(Our digital immersion is a revolution in human affairs!)

We have agreed to refrain from posing on the partisan parapet and retired without rancor from the fray. There is plenty of emotion going round as people yack about the various crisis situations in progress. The information streams being waved over the public and private places are remarkable as a new capability in information sharing.

Or at least emotion-sharing. We were watching “Flower Drum Song” on the wall in the Theater Wing yesterday and followed one plot line about a Chinese patriarch who was concerned about his letter to the editor being published in the paper. Old movie, but demonstrative of a new way of living with the updated Library of Congress in everyone’s pocket. It is an unprecedented technical revolution in human affairs.

The depth of some of the chasms between the ends of the spectrum is profound. The recent ‘low-confidence’ estimate from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore Lab is that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was in fact producing modified viral streams. The work was sponsored by a ‘Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)’ with a close relationship with Dr. Fauci.

We have a quick story on this matter, accounting for the distance in reporting from the new Socotra House headquarters complex in Arlington. We have, from some places in the building, a view of the big lazy river we call The Potomac. We had a quick visit from the legal Team’s weekend duty attorney. She is great and was unconcerned about what the weekend was likely to bring us. She told us it was a weekend. Liquor sales are permitted under state law, today, anyway, although Belmont Farms is closed up tight on Sundays and Mondays. So, prior planning is one of the issues on the short list for off-property activity.

Balancing the liquor-store hours was one complication. Another is the million or two people who perished in the recent pandemic. We kept our mouths shut about the issue for quite a while. There was no reason to run around shouting wild stories. The funny thing was that all the information you could desire has been available right through the whole thing.

We don’t know if any of you have actually talked to Dr. Fauci about the matter. We have. The Good Doctor is normally sighted in media behind a rostrum of some kind or throwing a baseball- badly- for the Spring season roll-out. You may recall the sequencing of the latest story, which is that “Masks Don’t Work,” until it suddenly became “KN-95 Masks really might work” followed by “Mask Up!” and the logical consequence this week that robbers are now using the mask to cover their crimes.

We remember how these things lurch along. One of us remembers the last meeting of the Secretary’s Working Group on SARS in 2002. It had been an unusual opportunity to watch the senior officials of the Health establishment marshal the forces of Public Health against a deadly disease that leapt across species boundaries. We have recounted the novel experience of participating in a counter-viral offensive with the most senior and knowledgeable health specialists. The behavior of that group displayed similar aspects to other crisis groups on which we served in other times of emergency. Good people, attempting to integrate all sorts of unique requirements to meet specific needs. In a hurry.

The moment still recalled was a single event when the emergency was over. It explained everything that happened afterwards. The last meeting came to an abrupt end, hasty enough that the concluding remarks were made with the conference room still darkened from the last slide projected on the screen at the side of the room. A question was hurled as the Doctor rose to his customary erect posture.

It was specific, and about an area of research about to be prohibited in the United States. Doctor Fauci neither smiled nor reacted, since he had clearly moved on to the subject of his next meeting on the morning agenda and was pleased to be free of this one. He made one of his dismissive hand gestures, turned briefly to say he “had the matter covered at a facility not affected by legislation.” Then he left the room, moving on to other matters with the one in this room now complete.

So, that is why none of this is a particular surprise with the activity over on The Hill. But we will see how this plays out as a campaign matter. There is a parallel effort for the Administration to sign on, unilaterally, to a new world health directive in which the WHO would have new authorities here in America. It is a surreal adventure in multiple areas that once required vision, articulation, debate and compromise. Now it is just another crisis to be harnessed to whatever is working to advance other issues. We have pending debt issues that must be addressed by September or there will be default in currency.

So, with Spring comes excitement in messaging and legislation. Our interest at Socotra House is to follow the streams to see what gets coverage and what seems to resonate. That will determine more messaging. We are reminded in some partisan rhetoric that words can be weaponized, and there is the real possibility that kinetic factors could collide with those weaponized words. Interest is high on how the struggle for the 2024 US election is focused.

Splash was reclined in the comfortable corner with one of the bright woolen quilts Melissa churns out seasonally a couple times a month. He smiled. “There is going to be a fair amount of hysteria as usual. We’ll see if the investigations in progress churn anything up we haven’t known about for quite a while.”

“The Debt Thing is actually real. We will see how they play that, but that has five months to mature. The Ukraine thing will probably flash back once the ground hardens up for better movement. There are several large issues.”

Splash waved his tablet out from under the bright blanket colors. “Remember the Korea problem? The North is nuclear-armed and shooting rockets into the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea. There is talk that the old Republic of Korea-Japan struggle about forced labor back in WWII days will be solved and make cooperation easier.”

“And be a sort of ring around China, right?” The faces around the Writer’s Section aluminum table on the patio grimaced. We all know the story about things that repeat, or just rhyme when they unfold again. That History thing…

Copyright 2023 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com