Category: Politics and Government

What’s the Big Deal About Inspectors General?

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This is Not Just Garden Varity Corruption- It’s a Core Evil

 

What is an Inspector General?

I suspect that not all that many people know much about inspectors general (IG) – their purpose, their history, how they normally operate. That’s too bad. Because few institutions are more important to good governance and accountability. Thanks to Trumps latest attempt to block independent investigations, many of us are about to learn about IGs.

There are variants all around. Some corporate Compliance Officers function much like IGs. Ombudsmen for news organizations also fill similar functions.

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Last Time Out We Shared Some Laughs. Now the Other Side

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Two Articles Broke My Heart but They Need to Be Read. Our Friends are Worried About Us.

On my last posting, earlier this week, I shared some editorial cartoons that, as I noted, gave me some laughs, made me angry, made me think. Exactly what such a thing should accomplish. And it seems you agreed. We got a few comments and lots of email about how much we all enjoyed the change and a bit of light heartedness. Goodness knows we could all use a bit of that.

Today, I regret to say I cannot be so lighthearted,

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OK, America. Who are We?

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We Looked at Me/We and Freedom/Community. Where Did We End Up?

Earlier this week, we looked at sometimes competing values as we fight the pandemic. We have been in this thing long enough now to come to some conclusions. But before we do that, a slight diversion. Let’s talk about dreams.

Dreams About the Pandemic

Others have noted that more frequent and more vivid dreams seem to be a byproduct of all this isolation. It appears I have succumbed to this symptom. I have recently had two dreams on judging how we are doing as a people.

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Is it Me or is it We? Is it Freedom or is it Community? All of the Above?

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America is Having an Internal Search. Who are we? What Do We Value?

America Looks for Itself, in Itself

As the pandemic rolls through America, interesting characteristics are arising. They are arising for individuals and collectively. We find ourselves highlighting sometimes very different aspects of our values. Some are just different; some are in conflict.

This is not a new phenomenon. Like a collective Diogenes, we periodically seek to define who we are and what we stand for. But it is more important than ever this time. We must decide what are our national values and priorities going forward.

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The Secret to Solving Big Problems? LOGISTICS

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  • Hi Everyone Talks Tactics and Strategy. Making Things Actually Happen Requires Logisticians

 

Save Us from Armchair Experts

I learned a valuable lesson as a young Army officer, a lesson that time proved to be valid over and over again. The lesson is as follows. Everyone thinks of themselves as great armchair generals. Everyone thinks they know what is needed for tactics, strategy, and priorities. Darn few people have a clue about what it actually takes to make all those great plans happen on the ground. Master logistics or its all talk,

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We Need a BIG Recovery- Here are 3 Pillars to Building Solutions

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Trying to Get Well from the Pandemic Offers a Golden Opportunity to Advance

 

This country is going to spend a lot of money trying to restart our economy. That is a given, a necessary action. Whether we do so intelligently or not is another question.

Infrastructure Investments, Wherefore Art Thou?

This feeds into our so far, fruitless national discussion about infrastructure. We are about $13 TRILLION behind in our infrastructure investments. That includes not doing new work or maintaining what we have. Remember collapsing bridge stories? We still have thousands of unsafe bridges all over this country.

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Leadership Right Under Our Noses, Just When We Need It

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Often Lost in Media Coverage in Normal Times, Governors Actually Run Things

Consider Governors

Several recent presidents have been governors: Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush II. Even so, governors often get short shrift in media and in public attention. We tend to gravitate toward Washington personalities. This is an understandable, if oftentimes shortsighted, approach to picking our national leaders.

Washington personalities have the natural advantage of being in a global media capital. At some level, Washington based individuals also often deal in foreign policy and foreign crises. These yield valuable experience for a potential president.

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There is Another Deadly (but Curable) Virus Stalking the Land

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Here is its formula: I+AxIL/NC = -0

As terrible as the Corona virus is, there is another that is ravaging our country. It is bad enough in and of itself, but it actually makes the other virus, indeed all our national problems, worse.

I am referring to the mental and emotional profiles that make up the Trump administration. If this were a biological infection, its component formula might read something like the following:   I+AxIL/NC = -0

The Chemistry of Failure

I: Ignorance. Simple failure to know, to understand, to study a threat or a problem.

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A Singular Failure of Judicial Judgement

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What Happened in Wisconsin is a Call to Arms

 

This is Not an Especially Complicated Story

Wisconsin had a primary this week. The governor sought to maximize voting by mail. He considered postponing the primary, as have many other states in the midst of this pandemic.

No hyperbole here – people who had to vote in person put their lives – and those of poll workers – at very real risk. This is a no brainer, right? Not so fast.

The Republican legislature blocked any moves to improve safety while encouraging voting.

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This is the Close-in Fight Against Covid-19

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But It’s Not Too Soon to Capture Lessons Learned While We Fight

The Close-In Fight

Back in my days as a combat arms officer in the Army, we would refer to the “close-in fight.” This was when the fighting got really close and personal. Wherein you often saw the face of the opposing soldiers, knowing that at the end of battle one group would live to fight another day, and one would not.

At that point, not much beyond what was happening right around you mattered. This was when your planning, resourcing, strategy,

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