Now it Begins

So, we are closing the Russian consulate in San Francisco, and the bulk of people in the world say, "The Russians had a consulate in San Francisco?"  This is, of course, a reaction to the extreme number of cuts at the embassy in Russia.  The majority of those people were not waiting for the other shoe to drop when the Russians began their closings, if they even thought about it.

Next, I wonder why we ever allowed a consulate of any size in the land of Silicon Valley where most of the new innovations in IT are from.  That makes me wonder who else has one in that place.  The big ones are India, Russia, China and France.  Two of those are the main competition in the telecom industries and two are enemies.  Your political leanings might allow you to believe any one of those would fit that bill.  It was about time we closed that Russian office which is a little bigger than what I remember a consulate being.  It does depend on what country you are in, but they usually are a little smaller than a seven story bunker of a building.  It looks Russian.

Maybe the folks in the Valley need consulates from France, Greece, Switzerland, and some others because they are global companies, but I wonder if they need such big ones.  Our embassy in Russia was said to be 750 people, when our President said he thought we should thank the Russians for the staff trimming.  It looks like trimming might work well for a lot of people.  That needs to be looked at again, and maybe we do have the Russians to thank for it.  Let's start with China.