"Farmers first," dead at one campaign, is survived by a North Carolina grower in survival mode who still pays the freight on a war the budget office prices at $38 billion and calls that figure conservative.

…(cont) Then the reconciliation. On Tuesday the 15th the Congressional Budget Office closed the books on a different account. By the end of July, CBO found, the Department of Defense had already spent $38 billion in operational, logistical, and sustainment costs on the war with Iran. The budget office called its own figure conservative. Bell's costs are penny-ante beside that ledger, and he pays on both. Moody's Analytics estimates US consumers have spent $121 billion extra on energy since the war began less than eight months ago, $1,760 a household. Diesel hit an all-time high of $5.85 a gallon on Friday the 4th. Oil passed $100 a barrel on the 9th. The 30-year mortgage rate hit a 14-month high, 6.76 percent, on the 10th.

Sen. Thom Tillis voted to confirm Pete Hegseth. On Wednesday, September 2nd, after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned, Tillis called on the president to fire Hegseth over what the senator called "inept management" of the military. On Tuesday the 15th, Rep. Thomas Massie filed eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth over the Iran war, the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, strikes on alleged drug boats, and the war in Yemen, accusing him of launching a war Congress did not approve. On Friday the 18th Tillis renewed the call: "He needs to go, whether it's impeachment or the most expedient route — just the president to replace him — would be great." The ask from the Senate arrived after a congressman in the other chamber had already done the paperwork.

Thursday the 17th was a long day at the department. The U.N. fact-finding mission on Iran said it had "reasonable grounds" to believe the U.S. military committed war crimes in two airstrikes, which CBS reported killed scores of Iranian civilians, and said the U.S. should pay "full reparations to victims." The same mission found Iran's government had carried out crimes against humanity against its own citizens during this year's crackdown on protests. The White House answered the finding that day. That afternoon senators of both parties left a closed-door briefing with Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby saying they got no clear answers on the defense strategy or the war, and U.S. officials said Iranian forces had brought down at least two American MQ-1 drones in recent days.

The toll, straight. The wire that reported the Kuhestak bombing on Wednesday, September 2nd said the strike came the day before, at a private home in Hormozgan province. Five people were killed and 68 injured. Two of the dead were children, Amir-Ali Karimi, four, and Mohammad Mollahi, sixteen. Iranian officials called it a war crime. A senior Iranian health official said shortages of roughly 800 medicines are affecting treatment for cancer and other serious illness.

Preceded in death: the quick war. It entered its sixth month on August 28th with no end in sight, and on September 9th the president said it would not end before the midterms. By Friday the administration was weighing a further escalation. A senator can vote to confirm a man, ask twice that he be fired, watch a colleague file eight articles, and the man keeps the desk. That is not a scandal any more; that is how the shit sits. The bill goes to Bell either way.

In lieu of flowers, a recorded vote in both chambers on a war that has run since February without one.