Author: Vic Socotra

Postcard From The Swamp: Good Night, Chairman Kim!

It is sunny and quiet in the Virginia countryside. I am drinking early to get ready for St. Patrick’s day, while attempting to follow the goings-on in The Swamp from the middle distance. It appears someone is throwing Enfant terrible AOC under the bus- not respectful enough, and too bold and self-confident. That little matter […]

Life & Island Times: Paris in Brief

We strongly recommend dining at Le Coupe Chou Paris is . . . a great, if not the greatest, idea of man the best place to visit, if not reside an unending feast for the mind, heart and soul mankind’s hometown where the good are sent on judgement day history, beauty and life itself elegance […]

Arrias: Still Lost at Sea

In the Pentagon, fascinated as it is with “joint” warfare, few people seem to understand questions of naval policy or naval theory, but we are a maritime nation. That has a host of implications, but the most immediate is that it means our true first line of security is our navy. We need a great […]

Swamp Postcard: Good Morning Vietnam!

So, I have been reeling with images of Hanoi a long time ago, working on the details of finally clearing up some of the vestiges of war. The president of Vietnam was very kind, but concerned with some boilerplate on the Defense Mapping Service aerial charts of his nation. The caption mentioned something about an […]

À bientôt, Paris!

I never had a perfect moment during my many motorcycle road trips. It just wasn’t very important for me to have one of them. Maybe because one would have told me that it was time to go home . . . Plus it was so much effort to plan and map out such a movie […]

Snow Day

I am not going into what happens here in Northern Virginia, the District and Maryland when the snow comes. There is a rush to the liquor store before it arrives, of course, and then toggling back and forth on the laptop between the National Weather Service predictions and Doppler Radar pages. Then apprehension about keeping […]

Snowy Swamp Postcard

The Swamp is bracing for a possible repeat of Snowmageddon, the one that buried us for days. a couple years back We also could get freezing rain, which would enable us to glide effortlessly across the surface. That would be a change. Andrew “just call me Andy” McCabe has had a marvellous week promoting his […]

Arrias: Build A Wall

Last week Congress passed an omnibus spending bill and the President signed it. It funded the wall – in part. Then there was some more yelling by nearly everyone about what it said or didn’t say. Here’s what I saw: Another omnibus spending bill. A $1,300,000,000,000 (that’s 1.3 trillion) omnibus bill, a demonstration that Congress […]

Swamp Postcard: Virginia On My Mind

I am getting bored with trotting out the hyperbole each week- you know, the customary opening of “it can’t get stranger than this.” Then, of course, it does. We are the momentary epicentre of looniness here in the Old Dominion. Our Governor is under intense scrutiny for inappropriate behaviour thirty or forty years ago, for […]

Swamp Postcard: Turning Inward

Well, I suppose this is a welcome time of introspection after the American colossus has crashed through the Middle East. I tried to watch the State of the Union address, and managed to see the Speaker of the House carefully reviewing her notes about something or another while the President spoke. Here in Virginia, we […]