Tuesday, August 18, 20026. Chump and Hegseth fail our troops daily, Democrats want answers, Todd Blanche isn't fit for the position of Attorney General, and much more.
Energy SecretaryChris Wright says about 9 million barrels of oil are moving through the Strait of Hormuz every day.
But nonpartisan oil tanker trackers say it’s likely 7 million barrels at best, or more likely, closer to 5 million.
President
Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the oil is flowing freely through
the strait, which even before the war was a global energy chokepoint.
On Monday, he told reporters at the White House that the U.S. has total
control over the strait and that “we’re taking out millions of barrels
of oil a week.”
"The strait is open and the oil
prices are coming down, and they will continue to come down unless we
decide to do something more drastic than what we've been doing,” Trump
said.
But experts say the Trump
administration’s figures cannot be trusted because there’s no data that
shows that volume of oil is actually moving through the strait.
He can't be trusted to tell the truth.
The
Trump administration chose this war, launched it without congressional
authorization, has repeatedly changed its definition of success and has
failed to define an achievable political end. It owns the strategic
failure. But bad strategy does not absolve military leaders of
responsibility for how military force has been employed.
Senior
military leaders must advise whether the administration’s objectives
can be achieved through force, design and adapt the campaign, protect
and supply the forces doing the fighting and tell civilian leaders when
an approach cannot succeed. We do not know what advice commanders
provided to civilian leadership in private, but we can evaluate the
campaign they planned and conducted.
American
forces have accomplished some extraordinary things. They destroyed much
of Iran’s conventional navy, operated extensively inside Iranian
airspace and struck thousands of targets with remarkable precision. That
performance deserves credit.
But Iran did not
need to defeat the U.S. conventionally. It needed to preserve enough
combat power to keep imposing costs. After five months of American
attacks, Iran remains capable of striking U.S. forces and disrupting
global commerce.
Iran has largely refused to
fight on America’s terms. It has dispersed and hidden its missiles and
drones, attacked U.S. bases and the logistics networks that support
American power, and used mines and shore-based weapons to threaten
commercial shipping.
U.S. military doctrine
identifies protection and sustainment as fundamental functions:
protecting forces and the bases, equipment and communications they rely
on, while ensuring they have the weapons and supplies to continue
fighting. The campaign has fallen far short in both.
At
Shuaiba port in Kuwait, an Iranian drone struck a tactical operations
center lacking overhead protection or a counter-drone system, killing
six American soldiers. CBS News reported that ground leaders used the
site despite a recommendation against it and that requests for
additional defenses went unfilled.
And the dishonesty coming from Chump and Hegseth only drags it out further.
Pete
Hegseth is known for his loose lips, for his efforts at playtime and
for being unfit to serve as Secretary of Defense. Even he knows he's
not fit which is why he tries to get people to call him Secretary of
War. He's failed the enlisted time and time again. He's fired
qualified generals. He's attacked trans troops. He's ridiculed those
serving under him as he pretends that he's the state of manhood and
masculinity when he has the body of a very lazy fourteen-year-old. What
kind of a person let's people serve on the USS LINCOLN without the
needed supplies and resources?
The tale of Donald Trump
sneaking off Air Force One
in a catering truck captured public attention for many reasons. It was a
reminder that, for all his tough talk, the president harbors a sense of
fear. Hiding away in a glorified ice chest would also have been a blow
to the 80-year-old’s dignity. But the charade, which was first revealed
by the Washington Post, also gave us insight, as political scientist
Scott Lemieux
wrote, “into who he considers his actual inner circle.”
Left behind
on the decoy plane were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury
Secretary Scott Bessent, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen
Miller and other administration officials and aides. The only people
deemed worthy of saving from Iran’s reported threat were people whose
full-time jobs are tending the president’s body and, more importantly,
his ego: Natalie Harp, who
writes Trump love letters, and whose main job is showing him flattering social media posts.
