WARRIOR ETHOS: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced yesterday that he plans to pull back thousands of American troops from overseas and re-station them in a “Fortress America” he wants to build somewhere in the US.

  He said, “If your state wants the honor of hosting 15,000 to 25,000 of America’s great troops, show us why and how you’re going to do it — cutting through the red tape, offering up the land and rolling out the red carpet for our military families.” 

  The defense secretary opened with rolling heads. He said that combined with the officers already fired and positions eliminated he is cutting the number of admirals and generals in the military by 20 percent. “Now the media calls that a purge,” he said. “I call that accountability and long overdue, and frankly, the bare minimum.”

  Hegseth spoke in his “State of the Force” speech on the Marine Corps Base at Quantico, Virginia.

  For much of his speech Hegseth waged a culture war and war against the press rather than war against Iran. About the military he said, “No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals.” He said, “The ideological clowns are out, patriotic cowboys are in.”

  He called the press “fake news,” “anti-American,” and even “treasonous” for reporting on the unresolved Iran war. He repeatedly pointed at reporters in the back of the room.

  The devout Christian Hegseth derided “secular humanism” and said he has established an office of religious affairs that would report directly to him.

  Hegseth wandered up and down the stage speaking fluently and without script. Agree with him or not, and a lot of what he said was bombast, he is a talented and powerful speaker likely to be a force in American life for years to come.

LIVING DEATH: Tennessee authorities last night botched the execution of 50-year-old Christa Pike, taking her to a hospital after two doses of lethal chemicals failed to kill her. Following last minute court delays, including a Supreme Court decision allowing the execution to proceed, the state rushed to complete the execution yesterday before having to re-schedule.

 Pike’s lawyers said that after the two injections she was still breathing and snoring. It was Tennessee’s second failed execution this year.

  “This event is the worst we’ve seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era,” said Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “There is no precedent.”

  Pike had argued that her history of childhood sexual abuse and rape were not properly considered in her sentencing. She and her boyfriend were convicted of the 1995 fatal stabbing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility.

   In what she believed were to be her last words Pike said, “I’m going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life, and that is with love.”

SKYFALL: The first officer who stabbed his pilot aboard a FlyDubai jet before taking it into a 17,000 foot plunge is an Omani national and religious extremist who refuses to shake hands with women. Authorities are trying to discern whether he was a lone actor or in concert with something larger.

  The wounded pilot was able to open the cabin door allowing an Israeli plumber to grab the co-pilot as two dead-heading pilots landed the plane in Saudi Arabia. 

MEDIUM ALERT: Iran “played a part” in the security incident at an air base in England that has been used by American bombers in the US war against Iran, according to British Prime Minister Andy Burnham. “It remains an ongoing, complex and serious police investigation, and of course we are working closely with our colleagues in the United States of America,” Burnham told the BBC.

  Five British men who had been riding in three white vans were arrested early Sunday and released on bail Monday. Authorities said they found no explosives in the van, only an unspecified amount of gasoline.

  Whatever was going on, it couldn’t have been too serious if the suspects were released so quickly.

  Burnham declined to say why he thought Iran was involved and the Iranian embassy in London denied any participation.

GETTING WARMER: The world’s oceans are giving off their “starkest warning yet” about the profound changes they are undergoing in a planet warming because of human activity, according to a report from more than 100 international scientists.

  “The ocean is transforming before our eyes: warming, rising seas and ecosystem degradation are interconnected signs of significant and long-term change,” said Pierre Bahurel, Director General of Mercator Ocean International, the non-profit research institution that produced the report. Oceans absorb about 90 percent of the excess heat produced by humans and their machines.

  All this is fueling stronger and more destructive storms, damaging marine life, melting polar ice, and increasing sea levels. Aggravating the situation this year will be an El Nino system, a cyclical event that warms the ocean, disrupts weather patterns, and brings big storms. This year’s El Nino is on track to be the most intense on record.

INFINITE SCROLL: 

— The Justice Department accused seven Minnesota judges of improper conduct and “obvious bias” for giving interviews to The NY Times about the Trump administration’s immigration surge. 

  Judge Patrick Schiltz, one of the judges quoted, told The Times that the administration’s actions had “created a grave threat to the rule of law.” Attorney General Todd Blanche in a press conference called those comments “overtly political.”

  Schiltz had compiled a list of nearly 100 court orders that he said the Trump administration violated in its immigration sweep. He told the Times that in granting an interview he was acting within rules that allow judges to speak and write on “core judiciary matters,” including the rule of law and judicial independence.

BELOW THE FOLD:  Donald Trump’s executive order changing the name “Artificial Intelligence” to “Super Intelligence” identified him as “President of the Unites States.”

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