President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping getting greeted by a crowd of children holding flowers and flags at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein Kid soldiers’ marching orders A newspaper last week printed a photo of Chinese children smiling, happy, clapping, excitedly reaching out toward welcoming America’s president.
Yeah? Really? Must be they thought he brought day-old dim sum.
A few Christmases ago, I flew to Shanghai with a friend whose family then lived in China. Being a holiday, their kids — roughly 7 and 8 — were allowed to bring guests to visit their nearby school.
Classroom perfect. Neat, quiet. Bell rang. The children rose. Stood. In straight lines. No confusion. No chat. No phone. No gum chewing. No searching for place. No chickening out for the bathroom. No noise. No shifting about. No nothing. Each right in step. One after another. Single line. None had to be told. None reprimanded nor repositioned. Stood. Erect. Silently. Tall. Like soldiers. The teacher put on a marching recording. They paraded around, inside, outside, in step with the marching beat before being allowed to sit back down.
Didn’t look like they were ever being reared — not with that training — to ever grow up looking to cave in or lie down or applaud — not for Taiwan, not for US, not for nobody.
Bill O’Reilly: Every president hits the wall. Washington, tax revolts. Lincoln, Civil War. China provides dancing girls and walk-arounds with the president. They want Taiwan. Iran believes the US will cave on the nukes, so why do anything. Meanwhile, Hakeem Jeffries is trying on new Speaker of the House suits.
In the 1930s, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo visited NYC as a guest of John D. Rockefeller. Her art is now visiting MoMA. I went with her just-arrived family — Mara Romeo Kahlo, Mara de Anda Kahlo and Frida Hentschel Romeo — to see new roomsful exhibits of her paintings. Four, plus me, unannounced, like plain civilians, just walked into MoMA. No VIP attention. No spectators knew who they were, but the night before they were honored at the Metropolitan Opera.
“The opera’s party went until 3 a.m.,” they said, “but we tire of Frida depictions that focus solely on pain and suffering.”
Art lovers, they wanted to see a Broadway show, so they picked what? Ready? The one on Michael Jackson.
Now back in Mexico, the Kahlos will return next year.
How scams unfold — from one who nearly experienced it.
The caller from his bank’s “fraud team” said his account’s been “compromised.” To protect his money, he should quickly transfer to the new, “safe” account she’d open in “my name.” He had her hold while calling the real bank number on the back of his debit card. They confirmed nothing’s wrong with his account. It was a scam.
Letting everyone know: If you suspect fraud on your account, promptly call the number on the back of your card or account statement or wherever you keep that sort of personal information — and verify.
So this guy was staring at another man on the subway. The stared: “What’re you looking at?”
Starer: “Excuse me, but if it wasn’t for the moustache, you’d almost resemble my wife.”
That’s America for you, kids, that’s America.
