SPOKESMODEL CANIDATE FOR PROFESSIONAL LIBILITY INSURANCE: Did you ever notice that almost every insurance company has a mascot or gimmicky spokesperson to represent their brand? There is the Geico gecko, AFLAC duck, Limu the emu from Lincoln Mutual – not to mention Flo from Progressive and Jake from State Farm. The one sector of insurance companies that hasn’t joined the trend are the ones that sell professional liability insurance to government employees. They might consider hiring Ambassador Gordon Sondland for the gig. You may remember Sondland gained his 15 minutes of fame in 2019 when he had to testify in the first House impeachment probe of Donald Trump. Sondland was U.S. Ambassador to the European Union when he was subpoenaed and ended up testifying that there was a quid-pro-quo involved in the president’s discussions with Ukrainian officials. We won’t re-litigate that matter – but what caught our eye is that Sondland is now suing to get the State Department (officially) or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (personally) to pay his $1.8 million in legal bills. Fortunately, Sondland is a hotel magnate, so if he loses – he can probably pay the fees – but for most of us — $1.8 million sounds like serious money. Imagine if you were a typical government employee who found themselves in that kind of mess. So, our marketing recommendation to some of those companies who sell “get out of debtor’s jail free” policies to government officials – is to make some ads with Sondland playing the role of your gecko.
THUMBS UP FOR IC: The Chicago Council on Global Affairs just published a paper analyzing a University of Texas-Austin survey measuring U.S. public opinion regarding the nation’s intelligence agencies. The most recent survey, conducted in the summer of 2020, indicated “high levels of public support for the intelligence community (IC)” which “have proven stable and remarkedly resilient” despite persistent criticism from the former president and his political allies. Among the findings: 64% of Americans think the IC plays a vital role in protecting the nation, 85% evaluate the IC as being effective or highly effective in preventing terrorist attacks and 83% credit it for uncovering the plans of America’s allies. But just 52% say the U.S. intelligence agencies are effective in safeguarding the public’s privacy and civil liberties rights. The study examines trends in public attitudes about the IC over the past four years and how they differs among age groups.
POSSIBLE ANSWER FOR UNEXPLAINED AERIAL INCIDENT: No, not those incidents. The UFO’s will have to wait a while longer to be resolved. In this case, we’re talking about the crash of the German zeppelin Hindenburg at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, NJ. PBS has released a new documentary called “Hindenburg: The New Evidence.” One would think after 84 years, there would not be a lot of “new evidence,” but it turns out that in addition to the news reel motion pictures of the tragic fire and crash that we have all seen, there was another photographer on site taking movies that fateful day. The new perspective helps inform notions of what might have gone wrong, resulting in the deaths of 36 people. That photographer tried to give the film to accident investigators at the time, but they elected not to look at it. Times sure have changed. Today he would have monetized it and put it up to the highest bidder. So, what caused the wreck? We won’t spoil the suspense for you – but it looks like there may have been human error involved.
ARTIFACT OF THE WEEK: Having nearly broken the internet a few weeks ago with their really woke recruiting ads, the CIA social media team is back at it again. This week, they tweeted out a picture of a silver coin minted – but never widely distributed – celebrating the anticipated Bay of Pigs victory over Cuba. The reaction from the Twittersphere was predictable. For example, one reaction asked “What is this, a participation trophy? Back in the old days, you only got applauded for a coup if it succeeded.” Political scientist Ian Bremmer asked: “Is there one for Afghanistan?” We get it that organizations sometimes win credibility for pointing out their failures as well as their successes. But in the Agency’s case – with so many other people helping to highlight the failure stories – they might want to spend a bit more time pointing out their wins.
WELL, HE SAID HE WOULD BE BACK: Arnold Schwarzenegger, former “Mr. Olympia,” film-star, and governor of California is about to make his TV series debut. According to Yahoo News, Arnold is about to star in an (as yet untitled) 8-part Netflix series about a man who has secretly been working as a globe-trotting CIA “agent” for years and who discovers that his (somewhat estranged) daughter is also a secret CIA operative. The daughter will be played by Monica Barbaro, who is also in the forthcoming Tom Cruise sequel: Top Gun: Maverick. In the new Schwarzenegger series, father and daughter end up working together – often uncomfortably. The plot sounds reminiscent of the series “Alias” which debuted about two decades ago. In that one, Jennifer Garner is hired by “SD-6” a secretive offshoot of the CIA. When she discovers they are the bad guys – she becomes a double-agent working for the good side of CIA to try to bring them down. In Alias, Garner works with her estranged father who is also a double agent.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
WET WORK: In a recent interview, “Game of Thrones” actor Hannah Waddington described her worst day at work. She played a fanatical religious zealot named Septa Unella. The script originally called for her character to be sexually assaulted by another character but at the last minute plans changed and instead she claims she was waterboarded for ten hours, although only one minute and thirty seven seconds of it was used on air. They probably don’t show Game of Thrones at GITMO.
THIS WEEK IN DISTURBING NEWS: The Tahlequah (OK) Daily Press reported recently that a local woman was arrested for refusing to leave “Love’s Country Store.” Well, actually police say she wasn’t in the store – but was sitting in her car outside, talking to herself and screaming that she was on a secret mission for the CIA and that her commanding officer ordered her not to leave. Despite the bad tradecraft of screaming that she was on a secret mission – here is the really disturbing part: when police arrested her, their report described her as being “elderly” despite just being in her early 50’s.
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