Bjjonesmylife. Book 2

Book 3 Chapter 64

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

            My mates and the kids met me at the dock, I was glad to see them. It was hugs and kisses before we walked inside. JJ brought me a cold bear, RJ asked if we could walk on the beach for a while?

            There were still a couple hours of daylight left. I changed into a bikini and my family and I walked the beach. It gave me a private time to talk to my mates and spend time with them. With us on the beach I could keep the Secret Service and the JBG security well off in the distance.

            I listened while Marcy explained the last two acquisitions that took place while I was gone to Washington. One of them was a major almost nationwide electric utility and the other one an owner of electrical transmission lines and power plants that fed the grid for most of the eastern half of the US.

Dozens of Utilities were members of the last one in order to have a connection to the grid reserves and be able to sell excess from their own power plants or to buy power when they needed it.

            The purchases fell in line with the revenue diversity that Marcy wanted. She was worried that the security department contracts were soon going to take a hit.          She wanted to lessen the effects when it happened by allowing our security employees other places to work if downsizing became a necessity.

            Another thing it did was fall in line with the energy portion of the business we now owned. Marcy was trying to grow that portion, the oil wells in Nebraska, Nigeria and Cameroon. The refineries in Nigeria and Cameroon, to supply fuel for the truck stops, fuel for Morton field and supply fuel for power plants.

            The grid company raised questions in my mind. In Marcy’s description and previous conversations, they owned close to fifty power plants coal, oil fired, gas fired and several nuclear.

Two of the coal fired plants were called mine mouth plants. Meaning the power plant was located one case at the coal discharge from the massive underground mine. That one was in West Virginia. The other one was in Pennsylvania. 

            There were no freight charges to get the coal to the power plant. A belt system carried it right to the collier where rock and other undesirables was removed from the coal. Large chunks of coal went through a breaker to reduce the size.

From there it could be split into two directions. One direction sent it into the drum where it was pulverized into dust. The dust was blown directly into the massive furnace where it was burned instantly at very high temperatures.

The air leaving the boiler was cooled down with water removing the ash from the exhaust going up the stack making it a slurry that was piped into a large pit with the excess being pumped into a depleted mine. Dried ash from the pit was sold to concrete companies as a binding agent or was used as a filler for road bed construction along with other uses.

The coal that didn’t need go directionally into the pulverizer was stock piled for use when it was necessary to close the mine for maintenance. The mine was shut down on average a month a year.

            There was another massive surface coal mine in Arizona that fed directly into a group of power plants to feed the south west grid. The two grids were connected in two places with very high voltage lines and assisted each other whenever possible.

 Those massive mining trucks filled by massive cranes and loaders carried the coal on dedicated roads to the power plants.

There was also a rail siding to load rail cars that carried coal from there to the other power plants or to the marine terminals in the gulf for export.

Marcy explained that JBG had bought the rest of the farm that bordered our Pig Iron fuel depot and was in the process of permitting to build large LPG storage tanks on the site.

The problem she was trying to correct was that LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) was a by- product of the refining process. The refineries in Cameroon and Nigeria were producing plenty and there was no market for it there.

There was plenty of market here and Marcy was planning to use it to make up for the loss of the regional coal fired power plant. The environmentalist had finally got it closed down the only coal fired power plant.

Now in extreme hot weather or extreme cold weather the power companies were pleading for customers to do all the normal things to reduce demand. For the last two years rolling blackouts were happening in some areas.

When Marcy had locked down that the take overs were a given thing the expert group that she used was directed to long range planning for the utility. It was an independent look at everything without all the stockholder pressure, political pressure and the pressure from the public service commission. Their complete system analysis would be finished in two weeks.

With joint meetings it was decided that a stand by plant on the river was going 24/7. It was originally a coal plant that had been converted to oil during the hay day of the environmental insanity. Everything was terribly out dated the reason it was designated as standby duty.

The boilers were going to be replaced updated and converted for LPG as soon as the tanks were finished and filled at Pig Iron point. For now, they would all go on line and oil fired.

 But that was the problem, oil was being brought up the river in barges that that were loaded less than twenty percent of their capacity. The river had filled in with sediment over time and were in a serious need of dredging in places.

The bay environmentalist with every means they could muster, fought every place the core of engineers wanted to place the dredge spoils, the sediment that would be carried into the bay during the dredging process. Finally, the disturbance of the river fish and crab habitat. They wanted the power plant closed any way they could.

So, no dredging, the tugs pushed 1/3^rd loaded barges up the river on high tide on a full moon. Then empty barges back the following night. They failed to understand a tug sometimes two tugs making the trip was double the pollution that they were trying to stop.

Marcy was going to short circuit the process. Trucks would start delivering number two fuel oil from Pig Iron Point to the plant tanks until they were full.

It was very expensive running tugs with half loaded barges up and down the river. The heavy oil and the tugs came out of the Norfolk oil terminals

In the meantime, the sad news had been sent to all the companies in the takeover. A hiring freeze was implemented for all positions those that that were deemed necessary to be filled had to be approved by Jenney’s office.

            The department of labor had been notified of the possibility of total layoff at each of the acquired companies. It was a technical thing required by the labor department forced on them by the unions. The labor department and the unions had to be notified ninety days before major layoffs.

            The real reason was to give the unions ninety days to file law suits to stop the layoffs and to demand tons of paper work to challenge corporate decisions. Over time unions had become powerful. Many had contract language that required full company financials for contract negotiations.

            Marcy knew how difficult unions could be to deal with; they had tried multiple times to unionize JBG security department. I was willing to bet that they would be trying again. With these new companies there were twenty different unions to deal with. HR was going to have its hand full.

            The next part of the conversation was about Crash; there were discussions about putting him in a nursing home he had failed a lot in the last six months.  I shot that down immediately, ‘’get with Doc Burns and get a doc to come check on every day and get twenty-four-hour nursing staff at the house and whatever they need,’’ I said.

            Every time I was home, I spent as much time as possible with Crash. We always talked about war stories. He relived the bombing raids over Germany and later Japan like they were yesterday.

I had all of them on tape and one of the clerks transcribed them to paper.  Me having sex in the back of a C130 over the Pacific still caused him to chuckle and he brought it up often when we were reliving war stories. Just more of our military oddities even though they were six decades apart.

            “Speaking of Doc Burns is the lab at the Fort Smith completed yet? ‘’ I said. I asked Ching Lee and Vicky how the lessons with the doc were coming.’’

            Doc’s practice was so busy he wanted Ching Lee and Vicky to take over the medical portion of the interrogations.  Plus, he was burning out from over work. We had sent him and his family several times to the Cay for vacation.

Ching Lee had impressed him with all the attention to detail and questions. She helped at every interrogation for the last two years, even placing the IV and pads for the monitoring equipment. She knew all the drugs by name and color and how they affected the body.

            Bobs construction was adding on the medical building adding a full-blown lab from Doc Burns blueprints. It was a high-tech lab with high tech equipment. The doc was teaching Ching Lee and Vicky how to mix the ingredients and everything about the process. He also set up accounts so we would have a source for more when they needed it.

By the time we had finished the walk and all the updates we were back to the main cottage. The cooks had supper ready; steaks, sweet potatoes, salad and the boys favorite side dish Mac and Cheese.

By morning things had changed; I needed to go back to Washinton. Vice President Harrison was going to do the trip to Europe and then to Moscow.  The girls, the boys and Lisa, Jason, Mom and Dad were going to stay to the weekend. Then they were going home.

The Secret Service and Bob’s construction promised the house modifications would be done.

Bob had sent me a text last night joking that everything was in the final completion stages except the moat and the alligators. The castle wall looked impressive from the highway. The guard towers and the armor were the talk of the coffee shop.

After breakfast and some tender good byes my staff and I were carried to the airport to board Air Force one for the trip back to Washington. It was a working flight to Andrews.

Then my immediate staff and I transferred to Marine one for the journey to the White house. The white house news group that was normally twenty persons today was a hundred or better. I wondered when that many had received clearance to be on White House grounds? That was one of the first questions the Secret Service was going to be asked behind closed doors.

My day looked to go downhill from there. There was already a stack of notes on the desk all of them marked urgent. First was a meeting with Vice President Harrison. He was leaving in a couple hours for Europe to replace me at several meetings.

We had just finished with that meeting when the next meeting was announced by yelling and screaming from the elite lobby.  The white house had several lobbies depending on your statis.

One was for the elite crowd, diplomats, foreign leaders, heads of state. Another was agency heads, senate and representatives. The last one was for general visitors, state and local politicians and other unimportant who thought they were important.

The Ambassadors from the Philippines, Viet Nam, China, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia were in the elite lobby and were screaming. Furniture was being slammed around, Secret Service and the military guard were running that way. Who in the hell let or put this group of people in one room or for that matter let them into the white house at the same time?

Book 3 Chapter 63

            Morning came early; my cell was ringing on the night stand at 0500. The first message was from Andy. “Most parts of the plan are in place the rest will be in place in 48 hours.’’

The most parts were that JBG through Andy and Vicky had signed contracts with the Philippine government for a security detail of twenty -five fast ships along with support vessels.  Another ethics issue if someone was counting, I was sure and they were counting.

The fast ships were going to Freedom shoals where the helicopters had assembled the new installation yesterday. They were going to assist the destroyers in keeping the Chinese fishing boats at bay.

 The fishing boats were actually CCP military personnel, navy, army, intelligence officers designed to expand influence when possible and provide aggressive resistance if any Philippine fisherman showed up and run them off.

The second message from Andy,’’ freighter is unloading fast ships and crew in deep water a thousand yards from Freedom Shoals container base. The support ship will be on site before the end of the day. And operational.’’ The freighter was also carrying more supplies for what was now called Freedom Shoals base.

The Morton Jones anchored with dual anchors a thousand yards to the north west of FSB. The Morton Jones had started life as sub tender, USS McKee AS41 before it was auctioned off as surplus. The USS Land AS39 was the other sub tender being sold, both being decommissioned and sold the same day. Marcy bought both of them. For damn near nothing.

Andy and Vicky were trying to fill a gap in the fast ship program as Vicky called it. The McKee was renamed Morton Jones and the Land renamed to the Summers Lane. Both spent almost a year at Dillion ship yards in Biloxi Mississippi.

Andy had researched the ships thoroughly before Marcy put bids on them.  The Navy had spent ninety million dollars renovating each ship only to decide a year later to scrap them sending them to Gov deals auction site for the highest bidder. Every ship’s system had been tested, repaired or replaced.

JBG still had the inside track on the auction site. For a month there were no bids. The scrappers were waiting for the last day, last hour and last minute to bid on it hoping for a steal.

Old navy ships sold for nothing, the message that accompanied the sale listing was red flagged, lead paint, could contain PCB, and other hazardous materials, buyer responsible for all removal to the latest environmental standards before destruction.  On a ship that size it could have been millions.

 But the navy had removed all that stuff during previous dry dock maintenance repairs. We were not going to cut it up for scrap Andy, Vicky and Marcy were going to put it back in service for the Philippine and Vet Nam contracts.

Marcy had exercised our buyers code on the last day and bought the ship away from the scrappers who were waiting to buy it for a penny as they had for the last four aircraft carriers that had been scrapped.

