analysts

Good Morning America

Fandango30 Comments

73EB194A-1164-4DAC-8BC6-F6D924020171This is what greeted me this morning as I opened up my iPhone and went to my newsfeed.

According to the Washington Post article:

The scenes have been disturbingly familiar to CIA analysts accustomed to monitoring scenes of societal unraveling abroad — the massing of protesters, the ensuing crackdowns and the awkwardly staged displays of strength by a leader determined to project authority.


In interviews and posts on social media in recent days, current and former U.S. intelligence officials have expressed dismay at the similarity between events at home and the signs of decline or democratic regression they were trained to detect in other nations.


“I’ve seen this kind of violence,” said Gail Helt, a former CIA analyst responsible for tracking developments in China and Southeast Asia. “This is what autocrats do. This is what happens in countries before a collapse. It really does unnerve me.”

It really does unnerve me as well.

Good morning America.

Tenacious Tina

Fandango6 Comments

FDFF0B9C-EFA9-4A47-8562-EA961BB67E41Her name was Tina and she was tenacious, which is how she earned the nickname “Tenacious Tina.” She was a project manager in charge of a small team of analysts and was the always the first to jump in when new challenges were thrown their way.

She would schedule a team meeting, usually in the small conference room that doubled as the company library. Tina would introduce the latest project to her team and discuss whether or not it would be a good match for their skillsets.

Tina was very forthright in expressing her opinion, but, at the same time, she gave everyone the opportunity to contribute their own thoughts. The one thing that got under her skin, though, was a lack of seriousness; she didn’t truck foolishness from her team.

After about an hour of discussion, she would end the meeting and instruct her team members to noodle on the pros and cons of the potential project overnight.

They would reconvene the next day and Tina would, with input from the team members, ultimately make the go/no go decision. Of course, once she made the decision to pursue a project, Tina would live up to her nickname and she and her team would work tenaciously to successfully bring the project home.

Written for Paula Light’s Three Things Challenge, where the three things are “truck,” “skin,” and “library.” Also for these daily prompts: Your Daily Word Prompt (tenacious), The Daily Spur (schedule), Ragtag Daily Prompt (match), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (forthright), and Word of the Day Challenge (noodle).