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Bombs for Bonds: Iran and the Geopolitics of Refinancing

Predictably, Iran is the next crisis in line. No sooner were we told to obsess over the latest unsealing of the Epstein files than our gaze was already redirected toward the geopolitical brinkmanship now threatening to engulf the entire Middle East. It is Iran’s turn, then, in rapid succession after Venezuela, the ongoing strangulation of Cuba, and especially the Gaza genocide – a catastrophe abruptly pushed from the news cycle. The theatre of war must be permanent, and it requires fresh meat. The long-awaited Iranian escalation fits the role: the latest bloodletting in a permanent and carefully curated carnival of violence, chaos, and outrage staged by the custodians of our glorious civilisation. The carnage is real, and so are its victims. But to focus on this theatre alone is to miss the main event, the hidden trigger of the violence now detonating around us. The real story of American power in the twenty-first century is being written in the arcane world of bond auctions, speculative bubbles, repo markets, and the relentless, silent mechanics of debt. The modern financial system is no longer built on productivity, wages, or shared prosperity. It is built on highly leveraged speculations: an ever-expanding, increasingly abstract tower of claims on future wealth creation that the underlying economy can no longer generate. Since the 1980s, as technological productivity surged and labour’s share of value stagnated, finance metastasized to compensate. Leverage substituted for growth and debt became not just an instrument but the system’s organizing principle. And now, as the United States confronts an unprecedented wall of IOUs that must be refinanced, this foundational reality has come to drive everything else. With almost $39 trillion in federal debt and a maturity profile that demands constant rollover, the United States does not merely prefer low interest rates and exceptional monetary injections – it structurally depends on them. Moreover, it is not only the federal government that is drowning. American private-sector debt – corporate, household, and financial – now runs into the tens of trillions, much of it floating on a sea of opaque leverage and asset bubbles that would burst if interest rates failed to fall or liquidity dried up. In this context, geopolitical dominance should be framed as monetary dominance. Crisis drives capital into Treasuries, suppresses yields, and enables rollover. Thus, the Iran escalation could paradoxically extend the lifespan of the AI bubble: geopolitical risk boosts defence-AI spending, while an oil shock may crush consumption and suppress core inflation (as the “pandemic shock” did in 2020), opening the door to renewed Federal Reserve easing and the liquidity injections required to keep the debt-driven architecture of U.S. markets intact. The strikes themselves were a joint US-Israel operation, blending American surveillance architecture with Israeli precision targeting. Notably, they were executed through AI-assisted military systems – reportedly involving models such as Anthropic’s Claude, already deployed in earlier operations like the Venezuela raid – illustrating how the very technologies inflating financial markets are simultaneously becoming embedded in the infrastructure of modern warfare. Historically, capitalism’s great technological leaps – from railways to nuclear energy to the internet – have advanced in tandem with the machinery of war. AI proves no exception. Strip away the geopolitical drama, then, and the real story is financial fragility. The least one can say is that without the weekend bombing of Iran, U.S. market drops would have been more chaotic and disorderly, because investors would have focussed directly on financial fragility. The pressure has been building for months in the sprawling private-credit market, where lightly regulated lenders have pumped hundreds of billions into companies that traditional banks would not touch, from subprime auto financing to leveraged corporate borrowers. Early warning signs – such as the collapsing of Tricolor Holdings and First Brands (both filed for bankruptcy in September 2025, with extremely high liabilities) – suggest that cracks are appearing first in the weakest corners of the credit cycle, precisely where excess liquidity tends to accumulate when expanding. The latest rupture is the collapse of Market Financial Solutions (MFS), a UK property lender forced into administration after creditors alleged that the same collateral had been pledged multiple times, leaving more than 80% of roughly £1.2 billion in debts effectively unaccounted for. Markets had started to notice, as even Wall Street giants like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have seen sharp equity declines of roughly 6%. It is a worrying signal when institutions of systemic importance come under pressure rather than the usual fringe lenders. Against this backdrop, [warnings](https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/jamie-dimon-warns-pre-financial-

