03/12/26

Good morning! It’s Thursday, March 12th.

National Girl Scout Day.

Which is a reminder to myself that I haven’t bought cookies yet.

And now, the news.

Iran

-via AP News, The Hill, NBC News, and Washington Post

Starting with… do you have $11.3 billion the US government can borrow?

That’s how much this first week of the war in Iran has cost.

“They got money for wars, but can't feed the poor,” INDEED Tupac.

What has that money gone towards? Well, a lot, but according to a preliminary independent investigation, which includes a missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed at least 165 people, the majority of whom were children.

Remember yesterday when Senator Lindsey Graham said he wasn’t taking the bait and that he didn’t care about it enough to want an independent investigation? That’s probably why. And probably why he’ll be super disappointed to learn that the United States is launching one after all.

It’s expected to take months and, if confirmed, would be one of the deadliest incidents involving citizens in decades.

As the war enters its 12th day, Iranian and Lebanese health officials have reported more than 1,200 people killed in Iran and 634 killed in Lebanon. In southern Lebanon, as well as parts of Beirut, more than 816,700 people have been forced to leave their homes.

Israeli authorities have reported 12 dead in Israel.

On Wednesday, this is low on the list of priorities but given that I am, somehow, ranked high in international searches for soccer news (which… now that I’m thinking about it… soccer is very popular internationally. How is this happening??). Whatever, anyway… on Wednesday the Iranian Sports Minister announced that Iran would not be participating in the World Cup, which, as you are very likely aware, will be played here in North America, with most of the games happening in the United States.

On the note of soccer… Australia, mate, has granted asylum to five members of the Iranian women’s soccer team who were playing a tournament in the country when the war began. They gained a lot of news coverage when they didn’t sing the Iranian anthem before their match.

Want to hear something wild? Even Trump said Australia should grant them asylum.

Trump! Who, when Colin Kaepernick was kneeling during the national anthem, said, "Maybe he should find a country that works better for him. Let him try. It won't happen.”

Also, Trump! Who is, right now, having people who have entered America legally, through the asylum process, arrested and then kicked out of the country, and sometimes sent to a third country, which these people have never even been to and where they’re less safe.

Also, Trump! Who is in the Epstein files and has been found liable for sexual assault, acting like he’s protecting these women.

I really… not a fan of that guy.

Anyway, Australia has granted them asylum.

Also, the Department of Defense has banned press photographers from briefings because Pete Hegseth doesn’t like how he looks in photos. Unfortunately, it’s not clear if he doesn’t like how he looks in one specific photo or just in general.

Doesn’t he know it’s what’s on the inside that he should be hating?

In Michigan, whoa! No whoosh? Yeah, cause we’re in Michigan but we’re still talking Iran… in Michigan, Iranian-linked hackers are taking credit for a cyber-attack on the medical-equipment company Stryker, causing a global operational shutdown. Some employees found their cell phones and laptops had been wiped in the attack.

As of this recording, the company, which is based in K-Zoo, Michigan, is still working to get back online.

Iran is also upping their attacks on ships, with three more ships attacked in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. Of course, this is also a huge disruptor for oil. To help offset this, the US will release 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve next week, as part of the International Energy Agency’s 400 million barrels in total that member countries will be releasing.

It’s meant to help, and I’m sure it will… for like, a second. But it can only be done once. And then the reserve is gone, and we’re still at war.

And then what? The only fuel we’ll have is the joy I feel from seeing unflattering photos of Pete Hegseth.

TSA and the Shutdown

-via CBS News

And I know we all keep kind of forgetting but we’re still in a partial government shutdown. On Wednesday, Democrats said they were willing to fund some of DHS but not ICE or Border Patrol. Republicans said this was a non-starter, so no one got anywhere.

Including travelers (nailed it), because as the partial shutdown enters week four, while many TSA agents had already been missing checks, we’re now at the point where a LOT of them have missed checks.

And remember, just a few months ago, the government went through the longest shutdown in history – during which time these agents were forced to work without pay.

And I don’t know if you heard that last story but it sure seems, to me at least, like right now would be a great time to pay these agents so we can make sure our airport security is the best it can possibly be.

Just a thought?

Maybe Republicans would like to come to the table on negotiations?

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of Girl Scouts. I was a Girl Scout. And a brownie.

You gotta do so many good things. And you gotta earn patches. And you gotta be surrounded by so many cookies, and you can eat cookies, as many as you’d like, but you can’t eat the cookies that other people ordered, and that takes real discipline.

But more than Girl Scouts… because you’re as sweet as a frozen Samoa cookie on a hot summer day… I’m proud of you.