Qatar Military Alliance Explained

Weekend News Wrap! I got called MAGA, learned what a "TradSon" is, Diane Keaton passed away and many of us considered a Portland Protest Frog tattoo

“You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby” and for me, that means as hot as your last video. Friday I made an explainer clarifying what (a maybe drunk?) Pete Hegseth announced about Qatar’s air force getting a facility to train in which will be hosted at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.

If you’re a longtime subscriber you’ll remember I was close with many members of Biden’s DOD, State Department & National Security office. I spent several years learning the ins and outs of the Pentagon, and how our military works diplomatically. I even spent time embedded with the DOD visiting bases for each of our military branches, and learning everything from how to shoot a service weapon on Parris Island, to operating a simulated nuclear submarine on Kings Bay, to field medicine at Hurlburt Field and how the Press and photojournalists move in perfect choreography with the Army and Marines when in the field. I also got a stern talking to by General Buzzard on the importance of getting reporting military stuff right - as it can cause chaos on base for military families who watch civilian media to get information about their loved ones. He also made clear a report with inaccurate details can compromise international diplomacy and put Americans abroad in danger.

So.. when something military related gets reported I tend to take it extremely seriously. I take it seriously even if the news comes from the current SecWar who is out of his depth and talks nonsense half the time, or the current Commander in Chief, a war porn addicted wannabe dictator. Those are my opinions on those sources, my responsibility however is to get the information, the REAL truth, to the people.

Qatar is not getting a military base on American soil. It’s not a quid-pro-quo with Trump for that flying palace/trojan horse they “gifted” him. It’s not actually unusual or unexpected for Qatar to be beginning their Air Force training with us at this time. This phase of our partnership has been in the works since at least 2017, and the plan for the Qatari’s to train in Idaho actually got drafted under Biden. Here’s the video where I explain all of that most clearly.

For trying to provide correct information, I got called MAGA (lol.) So let me be extra super clear - I am deeply concerned about our relationship with Qatar, and Saudi Arabia for that matter. The Middle East is buying up western sports, media & entertainment in an attempt to launder their reputations and have a stronger say in shaping American values, norms and policy. I am in no way a supporter of Qatar, and have turned down several opportunities to travel to the area for events as my own form of personal protest because of their disgraceful history of human rights abuses. My personal feelings on Qatar does not change that a bipartisan super majority of the US Government has decided, for the last 50 years+ to be besties.

The US has been doing joint training with Qatar since 1991 on a trial basis when Qatari forces aided the US in expelling Iraqi forces from Kuwait. In 1992 Bush Sr signed agreement that created the framework for Qatar and the US to begin doing official joint trainings and sharing intelligence. Bush Sr.’s relationship with Qatar lasted well after his term as President, here he is attending a meeting to help plan Texas A&M opening a campus in Doha. Several American universities have campuses in Qatar, including Carnegie Mellon University, Northwestern University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Georgetown University, and Weill Cornell Medicine.

In 1996 Qatar built a 1 billion dollar US Military base (Al-Udeid) which became the headquarters of US Central Command (CENTCOM) and the largest US military installation in the Middle East hosting 10k+ US troops since 2003.

President Clinton met with the Emir of Qatar in the White House in 1997 to discuss bilateral relations and regional security and re-affirm our friendship. In 2011, Obama specifically thanked Qatar for its military and diplomatic support in the NATO-led coalition effort in Libya. Obama allowed the sale of $11 billion dollars of arms that included Apache attack helicopters and Patriot defense systems to Qatar. In 2015 President Obama praised Qatar again as a “strong partner” in the coalition to degrade and defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

President Trump came into office in 2016 with distain for Qatar, and publicly stated that Qatar “has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level” which caused massive chaos with this Secretary of State Rex Tillerson AND Defense Secretary James Mattis and threatened decades of cooperation between the US and Qatar. Trump wanted the US to side with Saudi Arabia (a country that is at odds with Qatar and that has LONG been a financial backer of the Trump family) - but by the summer of 2017 - Qatar signed a $12 billion deal with the U.S. to buy 36 advanced F-15QA fighter jets and suddenly Trump praised Qatar’s efforts to combat terror financing and re-affirmed our military and diplomatic friendship. Show him the money I guess, right? That’s how Trump makes decisions.

Delivery of these F15s began in 2021 under Biden. Qatar provided significant support to the US Troops coming out of Afghanistan including accepting US aligned Afghan interpreters and their families as refugees. Following the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, the Biden administration relied heavily on Qatar as an intermediary with Hamas. Qatar was instrumental in securing the release of hostages, and negotiating the most recent (and supposedly final) ceasefire and peace agreement.

In 2022 a $20 billion deal between Boeing and Qatar Airways was signed during a meeting between Biden and Qatar’s Emir. Biden then designated Qatar a “major non-nato ally” which is just about as high as you can go. Trump came into office and said an attack on Qatar will be treated like an attack on the US after Israel launched an airstrike on Doha. Qatar still pays for almost all the operating expenses we would otherwise incur to run Al-Udeid, and now has even dumped a bunch of money into our private sector buying up billions of dollars in Boeing aircraft.

We have done joint training on US Bases with Qatar since the 90s. We have trained them at our Navy facilities and hosted them on our ships since the early 2000s, we have trained them in Special Forces Ops since 2016, Qatar has been a State Partnership Program (SPP) partner with the West Virginia National Guard since 2018, conducting multiple training exchanges. We have trained with their Air Force since 2019, and now in 2025 they will be joining us in Idaho at the Mountain Home Air Base where their Air Force pilots will train on state of the art flight simulators in classrooms run by our top trainers. This is not new.

Why can’t they just train in Qatar? We do that too - we just broke ground on a Space Force facility for joint training at the Al Udeid base.

