This was one of our Big Days, back when they still had relative sizes. There would be a general destination specified and an approximate set time to arrive Kitty O’Shea’s (11:00 Opening) or Ireland’s Four Courts (10:30) sometime this morning for a pint or four. We do not have that sort of stamina in the […]

The memorandum in formal script- Gramond, we thought- was an unusual feature on this lovely morning. The day, and the memo, both got our attention, since they both started out a bit chill. It was a bit like night, nature, and nurturing were bidding farewell to a winter thankfully sliding into the past. And it […]

Afternoon, Gang! This is worth a quick catch up in the battles in progress on The Hill. We have been exposed to the strange gyrations in the Senate lately. Sen. McConnell just stepped down as the longest GOP leader on the Senate side. Seeking to relieve him as the Senate’s #2 official are Texas Sen. […]

Ides of March Edition The term for this morning has assumed, in our derivative language, a simple connotation of impending or immediate anguish. It is the “Ides of March.” In a more rigorous context, this is the 74th day in the ancient Roman calendar. It now has passed from Julian to Gregorian, as our 15th […]

Morning! We are working on the cover for the next publishable project. We write about it every day, and the Chairman thinks a progressive series of the minutia of living through what is going to happen to us will be a fun romp. We will see about that. We agree that this will be a […]

Morning, Gentle Readers! Let’s get the analytic bit out of the way first: “All this stuff is going on!” The big news is that if you slogged through yesterday’s long day of blather, the citizens of three states cast their primary votes, Shortly after the polls closed, the two major-party nominees were presumptively selected based […]

The above is a striking and unmodified image taken from the back deck of The Farm down in Culpeper County. It was taken one afternoon around the time of the last General Election for the office of President of the United States, and we used it as the backdrop to a short account of how […]

(The Mexican Expedition, 1916) These are challenging times for the retired analytic community. We have a distinct baseline composed of belief and truth, at least to the extent we can tell the difference. We veered into that one with the usual mass of reporting this morning. There were more criminal acts committed by- what are […]

(Victoria Nuland announced her retirement last week as the Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Her temporary relief is the fellow to her right, ambassador John Bass). This is a morning for messaging, and the stakes are high. There was some news last week we did not appreciate at the time, but it may […]

Well, here we are this morning after a tough news week and starting what appears to be another one. We started this morning with another fascinating chapter in our nation’s metamorphosis. We liked the way things were and spent more than a quarter century in service to its preservation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. […]