If you skimmed the morning traffic yesterday with the semi-lethargy that accompanies most Mondays, you may have confused one of the agendas of change with another. It is a regular occurrence these days. Everyone on The Patio wishes success to the newly nominated Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Franchetti. There is some controversy about her […]

President Biden has nominated Adm. Lisa Franchetti, current Vice Chief of Naval Operations, to be the next Chief. If it happens, she will be the first woman to serve in that role, along with the seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That is supposed to set up a conflict in the Senate about confirmation, […]

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, left, meets with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, right, in Beijing, Wednesday, July 19, 2023. China is willing to work with Washington on reducing global warming as long as its political demands are met, the country's vice president told […]

A writer named Monica Showalter had a strange piece on the American Thinker website this morning. She wrote it last week, but the appearance this morning was sort of startling. Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth is concerned about recruiting numbers and is taking action to rectify the situation. She is drafting- or rather, having […]

We are a little turned around this morning, and our apologies go out to you. There was news last week about America’s Climate Emissary traveling to the People’s Republic of China. We wondered why he was an Emissary, since he had previously been dubbed the “Climate Czar.” That conjured up images of the old story […]

The early thunder prompted a glance at the growing gray light spilling in around the blinds. Only fifteen months to go! Plus, it is a medical morning, an appointment with the cardio Doc that had been an afternoon affair but rescheduled to middle morning to accommodate a surgical intervention not directly related to any of […]

“A US National on a Joint Security Area (JSA) orientation tour crossed, without authorisation, the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” the UN Command said on Twitter. “We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our [North Korea’s People’s Army] counterparts to resolve this incident.” […]

We went back to Korea this morning for a quick visit to the bar of the Hamilton Hotel on the street in the Itae-wan district of Seoul. It was 1981, tensions were “high,” and there were several parties in town conducting a variety of licit and illicit activities. None of us are going back, though […]

This particular tale turned up in a search through the Korea Files. We had been looking for something about that strange Cyprus trip to insert in the manuscript for the book about Congressional Travel. Instead, we found ourselves seated at one of the battered stools at the Hamilton Hotel’s street front bar in Seoul, Republic […]

Did you see the date on this one? I left it in there from the morning 22 years ago when the below account was first poked into the digital stream about a place called “China.” It was an attempt to capture a fresh recollection of a visit to one of those exotic places. This one […]