Mexican cartels overpower police with ammunition made for the US military - ICIJ

On the morning of Nov. 30, 2019, a convoy of pickup trucks carrying men armed with a heavy machine gun and powerful .50-caliber rifles entered the Mexican town of Villa Unión and opened fire. The men had been sent on a mission of intimidation: They planned to set fire to the town hall. Their superior firepower pinned down state and local police officers as they waited for military reinforcements. Terrorized residents scrambled to take cover from the hail of bullets. The smell of smoke filled the streets and spent casings covered the ground like “fallen leaves,” said Luis Manzano, a Mexican journalist who drove into town during the shooting. But his most vivid memory was the thunder of .50-caliber guns. The “ground trembled” as they fired, he said. “I had never experienced anything like that.” The military drove off the assailants. In the end, four police officers, two civilians and 19 cartel members were killed. Afterward, as investigators collected evidence from the scene, they gathered at least 45 .50-caliber casings stamped with the initials “L.C.” The letters stand for the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, a sprawling facility just outside Kansas City, Missouri, that is owned by the U.S. government and is the largest manufacturer of rifle rounds used by the American military. It has also been a major supplier of ammunition for American consumers, including .50-caliber cartridges. These powerful rounds — as big as a medium-sized cigar and designed to be used by the military to destroy vehicles and light aircraft — are currently available for purchase by civilians across the United States. Millions of pages of court documents, seizure records and government data obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and The New York Times show how agreements between the Army and the private contractors that run Lake City have allowed .50-caliber ammunition and components made at the plant to enter retail markets and fall into the hands of Mexican cartels. Mexico’s government has also purchased Lake City ammunition, the documents show, although they do not indicate the caliber. The U.S. domestic market for the ammunition is small: .50-caliber rifles, which have limited civilian application, typically retail for thousands of dollars, and heavy machine guns like the one used in Villa Unión cost considerably more. The guns’ standard cartridges average between $3 and $4 apiece and are rarely purchased by American gun owners. But in Mexico, where cartels have deep pockets and a seemingly endless appetite for .50-caliber firearms, demand is high. Cartel gunmen armed with .50-caliber firearms have downed helicopters, assassinated government officials, shot at police and military forces, and massacred civilians. Since 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has seized more than 40,370 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition in states bordering Mexico, according to data obtained through public records requests. Lake City’s product accounted for about a third of them, a larger share than any other manufacturer. While .50-caliber ammunition from other companies — located primarily in Brazil and South Korea — has also made its way to Mexican cartels, the data makes clear that the U.S. Army plant has been a major source of the destructive ammunition being used to wage military-style battles with Mexican authorities. This includes a particularly powerful version of Lake City’s ammunition — incendiary rounds capable of piercing armor, which were used in an attack on Mexican police in 2024 and are for sale online today In February of last year, the Trump administration declared six Mexican cartels to be foreign terrorist organizations, yet these same organizations are acquiring ammunition made at the plant owned by the U.S. Army. At least 16 online retailers have sold armor-piercing ammunition made at Lake City or made with components from the plant, according to a count by ICIJ and The Times. Vasily Campbell, who owns one of those businesses, said he stopped selling the ammunition “about two years ago once we found out where it was going and how it was getting there.” He said he became suspicious when buyers began asking to have 100-round ammo cans delivered to residential addresses. “That’s not a normal purchase,” he said. “There’s several orders I straight-up canceled.” The U.S. Army did not respond in detail to questions about the use of Lake City ammunition by drug cartels. In an email, a spokesperson said that allowing commercial sales from the plant has saved taxpayers around $50 million annually, primarily by lowering the government’s cost for ammunition. The impact that one .50-cal has in a firefight is outrageous … They really, really tip the scale — former ATF agent Chris Demlein Successive presidential administrations have pledged to crack down on the flow of arms to Mexico. And in September, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a new initiative with the Mexican governmen

