This is a day reserved for spiritual events at some corners of the picnic table and day-drinking on others. We leave which corner you wish to join, or in what order, up to you. It is a personal decision. We take the collision of views as a means of calibrating the week to come, and how to approach it in terms of the historic events in progress.
We have a note from Legal that has a bold top line: CAUTION!
We are not famed for that course of action in our working lives, and so the reminder is useful. The advisory directly applies to the way we communicate electronically. The Legal Beagles are concerned that our volunteer participation in a non-partisan electronic forum managed by a non-profit organization could be construed as “advocacy” for one- or any- of the wildly varying positions being messaged at the moment.
We naturally are a bit disoriented, since we had only once, more than two decades ago, been briefly registered as an affiliate of one of the two large organizations that take turns bullying us into doing things that do not seem to make a great deal of sense. That was because family was running for office.
When they left that pursuit, so did we. But the issues at stake were vital things like the millage we were supposed to pay for the school taxes. It might have been just pennies on the value of property, but it was real money. You know, important stuff.
Legal told us not to mention any of the ones in play now, which could, with squinted eyes, be construed as the fate of the West. Or something much less, like a government run by an unknown committee no longer restrained by the sort of restrictions citizens enjoyed for a few hundred years. We are not completely sure what that word means, either. We assume there will be a message of clarification about it presently.
They did say we could mention the recent case involving Tulsi Gabbard and how she wound up on a watchlist. The restriction is that we can’t comment on which list it was, who runs it, or how many people were assigned to follow her on each travel segment of a three-stop journey (Splash had the list: three on each, or a total of 9 special agents, plus crew rest on a single day).
Ms. Gabbard was a military officer and former congresswoman from Hawaii where many of us lived for a while . She was also (briefly) a presidential candidate. So, you can understand why we are a little confused. We thought the “Quiet Skies” program was an audio program on the jet we are not supposed to notice much less speak about.
The program in question has is a name, and that is why it came up after we had an earnest discussion about what type of egg preparation was appropriate and the variety of bread they might be ladled atop. Soft or toasted. Or why almost 300 other non-citizens already on lists like that were released from custody to roam free and unsupervised around town with all the rest of us.
We are told it is all OK and of course we respect them. Well, not them, but you know who we mean.
According to Legal, it is more than that, according to Legal. They say it is intended to focus law enforcement resources on travelers who present an ‘elevated risk to aviation security.’
Protecting political candidates for high office is supposed to be in the portfolio of service which is supposed to be Secret, or at least attempt to be, but they seem to be engaged in other vital matters. That body-camera imagery from a local cop with the audible exasperated exclamation about open roof they had been told about added to confusion.
Is it possible we have employed a work force so inept intentionally?
If so, that might be a matter worthy of some discussion. Like that “421” thing out in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago. The three digits are a shorthand radio code used by local law enforcement to describe a “Code 3” situation that requires assistance to a “sick or injured person” who may have been the President of the United States.
We aren’t clear about that, but that is not uncommon in today’s fast-paced media environment. We have been told it was the result of a simple positive Covid diagnosis that required an emergency trip to the hospital changed en route through busy intersections to the advanced flying command post capable of directing global response to really significant things is perfectly routine.
The quote was: “For everyone on the radio, right now POTUS is 421. He’s being seen, so we’re just kinda waiting to see how this is shaping out.”
We are taking the same approach to the Dailies for the foreseeable future, since that is another matter Legal warned us about. Stay away from the issues. That seems to be working for the candidates and we will follow their lead.
You know. See how it shapes out.
Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com