(Morning! Sad day yesterday- the passing of an old friend, the end of something long and hard in a place far away where many had served. Emotional. I was going to run portraits of Messrs Sunstein and Ayres to go along with this piece. They are architects of the new ruling class, and to recognize […]

It is a muggy morning here in the Piedmont. A few puffy clouds are evident under the rising sun, but there is that warm moist blanket of air that is predicted to send us over a hundred degrees by noon. I forgot to check if that is “actual” or “heat effect” temperatures, but that does […]

Well, as taxpayers, we can be proud that the United States Senate was hard at work last night, finally clearing their busy calendar a couple minutes before 0500 this morning. I don’t know how they do it. I am not sure that our elected members actually stayed awake and in session for the whole night, […]

There is something magical in the country, watching the Earth produce whatever particular glory it chooses to brighten the morning. Loma was late for the pre-meeting today. He had been next door attempting to negotiate for some fresh eggs from the Russians, and got a dozen nice ones. It is useful that people around the […]

Editor’s Note: There is plenty to talk about this morning, but the Infrastructure Bill- the ‘bi-partisan’ version of it is 2,700 pages and no one has read it, specifically referring to the people who are about to pass it and make law out of what the lobbyists gave them. I like the part that includes […]

Vic turned 70 this year, most of the way to the shrinking life expectancy in COVID times. In attempting to shrink the footprint of the eventual estate, several imposing piles of papers emerged. Most dealt with financial events from decades past. They yearn for treatment in the fire-pit out front of the modest home in […]

(A replica of the Field Marshal’s baton that belonged to Field Marshal Kesselring. It is part of a trove of imaginary recreations of objects from very bad times that seems to have a continuing market in these interesting times. It features in the tale of the Field Marshal’s Daughter, part of the introduction to a […]

A pal sent a note this morning about crime in California. There apparently is a lot swirling around in the Golden State at the moment, and it is not all out on the Left Coast. Here in The Swamp it is about money to keep this labyrinth moving. Out there, Governor Newsom is subject to […]

It’s the baseball team, “Samurai japan”, that has been capturing the attention and hearts of the Japanese …. they beat arch-rival Korea last night and are set-up for the championship (Gold/Silver) game this weekend …. Team USA has also been doing well, and plays a wild-card game against Korea tonight, with the winner going to […]

(This is a somewhat deformed image captured from the weather deck of the USS Midway (CV-41) in 1978 or 1979. That I was able to capture it suggests the ship was orbiting somewhere awaiting tug support to enter port. It would likely have have been outside Yokosuka or Subic Bay, but I can’t tell you […]