It’s nine-oh-nine, a cheery sounding welcome to the new season! It is clear a rising bright out on The Patio near the HQ and the mugs of Chock full O’ Nuts were not yet cooled against the brisk temps in the low fifties. It was a day filled with prospects and opportunities. Some of us were planning on going to lunch to avoid interference with the bi-monthly cleaning crew who threatened to arrive at an undetermined time.

Overhanging that was the return of Lawmakers to their enclave in Washington across the River to the East. Their offices opened again before the weekend to prepare for their arrival, but the actual principal humans are their today. Their return is a prelude to the fight about shutting things down again with the end of Fiscal Year 2024 at the end of the month. Expect excitement! Something will happen about the debate tomorrow. Some say there will be an announcement of a COVID diagnosis today, based on how Kamala’s debate preps go.

So, the fight about shutting down the government won’t really start until that is resolved with the Big Clocked poised this morning at “56 Days.”

Naturally we turned to the crime report, since that is criminal stuff we actually understand. We will hold off on a discussion of the Chinese stuff until tomorrow, unless we get swamped this afternoon. But it is part of the curious blending of global and local activity in progress and a visceral demonstration of the change in the world order. The on in the Buckeye State is one that merits mention as a sort of scene-setter.

So first, don’t think Ohio is a state or two away from something more universal. The cops don’t report things the way they used to. Here in Arlington, we have the pretty organized system constructed by the resident bureaucrats who built the monolith of our Government. Local reporting is still available on line in an emotionless manner and we use it to determine our local alert level.

This was last Thursday’s serving, extracted from the 51st incident report of the morning. Not all “crime,” just things on the daily list of activity worth being noticed. It was at the 7-11 over on 2nd Street, South by the entrance to Fort Myer where the vital Class Six Liquor store is located for those eligible to shop there. (Thanks!)

The cops were called to respond to a “robbery by force” conducted by two young black men, attired in dark clothing and black ski masks. No injuries, but the cops say they shoved an employee as they went behind the counter to remove two cashboxes from the register and then exiting to jump in a red sedan driven by a similarly attired young lady.

There were another 49 reported incidents before possibly the same two men performed an armed robbery just after lunch near the entrance to Reagan National Airport. A man inside a parked car had a black car pull up in front. Two guys- similar description to the ones at the 7-11- jumped out, brandished firearms and stole the guy’s jewelry before reentering the black car driven by an accomplice and screeching away.

The victim was shook up, but EMT’s released him at the scene. No direct association between the two events except description and a routine sort of day here in your nation’s capital.

That was not exactly the same deal in Springfield, Ohio. Some of us have family in the Buckeye State and a certain fondness for the rich soil and green flowing river valleys we remember visiting. Little brick towns filled with industrious people who lived generally at peace in a typical small-town way. Springfield has been in an uproar that mimics some of our own collision of national and local events.

Springfield looks like the sort of town we remember, locate southwest less than 200 miles from the Massillon/Akron/Canton area where some of us are interred and spending eternity.

The news there was about traffic incidents. One of them was a bus wreck that killed a kid and injured a dozen other students. Another was report of a small sensible auto someone drove into the side of an auto parts shop, penetrating the brick wall and startling both the driver and shoppers.

Those reports led to other more sensational stories about what was happening to the ducks and geese in the Springfield town park, and then the dogs and cats in people’s yards. And the origin of the problems associated with their disappearances. We will keep it short and let the Campaigns exploit the more vivid descriptions about house pets being converted to menu items for their own purposes.

Here is what got us talking louder than usual at this hour. Apparently this little Ohio town of sixty thousand Buckeye citizens has been expected to adapt to the rapid importation of 20,000 Haitian immigrants who apparently were expected to join the Chamber of Commerce and settle down.

Of course we don’t know who would have expected any such thing, and assume, generally, that they have never dealt with people in such dire straits that they get a little frantic about things like dinner and might eat the geese along with dogs and cats.

But you will understand that the idea that such things are happening in this country makes us a little concerned. You would think if we were going to do something like this, we might have wanted to have a better plan in place to actually make it work, you know?

That there wasn’t anything like that suggests that it was done this way to deliberately cause the sort of reaction we are experiencing. The introduction of undocumented immigrants has been going on long before the range of our current electoral chaos, so it is part of a larger and certainly stranger enterprise.

We did not think Springfield, or the small towns we remember as being places where the neighbors hung felines from branches for butchering like the deer in Michigan fall. It is sort of a change, you know? Maybe we should have talked about this first.

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra

www.vicsocotra.com