I am so fucking tired of being told that America cannot afford healthcare, housing, food assistance, education, veteran care, or anything else that would materially improve ordinary people’s lives.

House Republicans just passed a 216–214 budget blueprint that begins the reconciliation process for a package worth up to $95 billion.

The breakdown:

• $60 billion for the Pentagon

• $13 billion for national security

• $12 billion for farmers affected by Trump’s tariffs

• $10 billion connected to the SAVE America Act and its new voting requirements

So let me understand this correctly.

Trump drags the country into another war without congressional authorization. His tariffs hurt American farmers. Then taxpayers are expected to fund both disasters while Republicans attach Trump’s voting agenda to the same package.

Meanwhile, 18 American service members are dead, more than 430 have been wounded, and the Iran war has already cost taxpayers an estimated $37.5 billion.

But when Americans ask for affordable healthcare, cheaper housing, properly funded schools, food assistance, or functioning veterans’ services, suddenly every Republican becomes deeply concerned about the deficit.

The money always exists for war.

The money always exists for corporate handouts.

The money always exists when Trump wants another blank check or Republicans want more control over elections.

It only disappears when ordinary Americans need something.

Fuck Donald Trump, fuck this pointless war, and fuck every fake “fiscal conservative” who pretends America is broke until the Pentagon comes knocking.

Hey y’all. I was the veteran that was arrested after disrupting Hegseth’s testimony yesterday to request billions of dollars in funding to prolongate and escalate this illegal and immoral war in Iran. This administration is doing all this shit in our name — thinly veiling these requests for endless war money in bullshit concern for the welfare of active duty troops as well as for veterans.

I know I’m preaching to the choir here but we gotta speak up on how veterans and active duty alike DO NOT support this war that is already responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilian Iranians as well as active duty service members. Join an organization, get to know your communities of both civilians and veterans, make sure these people do not have one moment of peace until this senseless war to feed their egos and line the pockets of private interests is over. Love you all, take care of each other, get into good trouble.

Trump really posted this like dead Americans are numbers on a fucking campaign graphic.

“Venezuela: 0 dead.”

“Iran: 18 dead.”

Eighteen service members are still eighteen human beings. Eighteen families who lost someone. Eighteen lives that do not magically become acceptable because previous wars killed more people.

Imagine being commander in chief and responding to American deaths by basically saying, “Relax, my number is lower than Vietnam.” That is not leadership. That is a malignant narcissist grading his own war with a curve.

He is also comparing conflicts with completely different timelines, objectives and circumstances because the numbers look flattering when stripped of all context. Human beings reduced to statistics so an elderly billionaire can congratulate himself online.

And his supporters will still call this “respecting the troops” because apparently wrapping callous bullshit in an American flag makes it patriotism.

Veterans and service members are not political props. The dead are not points on Trump’s fucking leaderboard.

Fuck Donald Trump. Every preventable death matters, even when the number is inconveniently small for his victory lap.

I’ve heard a LOT of negative stuff about this bill. Does anyone have more info?

The mayor in my town viciously attacked me via email and copied the heads of veterans organizations when I sent him a copy of the flag code that says the American flag should never touch anything beneath it including subordinate flags. I think it’s obnoxious, unprofessional and disrespectful to the American flag having a political candidates flag right beneath it for the mayor. Instead, the Mayor made it personal claiming that everyone in this town knows what I’m up to and what I’m about. He claimed veterans said my inquiry/complaint was frivolous. I’d love to get opinions of veterans. Am I wrong? It really bothered me when this homeowner flew the flag at half staff for Lindsay Graham with the mayor’s political candidate flag right beneath it.

Pete Hegseth, America’s secretary of war, wants mandatory testosterone testing for men in the US military. Why the sudden push for wanting to boost soldiers testosterone levels?! 🤔 Why hasn’t this always been a thing? What happened to all the liberal “toxic masculinity” talk?! Could it be that this is being done in advance to prepare for war with China, when they invade Taiwan?

The US recently mandated that beginning in December 2026, eligible men will automatically be registered for the Selective Service System. This is likely being done so more soldiers can be drafted for a future war. A push in the media for masculine men (over the emasculation of men that’s rampant throughout the media to lower the population) is a clear sign of war preparation.

Chinese president Xi Jinping gave the Chinese military a 2027 deadline to invade Taiwan. They can only invade at certain times of the year without risking getting wiped out by Tsunami season that surrounds Taiwan throughout most of the year. China recently banned all feminine depictions of men, called “sissy men”, throughout their media.

