Dear President Biden, Congratulations and thank you for serving as the President of the United States of America. Your career of sacrifice, and service have led you to leading our nation. Your empathy and compassion have guided you with a…
Category: Politics
We’ve got some thinking to do
The USA is on centerstage today as the latest in a long line of liberal democracies unable to adjust. There is a schism of political ideologies. This is occurring worldwide but today is Americas day.
What does COVID-19 Recovery maybe look like?
COVID-19 will likely change our world view as citizens, consumers, and leaders. There are a variety of things we need to be concerned with as we move through steady state response into a recovery kind of situation. The following are…
2019 Marine Corps Birthday and Veterans Day
November 10th is the Marine Corps Birthday. The best day of the year. November 11th is Veterans Day. As a junior in High School I joined the US Army National Guard. Having lived on a small boat with my parents in the…
Legitimacy: Government Shutdown
Why do government workers stay on the job? In 2017 I was looking at the direction that the new senior leaders were leaning in DHS Intelligence and Analysis. I was feeling conned because I had a departure path in early…
Veterans Day
I served in the Army National Guard and then transferred into the Marines. I have lectured at almost all the US military accademies. I have lectured at all of the US war colleges, and most of the staff colleges. I…
Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Russia election interference
Government transition: Planning ahead for career risk
As a FED covered by the Hatch Act most onerous elements I have eschewed all political discourse and basically kept my mouth shut. That isn’t going to change now. I have no view public or private to share on the…
Authoritarianism or similar rather than leadership
Leadership is not about the tell it is about the do. To many people look at a leadership task as telling other people what to do. They take an authoritarian perspective on the principle of getting things done. I see…
Leadership: Putting strategy back into human interaction
We spend a lot of time talking about leadership where we think of it as getting people to do something through some form of incentive or disincentive. Simply churning and burning our way to action through carrots and sticks though…
Anecdote: Dress the part and credibility
Rather than can’t get no respect I want to talk credibility and the two-edged wicked problem of surface over substance. I am an old, fat, bald, white guy. I am not as old as some but older than most. I…
Research Note: Security, privacy, insider threats, and espionage
I am concerned about how this discussion has evolved, and it is influenced heavily by political and ideological biases. More importantly, it is in a box, which does not reflect a stern reality. I have been told that “Privacy is…
Strat pack fall down go boom
I’ve been watching the response to Adam Elkus recitation of issues of blogging on grand strategy. I have been following the writing of Adam since he was at Occidental College. I have been following many writers as they start out…
You shouldn’t read this post on Russia and the rest of the world
First off, I am not an expert on Russia or even a political scientist. In the first case, I do not care and in the second, I prefer to be relevant. This treatise is independent of the current conflict other…
Why should the United States engage in protection of the Ukraine?
I ask the why question a lot. Partly it is because I’m a scientist of sorts, but mostly it is an artifact of having taught strategic assessment at the National Defense University where I had a few processes hammered into…