Here’s a quiz: What song did President Lincoln have the band play shortly after the surrender of Lee’s Forces at Appomattox? In 1869 President Grant, filling various positions of his administration, nominated James Longstreet as Surveyor of Customs for the port of New Orleans. General James Longstreet, West Point class of 1842 (Grant was class […]

If there’s one idea that encapsulates the Founding Fathers goals, it’s this: Equal Justice. A responsive government that worked – literally and figuratively – for the citizens, was a means to that real end: a political system wherein everyone – everyone – was treated the same. Last week a Congresswoman opined that Vice President Pence […]

Editor’s Note: We are publishing this morning from St. Louis, where the annual Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems (DoDIIS) conference is being held at the convention center. Travel and flight arrangements were great, (“Saint Louis in August!”) though our arrival seemed to catch the hosting hotel- I won’t defame it by name- completely by […]

If there’s one idea that encapsulates the goals of the Founding Fathers, it’s this: Equal Justice. A responsive government that worked – literally and figuratively – for the citizens, was a means to that real end: a political system wherein everyone – everyone – was treated the same. Last week a Congresswoman opined that Vice […]

Dean Acheson (President Truman’s Secretary of State) once advised President Kennedy that he – Kennedy – needed to carefully consider when he would use nuclear weapons, and once having established his threshold, he should tell absolutely no one. (Hopefully, every President since then has engaged in that most serious of efforts). There are two key […]

Editor’s Note: I was on the road again this weekend, and more road confronting me later this week to attend a wedding that affirms my faith in the strength of love, and in a larger sense, the goodness of women and men. So, expect me to be a little erratic on the information stream the […]

Healthcare, the Nobel Peace Prize and National Security My primary care doctor just told me he’s leaving his current practice, as did my last doctor a bit over a year ago. The reason both walked away is the administrative burden of our current healthcare system. Yet, I read an article the other day that claimed […]

On July 4th Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s autocrat, watched his engineers launch a missile into the Sea of Japan. Shot in a ‘high loft trajectory,” the rocket flew about 600 down range but rose more than 1700 miles. This trajectory, if flattened out (like a baseball player hitting a “pop-up” versus hitting a shallower […]

The media spends a great deal of time these days in what can comfortably be described as howling at President Trump. At the same time they’ll tell you it’s their responsibility to serve and defend the national interest, “humbly” reminding us it’s their “duty to seek the truth” and “to speak truth to power.” So, […]

Since 2015 Senators McCain and Graham have called for more US troops in Syria. First they called for 10,000 troops, then 20,000 and then 50,000. Now, the numbers have climbed to 150,000. To be clear, this isn’t about the additional troops Secretary Mattis sent into Iraq and Syria (or into Afghanistan); Secretary Mattis has clear, […]