We had a great weekend, and hope you did as well. We needed some rest, considering the early start to what is likely to be a frantic Autumn season. So, farewell summer, and bring on the Fall!

The Germans are already into it- their papers claim they are going to halt future aid to Ukraine amid Berlin’s budget struggles. Er are having some of the same, and intend to have an election about it. There was some merriment about that as we observed a glass of Monkey Shoulder to commemorate the single vote in the Tennessee legislature in 1920 that ratified the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. We try to keep those straight, since that one gave women the right to vote across the United States. If they were born here, of course.

Other big news about new equities was flying around. Apparently Secret Service protection was granted to former Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. She resigned over failure to provide the same thing to someone else. That is progress we can trust.

President Biden seemed to agree. Before they corrected him, he appeared to agree that Venezuela should repeat their July 28 election due to charges of irregularity. The re-elected President promptly responded he didn’t know who in Washington was running things, so we are pleased there is at least a hemispheric sort of agreement on things.

But there is other news from our old shipmates in the Fleet who are still at work. We were still on active duty when the General Atomics unmanned drones were enterting service. It was an exciting time. Word this week is that USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) now has a complete & dedicated Unmanned Air Warfare Center (UAWC). If you are unfamiliar with living on airports that drive around on the ocean, this capability will manage uncrewed MQ-25 Stingray tankers and carrier-based Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the robot wingmen we could all could have used at some point.

They are supposed to be on all the old and new carriers presently, so it is a demonstration of progress and innovation.

So that is the sort of change we understand and generally support. There are other kinds. For example, total excitement is set to commence in Chicago. In addition to the residents of the Windy City, 100,000 assorted visitors representing a variety of constituents will advocate- vocally- for something they call ‘democracy’.

Chi-Town is the breezy town with a nice river that runs through it, next to a bright blue freshwater lake big enough to be a sea, and where they are busy completing construction of a wall to minimize disturbances from those protesting wall-building. Or something. You need to forgive us our minor confusion.

It used to be that presidential campaigns kicked off in earnest after Labor Day. The mostly followed accepted protocols, trains being replaced with station wagons and airplanes with speeches made in between and from both. But we think there is general agreement- maybe the last of those we will see- that this one is markedlydifferent.

The Intern from Legal says we have to wave about the disclaimer published in really large font on the website that stresses the term “different” doesn’t mean “good” or the other thing. Just like way different. And thus an opportunity for excitement and adventure!

Some of the campaign is already over, which is new on the timing aspect. The Candidate for the convention that formerly started this morning was already selected a few weeks ago. The new tech stuff is a great time-saver, and eliminates the delays in having to count votes and stuff since all that stuff can be done on Zoom calls. Or so they tell us.

So, we are not quite what the issues are going to be. We are hoping someone will get the “Natural born citizen” thing out of the way quickly so we don’t have to agonize about it like we did with the one about another recent Chief Executive. That went on for years, but thankfully an long-form replica of an older paper document was found to put the matter to rest. It had been started by another candidate from the same party, so we understand a little uncertainty about these things.

The matter in question at the moment- not a big questions, really, is that the Candidate for the most powerful office on earth was certainly born naturally- or we are told she was- but that her parents were not technically United States Citizens when she was. In fact, it was sort of her birth that permitted them expedited lawful permanent status. Funny how that works, since it didn’t when the term “Natural Born Citizen” meant something different.

We think it might have been fixed by adding a letter to the phrase, making it “Naturally Borne,” which then puts everything in order. So, we assume that will be one of the first things that will get straightened out.

One of the others is that bit about election “surprises.” That is nothing new, of course. It is sort of a tradition to have something emotional pop up at the last minute to upend polling and predictions. These have always been a part of campaigns, but we used to have them in October when there was time to chop down trees, make paper, print stuff on them and have people actually read the words before voting started on other sheets of Paper in November. So, the term “October Surprise” came into our electoral lexicon.

They are not sure what to call this iteration of surprise. Apparently one is coming early, in mid-September, when one of the candidates is expected to be sentenced for 24 felony violations of an expired misdemeanor charge that was elevated and expanded due to the severity of another crime which hasn’t been specified though it must have occurred or else sending the convicted felon physically to jail on Riker’s Island before election month, or season, or whatever it is now is another new element.

We would be clearer on that part of it but word sparked yesterday about the Ukrainians having lotted to place a dirty-bomb of some kind in Moscow. We were getting a little more inured to the atomic rhetoric lately, both the kinds about partisan matters and physic, since the Iranian issues keep veering across the middle of our attention span.

It was enough for a summer Sunday, you know? Possible nuclear war in Europe or the incineration of the oil rich Middle-East?

Things are much simpler here. In Chicago, they are dealing with the cancelation of a nominee four months before the election when he sinks in the polls? The one that nullified the outcome of a year of primaries and the will of 14 million voters while also threatening removal by the 25th Amendment process?

Thankfully, that nominee did the right thing and stepped aside in a manner that prevented any embarrassment. Heightened security protocols came into effect at midnight last Friday at Union Park and the Park 578 perimeters. It includes a 15-foot buffer zone encompassing areas expected to see significant protest activity. So, in some modern contexts, wall can be good. It just depends, apparently, on where they are.

There is some controversy about that, of course. Since 2021, more than ten million people have reportedly illegally entered the United States. That number is more than the individual populations of 41 states, so you can appreciate there is some concern. We had to ask if there are 50 of those things or 57 if you include territories, which was an earlier confusion from another podium.

We understand confusion. Here in Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin signed an EO noting that since he took office more than 6,000 non-citizen registered voters from the rolls.

We don’t know how they got registered- there are some accounts that it is part of a fairly easy process to ensure nursing home and prison residents are not infringed of their ability to cast ballots. We believe in fairness, of course. But there are only about twenty of us in the group of Salts who comprise the Creative Section at Socotra House (all independent contractors, of course, including the ones who are in Japan and Australia) and there are thus some 300 groups the same size as ours able to vote as to whether what is ours should actually be theirs.

Like, legally. Or maybe it isn’t. So, forgive us, we are still getting used to this new stuff.

That is just here in our state. We are one of the 41 outnumbered by the uninvited with only 8.6 million naturally-born residents even if they aren’t necessarily Natural Citizens. But we don’t claim they are un-natural, you know?

The folks at Customs & Border protection (CBP) just announced 38.000 people from other interesting places were processed in the month of July alone at US airports. They were admitted not by paperwork but by a fast-pass entry phone app. All of them apparently received work permits, SSNs and path to citizenship. The people across our River- the Potomac, not the Jordan- have directed the States to fund health care costs for illegal starting four days before the election in November.

Recent accounting from Health & Human Services suggests that 2023 average costs of health insurance for a family of four was a little shy of $24,000 a year, so you can understand why a phone app can streamline an inhumane system for those who didn’t pay a centavo into it.

So, we are excited about the convention and even more interested in whoever it is we are supposed to be this week. Forward!

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com