While Congress debates cutting Social Security, the most expensive weapons program in history — with an estimated lifetime cost of $1.5 trillion — is making questionable progress. The US Marine Corps recently announced that, after 14 years of development, the F-35 is ready to be deployed and issued a declaration

You’d be forgiven for having trouble telling the major presidential candidates apart in the latest presidential horse race, especially given a recent story from The Intercept’s Lee Fang. Fang reports that Bush, Clinton, Kasich and Rubio all make use of Akin Gump, an infamous lobbying firm, for fundraising in the next election.

The scramble to secure a controversial trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is leading to some serious ethical conflicts for the Obama Administration. While many initial objections to TPP were due to concerns about a lack of transparency from the White House as to the contents of the agreement and how it was negotiated, a recent decision by the State Department to change a country’s ranking in a human trafficking report has human rights groups crying foul and citing TPP as the real reason for the change.

Late last month, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) issued a blistering report detailing millions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse in the US and coalition reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. The report, issued to Congress on July 30th, presents the results of a series of investigations conducted by SIGAR that revealed $37.4 million in “questionable costs” in the last quarter of the year — those costs lead to a total of $279.5 million in questionable costs identified by SIGAR to date.

Fraudulent paperwork, cheated counterparties, robosigning — no it’s not the housing crisis again. This time the crimes are related to the Too Big To Fail/Jail banks’ conduct with credit cards. Both JPMorgan and Citigroup have now reached settlements with the government related to their criminal credit card practices.

Named after temporary prisons setup for rebellious workers, The Bullpen will seek to reveal and explore the underlying power dynamics within the US economy and political system — the forces shaping how ‘We The People’ live our lives. This is not the place for the latest campaign gossip and ephemera, but do not be surprised to see some familiar names featured in the quest to illuminate the dark connections between moneyed interests and those with more formal powers.