Hegseth Pushes $1.5 Trillion Military Budget As Tribute To Lindsey Graham
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Hegseth Pushes $1.5 Trillion Military Budget As Tribute To Lindsey Graham

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called on Congress to approve his request for a $1.5 trillion military budget for 2027 during remarks at a ceremony in South Carolina for the renaming of Joint Base Charleston to Joint Base Lindsey Graham in honor of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died unexpectedly last month.

Hegseth claimed that before he died, Graham told him that the $1.5 trillion request was the best military budget he'd ever seen.

Department of War photo

"As we gather here today, the War Department is seeking a historic generational investment of $1.5 trillion for American warriors. And Lindsey himself said, to me in his office, ‘this is the best military budget I’ve seen since I’ve been in Congress,'" Hegseth said, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon.

"This department pays tribute to Lindsey Graham in the naming of this base, but there could be no greater tribute than Congress could give than to invest in our warriors for the full $1.5 trillion," he added.

Hegseth said that he had known Graham for nearly 20 years, going back to when he was a member of a veterans group pushing for the US to escalate the war in Iraq.

"Nineteen years ago, young lieutenant, uh, First Lieutenant Pete Hegseth came back from Iraq and was a part of a veterans’ organization called Vets for Freedom that believed in the surge in Iraq and advocated for the troops on the ground," he said. "The first and only senator willing to meet with First Lieutenant Pete Hegseth and nowheresville Vets for Freedom was Sen. Lindsey Graham."

The event came as Hegseth has been struggling to get support from Congress for the full $1.5 trillion military budget, a nearly 50% increase from this year’s budget.

The Trump administration seeks to reach that figure through a $1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) plus a supplemental funding bill worth about $350 billion. Hegseth said that he and Graham discussed the plan just a week before the senator’s death.

"He looked at me and said, how’s $355 billion sound? He wanted to give even more than $350 billion. He wanted to ensure our military was as equipped as humanly possible, because he was thinking of places like this one right here," Hegseth said.

Hegseth was joined at the ceremony by Darline Graham, Lindsey Graham’s sister, who has taken over his Senate seat and is expected to pursue the same policies as her brother. Lindsey Graham was notorious for his hawkishness, and following his death, footage came out of him laughing and celebrating days after the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran, a war he had been pushing for years.

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/11/2026 - 17:00
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The Diamond Crash Accelerates
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The Diamond Crash Accelerates

The Diamond Standard Index, tracked on Bloomberg under the ticker DIAMINDX, tumbled to new record lows during the first half of August as a surge in affordable lab-grown stones eroded the scarcity premium underpinning natural diamond prices.

"Technological progress in growing diamonds in labs has been amazing. It's no surprise most engagement rings are now using lab diamonds," X user Crémieux said.

X user Saul Sadka warned that the diamond downturn will likely persist for years as lab-grown stones flood the market:

Expect the collapse in diamond prices to accelerate substantially over the next few years. The natural-diamond market is shrinking in both size and value and circling the drain following the commoditization of its product by modern technology. The same thing happened to pearls 100 years ago, but it will be much worse for diamonds: they will become a signal of bad taste rather than wealth, just as pearls went from high society to a matronly cliché within 50 years.

I have been telling friends in the diamond industry to find a new line of work for ten years. It was clearly only a matter of time before lab-grown diamonds became a mass-market commodity, sold at some small premium over production costs, which would themselves continue to plummet.

Since they are identical to natural diamonds, and buyers actually have multiple reasons to choose them instead, including no "blood diamonds" and supposedly greater environmental friendliness, most buyers will not care.

Attempts to differentiate the products using $20,000 machines will not help: they are indistinguishable in real life.

There was always going to be some multiple that people would be willing to pay for "natural" over "lab," but it did not really matter whether that multiple was 2× or 10×. Once lab-grown diamonds can be made for next to nothing, even ten times next to nothing is still very little. People will pay more, perhaps much more, for an identical product because of its backstory, but not infinitely more.

The reason natural-diamond prices have held up reasonably well over the past four years, "only" falling by around 50% in real terms, has more to do with supply cutbacks. Production has been reduced by about 20% over that period, from 120 million to 98 million carats, in a desperate attempt to support prices as the natural and lab-grown markets diverge. If production returned to its previous level, prices would fall even faster.

