Category: DailySocotra

Postcard from the Miasma

There really is no need to take down all the street signs identifying us as The Swamp, though it would better be described as a Miasma this week, the mists and mysteries are very deep. The Supreme Court still lives by the old rhythms of the sleepy southern town nestled to the muddy bosom of […]

Postcard from the Swamp #43

Well, the good news is that we finally have a message for people to campaign on this November. I think it is “Kids in Cages,” which resonates with all the parents out there (pro and con). It is not that I haven’t complained about whiplash here in The Swamp, but this was remarkable. There we […]

Juneteenth

It was the 19th of June, 1865. The blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico glittered in the brilliant sun. The sand was white as sugar on the barrier island. Major General Gordon Granger, late of the Army of the Cumberland, read General Order #3 to the people of the former Confederate city of Galveston, […]

One Of the Other Shoes

It is Flag Day, and the President’s birthday. And the release of a political stink bomb. Well, thank goodness we don’t have to talk about th G7 or North Korea any more. I guess it was a factor of the air transit times to the Straits of Malacca. There was too much to process about […]

Postcard from the Swamp #42

I feel like I have whiplash, almost as severe as that suffered by the politicians, pundits and production crews who crossed twelve time zones to create and cover the events in Singapore. This morning, the President is home after spending literally days on Air Force ONE and US diplomats are still strewn across greater Asia. […]

Morning Calm

They call Korea the Land of the Morning Calm. It is a historical term, referring to the whole peninsula, not the two bits with which we are familiar. It has been anything but calm in my experience in that part of the world, and that is why I went to bed early. Twelve time zones […]

Swamp Postcard #41

Two things to share this morning on events that occurred on this day in another century, one not so far away. It was the last day of the epic Battle of Midway in 1942. Our pal Mac Showers was attired in wash khakis in the basement of the Pacific Fleet Headquarters. CAPT Eddie Layton, Mac’s […]

Postcard from the Swamp #40

I will not insult your intelligence by saying that we are doing fine. I do not think you would disagree, but there are so many things that appear to be simple on which we can’t. I can’t even due justice to the current news cycle, much less haul the main brace of what might be […]

Rio Grande

Waiting for the rain (again) and after a decent swim, am watching a re-run of the WWII film “The Longest Day.” It is Memorial Day weekend, and for a variety of perfectly good reasons, I thought I would check in to the time machine that lives behind the flat screen in the living room. I […]

Mission Accomplished.

Got up early. Well, not that early. It is The Day- Der Tag, as my German brethren- one of only two in the completely dependent on the clock, which this morning was slung on the Wall and displaying “4:45” though we pretty much knew we were closing in on ten, and the official opening of […]