You will hear the truculent words in some form just as we did here in Arlington. They literallly bounced off some of the marble spires here in curious directions. Mr. Trump has always been known as a linguistic stylist, but the small crowd here at our conference table listened in stunned silence to Mr. Zelensky’s blunt Ukranian response to our newly-elected leader. It was not crafted for public dissemination. Iit was real and raw and made those we trust draw close.

We could use the abbbreviated terms for rejection to give it drama, but a local poll indicates we have never heard language like this by world leaders that did not portend real trouble. Like outside one of the fusion bars over in Clarendon. We have often wondered at the price point for expienditure of law enforcement resources versus loss of taxable income over time by revocation of liquor or entertainment licensing. We have no answers and the numbers are big.

So, trouble coming. Vectors and timing? Putin appears in good shape. Zelenski? Dig in and continue to grind his nation in unit-level horrors?

Intervention by external actors unless there is a WMD event? Maybe a minor kinetic but devastationg mass event?

Best we have heard is one of the fronts in the other wars in progress. The current furor seems to be about Ukraine’s posession of rare earth materials necessary for manufacture of tech material under thier soil.

Left understated is the fact that the new Administration has access to 49 of the 50 rare ores and minerals on the UN strategic list right here. Rocket pulled his black knit beret festooned with brass depictions of jets and places over the world ocean in which he few them.

He rose abruptly from the long table and blinked at the sunlight that teased us with Spring’s tendrils. He used a phrase more common in the Straits of Bab al Mandeb as he headed toward the Parking Lot. Maybe this continuous repetitition of the ‘World War Three!’ Phrase really means sometthing like a struggle againt the Weather and Climate Wars.

He floated out to his motorcycle for a quick stop in Clarendon before voices were raised and the County Cops were cakked,

The rest of us slumped back in the black iron chairs. Melissa thought there might be some interesting Scientific types in the crowd and started to gather her sack of devices together. No urgency, of course but the Friday crowds were only starting to drain from the tall 1970s buildings with the rental signs and the closer-in archaic Arlington Craftsman Bungalows that adjoin them.

Something is going to happen. It could be a science fictiony-flavored tech demonstration or something more or less traditional. And awful.

So, table started to move around. The bright afternoon whispered sonnets of peace and coming warmth.The devices on our shared table growled with words uttered just a few blocks away on this pleasant afternoon. The comfort was that nothing was going to happen where the various speakers stood.There was time for a drink or two after finding a place safe enough for the ordinary threats this evening.

Any defense bigger or more eleborate might take time to travel home. We thought about some of the forts we used to operate here near town in the Cold War and thought this one might be digital in a world where no one has done an inventory since the Bay of Pigs and we might suddenly be adrift in a world where no one has a Fort Knox or an internet connection?

Splash laughed as he shrugged into a battered utility jacket.. “I am going to hit the VABC shop over in Clarendon where the tents are and enjoy the transition. With the new Administration, this is likely to be an interesting few days.” There was some laughter, but it was the muted kind the Boomers grew up with and the Millennials are still exploring.

Despite generation, we hope it will be gaudy but without catatrophe. That seems to be the art of the deal these days, you know? But that depends on what is in our cards, and we have not even opened the deck.

Copyright 2025 Vic Socotra
Www.vicsocotra.com