Monday, November 9th, 2026
Bill Bonner, from Ardmore, Ireland
Poor Pete Hegseth. He picked the wrong week to stop drinking.
And what a week! People who didn’t stand a chance in mainstream politics were suddenly elected to the US Senate. A few years ago, or even a few months ago, a guy like Abdul El-Sayed would have been a pariah. Asked who was worse — Israel or Hamas — he refused to give the only answer approved by America’s most powerful lobby. But now, apparently, a lot of voters aren’t sure either.
It is almost a week since Donald Trump was thrashed in the midterm elections. And Democrats are giddy with delight.
They hope to see heads roll. They’ve got their list. And they’re counting on Republicans to do much of the chopping. But who was going to be blamed? Who was going to be tossed off the boat in the hopes of making it more sea-worthy? MS Now:
The man could not be more incompetent: Rep. Ansari calls for Pete Hegseth’s impeachment
Officials tell MS NOW the President’s allies “smell blood in the water” after Tuesday’s blue tsunami.
But wait, NBC News:
President Trump says he has ‘every intention’ to keep Secretary Hegseth
President Trump said he intends to keep Secretary Pete Hegseth in his job, as GOP Rep. Thomas Massie prepares to reintroduce an impeachment resolution against Hegseth. ABC News’ Karen Travers reports.
As in the Soviet Union, no rumour is confirmed until it has been officially denied. What POTUS intends to do with Hegseth, we don’t know. He is probably the least able man in the cabinet, where the competition is stiff. As such, he may be useful to the president. Like a body double, Hegseth may draw fire that otherwise would aim for him.
But whether he goes or stays, his tenure as laughingstock head of America’s military probably won’t be like Sherman’s march through Georgia. Custer’s march through Montana is probably the more likely model. In addition to the usual battles, somewhere in the low hills of the incoming Congress an angry woman, with a feather in her hair and war paint on her face, lies in wait. Yes, it’s Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore, the very woman Hegseth fired. Lacore, with her 35 years of experience in the military, will no doubt take her place among the inquisitors Mr. Hegseth will face.
She might pose Pistol Pete questions that the rest of us have been too polite to ask. By what authority did he summarily execute alleged drug dealers — with no trial, no judge, no jury, no evidence and no defence permitted? How is that different from what the law books call, ‘mass premeditated murder’?
“Do you think just losing your job is a satisfactory punishment,” Admiral (ret.) Lacore might ask, “Wouldn’t something more ...well...‘lethal’ be in order?”
On Friday morning, another candidate for the guillotine was Stephen Miller. The New Republic:
Leaks from within the Trump administration are targeting the White House adviser and deputy chief of staff for policy, with unnamed sources attacking Miller.
According to The Wall Street Journal, First Lady Melania Trump at one point complained to President Trump that people she knew were getting deported, leading the president to tell his aides that Miller’s aggressive deportation plans were going too far.
Another report in The New York Times noted that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, herself potentially on the chopping block after Republicans’ election fiasco, was not a fan of Miller’s heavy-handed immigration approach, and had tried for months to get Trump to take a different route.
But, as it turned out, the blade came down on the neck of one of the least obnoxious people in the whole White House cast, the aforementioned Susie Wiles. Daily Mail:
A key former staffer and ally of Robert F Kennedy Jr accused outgoing Chief of Staff Susie Wiles of taking money from corporations and foreign interests to sabotage RFK’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda. Trump announced Friday that ‘ice queen’ Wiles would leave the powerful position on Monday for a position in Trump’s political operation, to be replaced by Stephen Miller.
As of this morning, God is in His Heaven. And the King is on his throne. Hegseth is still at his Department of War. And Miller heads the White House staff.
And traffic on the road to ruin is still moving along nicely. But there’s always tomorrow.
Regards,
Bill Bonner
Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang was ‘the target of a foreign intelligence operations’ according to reports out on the weekend. In a note to the the company’s employees, Huang admitted to having an extra-marital affair with a woman who is accused of being a spy for the People’s Republic of China. Nvidia’s board announced an independent investigation into the allegations. The stock, with a market capitalization of $4.5 trillion and one of the biggest winners of the AI boom, is down in pre-market trading.
Gee, I thought everybody that voted "D" was voting for "affordability"? Yet five minutes after getting elected, these Marxist/Leftist/Democrats have pivoted to investigations, subpoenas, prosecutions, impeachments, killing the filibuster, eliminating the Electoral College, packing the Supreme Court, adding D.C. and Puerto Rico as states, etc. etc. It makes sense given that D's never have and never will have an idea or plan to make anything better or less expensive.
America has been on a road to ruin ever since we went off the gold standard. Current political events only confirm we are in a heap of trouble. The political games have not changed since the founding of our country.
Even though gold is down 25% YTD, DON"T SELL THE OLD YELLOW RELIC!
Jim Marshall