Body man Walt Nauta. Dan Scavino,
Trump’s former golf caddie. Oh yeah, and Pete Hegseth.
The
defense secretary’s inclusion on this list does not suggest he is an
especially well-regarded or important person, especially when other
prominent Cabinet members — not to mention White House reporters — were
left vulnerable to the
rumored assassination threat.
On the contrary, his inclusion in Trump’s flock of flatterers is
another sign that Hegseth’s main skill is fluffing up the
narcissist-in-chief. It helps explain how Hegseth — unlike former
Cabinet members such as former Attorney General Pam Bondi or former
Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem, who recently lots their jobs — seems in
no danger of losing his job, even as his manifest incompetence is a big
part of the reason Trump is losing the war with Iran. He may be bad at
running the military, but Hegseth is good at lying to (and attacking)
the press and stroking his boss’s ego, which are the only skills that
count in Trump’s White House.
Recent news about
the ongoing disaster aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln is another reminder
of why Hegseth may indeed lead the highly competitive race to be the
most hated man in Washington. Both
Stars and Stripes and the
Military Times
reported that multiple service members had attempted to jump off the
aircraft carrier, which has been deployed for over eight months without
any real breaks. Sailors are reportedly “struggling with exhaustion and
declining morale, including reports of suicidal thoughts,” explained
Alison Bath of Stars and Stripes.
The details
coming from family members offer a chilling illustration of how little
regard Hegseth has for the actual well-being of service members, even as
he releases videos implying they have
low testosterone levels or berates them for being “fat” or “beardos.” Sailors have
reported being fed “rotten” food or barely being fed at all, and
desperate family members have been begging the Navy for relief. The wife of one sailor
told MS NOW’s Priya Sidhar
that the company is working 12-14 hour days and that her husband “said
that he was exhausted working on the flight deck.” He also raised safety
concerns with his superiors. “His prescription contact lenses had
expired,” Sidhar reported, “and he told his chain of command that he
couldn’t even see what he was doing, and he was worried about causing
accidents.”
Hegseth, though, is shrugging off the concerns,
telling reporters
the issue is “completely misrepresented” and that the service members
have “everything we can provide them at every single moment.”
He
lies and then he lies some more. He denied the reports when they first
surfaced in April and, all these months later, he's still denying
them.
Mike Nelson (THE i PAPER) explains:
At
the end of July, Sean Parnell, the chief spokesman for Secretary of War
Pete Hegseth and his rebranded Department of War, released a flashy
video on his social media platforms in which he announced: “The era of
putting public affairs on the back burner is over.” It was fitting, as
an indicator of how Parnell views his job and the larger conversation of
public affairs, that he spoke in the video from the podium of the
Pentagon press briefing room – speaking to an empty room without an
audience in a space where he rarely briefs the press, a departure from
the weekly briefings conducted by previous Department of Defence
spokespersons. Purely performative, purely for the image and, as the
young ones would say, “the vibes”.
Parnell’s
message behind the video was a jarring departure from reality. A
defence department so incredibly hostile to the press and so dishonest
in countering reports on its actions can’t really be seen as putting
public affairs front and centre. But the department appears focused on
public relations over everything – tightly controlling the image of the
influencer turned defence chief rather than presenting honest
information to the American public about what the military is doing. It
shouldn’t come as a surprise that Hegseth, a man whose primary
experience was as a news infotainment personality, defaults to what he
knows. Before becoming Secretary of Defence – later changed to
“Secretary of War” – Hegseth had never run anything larger than an
organisation of just over a hundred or so people. Now he leads the
single largest employer in the United States when accounting for the 1.3
million active duty service members, more than 750,000 reservists and
National Guard and an additional 750,000 civilians employed by the
department.
