Sunday, March 31, 2024
When people ask me if I’m scared to go to this place or that I reply, “No, they aren’t shooting their children in schools like we are.” That seems to end the conversation. I don’t know why.
The other wonderful thing about being out of the country is the level of noise about certain people in the U.S. lime light is greatly reduced.
Today we returned to The Valley of The Kings. There are two branches: East and West. Most of the tombs are located in the east branch. Few go to the west branch. There is only one tomb open, Ay. It is stunning. But the other thing the west branch is known for is its silence. My guide book said that it is so quiet you can hear a raptor’s wings beat. Our group stood in silence for five minutes and it is impressive. The only bird I heard sounded like a pigeon. Of course, come for the silence and get a New York pigeon.
When I got back to my room I spent some time trying to catch up on news. Yes, I know about the ship.
There was an article about our Virginia governor. He was touted as an up and coming Republican star. He was part of the Carlyle group. They’re the kind of folks Richard Gere played in Pretty Woman. Rob, rape, and pillage companies. I’m sorry. I mean – make deals, like Mitt Romney did. You know buy the company on the cheap when it’s in trouble, sell off it’s assets load it up with debt and then do the Pontus Pilot thing and wash your hands of it.
Well, Glenn was going to revitalize Virginia’s economy, just like he did for Carlyle. Blah, blah, blah. He was going to move the sports teams out of Washington and bring them to Alexandria. How this was going to re-vitalize anything is beyond me, but Glenn’s the man, right? Well, the deal fell through. Turns out the legislature wouldn’t go for a two billion dollar something to re-vitalize Alexandria into a football and hockey town. They didn’t like it. The legislature didn’t like it. No one liked it. Glenn did the “Aw Shucks, all I can do is present options” jive.
A person who has studied Virginia governors for decades said, “He has shown tremendous political inexperience.” That’s being polite. I always found him to be a two faced toady. He’s got that Brett Kavanaugh shiny scrubbed face look. Just not a lot going on inside. Apparently, he had no idea how you sell such an idea. But first you’ve got to have a good idea, which this clearly wasn’t. Then you have to go around the state convincing people, which he didn’t do, because – gosh – that’d be a lot of work, wouldn’t it?
The two Democratic governors before him knew how to do this and they earned Virginia a reputation as being good for business. Under wonder boy that status has dropped. Aw shucks.