While on a bicycle ride from Knoxville, Maryland to my home in Fredericksburg, Virginia, I got a flat tire in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. While I waited around for the local bike shop to open, I got some great shots of the National Historic Park, including the place where Lewis and Clarke left for their famous expedition (at that time, West Virginia was still part of Virginia). Originally settled in the mid-18th century, Harper’s Ferry also was the site of a federal arsenal, which abolitionist John Brown attempted to take over during a two-day siege in October 1859. Brown, who believed that a war to end slavery was inevitable, was captured and hanged. On a personal note, I want to give a big shout out to Harper’s Ferry Wilderness Outfitters, who did a great job getting me back on the road after my flat tire. The husband and wife who own it are wonderful, honest people. If you are hiking the Appalachian Trail or just checking out this historic town, check them out. You are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t. During my bike ride May15-16, 2020. (at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CASXGCJgAgo/?igshid=1bckscyf4zfq7
Many of my clients are medical professionals. I know during this COVID-19 pandemic that many of them are stretched thin, almost to the breaking point. Those of us in lockdown or social distancing are thinking of you and support you. We will get through this, no matter how long it takes. Take heart. All bad times come to an end.
Turkey vultures eating grass seed and not road kill? Maybe the world really is turning topsy turvy down! (at Stafford, Virginia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-PgqTsAgC0/?igshid=1478hw3adcgt3
JUST LISTED! 3 Bedroom, 3 Level Townhouse for sale in Chester, VA. List Price: $217,350. Call Mark Forror, Exit Elite Realty, 703-868-7987 for more info.
History shows that stupidity and autocracy aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, they go hand in hand.
Masha Gessen points out the the great evil geniuses of the past century, Hitler and Stalin, ‘struck many of their countrymen as men of limited ability, education and imagination — and, indeed, as being incompetent in government and military leadership’. Likewise Putin and Trump:
As someone who has spent years studying Mr. Putin — and as one of a handful of journalists who have had an unscripted conversation with him — I can vouch for the fact that he is a poorly educated, under-informed, incurious man whose ambition is vastly out of proportion to his understanding of the world. To the extent that he has any interest in the business of governing, it is his role — on the world stage or on Russian television — that concerns him. Whether he is attending a summit, piloting a plane or hang-gliding with Siberian cranes, it is the spectacle of power that interests him.
In the past few months, Americans too have grown familiar with the sight of a president who seems to think that politics consists of demonstrating that he is in charge. This similarity is not an accident (nor is it a result of Russian influence). The rejection of the complexity of modern politics — as well as modern business and modern life in general — lies at the core of populism’s appeal. The first American president with no record of political or military service, Donald Trump ran on a platform of denigrating expertise. His message was that anyone with experience in politics was a corrupt insider and, indeed, that a lack of experience was the best qualification.
In the past few months, Americans too have grown familiar with the sight of a president who seems to think that politics consists of demonstrating that he is in charge. This similarity is not an accident (nor is it a result of Russian influence). The rejection of the complexity of modern politics — as well as modern business and modern life in general — lies at the core of populism’s appeal. The first American president with no record of political or military service, Donald Trump ran on a platform of denigrating expertise. His message was that anyone with experience in politics was a corrupt insider and, indeed, that a lack of experience was the best qualification.
[…]
Mr. Trump has communicated repeatedly his apparent belief that the presidency should be a job of simple decisions and clear gestures. This was why during the campaign he reportedly asked a foreign policy adviser repeatedly why the United States can’t use nuclear weapons “if we have them.” That is why, in the wake of using the “mother of all bombs,” he bragged of giving the military “total authorization” — because why complicate things by restraining the generals? It is also why Mr. Trump announced on Thursday that the United States will pull out of the complex, sprawling, painstakingly negotiated Paris climate accord, which he apparently made no effort to understand but every effort to recast for his public in deceptive, primitive terms.
[…]
Mr. Trump has admitted that being president is harder than he thought. He does not, however, appear to be humbled by this discovery. More likely, he is, in keeping with his understanding of politics, resentful because his opponents — his predecessor, the elites, the establishment — have made things so complicated. If they had not, things would be as he thinks they should be: One man would give orders, and they would be carried out. He would not have to deal with recalcitrant legislators or, worse, meddlesome investigators. One nation, with the biggest bombs in the world, would dominate every other country and would not have to concern itself with the endlessly intricate relationships among and between all those other countries. The United States would run like a business, an old-fashioned top-down company of the sort Mr. Trump used to run, the kind of company managed through the sheer exertion of power.
[…]
it is Mr. Trump’s insistence on simplicity that makes him want to rule like an autocrat. Militant incompetence and autocracy are not in opposition: They are two sides of a coin.
This is the clearest analysis yet of Trump's style of governance and why he is so enamored of Putin, who is clearly an incompetent leader. He invades Ukraine, a country with which his country has close economic and cultural ties, and the Ukrainians fight back, Putin receives international condemnation, and now he holds 3% of the country and has lost both Ukraine and the United States as possible allies forever.
JUST LISTED! 4 Bedroom, 4.5 Bath house in River Bend Estates, Manassas, VA. Lot is 7.79 tree-filled acres, about 150 yards from the Occoquan River. $895,600. Call Mark Forror, Associate Broker, 540-785-2002; cell: 703-868-7987.
JUST LISTED! 4 Bedroom, 4.5 Bath home in River Bend Estates, Manassas, VA. $895,600. Call Mark Forror, Exit Elite Realty, 540-785-2002; cell: 703-868-7987.
JUST LISTED! 4 Bedroom, 4.5 Bath house in River Bend Estates, Manassas, VA. Lot is 7.79 tree-filled acres, about 150 yards from the Occoquan River. $895,600. Call Mark Forror, Associate Broker, 540-785-2002; cell: 703-868-7987.
9 acre Lot 15 in Little Falls, Falmouth, Stafford County, VA. Zoned A-1, $250,000. Call Mark Forror, Associate Broker, Exit Professional Real Estate, 703-868-7987.
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