In fact, Hegseth has
more experience being a Fox News pundit and political advocate than
anything else. That’s not to knock these professions, merely to point
out that for much of Hegseth’s professional life, the mission has been
cultivating his image and “putting on a show”. From the earliest days of
his tenure at the Pentagon, his focus on controlling the narrative,
promoting his desired public image, and a strict, almost paranoid,
response to even the slightest perceived criticism have been a defining
part of his leadership. He hired close personal friends and advisers to
be part of his growing communications shop. He engaged in several
witch-hunts among senior department staff to determine who might be
providing unflattering details to the press. Often, these investigations
were launched into stories that didn’t represent threats to national
security, but were personally embarrassing or critical of Hegseth. He
used the department’s public affairs platforms primarily to release hype
videos in which he worked out with the elite units of which he was
never a part.
Hype
videos. Designed to make him seem more than he was, more than his
record is. Hype videos to make him a semi-star like the way he was when
he was a weekend on air for FOX "NEWS." Just a weekend on air. Never
Tucker or Greta or Bill. Forever the second (really third) string.
That's why he had to install a make up room in the Pentagon. Colin
Powell didn't need one, Donald Rumsfeld didn't need one, Chuck Hagel,
Leon Panetta, Lloyd Austin . . . None of the previous Secretaries of
Defense needed to put a beauty salon into the Pentagon until Pete showed
up. But his starry feet are still grounded, the Pentagon insists,
because Pete applies his own make up. He does. Make up he wears for
the camera and make up he wears in regular life.
He shows up before members of Congress made up. It usually covers his psoriasis -- usually.
Travis Reed (THIRSTYY) reports on his meetings with some members of Congress:
Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing an unusual problem: some of the
sharpest criticism of his approach is now coming from his fellow
Republicans. Several GOP senators have objected to the Pentagon's
decision to exclude Democratic lawmakers from some classified briefings,
warning that the strategy could make it harder to build bipartisan
support for the administration's enormous defense agenda.
The
dispute comes as Hegseth promotes a historic $1.5 trillion defense
request for fiscal year 2027. While the administration is pursuing parts
of its spending agenda through reconciliation, lawmakers still face
major negotiations over defense funding. That makes the growing
Republican criticism particularly significant.
The
controversy centers on reports that Hegseth has repeatedly kept
Democrats out of certain classified discussions involving defense policy
and spending. Republicans, including Thom Tillis, Lisa Murkowski, and
Mike Rounds, have questioned whether excluding an entire party is a
sensible way to build congressional support.
Their
criticism does not amount to a Republican revolt against Hegseth.
Instead, it reflects concern from several senators that
national-security decisions and major defense investments require
cooperation across party lines, especially when Congress must eventually
consider legislation implementing them.
Senator
Thom Tillis of North Carolina has been particularly blunt. He argued
that Hegseth's decision to limit Democratic participation could
undermine the secretary's own efforts to secure support for his defense
priorities, especially when lawmakers need to understand the
administration's plans before deciding how to vote.
Tillis'
criticism highlights the practical problem facing Hegseth. Persuading
lawmakers to approve enormous military expenditures requires more than
speaking to supporters who already agree with the administration. It
also requires convincing lawmakers who may have serious questions about
strategy, spending, and oversight.
Adm.
Brad Cooper, the highest-ranking U.S. military commander in the Middle
East, wrapped up a 10-day regional tour with a stop on the aircraft
carrier that has spent nearly nine months at sea.
The
Lincoln has been stationed in the Middle East since January, playing a
key role in the U.S. war against Iran, including enforcing a blockade on
Iranian ports. It was initially deployed in the Pacific in November
2025.
It has now surpassed a record-breaking
240 consecutive days at sea. The prolonged deployment of carriers has
sparked growing concerns about the strain placed not only on the ships
themselves, but on the service members aboard. The Lincoln has about
5,000 service members.
Family members of those on board have reported their loved ones facing "appalling" conditions and food rationing.
"History
will record this deployment as one of the most operationally intense
and consequential of the modern era," Cooper said of the Lincoln strike
group in a statement released Saturday.
President Donald Trump dismissed reports of exhaustion during a press briefing in Maryland on Friday.