Poison at play: Unsafe lead levels found in half of New Orleans playgrounds

Sarah Hess started taking her toddler, Josie, to New Orleans’ Mickey Markey Playground in 2010 because she thought it would be a safe place to play after Josie had been diagnosed with lead poisoning. Hess had traced the problem to the crumbling paint in her family’s century-old home. While it underwent lead remediation, the family stayed in a newer, lead-free house in the Bywater neighborhood near Markey, where Josie regularly played on the swings and slides. “Everyone was telling us the safest place to play was outside at playgrounds, so that’s where we went,” Hess said. Josie’s next blood test was a shock. “It skyrocketed,” Hess said. Josie’s lead levels had leapt to nearly five times the national health standard. When the soil at Markey was tested in late 2010, it too was found to have dangerously high levels of lead. But the city took no meaningful action to inform Markey’s users or make the park safe. Parents started posting warning signs at the park and flooded City Hall with outraged calls and emails. Holding Josie in her arms, Hess made an impassioned speech to the City Council.  A child’s shoes are left in the dirt next to the playground at Mickey Markey Park in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans in November 2025. It’s common for children to play barefoot at this playground. Christiana Botic / Verite News and Catchlight Local / Report for America In short order, the city had hired a company to test Markey and other parks, and pledged to fix the lead problem wherever it was found. “I couldn’t have been more pleased,” Hess said. “They were totally into it. My impression was they were going to make them all lead-free parks.” But a Verite News investigation conducted over four months in 2025 found that lead pollution in New Orleans parks not only persists, it is more widespread than previously known. Dozens of city parks with playgrounds remain unsafe, including Markey and others that underwent city-sponsored lead remediation in 2011. The city does not appear to have conducted any major remediation or lead testing of parks since that time. The findings indicate that city officials fell short in their cleanup efforts then, and that a very large number of New Orleans children are exposed to excessive amounts of lead now, said Howard Mielke, a retired Tulane University toxicologist and one of the nation’s leading experts on lead contamination. “It’s a failed program,” he said. “They didn’t do what they needed to do to bring the lead levels down in a single park.” Verite News reporters tested hundreds of soil samples from 84 city parks with playgrounds in fall 2025. Adrienne Katner, a lead contamination researcher with Louisiana State University, verified the results. The testing found that about half the parks had lead concentrations that exceed [a federal hazard level](https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden-harris-administration-strengthens-safeguards-protect-families-and-children-lead) established in 2024 for soil in urban areas. “I am surprised they haven’t been tested and mitigated,” said Gabriel Filippelli, an Indiana University biochemist who studies lead exposure. “If there’s evidence of kids playing in soils that are as high as [Verite’s testing] described, that’s kind of horrifying.” Public health researchers and doctors say that children under 6 absorb lead-laden dust more easily than adults, contaminating their blood and harming the long-term development of their brains and nervous systems. There is no known safe exposure level for children, and even trace amounts can result in behavioral problems and lower cognitive abilities. ### **Find out what the lead levels are at New Orleans playgrounds** New Orleans is in financial straits with a [budget deficit](https://veritenews.org/2026/01/07/helena-moreno-interview-mayor/) of about $220 million, and it’s unclear what priority or resources Mayor Helena Moreno will, or even can, allocate to restart lead remediation efforts. In response to the financial crisis, Moreno has eliminated dozens of positions and plans to [furlough 700 employees](https://veritenews.org/2026/01/27/new-orleans-moreno-cuts-layoffs-deficit/) one day per pay period to save money. Moreno’s administration did not respond to requests for comment. The city doesn’t routinely test for lead in parks, said Larry Barabino, chief executive officer of the New Orleans Recreation Development, or NORD, Commission, the agency that oversees most of the city’s parklands. He confirmed the last significant effort to test parks ended in 2011. He called Verite’s results “definitely concerning” and pledged to work with city departments and local experts to potentially remediate unsafe parks. “Safety is our number one priority here at NORD,” Barabino said. “If there’s anythin

The Chomsky-Epstein Files: Unravelling a Web of Connections Between a Star Leftist Academic & a Notorious Pedophile

