Today in Fascism

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BREAKING: Pete Hegseth’s defense contractor DISASTER turned artillery production into a half-billion-dollar dumpster fire.

Picture this: robotic arms bursting into flames. Toxic black smoke coating workers' lungs. A factory floor littered with metal shards workers nicknamed "tooth fairy" visits. Sinking foundations. A literal dumpster fire.

This isn't a horror movie — it's a $533 million taxpayer-funded artillery plant built by General Dynamics, one of America's largest defense contractors, that never produced a single usable shell, and it's continued spiraling on Pete Hegseth's watch without a shred of accountability.

The Mesquite, Texas facility was supposed to churn out desperately needed 155mm artillery shells for Ukraine. Instead, it became a case study in corporate incompetence rewarded with more money.

General Dynamics executive Firat Gezen pitched the Army on unproven "flow-forming" technology from a Turkish company, Repkon, that had NEVER received a Pentagon contract and had never even manufactured the specific shell model needed.

Warning signs were everywhere. The Army rushed ahead anyway, exploiting wartime contracting loopholes that gutted competitive bidding and oversight.

The dysfunction was staggering. Robot arms went "rogue," smashing equipment and injuring machinery. Workers discovered display shells at the grand opening ceremony were fake plastic props. Machines required nightly sledgehammer beatings just to function. The Chinese steel used possibly violated federal regulations. Shells that were supposed to be perfect cylinders turned out looking like soft serve ice cream swirls.

Temperatures inside equipment cabinets hit 140 degrees — hot enough, one inspector warned, that "you would not only have drives failing but also human lives failing." Meanwhile, CEO Phebe Novakovic kept telling investors production was "running as we anticipated." It wasn't. Not even close.

Here's where Hegseth's Pentagon takes center stage: in December 2025 — under his leadership — the government paid General Dynamics $26.3 million in "progress payments" for production lines that had ALREADY produced nothing. Since the Army shut down two of the three lines, Hegseth's Department has handed General Dynamics $2.5 billion in NEW contracts. No refunds demanded. No penalties issued. No public accounting of who's responsible.

Hegseth's fix? Letting General Dynamics partner with Deterrence, a three-year-old company with zero defense manufacturing experience, founded by a former Tesla employee and two smart-lock app developers, promising vague "AI-enabled" solutions to problems rooted in broken hardware.

Meanwhile, Repkon's American arm quietly rebranded as "Paligen Technologies" and scored a $435 million no-bid contract under Hegseth's Pentagon to build a TNT factory.

This is what Pete Hegseth's "warrior culture" actually protects: not troops, not taxpayers, but defense contractor profits. While he obsesses over beards and testosterone levels, hundreds of millions in American tax dollars burned to ash in a Texas warehouse.

Nobody has been fired. Nobody has paid a dime back. CEO Novakovic pocketed a $25 million compensation package while Mesquite workers got furloughed. This is the actual "waste, fraud, and abuse" Republicans love to rail about — except when it's their own defense contractor donors cashing the checks.


And the drooling MAGAs approve . . .
 
Hüsker Dü said:
BREAKING: Pete Hegseth’s defense contractor DISASTER turned artillery production into a half-billion-dollar dumpster fire.

Picture this: robotic arms bursting into flames. Toxic black smoke coating workers' lungs. A factory floor littered with metal shards workers nicknamed "tooth fairy" visits. Sinking foundations. A literal dumpster fire.

This isn't a horror movie — it's a $533 million taxpayer-funded artillery plant built by General Dynamics, one of America's largest defense contractors, that never produced a single usable shell, and it's continued spiraling on Pete Hegseth's watch without a shred of accountability.

The Mesquite, Texas facility was supposed to churn out desperately needed 155mm artillery shells for Ukraine. Instead, it became a case study in corporate incompetence rewarded with more money.

General Dynamics executive Firat Gezen pitched the Army on unproven "flow-forming" technology from a Turkish company, Repkon, that had NEVER received a Pentagon contract and had never even manufactured the specific shell model needed.

Warning signs were everywhere. The Army rushed ahead anyway, exploiting wartime contracting loopholes that gutted competitive bidding and oversight.

The dysfunction was staggering. Robot arms went "rogue," smashing equipment and injuring machinery. Workers discovered display shells at the grand opening ceremony were fake plastic props. Machines required nightly sledgehammer beatings just to function. The Chinese steel used possibly violated federal regulations. Shells that were supposed to be perfect cylinders turned out looking like soft serve ice cream swirls.

Temperatures inside equipment cabinets hit 140 degrees — hot enough, one inspector warned, that "you would not only have drives failing but also human lives failing." Meanwhile, CEO Phebe Novakovic kept telling investors production was "running as we anticipated." It wasn't. Not even close.

Here's where Hegseth's Pentagon takes center stage: in December 2025 — under his leadership — the government paid General Dynamics $26.3 million in "progress payments" for production lines that had ALREADY produced nothing. Since the Army shut down two of the three lines, Hegseth's Department has handed General Dynamics $2.5 billion in NEW contracts. No refunds demanded. No penalties issued. No public accounting of who's responsible.