But we train all our F15 fighters here, and we’re not bringing our proprietary billion dollar flight simulation equipment and our experts over there to do it. We’re making them come to us - and keeping a tight eye on the operations and facilities they will have access to.

There is a lot to panic about, we are marching every closer to authoritarianism and the loss of our Democracy. Which is why I felt so compelled to “correct” the information that was swirling people into chaos regarding this Qatar training announcement. Its actually not shocking, and the military relationship with Qatar has been a “cherished” one by our leaders on both sides of the aisle for decades.

It seems our leaders are willing to separate the art from the artist on this one -

Sure according to Human Rights Watch 2025 report Qatar allows martial rape, honor killings of women, requires women under 25 are constantly under the control of a male chaperone, and criminalizes sex. SURE you cant criticize the Emir without being jailed, and migrant workers are habitually exploited, abused, and left unpaid for their labor and its totally illegal to be LGBTQ (unless you’re a tourist apparently). But - Qatar was re-elected to serve as a member of the UN Human Rights Council for the term 2025-2027. And they’ve got oil and happen to be in a most advantageous spot for our military to post up and keep tabs on the Middle East, so, ya know - see above history of Presidential approval ::eyeroll::

I was never talking down to anyone who freaked out about the air base. I don’t like any of this either. But being in a constant state of panic makes us less resilient and less able to make choices. When you are surviving, that’s what you’re doing - your body mind and spirit are tied up in surviving, you can’t think big picture solutions or even think rationally. It’s why as part of my dedication to you, I don’t do “breaking news!” with no context or history or fact checking.

As the Qatar story was capturing the attention of all of us - It was also announced that Dominion Voting Systems, which is used in almost every election we have in this country, was bought by a GOP ghoul who wants to force us all into paper ballots only this next election season.

NOW THAT’S WORTH FREAKING OUT ABOUT!!

Axios reports:

Dominion Voting Systems — the voting machine behemoth that President Trump and his allies baselessly attacked after the 2020 election — has been sold to a Missouri-based company run by a former Republican election official, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Dominion is one of the biggest election equipment providers and was used by 27 states during the 2024 election.

Zoom in: Liberty Vote purchased Canada-based Dominion for an undisclosed sum, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

• Liberty is a new company owned by Scott Leiendecker, who in 2011 created a software program focused on enabling election workers to verify voters and check them in at polling locations.

• According to Leiendecker’s LinkedIn page, his company KNOWiNK has more than 150 employees and $55 million in annual revenue.

• The company says its systems are used by election officials in more than a third of U.S. states and describes itself as the “nation’s leading provider of electronic poll books.”

Zoom out: Leiendecker also has deep Republican connections.

• Matt Blunt, who was then Missouri’s Republican secretary of state, appointed Leiendecker to a role investigating St. Louis’ elections administration after the 2000 election.

• As governor, Blunt later appointed Leiendecker to be St. Louis’ Republican election director.

Ed Martin, a loyal Trump surrogate, was St. Louis’ Board of Elections’ chair when Leiendecker was the city’s election director.

• As interim U.S. attorney for D.C. in Trump’s current administration, Martin demoted prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases, pursued critics of Elon Musk’s DOGE operation, and threatened Wikipedia over what he called biased “propaganda.”

Liberty Vote officials describe Leiendecker as a neutral arbiter.

• They provided to Axios a supportive statement from Nevada’s Democratic secretary of state, Cisco Aguilar, who called Leiendecker “open, honest and transparent.”

Liberty does appear to be aligning itself with Trump’s vision for a paper ballot-centered election system.

• For years Trump has cast doubt on the nation’s election system, railing against voting machines, questioning their accuracy and calling for a transition to same-day, in-person voting using paper ballots.

• Election officials nationwide have said that their electronic voting systems are secure, and that paper-ballot systems would result in longer waits for results without enhancing security.

What they’re saying: Leiendecker told Axios in a statement that his company is “committed to delivering election technology that prioritizes paper-based transparency, security and simplicity so that voters can be assured that every ballot is filled-in accurately and fairly counted.”

• “Liberty Vote signals a new chapter for American elections — one where trust is rebuilt from the ground up,” he said.

• A Liberty representative said the organization will engage in a “top-down” review of Dominion’s equipment ahead of next year’s midterm elections, and that it would “rebuild or retire” machines as needed.

Yikes. This is an ongoing story, and Jed is keeping an eye on it for updates. We are also in touch with several members of Congress and the Senate and we have an expert from the Election Truth Alliance doing a substack live with us 10/14 at 2:15pm.

Switching gears to something lighter - the load many Mothers are bearing now that it’s trending for your adult son to move back home and take over chores!

The TRADSONS have landed! Perhaps the prettier sister of the basement dwelling incel, this new generation of live-at-home adult sons are committed to taking on household chores and caretaking tasks. I’m for it! NYPost has a story about one TradSon (or HubSon as his mother calls it, which.. I do not like that term) here.

Diane Keaton passed away and a whole generation of people took the night off to re-watch First Wives Club, The Godfather, Mad Money, Finding Dory, The Family Stone, and um… well.. she made a bunch of other movies with a disturbing creep who she defended throughout her entire life as a friend who she “believed” but.. we don’t need to watch any of those films again to remember her for being the fashion icon and movie mom that helped many of us process our emotions, and come up with a good excuse to wear high waisted pants with a belt and tie. Or perhaps a hat? Does anyone wear a hat, anymore??

Lastly - my hero of the week is the Portland Protest Frog. Absurd times deserve an equally absurd response - and the Portland Protest Frog inhabits all that is good and right with the people joyfully resisting authoritarianism through whimsy.

Should we get matching tattoos of the Portland Protest Frog?!?

I think so. XO - V