The Morton Jones and Summers Lane were nearly perfect for what Andy and Vicky wanted.  Its main propulsion Steam. The auxiliary power was diesel electric through four big cat generators.

Two were all that needed to propel the ship when coupled to the reduction gears. The other two were multi -function designed to give shore power up to six submarines tied to it during replenishing or repairs. That connection was at a voltage we would never use.

It had huge freezers and refrigerators for foods and storage for canned goods. It also had bunks for one hundred and fifty extra sailors. Ten fast ships could be tethered along the sides. Twenty if they were double tethered. Dillion had added the necessary attachments for that.

Dillion had also added the latest sewage treatment plant and fresh water making equipment replacing the outdated Navy equipment. There was a massive machine shop on board to handle any repairs. Metal brakes, lathes, milling machines. The navy had removed none of the repair equipment. They were just going to send complete ship to auction.

It had one fifty ton over the side crane. It was capable of pulling a fast ship out of the water and setting it on stands on the deck for repairs. They also had two helo pads for helicopters. Andy was going to have a black hawk and a bell assigned to each ship.

The fresh water holding tanks were stainless and epoxy coated. The fuel tanks were cleaned and epoxy coated to eliminate leaks, rust and the latest filtration equipment added. She could carry five hundred thousand gallons of number two diesel fuel. The supply rooms and parts rooms were enormous.

Andy’s plan was to use the two ships as a floating base. Vicky had contracts in the works with several countries dealing with pirate attacks that a mobile off shore base would deny the pirates of intelligence.

They were watching the fixed base operations and when the fast ships departed base on sorties, they would alert their fighters to cease operations in the areas the ships were heading.  The floating bases could be stationed several hundred miles off shore away from prying eyes. It was an ambitious plan.

When the navy used these ships, they were crewed with five hundred plus sailors. After meetings with the fast ships captains many who were ex-navy, it was decided that a ship’s crew of two hundred or less was feasible. The ships were not going to be used for potential 24/7 war time operations so the heavy redundancy in crew wasn’t necessary. 

The armory onboard could be supplied with the weapons we already had from several storage bunkers. There were two bunkers at the gun club, one in Polokwane and another in the security zone.

 Andy still had sources for a lot of different weapons. The Israeli connection was still solid as ever. Frank was still providing things that would raise a lot of questions in some circles. The Philippines had also agreed to supply resupply of food and ammunition as needed.

   The ship had mountings for plenty of 12.5 and the 30mm chain guns we used plus Dillion installed mounts for rockets and missiles we had available in our supply chain. Advanced radar had also been installed on both ships.

When I looked up Frank, General Ingram and the Navy chief were standing at my door.

‘’We had anticipated that it would be another year before Andy assigned missions to your two support ships. I was surprised to learn from today’s satellite and Pacific command intel that they are on station and the two projects are well under way,’’ Frank said.

‘’Vicky and Andy are getting aggressive with some contracts, some of the things were rushed because current events changed the terms and needs of the contract. The changes also opened up some opportunities they decided to take advantage of.

‘’We have worked together before, the Navy and I want to know if we can get intelligence teams on the ships to monitor things while they are in the area,’’ Frank said, ‘’then he added I’m equally sure Marcy would want some compensation.’’

I laughed, ‘’ I see you still know Marcy’s take on things,’’ I said.

I lowered the screen and paged Andy on the VCATS system. I explained what Frank and the navy were wanting. He quickly agreed. He knew that by putting navy personnel and CIA on board any urgent demands would move higher on the ladder faster.

When do you want to put your people on board?’’ Andy asked.

‘’I will have their equipment and the operators at Subic Bay tomorrow. I assume you are going to have routine supply system worked out,’’ Frank said with the navy chief nodding his approval.

‘’Andy has enough fast ships there to run service as needed plus access to several black hawks. Marcy didn’t cancel the contracts with the manufactures. It’s a good thing. Everybody’s want’s JBG coastal ship protection. It seems like everyone with a saltwater coastline is dealing with pirates, terrorist or drug runners now,’’ I said.

‘’I will text Andy to tell him there will be materials and guest to be delivered to the command ships tomorrow,’’ I said.

‘’To build and deploy a force takes a lot of time and then there is the training, Andy and Vicky are staying ahead of the demands so far, ‘’ I said.

‘’The way Andy has the security division built now he can begin the logistics and deploy a force in just days after the paper work is completed to Marcy’s satisfaction,’’ I said.

‘’What started with a need for one hundred fast ships has expanded, Andy now has over two hundred, and he is still getting twelve more a month,’’ I said.

‘’Where are you finding the qualified people to man the ships?’’ Frank said.

‘’Lots of turn over from the Navy, they all cannot go to work as contractors in the pentagon or in the MIC (military industrial complex). JBG pays good the benefits are good. All are attractive if you looking for your place in the world,’’ I said.

‘’Andy now has five ships that are fully female crewed, I never thought I would ever hear that. So far, all reports have been good,’’ I said.

‘’You are going to see a lot of noise this summer. Andy is going to start recurrent training in the bay. The recurrent training cycle that we are doing is not a good fit for our marine division so a new one is being developed specifically for them. Ten ships are going to be based somewhere on the island,’’ I said.

‘’Just have Marcy bill us for the accommodations and the logistics,’’ Frank said as he and the chief left.

After lunch I had two more meetings with two different congressional groups. Google was showing satellite photos of what was taking place at Freedom shoals and running them on their news feed. They were demanding answers and likely to get none to their satisfaction.

The meetings were going to be short and sweet. Then I was going to pack and fly back to my vacation. The generals and Andy could handle it. Dozens of scenarios had been discussed and the expected response that was to be delivered.

Four hours later I was stepping off Lorries landing craft onto the beach. It was too late to take Marine one and land next to the main lodge where my family was staying, just too noisy with everyone winding down for the evening.

Book 3 Chapter 62

            “I have to go back to Washington, ‘’ I said. “I have several emergencies,’’ I said as I was dressing. Given the time and the problem, I will not be back tonight. There was knocking on the door, an aide handed Jenny more notes.

            The one from Troy, ‘’necessary staff will be ready to leave in thirty minutes.’

The helicopter had already made one trip to the airport with staff. Myself and the final staff was to go next.  I was reading notes and updates the entire trip from the Island and the from Andrews. Three hours later I was walking from Marine one to the side door of the white house.

China, India were in a heavy artillery duel, the border that had been quiet for months because of a budding trade relationship was now on fire. As if that were not enough their neighbors were taking sides and noise about joining the fighting.

Pakistan and North Korea were adding nonsense into the fray, the situation was growing worse by the hour. Pakistan, India and China had activated their nuclear weapons and increased the alert level to a two -step protocol.  North Korea had followed four hours later.

The two- step protocol meant that two authorizations were all it took to launch missiles. Any misinformation or miscalculation could start a nuclear war that would be unstoppable.

Once multiple missiles were in the air with that short distances of the conflict it would be nearly impossible to stop them.

All the pentagon know -it all’s were to be here in two hours with the latest reports and intel. I was waiting on Frank for the CIA intel and their experts.

I had a big sixty- inch screen in the oval office; I pulled up a map of the region and studied it intensely, trying to familiarize myself with the disputed area where the shelling was going on.  Nothing stood out just rough mountainous terrain.

I changed the view to regional view and just looked around. First thing I noticed was that China was moving elements of its navy were leaving the southern south China sea going to the Bay of Bengal that would give them access to most of India. It was a tactic to intimidate and apply pressure for India to back down and end the artillery duel two thousand miles away.

It was interesting timing. When I was in the Philippines and the terrorist groups tried to kill me again; Philippine President Federman Romos and I along with the Intelligence came up with a solution to the territorial problem.

Even though the world court said otherwise China chose to ignore the world court’s ruling saying that a centuries old map said other -wise. China claimed every shoal, every sand bar, even coral beds. We had come up with a solution, to the Chinese claims that every shoal belonged to them.

Multiple countries were involved in the dispute. The hot spots were with the Philippines and Viet Nam. The Philippines had run a destroyer aground on the shoals years ago for their proof of ownership claim. They routine resupplied the men on it. The Chinese interfered with every resupply attempt. The destroyer built at the end of WW2 was disintegrating with age from tides and salt water salt water.

The ship yard had been working on the forms from a set of blue prints, not knowing what they were building. The were completed and already to loaded on ships.

The solution had to be assembled fast and now was the perfect time with the Chinese navy racing hard in the other direction. The solution was a steel framework built out of stainless steel. A big square with a braced adjustable leg on each corner. Similar to a table but just the frame work, heavy enough to take the punishment of the wind and the sea. Light enough to be put in place with heavy lift helicopters.

They were large enough that they would hold three specially modified shipping containers.

The frames and the empty shipping containers could be set in place with a heavy lift helicopter with some of the equipment already on them. Then men and heavy equipment placed on them. There were nine of the frames loaded on barges and twenty -seven of the shipping containers.

Three of the containers were set up with a light weight missile defensive and offensive systems and a small radar station. A much larger doppler radar was planned. One was setup to be cafeteria and several to be bunk houses. Another was to be a power station with generators and solar panels and fuel tanks.

There were holes cut for door- ways so men could travel between the three containers. There were provisions – attachments for gangways to tie all twenty-seven containers together. It was a well-planned and thought out, I figured it would take two days to assemble. Several of our assault landing ships were going to be the base for the helicopters and assembly crews.

The ships and barges carrying all the materials and hardware frames and containers had left the Subic Bay shipyard docks last night and be there tomorrow noon time. I ordered task force 11, one carrier and two more destroyers, two frigates from Guam to head that way in case there was issues that needed to be handled.

The Philippines now had the six destroyers operational that we had sold them from the mothball fleet.  They were going to the area in their first deployment after weeks of training. The situation was well covered now

I was part of the deal I had made with President Ramos to recover Clark field for the air force and Subic Bay navy base.  Another part of the deals that were made in the regional meeting was to help Viet Nam secure their claims on several shoals and islands that China was also claiming.

They had built the frame work from the same blue prints at one of their shipyards. They were being put into place tomorrow. Task force 12 was leaving Subic Bay to give their operation cover if needed and supply the helicopters for the heavy lifting.

Task force 12 consisted of two transport landing ships, one carrier, two destroyers and one frigate. Everything was covered. Once everything was in place those two countries could begin solidifying the installations by driving sheeting and pumping sand on territories the world court had ruled was theirs decades ago.

We weren’t finished though; General Ingram brought me in the progress reports from the Island rebuilding of former WW2 bases.

Tinian had been rebuilt; Guam had been expanded again both the air force and the navy base there. Saipan was nearly complete. More WW2 air bases on the Philippines were in the process of being rebuilt.

Midway Island that had been given the designation years ago as a wild life sanctuary was losing that protection. The paper work for that to happen was on my desk awaiting further review. The navy and air force was already loading materials and supplies to rebuild the base.

The first thing was to permanently remove and keep all the droves of scientist away. Then zillions of goony birds had to be euthanized and disposed of before anything could be done. The question was how?  With no natural predators they were now as thick as a shag carpet.

Work on Johnson Island was nearly complete. Sheeting had been driven tripling the size of the island and pumped full of sand and dead coral. The Seabees were there building quasit huts to give it a WW2 look. The quasit huts was a cover for all the other things that were top secret.

