Add another $1.8 billion minimum for blockade costs to date, not to mention all the knock-on costs in the tens of billions to economies and consumers globally

 Iranian foreign minister will head to China for talks, as Pentagon reveals financial cost of war 

... The Iran war cost an estimated $33.4 billion as of June 29, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, which released a lead inspector general report to Congress on the Iran war Monday tracking the conflict up to the end of June. That includes $184 million in physical damage to U.S. diplomatic facilities in four countries — Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — from Iranian strikes, it said. ... 

Despite 2,500 National Guard troops still patrolling Washington DC it is not a crime-free zone

 

Yeah, but what Trump saved with military spending cuts to Ukraine he's blowing on the Iran war, which is why he's asking for $1.5 trillion in defense spending next year

 Europe’s rearmament push drives global military spending to record $2.9 trillion despite U.S. pullback

The U.S. national debt is up $3.069 trillion to date since November 1, 2024, an annual rate of deficit spending of $2.2 trillion after seventeen months of Donald Trump. 

... Global military spending as a share of GDP climbed to 2.5%, its highest level since 2009, the report showed. Europe was the main driver of the increase in global spending, with spending rising 14% to $864 billion. ...

While global defense spending continued to grow, the growth rate slowed to 2.9% in 2025, markedly lower than the 9.7% rise in 2024. This was largely due to a 7.5% reduction in U.S. military expenditure after no new financial assistance for Ukraine was approved during the year. The U.S. remained the world’s largest defense spender at $954 billion. ...

The Pentagon has requested about $1.5 trillion in defense spending for fiscal 2027, which would mark the largest request in history. ...

Because socialism is expensive

 Scarborough: How Did We Spend Trillions On Defense—And We're Running Out Of Munitions After A One-Month War?

One week after Supremes rule against Trump, he withdraws National Guard from Chicago, LA, and Portland

 Trump gives up on National Guard deployments in Chicago, LA, Portland 

... The pullback comes a week after the Supreme Court delivered a stark blow to Trump’s push for military troops to patrol U.S. city streets, rejecting his bid to send National Guard members to the Chicago area to protect federal officials enacting his immigration agenda.

In an apparent 6-3 decision, the court explained that federal law generally bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement, and the law Trump used to call up the National Guard likely only applies when the president is unable to execute laws with the regular forces of the military. ... 

 

I missed the December 23 Supreme Court decision story because my cat died the very hour it broke.

 

I guess I'll always remember her now as the Posse Comitatus Cat. 

 

Supreme Court rejects Trump’s bid to send National Guard to Chicago

 ... Citing the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the military from engaging in domestic law enforcement unless explicitly authorized by the Constitution or Congress, the court found Trump lacked the authority to deploy troops to Illinois in this case.

“At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois,” the unsigned order states. ...

Hegseth should never have been confirmed to SECDEF, Inspector General's report finds his use of Signal in March jeopardized troop safety against the Houthis

 Hegseth risked ‘potential harm to US pilots’ in using Signal to discuss strikes: Report

... “The Secretary sent nonpublic DoD information identifying the quantity and strike times of manned U.S. aircraft over hostile territory over an unapproved, unsecure network approximately 2 to 4 hours before the execution of those strikes,” the report states.

“Using a personal cell phone to conduct official business and send nonpublic DoD information through Signal risks potential compromise of sensitive DoD information, which could cause harm to DoD personnel and mission objectives.” ...

“Although the Secretary wrote in his July 25 statement to the DoD OIG that ‘there were no details that would endanger our troops or the mission,’ if this information had fallen into the hands of U.S. adversaries, Houthi forces might have been able to counter U.S. forces or reposition personnel and assets to avoid planned U.S. strikes,” the report concluded.

“Even though these events did not ultimately occur, the Secretary’s actions created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.” ...

 

 

Senator Tom Cotton calling the September 2nd drug boat strikes righteous is utterly contemptible: The US military waited an hour to kill the shipwrecked survivors

 US airstrike survivors clung to boat wreckage for an hour before second deadly attack, video shows: Footage seen by US senators shows two unarmed, shirtless men struggling to stay afloat before they were killed, sources say

Two men who survived a US airstrike on a suspected drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean clung to the wreckage for an hour before they were killed in a second attack, according to a video of the episode shown to senators in Washington.

The men were shirtless, unarmed and carried no visible radio or other communications equipment. They also appeared to have no idea what had just hit them, or that the US military was weighing whether to finish them off, two sources familiar with the recording told Reuters.

The pair desperately tried to turn a severed section of the hull upright before they died. “The video follows them for about an hour as they tried to flip the boat back over. They couldn’t do it,” one source said. ...

The US Department of Defense’s Law of War manual forbids attacks on combatants who are incapacitated, unconscious or shipwrecked, so long as they abstain from hostilities and do not attempt to escape. The manual cites firing upon shipwreck survivors as an example of a “clearly illegal” order that should be refused. ...           

