James Pinkerton

Pinkerton: ‘One Giant Leap’ — the Apollo Project and the American Way

The space program was not just about the guts and grit of astronauts with “the right stuff,” nor about the brilliance of the engineers who designed the spacecraft.  It was also about the financial and organizational ability of government leaders, corporate executives, and white- and blue-collar workers—all teaming up to get the job done. 

DC, UNITED STATES: This 20 July 1969 file photo released by NASA shows astronaut Edwin E.

Pinkerton: The American System for a More Perfect Union

The aspirational nature of the entire American Experiment is made plain in the words in the Constitution’s Preamble: “a more perfect union.”  We’re always striving to make a more perfect union, which is why it is important to understand the the economic theory that did the most to expand prosperity and greatness. It was called the American System.

Pedro Solorzaro, of Mexico, Nola Davis, of Nigeria, and Hanna Simic, of Bosnia, from left,

Pinkerton: The Bill Shine I Know

News stories report that President Trump has asked Bill Shine, the former Fox News co-president, to come aboard the White House staff.  Shine’s new job, at least in part, would be to direct communications. This news might not strike some observers as a very big deal. 

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 12: Economist Nouriel Roubini, anchorwoman Trish Regan, and Bill Shine

Pinkerton: Fixing California’s Wildfire Problem

As the 2017 wildfire season in California recedes in time, if not in memory, the 2018 wildfire season is looming into view. And so if you live in the Golden State—now the Scorched State, as more than 500,000 acres were burned in 2017—you should be worried about a fire-haunted future.

FILE - This Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017 false-color image from the European Space Agency's

Pinkerton – The Spring of Nations: 2018 Brings Echoes of Europe’s Populist-Nationalist Rebellions of 1848

Populist-Nationalism, Right and Left

Here’s a headline that a lot of people—especially among the entrenched elite—won’t want to see: “2017 Was the Year of False Promise in the Fight Against Populism: The populist wave seems like it may have crested. The data proves otherwise.” In other words, the populists are still on the march. Uh oh.

Main Photo Credits (left to right): Giuseppe Garibaldi entering Naples in 1860 by Franz We

Pinkerton — Lessons from the GOP’s Obamacare Fail: Republicans Were Long on ‘Repeal’ and Short on ‘Replace’

Republicans have long been united in opposition to Obamacare, but opposition is a sentiment—it’s not a strategy. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that Republicans were never together—were never operating as a team—to pursue an effective anti-Obamacare vision. Most glaringly, the GOP was long on “repeal” and short on “replace,” even as the country clearly expected both repeal and replace.

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Pinkerton — The Presidential Comeback: How Reagan’s First Term Recovery Offers Hope for Trump

What they say about the weather is also true of politics: If you don’t like what’s happening now, wait a bit—because things will change. The same point holds true for presidential politics. What happens to a president early on is not automatically dispositive to what happens to that president later on. History is full of examples of presidential comebacks, and President Reagan’s first term is a case in point.

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 24: (AFP OUT) U.S. President Donald Trump speaks along with his dau

Pinkerton: The Plutocrats vs. the People: Trump’s Climate Decision Exposes the Latest Battle in the Class War

While the red states of Trump Nation applauded the president’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, the opposition in the culture-crafting blue cities along the two coasts flowed fast and furious. Just about every headline and press report in the establishment Media has been critical, with some going out of their way to neon-sign their negativity. Yet in their untiring enthusiasm to hammer Trump with everything available, the elites in the toniest zip codes have made some curious choices, as they seek to make choices for the rest of us.

A group of coal miners hold Trump signs as they wait for a rally in Charleston, W.Va., Thu

Pinkerton: The Final Frontiers: Cyber Space, Outer Space, and the Permanent Lure of Exploration

While profit and national security are key factors in our pursuit of outer space, there is also the innate human desire to strive, to seek, and to find. We are going to outer space because we are curious—and organized curiosity is about as powerful a force as there is in human nature. We are going for the reasons that inspired President Kennedy: because space is there, and because it’s cool. Indeed, those of us who will never go to space should count ourselves as lucky to be alive at a time of renewed exploratory curiosity. We are fortunate to be blessed with sturdy souls—in the public and private sectors—who are willing to take up the challenge of space-questing.

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Pinkerton: The Clash of Civilizations — the Fierce Competition Between the U.S., China, and Every Other Country

As a people, the Chinese obviously know something about building, and maintaining, a strong civilization. And one of the keys to civilization-maintenance is strategic power, both military and industrial. The verdict of history is that sluggishness and ineptitude is catastrophic; the world is always in motion, and so the only hope for a people is to stay atop of the change, lest they be swept under. So now, here’s a pointed question for Americans: Who’s lethargic, and incompetent, today? If not its people as a whole, then at least its ruling elite? Who’s fiddling while the country burns—or falls apart?

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Pinkerton: Reagan Rising, Carter Falling: a New Book Offers Lessons for Trump from Two Presidents

“For conservatives, it was their Camelot.” Those words appear as the epigraph to Craig Shirley’s new book, Reagan Rising: The Decisive Years, 1976-1980. In his new volume, Shirley chronicles the years 1976 to 1980, when Reagan, having lost his bid to grab the Republican presidential nomination away from Gerald Ford, was pondering his next political move—if there was to be one. Along the way, we learn much about America in the late 70s—lessons that echo even to this day, as Americans once again see populist insurgency pitted against establishment power.

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Pinkerton: Before Trump Nation, There Was Fox Nation: Fox News After Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly

An era has come to an end at Fox News. The departure, last year, of Roger Ailes, its founder and CEO for two decades, and the departure, this year, of Bill O’Reilly, its biggest star for two decades, means that Fox will be changing. What’s said of politics is also true of TV: Personnel is policy. Tell me the names of those who are making the decisions about programming, and the names of those who are actually doing the shows, and I’ll tell you, in turn, about the network. But first, let’s take a closer look at the country—at least its presidential voting patterns—pre-Fox and post-Fox.

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PINKERTON: Trump Highlights Health Itself, Not Just Health Insurance

Appropriate for a new president with a bold agenda, a new chapter in healthcare policy is beginning. And, of course, an old chapter is closing. The new chapter is about health. The old chapter was about health insurance—and there’s a difference. As argued here at Breitbart many times, health and health insurance are not the same thing. Both health and health insurance are important, but the first is obviously prior to the second.

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PINKERTON: How Republicans Should Address the Hostile Obamacare Town Halls

The fate of Obamacare dominates the news—again. Eight years ago, anti-Obamacare Republicans and Tea Partiers were on the offensive. Today, it’s pro-Obamacare Democrats, perhaps joined by “astroturf” activists, on the offense. Congressional Republicans have had plenty of time to think through their preferred alternative to Obamacare in the seven years since it was signed into law. So what is the hang-up? Part of the problem is the GOP has never really come to grips with the basic question: Do Americans have a right to health insurance?

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