Crowdfunding the Pentagon and Other Tales from the Gilded Decline

The world’s richest nation takes anonymous donations to pay its soldiers, sends election “monitors” to blue states, and gets dunked on by Canada at the World Series, you know democracy’s having a week

Good morning! There’s a special kind of absurdity that comes when an empire starts passing the hat to pay its own soldiers. The Pentagon confirmed it has accepted a $130 million anonymous donation to help cover troop salaries during the government shutdown. Anonymous. Donation. For the military. A Pentagon spokesman called it “a generous act of patriotism,” as if the world’s largest defense budget had just been saved by a bake sale. Trump bragged that a “friend” wrote the check out of love for the troops. Because nothing says democracy like mystery money funding your armed forces while the government is too broke, or too corrupt, to cut paychecks itself.

Democrats were quick to point out the obvious: if you don’t know who’s buying your soldiers lunch, you can’t be sure who’s buying their loyalty. But Trump doesn’t see it that way. He’s reinvented government the way he runs his businesses, keep the lights on with someone else’s cash, don’t ask questions, and call it genius. While forty-two million Americans brace for hunger as SNAP benefits expire next week, the Pentagon now has its own sugar daddy. We’re one GoFundMe away from naming a missile after Elon Musk.

And speaking of weaponizing government, the Department of Justice has decided that “election integrity” means dispatching federal monitors to California and New Jersey, the bluest of blue targets. Attorney General Pam Bondi insists the move is about transparency, which is adorable coming from a woman whose legal filings are 80 percent black marker. Governors Gavin Newsom and Phil Murphy called it what it is: voter suppression with a federal logo. Bondi’s “monitors” are parachuting into Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Kern, Fresno, and Passaic Counties, otherwise known as the places Trump fears democracy the most. The DOJ has officially gone from protecting voting rights to auditing them.

But the trolling gods giveth as much as they taketh. While Bondi’s “poll watchers” were busy intimidating voters, Gavin Newsom found time to exact a little revenge where it hurts most, on national television. During last night’s World Series, California and Ontario teamed up to air a new ad quoting Ronald Reagan’s defense of free trade, effectively letting Reagan’s ghost call Trump an economic dunce. Ontario Premier Doug Ford introduced it with a cheerful wager on the game: “Win or lose, we’re both rooting for our workers, not tariffs.” Trump reportedly melted down faster than Dodger Stadium nacho cheese, railing about “foreign propaganda” interrupting “our national pastime.” Then the Toronto Blue Jays walloped the Dodgers 11–4, making Canada’s trolling a grand slam of poetic justice. By the seventh-inning stretch, the Blue Jays were up, Trump was trending, and Reagan had posthumously joined the resistance.

Overseas, the president has embarked on what foreign press is already calling “The Shakedown Tour.” Trump landed in South Korea for the APEC summit, greeted not with adoration but with dread. Local coverage in Busan shows preparations under way, and protesters ready, with social media posts saying “Don’t show him the shipyards.” Koreans know exactly what he’s after: cash, concessions, and maybe a seaside plot for a Trump Tower Pyongyang. Trump’s team calls it “economic diplomacy.” Koreans call it “extortion with luggage tags.”

Even Georgia Governor Brian Kemp tagged along, trying to clean up his own scandal after ICE agents arrested Korean engineers at the Hyundai-LG battery plant last month. He described the raids as a “regrettable incident,” which Koreans quickly translated as “you’re not sorry at all.” The same MAGA state that screamed about foreign workers is now begging them to come back so factories don’t shut down. Korean media dubbed the visit “Georgia on Its Knees,” and they’re not wrong. Kemp’s doing his best to look contrite while defending a president who treats trade like ransom and allies like marks.

It’s all of a piece: the government’s broke, the courts are rigged, the elections are watched, and the foreign trips are grifts with a minibar. But here’s the catch, the institutions are still producing flickers of defiance. Special Counsel Jack Smith, tired of MAGA threats to subpoena and “investigate” him, called their bluff and said he’ll testify publicly before Congress. On live television. No back-room depositions, no edited transcripts, just daylight and accountability. The bullies scattered. Turns out when you’ve spent years threatening democracy, nothing terrifies you like someone who actually believes in it.

And down in Beckley, West Virginia, one woman did exactly that. Kendra Sullivan stood alone on a street corner last weekend holding a No Kings sign, quoting The Big Lebowski and blasting music through her AirPods while neighbors called the cops. She stayed for two hours. Two officers checked on her, made sure she was safe, and left her be. Her photo went viral, and messages poured in from other “blue specks” in red states saying she made them feel less alone. She didn’t have a PAC or a platform, just a pulse and a conscience.

That’s what holds this tattered republic together. Not billion-dollar donors, not gilded ballrooms or anonymous “friends of the Pentagon,” but ordinary people who refuse to be silent. From Jack Smith’s courtroom to Kendra Sullivan’s sidewalk, the resistance isn’t glamorous, it’s stubborn. It shows up, stands up, and refuses to sit down even when the cops or the con men come calling.

So yes, the country’s a mess. But democracy is still out there, holding signs, calling bluffs, and occasionally hitting home runs.

That’s all for now, friends. Marz and I are hitting the road for a few days, and I’ll be typing a little slower while my pointer finger gets its tune-up. If the posts go quiet, don’t worry, just assume we’re somewhere scenic, plotting the next round of truth-to-power with an ice pack and a dog biscuit. Back soon, coffee in hand and ready to raise more hell.