The only word for it all this morning is “weird.” That is a change to the talking points that echo across the messaging. It is coordinated, of course, from the lips of Senate Majority leaders to the host of pundits in the same identical phrasing to describe Salamander stopped by The Patio yesterday to catch the remarks from the Chief Executive about the threat posed by the Supreme Court.

His recent rest was beneficial. He looked a little hyped up with that focused but disassociated look. From what we could tell, was that he does not have the power to control it. That is understandable, but it is also the way things are supposed to work. There has been that long weird personal campaign against some of the Justices. Or their wives, we aren’t sure.

That sort of family-level attack is one of the side-shows of our new politics. Another Justice had a gunman arrested outside his house. Another had a car-jacking attempt on the block outside hers. It is all sort of weird.

That has even come to the neighborhood adjacent to our home at Big Pink. There has been a crowd of folks camped on both sides of the suburban street where the Secretary of State lives. Note that the partisan affiliations for all these people span the two major carnival tents, in both the primary directions. This protest is about a place called “Gaza.” That is to our East, which would be right, only the protesting people are West. Or left, or something. It is kinda weird.

That controversy just provoked another rocket strike aimed at a military site that also happened to be a playground where a dozen kids were plotting or playing just before their deaths. The murders may provoke another round of savagery, but we will have to see about that. Things are weird.

Which brings us to why the Salamander was here. Like our pal Kimo, he is a Salt with a toe immersed in the affairs on the left side of the broad blue Pacific. He has been attempting to get our attention about the quiet but inexorable expansion of the Middle Kingdom across the waves and waters.

We have been paying attention to places on the Dnieper River along with those from other rivers to the same sea, and not paying enough mind to what is happening elsewhere.

Messaging about that this morning? Apparently, the Ukrainians dispatched a drone of some sort to hit a Russian target north of the Dnieper. Like way north of the river- in the Arctic. The reporting did not include information on how they got it to a launch point, but they supposedly hit a TU-22M3 Backfire bomber parked at the Olenya airfield on the Kola Peninsula.

That was a place we used to worry about, not for airplanes but submarines, and we are relieved we no longer have to spend much time waiting for information on what was happening at the piers there each morning to see if there were preparations for deployment against us.

So, that is why the Salamander was paying a visit to get our attention away from that direction and back to one he prefers.

He had a sheaf of glowing slides on his tablet about what has been going on south of the equator we crossed a couple times on our way to something else. He rose abruptly. “Nobody rides for free,” he declared. “Look at what you guys have been missing.”

We in the circle were bemused by more than the usual reaction to Tuesday morning. Some places of little or no value during times of peace are of immeasurable value in wartime.

Take, for example, the British territory of Gibraltar. From a strictly economic point of view, it is at best a dependency and, at worst an unnecessary drain on resources. But in wartime the passage out of the Med was absolutely essential. So it is with the islands of the southwest Pacific, as Uncle Harold found out in an encounter with Japanese fellows at a place called Guadalcanal a few decades ago.

As Sailors, we required understanding of the globe and great circle routes to get around it. You can understand our interest. Kimo held the tablet in one hand and pointed an index finger at the blue glow specked with tiny dots. “There have been a hundred million bucks worth of road upgrades on the islands of Tanna and Malekula. China has been lending a bunch of cash to Vanuatu for other road upgrades to ease travel and promote economic growth.”

There was some chuckling around the picnic table at the idea that Beijing was just being a good and generous global citizen. The islands in question are on the great circle route from California to Brisbane, Australia. Over the past 20 years, China has become the largest lender in the Pacific, and what they are doing is creating a network of infrastructure and obligation across the region.”

“So, is it a statement or something?” growled Splash.

“If you add the other places where there are new roads but big debt. That includes Tonga, Vanuatu and Samoa. They all owe their butts to Beijing. And those loans could be called at any time in exchange for access by what is now becoming the world’s largest Navy.”

The Salts around the table were having trouble changing gears. We had briefly been energized about the flight activity in the Alaskan Air defense Identification Zone. We called the “ADIZ” back when we were part of the aerial ballet we played with the Soviet up there.

Last week, it was something new. The aircraft involved were not just Russians and Alaskans, but with an added new presence of long-range Chinese bombers.

It caused quite a stir, and a flash back to how we tracked jets, tankers and support aircraft long ago on tracks way up and way far away. But we had never seen anything fly out of China toward North America before. Startling. Even weird, if we were to use the new term.

The ideas were a jumble for this early on a Tuesday morning. Ancient jets flown by young people in clear skies far away contesting untraveled airspace over empty seas.

But there are some possibilities for activity that could be unexpected.

In fact, they could be positively weird. It might even resemble a fire drill, if those exercises had names. The thing to remember these days is to ensure you have left the building that is on fire before Tweeting about the experience, you know?

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra

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