He bluntly stated that the uninterrupted deployment was “not nearly long enough.”
A combat veteran bites back
Those
remarks triggered a furious response. On Saturday, Democratic
Representative Seth Moulton, a former Marine, went on television to fire
back.
“Typical from a draft dodger, not a surprise,” Moulton told MS NOW.
He
argued the president ignores the troops. Moulton said Trump is “going
to spend his weekend at his luxury golf course, not thinking one bit
about the troops who he’s put in harm’s way for a war of choice that he
and Hegseth are losing.”
Hegseth and Chump's actions are drawing fire from many in Congress. Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following:
***LETTER HERE***
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA),Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined all
thirteen members of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) minority
and the Democratic leader of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense
in sending a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth demanding
answers about deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln,
following reports that the aircraft carrier’s crew has endured food and
water shortages, broken plumbing, and mental health crises severe
enough that multiple sailors reportedly attempted to go overboard during
its record-setting deployment. The Lincoln has been at sea for
more than 250 days, including over 200 consecutive days without a port
call, the longest continuous deployment at sea for a U.S. aircraft
carrier in the modern era.
The Senators pressed Secretary Hegseth on his Department’s failure to
provide a clear timeline for the crew’s return and condemned his public
dismissal of the reports as “completely misrepresented,” as well as
President Trump’s remarks suggesting the Lincoln had not been
deployed “nearly long enough.” The Senators demanded detailed answers on
mental health and medical resources aboard the ship, the state of good
order and discipline, hygiene and food conditions, the full extent of
the reported man-overboard incident, and support being provided to
military families, along with a formal request for a bipartisan
congressional delegation to visit the ship.
In addition to Senator Murray, the letter was signed by the following
SASC members: Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), Senator Jeanne Shaheen
(D-NH), Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Senator Richard Blumenthal
(D-CT), Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), Senator
Angus King (I-ME), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Senator Gary Peters
(D-MI), Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV),
Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). Senator
Chris Coons (D-DE), the Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee on Defense, also joined.
Full text of the letter is available HERE and below:
Dear Secretary Hegseth,
We write regarding the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln and
mounting evidence that conditions aboard the carrier have deteriorated
to the point that the safety and wellbeing of its crew could be
compromised. These are deeply troubling reports, and the American people
deserve honest answers.
The USS Lincoln departed San Diego on November 21, 2025. The ship has
now been deployed for more than 250 days, including over 200
consecutive days without a port call, setting a modern-day record for
continuous time at sea for a U.S. aircraft carrier. Family members of
the sailors and Marines serving aboard have received urgent messages
describing conditions that should alarm you, and everyone serving in a
position of leadership at the Pentagon, to include concerns about
exhaustion, food and water shortages, and mental health crises serious
enough that multiple sailors reportedly attempted to go overboard.
In response to these reports, you publicly stated that the conditions
aboard the carrier have been “completely misrepresented.” Even more
galling, when asked by reporters about the conditions on the Lincoln,
President Trump dismissed the concerns of the families and stated that
the Lincoln had not been deployed “nearly long enough.”
Our sailors and Marines signed up to serve and to be treated with
respect. They did not sign up to be kept at sea indefinitely with no
announced return date and, by multiple accounts, without reliable food,
hot water, or working plumbing. That is not how we treat the men and
women we ask to carry out this mission.
This situation was preventable, and the conditions aboard the Lincoln
are nearly identical to the issues faced by the USS Ford when it
conducted an extended deployment that ended earlier this year. The USS
Lincoln was redirected to the Middle East as the war with Iran began and
has remained there as that war has dragged on with no clear endpoint.
This is a symptom of poor planning by both you and the President and
exacerbated by the deeply unsound decision to start a war with Iran.
Open-ended deployments driven by an open-ended war have real
consequences for our servicemembers, and we are seeing those
consequences now.
