5 Comments on “Thursday Political Cartoons: FDT”

1. dakinikat says:

   March 12, 2026 at 10:16 am

   Three more ships struck in the Persian Gulf as Iran warns of oil prices hitting $200

   Three more foreign ships were struck in the Persian Gulf overnight, authorities said, as attacks intensify on vessels sailing through or near the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

   The latest incidents come after three separate vessels sustained damage in Gulf waters on Wednesday and as Iran warns oil prices could climb to $200 a barrel.

   A container ship was struck by an unknown projectile about 35 nautical miles north of Jebel Ali, a major port city near Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, or UKMTO, center said on Thursday. The incident caused a small fire onboard, and all crew were reported to be safe.

   Earlier, two foreign oil tankers were left ablaze in Iraqi waters after having been struck near the port of Umm Qasr, close to the city of Basra.

   At least one person was killed in the attack, according to multiple media reports, citing Iraqi port officials, and 38 crew members were rescued from the ships. Iraq’s General Company for Ports was not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNBC.

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   • Mama Lopez says:

     March 12, 2026 at 12:22 pm

     Fucking hell…

     Reply
2. dakinikat says:

   March 12, 2026 at 12:43 pm

   https://bsky.app/profile/josephcox.bsky.social/post/3mguwds2u5k2i

   I Watched 6 Hours of DOGE Bro Testimony. Here’s What They Had to Say For Themselves

   The hours of videos provide fascinating, or perhaps horrifying, insight into the thinking of someone inside DOGE.

   Over the course of a six hour long or so deposition, Justin Fox, a former investment banker turned DOGE bro, refused to define what he believes counts as DEI; admitted he used ChatGPT to scan government contracts for terms such as “Black” and “homosexual” but not “white” or “caucasian;” and said that one of the grants he helped slash was “not for the benefit of humankind” before walking that claim back.

   I watched all of Fox’s deposition from start to finish. The terse exchanges, the circular arguments, the pregnant pauses, all of it. The videos, available publicly on YouTube, were released as part of a lawsuit by the Modern Language Association, American Council of Learned Societies, and American Historical Association. They provide fascinating, or perhaps horrifying, insight into the thinking of someone inside DOGE. Even with Fox’s inability to answer seemingly easy questions, the responses are still illustrative of the recklessness and hamfisted nature of a group of young, inexperienced people who caused massive damage across the U.S. government, leading to negative consequences outside of it. DOGE as an organization has been linked to 300,000 deaths due to its cuts and multiple significant data breaches. All the while, DOGE did not actually reduce the government’s deficit. 

   Before joining DOGE, Fox was an associate at the Los Angeles-based private equity firm Nexus Capital. Now he is a co-founder of a company called Special, with Nate Cavanaugh, another DOGE member. Fox says the company is “buying businesses in senior care, adopting technology to pay the nurses and caregivers more, so that the aging population has enough nurses to meet the demand.” Before joining DOGE, he had no experience in government nor public grant administration, he says in the deposition.

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3. dakinikat says:

   March 12, 2026 at 12:45 pm

   Iran has repeatedly and methodically targeted U.S. missile defense infrastructure in response to Operation Epic Fury.

   The Pentagon has confirmed an Iranian strike on a radar system at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan valued at $300 million, and Iran’s response – called Operation True Promise 4 – has surgically focused on targeting the detection systems that underpin the entire U.S. defensive architecture in West Asia, reported Monthly Review Online.

   “The AN-TPY/2 radar is essentially the heart of the THAAD battery, enabling the launch of interceptor missiles and contributing to a networked air defense picture,” munitions specialist N.R. Jenzen-Jones told CNN last week. “It also happens to be an incredibly expensive piece of kit.”

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4. dakinikat says:

   March 12, 2026 at 12:47 pm

   Female defectors say the MAGA movement has dropped the pretense of protecting women and now demands submission while ‘advertising it will be cruel and fickle.’

   — New York Magazine (@nymag.com) 2026-03-12T09:10:21.654Z

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