Author: Vic Socotra

Swamp Postcard: Political Swamp Sniping?

The circus in Swampland continues. The Barr Tab is likely to hunt with investigations into the shenanigans that surrounded the opening of the probe into the Trump campaign by the national security establishment in 2016- or earlier. It is grand fun, and some former senior officials are apparently running for the exits. I am not […]

Arrias: To Secretary Shanahan

I wish Secretary of Defense Shanahan all the best; by all accounts it’s a thankless job. That said, I offer these thoughts from the cheap seats, things he might want to “take a second look at.” War Plans – there are multiple OPLANS and CONPLANS (Operations Plans and Contingency Plans); someone needs to start working […]

Life & Island Times: Ten Years After

While driving southwestward in South Carolina towards a Georgia sunset over the Savannah River this past Monday, an old blues tune popped into my head. Nearly fifty years ago, on a up state temporary stage in New York, the British blues rock group Ten Years After played to a cold, sodden, barely awake, night time […]

Spring 2019 Red Tie Luncheon Highlights

“Good to see our colleagues. A great event!” – CAPT Chris Bott, USN-Ret. The 2019 Red Tie luncheon was held Friday, 03 May at the elegant new clubhouse at the Army-Navy Country Club in Arlington. (View to the 18th green from the clubhouse). Here are Capt Bott and Dr Boyd enjoying Vince Fragomen’s ’s “back […]

Swamp Postcard: Chaos on the Potomac

So what else is new? I sometimes suspect that someone has slipped some sort of hallucinogen into the big river upstream from the Emerald City. The House of Representatives may hold the Attorney General, Mr. Barr, in contempt last today for refusing to be grilled under oath by staff lawyers who work for Judiciary Committee […]

Blue Book

So, I was talking to my son and catching up on the dramatic developments in the life of his family and the grandkids. Really about the most amazing interchange you can have, spanning generations and framing a prospective future. We normally talk on his commute home, so there is plenty of time to talk about […]

Arrias: A Free People

George Washington once (perhaps apocryphally) noted that: “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” Which is important to remember in light of a recent poll by a major US university that indicated that a majority of Americans believe we […]

Postcard From The Swamp: First Cut

There is a dizzying amount of stuff percolating up from the fetid waters of the Tidal Basin here in DC. It was not an unprecedented event- Attorney General Barr decided not to show up up an inquisition by House of Representative staff attorneys, though he did appear before the more user-friendly Senate committee yesterday. Eric […]

The Man Who Saved the Republic

It is the first of May, a famous holiday celebrated by the former Soviet Union and its satellites as a victory for the proletariat. It is not as big a deal as it was before Communism collapsed, but Venezuela might disagree. NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers formally retired on May 4, 2018, just a couple […]

Getting Lucky

(Military intelligence asset and mobster Lucky Luciano). I am sorry to plow old ground again, but this is a flip account of the involvement of Naval Intelligence with a unique troika of New York law enforcement and The Mob. Forgive me. I just binge-watched the Sopranos and am a little nostalgic. I was tipped off […]