My Journal

Same crime. Same kind of boats. Two totally different endings. In the Caribbean, smugglers are “narco-terrorists.” No boarding, no warning, no court date. The Navy tracks them, calls them combatants, and sinks them in international waters. Eleven dead. No drugs...

For decades, busting drug boats in the Caribbean followed the same script. Spot the target, give chase, board, bag the dope, and haul the crew into court. It was law enforcement with a naval flavor. Not anymore. The other day, somewhere in the southern Caribbean, the...

Let me tell you about my friend up in Canada. She’s not some corporate shark gaming loopholes in trade law. She’s an artisan—sews intricate patterns into a quilt. Her friend paints mugs with flowers so delicate they’d make your grandma’s china blush, and sells them on...

Let me tell you a little story about what happens when politicians who don’t understand the real world try to fix it with a sledgehammer. A while back, President Donald Trump slapped a 50% tariff—that’s a fancy word for tax—on aluminum coming into the U.S. from other...

There they were — the sons and daughters of America, dressed in uniform, sent from Mississippi and Louisiana and God knows where else — raking mulch in D.C. like overpaid gardeners in camo. That sound you heard wasn’t a cherry blossom rustling in the breeze. It was...

Well, now, if it isn’t the Trump Doctrine back in motion — this time not with a tweet or tariff, but with the USS Lake Erie, a couple of amphibious bruisers, and enough firepower to remind Caracas how close Florida really is. In the southern Caribbean, it’s usually...