Want to hang out with Inkstick in a live video conversation? Nov 17 at 12:30pm, with @laicie.bsky.social and myself, to chat about our reporting on Anduril in Ohio. inkstick.substack.com/p/weve-been-...

We’ve Been Waiting for This Conversation

We may need you to clear your afternoon.

inkstick.substack.com

Two days after the midterms, same lesson as always: the defense budget, the tech contracts, the base in your county don’t get covered unless someone pays a reporter to go look. That’s us. NewsMatch is matching gifts to Inkstick through Dec 31. inkstickmedia.com/donate

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What does power do to people? Inkstick investigates the systems shaping our lives — from war and surveillance to borders, emergency politics, and public money. We connect decisions made in the name of...

inkstickmedia.com

The Air Force now says reusing the old Minuteman silos for Sentinel won’t work. So: new silos, possibly on Montana sites that were dismantled under New START a decade ago. Arms control, quite literally dug back up. @tkbarnes.bsky.social has been reporting from these counties, more from us soon.

Wow - I missed this: "Representative Bill Foster, a Democrat from Illinois, argued that the Golden Dome should be investigated for large-scale fraud." Foster, by the way, is the only physicist in Congress. inkstickmedia.com/is-trumps-go...

Is Trump's Golden Dome Missile Defense System a Pipe Dream?

US President Donald Trump's highly touted 'Golden Dome' will cost taxpayers untold sums of money. Will it even work?

inkstickmedia.com

"This past winter, the United States’ militarized migration enforcement system laid bare its disregard for human dignity in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. People were abducted in broad daylight, civil liberties were trampled, and state killings continued with impunity."

How US Wars Abroad Lay the Path for Militarizing Immigration

From Iraq and Afghanistan to Iran, when the US wages wars abroad, it is also laying the path for militarizing immigration enforcement at home.

inkstickmedia.com

Folks in Walla Walla! I'm speaking today alongside Sean Arent from Physicians for Social Responsibility at Whitman College class about nuclear weapons and the evolving military-industrial complex. I'll present our new @transitionsec.bsky.social report: transitionsecurity.org/labor-of-the...

In times like these, always good to read this superb article about the intersection of an out of control President and the use of nuclear weapons. @laicie.bsky.social inkstickmedia.com/nixons-drunk...

Nixon's Drunken Run-Ins With the Bomb

Nixon’s final years as president sucked for Nixon. As the Watergate scandal intensified, the president can hardly be blamed for having reached for a drink. But apparently, the situation was so bad that when Nixon fell victim to growing bouts of insomnia and fits of drunken rage, some Washington insiders started taking bets on when […]

inkstickmedia.com

My amazing @scovillepf.bsky.social @seantmanning.bsky.social has a new @ucs.org piece on what he appropriately calls Trump's "Bloody New Deal," i.e., his proposal to dump $1.5 trillion into military spending, a massive 66% increase. See: blog.ucs.org/sean-manning...

Trump’s Proposed Military Spending Would Be a “Bloody New Deal”

If passed and sustained, President Trump’s new defense budget could become the largest discretionary spending increase in modern US history.

blog.ucs.org

Trump and Hegseth can’t even justify their $1.5 TRILLION defense budget ask—a staggering $500 BILLION INCREASE. Congress should flat-out reject it.
  An unserious request like this invites waste and abuse, and risks blowing up the bipartisan appropriations process altogether.

#nukesky Our latest @inkstickmedia.com updates from Utah and its nuclear weapons plants, which the government recently tried to claim were... secret. inkstick.substack.com/p/are-addres...

Are Addresses of Northrop Grumman's Missile Plants a Secret? Utah Says So.

A Utah government attorney told a judge that addresses for nuclear missile manufacturing facilities posed national security risks. But Inkstick published them years ago.

inkstick.substack.com

Tuning into the State of the Union address? Follow us for fact checks in real-time. 🫡

Mother Jones@motherjones.com · 9mo ago

Trump just claimed that his tariffs will be a net good for the US. Fact Check: Experts call his plan not only a betrayal of the most basic laws of economics, but could very well tip the US into a completely avoidable recession.

Coming soon: healthcare coupons

Wow. Anduril’s planned autonomous weapons factory in rural Ohio is projected to destroy/reroute wetlands and waterways - so the Ohio EPA went ahead and approved a “lowering of water quality” for the area. In order to protect “economic considerations” sciotovalleyguardian.com/2026/01/16/o...

@tkbarnes.bsky.social reports: “Raytheon was allowed to claim about half a million dollars in tax refunds for jobs it did not create due to a loophole in its economic development contract with Buncombe County.”