Hegseth's fix? Letting General Dynamics partner with Deterrence, a three-year-old company with zero defense manufacturing experience, founded by a former Tesla employee and two smart-lock app developers, promising vague "AI-enabled" solutions to problems rooted in broken hardware.

Meanwhile, Repkon's American arm quietly rebranded as "Paligen Technologies" and scored a $435 million no-bid contract under Hegseth's Pentagon to build a TNT factory.

This is what Pete Hegseth's "warrior culture" actually protects: not troops, not taxpayers, but defense contractor profits. While he obsesses over beards and testosterone levels, hundreds of millions in American tax dollars burned to ash in a Texas warehouse.

Nobody has been fired. Nobody has paid a dime back. CEO Novakovic pocketed a $25 million compensation package while Mesquite workers got furloughed. This is the actual "waste, fraud, and abuse" Republicans love to rail about — except when it's their own defense contractor donors cashing the checks.


And the drooling MAGAs approve . . .
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And yet you trust the government to run universal healthcare?
 
Chelsea dad g09 said:
And yet you trust the government to run universal healthcare?
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The management of many governmental agencies is handled by dedicated able professionals. Politicians are the ones that screw things up. Just look at our current state of affairs. For one we have the greatest military in the history of the world and we are at a stalemate at best with Iran. And yeah Hegseth is a complete joke.
 
Hüsker Dü said:
The management of many governmental agencies is handled by dedicated able professionals. Politicians are the ones that screw things up. Just look at our current state of affairs. For one we have the greatest military in the history of the world and we are at a stalemate at best with Iran. And yeah Hegseth is a complete joke.
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Well its a good thing the politicians are not the ones making the decisions where our taxes go then while trying to increase the number of programs they can make said decisions about.
 
“Money doesn’t lie baby… The charity that supposedly fought the KKK actually funded the KKK. The charity that supposedly fought Neo-Nazis actually funded Neo-Nazis.

The Southern Poverty Law Center ran a methodical, calculated scheme to defraud their donor base for millions and used an illicit banking structure system to sow discord and hate into our society.” FBI Director Kash Patel

Racism doesn’t exist how they want it to anymore, so they have to financially fabricate it like liars always do. This is the worst kind cheating.

Racism is so rare in the U.S. that the Southern Poverty Law Center had to pay white people to pretend to be racist🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
 
Chelsea dad g09 said:
The last person that agreed with El Sayed is Hassan Piker, you sure you want that association?

This is also straight out the the dsa playbook, no need to look further than mamdani in Ny, using taxpayers funds to subsidize groceries then selling it back to them. Sure, advocate for government run everything and then when those taxpayer subsidies aren't enough because its the US government, they'll only ask for more money and eventually when it gets too large, they'll start their own farms. Its straight from Das Kapital. Oh you want the Scandanavian model, you'd need to lower our population by a couple hundred million, deregulate business, change the entire financial system that the rest of the world relies uopn and strictly enforce the border, does that sound like El Sayed?

Fitting that today in 1986-

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."
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Republicans: Don’t call us fascist!

Also Republicans: We believe a president should have the unilateral power to do whatever they want, as long as they’re a member of our party. And we don’t trust any government institution, branch of government, or media entity that isn’t completely under that president’s control or direct influence to say or do whatever he commands.

For the record, here’s the definition of fascism that I’m sure Republicans will say is “leftist propaganda,” even though it comes from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Fascism: A populist political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts the nation and often race above the individual; that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader; and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition.

Let’s break that down, shall we?

A populist political philosophy: Trump has repeatedly claimed that he’s “representing the average American” and opposing the “elite” — typically two of the main talking points of any populist movement.

A regime that exalts the nation and often race above the individual: His catchphrase is literally “Make America Great Again,” and he has repeatedly referred to immigrants as everything from “animals” to “people here to destroy America,” becoming the most popular president among white nationalists in decades. He also frequently pushes rhetoric suggesting that people of color aren't “one of us.”

Associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader: We have Trump on video multiple times praising dictators and saying he wants to be one. He has also said he can basically “do what he wants” and clearly believes that every aspect of the federal government, as well as each state, should answer to him. The only things keeping him from becoming a full-fledged dictator are a slim majority in the House of Representatives, the filibuster, and parts of our judicial branch that are still willing to stand up to him — all things he has attacked and declared the “enemy of the country" and the filibuster which he's repeatedly tried to get Senate Republicans to get rid of so he can attack our democracy.

Severe economic and social regimentation: Trump has taken over part of Intel, has threatened companies that won’t do what he wants, and has made it very clear that the best way to get easy approval from this administration to do business is through blatant bribes. Additionally, his sweeping tariff agenda was ruled unconstitutional, at which point he once again declared he can “do what he wants” and has been using other loopholes to try to force his tax hikes on American consumers. In other words, he wants businesses to kiss his ass in order to do business, and he believes he doesn’t need Congress to enact his ideology — he can do it all by himself.

