Murder, He Wrought
Hegseth's Second Strike, Ozempic Economy
It didn’t take long for Pete Hegseth to go from being a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend to reportedly issuing an order to “kill everybody.” It’s a directive that has grabbed the attention of Congressional leaders, including Republicans. “A top Republican and Democrats in Congress suggested on Sunday that American military officials might have committed a war crime in President Trump’s offensive against boats in the Caribbean after a news report said that during one such attack, a follow-up strike was ordered to kill survivors. The remarks came in response to a Washington Post report on Friday that said that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given a verbal order to kill everyone aboard boats suspected of smuggling drugs, and that this led a military commander to carry out a second strike to kill those who had initially survived an attack.” NYT (Gift Article): Lawmakers Suggest Follow-Up Boat Strike Could Be a War Crime. The order, if given, would definitely be a crime. It’s not entirely clear that it would be a war crime since we’re not exactly clear anything about these strikes constitutes a war (or justifies the use of the military). In what has become almost standard in the Trump era, a new scandal has emerged before the original scandal has been settled. We’re debating the legality of the second strike when we don’t even know if the first strike was legal. “In a statement of the former JAGs Working Group, the former military lawyers analyzed, in detail, relevant international and domestic law, concluding that ‘both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both.’” The Contrarian: War Crime...or Murder? In any other time under any other president, for Hegseth, this would be a simple case of two strikes and you’re out. But under those circumstances, Hegseth would still be issuing orders at the Fox and Friends afterparties.
+ A broader question raised by this story: What is the point of these strikes in the first place? Have we adopted a new, stronger, and more militaristic determination to stop the flow of illegal drugs? If so, why is Trump pardoning a guy who helped bring more than 500 tons of cocaine into the United States, did deals with El Chapo, and bragged that he would “stuff the drugs up the gringos noses?” The Ex-President Whom Trump Plans to Pardon Flooded America With Cocaine. If using military might to blow up the equivalent of the lowest level street corner dealers while giving top global suppliers a get out jail card doesn’t make sense to you, don’t feel bad. It doesn’t seem to make sense to Trump either. “Well, I was told—I was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras, they said it was a Biden setup—I don’t mean Biden, look, Biden didn’t know he was alive—but it was the people that surround the Resolute Desk. Surround Biden, when he was there, which was about very little time.”
+ The Atlantic: Trump’s Boat Strikes Could Make the Cartel Problem Worse. Making a problem worse? Maybe this all does fit into some grand strategy...
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The Skinny on Ozempic
More than 12 percent of Americans are using a GLP-1 weight loss drug. That’s affecting their weight, but it’s also having a big impact on many parts of the economy, from food, to gyms, to clothing, to travel. WaPo (Gift Article): Ozempic is changing how we spend money and time, plus what we eat.
+ The GLP-1s (along with the economy) are probably playing a role in what seems to be a key American trend. People Are Ordering Smaller Pizzas and Fewer Toppings. What Does That Tell Us? (That there will be more room for dessert?)
+ Every trend has its exceptions. One of the hottest Black Friday items was a giant box of mac and cheese. “Walmart’s ridiculously oversized box was the size of a big screen TV.”
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Rage With the Machine
“As members of Congress grapple with growing personal threats, top Democrats in the US House are lobbying Republicans to let each lawmaker’s office employ an armed staff member to accompany them in their districts, as well as a law enforcement coordinator.” Are they overhyping the risk or just responding to the increasing number of headlines about political violence? The New Yorker: In the Line of Fire. “America is a violent country. Nowhere else that is remotely as rich tolerates so many murders or so many weapons. But, sometime during the tumultuous decade of the Trump era, it began to seem that simply participating in the political process put you at risk.” (Political rage is everywhere these days. The acts of violence are extreme representations of a much broader trend.)
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Master Baiters
Beating out aura farming and biohack, “Oxford University Press has named rage bait as its word of the year, capturing the internet zeitgeist of 2025. The phrase refers to online content that is ‘deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or offensive.’” So basically, participating online...
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Extra, Extra
From Ally to Enemy: “The suspect accused of shooting two West Virginia National Guard members in Washington, D.C., had been struggling with his mental health — often isolating himself in a dark room — in the years after he left Afghanistan and entered the US.” And from NBC News: Afghan accused of shooting 2 National Guard members was part of CIA-backed unit whose veterans have struggled in the US. “Before Rahmanullah Lakanwal settled in a quiet part of Washington state, he was part of a secret unit of Afghans who operated under CIA direction and hunted down Taliban commanders in highly dangerous missions ... But since arriving in the United States, thousands of these Afghan veterans have lived in a legal limbo without work permits, struggling to feed their families, according to refugee advocates.”
+ No Thanksgiving: “A 19-year-old college student was about to board a flight to surprise her family for Thanksgiving when she was detained at Boston Logan International Airport and deported to Honduras two days later, her father and lawyer said on Sunday ... He said his employer had arranged and paid for his daughter’s travel to Austin, Texas, to surprise him at work.” NYT (Gift Article): College Student Is Deported During Trip Home for Thanksgiving. (Feel safer?)
+ Week Sauce: “President Trump has set free a private equity executive who had served less than two weeks of a seven-year sentence for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of victims.”
+ Habba Dabba Don’t: Appeals court disqualifies Alina Habba, Trump’s former personal lawyer, as acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey.
+ Manufacturing Descent: “US factory activity slipped at a faster pace than expected in November, as businesses continue to face a hit from higher tariffs, according to a survey of manufacturing firms ... A reading below 50 points to contraction in activity in the sector for the ninth month in a row.” But everything touched by AI continues to grow. Data Centers Are a ‘Gold Rush’ for Construction Workers.
+ A Bug’s Life: “’I was shocked,’ says Tracy Swift, who teaches dental hygiene at Albany State University in Georgia. ‘He started the conversation with, ‘You’re going to find this phone call very weird.’’ Swift thought she had a stalker, and recalls Siegrist saying, ‘I’m not crazy, I promise. Just let me tell you my story.’” WSJ (Gift Article): One Man’s Quest to Reunite With His First Love: A 1971 VW Bug.
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Bottom of the News
“Most characters in the film Idiocracy wear Crocs because the film’s wardrobe director thought they were too horrible-looking to ever become popular.” This is just one item in Tom Whitwell’s always interesting year-end list. 52 Things I Learned in 2025.
+ Macaulay Culkin watches Home Alone with his kids who don’t realize he’s Kevin. (He better tell them soon. When they’re teens, they won’t care.)