By Alan MacLeod – Feb 7, 2026 6 Key findings of this investigation: * + Right up until his arrest for child sex trafficking, Chomsky was advising Epstein on crisis management, sympathizing with the “horrible way you are being treated in the press and public.” + On multiple occasions, Chomsky expressed his desire to visit Little St. James Island, site of Epstein’s infamous sex crimes. + Chomsky flew on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” jet, stayed at his mansions in Manhattan and Paris, and regularly met him for dinner and other social occasions. Chomsky quietly met with a host of other highly questionable characters, including Steve Bannon, Woody Allen, and Ehud Barak. + Chomsky considered Epstein his “best friend,” and his closest advisor, and regularly exchanged gifts with the disgraced pedophile. + Chomsky’s relationship with his children broke apart, due in part to their protests over his attempts to name Epstein’s accountant and right-hand man to the board of the family’s trust fund. + Chomsky’s relationship with his children broke apart, due in part to their protests over his attempts to name Epstein’s accountant and right-hand man to the board of the family’s trust fund. Newly released documents have shed light on the unlikely relationship between renowned leftist professor Noam Chomsky and disgraced pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Analyzing over 3800 emails and texts involving the academic, MintPress News has uncovered a deep, years-long friendship between the two, one where they became “best friends” and each other’s closest confidants. Chomsky flew on Epstein’s notorious “Lolita Express” jet, stayed at his apartments in Manhattan and Paris, and expressed his desire, on multiple occasions, to visit Little St. James Island, the location of many of Epstein’s worst sex crimes. Years of exchanging gifts and dining together – events that frequently included other highly controversial characters, such as disgraced filmmaker Woody Allen, far-right political strategist Steve Bannon, and former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, turned the pair into the closest of friends. Chomsky became a key figure in Epstein’s attempts at crisis management, sharing his thoughts about strategies to quash and counter what he called “the onslaught of venomous attacks” against him. Meanwhile, Epstein became the star political philosopher’s trusted legal and financial advisor, a fact that would lead to a near collapse in the relationship between Noam and his children. This is the story of the previously unknown relationship between the man who The New York Times [called](https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/25/archives/the-chomsky-problem-chomsky.html) “the most important intellectual alive” and the world’s most infamous sexual predator. **Noam Chomsky: Jeffrey Epstein’s Crisis Manager** After 36 survivors – some as young as 14 – came forward, billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein was convicted in 2008 on charges related to child sex crimes. He was, however, given only an 18-month sentence, and served only 13 months in a minimum security prison that he was allowed to leave six days per week. The U.S. attorney who struck this lenient deal [reportedly](https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/14/20803950/jeffrey-epstein-conspiracy-theories-clinton-trump-acosta) stated that he did so under duress, and was told to “back off,” as Epstein “belonged to intelligence.” Key to Epstein’s crimes becoming known was the testimony of his victim, Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre alleged that Epstein and his partner [Ghislaine Maxwell](https://www.mintpressnews.com/maxwell-family-epstein-mossad-cia/290379/) operated a worldwide sex trafficking operation, where women and girls were kidnapped and forced to have sex with the world’s rich and powerful. This [allegedly](https://time.com/6552063/jeffrey-epsteins-unsealed-court-documents/) included royals like Prince Andrew, politicians such as Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, and academics, like Alan Dershowitz. Epstein reportedly made his fortune by keeping copious evidence of their sex crimes and extorting his clients. Previous Epstein Files releases have strongly indicated that Epstein, like Maxwell’s [father and family](https://www.mintpressnews.com/maxwell-family-epstein-mossad-cia/290379/), worked for Israeli intelligence. The testimony from Giuffre and others sparked worldwide uproar, eventually forcing the U.S. government to act. In 2019, the FBI arrested Epstein, holding him in a high security Manhattan prison. Just weeks later, he was found dead in his cell, under highly suspicious circumstances. Epstein was aware that the walls were closing in. Months before his arrest, he sent Chomsky a number of panicked emails, desperately asking for guidance on how to squash the widespread demands for his arrest. On February 23, 2019, he [wrote](https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02633330.pdf): “Noam. I’d love your advice on how I handle my putrid press. Its is spiralling out of

The Chomsky-Epstein Files: Unravelling a Web of Connections Between a Star Leftist Academic & a Notorious Pedophile

