There is supposed to be one of those set-piece Washington things tonight. The theme is one with historic precedent, and is given every year by the Chief Executive to let us know how things are going. We anticipate some of the usual misdirection shaped by misinformation, a bi-partisan tradition in which we take no sides. […]

We think it is over now. Or, perhaps better said, now that the Chinese reconnaissance mission is complete we were permitted to shoot it down. It is possible that the PRC intended to fly their “balloon” around the world. Then they could recover the innocent scientific camera and blameless electronic devices back in their own […]

If you missed yesterday, the Writer’s Section was on the way to someplace warm. It may be the cold blast of air that caused some old memories to emerge, or maybe the invisible rays broadcast from that Chinese balloon. Loma had been talking about one of the significant benefits of government travel, since he stopped […]

(Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. It is geographically in Western Asia, but its cultural ties and geopolitics are overwhelmingly Southeastern European- Wiki. Addendum: this is a trip a couple decades old, when we could still rise and walk without […]

Can You Spell “Punxsutawney?” We had a vigorous discussion about movie rentals this morning. You know the one we are talking about. The crowd at Gobbler’s Knob up in Pennsylvania has already dispersed. The land-beaver named Phil has spoken, although his remarks were unintelligible. “Six more weeks of Winter,” is what they say he said. […]

(Arlington Hall Station, where some of the tools of victory in 1945 were forged). This used to be part of a story we couldn’t talk about. That changed just before the careers (and lives) of some of those folks who worked at Arlington Hall left us. Keeping secrets was a component of the Spook trade […]

We are engaged in direct support to a proxy conflict in Eastern Europe that could lead to an atomic exchange. That is still a bit of a surprise. The Writer’s Section at Socotra House apologizes for a slight lapse of attention to the matter. Some of us had been distracted by what happened in New […]

(General Curtis LeMay, former Chief of the Strategic Air Command. Photo USAF). We talked yesterday about the Cracker Caper and the occupation of Japan after a savage war. That conflict was the one that established the bipolar system we have known most of our Boomer lives. The landscape of that new world pitted two nuclear […]

We let Tom “Big Smoke” Duvall tell his story about how the Occupation of Japan unfolded at the beginning. That is part of the tale unfolding about the emergence of a new branch of government here in the United States. That would be the Deep State we hear about frequently these days. There is some […]

Yokosuka—Japan 1949 (For dinner tonight: a K-Ration package with tasty components on display). Editor’s Note: This tale of Japan under the American Occupation is told by Tom “Big Smoke” Duvall. He sent it to former Director of Naval Intelligence RADM T.A. Brooks fifteen years ago. He shared it with us. Big Smoke was one of […]