Friday’s jobs report was pretty darned good; the basic unemployment rate climbed to 4% (still exceptionally low), but the workforce participation rate climbed, meaning people are re-entering the workforce, confident they can find a job. And unemployment rates for blacks (6.5%) and Hispanics (4.6%) remain at all-time lows. Some downplayed these numbers, as well as […]

The Democratic Party seems to be moving further and further in the direction of endorsing government provided everything. Leading Democrats now support platforms that include: universal healthcare, free colleges, cancellation of all student debt (over $1 trillion), universal job guarantees with paid child care, housing as a right, and on and on. And, they – […]

In my bureau is a jersey emblazoned with the words “Dengue Fever World Tour.” A wise-guy I was working with had them made after what felt like the 100th straight “rat” hole we’d “visited” during some series of operations. Every place we went seemed to be preceded by a medical warnings brief longer than all […]

So, Trump and Kim met in Singapore and discussed a wide range of issues; nothing definitive was signed, but there was a verbal understanding that the US would end major military exercises in the Republic of Korea (ROK); the North would suspend further tests on their nuclear and ICBM forces and dismantle some assets; that […]

The United States is an odd country: unlike virtually every other on the planet; the US is not a derivative of geography, but rather a philosophic creation, a nation in pursuit of ideas, ideas of individual rights and justice and a representative government that serves the people. And that is all threatened. I had a […]

A few weeks ago, while discussing school violence, a really smart friend of mine made the observation that: “kids with spiritual cores aren’t the ones committing the school shootings.” Which led to some digging. So, first, some numbers. The first recorded school shooting was in 1764. Since then there’ve been quite a few, but definitions […]

In Memory of… Memorial Day is a day dedicated to the remembrance of those who died for our country. Rightly, we spend (or we should) some time thinking about those we know, or know of, who did just that: went off to war in the service of our nation and were killed in that service. […]

We’ve been living in the age of Neville Chamberlain. You remember Chamberlain, the fellow who (in 1938) negotiated away Czechoslovakia’s freedom so as to not upset Hitler. Let me explain. In a recent comedy-drama there’s a scene where one character tells the bad guy – with whom he is negotiating – what his first “bid” […]

The US is only now waking to the threat posed by those who’d use the cyber world to not only steal information (and money), but corrupt data, undermine our politics, and even cripple key industries and infrastructure. Developing cyber capabilities to defend against those nations, groups and individuals who would attack us is essential. Equally […]

So, your people walk in and lay a dossier on your desk; there’s a map, some pictures, a report from several spies, and a debrief from Prisoner X. The debrief is what started it all: he fingered a terrorist who’s plotting an attack on a US city, a large bomb, maybe a radioactive or “dirty” […]