IN RE THE SKRIPAL CASE

A short, sweet primer for those of you just learning the importance of journalism and minding your civic duties (that is, knowing what the government is up to), or maybe just renewing your earnest concern after a spell of jadedness and cynicism (#TrumpLoeil, anyone?): Whenever you hear talk or read news (usually the latter) about diplomats being "expelled from the U.S." (almost always, a sitting president makes the announcement), it means that agencies such as the CIA (the "ma'ams" and "sirs" in suits as far as active duty personnel for example do jibber-jabber) have already flagged in a particular way key embassy personnel or persons of interest (foreign nationals, of course) associated with a given consulate, and want those people (seldom if ever mentioned by name, but mentioned as existing in the news - there are solid security reasons for this - trust and believe) removed from the U.S. ENTIRELY for their own physical safety*; these persons are often extremely valuable to the national security apparatus, among other more base concerns, and are often friends of the operatives whose day-to-day jobs include, let's face it, honestly making the world a better place.

So, the people being expelled aren't exactly being punished, nor is some pajandrum-lite, scolding statement being made by the POTUS. And for those of us used to how messy the ways our quotidian civilian existences run themselves, this is often a fine set-up for the men and women involved, most of whom believe in and strive for great things in this world, such as comity, fairness, and harmonious coexistence among the U.S. and other countries of the world!

(I do, above, put a high gloss on an actual world that is truly fraught sometimes, and there are bad hombres who can be rounded up and so "expelled" for our sake rather than theirs, but come on... Right? These are all pretty intelligent, professional, non-fruity people I'm writing about, so forget that  horrible LETHAL WEAPON II dude from the S. African embassy in Los Angeles... It's not that sort of Hollywood vibe, dig?)

*Yeah, I know, technically an embassy is foreign soil and these people have diplomatic immunity, but also (heh, Madamoiselle Thomas, when it comes to sad phrasing in colloquial English, but I digress...) the "better safe than sorry" rule so often employed by government doubtless will apply in these expulsion cases... Please bear with those who know us as their charges to keep on this tip, as they typically know their jobs and can be trusted, at the very least to be of the agencies employing them!

PS Yo, Leah, you're so fucking lame, you'd think it was called The Square, not THE PENTAGON! LOSER! (Whee! I could have picked on you in junior high! Think about all the trauma and process and therapy!)

The Deer Didn't Sign a Release, So They'll Threaten to Sue, I'm Sure...

Whom I Call By The Name "Arthur"

In 2009, I was in dire straights - homeless, and being mistreated by the unlikeliest (in terms of likelihood of existence) group of people. I was having a hard time at building 80 in General Hospital one appointment, and just then, I had a vision of one little man with a handheld machine that looked like a bullhorn; he was cavorting or tumbling, and then became three of himself...

In late Spring, early Summer last year, I saw the same man. I was looking out my kitchen window, and almost always, something catches my eye. Or somebody - drivers passing by, government-looking types raiding for boxes of paperwork, the lovely V. doing her weekly inspection, et alia. This was in May or June, perhaps, and I saw the juvenile delinquent/altar girl/Infanta Concepcion-get-a-mantilla-I-hear-voices-worse-than-Laura Branigan's Gloria... I remember, clear as day, she had a sullen little attitude and was driving their golf cart around; on the passenger side sat the little man: Caucasian (perhaps luso-brasiliano or Portuguese American by his aspect?), dark haired, afflicted with achondroplasia dwarfism... He seemed to be panicking, gesturing wildly. And surely, the ride looked perilous for him...

I don't know why I mention it. For years I've been treated less than understandably often times when I hear voices, react to people who aren't there, et cetera... I've faced hostility, anger, judgement, cruelty, intimidation from those who more or less would protest they themselves ARE there... But anyway...

I've always wanted to find this little man, because no matter how much of a scalliwag some might think him, I know I'd just want to eat him up like he was a candy bar, EL-OH-EL, as it were...

Whatever, I'm funny in lots of ways: the Sal Mineo/my-house-is-backwards-on-bottoms-land-and-I-wear-hankies-out-my-left-back-pocket funny, as well as odd...

Power Lines

Taken with Amazon Kindle Fire, edited in same suite....

Does The Left Hand Know...?

Left Hand, March 2018

2.39 MB .JPG, taken with Kodak PIXPRO FZ43

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Personal Venting Rant About a Personal Issue

Right now, I'm caught in how some people will get all twisted up in their priorities and focus, and take one with them. I have a bit of a problem with myself in that, of course. As it stands, I did some work for someone who turned out not to be able to pay me yet; I know she's good for it, and will come through eventually, but... I'm kicking myself, because that's about 8 hours worth of labor, and by agreeing to do it on promise of pay (and this person has an issue with timeliness), I'm doing a disservice not only to myself, but to everyone who does labor for money in the community here - I become part of the problem with the person who more or less welches on pay.

Also, some people seem so intent on getting one "in the flock," as it were, but do not do the thing they need to do to get it done: namely, respecting certain secular things that maybe I take too seriously, as well as knowing that the - exclusively Christian? - Golden Rule is often always at play throughout the living, human world, this "vale of tears"...

Dunno, maybe I have "I don't respect myself enough," written all over me, and attract too much of the attentions of well meaning, deceptively malicious or deceptively gormless folk... (/RANT OVER.)

And now, for some pretty, random pictures of Northern California...