World View: etc!: Declawing.

Today's Tids Issue 6,022

Odds off:

I’m waiting patiently for, Baaaaaa! You know, March going out like a lamb. The roar is getting tiresome.

Well, we have a Sweet Sixteen. I, at 12-4 should feel better but I know my Eight will take a serious hit. The Big East has two Championship contenders but will lose one for the final four due to odd seeding by the NCAA. The Big Ten has a record 6 in the 16, The SEC which started with the most has four, The Big 12 three and the once mighty ACC has but One, Duke.

It’s nice to see a market surge today. But how long will it last. We have a long way to go to get even. It seems fragile when a few words from the Prez can kick up the Dow over 1,000 points in seconds. If you-know-who wants his Repub congress after November some things may be done to make the economy look good to the regular people on the streets. And in the neighborhoods. The war is quickly becoming about the elections. Isn’t everything?

For your comfort and personal edification, I was going to write a simple explanation of the new gambling sensation, “Prediction-Market". But what I found looked like it was written by the inventor of block chain. They did emphacize that what they did wasn’t gambling mainly because you didn't lose your money in the tyypical way when "The House” is involved. Basically, it is an exchange where you bet on the futures, like elections, Oscar winners and lately increasingly sports, Flutter Entertainment which owns Fan Duel and also Draft Kings is against it. Duh. They own the sports betting world. But the real battle seems to be between the Fed and states on who will regulate it. There's a ton on of money and control in play here.

A pancake, a piece of toast, and a piece of bacon walk into a bar. They sit down and ask the bartender for a round of beers. The bartender glares at them and says, "Get out of my bar, we don't serve breakfast here."

The Question:

What are the five biggest US defense contractors?

The Headlines:

--Markets Surge After Trump Backed Off Threat to Destroy Iran Energy Facilities; Diw Opens Over 1K, Receded, but at late Afternoon is Moving up past 800.

--NY’s LaGuardia Airport Closed after Jet, Firetruck Crash on Runway Killing Two, Injuring Dozens; Air Traffic Controller Heard Saying, “I Messed Up.”

--Fed’s Powell Avows to Stay Until All Legal Meanderings Are settled, Trump Appointee is Approved by Congress.

--China Makes Statement on War: Warns of “Visions Cycle”; If Prolonged g could Undermine Global Growth, Limit China Exports.

--SC leaning towards Rejecting State Laws on Mail In Ballots.

Ok, Trump, says, he has held talks on the “complete and total resolution of hostilities.: Teheran says No such talks took place. Thus, the frailties of diplomacy. But the markets went up.

Some people wonder what the titles of each Tids issue mean, They are always relevant but mostly in an obtuse way.

One of the hard decisions of older life is centered around doctors moving from practice to practice.

My wife thinks I care more about gambling than our kids. hat isn't true at all. I am going to stay in this casino until I win our son's tuition back to prove it.

Tyler Reddick won Nascar again, his fourth this year of six total races. At Darlington his car just looked too fast for anybody to catch him.

Will the Iran hiatus be good for Iran rearming and redeploying? They are a difficult country to trust.

I’ve been thinking of getting back into serializing a novel in this morning mess. I write them often for fun. It would be nice if they were read. This current one is about a guy, a writer who goes to Martha's Vineyard to do a humor story for the New Yorker Mag about wealthy liberals in estates there. Of course, along the way he meets a real old flame and gets trapped in a dangerous Web of mystery. What else.

I'm getting tired of my Winter clothes.

Outdoor grills are getting way to fancy and certainly much too expensive. I asked a good friend why the fascination with the pricy flattop grills. He said it’s so you can cook breakfast. Yikes. I said but flattop doesn't look good for steaks. But he answered, people who indulge in them will often say, I had the best steak ever. The best steaks I’ve ever grilled were the result of buying good meat.

I have a new walking/running treadmill. It hurts. It’s much easier walking a wooded path into greening glade.

A guy with a gambling addiction walks into a butcher shop.He goes to the butcher - "I bet you $500 you can't get the meat down from the top shelf without a ladder" The butcher says "I can't take that bet, the steaks are too high"

The Answer:

Number one is Lockheed Martin followed by RTX (Formerly Raytheon Technologies), General Dynamics, Boeing and Northrup Grumman. Some others down the list are Huntington-Ingalls, Humana, Harris Technologies, BAE Systems and Cencora. This list is based on US Department of Defense (War) Expenditures. Cencora is a distributor of Pharmaceuticals.