 

These aren't even combatants. The military has no business in any of this. That's why we have a Coast Guard in the first place.  

Trump's base is not happy: Strong disapproval of Trump hits new high 46% in Rasmussen Reports Poll, strong approval hits new low 27% for a second day

Trump's total disapproval score remains at a record high 55% for a second day.

His strong approval score is now a record low 27%, lower than his April 9th tariff low of 29%, his only sub-30 score until the last two weeks.

Trump has had a string of eleven sub-30 strong approval scores since November 11th.

Trump kicked off the period on November 11th stating that we needed H-1B workers because we didn't have enough talent in America. The longest federal government shutdown in history ended on Wednesday the 12th. Around the 15th he reversed his tariffs on coffee and other food items which had contributed to their record high prices in the first place. The same day brought the news that he had also stabbed Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia in the back over her criticism of the GOP's refusal to extend the Obamacare premium tax credits. The Epstein files saga came to a head on the 18th requiring their release, but will we ever see them? TikTok was supposed to be sold or shut down by act of Congress, too, and it has not been. On the 19th Trump was kissing the ass of the Saudi killer of Khashoggi, MBS, in the Oval Office. On the 20th Trump's secret 28-point plan with Russia to carve up Ukraine came to light. On the 22nd Democrats went on camera talking darkly about illegal orders being given to the military in the Caribbean. A National Guard soldier was executed on the streets of DC on the 26th by an Afghan refugee let into America by Biden but given residency by Trump. By the 29th we learned that survivors of a Trump drug boat attack in the Caribbean on September 2 were executed in a subsequent strike by the US military, which they obviously hoped no one would ever find out about. They spent the whole time since making up shit about this being a war justifying military engagement when everyone knows it's not a war and killing people for running drugs in the first place is wrong, otherwise the job we give the Coast Guard to do year in and year out has been simply a pointless exercise.

Trump's base is not happy. Pick your reason(s). 

 

 

Comrade Karoline claims war crime was legal even as she said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth knew nothing about it but Admiral Frank Bradley did

White House Throws Admiral Under the Bus on Boat Strike

S.V. Date, HuffPost

 

... Killing survivors of a destroyed vessel is literally an example of a war crime in the U.S. Department of Defense Law of War Manual. “For example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal,” the manual reads.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt, nevertheless, repeatedly stated that it was legal – even as she further claimed, as President Donald Trump did Sunday, that Hegseth was unaware that it had happened.

“On Sept. 2, Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated,” she said.

At the time of the attack off the Trinidad coast, Frank Bradley was head of the Joint Special Operations Command. According to a Washington Post report about the incident, it was he who relayed the order from Hegseth to “kill everybody” by sending Navy SEALs back to the disabled boat to have them kill the two people clinging to the wreckage.

In October, Bradley was promoted to run the U.S. Special Operations Command. ...

Kash and Kristi of the most talented and impressive administration in history do Vegas F1 just like the regular folks, four days before the DC National Guard shooting on Wednesday

 

He could have done this in his first term, he could have done this in January, but he did it only now because he is wholly reactive, a man without an actual vision

 

Trump says U.S. to ‘permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries’ after DC shooting

 

 

 

 

Victor Davis Hanson is as blind to reality as Trump

 

Victor Davis Hanson: Trump Is Stronger Than He Ever Was, The Left Is Desperate

 

 

Trump II started his term with a 5-seat advantage in the U.S. House. 

 

Trump I started his term with a 47-seat advantage.

 

Nothing lasting was achieved the first time with a huge majority, and sure as hell won't be this time because he's incompetent and the Congress hates his guts.

 

The resignation of Marjorie Taylor Greene may be just the tip of the iceberg about to sink Trump II forever. But even if it's not, a 5-seat advantage screams gridlock if Republicans will not compromise on anything.

 

Trump can issue all the Executive Orders he wants. They will be undone. He can declare all the emergencies he wants. They will be ended. 

 

There is no substitute for legislation, and he's not going to get any.

 

Meanwhile the Department of Defense is still the Department of Defense, my shrimp still come from the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great White North is still Canada, eh?

 

 

 

 

 

  

Nothing shows that Trump is still a Democrat at heart more than his restated support for ending the Senate filibuster

Imagine the ten worst things either side would pass with a simple majority as soon as it got it.

Republicans could repeal Obamacare right now without the filibuster, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

In the future Democrats could easily pass Medicare For All without it, and close the Department of Defense.

Elections would become even more desperate contests for power than they already are, and a deeply divided America would plunge into chaos.

Everything would become far less predictable, which would poison the economy.

Americans and their employers would become even more vulnerable to the federal pickpockets who populate the halls of Congress. 

Just say No to Mad King Ludwig. 

 

 

  

 

Trump keeps escalating the domestic militarism in order to foment unrest where none exists, so that he can justify federal martial law if unrest does occur

Trump wields the military like it's his own personal plaything, just itching to violate the Posse Comitatus Act.

