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Vic Socotra

Author: Vic Socotra

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February 12, 2018 Vic Socotra

Arrias: North Korea and the Berlin Olympics

Editor’s Note: As a winter sports enthusiast from way back, I discovered that coverage of the current Winter Games was not as visible as it had been in decades past. Arrias adds content and context to the 2018 Games….BTW, if you haven’t, “The Boys in the Boat” is one of the better books I have […]

February 9, 2018 Vic Socotra

The Ice Age

OK, OK. I am not going to beat the whole thing to death. It has been painful. Not to mention expensive. Oh, there are at least two things going on. The knuckleheads downtown finally passed another Continuing Resolution about the same time my aging body decided to be awake, whether I liked it or not. […]

February 7, 2018 Vic Socotra

Post Card From the Swamp #32

It has been another one of those weeks- this dizzying pace of events sweeps all before it. The House Intelligence Panel issued a memorandum claiming to line out exactly what was provided to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to justify a secret warrant to monitor the communications of Mr. Carter Page, who had left his […]

February 5, 2018 Vic Socotra

Arrias: Doom? Maybe Not

We’re doomed, if you listen to some folks. They may be right. There certainly are things going on that give you pause. But perhaps they’re miss-interpreting a few things. The big stories this week were the President’s State of the Union address, the release of the memo from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, […]

February 2, 2018 Vic Socotra

Life & Island Times: Real Estate Man

After watching the State of the Union speech and the loyal opposition’s response, I was reminded of one of the central truths of salesmanship and how each side chose to follow it. I am talking about the real estate salesman’s motivational ABC dictum — Always Be Closing. There are two types of closes — hard, […]

February 1, 2018 Vic Socotra

Post Card from the Swamp #31

Heck of a week So, the guys who are going to rip out my 1964 vintage kitchen were here this morning and some of it is gone, leaving gaping scars on the wall-board. Maybe it will be OK. I have been all over NOVA trying to figure out how this mass of stuff gets resolved- […]

January 30, 2018 Vic Socotra

Japan-gazer Update

Japan-gazer Update — January 26, 2018 平成30年1月26日 = (30th Year of HEISEI Era, 1st Month, 26th Day) – – – – – = This week’s poem: Some Wisdom If, for what you strive, Is so distant and far, Across a life’s desert, Like an unreachable star, Then don’t walk, take a car… { From my […]

January 28, 2018 Vic Socotra

Life & Island Times: America’s New Silence is Death Epidemic

A terse emailed note from a friend announced another of his children’s close high school friends was found dead of a heroin overdose. That brought the total in his child’s small midwestern town high school class to six in twenty three years. The details were heartbreaking in their recitation, but there was a leaden sameness […]

January 28, 2018 Vic Socotra

Arrias: Davos Economic Forum and School Redistricting

One constant issue here in the Tidewater is ‘school re-districting.’ Everyone is very conscious of which school district they are moving into, wanting the best for their kids. So, it’s quite frustrating when a city council approves construction of more housing, knowing it will force changes in the school district boundaries, and when citizens push […]