Navy SEAL court-martial underway: What’s at stake?

Navy SEAL court-martial underway: What’s at stake?

The court-martial of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher began on Friday. All in all, Chief Gallagher is charged with four different violations of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). More specifically, the SEAL is accused of murdering a captured teenage ISIS fighter by stabbing him in the neck and body, shooting at unarmed civilians, […]

Exploding government debt is a national security issue

Exploding government debt is a national security issue

One hundred and five percent of GDP: This is the value of the total debt owed by the United States. Put differently, the value of the debt burden owed by the United States government is five percent larger than the total value of all production and consumption in the U.S. economy during the course of […]

Opinion: Why are military recruitment numbers down? Broken promises

Opinion: Why are military recruitment numbers down? Broken promises

A recent influx of headlines about the U.S. Army failing to hit its recruiting goals last year and the U.S. Air Force facing a longstanding pilot shortage prompted a resurgence in concerns about how to effectively draw young Americans to the clarion call of service. You’ll find proposed solutions (“give them more money!”) to assigned […]

Read outgoing Defense Secretary James Mattis’ farewell to the troops

Read outgoing Defense Secretary James Mattis’ farewell to the troops

Late Monday night, as Americans were preparing to ring in the new year, Defense Secretary James Mattis was having a very different sort of evening. After decades of service, the former Marine general relinquished authority over the Pentagon to his former deputy secretary and current acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan. According to the Department of […]

Military families hurting economically, even before partial government shutdown

Military families hurting economically, even before partial government shutdown

The holidays are over, but the pinch continues for military families. The Coast Guard’s 42,000 active members and some civilians have drawn their last paycheck until the partial government shutdown ends. They were to be paid on Monday, December 31, and their next payment is due on January 15. No income, no outgo. A simple […]

Unpaid government employees given sample letters that suggest trading services to landlords for missed rent

Unpaid government employees given sample letters that suggest trading services to landlords for missed rent

As the partial government shutdown continues, some 380,000 federal employees have been furloughed, with another 420,000 expected to continue working without pay. Now, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has released sample letters for those federal workers to send to creditors, mortgage companies, and landlords explaining why they are unable to meet their financial obligations. […]

Breaking: American arrested in Russia for espionage

Breaking: American arrested in Russia for espionage

On Monday, December 31st, Russian security services arrested an American man in Moscow on charges of espionage. Paul Whelan, who, according to his family, was visiting the Russian capital in order to attend a wedding, was arrested by the FSB—Russia’s domestic security service—for “carrying out an act of espionage.” A U.S. Marine veteran, Whelan had […]

Like it or not, Trump got it right on Syria

Like it or not, Trump got it right on Syria

In 2013 MSNBC host Rachel Maddow authored a book titled “Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power.”  The book explores America’s steady march towards perpetual war, one that has echoes of George Orwell’s famous novel 1984 in which propagandized citizens recite that, “we are war with Eurasia, we have always been at war with Eurasia.”  […]

Mattis to ring in the New Year by turning over the Pentagon at midnight on Monday

Mattis to ring in the New Year by turning over the Pentagon at midnight on Monday

While Americans on the East Coast are toasting the arrival of the new year, current Secretary of Defense James Mattis will be on a conference call with Pentagon officials to turn over authority to Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan. Shanahan will serve as acting Defense Secretary until President Donald Trump appoints a new permanent replacement. […]

Do you have an Instagram account? You might be the target of Russian hackers

Do you have an Instagram account? You might be the target of Russian hackers

According to a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee, Instagram was the Russian government’s most preferred method of manipulating voters during the 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections. Although it was known that Russian hackers had utilised social media to disseminate their propaganda during the elections, it wasn’t known that Instagram, in particular, had played that big […]

The bizarre hysteria over Trump’s visit to Iraq

The bizarre hysteria over Trump’s visit to Iraq

Hilarity ensued this Christmas when President Donald Trump along with the first lady made a surprise visit to the troops in Iraq.  Proving that it is hard to keep anything a secret these days, watchful aviation enthusiasts noted Air Force One cutting across the Atlantic on Christmas night before veering towards the Middle East after […]

42,000 members of the US Coast Guard will go without pay if shutdown extends past Friday

42,000 members of the US Coast Guard will go without pay if shutdown extends past Friday

While the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines all fall under the financial purview of the Department of Defense and will not see an interruption of their pay if the partial government shutdown continues beyond Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard falls under the Department of Homeland Security. As a result, 42,000 Coast Guard members tasked […]