Bob's Almanack

Ask for evidence and watch them.

~ Robert

A Note from Robert V. Ussley

This week is about what happens when the public record has to carry more than slogans. A climate scenario becomes a prophecy when its assumptions fall off. A Treasury auction prices war, debt, fuel, and patience without asking who needs a cleaner sentence. A courthouse turns law into a machine for patronage. A chemical tank makes the fence line visible only after families leave home. The common object is the receipt: model inputs, yields, vouchers, monitors. Public life improves when the bill is named before it reaches the doorstep.

New from Outside In Print

Editorial cartoon showing children, reporters, and officials watching a glowing museum display labeled Current Crisis, while older exhibits labeled Y2K, Mayan 2012, Population Bomb, and Peak Oil sit under a sign for the Museum of Expired Catastrophes.

The Scenario That Ate the Future

RCP8.5 began as a high-end climate scenario and became a public picture of the future, showing how assumptions can become policy language after the caveats leave the room.

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The War Premium at the Auction

A 10-year Treasury yield above 4.5 percent turns war, energy, deficits, and Federal Reserve patience into one daily public price.

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The Courthouse That Ate the Republic

Boss Tweed's New York shows how poverty, courts, contracts, ballots, and belonging can be joined into one machine of public power.

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The Tank at the Fence Line

A cracked aerospace chemical tank in Garden Grove turns private storage into public geography, with residents, roads, schools, and emergency agencies inside the same risk map.

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This Week's Virtue

Prudence

Prudence is not fear with better manners. It is the habit of asking what a number, document, building, or tank will do once it leaves the sentence that made it sound clean. A prudent public life does not wait for the bill to become dramatic. It checks the assumption, the price, the receipt, and the address.

One Number

3.8%

BEA's April 2026 personal income and outlays release put the PCE price index 3.8 percent above April 2025; core PCE was up 3.3 percent. source

One Document

Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, April 28-29, 2026

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2026-05-20

The Fed released the April 28-29 minutes on May 20 and noted that the descriptions were based on information available to the Committee at the meeting. source

Results

Hurricanes 6, Canadiens 1: Carolina won Game 5 and reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2006. source
Spurs 118, Thunder 91: San Antonio forced Game 7 in the Western Conference finals; New York already awaits the winner. source

Records

NBA said its 2026 playoffs were off to their best U.S. viewership start in 33 years, averaging 3.91 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and Prime Video. source
San Antonio made eight first-quarter 3-pointers in Game 6, its most in a playoff quarter since play-by-play tracking began in 1997-98. source

Final Bows

Beaches played its final Broadway performance at the Majestic Theatre on May 24 after 38 performances and 28 previews. source
New York City Ballet principal Megan Fairchild took her final bow on May 24 after 25 years with the company. source

Obituaries

Manny Fernandez, Dolphins defensive tackle on the 1972 Perfect Team and a two-time Super Bowl champion, died at 79. source
Claude Lemieux, four-time Stanley Cup champion with Montreal, New Jersey, and Colorado, died at 60. source

Diligence is the Mother of Good-Luck.

~ Poor Richard

Worth Reprinting

The Strait That Holds the Price

Read it beside this week's Treasury piece because a narrow sea passage can turn war, shipping, fuel, and household prices into one shared line.

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The bill's not paid if its still in the mail.

~ Robert