Trump's WAR POWERS Tested in CONGRESS as WAR SPIRALS | It's Complicated

Trump's administration initiated military action against Iran without presenting a consistent, clear, or widely accepted public rationale, contrasting sharply with the Bush administration's efforts to build a case for the Iraq War. The stated justification revolved around preempting an Israeli attack and subsequent Iranian retaliation against US interests, which the hosts describe as circular.

What is really crazy here is there's not even a consistent narrative that's being put out to the public or the world or to members of Congress. as best as I can tell the best that they've come up with is from what I understand it is Israel was going to attack Iran and if they did that then Iran would attack US interests and therefore in order to preempt and prevent that that is why the US had to strike join Israel and striking first.

The War Powers Resolution of 1973, enacted to prevent unilateral presidential wars, requires congressional consultation and authorization for military engagements beyond 60 days. However, no president since 1973 has acknowledged its constitutionality, with the executive branch asserting unilateral authority for military force in the national interest, provided it doesn't "amount to war in the constitutional sense."

President Nixon actually initially vetoed the War Powers Resolution. It was passed over his veto. And so presidents have complied with it... no president of either party since 1973 has acknowledged the constitutionality of it. The executive branch says... The president can unilaterally use military force if one it is in the national interest and two it does not amount to war in the constitutional sense.

The nature of modern warfare, particularly the extensive use of drones and AI, makes the 1973 War Powers Resolution's 60-day troop withdrawal clause largely irrelevant. Wars can now be initiated and potentially concluded without "boots on the ground," encouraging executive overreach as it's "so easy" to conduct military actions remotely.

it kind of gets to why the War Powers Resolution is is obsolete. You know, it has this 60-day window as though we're literally sending ground troops who are going to be on, you know, in trenches. And that's just not how wars are fought anymore... the realities of modern warfare almost encourage the pres, you know, executive overreach because it's so easy.

Anthropic, an AI firm whose technology was reportedly used in military operations, refused a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense. The firm insisted on guardrails preventing its AI from being used to surveil Americans or to create and deploy autonomous weapons without human input, citing democratic values.

Anthropic has been working with the Pentagon... he wanted to create guardrails... he did not want this technology to be used to surveil Americans... and the other was to allow its AI to be used to I guess create and deploy autonomous weapons where uh weapons would be utilized without any kind of human input.

Following Anthropic's refusal to compromise on ethical guardrails, the Department of Defense (referred to as the "Department of War" by the hosts) retaliated by pulling the contract and designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk. This blacklisting prohibits other defense contractors from doing business with Anthropic, effectively acting as "corporate homicide."

they got really mad, uh, and then pulled the contract, went forward with open AI instead. And then Hexath retaliated against Anthropic, designating the company as a supply chain risk and prohibiting any comp any other company that does business with the defense with the Department of War from doing business with Antropic, which is basically like corporate homicide.

The Department of Justice initially moved to dismiss appeals in cases where the administration lost against law firms challenging executive orders. However, this decision was quickly reversed, with the DOJ withdrawing its motion to dismiss and opting to appeal. This flip-flop is attributed to presidential ego, overriding strategic legal advice to avoid setting adverse precedents on executive power.

DOJ literally went in, asked to dismiss their appeals of these cases that they lost, then went in the next day and were like, 'Actually, we want to withdraw the motion to dismiss, and we actually do want to appeal.'... I think Trump got mad because for him, I think he always wants to believe that he has the upper hand, that he has leverage.