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MoneyTalks is Stockhead’s regular drill down into what stocks investors are looking at right now. We tap our extensive list of experts to hear what’s hot, their top picks, and what they’re looking out for. Today we hear from Cerutty Macro Fund's Chris Judd. Known for his dual Brownlow Medal wins and sterling career as one of the AFL's greatest names, Chris Judd's performance in the world of finance is beginning to transcend the premiership-winning form of his playing days. Starting out as an analyst for venture capital, Judd's now over 150 episodes deep on Talk Ya Book, a video podcast tapping the knowledge of Australia and beyond's most notable fundies and business thinkers, and closing in on 18 months managing the Cerutty Macro Fund. A long-only equities portfolio targeting 15-40 stocks named after the free-thinking Percy Cerutty – iconoclastic and eccentric coach of Aussie track legend and later business leader Herb Elliott – its raison d'etre is to find micro and small-cap Aussie equities and larger global names with upside based on the fund's analysis of the macroeconomic picture. Since its inception, Cerutty has delivered solid performance – adding 19.23% on an annualised basis since its launch and 29.17% over the year to October 31, despite a dip in the final month of that period. That compares to 12.03% and 26.65% for its benchmark, the ASX small ords accumulation index. But the US election and the looming return of Donald Trump to the White House with an all Republican-controlled legislature are the game changers at front of mind for Judd. And the early days post-election have given Judd and the Cerutty team reason to see his coming second term in a different light, seeing ongoing strength in the US dollar as a result. "We initially thought the US dollar would drop more under Trump because we thought his deficits were going to be bigger," Judd told Stockhead. "But for a number of reasons we've altered that view and we think the US is going to suck in a lot of capital now as they get rid of deregulation and reduce tax rates. "And we think internally in the US, you could see a real boom. "The US dollar has already been strong for a long time, so plenty of people are calling for it to roll over, but we've adjusted that view." Fundies like Chris Judd are trying to cut through the confusion around the market impact of Donald Trump's election. Pic: Getty Images Tariffs and taxes The two key Trump policies Judd is watching closely are income tax cuts, which economists think will spur a ramp up in consumer spending over 2026 and 2027, as well as radical tariffs placed not just on products out of China, but also friendly nations like Canada and Mexico. "The tax cuts are probably the most important thing and we think it will pass in the first 100 days," Judd said. "We think they have a big impact on the consumer, particularly a lot of those tax cuts are around people that don't have a huge amount of income, removing tax on tips (for example). "These types of people generally spend a larger portion of what they earn, as opposed to high income earners ... who are already consuming the vast majority of what they need." Judd thinks that could be positive for payment and gambling stocks exposed to the US market like gaming company Light & Wonder (ASX:LNW) , Afterpay owner Block Inc (ASX:SQ2) , which Cerutty doesn't hold, and Paypal (NASDAQ:PYPL) , which it does. The tariffs, on the other hand, could be "more bark than bite" compared to the tax cuts. Judd says Trump could be wielding them as a stick in negotiations with trading partners. "We think the tariffs will be implemented gradually and used as a tool for behavioural change that Trump wants to see with other countries," he said. That means they won't necessarily be the inflationary fuel from the moment of Trump's inauguration, as some commentators fear. "We'll wait and see, but we think they're more a bargaining tool for him to see a response from different governments around the world." The fallout for commodities Trump's return to the Oval Office will also bring with it a pro-development mindset, with deregulation and a thinning of the Capitol Hill bureaucracy high on the agenda. Judd thinks that could be less bullish for commodity prices, which thrive when metals and energy fuels are in short supply. "One of the reasons we were bullish commodity prices was because of all the red tape surrounding commodity producers as they tried to pull stuff out of the ground, as well as the ESG movement which had gone from being seemingly about the environment and it just kept scaling up until it took on more of a religious fervour," he said. "We think that's going to be really reduced." Cerutty's team also sees a high likelihood of an end to the conflict in Ukraine. Ukraine and Russia are both major mining, energy and agricultural producers. But outside of the US, a right-wing wave is on the horizon across major South American copper, lithium and iron ore producing countries following the success last year of free-market firebrand Javier Milei in Argentina. "There's a couple of right-wing leaders in those countries that are very much pro-business, pro the economy and anti-regulation, much like Milei has been, much like Trump's promising to be in his second term," Judd said. "And so that's great