But it is going to get much, much worse. A trip to Miami will explain why: people who look like gangsters walk around wearing enormous tennis bracelets that would have cost a million dollars 20 years ago but can now be purchased for the price of a used Rolex.

Diamonds are going to become a sign of tackiness, as, frankly, they always should have been, rather than class or exclusivity. And then the game will be up for everyone in the diamond industry.

Sadka continued in a series of follow-up tweets:

One of the biggest problems for hopes of a residual natural-diamond industry is that diamonds ARE, in fact, FOREVER. At some point, the market will shrink to the point where the secondhand supply, fed by the estates of Boomers as they fall off this mortal coil, will provide sufficient supply to make any mining or polishing uneconomic.

This would have been true 30 years ago, and it would have been a big blow to the Israeli economy, but it's not true anymore. The industry once accounted for up to 3% of Israeli GDP, but it's now under 0.2%. Sorry, Turkey.

There might be some limited residual market at the high end, but my guess is that there will be enough supply from Boomers as they "check out" to glut that demand without any need for miners or cutters, etc.

To sum up: natural diamonds face a structural, rather than cyclical, collapse. If you're in the market for an engagement ring and hoping it will serve as some store of value, you might be out of luck because lab-grown stones are destroying the scarcity premium, while a potential wave of secondhand supply from aging Baby Boomers could pressure the market even further. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 08/11/2026 - 15:40
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We Need More Tom Sellecks, Less Mark Ruffalos
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We Need More Tom Sellecks, Less Mark Ruffalos

Authored by Christian Toto via American Greatness,

Tom Selleck destroyed the so-called Queen of Nice in 1999 without even trying.

The Magnum, P.I. alum sat down with Rosie O'Donnell a short time after the Columbine High School shooting that left 14 people dead. The host's "nice" shtick crumbled in real time as she savaged Selleck for his NRA support. He was simply there to promote his movie, but she bullied him anyway.

"Now you're questioning my humanity," the actor said following her line of attacks. O'Donnell's image never fully recovered, while Selleck has maintained his star status, in part, by never getting nasty or political.

The Blue Bloods star's nonpolitical persona is even more admirable today, and the 81-year-old is sticking to it. He appeared on CNN recently as part of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library tour. Selleck is a fan of the late president, hardly a controversial take.

The CNN reporter pressed Selleck on the current state of the country and, more specifically, President Donald Trump. Selleck wisely refused the bait.

"Well, [Trump is] certainly a mixed bag. I stay out of the current political world. Why piss off half the country when you're in the business of entertaining people?" he said.

He's right. Except plenty of artists can't stop doing just that.

The worst example remains Snow White star Rachel Zegler. The 20-something actress insulted that film's source material and, later, told Trump supporters they should "never know peace."

Her film lost a reported $170 million for Disney.

Last month, actor Alan Ritchson of Reacher fame slammed both the Catholic Church and President Trump during an angry podcast interview. His new film, Motor City, bombed at the box office.

Far-Left actor Mark Ruffalo won't stop sharing his socialist views in interview after interview. He's the anti-Selleck, spouting off at any opportunity.

Yet he wisely avoided controversy while promoting his co-starring role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The team behind the film must have been high-fiving behind the scenes as the movie broke the all-time record for an opening weekend haul.

No cleanup on aisle 4 - aka doing damage control for Ruffalo's hot takes.

Stars are increasingly political in the modern era, but the results aren't always so clear-cut.

The culture wars surrounding Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey didn't hamper that film's gargantuan box office haul, nor did its co-stars' woke comments.

Many politically active stars remain in demand, as moviegoers refuse to boycott their work. Heck, Ruffalo has five IMDb credits in 2026 alone.

Still, for some, an actor's chronic political talk, often couched in extreme or cruel fashion, is a deterrent for consumers.

Selleck never has to worry about that. He's kept the focus on storytelling for decades, and he has a fine career to show for it. A newer crop of stars has embraced the Selleck standard, rejecting the Left's "politics at all costs" mantra.

We recently saw Kevin James, Michelle Yeoh, and Neil Patrick Harris refuse to engage in political opinions during press exchanges. Their silence was noteworthy for good reason. They're the exception to the new celebrity rule.

Will journalists be pressing Zegler or Ritchson about their newest projects when they're in their eighth decade, as they do with Selleck today?