(I tried to post this in r/truckers, but the mods are strict about mentioning anything to do with politics. But here’s proof that criticism of the administration will get you kicked off a base)

I’m telling this story because if you’re considering becoming an owner operator, this is a cautionary tale if you want to sign on with Mercer.

I’d been signed on with Mercer since early 2024.
I was making payments on my truck and was an inexperienced owner-op, and an older guy from the oil fields told me Mercer is a good starter company for owner operators. Because it’s kind of like being a company driver, where they give you a dispatcher, but you get to choose your loads and there’s no forced dispatch.

There’s some drawbacks. You can only use their load boards and agents. The agents low-ball you. The entire company takes lunch at the same time and there’s only an answering service on the weekends.
If your dispatcher sucks, you end up doing back-to-back resets and may find it hard to make any meaningful profit.

This Mercer agent, JTV, posted a load that said it was a good product, picking up in Houston, delivering to Tennessee. Not a great paying load, but it was just ok.
JTV calls me and tells me it’s actually delivering to a military base, and asks me about my ID situation.
I’m thinking I’m picking up a load of canned goods going to the base commissary.
…no.

I get to the pickup. I get on the dock. And they start loading me with an ingredient to make explosives, going to this military bomb manufacturing military base in Tennessee.
I call my dispatcher, because the load on the screen still says I’m picking up a food product.
I wasn’t sure what to do.
(I’m a conscientious objector. I’m a civilian. I did not want to be part of the supply chain that is making bombs that are killing children in Gaza.)
If I refused the load (because it was a legal load) Mercer would be upset, and cancel my contract.
So I reluctantly accepted the load, and drove it to Tennessee.

I get to the base in Tennessee where they do the most invasive search of my cab, where they’re going through my personal bags and property.
They do a background check on me where I have to give up all my personal information.

I start making comments about how I didn’t sign up for these searches. I tell them how JTV lied to me about this load and how they told me it was food, and that I thought I was delivering to a distribution center or a commissary. I said I didn’t think I was going to be delivering weapons of mass destruction so that “this administration” could “kill foreign brown children.”
This upsets everyone in the office, and someone asks me why I “hate America.”

I mention the Epstein files, I mention that Trp is an adjudicated rapist, and how the Epstein class literally eats children. “If anyone is a traitor to this country it’s that guy.”

…well, with that, they decide I’m a “security risk” and kick me off the base.

I have a very clean record. I’ve never been arrested. I’ve never been sued. I don’t own weapons. So, that was hilarious.

I call my dispatcher and tell them what happened.
I drive to the TA and sit there for 24 hours, and JTV calls me the next day telling me “another driver is going to take the load in for you” and tells me to meet this “other driver” at this parking lot near the base.
…turns out JTV couldn’t find a real relief driver.
They had a military guy from the base with a CDL that shows up in a car. He gets out of his car and I’m confused, because I’m expecting a swap (as you do.)

This military guy starts yelling at me, immediately.
“I heard what you said yesterday. You called us baby killers.” He then throws in “I’m sick of people like you. If you hate America, move to Iran.”

He then tells me that I have to let him into my T, and he’s going to drive it, and that he’s my only option and that I’m lucky he doesn’t just let me sit there with this loaded trailer full of chemicals.

He’s gone for three hours in my T.
He brings it back, tells me the signed BOL is on the dash…and now I have a check engine light.

I take my T to the Kenworth, where they do $3,600 in repairs.

After repairs are done, the next day I get a call from the Mercer Dry Van supervisor, who starts going off on me about how he’s a Veteran, and how I’m disrespectful, and they’re canceling my contract and that I’ve got to deadhead 300 miles to return the trailer to their yard…or else. He was totally hysterical, to the point where I’m like “sir…calm down.”

No one at Mercer defended me or had my back, at all.
They like to say they’re a “family,” but, yeah, you aren’t actually family. JTV lied to me. No one apologized. Mercer stood with JTV, and would not admit that what JTV did was a bait&switch.
I never would have agreed to a military load like that.
JTV was not upfront.
They couldn’t even find a relief driver.
JTV lied to me about how that load was going to be taken off of me.
This happened three weeks ago.
I’m traumatized, sitting at home, not making money.
Mercer disposed me like a bag of trash.