Clearly, if you can’t be bothered to work your way through the checklist, the problem is not big enough.
Consult one of your colleagues to see if they can use the checklist to find a way to make your problem bigger. Then you can apply it to think about your now much bigger problem.
That actually seems to be how it works…
And fuck up the neighborhood while you’re at it!
A review of a dozen or so CIA interventions between 1954 and 2002 is suggestive as to what might be playing out in Venezuela.
Guatemala , 1954 – the CIA launched the so-called Operation PBSuccess against president Jacobo Arbenz in support of United Fruit Company and bombed Guatemala City.
Haiti, 1959 – the CIA intervened to halt a popular movement to overthrow the puppet dictator, Francois Duvalier; according to one report, “over 100,000 people were murdered.”
Brazil 1964 – the CIA backed a coup against the democratically-elected president Joao Goulart who threatened to tax U.S. multinational corporations.
Uruguay, 1969 – CIA agent Dan Mitrione trained security forces in torture as part of Operation Condor; the agency pushed a coup that installed a military dictatorship led by Juan Maria Bordaberry.
Cuba, 1961 – the CIA-backed Cubanexiles and oversaw the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in the wake of the Cuban revolution of 1959; repeated CIA attempts to kill Fidel Castro failed.
Bolivia, 1971 – the CIA orchestrated a coup against Gen. Juan Jose Torres, installing Gen. Hugo Banzer who imposed a violent dictatorship.
Chile , 1973 – the CIA backed Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s coup against Pres. Salvador Allende, imposing a dictatorship that last 17 years.
Argentina, 1976 – the CIA installed Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla in a coup as part of the Dirty War to overthrow the Peronists.
El Salvador, 1979 – the CIA supported a 1979 coup fearing a popular insurgency that culminated in the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero (February 1980) and four American nuns (December 1980); in 1984, it financed Jose Durate’s campaign.
Grenada, 1983 – the CIA began efforts to destabilize the Marxist government in 1981 that led to the U.S. Marines invading in the country in ‘83 allegedly to protect about 1,000 American students on the island.
Panama, 1989 – the CIA orchestrated Operation Just Cause to overthrow its long-time operative, the drug trafficker Manuel Noriega, that left 3,500 civilians dead.
Peru , 1990 – the CIA backed Alberto Fujimori presidential election who renamed himself National Intelligence Service director, dissolved Congress and locked up the justices of the Supreme Court.
Venezuela, 2002 – the CIA backed mutinous army officers who briefly deposed Pres. Hugo Chávez in a coup attempt.
The CIA has also been involved in numerous other political and military campaigns in the region.
Thank you for that belly laugh!
Back when I liked Dilbert.
What benefits will you receive by solving the problem?
This is a silly question. The answer to this question can easily be generalized to, “I’ll live in a world in which this problem is solved.”
And this will benefit you how? 
I personally love:
Is this not the question of our age?
I…but…he’s not a…[suffers brain embolism]
Interesting to look at time between each date on that list. 5 years, 5 years, 2 years, and so on until 1990 when activity drops off a cliff. The last action on that list was over 16 years ago. Is this a culture change at the CIA or have they become better at hiding their activities?
I think it is a function of declassification and earlier scandals. We have a lot of them confirmed because of earlier investigations like the Church Committee. The list fills in backwards after each grand reveal. Those seem to come in roughly 20 year increments. In the mid 70s you had the Rockefeller/Pike/Church investigations. This was followed by a bunch of news in the early 90s, including the Echelon stories. In 2007 the Family Jewels were largely declassified. We haven’t had a chance to learn our recent things yet, but more than a few things have a very CIA feel, but we’ll see.
Sweet baby Jesus! By the time you answer all of those questions and do all of those things, ten years has gone by! Worse than the weekly status report. 
I prefer ten-year increments: JFK (1963), Church Committee (1975), Iran-Contra (mid-1980’s), etc.
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