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/25970 > ### 6 Key findings of this investigation: > > * *Right up until his arrest for child sex trafficking, Chomsky was advising Epstein on crisis management, sympathizing with the “horrible way you are being treated in the press and public.”* > * *On multiple occasions, Chomsky expressed his desire to visit Little St. James Island, site of Epstein’s infamous sex crimes.* > * *Chomsky flew on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” jet, stayed at his mansions in Manhattan and Paris, and regularly met him for dinner and other social occasions.* > * *Chomsky quietly met with a host of other highly questionable characters, including Steve Bannon, Woody Allen, and Ehud Barak.* > * *Chomsky considered Epstein his “best friend,” and his closest advisor, and regularly exchanged gifts with the disgraced pedophile.* > * *Chomsky’s relationship with his children broke apart, due in part to their protests over his attempts to name Epstein’s accountant and right-hand man to the board of the family’s trust fund.* > > Newly released documents have shed light on the unlikely relationship between renowned leftist professor Noam Chomsky and disgraced pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Analyzing over 3800 emails and texts involving the academic, MintPress News has uncovered a deep, years-long friendship between the two, one where they became “best friends” and each other’s closest confidants. Chomsky flew on Epstein’s notorious “Lolita Express” jet, stayed at his apartments in Manhattan and Paris, and expressed his desire, on multiple occasions, to visit Little St. James Island, the location of many of Epstein’s worst sex crimes.  > > Years of exchanging gifts and dining together – events that frequently included other highly controversial characters, such as disgraced filmmaker Woody Allen, far-right political strategist Steve Bannon, and former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, turned the pair into the closest of friends. Chomsky became a key figure in Epstein’s attempts at crisis management, sharing his thoughts about strategies to quash and counter what he called “the onslaught of venomous attacks” against him. Meanwhile, Epstein became the star political philosopher’s trusted legal and financial advisor, a fact that would lead to a near collapse in the relationship between Noam and his children.  > > This is the story of the previously unknown relationship between the man who The New York Times [called](https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/25/archives/the-chomsky-problem-chomsky.html) “the most important intellectual alive” and the world’s most infamous sexual predator.  > > Noam Chomsky: Jeffrey Epstein’s Crisis Manager > ---------------------------------------------- > > After 36 survivors – some as young as 14 – came forward, billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein was convicted in 2008 on charges related to child sex crimes. He was, however, given only an 18-month sentence, and served only 13 months in a minimum security prison that he was allowed to leave six days per week. The U.S. attorney who struck this lenient deal [reportedly](https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/14/20803950/jeffrey-epstein-conspiracy-theories-clinton-trump-acosta) stated that he did so under duress, and was told to “back off,” as Epstein “belonged to intelligence.” > > Key to Epstein’s crimes becoming known was the testimony of his victim, Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre alleged that Epstein and his partner [Ghislaine Maxwell](https://www.mintpressnews.com/maxwell-family-epstein-mossad-cia/290379/) operated a worldwide sex trafficking operation, where women and girls were kidnapped and forced to have sex with the world’s rich and powerful. This [allegedly](https://time.com/6552063/jeffrey-epsteins-unsealed-court-documents/) included royals like Prince Andrew, politicians such as Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, and academics, like Alan Dershowitz. Epstein reportedly made his fortune by keeping copious evidence of their sex crimes and extorting his clients. Previous Epstein Files releases have strongly indicated that Epstein, like Maxwell’s [father and family](https://www.mintpressnews.com/maxwell-family-epstein-mossad-cia/290379/), worked for Israeli intelligence.  > > The testimony from Giuffre and others sparked worldwide uproar, eventually forcing the U.S. government to act. In 2019, the FBI arrested Epstein, holding him in a high security Manhattan prison. Just weeks later, he was found dead in his cell, under highly suspicious circumstances.  > > Epstein was aware that the walls were closing in. Months before his arrest, he sent Chomsky a number of panicked emails, desperately asking for guidance on how to squash the widespread demands for his arrest.  > > On February 23, 2019, he [wrote](https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02633330.pdf): > > *“Noam. I’d love your advice on how I handle my putrid press. Its is spiralling out of control. Do I have someone write an oped? Defend myself.