Christian Toto is the editor of HollywoodInToto.com - "The Right Take on Entertainment." He's an award-winning journalist and movie critic whose film reviews are heard on radio stations across the country. He co-hosts Denver's Mike Rosen at the Movies radio show on KOA NewsRadio as well as the weekly "Hollyweird" segment on The Michael Brown Show.

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"Lie To People Who Want To Be Lied To": How To Make A Political Fortune As A Far-Left Democrat
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"Lie To People Who Want To Be Lied To": How To Make A Political Fortune As A Far-Left Democrat

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

A financial journalist once offered simple advice: “Lie to people who want to be lied to, and you’ll get rich…Tell the truth to those who want to be lied to, and you’ll go broke.”

That axiom appears to have been taken to heart by radical Democratic candidates who this week issued transparent denials of past outrageous comments. Their calculus is clearly that the last thing that voters want to hear is the truth about their past views.

Certain cultural touchstones are considered inviolate in some states, such as beef in Texas.

In 2022, Talarico said he was reducing his meat consumption as part of climate-related efforts.

Texas Democratic Senatorial candidate James Talarico was roasted after a video surfaced of his calling to reduce meat consumption and “I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign. We are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses.”

The backlash was so great that Talarico has been eating whole cows to prove that he is not all-hat and no cattle.

Obviously, lying about your positions is hardly a phenonmon confirmed to the far left.

Many Republican candidates have also made painfully transparent pivots. However, the spins this week threaten to knock the planet off its axis.

In Wisconsin, Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong seems to be coasting to a primary win despite radical views such as defunding police.

In an episode of “Pod Save America,” Hong was asked about her 2020 statements declaring “police exist to uphold white supremacy” and “I support defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police.”

Hong responded with a convoluted spin: 

“My views have only become stronger in that I’m serious about public safety and I will not abolish the police.”

Hong’s views on Thanksgiving takes the axiom to a whole new level. Hong previously stated:

“Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621. If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indigenous folx and women so be it.”

That did not go over well in Wisconsin, only slightly better than coming out against cheese.

Hong did not deny her 2021 statement for weeks, including when confronted on CNN by host Kaitlan Collins. Asked directly if she still hated Thanksgiving, Hong seemed to morph into Chauncy Gardner from Being There with her now much-ridiculed “I’m a chef” response, stating that, as a chef, she works to “bring more people to the table.”

Hong seemed to morph into Chauncey Gardner from Being There in offering non-sequiturs of being a “very serious gardener.”

When that interview fell flat, Hong decided to lie and claim that she was just joking in 2021 and “loves” Thanksgiving, her now “favorite holiday.”

No one reading her quote or her later interviews would believe that it was a joke. It was not a joke for weeks until her responses became a joke.

Abdul El-Sayed skipped the transitional period and went straight to the lie in his controversy this week when a video surfaced of his saying how he hates the iconic Mackinac Island. 

Growing up in Chicago, one of my favorite things was to go with my family to the island, which is the quintessential small American town. I actually have never met anyone who hated Mackinac Island…until now.

In the video, El-Sayed states “I hate Mackinac so much. It’s funny cause, like, if we win, this is gonna be, like, the summer home. Every time I’ve ever come here I’ve hated it.”

El-Sayed was clearly informed that declaring that you despise the most popular tourist location in Michigan is not a vote getter. So, El-Sayed simply told his supporters what they wanted to hear: you cannot believe your lying eyes and ears.

His campaign issued a bizarre statement that sought to turn the controversial into his being opposed to the elite and privileged class, saying that he was actually Mackinac Policy Conference which is simply an annual nonpartisan forum for public policy discussions.

El-Sayed claims that he was referring to conference as being like a summer home for governors. He maintains that he was referring to a conference as the entire island.

El-Sayed knows that it does not matter. He could have claimed that he was referring to hating Mackinac Island Pizza Company. It does not matter. His supporters do not want the baggage and he simply needed to unload it

With the election in November, the next predictable step will be for Hong to join El-Sayed on Mackinac Island for a public Thanksgiving dinner. Talarico will be on hand to carve the bird with enthusiasm.

The real problem is that these individuals spent years throwing red meat (or, in the case of Talarico, tofu) to the far left. These statements were not considered extreme or controversial until they found themselves speaking to a wider audience. Then they sounded just crazy.

Moreover, some lies are unlikely to register with voters who may prefer to live in delusion. The fact that the Mamdani markets will ultimately sell the most expensive produce in New York is an inconvenient fact that is best ignored.

