn't seem that "high" to count.

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More March Madness 

I Would Love To See Beth's Analysis -- The Only Way Nvidia Gets To $20 Trillion Is By Taking A Lot Of Other Companies With Them -- March 26, 2026

Locator: 50330NVIDIA. 

Link here. 

Three New Permits -- March 26, 2026

Locator: 50329B. 

Operation EPIC FURY: Trump extends deadline for ten days.

TSA: US Congress heads home for two weeks. Truly amazing the Democrats would treat "my fellow Americans" this way. Since the Democrats all agree Iran posed no imminent threat, by default that makes the US Democrats the #1 threat to America's national security. 

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Back to the Bakken 

WTI: $93.62.

Active rigs: 25.

Three new permits, 

• 42791, conf, CLR, Langved FIU 7-2H1, Beaver Lodge, SWSE 2-155-95, to be sited 420 FSL and 2592 FEL; 1920-acre spacing;
• 42792, conf, CLR, Langved FIU 7-2HSL, Beaver Lodge, SWSE 2-155-95, to be sited 420 FSL and 2560 FEL; six-section spacing (3840 acres);
• 42793, conf, Oasis, Rooster 5601 12-8 5B, Tyrone,  NENW 8-156-101; to be sited 528 FSL and 2162 FWL; 1920-acre spacing.

Approved for re-entry:

• 40177, Five States Operating, RH 1-16H, SESW 9-138-99, Rocky Hill, Stark County; 320-acre spacing.

Four permits canceled:

• KODA Resources: four Bock permits, Divide County. 

War In The Mideast? What War?! AI Companies Can't Seem To Move Fast Enough To Build New LDCs! Meanwhile, The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran Are Using Those Dollars to Build Missiles That Often Go Nowhere; The Definition Of Insanity -- March 26, 2025

Locator: 50328LDCS. 

LDCs are tracked here. 

Ohio: link here. Link here.

Another great example of AI.

Beth posts on x that SoftBank is ready to announce a $10 billion LDC but fails to mention location.

My favorite chatbot:

Again, in Ohio.

Wiki doesn't mention this story, in Piketon, Ohio, yet. Link here. But AI does.

LDCs: Bragging Rights For Largest -- March 26, 2026

Locator: 50327LDCS. 

AI prompt:

As of April 16, 2025, AI says the largest data center in the US is owned by Meta Platforms, located in Prineville, Oregon. Is this still accurate? 

Reply: 

AI prompt:

META's LDCs: will Hyperion or El Paso be bigger?

Reply:

In the old days, $2 billion was the price to entry (for new LDCs). Now, $10 billion? 

META To Expand Its El Paso Facility From $1.5 Billion to $10 Billion -- March 26, 2026

Locator: 50326META. 

LDCs are tracked here. 

Holy mackerel. Folks have no idea how big AI is.

META's LDCs:

• as of April 16, 2025, AI says the largest data center in the US is owned by Meta Platforms, located in Prineville, Oregon. Out in the middle of nowhere, northeast of Bend, Oregon.
• Meta's Richland Parish Data Center, Louisiana: link here. 
• Meta's El Paso Data Center, El Paso, Texas: link here. $10 billion.

This is META's El Paso, Texas, project, from AI, just moments ago.

Breaking: META now plans to spend $10 billion on this data center, up from $1.5 billion. Link here. 

Wikipedia Bans AI-Generated Articles -- March 26, 2026

Locator: 50325WIKI. 

Wikipedia bans AI-generated articles. The bigger question is whether Wiki human editors / contributors are allowed to use AI for research?

I don't know why and I don't care (why Wiki has banned AI-generated articles). One of the problems I have with Wiki is that Wiki is often not current. Chatbots have a similar problem but chatbots are much quicker to update information. Wiki is slow to update information. 

Bottom line: I trust AI-generated information a whole lot more than what I generally read on the front page of The New York Times. 

***************************
AI vs Wiki

AI prompt: using only wiki sources, what does wiki have to say about the US government announcement that it is investigating three medical schools?

The answer is "intriguing," to say the least:
 

AI prompt: what three medical schools are being investigated by the US government? 

AI reply: 

And, there you have it. 

Wiki will complement other sources, such as chatbots, but, over time, will become less relevant. 

*************************
AI

Generally, AI is only as good as the AI prompt.  

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The Bakken

Wiki: the most recent price analysis -- accessed March 26, 2026 -- "As of January 2015, estimates varied on the break-even oil price for drilling Bakken wells." 

2015? Eleven years ago? 

Meanwhile, from AI:

This gets tedious.

By the way, the chatbots I use include the links. Even to those New York Times links that I don't trust. LOL.

Ticker: PSX -- March 26, 2026

Locator: 50324PSX. 

Shortly after posting the graphic below, WTI surged again. Now trading above $95.

WTI Surges -- March 26, 2026

Locator: 50323B. 

IOC: Olympic Committee bars transgender athletes from competing in women's events. This will trickle  down to colleges and then to high schools.

Trump's Iran ultimatum: expires Friday night. Tomorrow, about 36 hours from now. [Later, extended for ten days.]

Updated: EVs that were canceled or delayed in 2025 / 2026. Link here. 

********************************
Back to the Bakken

WTI: $94.16. Up $3.84; up 4.31%.

Natural gas: has hardly moved (here in the US) this past year -- today -- still under $3.00. 

New wells reporting:

RBN Energy: Iran War roils pricing just after US E&P returns hit four-year lows. Link here. Archived. 

The upstream oil and gas sector has been periodically roiled by dramatic price swings triggered by world events over the last five decades, including the 1970s oil embargo, the 1990-91 Gulf War, the late-1990s Asian financial crisis, the 2008 financial collapse, the onset of COVID in 2020, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and now, the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. The subsequent nearly $40/bbl surge in crude oil prices has taken attention away from the just-released year-end 2025 reports that showed U.S. E&P profits and cash flows have been steadily squeezed by the decline of realizations to a five-year low. In today’s RBN blog, we analyze the impact of bottoming oil prices on earnings and cash flows as the industry girds for an unpredictable 2026.

As shown in Figure 1 below, crude oil prices (gray line and right axis) rapidly gained momentum in late 2020 after plunging to just $16.55/bbl in April of that year, breaking the $50/bbl level in January 2021 and building to a peak above $100/bbl in March-July 2022. U.S. producers, which after decades of reckless spending transitioned to a model that prioritized free cash flow, basked in record returns that were passed along to shareholders. However, prices steadily retreated, lingering in the $70-$80/bbl range from 2023 through the first couple months of 2025 before declining more rapidly in the second half of the year. The average WTI price for December dipped to $57.85/bbl, the lowest since January 2021. (Prices have surged since the start of the war with Iran, settling at $98.23 on March 20.)