Meanwhile those liberal fanatics at the American Enterprise Institute have really gone off the deep end in their Trump derangement.

 

Pentagon readying thousands of 'reaction forces' as DOMESTIC missions widen...

Troops across country being trained for civil unrest...

 

... Trump has mobilized thousands of National Guard members in D.C., Los Angeles and Memphis, with deployments to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, delayed by court decisions. He has claimed unfettered authority to deploy military personnel onto American soil, including active-duty troops, which by law are prohibited from performing law enforcement duties except in extreme cases or if the president invokes the Insurrection Act.

 

... “They are increasing their ability to mobilize National Guard forces, federalize them and use them over the opposition of localities and governors,” said Kori Schake, director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

 

... While the courts have at times contested Trump’s domestic military deployments, Congress has abdicated its oversight responsibility, Schake said, prompting larger concerns of institutional decay.

 

 “They’re behaving like a parliament, not like a presidential system,” she said. “And it’s going to break the American order, our constitutional order, if Congress and governors can’t check executive power.”

Ministry of Truth: DHS propaganda videos routinely lie about chaos in American cities to prepare the people for active duty military deployments, paid liar admits it was only in a few lol

DHS paid liar Tricia McLaughlin says they lie in less than 2% of hundreds of propaganda videos

 

 Trump administration uses misleading videos to portray chaos, push deportations

The Department of Homeland Security posted a swaggering montage to social media in August declaring it had triumphed in its takeover of Washington, D.C. It showed footage of federal agents fighting what a DHS official called a “battle for the soul of our nation” and working “day and night to arrest, detain and deport vicious criminals from our nation’s capital.”  

There was one problem. Several of the clips had been recorded during unrelated operations months earlier, in Los Angeles and West Palm Beach, Florida. The official’s sound bite about deportations in D.C. played over a clip from May showing detainees on a Coast Guard boat off the coast of Nantucket, the Massachusetts island 400 miles away.

Officials in President Donald Trump’s administration have used similarly misleading footage in at least six videos promoting its immigration agenda shared in the last three months, a Washington Post analysis found, muddying the reality of events in viral clips that have been viewed millions of times.

Some videos that purported to show the fiery chaos of Trump-targeted cities included footage from completely different states. One that claimed to show dramatic examples of past administrations’ failures instead featured border crossings and smuggling boats recorded during Trump’s first term. 

The Post provided DHS a detailed list of videos featuring misleading footage. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin did not dispute the errors or explain what had happened but said the videos were a small percentage of the more than 400 that the agency has posted this year. ... 

A White House video claiming Chicago was “in chaos,” which used footage from other states, has been viewed more than 1.4 million times across Instagram, TikTok and X. ...

But the pattern of misleading clips in their news-style videos amount to more than just minor editing errors, said Eddie Perez, a former director for civic integrity at Twitter, now called X. Instead, they suggest that the administration has worked to undercut criticism by pumping out videos that could deceive Americans about the scale or success of their policies, transforming government channels into propaganda tools. 

“What we are witnessing is the collapse of government accountability through communication based on facts,” he said. “They’re not trying to communicate actions and outcomes. They’re acting like filmmakers, trying to make people laugh, to make them feel scared, to inspire certain emotions regardless of the truth.” ... 

 

 

Tyrant Trump wants the American military in our streets just like the PLA is in China, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act which prohibits the use of federal troops to enforce domestic law

Maybe that all-volunteer-army idea wasn't such a great one after all.

A "large standing Army in time of Peace hath ever been considered dangerous to the liberties of a Country".  -- George Washington

The "means of defense against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home".  -- James Madison

"When once a standing army is established in any country, the people lose their liberty". -- George Mason   

 

 Trump Says He Is Prepared to Send ‘More Than the National Guard’ Into U.S. Cities 

... “We have cities that are troubled, we can’t have cities that are troubled,” Mr. Trump said. “And we’re sending in our National Guard, and if we need more than the National Guard, we’ll send more than the National Guard, because we’re going to have safe cities.” ... 

The president delivered his speech on the U.S.S. George Washington, an aircraft carrier docked south of Tokyo, at an American military base in Japan that was set up in the aftermath of World War II. It was an unsubtle show of force as Mr. Trump prepares to meet China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, this week, for talks that hold great stakes for the global economy. ...

 

Musk is still Adolf's man

 

 Musk calls for federal troops in San Francisco even as Benioff softens stance

I dunno they kinda fit right in there in Illinois if you ask me

 

Let's cut to the chase: They need the National Guard to protect ICE from the people

If Trump were really serious about deportations, he'd be going after the employers, which would be far easier than going after eleventy million illegals or whatever it is.

That's how you know this is all fake, all performative. 

It is deportation theatre, from beginning to end.

The goal is 3,000 deportations a day, which over four years is only 4.3 million.

It is unserious policy, for an unserious country, but it is going to cost serious money. 

 

 

Here's another fascist ass-kisser: GOP 2026 US Senate candidate Mike Rogers wants Trump to send the military to Detroit