Barracks were being built inside some of the huts and of course there were mess halls, offices in others. Two were an armory for heavy weapons for close in support.

Google and other satellites companies had been ordered to block out a hundred square miles around Johnson Island, Midway Island, Tinian Island, Palau, to cover up secret construction from all the basement dwellers that thought were military analyst for social media clicks.

 A doppler radar station was being built on the West side of each Island. The plan was to put a westward box of over lapping radar across the pacific. Intelligence had broken, intercepted and spies had Chinese potential war planning.

The Department of Defense had decided that we needed the ability to see and counter terrain -sea hugging cruise missiles at maximum range possible. All the new doppler radars would do that providing extra time to respond. All those islands were going to have extensive anti -missile -missile complexes and Patriot five platforms installed.

We would have coverage of all the pacific from Alaska to Australia. Australia was working on things to complete the system on their end of the world. All of the military bases on the west coast would be getting improved doppler radar and all would be getting the new Patriot anti-missile batteries.

These would be the last line of defense for sub launched cruise missiles that might have gotten inside the new Asian defensive ring. The Asian defensive ring was a new expanded concept of a WW2 military plan for protection of the west coast of the United States.

The doppler would be obvious but quasit huts would cover the defensive nature of the rest of the rest of the installations. There was a lot of work to do and it was being done. It was a work in progress.

I was ready to go back to the Cay but it was not to be. I needed to stay in Washington until the Philippines and Viet Nam had completed the construction projects. The Navy was going to hang around in both areas for a couple of weeks doing training and other things. So, another day at least.

I wanted to be back to be with the girls because the next acquisition was happening tomorrow and another the day after.

The congressional critters found out I was back. Kitty had dozens of notes when I returned. Many were wanting rush meetings and photo-ops with the president.

At 1700 I had finished with all the congressional critters and ordered the Secret Service to end all entry into the white house. I did a VCATS with the girls and listened to the girls explain their day that had been filled with lawyers. 

Verizon’s stockholders, those that were being forced to sell their stock back to the JBG Thimble Shoals Pirates Bank Investment Corp, to make it a privately held company were furious. And then there were the unions.

Another thing that did not help was the Verizon corporate head quarters in New York was listed for sale in all the major real estate papers today.  It was a Tage mahal monstrosity in one of the highest real estate areas in New York City. It had one monstrosity of a tax bill to go with it. The sale was expected to take several years.  

I fully expected the out come of tomorrows stock holders meeting to end up with the same problems and the same with the one the following day. Marcy said they were prepared for whatever came. I wondered how many lawyers and corporate take-over specialist we now had working for us.

After a couple hours in the gym with a couple Secret Service and the Mossad ladies I went to bed. The big house was lonely.

Book 3 Chapter 61

            I finished the day out in the sand, surf and sun with my mates and the kids. There were no updates from any agency, I looked after supper before we went to sit around the bonfire on the beach.

            The kids quickly went to sleep after showers and baths. Them drifting off early allowed my mates and I to have some adult fun for a couple hours. The night was good for my mates and it was late before they snuck back to their own beds.

            We had been aggressive and gotten carried away, I had two hickeys that I was going to be able to hide with a tee shirt. We would have to be more careful.

Thursday morning was mass update day on nearly everything. We started with the house. Contractors had succeeded in digging and pouring he extra footer around house to support the weight of all the steel plating the Secret Service was going to wrap around it.  

            The plating was being installed starting today. The bullet resistant windows were being installed as the steel went up. Ther new concrete siding was being used to cover the steel. I wondered how they were going to fasten siding to one-inch-thick armor?

There had been a debate on what they were going to do about the garage that faced the highway.  It was decided to build a concrete wall two foot thick and twelve feet tall and cover both sides with field stone at the property line near the highway.

This was to replace the armored fence they had just built a few months ago. My house was going to look like a castle with that wall. I wondered if they were planning on a moat to complete the look? I surely wasn’t going to ask to give them any ideas.

I wondered if there was some place that sold replica knights armor, I would buy a couple and put one on each corner next to the highway. I decided to send someone on a mission to find some before the wall was completed. I would have the contractor put a corner tower in each corner. That would be the talk of the community pretty fast.

 The concrete would be reinforced with I beam steel. So much for having a view of the highway and the area on the other side of the highway. We weren’t happy but given the number of threats I saw no way around it other than staying in the White House full time and I did not want that to even be discussed.

The troop level in California was now down to pre riot levels. All the troops from other states were now home. Camp parks were one quarter of its original size.

Four hundred low- income developments some with as many as five hundred units had been built. There were another one thousand going through the expedited approval process. Families and those that had found jobs were given first pick of the units.

The next update was from NNSB, the Missouri cleaning and painting would be completed within thirty days. Tugs had already been contracted to tow her to Annapolis, the spot by Naval Academy was ready. They were doing all kinds of special treatments and paints to the hull so it could be decades before she would have to be pulled out for drydocking and cleaning again.

I needed to take the family on a trip to Camden, New Jersey to look at the New Jersey battleship. There was a guy there that was an expert on the Iowa class battleships. I had questions before the Missouri was put in place.  

The next update was on the Dover Air base closing in the Base Reduction Act passed by congress last year.  The Department of Defense had accepted the offer I had made and the GSA had added its approval.

The paper work was going to be sent to the congressional arm services committees tomorrow and therefore public. Tomorrow’s press conference was going to be a humdinger for sure.

The city of Dover was going to be livid they were already discussing all kinds of plans. They wanted to make all the base housing there more low-income housing. They were in discussions with developers to turn much of the open areas facing the marsh and Delaware bay into very high-priced condos; the kind that paid very high property taxes.

The Hawaii mess was coming to a close. The courts had shut down all the colleges and research groups wanting to go dig up the bodies for research. The justice department had argued that doing so was ghoulish and would cause unnecessary grief for the survivors and their families.

There was simply no reason to be doing this at this time or as long as there were any survivors alive. The judge agreed and locked down any research on the island for one hundred years to insure all the survivors had passed on.

The survivors from the Hawaii volcano were slowly being disbursed to different states as housing and jobs were found. It was a slow process but there were only a few of the FEMA camps left open. There were a few problems the lawyers and helpful media saw to that.

The recovery of artifacts from the Arizona was continuing; the remains of the ship was in worse shape than the underwater surveys had shown and the tons of ash had not helped. The ash was being sucked off and strained for anything that could go in the museum that was going to be built on the naval academy grounds.

Everything recovered was being handled and preserved by the experts. Uniforms, plates, cutlery, cups coins and hundreds of other items had been collected.  Some human remains had been found of course now it was just piles of bones or a few bones.

They were being sent to the lab that was now at California for possible identification. The military still had a goal to identify as many remains of WW2 fighters as possible. It was a task that got harder every day with many of the relatives passing away making DNA for comparison nearly impossible to get in some cases.

I finished up my updates in time to eat a hot breakfast with my mates and kids. The kids were disappointed because Lisa and Miss Amanda were holding class. Amanda Rubin was a certified private home school teacher that Lisa insisted we hire to help educate our children.

Our six children and Jakes twins were going to be privately home schooled, Lisa was still insisting they were going to be genius level. 

We were going to the beach this morning then we were going to retreat to the meeting room to watch the stockholders meeting for the first company that Marcy was going to try to take over.

The JBG Thimble Shoals Pirates Bank Investment Corporation would no longer be a secret after today and the next two weeks.

            The lawyers were there with all the necessary proxies and legal forms to carry out the business dealing as it was outlined step by step by the experts. I still did not understand everything Marcy, Jeanna and our tax experts had explained to me and better yet why they wanted these companies.

I knew it was all about getting diversity in the income stream but I didn’t think the companies were the ones we needed to buy. But I was no expert Marcy and Jeanna were the experts and they had hired the best experts to handle the acquisitions. Marcy and Jeanna had made us wealthy beyond our wildest dreams. I saw no real reason to challenge their decisions.

The rest of the morning at the beach was wonderful. We rode to the eastern end of the island and worked on our total natural tans. It was tough on Marcy and Vicky but they wanted to feel the sun. The boys played in the sand and the gentle surf. We covered them in sunscreen multiple times.

After lunch and looking at the morning updates I went to the cottage with my mates. The stock holders were scheduled to do all the voting starting at one. Our corporate lawyers had everything they needed.

            We watched as the first item from the floor was voted on. It was the golden parachutes that the executive board had put in place in the 80’s and 90’s was removed against their wishes and screaming objections.

‘’It has to be the first order of business otherwise they could all immediately resign cost millions,’’ Marcy said.

Then there was the floor motion that removed the entire executive board eliminating a billion dollars in annual expense. More screaming and threats the entire board would resign. They didn’t need to resign, they were fired

Then there was the call for a vote for the board of directors- usually a cut and dried process of nominees chosen by the executives. The exercise called for any nomination, from the floor. There were ten nominees from the floor then the vote. The ten from the floor were voted in and the ten yes men were voted out.

The new ten were Jeanna’s and Marcy’s chosen pick and were from our lawyers and for our Thimble Shoals investment corporation. A new executive board was chosen from the directors and the current group fired.

They requested any new business from the floor. The legal of Howard, Howard and Fine law firm announced that the TSPBCIC, the registered owners of controlling seventy five percent of the voting stock wished to move the company from a public traded company to a privately owned company. And then called for an immediate vote authorizing the move.

The new board opened the floor up for a thirty- minute debate before the call to vote. Curtis Warrens law group had notified the Stock exchanges to stop all trading of Verizon stocks at noon.

At one it was a done deal, there was a celebration in the room, Marcy had wine coolers and a beer brought into the room for us.

‘’The easy part was over now, begins the hard part.  All outstanding stocks have to be bought back. To add incentive for those stockholders to sell the stocks back to the company a five dollar per share premium was to be offered. After ninety days the outstanding shares would be paid off at today’s closing bell value,’’ Marcy said.

It would be ninety days before TSPBCIC could claim full ownership and more. I was sure there would be several lawsuits with Verizon being a Delaware corporation. Those Delaware corporation judges were eager for lawsuits to come before them delaying the takeover for a while.

I knew Verizon and its subsidiaries had fifty thousand vehicles that would now be transferred to MAAR. And nearly ninety thousand employees that would join JBG.

There was also a Challenger executive jet that would be sold. It was one year old and they had paid one hundred and thirty million dollars after all the upgrades the CEO and President wanted for their personal comfort and prestige.

‘’We don’t have any Challenger jets, no parts in the stock room for one. It is not worth the weeks and weeks of specialized training and certifications for the mechanics for us to keep it,’’ Marcy said.

‘’Then there are the two Gulfstream G 650’s that were only a couple years old for executive travel. Tomorrow all three planes would be flown to Morton to be added to the charter fleet and the Challenger to the gulf to the dealer where you bought Jakes plane. They are very interested in it,’’ Marcy said.

‘’I think we can reduce cost by several billion to increase profits. They spent over a billion on sports advertising. Nobody buys a Verizon phone because their name is on several stadiums, sports cars in all the different classes, racing boats of all series. All so the executives can go to these events and set in the front row. You buy a phone because of the service and price,’’ Marcy said.

