(Still image from CIA recruiting ad welcomed across the country, demonstrating we are all either what, or what not, is needed for duty in a complex and challenging world).

It was a delightful country morning in the Piedmont. The tree that was falling toward the fence and the lower pasture gate has been handled adroitly by the greatest landscape team in Culpeper. The rains have drifted away, and warm pleasant sunshine basks the fields. Amid the respite from seasonal change some interesting vibrations are emanating from the Imperial City.

Some are sort of ominous, with Nukes in the News about the global threat environment. Of interest, the Chinese have been assessed for years as having nuclear weapons in the “low 200s.” DIA Director Berrier testified to the Senate this week that total appears likely to double by 2030. The Iranians, bless their hearts, are apparently close to being able to roll their own versions out “shortly.” The US and Russia, traditional mega-powers in nuclear capabilities, are both faced with reconstituting their prodigious arsenals at vast cost, and the threat against which they might be used is diversifying rapidly.

If it is a comfort, the Federation of American Scientists estimates that Russia possesses 54,000 nuclear weapons, while the United States has 70,000. Together, the old Cold Warriors still have about 36,000 deployed nukes.

The subject of Nukes make the entire conference table a little nervous. The Old Timers were comfortable in huddling under their desks from old experience. The younger staff seemed to have doubts about how the plywood would hold up. It made even the Compliance section of the conference table a little uneasy. As Chairman Socotra observed, “Just Duck, but remember to cover.”

The real tempo of the times seemed to be the change in the way our government relations team has to adapt. The old hoard of motorcycles that used to rally at the vast Pentagon parking lots on Memorial Day have been told to go elsewhere. There were a lot of vets in that crowd, so it is a clear manifestation of something changing. But the crowd pleaser for all the old Spooks in the audience was the new CIA recruiting campaign.

They started airing it last Wednesday, but it rapidly went viral. The star of the ad is 36-year-old “intersectional” and “cisgender” Latina mom. I always have to stop and look it up to make sure my intersectional analytic skills are pointed in the right direction. In the ad, she says “I am a woman of color, I am a mom, I am a cisgender millennial who’s been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.” She goes on to add: “I am intersectional, but my existence is not a box-checking exercise.”

Ours either. In fact, we asked one of the junior interns from Legal to go out to the loading dock to do a Google search that could not be attributed to a W2-status employee to find out what it meant, since it might be characterized as a micro-aggression to be wrong in print. We waited patiently, and when he returned, he was breathless. “Oxford Languages says it denotes a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex.”

There were some non-micro glances around the long table, but given the problems with spoken or written communications these days, everyone kept their mouths shut.

Personally. I am not sure what the founder of the Agency would have thought about it all. Somewhere, Wild Bill Donovon must be whirling. And in Moscow and Beijing, I am sure there are a few grim smiles. At the conference table there was just silence. No point in disagreeing with revealed wisdom, you know? We all appear to cis-happy with that.

Then we thought about lunch. It is a nice day here. We are intersectional, for sure, since the river cuts the property line, and having checked, we think we may all stick with our birth sex. Happy Hour is a long time away. We generally agreed we can be cis-happy at least until then.

Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com