How High
Plus: FISA reauthorization passes the House, a very capitalist museum, escalation in the redistricting wars, and more...
High prices. Oil prices briefly hit a wartime high of over $120 a barrel, before falling slightly, reports The New York Times. The paper attributes the spike to President Donald Trump's comments yesterday that the U.S. would continue its blockade of Iranian ports until the country completely abandoned its nuclear program.
Higher global oil prices are being felt by everyday gas buyers.
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Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for the gas price tracker GasBuddy, said on X that prices in some states are returning to levels not seen since summer 2022, when energy disruptions caused by the Ukraine-Russia war and high inflation sent prices to all-time highs.
Gas prices in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin are now at their highest levels since summer 2022, and are approaching new all-time records
— Patrick De Haan (@GasBuddyGuy) April 30, 2026
Average national gas prices sit at $4.30 per gallon, according to AAA. The all-time average national average was $5.01 per gallon in the summer of 2022; that amounts to a 30-cent increase in the past week. Gas prices were below $3 per gallon before the war started.
Despite high energy costs, other measures of the economy appear strong. The jobless rate is at its lowest level since 1969, says Bloomberg.
Even so, if there's one thing one can say for sure about American politics, it is that the average person does not like to pay higher gas prices in the service of any cause, whether we're fighting climate change or the Islamic Republic.
Should the war continue to push up energy prices, one can expect it to get less and less popular. Consumer dissatisfaction is still probably our best hope for peace. That's certainly a more powerful political force these days than Congress.
FISA reauthorization passes. After much intra-partisan drama yesterday, the Republican-controlled House has passed a three-year extension of the controversial Section 702 program of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is set to expire today.
Some 22 Republicans ended up opposing reauthorization of the spying program. These defectors were outweighed by the 42 Democrats who voted with the vast majority of Republicans to renew FISA. The reauthorization passed with a 235–191 vote.
42 Democrats just joined 192 Republicans to reauthorize FISA Section 702 – a warrantless surveillance law that's been used to access Americans' data.
Democratic leadership did not whip their members, enabling them to vote with Republicans and give Trump the surveillance powers. pic.twitter.com/dHS4hKtGrh
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) April 29, 2026
The Section 702 program allows the federal government to surveil the communications of foreigners located outside the United States without first getting a warrant. Critics charge that it gives the intelligence community a backdoor to typical Fourth Amendment privacy protections, because the feds can use FISA to snoop on those foreigners' communications with Americans as well.
The House passed FISA Section 702 renewal yesterday. I voted NO.
This was a Uni-Party vote in favor of unchecked government surveillance without adequate warrants or accountability. pic.twitter.com/kjFRIZpAXk
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 30, 2026
Most Democrats and a minority of privacy-minded Republicans wanted to add warrant requirements to the law. The bill, without those warrant protections, goes to the Senate, which now has one day to pass the bill, or some other stopgap measure, before the program expires.
Scenes from Washington, D.C.: Together with some family visiting from out of town, I went to the Mansion on O Street in D.C.'s Dupont Circle neighborhood. Technically a museum, it's really more of a labyrinthine memorabilia shop. A series of rooms connected by "secret doors" display everything from old T.V. guides to guitars signed by Crosby, Stills, and Nash. As an added capitalist twist, everything you see is for sale.
QUICK HITS
- The redistricting wars continue following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in a landmark Voting Rights Act case. After the high court struck down racial gerrymandering, Louisiana and Alabama, two states with purposeful majority-minority districts, are moving to redraw their congressional maps.
- Bad news for Venezuelan rock fans.
Los Mesoneros, a rock band from Venezuela, announces cancellation of U.S. dates, including next week in Miami Beach, due to unresolved immigration issues pic.twitter.com/IzHpgQMpGM
— David Smiley (@NewsbySmiley) April 29, 2026
- The Trump administration is suing New Jersey over its law banning most law enforcement, including federal law enforcement, from wearing masks. If rulings out of the 9th Circuit are any guide, the Garden State's mask ban is doomed.
- Polo officials ban genetically modified ponies. What's next, a license to make toast in your own damn toaster?
- We've created a new subtype of ADHD.