‘’I can eliminate another billion in cost by closing down the group that deals with the stock market and stock holders, it’s over five hundred employees hopefully in six months I can eliminate them, ‘’ Marcy said.

‘’Their fleet offers more savings; I’m going to stop all purchases for a couple years and extent the in-service time for all vehicles, that should save two hundred fifty million a year,’’ Marcy said.

‘’And then there is that monstrosity of a building in New York for corporate headquarters worth five hundred million and we are not paying the crazy New York City property tax for that thing. As soon as the towers are done all the corporate operations will be moved here,’’ Marcy said.

‘’Are all the other companies you are looking suffering from the same over abundance issues,’’ I asked.

‘’Yes; and worse,’’ Marcy replied.

An agent knocked on the door and handed me a note. I read it and went to get dressed.

Sunday morning it was breakfast at Morton Field. Air Force One was sitting on the tarmac drawing attention while we were eating. The crew was putting last minute items aboard.

            Two C130s had made the trip to Deep Water Cay last night. It was a good thing all the new cottages had been completed. The number of people going was double the size of last year’s trip, plus there was extra security after the latest attempt.

            At 0900 – before we were airborne – there were a few things that all the so-called experts forgot to bring that required an extensive search of the baggage area and delay.

            At 1030 I was on Marine One flying to Deep Water Cay. I had a silent laugh, it was JBG’s Sikorsky S92 with a Marine pilot and copilot at the controls. The Secret Service didn’t want one of the normal helicopters to sit at the airport for two weeks, nor on the beach landing pad to draw attention. So, they decided to use ours.

            The Secret Service had Sikorsky come do an inspection on it and – as if that wasn’t enough -had the Marine mechanics from Quantico double check every inspection item with the Sikorsky mechanics. Then they sent the two pilots to a training session at Sikorsky on the operation of the S92.

            They were shuffling all the important people back and forth on the helicopter. The little people, the final materials, and baggage were being sent in the several landing craft we now had.

One of the new landing craft that had been ordered was in a passenger configuration. It was made out of aluminum and double hulled foam filled for increased floatability if there was exterior hull damage. There were twin three hundred horsepower outboards mounted on the extended rear frame to reduce vibration and noise.

There were two rear facing hydraulic winches with two hundred and fifty feet of cable connected to anchors. The anchors could be dropped to be able to winch the boat off the beach, if needed due to tide change.

The dropdown front plate made it an excellent boat for beach excursions. The ramp hinge point was a foot off the bottom of the boat. It allowed the floor of the boat to stay dry when the ramp was down while sitting on the beach. It also allowed the ramp to be dropped level as a dive platform or for fishing.

It also had a canopy with dropdown canvas sides to keep the passengers dry in inclement weather. With the seating that Lorrie had ordered, it could carry forty people. I didn’t know who specked it out, but they had done an excellent job after I looked it over.

It was nice and quiet for runs to the big island and the casinos after dark; much quieter that the chopper. Radar and lighting made it all weather. It could make the run to the big island in 25 minutes and be tied up at the casino dock.

            My mates and kids were in the first group to make the trip in the helicopter. The Secret Service had agents already there for several days for the advanced security. Andy and my Mossad ladies were already there.

            My close staff including Troy, me and the Joint Chiefs were in the third trip the helicopter made. This venture was going to use every cottage that we owned and there were overflow people staying in the motel on the big island. I truthfully expected that many of those were going to spend their evenings at the tables in the casino.

            After being unloaded, the Boeing that was Air Force One when I was aboard was flown to the Air Force base on Florida to stand by, in case it was needed.

An hour later we were walking in the sand, I had a cold beer in one hand and a bag with my phones, sun tan lotion and several towels in the other, looking for the perfect spot to place the towels to work on my natural tan. I had told my staff that unless it was necessary, I really didn’t want to be bothered.

All my mates were carrying bags, some with snacks. Jeanna was with us. After the birth of Elizabeth, Jeanna was always at our house. That was a good thing, all the grandparents were always at our house. We always had someone to sit with the kids when we really needed it.

            Applying plenty of suntan lotion, I changed position every fifteen minutes for an even tan. The sand and salt air were refreshing and allowed me to clear my mind of the Washington merry go round. I was always in a position to watch the kids.

            I thought about my family and what they were doing. It was good to be able to spend this time with them.

            The boys, Takeo and Sara were with us. Adam and Elizabeth (now shortened to Liz) were with sitters at the cottage. My mom, Lisa and Mindy were in chairs by the pool planning the next trip they were going to make to Lancaster Pa. for antique hunting.

There was even talk about taking one of the jets to western New York, possibly to Canada. I heard Mom suggest they could take one of the C130s and carry a pickup and a Suburban so they wouldn’t have to depend on Canadian taxis to go looking. The pickup could carry the big stuff – if they bought any – back to the plane.

I kept on walking, making out like I had not heard that part of the conversation. That would be one expensive antique shopping trip. I wondered how the dads would get out of going. Then I remembered that the dads could plan hunting and fishing trips to coincide with antique hunting. Make that – two pickups and two Suburbans.

            Mom and Mindy had gotten the antique fever now and Lisa was teaching them all the ins and outs of choosing the best pieces. With Dad retired from his thirty-year job getting his retirement check plus working for us, she had plenty of mad money to spend for things she could only dream about before.

            A new glassed-in porch had been added, a sun room and two more bedrooms – for the grand children to have sleep over nights. My old bedroom was now her sewing room and Jake’s old room was Dad’s den.

The separate three car garage – that was always so full of junk that the cars had to be parked outside – was now his very clean work shop. Neat and organized tools and hobby shop equipment took up one bay.

            One bay was dedicated to bicycles, tricycles, pedal tractors and the like for the grandkids. The back yard had been fenced in to keep the kids in and the neighbor’s dogs out. A swing set, jungle gym, sliding boards and a merry go-round was in view from the kitchen.

            Where there had been the vegetable garden was now mom’s flower garden. Things had really changed the last few years for my parents – and Jenney’s as well.

            Dad, Jason, Jake and a dozen or so of the staff had taken some of the boats to the fishing holes. Of course, Secret Service men had to go with them. I had to smile at all the extra fishing poles that had been carried to the boats. I knew they were for the agents to join in the fishing. Dad and Jason would have it no other way.

            Monday and Tuesday – the weather was perfect for tanning and we took advantage of it. When we were not tanning, we were in the water with the kids. We went snorkeling several times with JJ and RJ. Sara and Takeo weren’t quite old enough to get the hand of deep snorkeling but they were more than ready to try.

            Wednesday started out good, another big breakfast and an hour going over daily updates and intelligence reports. And then getting ready to go to the beach again. At 0900 it went to hell in a handbasket.

            Vice President Harrison was in a motorcade going through New York City to the UN building. The UN was trying to force itself into the Iran rebuilding with assistance from exiled former Iranian leaders from around the world.

            They had all tried going through the State Department to get permission to return. When that didn’t work, they tried lobbying other middle eastern leaders and countries. Now they were trying the more than willing UN route where they thought they could gain favor.

Today was day they were going to make their case before the general assembly. They had planned to coordinate a protest at the UN and other New York locations all day long.

One of the big protest goals was to stop Vice President Harrison’s motorcade from reaching the UN building and surround it with protesters – and vandalize it in the process – for the media attention it would bring.

Twenty protesters ran through the barrier tape and around the barricades at a full run into the motorcade path. Six protesters were dead and fifteen more with serious injuries; several would not survive those injuries.

What the protesters did not understand was that Presidential and Vice-Presidential motorcades do not stop for anything or anyone.

The motorcades are always traveling over the speed limit to make it harder for snipers to get a bead on persons in the car. It also cuts down the time the car would be in the line of sight.

The Secret Service controls everything about executive travels; the route, the speeds, the detours. The routes are never published. Lots of times there are two motorcades, one carrying the executive and one a decoy motorcade. Today the protesters chose the correct motorcade.

The six dead were run over by multiple cars of the Secret Service vehicles before the motorcade was diverted around the mess. The media was on hand filming the protest; within minutes the gruesome scene was broadcast nationwide and then worldwide.

The protesters had gotten the media bonanza they wanted but not the outcome they wanted. Vice President Harrison was delivered on time at the UN Building to take the verbal abuse and to make sure my policy stayed firmly in place.

Abra – one of the Mossad ladies – was walking down the beach towards us. She handed me a note from Troy’s assistant. Troy was in part of the fishing group that had not returned.

‘’The media groups are aggressively requesting a response about the New York incident,’’ the note said.

I was expecting it before now. I pulled on a tee shirt and a pair gym shorts. ‘’I will be back in a few minutes,” I told my mates.

When I got there, they already had cameras set up for a live feed to all the members of the media group.

‘’Madam President, do you have a statement about the Vice President ‘s motorcade incident this morning?’’ one asked.

‘’I was made aware of it a little while ago. It is certainly a tragedy any way you look at it. I don’t know who was involved in their planning but it is common knowledge that Presidential and Vice-Presidential motorcades do not stop for anyone,’’ I said.

‘’This is not the first such incident – there have been several incidents in the past. I believe there were even a couple of police officers who were involved in crashes with the motorcade,’’ I said.

‘’To think that you are going to run out in front of a vehicle moving at speed and stop them requires an IQ several digits on the minus side of zero. If I was related to any of the people that got hurt or died, I would look into whoever told them to try to block the motorcade – those leaders HAD to know that the motorcade would not stop and their people would get run over. I would sue them or bring them to court for murder – again, those leaders had to know that the motorcade would NOT stop and that their people would get killed. They are responsible for those deaths.

 ”The Secret Service is responsible for all things with executive travel. The media needs to contact their spokesperson for updates and any more information,’’ I added.

I went back to the beach to enjoy the rest of the day. Tomorrow, I needed to read all the intel and start working on the trips I needed to make the following week.

Edit by Alfmeister

            At 1700 Marine One left the White House lawn for Summers Road. We were landing behind the office and the helicopter was flying to Morton to the hangar, in case it was needed for emergency travel.

            Getting into the house was like walking a cornfield maze with all the construction equipment and materials. The contractors were ready to go with the changes that the Secret Service wanted.

I was glad that Bob’s Construction was supplying several engineers and Andy were going to make sure that nothing they did would damage the house or the tunnel. Both of them had the authority to shut the project down. Robert was going to do checks that they did not install any eavesdropping equipment during the construction.

My mates had been packing for a couple of days, so most everything was ready except for the things Jenny, Ching Lee, and I needed. There had been plenty of things to pack. We were going to stay there for two weeks and then go to England. We were going to start our trip Sunday morning. Saturday morning was going to be tied up with the airport rescue truck demo.

I had a wonderful evening with my mates; we spent the maximum time in the hot tub. We talked about how we were going to handle tomorrow. Mom, Lisa and Mindy, along with two sitters were going to handle all the little ones. The two boys were going with us to Morton, they were big enough that they could eat the free meal that JBG was paying for.

We arrived at Morton at 0700. None of the other invites had cancelled out – in fact we gained some. We had invited the three volunteer companies that we used often. Jason invited two more from the island and Hill Church, also the Ridgley fire company and the one from C-town.

