On June 11, the US House voted down — on a bipartisan basis, with 19 Republicans joining most Democrats — the latest attempt to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Absent some kind of mid-June legislative miracle, Section 702 will expire on...
Stop Pretending Military Spending Is About ‘Defense’
$1.5 trillion. With a “t.” That’s how much US president Donald Trump wants Congress to appropriate for military (falsely called “defense”) spending in 2027. And that number — there’s no other way to put this — is insane. The only proper date for such a spending...
Congress Can Halt the Iran War by Doing Nothing. It Should.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wants $200 billion for the Trump administration’s illegal, ill-advised, undeclared war on Iran. Well, maybe. “That number could move,” he says, to get “properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future,...
Iran War: We Have Met the Enemy, and He Is U.S.
Let me bury the lede just a bit: In December of 1862, Union troops under the command of Ambrose Burnside crossed the Rappahannock river by pontoon bridge and occupied the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, in an attempt to come to grips with Confederate forces under...
On War Powers, Questions Aren’t a Working Substitute for Action
On February 28, US president Donald Trump took the United States into a de facto, but not de jure, state of war with Iran. That is, he ordered the US armed forces to strike targets in Iran (the de facto part) without first securing the constitutionally required...
War Powers Resolution: The Senate Had One Job
On January 14, a “war powers resolution” went down to defeat in the US Senate on a 50-50 vote, with vice president JD Vance breaking the tie. The resolution, which would have required US president Donald Trump to at least casually mention to Congress that he planned...
Peace President? Yeah, Right.
On December 17, surrounded by festive holiday decorations, US president Donald Trump delivered an upbeat — one might even say manic — address to the nation, preempting — and enraging fans of — network TV shows such as Survivor, The Floor, and Christmas in Nashville....
The Administration Just Admitted War Powers Don’t Cover Trump’s Caribbean Murder Spree
“A top Justice Department lawyer,” the Washington Post reports, “has told lawmakers that the Trump administration can continue its lethal strikes against alleged drug traffickers in Latin America — and is not bound by a decades-old law requiring Congress to give...
‘National Defense Strategy’: A Novel and Unlikely, but Welcome, Proposition
“Military leaders have raised serious concerns about the Trump administration’s forthcoming defense strategy,” the Washington Post reports. “The critiques from multiple top officers… come as [US defense secretary Pete] Hegseth reorders U.S. military priorities —...
The Gaza War Isn’t Over, But Israel Has Already Lost
The Israeli regime has lost its multi-front war in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. Yes, really. It may not look like it, but the defeat is real and baked into Israel’s future. Let me first make the case for Israeli “victory”: Since its 2023 invasion...


