Penelope Wang

Pablo Picasso painting Guernica, 1937, Photo taken by Dora Maar

#art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

Iran’s Cheap, Plentiful Weaponry Puts US Military Under Unprecedented Strain As the conflict extends towards a third week, an arsenal of attack drones and ballistic missiles has helped make Tehran unlike any adversary the US has faced.

The US has burned through over 1,000 Patriot interceptors ($4 million each) to stop an onslaught of Iranian drones ($20k to $50k each).

Using my last gift link from Bloomberg, which is doing some of the best reporting anywhere on the war.

🎁 🔗

www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

This has 100% happened. The DOGE boys have an unmonitored, unsecured Signal chat where they make their plans and openly exchange data that are completely illegal for them to have viewed, let alone exfiltrated.

18 Senate Dems just voted to confirm Trump's NSA director:

Baldwin
Coons
Cortez Masto
Fetterman
Gillibrand
Hassan
Heinrich
Hirono
Kelly
King
Peters
Reed
Rosen
Schiff
Shaheen
Slotkin
Warner
Whitehouse

US Navy tells shipping industry Hormuz escorts not possible for now The U.S. Navy has refused near-daily requests from the shipping industry for military escorts through the Strait of Hormuz since ​the start of the war on Iran, saying the risk of attacks is too high f...

Whoa. This is big. "The U.S. Navy has refused near-daily requests from the shipping industry for military escorts through the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war on Iran, saying the risk of attacks is too high for now." www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Whistleblower claims ex-DOGE member says he took Social Security data to new job The Social Security inspector general’s office is investigating allegations that the former DOGE engineer took sensitive data on a thumb drive in a major potential security breach, said people familia...

The former DOGE engineer allegedly told the whistleblower that he needed help transferring restricted Social Security databases “to his personal computer so that he could ‘sanitize’ the data before using it" at his new private employer. (gift link)
wapo.st/4bAFCQZ

Unlike Past U.S. Conflicts, Iran Attack Is Opposed by Most Americans

Explore this gift article from The New York Times.

Credit Bureaus Are Leaving More Mistakes on Frustrated Consumers’ Reports Under Trump’s CFPB The credit bureaus have started dismissing a larger share of consumer complaints without help since the Trump administration began dismantling the CFPB.

Real-world implications: Credit Bureaus Are Leaving More Mistakes on Frustrated Consumers’ Reports Under Trump’s CFPB @joeljacobs.bsky.social

Exclusive | Seniors Paid Billions in Extra Premiums Due to Alleged Medicare Overpayments A congressional committee found that controversial practices like adding diagnoses in Medicare Advantage triggered higher bills for America’s seniors.

The average Medicare beneficiary paid $212 extra in 2025 due to Medicare Advantage “overpayments,” the committee found, while those higher incomes paid as much as $682 a year more. (gift link)
www.wsj.com/health/healt...

Ai Weiwei, “Chandelier”, 2015. Copper, crystal and light fixtures. Image courtesy of the Ai Weiwei Studio © 2026 Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

As an IR professor, it's depressing that this is outperforming all others as the best theory of US foreign policy

How Rising Home Insurance Costs Are Linked to Your Credit History (Gift Article) In many states, homeowners with “excellent” credit scores are charged less for home insurance than those with worse scores, even if they live in a disaster-prone area.

I shouldn't have been surprised by this but I really thought more states had banned pricing property insurance based on your credit score.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Early Iran strikes cost $5.6 billion in munitions, Pentagon estimates The figure, accounting for the war’s first two days, is likely to intensify concerns in Congress that U.S. forces are churning through a scarce supply of advanced weaponry.

Whaaaa? $5.6B in munitions in the first days of the #IllegalWar? Think of how the US defends itself - more what #education, #housing, #healthcare it would cover. Insanity runs rampant. wapo.st/4ufU1cV (gift to read but not a good gift.)

Billionaires Are Swaying Elections in All Corners of America

300 billionaires and their immediate family donated more than $3 billion—19% of all contributions—in federal elections in 2024, either directly or through PACs. Prior to Citizen's United, billionaire spending was only 0.3%. (gift link)
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/u...

This raises the obvious question of what kind of thing the Trump admin might need the National Transportation Safety Board to do that a conscientious Board member would reject.

NEW piece from me @goodauth.bsky.social on the disastrous consequences of Trump and Rubio dismantling U.S. diplomacy. Managing the Iran War will be much harder; so will picking up the pieces. Diplomacy is a tool of war AND of peace.

(Loosely based on thread below.)
goodauthority.org/news/trump-a...

Opinion | How Trump Betrayed His First Duty to Americans

Never realized the enormity of #evacuating thousands of people. Apparently, neither did #Rubio's severely understaffed #State Dept. ( All the experienced people were fired last year.)
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/o...

The Zombie Regulator As the cost of living continues to spiral upward, the Trump Administration is gutting the government agency built to protect Americans from financial ruin.

A concrete look at how the Trump’s attack on the Consumer Bureau (CFPB) harms everyone—as big tech, big bank, student loan servicers and auto lenders continue unsupervised due to Russell Vought’s assault on our finances.

A wonderful @newyorker.com piece by E. Tammy Kim:

This should, with no sarcasm or irony whatsoever, be the highlight of every Democrat's campaign starting today. Trump just effectively gave the corporate version of a pardon to the most hated company on the planet. Absolutely no one supports this.

NO NO NO YOU DON’T

GUYS LET ME PLEASE SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF FREE TAX USA

federal is free, state is $16, handles even my chaotic freelancer taxes just fine, same step-by-step “designed for normies” kind of interface as TurboTax but NOT EVIL

tell everyone you know

www.freetaxusa.com

I’m honestly really sad for all the close-to-retirement people whose lives will be extremely screwed up by the coming correction/crash. They didn’t really have much choice about this and were doing the best/only thing they could to save for retirement.

Stagflation Trades Sweep Markets as Trump Signals Widening War Optimism for a quick resolution of the conflict in the Middle East is rapidly ebbing in financial markets.

“The pendulum is swinging toward panic”

He’s running the global economy into a concrete wall with the pedal to the floor

Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Wait. The SPR is at 60 percent, even though you were planning a war against Iran for weeks, and oil was relatively cheap during that time?

Lowest-Tax Group Within Each State https://itep.org/whopays-7th-edition/

42 States tax the top 1 percent at a lower rate than the lowest 20 percent.

#Econsky
#ProgressiveTax
#Inequality

AOC: The Pentagon has not passed an audit, and they are out here trying to kick people with disabilities off of Medicaid. It is corruption that is stealing from the public coffers — and that is the actual waste, fraud, and abuse.

If you can catch dawn at low tide, it's a truly magical experience - all big sky and endless reflections. It feels like you're walking on clouds. Here's one of the shots I've taken recently at West Shore #Llandudno #photograph #landscapephotography

‘Dark, like our future’: Iranians describe scenes of catastrophe after Tehran’s oil depots bombed Residents report terror of smoke-filled city, from potentially toxic rain, air and water to food scarcity and difficulty of escape

Residents of Tehran report terror of smoke-filled city, from potentially toxic rain, air and water to food scarcity and difficulty of escape www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

I find it extremely difficult to believe that anyone experiencing what honestly looks like the apocalypse is going to regard it as a form of liberation or that anyone responsible for it actually cares about how Iranians regard it at all.

The Aurora Tree: Pictured is a visual coincidence between the dark branches of a nearby tree and bright glow of a distant aurora. The beauty of the aurora—combined with how it seemed to mimic a tree right nearby—mesmerized the photographer to such a degree that he momentarily forgot to take pictures