for the supply of commodities, but we think it's potentially a headwind to the price of commodities, copper and lithium producers in particular." The other side of the equation for commodities is Chinese demand. There could be issues there for bulks. "We think that China will stimulate their economy, but we think that stimulus will be pushed towards increasing internal consumption in China," Judd said. "We don't think it's going to be built around building more apartment blocks and they're already producing so many manufactured goods to be exported. "We're not sure if that's where the attention is going to go, either. We think the main thing China needs is to start increasing consumption domestically. "We think that's where the stimulus will be pushed towards, which is certainly less commodity intensive, particularly around bulks." Stocks to watch One of Cerutty's top picks is AML3D (ASX:AL3) , which recently raised $30 million to expand its operations in the United States, where it produces and supplies the Arcemy system, a 3D metal printing process, to US Navy contractors. $12m of that will be used to double the scale of its technology centre in Ohio, where it produces Arcemy manufacturing systems as well as undertakes contract manufacturing, alloy testing and prototyping contracts. It stands to benefit from the Trump administration's motivation to build up domestic manufacturing capacity. "AL3 is an additive manufacturing business that's already got a chunk of contracts with the US Navy and Department of Defense and there are some huge navy contracts coming up," Judd said. "They're well funded and may be a beneficiary of the US wanting to build out its manufacturing capacity." And the automated nature of its manufacturing processes means it is less likely to be negatively impacted by the potential removal of low cost labour implied by the proposed deportation of 11 million undocumented migrants. "The productivity from these additive manufacturing machines is significant," Judd said. "We could see a world where the US, using more innovation, can build out that manufacturing capacity whilst not flooding their country with new available low-cost labour." Looking to Australia's own defence industry spending, Judd says contractor Civmec (ASX:CVL) is positioning itself to benefit. "It is looking at completing a JV with Austal (ASX:ASB) and some of the navy contracts and shipbuilding contracts available in Australia for the submarine program are going to be really significant," he said. "We think some of those companies could play into that thematic of increased defence spending, which we think is going to continue to be really strong even though we don't think the war between Russia and Ukraine can continue for an extended period. "We still think defence spending in the US, particularly in Europe, but (also) other countries around the world is going continue to be heightened." The views, information, or opinions expressed in the interviews in this article are solely those of the interviewees and do not represent the views of Stockhead. Stockhead does not provide, endorse or otherwise assume responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this article. Originally published as MoneyTalks: How the US election has changed the game for football legend turned fundie Chris Judd Stockhead Don't miss out on the headlines from Stockhead. Followed categories will be added to My News. More related stories Stockhead How the Santa rally keeps giving to the ASX December brings the ‘Santa rally’, accounting for 29% of Aussie market gains – a smart time to stay invested? Read more Stockhead Copper production goal for these companies Junior companies with the right mix of resources, location and exploration potential are racing towards the line to be the next mid-tier ASX copper producer. Read moreTrump Defense Secretary Pick Thinks ‘Marxists Are Our Enemies’
DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am new to online dating, and I’d like your advice on how to respond to “likes” when you’re not interested. I feel that some response to a message is appropriate, but I don’t want to give people the wrong idea. I also don’t really want to get into long conversations with those who don’t seem to be a good match. Does it make a difference if they just send a “like,” with no message? Or if they are outside my listed age range? I’m surprised and grateful that others are interested, and I want to treat everyone respectfully. Any suggestions? GENTLE READER: This is an area where the etiquette -- such as it is -- is still evolving. But Miss Manners will try to assist. One of the most confusing aspects of such businesses is that they cross the boundary between the commercial and the social -- not just without a thought, but without even realizing there is a distinction. But in this case, that confusion is useful. The purpose of such sites is, as they would put it, to Meet Someone. So answering that first outreach when you are not interested -- whether it was a written message or a mere “like” -- will, indeed, give people the Wrong Idea. Miss Manners therefore recommends against responding, which she justifies by application of the business etiquette rule that you are not required to return calls from strangers seeking to sell you something. (Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com ; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com ; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)Preview: Monaco vs. Toulouse - prediction, team news, lineups
