MONEY - MARKETS - SPORTS - CULTURE
The Dodgers are clearly the team to beat in 2026, with a roster strong enough to justify an unusually short preseason World Series price and the look of a potential three-peat champion. The bigger question is who can truly challenge them, with the Mariners, Yankees, Tigers, Phillies, and Mets all entering the season as possible contenders — but still looking like they are chasing Los Angeles.
The 48-hour ultimatum episode looks exactly like the kind of event that should trigger an insider trading investigation, with massive oil and S&P futures trades reportedly hitting just minutes before Trump’s market-moving announcement on Iran. If politically connected traders were cashing in on war messaging while U.S. service members bore the real cost, that is not just corruption — it is depraved.
Trump’s approval rating falling to 34 percent should not shock anyone given the economic instability, the disastrous Iran war, and an administration that seems to generate new chaos by the day. The real shock is that one-third of the country still supports it, which says as much about propaganda and narrative control as it does about Trump himself.
There may be no truly safe place for money right now, as stocks, commodities, and even traditional safe havens all carry real risk. In this fragile environment, the smartest path may be a disciplined mix of cash equivalents, short-term Treasuries, and quality dividend-paying stocks, while recognizing that even the weakening U.S. dollar no longer offers the same unquestioned security it once did.
March Madness was great when smaller schools could keep veteran teams together and grow into dangerous Cinderella stories, but NIL and the transfer portal have wrecked that formula. The best players now get plucked away by bigger programs, the parity is disappearing, and the tournament should stop pretending it is still built on the old magic.
The Mueller Report was buried beneath one of the most effective propaganda campaigns in modern American politics, reduced to a meme and a punchline so millions would dismiss it without ever reading it. But the actual report showed sweeping Russian interference, plenty of smoke around collusion, and real flames on obstruction—evidence that was mocked, minimized, and politically buried while the country paid the price.
Annie Andrews is giving Democrats something they rarely have in South Carolina: a credible challenger with real momentum. Her odds have jumped from roughly 9% in early February to around 21% by late March, and with Democrats continuing to overperform in special elections and polling, Lindsey Graham suddenly looks more vulnerable than he has in years.