Forgive us this morning! Legal took the day off, and said in the memo that they were going to stay that way until the House elections are sorted out tomorrow or Friday.

There are fifty or so Arlington families looking for work based on the election about other people looking for work. It is a little personal here and more than folks sitting around speculating about what might happen. Other people have already decided that a couple weeks ago when they realized an unproven candidate was not going to replace one who could not effectively campaign, much less govern.

Which leaves us with the matter of the other guy.

We are aware of some of the issues, but we are going to have to live with them like you will. It was different when our paychecks came partly from the government that is being fought over now. The dimensions of dissatisfaction are more palpable this morning, as the reporting indicates all seven “battleground states” went crimson for the Orange guy while the other side didn’t even get the Blue Wall.

We’ll stop with the color thing. We are tired of it too.

The Salts in the circle were all khaki-clad, either Zeros or Chiefs, and have divided theirattention between current, past and future events this odd week. “Busboys and Poets” was the last pub offering drink specials as the Blue Wall crumbled, so once the drinks returned to full price it became vacation time. For them, anyway, but there is other business today. For those who knew and drank merrily with Stu, it is now time to put his special time to rest as well.

His had nothing to do with politics, or everything, given his time in three wars with names. But his personal involvement concluded last year when the campaign was just starting to get interesting. He passed peacefully late last year and went into the Old Guard holding queue.

Due to the departure of The Greatest Generation, the line of people intending to rest at Arlington National Cemetery is long. It has been nearly a year since his wry grin last lit the day, but today is his with the horses and flags and well-trimmed soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division’s Old Guard.

So, they are going to go participate in that this afternoon under clear skies and seasonable warm temperatures, which is the favored weather while visiting Arlington’s Garden of Stone.

So, DeMille suggested that until the new round of LawFare suits are filed we do a piece to explain to casual readers what the hell is going on with these now-senior dissolute individuals around the picnic table. Who they are, what their specialties were, with whom and how they play, and why any of those perspectives might be useful in looking at the society that produced them now turned in knots at the change.

In, what DeMille grimaced as he poked at the screen, “one of the most beneficial and relaxed periods in the history of the species in which there were a lot of smiles and no recollection of hunger.”

There were nods of thanks, and we will get to that tomorrow or sometime. This morning, before the Cemetery and Luncheon adventure? Short Production Meeting. “Schedule F” glowed on the screen as he waved it slowly from his corner of the round table.

It was after the note about the last flight of the Navy EP-3E Aries aircraft which was mature when we first encountered it fifty years ago. Aircraft #893 is home now, hopefully headed for dignified rest and display after most of a century in airborne service adjacent to places of trouble.

Here in town, the dimensions of the change are becoming apparent only now to those of us not directly in the fight. During the Cold War, we set up “stay behind” programs in Europe for activation in the event the Soviets flooded through the Fulda Gap and overran Germany. Similar to the Ukraine adventure now, only faster. But the deal was the same. Leave caches of weapons and munitions buried where we could get them when we came back and cause trouble.

That is happening now, and in fact has gone from the “to do” stack of things “in case” to the “Oh, crap, we gotta act now!” pile.

Those on the job now are preparing to resist the change a significant number of us apparently think is necessary. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is changing the civil service rules to make it harder for the incoming administration to dismiss federal employees and put in place its own people in the nearly three month interregnum in power.

There had been some controversy about that in the last general change of governments four years ago. President Trump had issued an executive order creating something called “Schedule F.” In simple terms, which means only mostly correct, it reclassified many senior positions in the federal government as “at will” positions.

That was the fancy way of saying those individuals could be dismissed.

You can see the power in that categorization. Imagine having a foe working for you- or, rather ostensibly working for you- who cannot be dismissed. It dilutes the power effectively.

Ultimately, Schedule F never took effect and was abandoned immediately on taking office in 2020. That will be coming back on Day One, they say, as “part of a plan to dismantle the Deep State and reclaim our democracy.”

That caused the usual laughter around the circle, since our nation had a vigorous discussion about not being a pure “democracy” a couple hundred years ago. They decided to try a “Republic” as the governing form that best divided power. Neither of the two parties named for the idea have quite worked out that way, but they are changing as well.

The planning has begun, and caches are being assembled and buried where they can be used when deemed appropriate. We will worry about that when the time comes, and so we will leave you with this roadmap for the coming Holiday season:

Nov. 5- Election. 78% of Arlington voters cast ballots for Kamala Harris.
Nov. 6 Trump declared winner. Sweeps battleground states.
Dec. 11 — Electors for EC appointed in states.
Dec. 17 — Individual State Meetings of Electoral College
Dec. 25 — Electoral votes arrive on Hill
Jan. 3, 2025 — New Congress sworn in
Jan. 6 — Electoral votes counted in Congress
Jan. 20 – Inauguration, 47th president takes oath of office.

There may be some stuff after that, but we haven’t heard the details yet. It could involve crowds of determined citizens, or those desiring to be ones. But nothing has been heard yet. Any of the events in the short list above could be spark points, as the one in early January demonstrated last time.

The consequences are widespread. In Israel, Defense Minister Gallant was said to be friendly with Washington. He just got fired in a sort of Schedule F maneuver, which could portend something dramatic in the Middle East Mess. In Ukraine, a sense of desperation seems to be mounting with the prospect of change. We will see how this all turns out.

None of us are on any schedule at the moment, except Melissa whose status as an intern means she can walk at will should she feel like it. DeMille is comfortable with that, and we appreciate the fact that we are supposed to be nice.

And inclusive, you know? Thank goodness we have another quarter on the calendar to sort that sort of stuff out!

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra

www.vicsocotra.com