The model for far-left politicians appears to be Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger who ran as a moderate and then governed from the far left. Spanberger, for example, pledged not to gerrymander districts to eliminate all Republican districts and then immediately moved to do so. Many voters likely did not believe her on gerrymandering, taxes, or other broken pledges before the election. They just needed her to say it. So, you might have to visit Mackinac or feign enjoyment at Thanksgiving or barbeques for a few weeks. Then you can do a Spanberger.

Abraham Lincoln may have said “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

However, the fact is that you do not have to fool all of the people all of the time, just enough to win over the course of a few weeks.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”

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Rich-Kid Mamdani Ally Wants To "Abolish Rent"; Could Hawley Reform Bill Stop College Indoctrination?
[2:19 PM | 0 comments ]

Rich-Kid Mamdani Ally Wants To "Abolish Rent"; Could Hawley Reform Bill Stop College Indoctrination?

Tracy Rosenthal, co-founder of the Los Angeles Tenants Union, has emerged as an influential far-left star in the Democratic Socialists of America's tenant-organizing 'squatting' movement, promoting rent strikes and aggressive pressure campaigns to bankrupt landlords.  

In this clip posted on X by Stu Smith, investigative analyst at the Manhattan Institute, Rosenthal stated that tenants pay rent "at the barrel of a gun." She explained how "Living on rent strike - right - getting to experience having your housing without having to pay for it is one of those liberatory visions of home." 

The problem with Rosenthal's revolutionary crusade to collapse capitalism is that she treats rent strikes, and the broader effort to destroy the nation from within, almost as a game, even though the financial fallout affects actual working-class tenants, property owners, lenders, and working-poor communities.

Her view that this is all a game is even more striking given New York Post reporting that she was raised in a super-wealthy household in a multimillion-dollar Manhattan apartment and is the daughter of four-time Grammy-winning studio owner Steven Rosenthal.

Rosenthal showing off her White privilege at the Grammys with her rich father and stepmother. 

In other words, the very privilege created by the capitalist system she seeks to destroy has insulated her from terrible life decisions. She appears to be little more than a lonely cat woman and an unhinged white liberal "Karen" who hates the West, probably because she went to some liberal arts school and was handed an unproductive, woke degree that many companies today see merely as a liability. 

She is also likely representative of many DSA members who, as they watch capitalism progress this summer. Spacex's IPO mints thousands of new millionaires, including working-class welders, and they see their jealousy boil over as they confront the reality that their decision to pursue far-left activism has led them down a sad and angry path, one full of hate and, as the far-left is known for, violence. 

Rosenthal's 2024 book "Abolish Rent" has been a top read on the DSA's own website. 

Rosenthal, who posted "death to America" the night Mamdani clinched the Democratic primary last year and now serves as a visiting scholar at the woke CUNY, has already put some of these rent strikes into practice. 

Meet another of Mamdani's housing experts...

It's time to recognize that Rosenthal, like much of the DSA activist class, is arguably a byproduct of an education system hijacked by the radical left that has purposely oversupplied the country with worthless woke degrees. 

The result is a growing revolutionary cohort increasingly detached from economic realities that have one mission, and it's not affordability, climate, anti-data centers, Palestine, or any of the lefty causes; it's to destroy the nation from within - we're merely citing DSA leaders in their own words ... 

Hawley's Solution

If policymakers actually want to dismantle the cancer killing the education system and producing this far-left activist class, perhaps forcing schools to have an economic interest in student outcomes will result in less wokes? Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced a bill in 2022 - the Make the Universities Pay Act, that would allow federal student loans to be discharged in bankruptcy after a certain period, but pair that relief with a clawback requiring universities that pushed these worthless and toxic degrees to absorb at least half of every covered loan that is ultimately discharged.

Such a mechanism would fundamentally change the economics of higher education overnight. Schools - with their massively inflated tuition - who produce graduates that are unable to generate enough income to repay their debts, would suddenly bear a direct financial cost for those outcomes. This would impose accountability, forcing schools to prioritize productive and demanding degrees instead of worthless woke degrees.

In other words, it's time to impose accountability on schools that push worthless degrees. Such a move could be the ultimate death blow to many universities with weak balance sheets, high debt loads, and small endowments. 

Lawmakers should read more about how to break the cycle of bad ideas via U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.): New Legislation to Hold Universities Accountable for Rising Tuition Costs and Student Debt. 

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