Pentagon moves troops out of the hemisphere where it claims no oil and into the one where it has claimed 35 percent, then seats a contractor with billions of dollars in military contracts on the body planning the future of war

…(cont) Someone paid for the half-hour, and it was not the department. September 15: the Congressional Budget Office put Defense Department spending on the Iran war at $38 billion through the end of July, and called that estimate conservative. September 17: Moody's Analytics put the war's cost to the average American household at $1,760, and extra United States consumer spending on energy alone at $121 billion. On September 4 diesel reached $5.85 the gallon, an all-time high. On August 31 gasoline stood at $4.08, ninety cents above the year before. Matt Bell, who farms in North Carolina and voted for the president, told CBS on September 18 that farmers were "sold a bill of goods," and, "I can't stay in business."

From August 27, a mandated filing with the Office of Government Ethics: more than 1,000 stock transactions in June, among them thousands of dollars in energy companies taking record profits from the war. Two filings. One quarter.

An accounting was requested, and the week disposed of the request twice. September 3: the Wall Street Journal reported Middle East deployments extended into next year, a presence of 50,000 troops kept in the region "in part to give the president flexibility on next steps." Flexibility. The president's, not the household's. September 17: every Senate Democrat but Fetterman signed an open letter pressing Hegseth for a cost breakdown. Largely symbolic, as the item itself allowed.

October 3, and from Hegseth: no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps. The same October 3, the department opened its new Office of Religious Affairs. The one department, the one day, and no tension reported between the two.

At least five people were killed and 68 injured when the United States bombed a wedding party at a private home in Kuhestak, in Hormozgan province, reported September 2. On September 17 a United Nations fact-finding mission found reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed war crimes in two airstrikes inside Iran; the strike on Minab killed 123 children.

Which leaves the chair. The New York Times, October 3: "The founder of SpaceX, with billions of dollars in military contracts, joins several other defense industry executives" on the body that will help plan the future of war. The department's largest contractor. Also a top campaign donor. One page carries both, and the page was filed. The average household's cost of this war is $1,760. The firms that sell the equipment are seated for the next.