The Chomsky-Epstein Files: Unravelling a Web of Connections Between a Star Leftist Academic & a Notorious Pedophile

### 6 Key findings of this investigation: * *Right up until his arrest for child sex trafficking, Chomsky was advising Epstein on crisis management, sympathizing with the “horrible way you are being treated in the press and public.”* * *On multiple occasions, Chomsky expressed his desire to visit Little St. James Island, site of Epstein’s infamous sex crimes.* * *Chomsky flew on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” jet, stayed at his mansions in Manhattan and Paris, and regularly met him for dinner and other social occasions.* * *Chomsky quietly met with a host of other highly questionable characters, including Steve Bannon, Woody Allen, and Ehud Barak.* * *Chomsky considered Epstein his “best friend,” and his closest advisor, and regularly exchanged gifts with the disgraced pedophile.* * *Chomsky’s relationship with his children broke apart, due in part to their protests over his attempts to name Epstein’s accountant and right-hand man to the board of the family’s trust fund.* Newly released documents have shed light on the unlikely relationship between renowned leftist professor Noam Chomsky and disgraced pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Analyzing over 3800 emails and texts involving the academic, MintPress News has uncovered a deep, years-long friendship between the two, one where they became “best friends” and each other’s closest confidants. Chomsky flew on Epstein’s notorious “Lolita Express” jet, stayed at his apartments in Manhattan and Paris, and expressed his desire, on multiple occasions, to visit Little St. James Island, the location of many of Epstein’s worst sex crimes.  Years of exchanging gifts and dining together – events that frequently included other highly controversial characters, such as disgraced filmmaker Woody Allen, far-right political strategist Steve Bannon, and former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, turned the pair into the closest of friends. Chomsky became a key figure in Epstein’s attempts at crisis management, sharing his thoughts about strategies to quash and counter what he called “the onslaught of venomous attacks” against him. Meanwhile, Epstein became the star political philosopher’s trusted legal and financial advisor, a fact that would lead to a near collapse in the relationship between Noam and his children.  This is the story of the previously unknown relationship between the man who The New York Times [called](https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/25/archives/the-chomsky-problem-chomsky.html) “the most important intellectual alive” and the world’s most infamous sexual predator.  Noam Chomsky: Jeffrey Epstein’s Crisis Manager ---------------------------------------------- After 36 survivors – some as young as 14 – came forward, billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein was convicted in 2008 on charges related to child sex crimes. He was, however, given only an 18-month sentence, and served only 13 months in a minimum security prison that he was allowed to leave six days per week. The U.S. attorney who struck this lenient deal [reportedly](https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/14/20803950/jeffrey-epstein-conspiracy-theories-clinton-trump-acosta) stated that he did so under duress, and was told to “back off,” as Epstein “belonged to intelligence.” Key to Epstein’s crimes becoming known was the testimony of his victim, Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre alleged that Epstein and his partner [Ghislaine Maxwell](https://www.mintpressnews.com/maxwell-family-epstein-mossad-cia/290379/) operated a worldwide sex trafficking operation, where women and girls were kidnapped and forced to have sex with the world’s rich and powerful. This [allegedly](https://time.com/6552063/jeffrey-epsteins-unsealed-court-documents/) included royals like Prince Andrew, politicians such as Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, and academics, like Alan Dershowitz. Epstein reportedly made his fortune by keeping copious evidence of their sex crimes and extorting his clients. Previous Epstein Files releases have strongly indicated that Epstein, like Maxwell’s [father and family](https://www.mintpressnews.com/maxwell-family-epstein-mossad-cia/290379/), worked for Israeli intelligence.  The testimony from Giuffre and others sparked worldwide uproar, eventually forcing the U.S. government to act. In 2019, the FBI arrested Epstein, holding him in a high security Manhattan prison. Just weeks later, he was found dead in his cell, under highly suspicious circumstances.  Epstein was aware that the walls were closing in. Months before his arrest, he sent Chomsky a number of panicked emails, desperately asking for guidance on how to squash the widespread demands for his arrest.  On February 23, 2019, he [wrote](https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02633330.pdf): *“Noam. I’d love your advice on how I handle my putrid press. Its is spiralling out of control. Do I have someone write an oped? Defend myself. Or try to ignore. Realizing that mobs are dangerous!”* “Can use some advice. The press is painting me as a monster. C

