Inkstick’s Substack

Hi, Ever since President Dwight D. Eisenhower first began warning about the military-industrial complex and the power of the for-profit arms industry, he framed the issue for Americans as one about tradeoffs. “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed,” he said.

Inkstick Updates The latest at Inkstick. In New York City, protests in Thomas Paine Park called for the release of Mahmoud Khalil in March 2025 (Swinxy/Wikimedia Commons) Hello, everyone. As the Iran war presses on and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continues to claim broad success, American weapons manufacturers are still raking in cash and receiving generous treatment in small communities around the United States.

Critical State If you only read one thing this week … read about the three men in Maine, Georgia, and Florida who died within a single day of encountering ICE immigration enforcement. At The Guardian, José Olivares reports that three men with no connection to one another died in three different states within a single 24-hour period in July, casualties of an immigration enforcement campaign that has grown quieter since the start of the year but no less lethal.

The Dotted Line Plus, several recommendations for reading more about the American far right and the influential ideologue Louis Beam. During my 16 years working as a journalist, I’ve spent more than a decade focusing on the far right in the United States and Europe.

It may come as no surprise to you that Pete Hegseth is still courting controversy. Since Trump appointed Hegseth, the defense secretary has garnered a steady stream of bad headlines for the Pentagon. One largely overlooked controversy, as Leigh Larson argues in a new op-ed, is Hegseth’s transformation of the US Chaplain Corps into a vehicle for Christian nationalism. On a related note, the Trump administration has consistently hyped the threat of China’s nuclear arsenal.

At The Intercept, Nick Turse reveals that two US officials have warned that the Iran war has pushed the United States military toward a breakdown in its ability to keep fighting a conflict that, according to the president, was only supposed to last a few weeks. The officials describe a cascade of pressures: Iranian strikes on bases and warships, depleted air defense stocks, mounting casualties, deteriorating ships, and deployments stretching past anything the fleet was built to absorb.

Since the Trump administration ousted DHS secretary Kristi Noem earlier this year, ICE has changed up its strategy — but that doesn’t mean the immigration crackdown has eased up. As Inkstick reporter Tyler Hicks reports, activists and lawyers say ICE has adopted subtler tactics while recording record numbers of arrests for months on end. Meanwhile, so-called “mega-master” hearings have put immigrants in serious risk of missing court dates changed at the last second.

At Politico, Paul McLeary and Jack Detschlook at a behind-the-scenes campaign that allies of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are waging to get Sean Parnell, an Army veteran and unsuccessful Pennsylvania congressional candidate, nominated as Army secretary. The push comes to get Parnell appointed over two officials the White House is also considering, Army Comptroller Marc Andersen and Assistant Secretary for Special Operations Derrick Anderson. Hegseth fired the Army’s top uniformed leader, Gen.

A woman brings two young girls along during an evacuation from Sudan in 2023 (AFRICOM/Wikimedia Commons) Hello, everyone. With the midterms approaching fast, Trump and his GOP allies have turned to an age-old American tactic: red baiting. During recent addresses, the president has warned of the “communist menace,” harkening to the red scares of the past.

At Politico Europe, Aitor Hernández-Moralesexplores how last month’s “surge of migrants” attempting to reach the Spanish exclave of Ceuta has revealed just how far Europe’s political mainstream has moved toward hardline border enforcement. More than 100 people died trying to enter the Spanish city in Morocco. The event has prompted migrant rights groups to reconsider their approach.