The 2020 Global Misery Index
There are hints of optimism in the air, as more people get fully vaccinated, restrictions on activity ease (even if some states are dragging their heels on reopening) and the…
The Real Impending Doom is Fiscal, not Viral
The Center for Disease Control’s new director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, recently said she had a “recurring feeling I have of impending doom” regarding the coronavirus. While the positive news about…
Time to scrap the Littoral Combat Ship?
The Department of Defense has long struggled with how to produce weapons systems that meet current and future challenges, and do so without breaking the bank. Sometimes they get it…
What China has Been Doing With the Data it Stole From the Federal Government’s Personnel Files
In late 2013 – and perhaps even well before then – hackers broke into the computer systems at the federal government’s Office of Personnel Management and began a months-long espionage…
Hack of Government Networks Was Years in the Making – and an Ominous Warning of Future Conflicts
The extent of the damage done during the months-long assault on some of the nation’s most sensitive government and private computer systems is still unknown. But it appears to be…
Pentagon Fails Another Financial Audit, but Urges Patience as it Gets its Books in Order
The Department of Defense has failed yet another financial audit, the third since such audits began in 2018. But according to the Pentagon’s comptroller, Thomas Harker, there is hope the…
Trump to Order More Troops Home From Iraq, Afghanistan
President Donald Trump is reportedly going to instruct the Pentagon to reduce the number of U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the Wall Street Journal, the order…
Add High Taxes to the List of Reasons People are Leaving Big Cities
There has been a lot of anecdotal evidence of people leaving big cities behind to live in more suburban, rural, or exotic locations because of the coronavirus. But there’s another…
Billions of U.S. Taxpayer Dollars Lost to Waste, Fraud, Abuse in Afghanistan
If there was a need for an additional reason to bring U.S. involvement in Afghanistan to an end it’s a new report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction…
On Foreign Policy, Trump has Been ‘True to His Word’
President Donald Trump got an unexpected acknowledgment that, on foreign policy, he has been a man of his word. The Financial Times’ Edward Luce – no friend of the president…