Trump’s $1.5 Trillion “Dream Military”

 Image by Diego González. What constitutes national security and how is it best achieved? Does massive military spending really make a country more secure, and what perils to democracy and liberty are posed by vast military establishments? Questions like those are rarely addressed in honest ways these days in America. Instead, the Trump administration favors preparations for war and more war, fueled by potentially enormous increases in military spending that are dishonestly framed as “[recapitalizations](https://theintercept.com/2025/12/08/air-force-hegseth-ken-wilsbach-nuclear-weapons/)” of America’s security and safety. Such framing makes Pete Hegseth, America’s self-styled “secretary of war,” seem almost refreshing in his embrace of a [warrior ethos](https://www.businessinsider.com/hegseths-warrior-ethos-speech-now-mandatory-viewing-for-military-2025-10). Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is another “warrior” who [cheers for conflict](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/graham-suggests-trump-help-iran-protesters-military-cyber-psychological-attacks-against-regime), whether with Venezuela, Iran, or even — yes! — Russia. Such [macho men](https://bracingviews.com/2016/08/03/too-many-troops-have-died-in-the-name-of-big-boy-pants-2/) revel in what they believe is this country’s divine mission to dominate the world. Tragically, at the moment, unapologetic warmongers like Hegseth and Graham are winning the political and cultural battle here in America. Of course, U.S. warmongering is anything but new, as is a belief in global dominance through high military spending. Way back in 1983, as a college student, I worked on a project that critiqued President Ronald Reagan’s “defense” buildup and his embrace of pie-in-the-sky concepts like the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), better known as “Star Wars.” Never did I imagine that, more than 40 years later, another Republican president would again come to embrace SDI (freshly rebranded as “[Golden Dome](https://jacobin.com/2025/11/trump-golden-dome-nuclear-defense)”) and ever-more massive military spending, especially since the Soviet Union, America’s superpower rival in Reagan’s time, ceased to exist 35 years ago. Amazingly, Trump even wants to bring back naval battleships, as Reagan briefly did (though he didn’t have the temerity to call for a new class of ships to be named after himself). It’ll be a “[golden fleet](https://breakingdefense.com/2026/01/first-trump-class-battleship-could-cost-over-20-billion-cbo/),” says Trump. What gives? For much of my life, I’ve tried to answer that very question. Soon after retiring from the U.S. Air Force, I started writing for *TomDispatch*, penning my first article there in 2007, asking Americans to [save the military](https://tomdispatch.com/astore-on-a-military-bemedaled-bothered-and-beleaguered/) from itself and especially from its “surge” illusions in the Iraq War. Tom Engelhardt and I, as well as Andrew Bacevich, Michael Klare, and [Bill Hartung](https://tomdispatch.com/venezuela-the-revival-of-regime-change/), among others, have spilled much ink (symbolically speaking in this online era) at *TomDispatch* urging that America’s military-industrial complex be reined in and reformed. Trump’s recent advocacy of a “[dream military](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-proposes-massive-increase-in-2027-defense-spending-to-1-5-trillion-to-build-dream-military)” with a proposed budget of $1.5 trillion in 2027 (half a trillion dollars larger than the present Pentagon budget) was backed by places like the [editorial board of the *Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/01/14/trump-defense-spending-trillion/), which just shows how frustratingly ineffectual our efforts have been. How discouraging, and again, what gives? Sometimes (probably too often), I seek sanctuary from the hell we’re living through in glib phrases that mask my despair. So, I’ll write something like: *America isn’t a shining city on a hill, it’s a bristling fortress in a* [*valley of death*](https://bracingviews.substack.com/p/tis-the-season-for-war); or, *At the Pentagon, nothing succeeds like failure*, a reference to [eight failed audits](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-fails-eighth-audit-targets-2028-pass-pentagon-says-2025-12-19/) in a row (part of a [30-year pattern](https://www.stephensemler.com/p/house-boosts-military-budget-as-pentagon) of financial finagling) that accompanied disastrous wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. Such phrases, no matter how clever I thought they were, made absolutely no impression when it came to slowing the growth of militarism in America. In essence, I’ve been bringing the online equivalent of a fountain pen to a gun fight, which has proved to be anything but a recipe for success. In America, nothing — and I

