Stalin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2008
- Messages
- 4,379
Donald Trump campaigned on ending forever wars. He said so in rallies, in debates, in interviews, repeatedly and without ambiguity. The MAGA base that swept him back to the White House believed him. On February 28, 2026, without a congressional declaration of war, without even the fig leaf of an AUMF, Trump launched Operation Epic Fury—the largest U.S. military assault since the invasion of Iraq. The bombs fell on Iran while American diplomats were still at the negotiating table in Geneva. The Omani mediator had described a diplomatic breakthrough the day before. Pentagon briefers told congressional staff on March 1 that Iran had not been planning to strike U.S. forces.
The neocons got their war. The question every taxpayer and every voter who believed Trump’s promises should be asking is: who else got what they wanted?
The answer is not difficult to find. It is sitting in earnings calls, stock filings, and futures trading records. Washington does not even bother to hide it anymore.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about this in 1961. Sixty-five years later, the military-industrial complex he described has grown so large, so institutionalized, and so embedded in the political donor class that it now initiates wars rather than merely profiting from them.
Lockheed Martin’s stock hit an all-time high of $676.70 on Day 1 of Operation Epic Fury. The share price had already risen nearly 40% since January—before a single bomb fell. Northrop Grumman closed up 6% on the first day of strikes. The three largest U.S. defense firms together posted a combined shareholder gain of $25 to $30 billion in a single session.
The arithmetic of the warfare state makes this inevitable, and the people running it know it. Iran deploys a Shahed drone costing an estimated $20,000 to $50,000. The United States intercepts it with a PAC-3 missile at $4 million per shot. A ballistic missile warrants a THAAD round at $12.77 million each. Every intercept is a guaranteed future procurement order, funded by you. In January 2026—weeks before the first strike—Lockheed had already signed a Pentagon framework agreement to quadruple THAAD interceptor production. Someone knew something.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has since confirmed the Pentagon sent the White House a request for $200 billion in supplemental war funding. Trump, who in January said the defense budget should grow from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion by 2027, subsequently hosted the CEOs of RTX, Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop, BAE, L3Harris, and Honeywell at the White House, after which he announced they had agreed to quadruple production of advanced weaponry. Hegseth summarised the philosophy with the kind of candor that deserves to be remembered: “It takes money to kill bad guys.” It also takes money from taxpayers to make defence contractor shareholders rich, but Hegseth omitted that part.
These are the same companies that were among the largest contributors to the Trump political operation. The revolving door between the Pentagon and the defense industry is not a secret. It is the business model.
more obscene pork at https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/pay-day-learn-who-cashed-in-when-trump-went-to-war/
comrade stalin
moscow
The neocons got their war. The question every taxpayer and every voter who believed Trump’s promises should be asking is: who else got what they wanted?
The answer is not difficult to find. It is sitting in earnings calls, stock filings, and futures trading records. Washington does not even bother to hide it anymore.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about this in 1961. Sixty-five years later, the military-industrial complex he described has grown so large, so institutionalized, and so embedded in the political donor class that it now initiates wars rather than merely profiting from them.
Lockheed Martin’s stock hit an all-time high of $676.70 on Day 1 of Operation Epic Fury. The share price had already risen nearly 40% since January—before a single bomb fell. Northrop Grumman closed up 6% on the first day of strikes. The three largest U.S. defense firms together posted a combined shareholder gain of $25 to $30 billion in a single session.
The arithmetic of the warfare state makes this inevitable, and the people running it know it. Iran deploys a Shahed drone costing an estimated $20,000 to $50,000. The United States intercepts it with a PAC-3 missile at $4 million per shot. A ballistic missile warrants a THAAD round at $12.77 million each. Every intercept is a guaranteed future procurement order, funded by you. In January 2026—weeks before the first strike—Lockheed had already signed a Pentagon framework agreement to quadruple THAAD interceptor production. Someone knew something.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has since confirmed the Pentagon sent the White House a request for $200 billion in supplemental war funding. Trump, who in January said the defense budget should grow from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion by 2027, subsequently hosted the CEOs of RTX, Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop, BAE, L3Harris, and Honeywell at the White House, after which he announced they had agreed to quadruple production of advanced weaponry. Hegseth summarised the philosophy with the kind of candor that deserves to be remembered: “It takes money to kill bad guys.” It also takes money from taxpayers to make defence contractor shareholders rich, but Hegseth omitted that part.
These are the same companies that were among the largest contributors to the Trump political operation. The revolving door between the Pentagon and the defense industry is not a secret. It is the business model.
more obscene pork at https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/pay-day-learn-who-cashed-in-when-trump-went-to-war/
comrade stalin
moscow
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