I guess Marcy and Lorrie wanted a PR blast, the more the merrier and a bigger PR blast. All the local politicians were there – you know politician’s never miss a free meal, heck I was even in that group now. Hanna and Elmo were in also in line as were all the big dogs from the 911 center.

Even though it was buffet style, the restaurant cooks kept fresh food ready; eggs, ham, sausage, scrapple, sausage gravy, biscuits and plenty of coffee, orange juice and soda.

At 0815 Jody Sweet – the Oshkosh trainer – and his group asked if everyone had enough food? You can continue eating while we run a slide show.

‘’JBG Morton Field fire department has purchased two Oshkosh Striker ARFF firefighting and rescue trucks to go with the two Oshkosh Pierce fire trucks they already have. The slides are rolling on the big screen of the meeting room, giving a complete 360 of the exterior and interior of the truck.’’

They are Stryker 8 by 8 meaning they are four axles, driving from all axles. They weigh 90 thousand pounds with a one thousand horse power engine capable of 0 to fifty miles per hour in twenty-five seconds. I may be biased – that’s getting it done for ninety thousand pounds,’’ he said.

‘’JBG wanted the 8 x 8 configuration because this is a large growing airport with a lot of unpaved areas. That configuration would allow these trucks to assist local fire companies and go off road in some circumstances,’’ he said.

‘’The all-axle drive with the last two axles having on demand Detroit locking differentials plus the high clearance give excellent off- road operation,’’ he said.

‘’The engines are German built Deutz with one thousand horsepower and extremely high 1500 foot-pounds of torque for lugging ability, if needed,’’ he said.

‘’The Stryker 8 x 8 carries 4500 gallons of water and 600 gallons of foam fire suppressant. It has the ability to pump both water and foam with a pump on the roll without limitations. It gives these trucks the ability to lay down a curtain of foam for planes having landing gear issues to do a gear-up, if necessary,’’ he said.

‘’These trucks have a center driver position for a 254 degree of visibility through 98 square feet of windshield. JBG ordered a couple more options that make these stand out as aircraft fire fighting trucks.’’

‘’The first one of these was 1200 PSI pumps. You guys that are firemen know that you are not going to grab a nozzle on a hose reel and open it full force with twelve hundred pounds of pressure, without getting seriously hurt,’’ he said.

‘’Why that kind of pressure when the norm is 250? It gives the deck guns the ability to cover the entire fuselage of a very large plane with water or foam from one position,’’ he said.

‘’The next option was a sixty-five-foot HRET snozzle. The snozzle has the ability to puncture the fuselage and containers on an air freighter up to thirty-six inches and deliver high pressure water, water mist and foam where it is needed. HRET designation is – high reach, extend and turret mounted,’’ he said.

‘’All the switches and controls in the cab are grouped by the functions they control. All the chassis controls have the dominate position on the panel for easy access by the operator. All the pump controls are in another group together. The snozzle master controls are grouped together. The snozzle – after activation – is controlled by a pistol grip joy stick,’’ he said.

‘’When the snozzle is activated, a fourteen LED camera screen goes live on the dash that gives the operator a live view of the business end of the snozzle. That business end has the piercing spear as well as a deck gun capable of putting one thousand gallons a minute on the target,’’ he said.

‘’For maintenance, the Stryker has a maintenance port where all fluids can be checked and all filters can be changed as needed. It also has a computer port so the maintenance team can run diagnostics and do upgrades,’’ he said.

‘’JBG also bought a training simulator to run a continuous training program for all the potential operators to keep them familiar with truck operations.

‘’Open the curtain and let’s look at the simulator while we get the real thing up here to look at,’’ he said.

‘’The two tractor trailers that have been loaded with flammables are back at Fort Smith for us to play with,’’ Lorrie said.

‘’Morton ground control, truck 3 and truck 4 requesting permission to use the taxiway to the terminal and then cross the runway to the terminal.’’

‘’Morton ground – to trucks 3 and 4 – proceed on the taxiway, hold up short of the runway, there is one plane on final approach. Once it passes, cross the runway to the terminal tarmac,” control said.

The plane was one of our C5s back from another secret mission to somewhere unknown. It had been gone four days. Lorrie said earlier while we were eating that two of the C130s had been gone almost a week flying for the CIA.

I stood back and watched as all the fire fighters were crowded around the simulator. Fire fighters were like security and policemen; continuous training was a priority. They were all wanting their turn in the million-dollar toy.

Even volunteer fire fighters had a required number of training hours to be certified. The state even had a training facility located outside the town where all the fire companies were required to take lessons. They did active fire training and fighter down rescues with fire and smoke.

Lorrie and I talked about the progress on the new UPS and FedEx hangars that were in the process of being built and the taxi way and runway extension. Both were being extended another five thousand feet across the Ratz property.

The markings on the runway near the terminal and the ALS refigured to make the landings and the takeoffs further from the terminal and the highway was a plus for everything. It would also allow for the larger passenger planes to be able to do more loading at the terminal and with safer conditions.

At that angle it would take most of the plane arrivals and departures away from Fort Smith, the fuel farm. And away from Dad and Jason’s goose pits and the scrub brush where they always killed deer.

We also talked a bit about the bid I had put on Dover AFB if the Department of Defense went through with their plans to close it. The final say on that would depend on several committees in Congress.

The base closing list was being debated in multiple committees in both the House and Senate.

The Department of Defense was evaluating the terms I had put in writing and the General Accounting Office was doing the same thing. I had received dozens of emails from both to clarify various points in the last few days. The city of Dover was already trying to get their claws on it for free. One of those things that only time would tell.

The two trucks were now parked on the tarmac for a walk around description of them and all the gizmos. My mates and I walked out with the fire fighters to look and listen. The truck was even more impressive as I looked at it. As I listened and looked, Duke and Clarence came over to stand with us.

‘’These are impressive looking trucks, I’m sure they were terribly expensive, but did you really need two?’’ Duke asked.

“Redundancy, the ability to fight a big plane fire from both sides. The cheapest planes on the field are the crop dusters and they are ten million now, the Black Hawks have a replacement cost of fifty million. Everything else is a hundred million plus. At eight million each the trucks are cheap insurance and it made the insurance company very happy,’’ Lorrie said.

‘’The real bite is the staffing for the four fire trucks twenty-four seven. Three shifts of ten plus four more to make up for vacations, holidays and sick time adds up to big dollars But UPS and Fedex and the other lease holders are verry happy. Fire protection was high on the list when they agreed to expand here,’’ Lorrie said.

‘’I was surprised that the county didn’t fight to stop us from putting the Ratz farm and the adjoining Huckleberry farm as one property on the Morton farm deed,’’ I said.

‘’There were some serious discussions but everything you have done has helped the county in one way or another. With the amount of property tax those two buildings are going to pay, sealed the deal, ‘’ Duke said.

‘’Speaking of property tax, I would like to have a meeting with you about getting started on the infrastructure for the new towers. The contractors are saying that in five years some of it is going to be inhabitable,’’ I said.

‘’JBG is willing to work out an advance property tax payments on the towers to help with the necessary infrastructure, but I want input on the projects,’’ I said.

‘’Another project I want to talk about is getting the ball rolling for the Eastern shore to become a state. For all the reasons you can imagine JBG and I can’t appear to have anything to do with it. I’m looking for people to be the leaders and the face of the movement,’’ I said.

The trucks were heading to Fort Smith for the fire fight demo, all the guests were loading up in the buses to take them there. The Secret Service would not allow me to ride on the bus, so I and my mates went in the Suburban.

‘’I was finally able to ask Vicky what did she and Andy do with the men?’’

‘’They were carrying gas cans and jugs of acid; the acid was the kind that if dumped on hydraulic hoses, cylinder shafts and cables – it would destroy them. They didn’t want to answer our questions at first,’’ Vicky said.

‘’After we walked the first one up the steps of the gallows and put the rope around his neck, they could not stop talking. The union president solicited the enforcement response team from New York. The union vice president and the grievance manager were actively involved,’’ Vicky said.

‘’How did putting one on the gallows and the rope convince them to talk?’’ I asked.

‘’With one on the gallows, the trap door trip rope was tied to the neck of one of the others. We took the shoes off the one on the ground, forced him to stand on his toes and pulled the trip rope tight around his neck. Then we explained to him what was going to happen,’’ Vicky said.

‘’When your arches hurt so bad you cannot stay on your toes anymore and drop to your heels, you will pull the latch on the trap door and hang your buddy. He will drop low enough that if his eyes are open, you can watch them turn black as he dies,’’ Vicky told them.

‘’All of you are going to get to stand on the trap door and all of you will get to have the trip rope around your neck until there is only one of you left, and then he will also die,’’ Vicky said. ‘’To walk away from here, answer all of my questions.’’

‘’They told us everything,’’ Vicky said.

‘’The union financial accounts were hacked, drained and the money deposited in a Russian bank in his name so the trail would be easy to follow. Tickets were bought to Moscow using the union account from his computer. Confirmation emails were sent to his email. The union hall had a gas explosion,’’ Vicky said.

‘’The ten were carried back to their boat and told never to come back again. But – only after we took complete ID info, pictures, finger prints and DNA,’’ Vicky said.

All the fire fighters got their jollies playing with the trucks and putting out the two trailers filled with flammables and pallets.

Edit by Alfmeister

Book 3 Chapter 58

            The media fiasco at the gym and Morton was unfolding as I closed down the Oval Office for the day.

            At Summers Road, Andy had thirty protesters properly immobilized with four flex cuffs each on the side of the road. A dozen Secret Service agents were politely watching while taking a boat load of pictures with cell phones. The county sheriff had called for two county ride passenger vans to take them to the detention center.

            If the Secret Service had arrested them, they would be released almost immediately by a federal magistrate. Not so with the county; they were going to spend at least one night in the detention center. The county judge that handled all the new arrest cases was a hard ass – from the prisoner and attorney complaints.

            The county detention center was not known to be a kind place. There was a section that had hard timers there, the worst of the worst was the word.

            Dozens were sentenced to life and a few that were once on death row until a liberal governor gave in to the pacifist and changed the death sentence over to life.

            They had nothing to lose so battles that resulted in solitary confinement were often. Then there were the normal prison gangs that are prevalent in all large prisons.

            Then there were the holding cells that all those waiting to see the judge were put into. There was always the local addict and trouble makers in the group. The protesters were in for a rough night.

            The women’s section holding cells were no better, maybe even worse. Women can be vicious, even more vicious against other impressionable women. The power plays in women’s prisons are as bad as in any men’s prison.

            Those women that thought they were doing something by joining in the protest were in for a rude awaking, starting with an aggressive body cavity search and going downhill from there.

            The two groups that were arrested at Morton were going to the federal system. All crimes at airports became federal crimes and that included blocking the airport, blocking aviation services and so on.

            Morton came under the Baltimore DOJ office. The judge – and by connection the prosecutors – were my appointees. I chose the most hardline people I could find for all those positions nationwide. Let the fun begin.

            There were updates all afternoon on the fate of the protest and protesters. There were also some news footages and a few posts on the protesters’ websites.

            Most of the website were directed at their rights being denied and about their phones and cameras being seized or destroyed. Then there were the charges of excessive force being used by security and the use of torture devices being used – cattle prods on protesters sitting in the road.

