The $100 billion story keeps popping up in but has been (perhaps intentionally) buried due to the momentarily more pressing Israel story.

10 October 2023 | James Porteous | Clipper Media News

The $100 Billion Story really will not die.

This (paywall) version of the story is likely a ‘trial balloon,’ an idea that will be neither confirmed nor denied, but can still be used to try to gauge support or blowback.

USG loves to throw these out there (usually on Friday afternoon) so in this case, WSJ is playing their part. You will note that the headline is framed as a question, not a statement.

But the $100 billion rumour will not go away.

The idea is that, given the Speaker debacle and such, it will be a ‘contentious election cycle’ and given that military support for Ukraine is ‘unwavering,’ it would be better to secure money to allow Ukraine to continue fighting for freedom for the rest of the year (ie: post-election, when another party might be elected that does not share their penchant for distant wars.)

But USG is flexible; they would like $100 billion, but maybe they would be satisfied with $50 billion?

Either way, in the coming days, USG will either shift focus to ‘Israel’ or ignore publicly commenting on those military aspirations altogether.

Too much ‘war talk’ all at once might appear unseemly. And although the previous #viraldujour social media war was a huge success, another campaign so soon might be perceived as being a tad too… manipulative.

In either case, the $100 billion story will be fermenting behind the scenes like a fine wine of death and destruction.