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!)