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What's New Davido announces new album ‘5ive’, drops single with Odumodublvck, Chike tonight By Musa Adekunle 05 December 2024 | 9:40 pm Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on WhatsApp Share on Telegram Nigerian music star David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has announced his fifth studio album, 5IVE, set for release in 2025. Taking to social media today, December 5, 2024, Davido revealed plans to release a track from the upcoming project titled Funds. The song, featuring Odumodublvck and Chike, is set to hit streaming platforms at... Nigerian music star David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido , has announced his fifth studio album, 5IVE, set for release in 2025. Taking to social media today, December 5, 2024, Davido revealed plans to release a track from the upcoming project titled Funds. The song, featuring Odumodublvck and Chike, is set to hit streaming platforms at midnight, giving fans a taste of what’s to come. Describing the album as “straight from the heart,” Davido said it will tell his story, reveal his truth, and reflect his growth as an artist. In his words, “THE JOURNEY CONTINUES in 2025 with my new album, 5IVE! This one is straight from the heart—my story, my truth, my growth. WE NOT WAITING THOUGH! Tonight at midnight, I’m dropping a single Funds with @Odumodublvck_ & @Officialchike.” The singer also described the album as a tribute to dreamers and go-getters. During a recent interview on The Baller Alert Show, Davido explained his decision to collaborate with Odumodublvck and Chike, saying it stems from his pride in showcasing Nigerian talent. “Why run away from home when everybody is running there now?” he quipped, highlighting Afrobeats’ growing global dominance. Davido hailed Odumodublvck as the biggest rapper in Nigeria and likened Chike to the “Bryson Tiller of Nigeria,” noting the singer’s unmatched appeal among female fans.Nightdive’s ‘The Thing’ remaster is available right now
NoneSukma: Ten Naxalites, three of them women, were gunned down in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district on Friday, a senior police official said. Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai hailed the security forces and said the era of peace and progress has returned to the Bastar region. The gunfight broke out in the morning in a forest near Bhandarpadar village in the jurisdiction of the Bhejji police station, where a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation, said Sundarraj P, inspector general of police (Bastar range). He said personnel of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) launched the operation based on inputs about the presence of Maoists from the Konta and Kistaram area committees on forested hills of Korajguda, Dantespuram, Nagaram and Bhandarpadar villages. “Bodies of 10 Naxalites, including three women, clad in ‘uniform’, have been recovered from the spot”, he said. Besides, 12 weapons, including an INSAS rifle, an AK-47 rifle, a self-loading rifle (SLR) and Barrel Grenade Launchers (BGLs), were also seized, he said. After returning from the operation, the security personnel were seen celebrating and dancing to regional songs at their camp. Videos of their celebration have surfaced on social media. Two of the deceased have been identified as Madkam Masa (42), a divisional committee member and military in-charge of the south Bastar division of Maoists, and Lakhma Madvi, an area committee member, the IG said, adding that they were carrying a bounty of Rs 8 lakh and Rs 5 lakh respectively. The other deceased included Masa’s wife Dudhi Huni (35), his guard Kowasi Kesa, Madkam Jitu and Madkam Kosi, he said, adding that the four were members of the PLGA platoon no. 4 and carried a bounty of Rs 2 lakh each. The official said the identity of the remaining four deceased cadres was yet to be ascertained. Chief Minister Sai praised security forces and asserted that his government’s priority is to establish peace, facilitate development and ensure the safety of citizens in the Bastar region. Sai, in a statement, said the state government has been working on the policy of zero tolerance towards Naxalism.Subscribe to our newsletter Privacy Policy Success! Your account was created and you’re signed in. Please visit My Account to verify and manage your account. An account was already registered with this email. Please check your inbox for an authentication link. Support Independent Arts Journalism As an independent publication, we rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider becoming a member today . Already a member? Sign in here. We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, please join us as a member . MIAMI — Even the most discerning art connoisseurs must occasionally ask themselves an honest question: “Is this work good, or is it just big?” Scale is the art market’s quintessential sleight of hand, and never is it on more flagrant display than at an art fair, where mammoth sculptures and paintings distract from the bleak trade show ambiance. Monumentality is the guiding principle of the Meridians section