Friday, March 06, 2026
Picked fresh off the Toon-O-Sphere: CARTOON CAROUSEL
Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this week's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.
Trump Keeps Gambling With the Economy — And Getting Away With It . . .if the current state of relative stability ever does crack | POLITICO
President Donald Trump has launched an attack on Iran, a scenario that has long been the clearest and most direct threat to one of his favored political barometers: gas prices. |
------Stephanie Scarbrough/AP
------Stephanie Scarbrough/AP
Trump Keeps Gambling With the Economy — And Getting Away With It
President
Donald Trump has taken one risk after another that could have
destabilized the American economy. Iran is the latest crisis to test
U.S. economic resilience.
Victoria Guida is an economics correspondent at POLITICO and author of Capital Letter, a reported column that probes policies shaping the American economy and is closely read by policymakers and business executives.
"President Donald Trump has spent his second term turning risky economic gambles into a way of life.
- He has implemented sweeping global tariffs that have dramatically increased the cost of doing business across the world.
- He has sharply decreased the number of people immigrating to the U.S.
- He has pushed for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates under any circumstance, even though inflation has not entirely cooled."
And now, he’s launched an attack on Iran, a scenario that has long been the clearest and most direct threat to one of Trump’s favored political barometers: gas prices.
The U.S. now finds itself in another acute economic risk situation — an assault that Trump has said could last four weeks or more.
- The conflict has led to a jump in oil prices, though not quite to worst-case levels, and markets have been jittery about the prospect of more expensive energy and higher U.S. federal debt, stemming from the cost of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.
- Add it to the catalog of ways Trump is living dangerously — and, so far, mostly getting away with it.
- In so many ways, that is the story of Trump’s economic stewardship up to this point.
Of course, the extraordinary amount of business spending associated with the buildout of artificial intelligence has also been a significant factor keeping the economy plowing ahead at a solid pace.
But mostly, the U.S. economy is just a consumer-driven powerhouse that seems hard to crush...
“The shocks that have been hitting the economy are quite challenging to disentangle — not only the magnitude of the things, but also the duration,”
---Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management
SPOILER ALERT
But there is also one key way in which Trump is not getting away with all of this: public opinion.
According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll,
But there is also one key way in which Trump is not getting away with all of this: public opinion.
According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll,
- only 35% of Americans approve of his handling of the economy, and
- just 29% approve of his approach to inflation.
READERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO CONTINUE READING: POLITICO/Capital Letter
INSIDE TRUMP'S HEAD
Know Who’s Whispering the War Into Trump’s Ear: Biographer
IN THE FAMILY
It’s not a general or Cabinet member—it’s someone in Trump’s own family, biographer Michael Wolff says.
Donald Trump’s biographer believes he knows who’s quietly influencing the president’s decisions
RELATED OR NOT. . .
AeroSpace & Defense News
GDMS Awarded Contract to Continue Support to Trident II Strategic Weapon System
Delivering full life cycle support and next-generation fire control systems for strategic deterrence
General Dynamics Mission Systems announced today that it was awarded a cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee follow-on contract with an initial order value of $255 million as the prime integrator for the Trident II Fire Control System (FCS).
Under the
fiscal year 2026 FCS omnibus contract, General Dynamics will continue to
provide full life cycle and operational support for all deployed
Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) FCSs, as well as continue
the development, production and installation for all new
Columbia-class SSBN FCSs through 2032.
- The contract, awarded in January, includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value to $740 million.
- General Dynamics Mission Systems supports the Navy’s shipbuilding priority with FCS development, production, sparing and installation activities for three Columbia-class hulls along with additional labs and trainers kits.
- Continuous development for the Trident II D5 Life Extension 2 (D5LE2) FCS will occur under this contract, as well.
“General Dynamics Mission Systems has been a trusted provider of highly reliable fire control systems to the U.S. submarine force for more than seven decades. We remain committed to delivering highly reliable state-of-the-art, innovative solutions to the U.S. Navy. Supporting the strategic deterrent mission is a responsibility we take seriously, and we are dedicated to continuing our track record of on-time, on-budget delivery,” said Laura Hooks, vice president and general manager of Maritime and Strategic Systems at General Dynamics Mission Systems.
Work will be performed in
- Pittsfield, Massachusetts (87%);
- Bangor, Washington (1%);
- Kings Bay, Georgia (1%);
- Loanhead, Midlothian, United Kingdom (4%);
- Cape Canaveral, Florida (3%);
- Groton, Connecticut (3%); and
- Quonset Point, Rhode Island (2%).
