Here you are — like 76% of your fellow Americans you’re living paycheck to paycheck and sometimes your pay doesn’t stretch that far. You also happen to be one of 44 million Americans who have unpaid student loans. Thanks to those loans, you managed to get a college degree, but it’s costing you $400 a […]
Month: May 2017
Project 100,000: One-Way Ticket to Death
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (George Santayana) Project 100,000 was the “brainchild” of Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense for Presidents Johnson and Kennedy, one of the “best and brightest” Kennedy recruited for his administration. But that description quickly proved to be a misnomer. By 1966, McNamara was […]
The Strange Case of Schizophrenia in the Executive Branch: The Presidents and their Generals (or Admirals)
“…war is always the proof of failure and the worst of solutions, so everything must be done to avoid it.” — (French President Jacques Chirac, 2003) Schizophrenia: (definition) a mental disorder characterized by a breakdown in the relations between thought, emotion and behavior leading to faulty perception. inappropriate actions or feelings, withdrawal from reality… Sounds like […]
Tale of Two Brothers
Two Nobel Prize acceptance speeches. Two splendid orators. Two African American Men. Forty-five years apart. One was 48 years old and President; the other 35, a preacher and leader of the civil rights movement. For both, war was the backdrop. Dr. King grappling with the war in Vietnam, President Obama with seven wars, notably […]
Who Said It?
“These are my principles and if you don’t like them…well, I have others.” Who said it (or should have said it)? Obama? Trump? Take a quick look at the presidential records of these two stalwart characters and hazard a guess before you look at the end of this piece and discover who really said it. […]
A Beginners Guide to Risk Calculation
Could HR Be Snooping on Your Web Browsing? It’s 3:01 in the afternoon and you’re sitting in your cubicle staring at your computer screen. Lots of work to do but you’ve got a more pressing item on your agenda. In exactly 1 hour and 59 minutes, you’ll be freed from indentured servitude at least until […]
Who Controls U.S. Nuclear Weapons? The Answer May Shock You
“What I do is authorize my military…we have the greatest military in the world…We have given them total authorization and that’s what they’re doing” [decision to drop the “mother of all bombs” on Afghanistan 4/13/17] —President Trump (4/13/2017) Authorizing the military to set policy on troop numbers, on targets and relaxing the rules governing the power […]
You’re Fired!
The civilian and military figures who toil away day after day in the vast recesses of the Executive Branch become famous when the president fires them — the more publicly the better. Trump’s abrupt ham-handed firing of FBI Director James Comey guarantees that Comey’s name will outlast his accomplishments. Other famous and not-so-famous officials have […]
The Obama We Never Knew
Fresh from his luxurious post-presidency stay on a private island paradise hosted by Richard Branson, one of a multiplicity of billionaires offering the “People’s President” an idyllic respite from his heavy lifting on behalf of said class and a long way from the exuberant promises made to “We the People” in the first blush of victory on November […]
Two Party Dilemma
What’s up with the US two-party system? Upton Sinclair, political activist, social reformer, and writer had the answer over a hundred years ago— “the two political parties are two wings of the same bird of prey. The people are allowed to choose between their candidates and both of them are controlled, and all their nominations are […]