            They were lucky Marcy wasn’t there with her bull whip. Jenny and I had a good laugh at that thought.

            We received a text from Lorrie that we needed to be home Saturday morning for training on the two new Stryker airport fire trucks. They were at the Pierce dealer getting final touches put on them and were to be delivered Friday night after dark.

            Lorrie wanted their appearance on Saturday to be a media event for Morton. There was an 0700 breakfast for the attendees, then an all-day training session for the Morton fire department, the agency fire department and the three local volunteer fire departments that were on the call box for anything that happened at Morton.

            The county EMS system was done by a call box. The 911 call center determined the call box by the type of emergency and where. Any call box that was for Morton Field or the truck stop went to all three volunteer companies as well as activating the Morton fire alarm that included the agency’s fire group.

            I sent a text back that I would be home Friday night. I wanted to be there to look at those beasts, maybe even drive one down the taxiway. I also sent that she should invite Hanna and Elmo, as well as Duke Justice and Clarence Hallworthy.

            As an afterthought I sent that she should invite the three managers of the air freight companies that were renting hangars for their sorting operations, especially now that all three were expanding operations.

            I went back to the task at hand, there were always dozens of people that wanted to meet with me. Kitty screened them first, then Troy and Connie screened them again and ranked them on level of importance.

            The federal tax changes that were in the works would affect some states in the way they figured state tax. Every one of those state governors wanted a meeting.

            Of course, they wanted their chief revenue officer or the head of their tax division to be in on the meeting to emphasize their concerns. They also wanted their senators and representatives to sit in on the meeting. What should have been a small meeting was now very large meeting in a couple of cases.

            The small states that had the two senators and one, two or three representatives would not be too bad. Meetings with large populations such as California, New York, Florida, Texas, and Pennsylvania would be a cluster fuck from the beginning.

            I knew I was going to get seriously lectured by California, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, demanding they get more federal money in and for hand out programs but because of the proposed changes, they weren’t getting any more money.

            California and New York were this afternoon, the meetings took all afternoon. They were upset and disappointed when they left – there was formal promises of extra money. Being the bad politician that I was, I still dangled the carrot in front of them. I still needed enough votes to pass the measure to make it law.

            New Jersey and Pennsylvania were tomorrow morning, then Jenny, Ching Lee, the kids and I were going to Summers Road.

            The fire truck training and demo was Saturday and Sunday we were leaving for East Water Cay. The Secret Service was already there with a small detachment and so were some of Andy’s men.

            After the decision of keeping a lower profile on my travels, just a few of my Washington staff were going. Needed people would be moved in and out for special projects, problems and meetings as needed.

            The six added rental cottages had been completed and were all booked by the government for the two weeks that we were going to be there. There were no regular rental customers staying on the island for those two weeks. Congress was going to go crazy when the bills hit the GSA books.

            Jenny read me the update from the tower construction site. It was trouble and a disappointment in more ways than one. As with many things at home, I was not kept in the loop as much as I would have liked. I needed to find more time to sit in on the nightly meetings by video.

            The base tubs for the two towers were completed. The tubs went all the way to the bedrock and were designed to keep water from seeping into the huge pit needed to construct grillage for each column tube of the tower.

            The grillage was set directly on the bedrock with huge anchor bolts drilled into the bedrock. The grillage consisted of a thick concrete pad long enough to support several columns.

            On top of the pad was several layers of steel H beams crossed and layered for support. On top of that was an extremely thick steel plate for the columns to sit on and be welded to. Then the complete grillage was covered with high strength concrete. This pad was sixty feet below ground level. That sixty feet was floors of the basement.

            Each column was essentially a tube of steel – a fourteen-inch H beam with three-inch web thickness twelve feet long. The ends were machine cut to a bevel to be welded. They were pre drilled for the floor trusses and stress reinforcements. After all that was completed a two–inch thick plate was added to its flanges making it a high strength box. These columns would be incased in concrete to the ground level.

            These column tubes were three feet apart, with eighty -three on each of the four sides of the tower. At a given height the columns would be connected with a spandrel reducing the number of columns going to the top of the tower. The thickness of this would decrease as the height increased. The greatest structural load was on the lower floors.

            The best definition of a spandrel is an upside-down Y taking two columns into one; instead of sharp corners, they were curved to increase strength.

            The spandrels were prefabbed and were forty feet tall and weighed thirty tons. They were predrilled for all the necessary brackets, bolts and rivets. The spandrels were added to the columns at ground level, increasing the speed the towers were rising.

            There was also an inner box that was duplicate of the outer box. Fifty percent the size of the outer box – that added tremendous strength to the tower. It was built first, then when several floors high the outer box columns would be completed to the same height, then work would continue on the inner. All the elevators were inside the inner box area.

            Preformed trusses thirty-six inches wide were covered with corrugated metal, which would be attached to the outer and inner columns. They had all the necessary holes for water, sewer, electric and whatever else they needed a modification for. After they were bolted, riveted and welded in place, the concrete for the floor was poured onto them.

            Two very large contractors from the south had won the bids to build the towers. Both had decades of experience in building multistory buildings. One of them had even supplied labor and engineering to build the replacement towers in New York that Bin Laden had taken down. So, they had plenty of experience.

            The first five stories of each building were completed in the raw form. The developing problem was welders. The joint at each spandrel took hundreds of passes of weld to fill in the cut taper. There were big wire feed welders using flux cored welding wire that had to be chipped and wire wheeled to be perfectly clean and after the final weld, ground flat so reinforcing plates could be installed by bolting and welding. There were dozens of portable welders running at a time.

            The process could take forty hours of labor at each joint. There were forty-two joints on each side that needed this done every forty feet the building rose on the outer wall and another forty on the inner wall. One solution was to put two welders on each joint if they could be found, cutting the time in half.

            The problem was welders and weather. The contractors had brought dozens of welders with them and then advertised for certified welders from Baltimore, Philly, New Jersey and the oil fields of Texas.

            Many of the welders from Baltimore, Philly, New Jersey and New York were members of the Union Iron Workers. When the Union Hall had work contracted through the hall, that was their job for the day.

            They had to go to the Union Hall every day to see if there was work for them. If there was no work, they went home and got beer money for checking in.

            Our contractors had work on the towers – plenty of work – so much work that all the welders were getting overtime every week, sometimes twenty hours and more to keep up with the steel erectors – if they wanted it.

            The unions allowed no overtime on any of their contract jobs. If the job didn’t get done, the company needed to contract for more welders, resulting in more union dues and more cut of the wages.

            The problem started at the Union Hall when no welders or only a few showed up to want work, the union couldn’t supply welders for its contract agreements. The union was losing fifty percent of its cut of the wages. The businesses that they needed welders to make production schedules were screaming and making threats.

            The threats started first by phone calls, demanding they show up or lose union protection, benefits and the union card. When that didn’t work, the Union sent people to their house to threaten them. Many of them told the Union to blow off – knowing they had at least four and more years of work on the towers.

            The next step was to send union organizers trying to organize the nonunion welders to form a union and pickets at the job site. The security people that Andy had on site had been advised by some of the welders that the union was going to make trouble. The union organizers soon found out that they were not going to be on the property.

            The tower site was fifty acres – including parking for employees – that required a company ID photo for access. A huge storage yard held all the materials. The materials were trusses, beams, spandrels, boxes, columns, braces and an assortment of other large materials need for construction.

            All these components were supplied in order as needed and each has a serial number, an assembly number and a number that led to the correct spot on the blue print. They were stamped with metal stamps in four places on each piece.

            Most were coming from steel plants in Virginia by truck. The famous Sparrows Point Steel Plant that had put Baltimore on the map was long gone, along with 40 thousand jobs in its hay day. They were contracted to steel companies and fabricators in West Virginia to ensure there were plenty of completed spandrels in advance.

            The tower site had rows of shipping containers with the thousands of small parts needed. There were two hundred and fifty thousand rivets, a million bolts, a hundred rolls of welding wire.

            And then there were the tools. Big impact wrenches, magnetic drills and bits, gas powered welders, grinders and grinding wheels; there was even a tool repair shop and several inventory control specialists and supply people to make every beam, truss and anything else needed was on hand when it was needed.

            The contracts required every piece to be delivered thirty days ahead of its installation date to ensure there was no stoppage for the lack of materials.

            Then there were the big cranes and equipment, tower cranes that grew with the towers – four for each building – mobile cranes and heavy lift forklifts.

            Thousands of tons of stone were dumped to make roadways that would not be mud pie with rains. All these jobs would have been done by a variety of unions workers if the towers had been built on the western shore, New Jersey, Pennsylvania or New York.

            After the first encounter with union organizers, Andy had the security fly a couple of the drones with night vision around the job site. A week later two boats with ten men in them came ashore on the bay frontage with all kinds of gas cans. They were going to sabotage and set some of the equipment on fire.

            They were given a rude awaking by gunfire and held until Andy and more men arrived. Vicky was called, what happened after that was her decision and Andy’s.

            I wondered when I would find out what it was?

Edit by Alfmeister

            Jenny, Ching Lee, JJ, RJ and Takeo were stepping out of the chopper on the east lawn as I walked out to meet them. Jenny and Ching Lee both had briefcases with them.

            JJ and RJ each had a hobby box that I knew had a Lincoln log set. Takeo had a Tonka toy truck in one hand and a John Deere tractor in the other hand. I knew that when things settled down, I was helping build log cabins on the dining room floor and possibility a farm set.

            There were boxes of toys I had accumulated in one of the extra rooms in the living area; they had plenty of toys when they came to stay with me.

            After supper and an hour of playing on the floor, we put the kids to bed- they were exhausted and went to sleep quickly.

            Jenny and Ching Lee opened up the briefcases and I received an in the depth assessment of the ranch that had been bought. There was a lot more involved than the text explained.

            Marcy and Lorrie had been working on Indian Point Ranch ideas for a while. Jenny and Ching Lee had stacks of photos for me to look at and evaluate. There were photos of the ranch and everything associated with it, including buildings, bunkhouses, grain and storage.

            I was not even half way through the pictures when I had objections. The hay and straw barn were one huge long building that held the complete winter supply of hay and straw. A wayward cigarette or a lightning strike and a wind and the winter’s food for all the cattle and bison would be gone.

I suggested that several separate pole barn type buildings be built with doors – to lose a little of it versus all was a lot of difference. It took another hour to look at all the pictures. They had dozens of different pictures for reproduction wagons of the era. There were dozens of pictures and pamphlets from those who still made horse drawn period wagons.

I figured there be some to supply the many Amish communities in the nation. Together we went through and picked out several styles we thought would work.

One of the ones I liked was called a sheep herders wagon. It was longer and wider above the wheels than all the others. I thought they would be great for sleeping two of us and long enough that our kids could sleep there as well. The downside was it would take two teams of horses to pull them.

I asked Jenny to check in with Cowboy to see if one team of Morgan horses or Clydesdales could pull that kind of wagon. The more I thought about it and the ideas the girls were floating for the project, a team of normal work horses could pull the wagon.

We weren’t loading months of supplies on them, just sleeping in them and carrying several weeks of clothes, although there may be a solution to the clothes issue.

There would have to be some modern things carried along, one being some way to keep food cold for the cooks. Heaven forbid there was food poisoning on this journey!