at Art Basel Miami Beach, and on opening day, December 4, onlookers stood in strangely quiet reverence around Portia Munson’s “Bound Angel” (2021) — an installation that I can confirm is not only big but also good. A long, oval table reminiscent of an altar or the votive candle stands found at churches is crowded with hundreds of thrifted objects — ceramic angel figurines, kitschy lamps, a soap dispenser — all a ghostly alabaster white and tied up with cord or rope. Tangled cables pool on the floor near the trail of a tablecloth made of repurposed wedding dresses. “I was thinking about the kinds of messages that are given to us through these seemingly innocent objects that are pervasive throughout the culture, but almost hidden in plain sight,” Munson, who was standing by her installation, told me. “They’re actually somewhat instructional, in a negative way, about who you’re supposed to be as a woman — beautiful angels, young, white, saintly, but also sexy,” she added. Get the latest art news, reviews and opinions from Hyperallergic. Daily Weekly Opportunities It’s an especially resonant message at a political moment when “we are stepping backward in time” with regard to women’s rights, Munson continued, and in a state where an amendment to protect abortion rights requiring a 60% majority failed to pass by a sliver of votes. The work was an oasis on a day that brought few such reprieves. I felt a wave of dread wash over me from the moment I approached the Miami Beach Convention Center, remembering that Miami-Dade voted resoundingly for Donald Trump in last month’s elections, turning the county red for the first time since 1988. To access my ticket, I had to download the new AI-powered Art Basel app, which opens with a questionnaire that can’t be opted out of. It asks users to identify their “relationship with the art world” — dealer, artist, art enthusiast, “government” (?), etc. — as well as their “art style” and dining preferences. This is presumably meant to inform the app’s new Microsoft-backed chatbot, but it also struck me as a glaring data-collection effort that made my entrance feel even more dystopian. (I reached out to Art Basel for comment.) Inside the fair, the atmosphere was jarringly sanguine, with dealers reporting blue-chip sales galore. Half a million for a Carmen Herrera and $675,000 for a Sean Scully painting at Lisson’s booth. At the booth of Jenkins Johnson Gallery, a massive Mary Lovelace O’Neal canvas with an asking price of $1.8 million remained unsold as of Wednesday afternoon, but probably not for long, a gallery attendant intimated. Thaddeus Ropac Gallery sold a brand-new Anthony Gormley sculpture for £500,000 (~$637,200) and a painting by Tom Sachs, whose studio workplace culture was the subject of scrutiny just last year, for $190,000. (The gallery placed six pieces before the show even opened, including a $2 million Georg Baselitz painting). And at the Rosetta Bakery cafe inside the fair, a bottle of water, drip coffee, orange juice, and the world’s tiniest shortbread cookie set me back $30.59. But are things as good as they seem? According to a press release, this year’s edition boasts 34 first-time exhibitors, perhaps a harbinger of shifts in Art Basel’s notoriously exclusive application process. On the other hand, I counted 50 galleries in the 2023 edition that were absent from this year’s lineup, including market-savvy spaces such as Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Clearing, and Simone Subal. A few of them shuttered or downsized in the last 12 months (Cheim & Read, Helena Anrather, Mitchell Innes & Nash), and others opted for smaller fairs like NADA instead (Mrs., 56 Henry). However, at least 10 galleries that were originally slated to participate this year, according to an exhibitor list issued this summer, disappeared from the lineup. In response to a request for comment, an Art Basel spokesperson referred to a “small number of changes” made to “ensure the best possible experience for exhibitors, artists, clients, and visitors,” and declined to comment further “as a courtesy to our exhibitors.” Maybe the sheer cost of participating in Art Basel has something to do with it. Fees for the Miami Beach edition this year range from $26,850 for the smallest booth to $191,360 for the largest, typically reserved for blue-chip galleries that can break even with a single sale. That’s only the tip of the iceberg — it costs $600 just to apply for the fair, with no guarantee of acceptance, and then there’s airfare, hotels, and installation and production expenses. The message is clear: Art Basel might be worth it, if you can afford it. Henrique Faria, whose namesake New York-based gallery focuses on Latin American avant-garde movements, acknowledged that costs factored into the equation when he decided to opt out of the Miami fair circuit this year (he has exhibited at Untitled Art and Art Basel in previous years). But it was also a calculation informed by current political events and the perpetual question of whether and how to address them in an art-fair context. “The art world is full of -isms, as is any other field. And we need to avoid at all costs opportunism, the biggest -ism of all,” Faria told me. “Even though we are in agreement with a lot of the topics that are being treated within the art world, I think we need to treat them