The Sneaker Saint: "War" on Woke, Armani Hits 50/Dies.

Sept 6, AD 2025

Sep 06, 2025

dramatic, black and white, fire falling from sky

US - Missing the Point

US President Donald John Trump issued an executive order changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War.1 Congress, not EOs, creates and names departments. An EO is an internal rebrand that burns money on new stationery with zero taxpayer payoff. Additionally, his information regarding the Defense Department is incorrect: “We won the First World War, we won the Second World War, we won everything before that and in between. And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to the Department of Defense. So, we’re going Department of War,” said the president.

Not quite, folks. The Department of Defense was not a rebrand of the War Department; the War Department became the Department of the Army. And the first Secretary of Defense, James Vincent Forrestal, was the Secretary of the Navy when he took over DoD and had to drop the navy gig. Forrestal was one of those who opposed the DoD consolidation, as it was taking a winning combination of service competition and independence and creating something else entirely. The new name signaled the larger mistake: forced unification of distinct services that did not need it. Instead of clear, separate, accountable cabinet voices for the services, we have one secretary and one department under the president where the Army, Navy, Air Force (and the Marine Corps and Space Force in the latter two, respectively) fight over roles, missions, and money. The name change sold “unity,” but the real product was bureaucracy. But, that is not what Trump is attacking; he is attacking “wokeness” and the name, so once again the US will get conservative-coded branding without actual problem-solving. But I think people get that this is going to be the pattern.
How to watch this responsibly. Focus on (a) competency at the highest levels of DoD (b) any follow-on legislation by the Republican controlled Congress, (c) will this do anything to clean up procurement and promote readiness against China, North Korea, Iran, Russia and others aligning to against MAGA America. If none of those happen, the rename is mostly virtue signalling.

Listening To The Law with ACB

"I don't think that we are currently in a constitutional crisis," Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett said at an event for her new book Listening To The Law.2 Interestingly, Steven Lubet, Williams Memorial Professor Emeritus at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, took issue with a section of Barrett’s book where she gives her interpretation of the Bible’s report of King Solomon’s trial of the two mother’s claiming the same child in which he famously offered to slice the child in half and give each woman a piece.3

Morbidity in America

The world watched the Senate grilling of Health Sec. Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. on vaccine policy and CDC leadership. The most prominent member of the Kennedy family since the death of Senator Edward Moore Kennedy, RFK Jr. is seen by foreign observers as weakening the United States, degrading its health infrastructure to the extent it may fail to meet first-world status and in fact the situtation described reminds me more of the strains of a second-world country. Le Monde claims Kennedy’s actions threaten the American “vaccination ecosystem.” 4

Why this matters: The USA is a nation-state, a common market, and a health ecosystem. We function better than China and the EU because of Americans can freely move across state lines and have a relatively easy time adjusting to a new home. Mixed rules mean families, schools, doctors — and critically— health networks and insurance companies will have to navigate more complicated jab requirements across state lines. This will impact distribution, but also our socializing through community, school, travel, and work.

World Politics

David Lammy is the new Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, succeeding Angela Rayner after she was found to have acted improperly regarding the taxes on her second home.5 A panel found that there was no evidence that she was trying to cheat on her taxes; rather, she did not do enough due diligence to comply. Ms. Rayner apologized for her actions. The government of PM Keir Starmer continues to lose support at a historic rate only 14 months after winning a landslide election.6

Culture

The fashion house Giorgio Armani S.p.A. reached the milestone of 50 years in business. Founded in 1975, the Italian company has become a global luxury brand worn by celebrities from Hollywood to Hong Kong.7

Giorgio Armani (July 11, 1934 – September 4, 2025) died aged 91. You read that right: Armani, the man, achieved a half-century of success in business and then retired from life. What a legend. His final interview was given just a week before his death, which mentioned plans for a 50th-anniversary celebration of the company later in September, which will now certainly be turned into a memorial for the brand’s founder.“If what I created 50 years ago is still appreciated by an audience that wasn’t even born at the time, this is the ultimate reward.”8

Faith & Spirituality

Sainted Millennial — On Sunday, the Catholic Church will canonize Carlo Acutis (May 3, 1991 – October 12, 2006), an Italian teen who died in 2006 and coded a website cataloging Eucharistic miracles.9 Acutis’ canonization was originally scheduled for April 27, but was delayed when Pope Francis died on April 21. His story mixes sneakers—pilgrims can visit his glass coffin in Assisi, through which Acutis can be seen wearing them—coding, and ancient devotion at a time when churches work to reach the digital-native generations; he was one who reached the world. He will be the first official Roman Catholic saint from the Millennial Generation.10 This will be a major milestone for the new Pope Leo XIV as this will be the first canonization of his pontificate. Is it irony or coincidence that Carlo Acutis’s high school was the Leo XIII Institute?

Carlo Acutis born in London, UK, died aged 15 in Monza, Italy, after a short illness during which he was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia.

Requiescat in Pace

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