The same with a shower restroom trailer – heaven forbid the media printed a word that we were using latrines – surely, they would be taking pictures. My thought was they could be on the same style axles as the horse drawn, only heavy duty. All the manufactures had roller bearing axles as options to carry heavy weight.

A water wagon could also be acquired in the deal. There were pictures of them in the pamphlets; a stainless-steel tank could be substituted for the iron one. It could be driven away from the nights campsite and replenished from a water truck after dark. Same with the food wagon.

The girls had three pages of ideas and questions to ask and research when they went home. I wondered if enough work horses could be located and trained in time. Then there were harnesses and everything that went into a wagon train, that looked like we would end up with. I had ideas of my own to look into.

I did find out that Winchesters had already been ordered along with ammo for them, enough for everybody with plenty extra. There were lots of pieces to this puzzle to get in place.

James Clown – the manager of the guns and ammo department – was sure when he put the Winchesters on the rack there would be a lot of hunters and collectors that wanted to add one to their collection.

All the pistols that we had taken in as we changed over to the corporate standard Glock 40 caliber had been sold. The former Blackwater employees who wanted to purchase their former sidearms had done so.

 Some were still in the vault, waiting for the owners to retrieve them when they returned from their foreign assignment or their training cycle.

            Jenny, Ching Lee and I were up early; we allowed the kids to sleep a little longer. Lisa had sent their lesson plans for the next couple days. Jenny was going to play school teacher for those days. I was sure the lessons were going to be completed because Jenny did not want the wrath of Lisa for them not being done.

            I went to the Oval Office to see stacks of newspapers and dozens of notes on my desk. My staff had highlighted news articles that they thought I needed to at least glance at.

            There was plenty to look at; they were filled with articles about the news conference with plenty of opinions about the student testing the Department of Education had ordered.

The teachers’ unions were livid and had filed for injunctions and were in the process of filing lawsuits to stop it. They felt it was to evaluate teachers on a national grade level and not on a local or state level. They also were mad that they had not been allowed to develop the testing or have any input.

I read all the notes and attached some of my own so that Connie could put them in play. Harry wanted to know if I was going to make an appearance at the press briefing to take questions today.

‘’I have no time on the schedule to speak to the press today,’’ I had Connie send.

I was done with the critical notes when Jenny came in, ‘’We have issues at JBG. There are three different groups of protesters. One group is at Summers Road blocking the road and the entrance to the office. They are from the No Fossil Fuel group. The Secret Service, the group there for training and the trainers are taking care of that one,’’ Jenny said.

I was willing to bet the trainers were taking care of the problem and the Secret Service staying out of the way to avoid all the negative publicity and lawsuits that would come later. If they started towards the house, then the Secret Service would be actively involved.

Robert’s team had been following the groups for several months. They started organizing on all the popular environmental blogs, asking for volunteers and ideas on how to proceed and get the best media for their cause. After that, Robert’s group started following them closely.

Anticipating what their tactics were going to be, Andy had several training sessions on how security was going to counter their plans.

One thing was to try to stop them early as possible before they could apply super glue to their hands – and the new tactic was to apply it to their feet. That way they were stuck by all four limbs, making it extremely difficult and time consuming for them to be removed.

Another thing that Andy had ordered was that the people with them making phone videos were to be taken down immediately and the phones accidentally destroyed, depriving them of the media glow.

Normally these groups would sit in the road shoulder to shoulder, holding their protest signs while blocking the road. Drivers caught up in the traffic jam – after much frustration – would drag them to the shoulder and a few cars would make it through before they blocked the road again.

Andy’s solution was to put flex cuffs on their arms at the elbows pulling them tight and another at the wrist. This was a BDSM type hold and painful. Then there would be large tie straps placed on the thighs midway between the knees and the groin and again pulled tight.

Another set of flex cuffs were placed at the knees and another at the ankles. All of these would become painful after fifteen minutes or so. The victim could be carried off the side of the road and was not crawling back; they were totally immobilized.

Andy also had one of the truck shop road service trucks in the back lot. The service trucks had an air compressor on them and the full scope of tools on them. Between the Morton Field, the truck dealer ship, and the truck stop, Lorrie had a dozen road service trucks.

This included several that had once belonged to some of the utilities that we leased equipment to. The truck stop had four that were assigned to the tire shop.

If the demonstrators succeeded in gluing body parts to the blacktop before being stopped, the service truck with an air chisel could chisel the black top and free them in just a few seconds.

The hammer style air chisel would be so loud it would drown out their screams. It might take several days for the blacktop stuck to their hands to finally wear off – another learning experience for them – I thought when Andy was explaining the process to me. Andy was prepared.

‘’The second two are at Morton, one group is blocking the road and the other tried to scale the fence. They had fire extinguishers filled with paint. Another part of that group had quart sized bottles of super glue. They were going to glue themselves to the runways,’’ Jenny said.

None of them made it to the plane parking tarmac or the runways. Between our security, the Marine detachment, the Air Force guys and Secret Service protecting the Marine helicopters that were parked in a side hangar in case I needed to go somewhere in a hurry, the protesters were outnumbered. They were spares but received the full maintenance package.

‘’There is another group at the truck stop. First, they tried to block the entrance with cars – that didn’t go over so well. Then they tried blocking the entrance by lying down on the roadway. They soon found out truck drivers were having none of that! I’m waiting on a call back from Andy for an update,’’ Jenny said.

I knew Andy had several plans and had all three places covered. The thing now was to wait for the media blast.

It reminded me of the song ‘Don’t try this in a small town,’ I thought.

I went back to the planning that was taking place for my next trip that would not be publicly announced until I had landed. We were going to the Cay for a week and then I was going back to Merry Olde England. Then it was on to Helsinki for a conference and then on to Moscow in two weeks.

 At first, I was not going but the Secret Service wanted to start the upgrades to the house. This was a three-week venture. Andy and Bobs Construction monitored all the construction to make sure they were playing no games.

Edit by Alfmeister

Proof read by Ego

The calls took twenty minutes and not ten. When I saw that I was going to run late getting back, I sent more donuts and coffee out to the media group to keep them pacified.

            I walked back to the fancy podium with a handful of notes that I read while waiting for the coffee was heating up on the plate warmer that was out of view of the media.

            One note left me angry was about the USS Nevada that had collided with the North Korean sub was undergoing repairs in Japan so it could make the trip back to the US. The Nevada’s crew had been removed when it docked and returned to California for advanced debriefing and interrogation.

            NCIS was conducting those interrogations in California. A temporary crew was sent to the Nevada along with another large group of investigators.

            Experts from the Navy’s nuclear propulsion division, Electric Boat Company – a division of Huntington Ingalls – were all sending investigators. The Nevada was having too many electrical glitches on too many systems. Sabotage was suspected.

The question was where did it happen? The Nevada had a five-year maintenance drydocking before departing to Japan and was immediately sent on this mission. It was docked in Japan for only three days taking on provisions, medical supplies and several test kits (they were called).

I learned that test kits were a cover name for secret projects that were to be completed while submerged. They could have been health related – about effects of long voyages. They could have been new equipment to be field tested in actual conditions. They could have been top secret eavesdropping modules that were to be deposited near some country’s coast.

I needed to get a detailed description of the test kits and if they had been completed. Were they something that could have been interfering with the Nevada systems? Another question, was there a saboteur in the Nevada’s crew – or in the shipyard?

‘’OK, ladies and gentleman, let’s get started. Who wants to go first?’’ I asked.

‘’Tiffany, you’re first, what’s the question?’’ I asked.

‘’In your tax returns, it looks like you sold all or part of your family business and then donated the money. The recipients of the donations were blacked out. Why?’’ She said.

‘’The tax return is pretty much self-explanatory. Who I donated the money to was a personal decision and no one really needs to know. The ones that got the money know who they are. There was a nondisclosure requirement in order to receive the funds,’’ I said.

‘’That’s the only question and statement I’m going to make about my tax return. You have them because I was required by law to release them. I am not required to discuss and explain it line item by line item,’’ I said.

‘’Becky,’’ I said.

‘’There is a lot of discussion on the tax changes, there are a lot of people really concerned, social security recipients, and many agencies and of course most states along with some senators and representatives,’’ she said.

‘’As I said there was a lot of yelling and screaming along with a lot of four-letter words; mostly from people and agencies with their hand out and some congress persons afraid they would not have money to give away for bribes to vote,’’ I said.

‘’Social security was protected and slightly enhanced. Small business and large were protected by limiting their tax burden to the ten percent. Some large and small business were, are upset because it limits their ability to use creative accounting to pay miniscule amounts of taxes, they will pay ten percent. Tax fraud under the new rules will be tough and there are heavy penalties for doing so,’’ I said.

‘’The agencies that are still in effect are angry because of the new accountability measures. In the past all they had to do was go before Congress and cry “We need more money to do the job” and twenty percent was the magic number, knowing they would end up with ten, year after year it was the same thing,’’ I said.

‘’Now the GSA will have new tools to check the numbers. Before, an employee of an agency was never removed from the budget formula for several years. A replacement employee was added as a new position. The agency gained every year in extra money with that scheme. That is why agencies had plenty of money to give away, and use for special pet projects without needing Congressional approval. That was how they funded all the weapons and ammunition, and also acquired the manpower for the SWAT equipment and for the SWAT teams. There wasn’t any in-depth accountability,’’ I said.

‘’The new rules and new systems will flag retiring employees, fired employees and those funds will be withdrawn from the agency budget authority immediately. An employee wanting to retire must pick a date and give the agency a one-year notice. That retirement date will be written in stone; there will be no changing it,’’ I said.

‘’The agency will not be able to request a replacement employee be hired until the retiring employee is physically gone. They will have to go through the complete process and approvals and an employee cannot be hired until the next year’s budget was fully funded and approved,’’ I said.

‘’One of the things that were happening was an employee filled out the retirement papers, then a new employee or a contractor was hired. Then the employee withdrew the papers to stay another year or two,” I said.

‘’Because of union rules, the agency could not fire the new employee or contractor. Agencies gain and gained people they didn’t need or want, blowing the budget out the roof,’’ I said.

‘’Harold,’’ I said.

‘’Doesn’t those changes fly in the face of the union rules,’’ he said.

‘’The very first page of the union agreement says and I quote, ‘The government shall in all cases do everything prudent and necessary to protect the government and citizens interests with this labor agreement. This agreement shall not be construed to override those interests. The President and or Congress shall have the authority to cancel or modify this agreement as necessary to that end. Any changes are binding,’ I said.

‘’That paragraph gives the Congress or me the authority to rescind the unions authority to operate. I will use that authority if necessary. Top government individuals and union officials are negotiating the necessary changes. There are only a few in a labor agreement that spans a thousand pages. I see no reason the changes cannot be made,’’ I said.

‘’Amanda,’’ I said.

‘’There are already multiple state and county Boards of Education saying they have no days to set aside to give the testing. What is your response for that?’’ she asked.

‘’The Department of Education had made it mandatory nationwide for the testing. As I said, any school district that does not issue the test and complete the testing in the required time frame will make their state ineligible to receive federal educational funding next year,’’ I said.

‘’Even though local school boards have immense power over curriculum, staffing, transportation and days scheduled, every state Board of Education has an immense power over the local school board,’’ I said.