seriously.” “In order to stage a proper comeback, we need to rethink our presentations and choose our battles properly,” Faria added. Jochan Meyer of Meyer Riegger gallery in Berlin, Karlsruhe, and Basel, which showed at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2023, said they passed on the fair this year because of prices and an uncertain cost-benefit analysis, particularly given their highly conceptual program. Part of the problem, he noted, is the lack of reliable information about sales from non-blue-chip exhibitors. “Everyone hears about the big-ticket sales, but it’s impossible to know how the other galleries are doing,” Meyer told me in a phone call. The last six months have brought reports of varying veracity attesting to a period of market “correction,” a euphemistic term that implies that economic downturns are the universe’s way of showing us the true value of things. Perhaps as a result of this instability, Steve Henry, a senior partner at Paula Cooper Gallery, told me that he’s observed an uptick in interest in what he called the “classics”: Sol DeWitt and Claes Oldenburg, for instance, and Mark di Suvero, whose sculpture “Untitled (Swing)” (2008–2022) towered above us at the fair booth. “They smile like they’re five years old,” Henry noted of visitors’ reactions to the genuinely unexpected artwork, which is both big and good. It was under consideration, he said, for “just around a million dollars.” There are much less subtle takes to be found if you seek them out. Roger Leifer, a Miami- and Connecticut-based collector wearing a t-shirt that read “ART BSL” who had just come from a one-hour tequila tasting in the VIP Lounge, told me candidly that the art market is directly tied to the stock market, and by that measure, art should be selling like hotcakes. “The stock market is doing amazing. I mean, people made so much money — including me,” Leifer said, adding that he prefers Art Miami to Art Basel but that the people-watching is unquestionably superior at the latter — just before speaking to me, he caught a glimpse of disgraced casino magnate Steve Wynn. I’m writing this from the bar at Sweet Liberty on 20th Street in Miami Beach. It’s a beloved local watering hole that the elegant woman with slicked-back hair sitting next to me calls a “Miami institution” and whose number-one house rule , “no name-dropping, no star fucking,” will likely be tough to enforce during Art Week. A baseball cap with the phrase “Art is Dangerous” catches my eye; the kind-eyed man wearing it is Bruce Allen Carter, an arts educator who serves on the National Council on the Arts and made the hat himself. He wears it to events where he’s expected to be in formal wear, and it always starts a conversation. Encountering the message at the end of the day felt foreboding. Can art still be dangerous? I hope so, but likely not within the bubble of an art fair. The “Basel-is-back-baby” energy feels disconcertingly at odds with the tsunami of neo-fascism cresting around us — or maybe they’re two sides of the same coin. We hope you enjoyed this article! Before you keep reading, please consider supporting Hyperallergic ’s journalism during a time when independent, critical reporting is increasingly scarce. Unlike many in the art world, we are not beholden to large corporations or billionaires. Our journalism is funded by readers like you , ensuring integrity and independence in our coverage. We strive to offer trustworthy perspectives on everything from art history to contemporary art. We spotlight artist-led social movements, uncover overlooked stories, and challenge established norms to make art more inclusive and accessible. With your support, we can continue to provide global coverage without the elitism often found in art journalism. If you can, please join us as a member today . Millions rely on Hyperallergic for free, reliable information. By becoming a member, you help keep our journalism free, independent, and accessible to all. Thank you for reading. Share Copied to clipboard Mail Bluesky Threads LinkedIn Facebook
LAHAINA, Hawaii — An opportunity in paradise has turned into a trip to hell for Dan Hurley's UConn Huskies. The No. 2 team in the country is officially out of sorts after losing two games in two days to unranked opponents. Colorado came back from an 11-point deficit to beat the two-time champs 73-72 in the opening game of the consolation bracket Tuesday in the Maui Invitational. A tough right-handed runner by Andrej Jakimovski with 8.5 remaining gave the Buffs the lead; Jakimovski didn't have to worry about a big man because, for the second straight day, UConn had its top two bigs, Samson Johnson and Tarris Reed Jr. , foul out. Andrej called game. 