"(Forger and murderer Mark Hoffman) once told me that if he could create a document that is so well done that the experts declare it to be genuine, then for all practical purposes it is, and there is no fraud involved. He genuinely believed that."

- Chuck Larson, former Utah State correctional guard

* * *

by Edward Lacie

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Episode Twenty-Three

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Ain't It Something!¹

I'm hungry but not eating because I don't have a job. I don't have a job because I quit going to Germany.³ 

The owls are not what they seem. The assholes are.

I found this letter in Baysans's file today:

"General Motors has announced its latest ad campaign, 'The Road to Redemption.' In it, they confess that their product quality, once unquestionable, lost a lot of ground in the past decades. Such corporate honesty is to be commended. 

"The Portland, OR, Daily Journal of Commerce could learn a lot from GM. The company has engaged in a policy of silence about the abusive and bizarre behavior of their employee, Ali Hassannia, production manager. 

"It is common knowledge and easily proven that Mr. Hassannia has no training in typography or the English language. It is also easily proven that Mr. Hassannia has no training in managerial processes or human relations. 

"The 'conspiracy of silence' in place at DJC is pervasive, despite the fact that employees within the company are well aware of the "special status" of employees in Mr. Hassannia's department: conditions in that department are substandard and different from the rest of the company. 

"The support Mr. Hassannia received after committing perjury in a workman's compensation hearing in 2000 is equally deplorable. No one who knows the day-to-day operations of DJC-Portland, OR, has any doubt that he would commit perjury and hide his bizarre working conditions. The fact that a company sends in lawyers first for damage control is reprehensible, especially when covering up the truth: Mr. Hassannia demands of his employees standards that go against anything we are taught as Americans: freedom of speech is a birthright. 
"The fact that working conditions under Mr. Hassannia are in conflict with working conditions in similar working places is a disservice to all employees of DJC, not just the unlucky few who are daily subject to his bizarre and unpredictable behavior. 

"The financial success of his department has nothing to do with his abilities (or lack of them) as a manager. The department is financially successful thanks to legal requirements of publicly-funded municipalities. If company higher-ups are blind to such an obvious fact, they deserve any reprimand they receive for so long supporting Mr. Hassannia's reign of abuse. 

"While it's understandable (but not morally responsible) that current employees don't address these truths, any research into past employees of Mr. Hassannia's department will show that his abuses have been ongoing and unaddressed by the company that employs him. If the employer, Daily Journal of Commerce, is not part of the solution to this blatant disservice to its employees, it is part of the problem.

"I welcome feedback from current employees of DJC (not just upper management) in this regard. 

"A continued conspiracy of silence will make sure that those employees never see this public appeal. A responsible American company allows freedom of opinion and strives for excellence, not blind obedience. 

"Sincerely and publicly, 

"Former DJC-employee in the 'Legal' department of Ali Hassannia and witness to his perjury and other bizarre behavior, 

"Greg Baysans"

Since which time he has updated the situation on his website/blog, linked here.

A splash of "Do you sleep here?" painted onto the whole thing, seemingly like a last stroke but only the latest. Rimbaud no longer symbol or metaphor but allegory, that can't be good.

What in the hell was it between Rimbaud and this Ali character anyway? 

Cut. End of episode. So few remain.