Recent press reports indicate that the USS George Washington will be
deployed to the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln. While
that is welcome news, the Department’s mismanagement of carrier
deployments also means that the U.S. will not have an aircraft carrier
in the Pacific for the foreseeable future. However, ensuring the USS
Lincoln returns to port takes precedence, and it is incumbent on the
Department to inform Congress, and the families, on the plan and
timeline to get the crew home. Denial and defensiveness are not
acceptable responses. Congress and these families need accountability.
Given the seriousness of these reports, we request written answers to the following:
- What is the current timeline for the USS Lincoln’s relief and return
to homeport, and what specific operational requirements are driving
continued extensions of this deployment?
- Was the crew informed that the deployment could be extended
indefinitely? Have any members of the crew been changed out since the
beginning of this deployment, and if so, how many?
- Has there been any degradation in the operational capability of the USS Lincoln or her airwing?
- What mental health resources are being provided to the crew?
- Have there been any suicides aboard the ship during this
deployment? How many instances of detected suicidal ideation or
attempted self-harm, including attempts to go overboard, has the
Department recorded?
- What other medical resources are available aboard the ship, and are
resources sufficient to meet the crew’s needs given the length of this
deployment?
- What chaplain resources are available to the crew, and have they been adequate to the scale of need aboard the ship?
- What is the current state of good order and discipline aboard the USS Lincoln?
- What is the hygiene and healthy food situation on board, including
the status of reported plumbing failures, water contamination, and food
shortages?
- What is the extent of illness or injury aboard the ship, including
full details of the reported man-overboard incident and any other
similar incidents?
- What is the state of the families of the sailors and Marines aboard
the USS Lincoln? What resources are being provided to them, and are they
being kept informed on a regular basis about the status of the
deployment and their loved ones’ wellbeing?
- Will the Department authorize a bipartisan congressional delegation
to visit the Lincoln to conduct firsthand oversight of conditions aboard
the ship?
As the Secretary of Defense, you are accountable to the men and women
who serve our nation. It is time for you to demonstrate leadership,
rather than peddle excuses. The servicemembers we send into harm’s way
deserve nothing less.
Sincerely,
###
GOP
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska on Sunday called for congressional oversight
of the USS Abraham Lincoln amid reports of poor conditions on the
aircraft carrier.
“We should have oversight,”
Bacon said during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” while adding
that the secretary of the Navy or its service chief should testify in
front of lawmakers. His statement adds to those of congressional
Democrats who have similarly pressed military officials for more answers
regarding how they’re supporting service members on extended
deployments.
Bacon, a retired Air Force
brigadier general and moderate Trump critic, also said that he had seen
service members experiencing mental health challenges when he was
stationed on an aircraft carrier in 1996. He noted that “we had a couple
members jump overboard and commit suicide” at the time, describing the
incidents as “terrible” and “sad.”
In a now-deleted audio recording
with the White House Faith Office, Blanche outlined a plan to utilize
multiple agencies, including his Department of Justice and the Food and
Drug Administration, to end abortion access in all 50 states. Blanche
illustrated how these departments—which should work independently of the
White House in service to our collective health and safety—are blurring
lines in service to an agenda targeting abortion providers and
patients.
The
National Abortion Federation, which sets clinical standards for
abortion care and provides security and safety support for clinics
nationwide, knows firsthand the grave dangers when checks and balances
disappear within the federal government. Law enforcement is the only
mechanism of accountability our current system provides for people who
engage in violence and disruption at abortion clinics. While these
activities are illegal under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinical
Entrances (FACE) Act, the law is only as protective as the person in
charge of enforcing it.
Since Trump took office, NAF’s most recent Violence and Disruption report
showed a 113% increase in threats of death and harm. Clinic blockades
increased from one to six. While we know laws like the FACE Act are a
limited means to protect people, not only is the federal government
failing to meet these low bars, it's abusing the law to incentivize
violence. Blanche’s confirmation is part of a larger pattern of
involving law enforcement in pregnancy, including abortion care. That
should scare everyone no matter what you believe.
