Viktor Bout

Back in a previous lifetime I was a supervisor in a Union environment.

During the short period I was in that position, the number of employees-per-supervisor drifted from 9:1 to 30:1. The thinking was that supervision is overhead and very little is needed when all of the employees follow the rules.

It was a regular thing for "upper" management to expunge the records of Union employees at the request of union officials.

Our "upper" management told us that we had all of the tools we needed to do the job, that the rules for applying discipline was crystal clear. All in, a "discipline" might take five hours and inevitably included some push-back from the malfeasant's buddies. "Walking-the-plank" might include five discipline steps (25 hours of the supervisor's time) plus the supervisor had to run his segment of the line with reduced manpower.

Then, just before the final step the union would ask "upper" to clear the malfeasant's record. "Upper" would demand a future draft-pick and the deal would be done.

As a rule, supervisors tend to be gung-ho employees but you don't need to be kicked in the teeth too many times before deciding that using "...all of the tools we needed..." was a total waste of time and destroyed our credibility.

In short order the inmates were running the asylum, which may have been the union officials end-goal.

Shifting our focal plane...

What effect will trading Viktor Bout for whats-her-name have on the motivation of Federal Agents tasked with nailing foreign agents? What about the motivation of citizens who observe spies, traitors, foreign agents, enablers and insurrectionists?

...skipping several steps in the proof...

The end solution bifurcates. One branch is to do nothing. The other branch is a quick bullet to the back of the skull.

Of course, the Federal Agents might decide to do something other than what the citizens do.