Hi everyone,

Scott Immergut, he of the Blue Yeti microphone and benevolent kingship Ricochet.com, has kindly offered to let me tell everyone here about my new weekly newsletter. It’s free — hurrah — and I send it out every week, on Saturday mornings. It includes a round-up of everything I’ve done during the previous week, as well as the rotating music, television, restaurant, and tech sections from my old newsletter, Café Americano.

General H. R. McMaster and military historian Victor Davis Hanson are both senior fellows at the Hoover Institution. In this frank, no-holds-barred conversation, they discuss the United States’ mission in Afghanistan: how it began, how it was conducted, and its ignominious end. McMaster and Hanson debate what worked and what failed, how social issues in the United States may have influenced our mission in Afghanistan and our decision to leave, and whether or not the United States should have continued to maintain a presence instead of leaving in a matter of weeks, abandoning thousands of Afghans loyal to the US mission there (as well as an unknown number of US citizens) after 20 years of military operations in the country.

These are fraught days for Americans. History is said to be cyclical but there is widespread concern that we are in inexorable decline. Our leadership role in the world which seemed secure three decades ago is under serious threat. Polls show that confidence and love of country are in decline, especially among the young. Traditional American values like freedom of speech, free-market economics, and responsible fiscal policy are openly attacked.

Meanwhile, e pluribus unum is facing replacement by a culture obsessed with racial identity. MLK’s dream of a society where skin color doesn’t determine our judgments of each other is now itself deemed racist.

America, though, is the longest-running liberal democracy in history for a reason: our Constitution. Our great freedom document connects us to our roots, the sources of our strength. It can direct us away from hyperpartisanship toward mutual respect and agreement on shared principles – if we respect its authority.

Remember the story of the Exodus, of the Jews’ leaving Egypt? From the beginning of their journey, when they encountered the Reed Sea, they complained; they saw the Egyptians pursuing them in chariots, and they were certain they would die. It didn’t occur to them that they would be rescued by G-d. When they were saved, the Torah says that “they had faith in G-d and his servant Moses.”

But did they?

When they left Egypt so quickly, they were unable to bring much food or drinkable water. So, they complained again. Moses asked G-d what they could drink, and G-d showed Moses a way to make the bitter water sweet. So, their faith in G-d was restored. Right?

Without question, today’s leading corporate buzzwords are contained in this well-known acronym: ESG—Environmental, Social, and Governance. Most notably, these three words are not simple dictionary entries that permit discussion of thorny questions on how best to regulate the environment; deal with social issues relating to the workplace on such hot-button topics as income inequality, gender equity, and unionization; and structure corporate governance to incorporate the first two issues. If that were the modest intention of the ESG movement, no one could explain the huge emotional, intellectual, and political crusade that the three letters embody.

The current strength of the ESG movement lies in how tightly it dovetails with progressive views on substantive issues. There is no question within this movement that global warming is the main environmental challenge—demanding a quick retreat from fossil fuels in favor of a rapid expansion of wind and solar energy to provide for home heating and automobile fuel.

The social issues are not intended to extol the virtues of a market economy, but instead highlight the necessity of following policies of diversity and inclusion in order to remove perceived racism and sexism from the workplace and the larger society, and to ensure workers have a voice in the workplace, coupled with a rich array of positive rights—vacation pay, health care, minimum wages—that progressives believe markets cannot supply.

Citizens, weapons, and honor were left behind in Kabul. But so much more. We’ll talk about that later.

So, I had an uncle. Uncle Walter. He met the angels so long ago I’ve forgotten when. 1986 I think is close. He and his family lived just down the street from us and we loved him. Walter was a simple man. In the summer, you could always find him at home mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges, painting…anything. Every year he was always part of the volunteer crew helping to shoot the July 4^th fireworks skyward from barges stationed in the bay off the local boat club. Can you imagine? Volunteering to be around all these mini-missiles and all their “booms” when Walter was an army grunt living among explosions every day of his life in theater in World War II?

The next time you find yourself looking for a ride to or from an airport, you may want to consider hailing a yellow cab.

After all, if anecdotal evidence counts for anything, the driver has likely spent the better part of his day inching forward in hopes of picking up a fare that’ll just barely cover the last couple of hours’ worth of gas he’s burned up waiting for you. Why not give him some business?

Oh right, and there’s this: Using the alternative (you know, those ridesharing apps that clutter your phone) is liable to pick your pocket yet one more time and land in the coffers of abortion giant Planned Parenthood.