THE WAR ROOM: Iran will allow 20 more oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump announced last night aboard Air Force One, describing it as a “sign of respect” for the United States.

  Whose ships they are and where they might go, Trump didn’t say. Iran allowed 10 ships to pass last week as well. China and India are among the largest buyers of Iranian crude so Iran might be trying to curry favor with them rather than Trump.

  Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said Iran was “not at all happy that people in other countries are facing difficulties due to fuel and food prices,”

  No news broke over the weekend about peace talks with Iran, which continues to trade fire with Israel. Trump said, “You never know with Iran. You negotiate with them and then we always have to blow ‘em up.” 

  The US is building up ground forces in the region, now adding Army Rangers and Navy SEALs to thousands of Marines and paratroopers.

  Yonatan Touval, a foreign-policy analyst in Tel Aviv, writes incisively in The NY Times that the dependence of America’s leaders on pinpoint intelligence and military might leaves them blind to who and what they are fighting.

  He says, “This is the recurring illusion of overequipped leaders: Because they can map the battle space, they think they understand the war. But war is never merely a technical contest. It is shaped by grievance, sacred narrative, the memory of past humiliations and the desire for revenge.”

  He goes on, “A mind tutored by history and literature knows that actors in the grip of a sacred cause tend to mean what they say — and that bombing a founding myth is more likely to consecrate it than to dissolve it.”

  And Youval says, “The more technologically sophisticated war becomes, the more dangerous it is to place it in the hands of people untrained in irony, contingency and the darker constants of human nature. Such leaders will speak fluently of capabilities, timelines and kill chains. They will have no language for resentment, dishonor, loyalty or grief — and they will discover, too late, that wars are made of these as much as of steel and fire.”

GET ON LINE: Congress is on spring break ensuring that the funding deadlock for the Transportation Security Administration will last longer than another two weeks, although the government says TSA agents may get paid as soon as today following an emergency order by President Trump.

  Nearly 500 TSA agents have quit during the stalemate and no-shows have run as high as 40 percent at some airports resulting in waits of several hours for passengers to pass through security checkpoints.

  For more than a month Democrats demanding changes in the professional behavior of Immigration and Border Patrol agents have refused to vote for funding for the Department of Homeland Security, although it’s the TSA agents and the travelling public who are paying the price. ICE and Border Patrol agents are still getting paid under President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. 

NO KINGS: Hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of Americans filled the streets on Saturday for “No Kings” rallies protesting the presidency of Donald Trump in what may have been in total the biggest political demonstration in the history of the country.

  President Trump was playing golf and issued no response or reaction. He posted an online complaint about the expense of Obamacare health insurance.

  Crowds that were originally motivated by outrage over immigration sweeps and Trump’s trampling of constitutional rule were fed by his war against Iran and the possibility of another open-ended conflict.

  Protesters carried signs saying such things as “Stop the idiocracy,” “Grab ’em by the midterms,” “I’m not paid, I hate Trump for free,” and “Democracy Dies in Silence.”

  Rocker Bruce Springsteen appearing in Minneapolis where two citizens were killed by ICE agents told the crowd “This is still America and this reactionary nightmare and these invasions of American cities will not stand.”

VIVA CUBA: The Trump administration is allowing a Russian oil tanker to pass through the American blockade of Cuba, bringing desperately needed fuel to the island country. The shipment could give Cuba a few more weeks of power and light.

  President Trump has cut off oil shipments to Ukraine from Venezuela in a passive campaign for regime change. The blockade has resulted in daily blackouts, severe gasoline shortages, spiking prices, and threatening overall economic collapse. Cuban doctors say patients are dying because of the blockade.  

IT’S POLITICAL: Adam Johnson, who became a lasting image of the January 6^th insurrection when he was photographed grinning while carrying away Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern, is running for a seat on the Board of Commissioners for Manatee County between Tampa and Sarasota. A man who tried to overturn a democracy is hoping to be part of running one.

   The 41-year-old Johnson pleaded guilty to trespassing and spent 75 days in jail. He was pardoned by President Trump along with all the other January 6^th rioters.

  Now Johnson wants to inject MAGA values into local government and he’s not sorry about January 6^th. He told The Washington Post that, “Saying I’m guilty betrays my fundamental belief that I had a right to go protest.”

HOOP DREAMS: With 10 seconds on the clock last night Duke led UConn by three points when Silas Demary Jr. missed the first of two free throws. He hit the second and all Duke had to do was control the ball to win, but they threw one too many passes.

 UConn intercepted and freshman Braylon Mullins hit a three-pointer with .4 seconds left. It will go down as one of the legendary finishes in March Madness.

  The final four: Illinois v. UConn and Michigan v. Arizona on Friday.

BELOW THE FOLD: The annual charity hockey game between the New York police and fire departments broke into bench-clearing brawls. The cops won 3-2 and filed no charges against the losers.