December 17, 2025

This morning, four vulnerable Republicans signed onto the discharge petition all House Democrats have signed to force Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to bring a bill to extend the premium tax credits for purchasing healthcare insurance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) markets to the floor for a vote. The proposal extends the credits for three years. Republicans who recognize that the American people overwhelmingly want the extensions have been fighting their colleagues who want to get rid of the ACA and slash government spending in general. Instead of extending the credits, House leadership is proposing a package of policies popular among their conference; the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports that it will drop about 100,000 people a year off health insurance through 2035 but will save the government $35.6 billion. Without the extension of the premium tax credits, which Republicans permitted to lapse at the end of the year when they passed their July budget reconciliation bill that they call the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the 24 million Americans who buy insurance on the ACA marketplace will see their insurance premiums skyrocket, and millions will lose their health insurance altogether. And yet, Republicans oppose the extensions, which will cost the government about $350 billion over the next ten years. The Republicans’ extension of the 2017 tax cuts in that same bill will cost about $4 trillion over the same period. Yesterday, Johnson dismissed the members of his conference who wanted to vote on the extension, saying that “many of them did want a vote on this Obamacare covid-era subsidy the Democrats created. We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve, and it just was not to be.” Representative Mike Lawler (R-NY) told reporters: “This is absolute bullsh\*t.” When the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee struck down all the Republican attempts to amend the Republican bill by extending the tax credits, four Republicans signed the Democrats’ discharge petition. The four Republicans who signed are Lawler and Brian Fitzpatrick, Rob Bresnahan, and Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania. David G. Valadao of California told Marianna Sotomayor, Kadia Goba, and Riley Beggin of the *Washington Post* that he would have signed, too. This evening, the House passed the Republican healthcare measure, which is expected to die in the Senate. The House will vote on extending the premium tax credits in January. Meryl Kornfield and Hannah Natanson of the *Washington Post* reported today on a court filing by lawyers for the government that claims it is legal for the administration to distribute federal money only to Republican-dominated states, withholding it from Democratic-dominated states. The government admitted that it withheld grants from the Department of Energy according to “whether a grantee’s address was located in a State that tends to elect and/or has recently elected Democratic candidates in state and national elections (so-called ‘Blue States’).” Without evidence, the government claimed that such discrimination “is constitutionally permissible, including because it can serve as a proxy for legitimate policy considerations.” Kornfield and Natanson note that this is a “remarkably candid admission” that “echoes…Trump’s frequent vows to punish cities and states that he sees as his enemies, from withholding disaster relief for Southern California to targeting blue cities with National Guard troops.” Joey Garrison of *USA Today* reported yesterday that a senior White House official told him the Trump administration is dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. Since 1960, NCAR scientists have studied Earth’s atmosphere, meteorology, climate science, the Sun, and the impacts of weather and climate on the environment and society. Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe wrote that “[d]ismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet.” Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought told Garrison that the center is “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country” and that the government will break it up, moving what he called “any vital activities such as weather research” to “another entity or location.” Earlier that day, Garrison notes, the administration cancelled $109 million in grants to Colorado. Colorado governor Jared Polis said he had not heard the news about NCAR but that “[i]f true, public safety is at risk and science is being attacked. Climate change is real, but the work of NCAR goes far beyond climate science. NCAR delivers data around severe weather events like fires and floods that help our country save lives and property, and prevent devastation for families. If these cuts move forward, we will lose our competitive advantage against foreign powers and adversaries in the pursuit of scientific discovery.” Trump has repeatedly a