Exclusive: We Followed the Money to Raytheon in North Carolina

We got hundreds of pages of public records about a controversial deal to offer tens of millions of state and local subsidies to a new Raytheon/Pratt & Whitney plant in Asheville.

inkstick.substack.com

We’re over the moon — Things That Go Boom just picked up 8 Signal Awards! 🥇🥈🥉 Including Gold for Public Service and Conversation Starter — plus Writing and Best Host! Huge thanks to everyone who voted and supported our work. 💛 signalaward.com/winners #SignalAwards #PodcastAwards

Winners - Signal Awards

The Signal Awards seeks to honor and celebrate the people and content that raise the bar for podcasting.Luminaries and leaders within the industry will judge Shows, Limited Series & Specials, Individu...

signalaward.com

OMGGGGGG you guys, we won EIGHT @signalawards.bsky.social!!!

A new report takes a hard look at the at least $21.7 billion in American military aid to Israel during its war on Gaza. inkstickmedia.com/deep-dive-th...

Deep Dive: The US Aid Fueling Israel's Two-Year Gaza War

A new report takes a hard look at the at least $21.7 billion in American military aid to Israel during its war on Gaza.

inkstickmedia.com

@laicie.bsky.social @joecirin.bsky.social: This new reality requires new thinking: old theories don't really fit what we're in right now. We're in a new nuclear arms race, the first since the 1980s... our goal has to be to minimize those losses and prevent the worst from happening.

My panel (with @jonatomic.bsky.social, Mallory Stewart & @laicie.bsky.social) starts at 5:30pm ET. I am going to try out my new analysis of how the most dangerous feature of our current nuclear age is that authoritarian regimes now control almost of the world's nuclear weapons. Love to get feedback.

Joe Cirincione@joecirin.bsky.social · last yr.

Here is the line up for the arms control conference starting at 4:30. Hit the link below to sign up for FREE and participate on line: secure.everyaction.com/rhSOFnj8ekO4...

Trump said he and Hegseth talked about using U.S. cities as “training grounds.” Unfortunately, this @inkstickmedia.com story feels even timelier now.

‘Let’s Go Bash Some Skulls’: Inside the Militarization of Trump’s America

As the Trump administration expands its push to militarize US cities, critics rail against the heavy-handed impact on marginalized groups.

inkstickmedia.com

A brand new season of #ThingsThatGoBoom from @inkstickmedia.com and @prx.org is coming soon! (And we're talking about the military-industrial complex.) inkstickmedia.com/coming-soon-...

Coming Soon: MIC Drop

We’re watching — in DC, LA, Chicago — what happens when the military comes to town. But what about the military that’s been there all along?

inkstickmedia.com

You have two weeks to submit your story to the Bulletin's first-ever writing contest, judged by acclaimed sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson. No fee to enter. Winners will be published in our January magazine. The first place winner will receive $3,000, with $500 each going to four runners-up.

Write Before Midnight

Announcing the Bulletin's new short fiction contest! You have until September 30 to send in your stories. At what time you ask? It couldn't be midnight, could it?

thebulletin.org

Yeah that’s it, no more work today, Taylor Swift is getting married.

this is why everyone I know isn’t having kids btw

Kat O’Brien@lavidagata.bsky.social · last yr.

The median cost of putting one child through daycare for 5 years in the U.S. is $43,000. That masks much higher costs in many large cities. It’s nearly $150,000 (almost $30,000 for one year) in Arlington, VA. This is for one kid www.wsj.com/personal-fin...

Snuck in a new 'About' page over @inkstickmedia.com — It was due for a refresh. inkstickmedia.com/about/

About

Inkstick Media is an award-winning nonprofit newsroom that covers war where it lands: in people’s lives. We dig into the places where power hides — defense budgets dressed up as jobs programs, corpora...

inkstickmedia.com

This is absolutely heartbreaking. As a colleague said, the appropriate title is "For Sale: VOA." rasmus.com/auctions/fUN...

Broadcasting Studio Equipment Washington DC

An international broadcast company has ceased operations in the United States and will make a complete liquidation of their late model digital radio, video and podcast technology assets, studio equipm...

rasmus.com

Hi who else is listening to their kids’ favorite show on repeat?

I had to read this twice to believe it...Meloni, who ran for office on an anti-immigration platform, has now announced plans to let in hundreds of thousands of immigrants, in order to deal with the Italian labor shortage www.reuters.com/world/italy-...

Italy to issue half million non-EU work visas over next three years

The move is part of a strategy to expand legal immigration channels in response to labor shortages.

reuters.com

As the Trump administration slashes counterextremism programs, veterans worry about the risks. By: @tylerfromtexas.bsky.social inkstickmedia.com/inside-the-u...

Inside the US Military’s 'Dehumanization' Crisis Under Trump

As the Trump administration slashes counterextremism programs, veterans worry about the risks that could follow.

inkstickmedia.com

So very many men.