When I was a kid, my old man would say I was flying in the clouds. Are POTUS and Skydance flying without a plan?
Everyone knows that planning is essential for success, focusing on reality, and concentrating on achieving goals.
Netflix stock hit a 52-week closing low of $75.86 on Feb. 12, 2026, around Valentine’s Day, but there is no love lost between it and Skydance.
Netflix stock can bounce back from the pressure it was under during the bidding war forWarner Bros. Discovery, but increased content investments and competition mean investors should wait on the sidelines for now, say analysts.
Paramount Skydance PSKY -1.06% fended off Netflix NFLX -0.11% in the battle to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery WBD -0.81%, but now comes the hard part: Integrating a huge new company. That will take time, says BofA Securities. One could argue this is the way commerce sometimes works and the way the cockie crumbles.
As far as POTUS is concerned, this has become a life-and-death serious issue
Costs & Taxpayer Impact
The numbers are staggering and still climbing:
Pentagon officials told senators in a closed-door briefing Tuesday that they estimate the first six days of the war cost more than $11.3 billion.
A Pentagon spokesperson said the department won't know the full cost of Operation Epic Fury "until the mission is complete."
The Pentagon burned through $5.6 billion in advanced munitions in just the first two days, before shifting away from expensive precision weapons toward more plentiful laser-guided bombs.
The war has been costing an estimated $1 billion a day, a pace that could push the total bill toward $215 billion if the conflict drags on through September.
The Penn Wharton Budget Model projects direct military costs of $40–$95 billion, plus an additional economic loss of approximately $115 billion, with total impact potentially reaching $210 billion.
The money spent on munitions and damage to U.S. military infrastructure from Iran's retaliatory strikes isn't factored into the Pentagon's yearly budget, and no supplemental funding request has been submitted to Congress yet.
War's Legal Basis & Congressional Authorization
This is the core constitutional dispute:
In a strict constitutional sense, the United States cannot be at war with a country if Congress has not declared war against it — but in a practical sense, the U.S. is clearly at war with Iran.
Top lawmakers were notified about the operation shortly before it was launched, but the White House did not seek authorization from Congress.
The War Powers Resolution requires that Congress be consulted "in every possible instance" and gives Congress a tool to halt U.S. involvement — but declining to order a withdrawal is not the same as authorizing the use of force.
Legal scholars argue that "starting war in the Middle East that's now involving more than a dozen countries is war in the constitutional sense" and that "the nature, scope and duration of this conflict is extraordinary."
Many prior administrations have also ordered military force without congressional authorization, including interventions in Korea, Cambodia, Grenada, Bosnia, Kosovo, Libya, and Venezuela.
Congressional Response & Impeachment Debate
Congress voted — and the war continues:
The House narrowly rejected a war powers resolution 219–212, largely along party lines. The Senate defeated a similar measure the day before.
A bipartisan Senate measure led by Sen. Tim Kaine and supported by Sen. Rand Paul would require the president to obtain explicit congressional authorization before engaging in further hostilities. Rep. Thomas Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna sponsored a parallel House resolution.
Even if both chambers approved the resolutions, they were widely expected to fall short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto — meaning they would function primarily as a political rebuke rather than an immediate constraint.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune argued Trump's decision was "consistent with what previous administrations have done" and that "the president was perfectly within his rights."
Public opinion polls show about three-fifths of Americans oppose the war, meaning Trump currently lacks the political support to obtain congressional authorization even if he sought it.
No impeachment proceedings have been formally introduced. Given that Republicans control both chambers and have overwhelmingly backed the military action, impeachment is not currently a realistic legislative path, regardless of one's view on its merits.
Meanwhile, markets are swinging amid the Iran war, raising concerns about energy costs and the broader economy.