Mar 4, 2026
View original News release
AV Awarded $97M US Army Contract to Advance Next-Gen Sensor Testing
AeroVironment, Inc. (“AV (NASDAQ: AVAV), a leading
provider of advanced research and development solutions for national
security missions, today announced it has been awarded a three-year,
$97.4 million contract under the U.S. Army’s Aviation and Missile
Technology Consortium (AMTC) to develop and deliver the Generative
Environment for the Next Era of Spectral Imaging Stimulators (GENESIS)—a
next-generation Hardware-in-the-Loop (HWIL) test environment for
validating advanced missile defense and electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR)
sensor systems.
- AV will design and integrate prototype test environments—including flight motion table and cryogenic space chamber facilities—at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, to accelerate the next generation of Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD).
- The unified environment will enable joint planning, modeling, and validation across space, air, and missile defense domains in support of the Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center (DEVCOM AvMC), and its government partners.
“True innovation in defense starts long before technology reaches the battlefield—it starts in how we test, refine, and prove it,” said Mary Clum, President of Space, Cyber and Directed Energy at AV. “By creating realistic, repeatable, and scalable testing ecosystems, we’re helping the Army accelerate innovation, strengthen deterrence, and ensure our warfighters maintain a decisive advantage in every domain.”
GENESIS represents a generational leap in Hardware-in-the-Loop (HWIL)
capability, integrating advanced multi-spectral projection, ultra–high
frame-rate imaging, precision optics, and intelligent facility control
systems to recreate complex, real-world environments with unmatched
fidelity.
- By combining real hardware with simulated environments, HWIL and Scene Generation enable realistic, dynamic testing of sensors, guidance, and control systems, allowing DEVCOM AvMC to validate and field technologies faster and with greater confidence, while refining performance, reducing risk, and strengthening the industrial base for future military applications.
“GENESIS shows what’s possible when industry and government align around a shared vision of innovation,” said Johnathan Jones, Senior Vice President for Cyber and Mission Solutions at AV. “We’re pushing the boundaries of sensor testing—advancing realism and precision to help the U.S. military accelerate development, reduce risk, and deliver mission-ready technologies that preserve our nation’s decisive advantage and give warfighters the most capable, reliable systems possible.”
Mar 5, 2026
View original News release
Launch of European Clean Aviation TAKE OFF project led by Safran and partners
The TAKE OFF (Technology And Knowledge for European Open
Fan Flight) project, funded under the European Union’s research and
innovation programme Clean Aviation, was officially kicked-off with the
ambition to bring the first Open Fan engine to flight.
- As the consortium leader, Safran Aircraft Engines will coordinate development efforts among 25 partners, bringing together European industry leaders—including Airbus, Avio Aero, and GKN Aerospace—with top universities and research centers.
The TAKE OFF project has been granted a €100 million funding from the
Clean Aviation public-private partnership to prepare for the first
flight demonstration of an Open Fan engine architecture by the end of
the decade. Building on the Clean Aviation OFELIA (Open Fan for
Environmental Low Impact of Aviation) project results, TAKE OFF aims at
pushing the technologies forward for the Open Fan engine architecture.
- This architecture was unveiled in 2021 as part of the CFM RISE technology demonstration program: the target is to achieve a 20% improvement in fuel efficiency for next-generation engines starting from mid-next decade.
“TAKE OFF embodies the European Union and aerospace industry’s shared ambition to make aviation more sustainable,” said Pierre Cottenceau, Vice President, Engineering, Research & Technology at Safran Aircraft Engines. “We’re proud to partner with leading industry players on this pivotal project shaping our sector’s future. Project synergies will pave the way for a full-scale Open Fan engine flight demonstration, showcasing the competitive benefits of such architecture in terms of energy efficiency and acoustic performances.”
The TAKE OFF project spans every stage — from demonstrator engine
assembly and aircraft integration to flight clearance and comprehensive
post-flight analysis.
- The project will culminate in an Airbus A380 flight demonstration, targeting technological maturity equivalent to a pre-development configuration.
- These efforts will be conducted in synergy with the results of the COMPANION (Common Platform and Advanced Instrumentation Readiness for Ultra Efficient Propulsion) project led by Airbus.
“The Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking is excited to launch this flagship action for the programme and notably for the short/medium-range aircraft thrust” said MarÃa Calvo, Head of Unit Project Management at Clean Aviation. “Building on the good results shown with OFELIA and COMPANION, TAKE OFF must now demonstrate the viability of the disruptive Open Fan engine concept at a higher maturity level, in line with the flight test campaign expected for 2029.”
As part of Clean Aviation’s roadmap for ultra-efficient short/medium-range aircraft, TAKE OFF will provide flight-proven demonstration for this propulsion technology — guiding engine design and mitigating industrial investment risks.
Mar 5, 2026
View original News release
Advanced Energy Storage for Defense & Security Summit 2026
National Harbor, MD
May 27 - 28, 2026
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