📺ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/Dnhf5hAjgz Hassan Diarra 's 3-point attempt fell awry and Colorado pulled off the upset. The Buffs came into the day ranked No. 82 at KenPom.com. For UConn, the defeat marks the first time Dan Hurley's team has taken on back-to-back losses since Jan. 18, 2023. UConn, which had not lost consecutive games since January 2023, will try to avoid going 0-3 in the Maui Invitational when it plays in the seventh-place game, the last tipoff on Wednesday night against the loser of Tuesday's Iowa State-Dayton game. This post will be updatedr stock price high just three years ago. However, the tides have turned. This month, Intel lost its spot on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and some headlines even suggest it might be acquired by another company. But how did "Team Blue" find itself in this precarious position? Let's dive into the details. The Impact of Instability Issues: Overstated? Intel's recent struggles are often attributed to the instability of its 13th and 14th-gen chips within the gaming PC community. While these issues were well-publicized, their financial impact on Intel was minimal. The problematic chips represented a small subset of high-end models, while Intel's bread-and-butter business lies in selling mid-range chips to major computer manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo. So, the roots of Intel's decline lie elsewhere. The Turning Point: Intel's 10nm Struggles To truly understand Intel's predicament, we need to go back to 2015, when the company's attempts to produce chips on the 10-nanometer process hit a roadblock. Achieving 10nm would have enabled more powerful and energy-efficient chips—critical for staying competitive. However, Intel chose not to invest in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, a manufacturing technology that simplifies creating chips with smaller transistors. This decision wasn't just about technical conservatism. At the time, Intel faced little pressure from competitors. AMD was still struggling with its underwhelming Bulldozer CPUs, and Apple was a loyal customer for Intel processors in its Macs. Yet, the landscape began shifting rapidly after 2015. Competition Heats Up AMD's Renaissance : AMD's Zen architecture, launched in 2017, was an immediate hit. AMD began clawing back market share with competitive performance and pricing. : AMD's...
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In his book published this summer, “The War on Warriors,” Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, described being called up to active duty to guard the streets of Washington, D.C., during the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd. He acknowledged protesters’ First Amendment rights but also seethed at “violent professional agitators” and “armies of armed and violent left-wing extremists” who he said behaved “like twenty-first century hoplites,” referring to a term for well-armed citizen soldiers in ancient Greece. In a recurring theme for the man who might soon lead history’s most powerful military, he fantasized about treating Americans like overseas combatants. “Most of us [National Guard soldiers] wanted to fight back,” Hegseth wrote. “Within ten minutes, I became one of them. As your muscles ache and your eyes fill with sweat and dust, you begin to seek closure with a sense of resolve. We could easily have pushed this line back, snatched the leaders or the loudest protesters in Antifa, and sucked them back behind the lines.” “If this engagement were to occur in Damarra or Kandahar,” Hegseth continued, “we would be home by breakfast.” Hegseth, a Princeton grad who worked as an analyst at Bear Stearns, deployed overseas three times between 2004 and 2012 — to Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan — before becoming a Fox News personality and an advocate for accused and convicted war criminals . As Trump’s pick for Pentagon chief, his nomination faces turbulence in the Senate both for his far-right beliefs and for an allegation of sexual assault made against him , which Hegseth denies, though his attorney has acknowledged a settlement agreement involving paying his accuser not to tell her story publicly. In “The War on Warriors,” Hegseth painted the military as a civilizing force for America’s young men. “Who knows what the untrained and unconstrained world would have made of these alpha males, but the military made great warriors–and now great citizens,” he wrote of two friends, “masculine football-playing studs” who served their country. But he’s also explicit that the military — and therefore America — is under attack from supposed left-wing ideologies, and that the military should fight back against the “woke” tide just as it would a foreign enemy. America, he said, is “in a cold civil war” and under attack by “a confederacy of radicals.” In the book, he dedicated considerable time railing against modern laws of war and called on the United States to rewrite them and “fight by its own rules.” Hegseth’s conception of the American left as the enemy within is the defining theme of “The War on Warriors.” On its surface, the book answers the question, “How did the military allow itself to go woke?” According to Hegseth, the existence of women in combat roles, the presence of transgender people in the military, the requirement that soldiers take the “experimental” COVID-19 vaccine, his perception of affirmative action in military promotions, the renaming of military bases named after Confederate generals, and the military’s efforts to root out violent extremism — an effort that affected him at one point — all flow from the same source. You guessed it: It’s the Marxists in academia, hell-bent on shoving “DEI” and “CRT” — diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory, respectively — down everyone’s throats, along with an “unholy alliance of political ideologues and Pentagon pussies [that] has left our warriors without real defenders in