Forcible suppression of opposition: This one is too easy. For starters, you won’t find a person within his administration who would dare stand up to Trump and tell him no on anything. He demands blind, unwavering loyalty.

Then there’s the constant rhetoric attacking any media entity that doesn’t report what he wants, calling those who stand up to him the “enemy from within.” Any news that’s unflattering to him is labeled “fake,” and there’s his growing list of people he has ordered the Department of Justice to go after because they dared to try to hold him accountable for alleged crimes and unethical behavior. We have never seen a president in this nation’s history who has spent so much time trying to silence and suppress opposition to his claims, conspiracies, and messaging.

So, MAGA, please tell me: Where do Donald Trump and today’s Republican Party not align with the textbook definition of fascism? ~ AC
 
Hüsker Dü said:
Republicans: Don’t call us fascist!

Also Republicans: We believe a president should have the unilateral power to do whatever they want, as long as they’re a member of our party. And we don’t trust any government institution, branch of government, or media entity that isn’t completely under that president’s control or direct influence to say or do whatever he commands.

For the record, here’s the definition of fascism that I’m sure Republicans will say is “leftist propaganda,” even though it comes from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Fascism: A populist political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts the nation and often race above the individual; that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader; and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition.

Let’s break that down, shall we?

A populist political philosophy: Trump has repeatedly claimed that he’s “representing the average American” and opposing the “elite” — typically two of the main talking points of any populist movement.

A regime that exalts the nation and often race above the individual: His catchphrase is literally “Make America Great Again,” and he has repeatedly referred to immigrants as everything from “animals” to “people here to destroy America,” becoming the most popular president among white nationalists in decades. He also frequently pushes rhetoric suggesting that people of color aren't “one of us.”

Associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader: We have Trump on video multiple times praising dictators and saying he wants to be one. He has also said he can basically “do what he wants” and clearly believes that every aspect of the federal government, as well as each state, should answer to him. The only things keeping him from becoming a full-fledged dictator are a slim majority in the House of Representatives, the filibuster, and parts of our judicial branch that are still willing to stand up to him — all things he has attacked and declared the “enemy of the country" and the filibuster which he's repeatedly tried to get Senate Republicans to get rid of so he can attack our democracy.

Severe economic and social regimentation: Trump has taken over part of Intel, has threatened companies that won’t do what he wants, and has made it very clear that the best way to get easy approval from this administration to do business is through blatant bribes. Additionally, his sweeping tariff agenda was ruled unconstitutional, at which point he once again declared he can “do what he wants” and has been using other loopholes to try to force his tax hikes on American consumers. In other words, he wants businesses to kiss his ass in order to do business, and he believes he doesn’t need Congress to enact his ideology — he can do it all by himself.

Forcible suppression of opposition: This one is too easy. For starters, you won’t find a person within his administration who would dare stand up to Trump and tell him no on anything. He demands blind, unwavering loyalty.

Then there’s the constant rhetoric attacking any media entity that doesn’t report what he wants, calling those who stand up to him the “enemy from within.” Any news that’s unflattering to him is labeled “fake,” and there’s his growing list of people he has ordered the Department of Justice to go after because they dared to try to hold him accountable for alleged crimes and unethical behavior. We have never seen a president in this nation’s history who has spent so much time trying to silence and suppress opposition to his claims, conspiracies, and messaging.

So, MAGA, please tell me: Where do Donald Trump and today’s Republican Party not align with the textbook definition of fascism? ~ AC
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So am I to believe that if given the chance, you wouldnt choose to have every politician be democrat?
 
Chelsea dad g09 said:
Well its a good thing the politicians are not the ones making the decisions where our taxes go then while trying to increase the number of programs they can make said decisions about.
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Apparently his view is...gov has lots of dedicated professionals. They just dont work in defense, in areas dedicated to cutting fraud, etc.

The reality is many people working in the various agencies are highly partisan.
 
watfly said:
He is only capable of binary thought, if you're not a socialist, you're MAGA.
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Funny because he makes accusations of being short sighted, etc, but definitely gets his info from whatever echo chamber he resides in. Im loving the cut and paste opinion pieces he's been posting as if they equate to indisputable fact and we're sheep because we dont agree.
 
Chelsea dad g09 said:
Funny because he makes accusations of being short sighted, etc, but definitely gets his info from whatever echo chamber he resides in. Im loving the cut and paste opinion pieces he's been posting as if they equate to indisputable fact and we're sheep because we dont agree.
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Yeah, it's a self awareness thing. He is actually the worst offender of things he accuses everyone else of...particularly "whataboutism". All his posts employ some logical fallacy "whataboutism", "strawman", "ad hominem", etc. IDK if his fixation with Trump has impaired his cognitive reasoning or if it just comes naturally. Maybe he had a traumatic experience watching Willy Wonka when he was a kid and has a revulsion to orange people.
 
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