THEY’RE BACK! The House and Senate are back in session after a break for the November elections, which have emboldened Democrats to confront President Trump on some of his top priorities — including the billions he wants for his border wall. In a rare and somewhat surprising move, Congress wrapped up all of its defense policy and appropriations bills before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, funding 75 percent of the government, including the Pentagon. But money for some other agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, runs out Dec. 7. That raises the prospect of a showdown and possible government shutdown, if Republicans try to push through funding for the border wall, before ceding power in the House to the Democrats in January.

HAPPENING TODAY, GRIFFIN TALKS MISSILE DEFENSE: The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts a discussion about re-energizing U.S. missile defense with Michael Griffin, defense undersecretary for research and engineering, at 9:30 a.m. Check the CSIS website for possible live stream.

SECRET MISSILE SITES: North Korea has maintained a network of more than a dozen secret ballistic missile sites as it negotiates with the Trump administration over its nuclear weapons program, according to CSIS. The think tank said Monday it has identified 13 of about 20 suspected missile facilities as part of a new investigation. “These missile operating bases, which can be used for all classes of ballistic missile from short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) up to and including intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), would presumably have to be subject to declaration, verification, and dismantlement in any final and fully verifiable denuclearization deal,” CSIS reported.

The report casts new doubt on the administration’s claims that the North wants to abandon its nuclear program. The existence of the missile sites have been widely known but the CSIS report sheds greater light on the number and location. “To call this a ‘deception’ is deeply misleading. Kim Jong Un publicly stated that North Korea would shift to the mass producing nuclear weapons in 2018. These bases and their missiles are well-known, long-standing and have never been offered for dismantlement by the DPRK,” tweeted Jeffrey Lewis, a North Korea analyst and author of a book about war with the regime.

You can see all the imagery here.

F-35 BUY ON FASTER TRACK: Bloomberg is reporting the Pentagon is on track to make a much bigger buy of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters when the next order goes into Lockheed Martin. The report quotes Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, as indicating the contract for Lot 12 would be the largest to date with at least 250 aircraft.

“Even as the Pentagon seeks to accelerate contracts, the F-35 program has yet to complete year-long realistic testing mandated by Congress to assess its combat effectiveness against the most stressing threats. Those tests are scheduled to start this month,” the report notes.

VETERANS DAY, A DAY TO REMEMBER… how much other countries owe the United States for the protection it provides the rest of the free world. President Trump said yesterday he took advantage of his time in Paris for Armistice Day ceremonies to remind French President Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders that the U.S. will not continue bearing the financial burden associated with military treaties and trade agreements.

“Just returned from France where much was accomplished in my meetings with World Leaders. Never easy bringing up the fact that the U.S. must be treated fairly, which it hasn’t, on both Military and Trade. We pay for LARGE portions of other countries military protection hundreds of billions of dollars, for the great privilege of losing hundreds of billions of dollars with these same countries on trade,” Trump wrote in a series of tweets Monday morning.

TALIBAN WILL TALK, IF US WALKS: Afghanistan’s Taliban will negotiate with the central government in Kabul only after the United States agrees to leave the country, according to a senior Russian diplomat. Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan, announced the Taliban’s demands on Monday after hosting an international summit on the country’s crisis that was attended by other members of a security bloc led by Russia and China. The Taliban want the United States to undertake a number of “confidence-building measures,” starting with a deadline for a full withdrawal from the country.

MATTIS’ BUSY DAY: Defense Secretary Mattis welcomes the Qatari Defense Minister  Khalid Al-Attiyah to the Pentagon at 11 a.m., and then at 3:30 p.m. he welcomes Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak.

THERE’S METHOD IN TRUMP’S ALL-CAPS TWEETS: In an essay in the current issue of Foreign Policy, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended one of President Trump more inflammatory tweets, the one in which Trump threatened Iran with military action.

“To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!,” Trump tweeted July 22.

“With Iran and other countries, he has made it clear that he will not tolerate attempts to bully the United States; he will punch back hard if U.S. security is threatened,” Pompeo writes. “The all-caps tweet he directed at Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in July, in which he instructed Iran to stop threatening the United States, was informed by a strategic calculation: the Iranian regime understands and fears the United States’ military might.”

Pompeo argues that it was also Trump’s bombastic tweeting threatening “fire and fury,” that prompted North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to start serious talks about denuclearization. “Chairman Kim has felt this pressure, and he would never have come to the table in Singapore without it,” Pompeo argues. “The president’s own public communications themselves function as a deterrence mechanism.”

WHAT ABOUT THE MILITARY BALLOTS? President Trump tweeted yesterday that the Senate and governor’s races in Florida should be called and vote-counting stopped because of unsubstantiated allegations of fraud.

“The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!,” he tweeted.

One problem is that would disenfranchise members of the military who voted by absentee ballot from overseas. Under Florida law, those votes count so long as they’re postmarked by Election Day and received within 10 days of the election, which would be Nov. 16.

THE RUNDOWN

AP: After 17 years, many Afghans blame US for unending war

New York Times: Taliban Slaughter Elite Afghan Troops, and a ‘Safe’ District Is Falling

Bloomberg: Iran Sticks by Nuclear Limits Even After U.S. Oil Sanctions Bite

AP: Trudeau: Canadian intelligence has heard Khashoggi tapes

Business Insider: China’s most advanced stealth fighter shows off its weapons for the first time, revealing some serious heat

Daily Beast: Transgender Veterans: The VA Should Pay for Our Gender Transition Surgeries

Breaking Defense: US Army Pursues Israeli Robots

Defense One: Nukes, the New Congress, and the Lost Art of Political Compromise

Foreign Policy: Trump Waives Iran Sanctions for Turkey

Task and Purpose: This Army Veteran Is Running For President In 2020