Category: DailySocotra

Riot Generation

Washington DC, 1970 The news is babbling abut today being the biggest of the protests against…well, I am not quite sure. I think it was about Mr. Floyd’s death at the hands of the police in Minneapolis. The imagery was horrific, and a dozen or more citizens have died in the rioting that followed peaceful […]

D-Day and Midway

Hey. With everything else going on in this strange time, the events of the middle distance of history got obscured. Plague and intrigue. Hysterial politics and killer wasps. With all that to occupy our limited attention span, I think it is appropriate to make the effort to remember, even as some are calling for the […]

Swamp Postcard: Get Along

So, things have been quiet and wet and chilly and gray these past few months. The color of the sky seemed to fit the strange events on the ground almost perfectly. We transition to something else tomorrow- secret plague code 1A, or 2.0, or whatever our strange Governor is calling it. He is eager to […]

Memorial Day: May They Rest in Peace

General Order No. 11 Headquarters, Grand Army of the Republic Washington, D.C., May 5, 1868 I. The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in […]

Armed Forces Day

I packaged and sent an installment of Marlow’s series on the plague this morning. I love his hang loose approach to global pandemic, always with a distinct rhythm of melody and distant old times. Or new ones. The House passed a three trillion dollar bill, biggest in the history of the republic in one shot. […]

Swamp Postcard, sans Card

Retirement is odd. I think it is Friday, a festive reflection of a work rhythm of all those years of schedules. Now this week I lost Wednesday altogether and it didn’t seem to mind. In the background is everything else, all swirling around like a Joe Biden interview. So the Flynn thing blew up again. […]

Swamp Postcard: The Great Reawakening

So, I may not be the most alert sailor at the helm of his little ship, but this is a big week. In many of the states, the Governors are reducing civic restrictions to ensure the plague is held at bay. Life during the crisis down at the farm is essentially unchanged since the panic […]

Swamp Postcard: The Plague of Spring

Hi! It has been a while since you got a nice cheery postcard from Your Nation”s Capital. Maybe this isn’t it, either, but one does what one can in times of crisis. The brilliant pink of the first foliage of the spring are fading now, and the green quilt is thickening for the summer. There […]

Sex and the City- Crisis Times Passed

Editor’s Note: The President announced “weapons free” for USN units to deal with Iranian harassment in the Gulf. I do not recall such an announcement in my times, so maybe this is what deterrence looks like these days. In an attempt to analyze the current and heavily nuanced crisis, I thought it might be useful […]