Washington.” The effects are obvious, according to Hegseth’s book. “When I think about my career in uniform, in almost every instance where there has been poor leadership or people in positions they’re not qualified for, it was based on either the reality or the perception of a ‘diversity hire,’” Hegseth wrote. On the other hand, he claimed that woke military bureaucrats have “said Trump supporters are extremists, full stop.” He also linked the supposed push toward progressivism in the military to recruiting troubles. “For the past three years, the Pentagon–across all branches–has embraced the social justice messages of gender equality, racial diversity, climate stupidity, vaccine worship, and the LGBTQA+ alphabet soup in their recruiting pushes,” Hegseth wrote. “Only one problem: there just aren’t enough trannies from Brooklyn or lesbians from San Francisco who want to join the 82nd Airborne.” Hegseth’s view that “woke” ideology is specifically weakening the military — and America overall — is the generic Republican Party position in 2024. It remains to be seen if Trump bans transgender people from the military , bans women from combat roles, or pursues Hegseth’s other ideological battles once in office. Elsewhere in the book, Hegseth described fighting “a war on two fronts” — against both “radical Islamist ideology” abroad and also left-wing “domestic enemies at home.” Just like “an enemy at war,” Hegseth wrote, “The radical Left never stops moving and planning. They do not respect cease-fires, do not abide by the rules of warfare, and do not respect anything except total defeat of their enemy – and then total control.” In the book, he proposed “a frontal assault” to reclaim the military from the left. And he’s quite explicit this isn’t a political difference of opinion: In the military, Hegseth wrote, “The expectation is that we will defend [the Constitution] against all enemies–both foreign and domestic. Not political opponents, but real enemies. (Yes, Marxists are our enemies.)” He added in the next paragraph that the left wants America to turn away from the Constitution and “let America’s dynasty fade away.” “Those who push DEI/CRT ideology,” Hegseth wrote, are not only hypocrites and Marxists but “traitors.” While regular citizens have First Amendment protections for bad ideas, military leaders who seek to retrain soldiers based on those ideas “are guilty of coercive violence against their neighbors,” he argued. “The Constitution is our lodestar,” he added later. “Marxists hate the Constitution. DEI and CRT are Marxist philosophies. Therefore DEI and CRT are enemies of our Constitution – domestic enemies.” Perhaps most notably in a book obsessed with fighting against perceived “domestic enemies,” Hegseth spent a considerable amount of time in “The War on Warriors” criticizing the military’s rules of engagement, and modern international laws of warfare more generally. Military lawyers and limited rules of engagement, he posited, are the real reasons America can’t seem to take its gloves off and win a war. Speaking on his time in Iraq, for example, Hegseth recalled a judge advocate general — or, as Hegseth wrote, “jagoff” — telling his men that they were not allowed to fire on a hypothetical man carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher “until that RPG becomes a threat. It must be pointed at you with the intent to fire.” Hegseth told his men to disregard the instruction: “Men, if you see an enemy who you believe is a threat, you engage and destroy the threat. That’s a bullshit rule that’s going to get people killed.” “Our enemies should get bullets, not attorneys,” he wrote later. “The fact that we don’t do what is necessary is the reason wars become endless. Modern wars never end, because we won’t finish them.” Don't let this be the end of the free press. The free press is under attack — and America's future hangs in the balance. 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So what is “necessary” to win modern wars? The likely future defense secretary has an answer — in a chapter called “The Laws of War, for Winners.” In it, Hegseth decried “hopelessly outdated international laws,” which he argued clash with ancient theories of proportionality and just war, particularly when groups like Al Qaeda don’t respect the Geneva Conventions. “If our warriors are forced to follow rules arbitrarily and asked to sacrifice more lives so that international tribunals feel better about themselves, aren’t we just better off winning our wars according to our own rules?! Who cares what other countries think,” he wrote. “The question we have to ask ourselves is, if we are forced to fight, are we going to fight to win? Or will we fight to make leftists feel good – which means not winning and fighting forever.” In the same chapter, he took particular issue with a 2023 update to the Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual — that commanders and other decision-makers must assume people are civilians if there is nothing indicating they are combatants — writing: “In short, this means our troops are going to have to hesitate every time they fire.” “Our boys should not fight by rules written by dignified men in mahogany rooms eighty years ago,” Hegseth wrote. “America should fight by its own rules. And we should fight to win, or not go at all.” Related From Our Partner