First of all, I am neither a Democrat or Republican. I have always voted for the person I felt was the most qualified. Politics was never discussed in our family that I can remember. High school for me was in the early 60's so the times were difficult then. Assassinations of President Kennedy (1963) and his brother Robert in 1968. And, Martin Luther King, Jr was also killed before Robert Kennedy.I did enlist in the USN and retired as a Chief Petty Officer in 1991. I took my oath of enlistment seriously and politics was not discussed during my time in the USN.So, here I am 27 years later...and wondering what in the world is going on in our country. I am trying to understand what has happened to the moral compass in the US and the pure hatred and venom that is being spoken on both the Republican and Democratic side. Rancor, a lack of civility and derisive descriptions are everywhere. Respect has gone out the window. I like to remember the days of President Reagan and Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill. In 1980, it was a divided government and Tip said 'We will cooperate'.As an individual, I decided that I could educate myself more and have started reading political books. Hopefully, this will give me a clearer understanding of both sides of the aisle. So, I read with objectivity and a desire to learn.In Michael Lewis's latest 'The Fifth Risk', I found it to be a most informative read with behind the scene looks in the Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, Energy and State to mention a few. The fact that 2 million people are employed by the government sets the tone. He also states that 4000 of those are political appointees and 70% are working in national security.The transition team was nearly non-existent and the shortage of funding and staff are the most compelling problems as noted in Agriculture and Commerce. Management problems within the departments are common. And, some employees at State don't have clearances!To paraphrase a statement from the blurb that caught my attention...appointees were shockingly uninformed about the functions of their new workplace. This doesn't seem unusual to me after being employed at the Department of Agriculture for both Rural Development and Farm Service Agency. When the election of the President is of a different Party, the State Director for the USDA also changes. A political appointee which requires that individual to get up to speed in a minimum amount of time. As one might expect, some Directors were more difficult to work for than others.Definitely an eye opener for me which covered a lot of territory including climate change, weather forecasting, data removal and the electric grid. There was one statement concerning NOAA that didn't resonate with me. To paraphrase, NOAA used to have a link for weather forecasts. I still use that link every day to get my weather so that part must have changed.Will read more books to see if I can expand my horizons.Highly recommended.Note: Never was able to get this downloaded on my Kindle. Gave up and read it on the Amazon Cloud. (Second Picture)