‘’Practically every school has optional days to work the testing in. They have weather days that didn’t get used, spring break and the like. If necessary, extend the school year by the necessary days,’’ I said.

‘’There was another point I was going to make about education that I am going to make now and that is a return to vocational education as part of high school curriculum. We need machinist, welders, masonry people, mechanics, sheet metal mechanics, electricians, plumbers and above all nurses and practical nurses and other medical fields,’’ I said.

‘’The school boards decided to do away with the vocational school part of the equation because ‘everybody just had to go to college’. Well, everyone does not need or want to go to college.’’

‘’There was a recent report that sixty three percent of the individuals with college degrees were not holding jobs that required a college degree. They wasted four years and have massive college debt when they could have been earning nearly equal to the debt they now have to pay back,’’ I said.

‘’These trades are in high demand and pay reasonably well. A person with these skills can make a great living and not have a tremendous college debt to pay back. The health care field is screaming for ER nurses. Nurses, licensed nurses, nursing assistant, medical technicians – the list of positions goes on and on. Many of these fields only require one or two years of college with the right pre-med courses taken at vocational schools,’’ I said.

‘’Alexander,’ I said.

“The court changes you have laid out are immense, do you have any hope that any of them will make it into law?’’ he asked.

‘’I think everyone agrees that changes to the court are needed. Yes, they are immense and yes, I think under review many parts will be adopted. The judicial review for judges received high praise from the attorney focus groups that helped write the proposal,’’ I said.

‘’Another part of the proposal that was also given high mark was the mandatory retirement age. That one may be the most difficult one to make muster because in covers all federal agencies including Congress; to some of those old fogies it may be a tough sell, but it is desperately needed,’’ I said.

‘’Amber,’’ I said.

‘’The change to how the agencies have to handle new rules looks like it effectively kills the use of the Federal Register, the thought being that it will grind government to a halt,’’ she said.

‘’Government is always slow by design I have learned. Then after all the molasses, to have so many rules thrown out months or years later just makes it worse. The idea being that when it goes finally in to effect it will be right and end all the delays from court challenges,’’ I said.

‘’Mandy,’’ I said.

‘’By making federal officials face civil or criminal penalties for their actions they believed they were right, won’t that put a tremendous chill on the agencies?’’ she said.

‘’It means they will be more diligent about following the law in everything they do. They will stay away from gray area enforcement and assumptions,’’ I said.

‘’Every agency has plenty of lawyers – in fact, too many lawyers – there simply is no excuse for not getting it right the first time other than it was intentional. If that is the case. they deserve to be penalized,’’ I said.

‘’Larry, I believe this is the first time you have been called on in a while, what is your question?” I said.

‘’Yes, it is, and I have a couple questions. The first one is about the John Moses case. There is no information on the fiasco, what is happening with it?’’ he said.

‘’The Justice Department is handling that and as I’m sure you know, it is very complicated with the tie-in with the SWAT team mess. I’m sure you know there will be a substantial settlement when the dust clears, along with plenty of convictions,’’ I said.

‘’Some of the environmental groups are going to sue the government over so many fossil fueled emergency generators being used to stop the rolling blackouts. Their saying the blackouts should continue and be expanded,’’ he said.

‘’Obviously the people that are suing do not live in the affected area or they would have a different opinion. The inconvenience to the people and business that have to deal with it is massive, not to mention the cost,’’ I said.

‘’Food markets cannot take advantage of making large orders for the discounts of perishables because they require continuous refrigeration at certain temperatures or they spoil faster. They have to repeatedly order only what they can sell in a couple days and not a weeks’ worth,’’ I said.

‘’Charlie,’’ I said.

‘’One of our sister stations picked up a news wire from the state of Wyoming that JBG had purchased a sizeable ranch near Meeteetse, do you know anything about that land purchase?’’ he asked.

‘’No, I do not and should not and I’m sure you know that. If we did, I’m again sure it was for our Farming and Ranch division. My father and father- in law over see that part of the family business,’’ I said.

Just then a text dinged on my phone, it was from Marcy. ‘’Yes, we bought another ranch in Wyoming. Indian Point Ranch with ninety- nine thousand acres,’’ Marcy said.

‘’It has ten thousand cattle with five thousand wild range bison. Two thousand acres in hay. There are five thousand acres of corn, wheat and soybeans with eleven hundred under center pivot irrigation. There are fifty ranch hands to work the operation. There are one hundred trained horses for ranch needs,’’ Marcy said.

“There is the normal bunk house for ranch hands and a dozen houses for the managers. The main house that the owners lived in is fifteen bed rooms with all the normal things and several cooks. It also serves as the office. There are dozens of buildings for hay, straw and equipment storage. They also have a Bell helicopter and there is a runway,” Marcy said.

‘’There is an annual cattle drive to move the herd from the higher elevations for the winter season. It takes about three weeks. I’m trying to get the logistics taken care so we can take part in it. Jason and Dad have been there twice. They both were impressed with the people there,’’ Marcy said.

‘’Plan to take three weeks in the fall. It will be once in a life time vacation for us and the boys. A cattle drive, three weeks in covered wagons and riding horses, and a buffalo hunt off horseback with Winchesters,’’ Marcy said.

‘’Make sure to get with Cowboy for riding lessons for all of us. I know Dad and Jason will be there, find out about Jake and Mindy. Also, don’t forget to have James Clown to get lever action Winchesters for all of us and a dozen or two extras. Don’t forget about revolvers and gun belts or enough horse drawn wagons to make it an authentic western vacation,’’ I replied.

‘’To answer your question, Charlie. Yes, my mates have added another ranch; ninety -nine thousand acres one hundred and fifty – five square miles,’’ I said.

‘’Then thousand cattle, five thousand bison on open range for some of it. It’s a working ranch and all the support operations to go with it. They are planning on a three -week vacation in the fall during the fall cattle drive in covered wagons with a buffalo hunt on horseback. Sounds like a fun vacation that they think I need,’’ I said.

I guess my mates were serious that we were going to spend a lot more time together on vacations.

‘’That’s all the time I have for today, enjoy the donuts,” I said as I turned and started to walk away.

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Book 3 Chapter 55

At 1300 I walked out to the new fancy podium that the crew had placed in the news room while we were at lunch. The news people were making their way in with papers in their hand.

I knew what the papers were, my tax returns had been released this morning along with other things. Lorrie and Marcy had texted me during lunch. I knew things were coming. It was going to be a blow out afternoon.

‘’Good afternoon, I have a lot of announcements to make today. First, the new revenue measure was introduced in both Houses today and I support the bills in the current form. After months of negotiations, meetings, finger pointing, yelling, screaming and various obscenities, the final bill does the following,’’ I said.

‘’It eliminates all individual income tax brackets and replaces the tax code with a ten percent sales tax. If you make a Million or a billion you spend it on something, it does not go under your mattress so tax will be paid on it. Many of the loop holes in the current system will be gone,’’ I said.

‘’If you buy stocks, bonds or investments, you will pay the sales tax but there will be no tax on dividends – and if you sell them, the buyer pays,’’ I said.

“There are a few of the dedicated tax programs that were retained,’’ I said.

‘’One is the Social Security tax – both for the employee and employers – as was the Medicare tax. The tax was bumped up by half a percentage point in the proposal. Social Security payments have escalated over time with inflation, it was past time for an adjustment,’’ I said.

‘’Business will also be under the ten percent sales tax; there are no exemptions or exclusions. Everyone will pay the same,’’ I said.

‘’Fuel taxes such as gas, diesel and aviation fuel taxes were retained, as were excise taxes on cars and trucks. These taxes support specific transportation programs – an example is road and bridge maintenance and construction,’’ I said.

‘’The Internal Revenue Service budget will be reduced from last year’s peak of one hundred and twenty-five billion to one billion next year, saving an estimated one trillion, two hundred billion over a ten-year period,’’ I said.

I hated the government norm of ten-year averaging on budgets – it was just a promised cloud hidden by a smoke screen. But it sounded good for the media presentations.

“The Internal Revenue Service has been operating under a hiring freeze for the last three years and with the billions spent on AI programs that have now proven effective in audits and revenue related problems, it’s time for a down size,’’ I said.

‘’There were multiple agencies caught up in the SWAT team scandal that those operations were suspended or the agencies were temporally closed. Those suspensions and closures will continue for another physical year,’’ I said.

‘’That whole problem is much bigger, more involved than the early investigations indicated and involved thousands more federal employees; many are going to be serving time in jail cells,’’ I said.

‘’With all these changes, the Treasury indicated in its reports that we will have a surplus budget for two years in a row, something that hasn’t happened in decades,’’ I said.

‘’There have been ongoing discussions for several years about adding more states to the current fifty states. This has been brought about by a change in demographics of our population with a few cities with liberal, progressive agendas controlling massive states,’’ I said.

‘’I support this expansion of our sates. Currently there are five states that are candidates for division; Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, California, New York and Washington.’’

‘’There was some discussion in these meetings about Washington DC being added to the list. I am fiercely opposed to DC ever becoming a state. It was called the District of Columbia for a reason – so that the federal government or operations of the federal government would not be hamstrung by state laws or an aggressive state government,’’ I said.

‘’The package of rule and law changes necessary will be entered in the House and Senate today. Included in that package is language that will forever stop DC from ever becoming a state. Another piece of legislation in that goal to keep DC the seat of our federal government is to stop all private ownership of property in DC and building or renovation permits,’’ I said.

‘’As the current owners of property pass on the Government will acquire the property by outright purchase or use of eminent domain with the heirs being compensated. Corporate ownership will be phased out over ten years,’’ I added.

‘’The next item is the court system. I am terribly disappointed in the direction that our court system has and is going in. The Supreme Court seems to have taken a leave of absence. States and the lower courts are running over our rights with a steam roller and the Supreme Court seems uninterested any more,’’ I said.

‘’I don’t know if there are too many cases needing Supreme Court review or the judges are slowing down with age or whatever the problem is, but something has to be done. The Constitution and the Bill of rights will soon be a memory if the Supreme Court doesn’t step up to the plate to reign in the lower courts and states,’’ I said.

‘’The freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, the right to vote and civil rights seems to be under constant attack from the states, special interest groups, Congress and the Justice Department itself. The Supreme Court sits idly by, ignoring challenges from distressed citizens,’’ I said.

‘’I am proposing that the current nine-member court be expanded to a twenty-seven-member court. Along with that comes multiple changes in the operation and members of the court. We are starting with mandatory retirement at age sixty-seven for all federal and judicial personnel, including all judges,’’ I said.

‘’Additional changes would require all emergency appeals to be approved by nine members of the bench. This would stop attorneys from shopping for a judge that was sympathetic to their cause,’’ I said.

‘’Another change would require all challenges between Congress, the Executive Branch, the Department of Justice and the Courts to be heard directly by the full Supreme Court, eliminating the massive deadlines, and delays of dealing with the lower court and appeals process. It shouldn’t take months or years to resolve disputes,’’ I said.

‘’Another change would be a review of all rules, regulations and laws of all agencies be reviewed by the committee from the court to determine if they are constitutional before they are put into effect, not months or years after,’’ I said.

‘’Another change would require that an agency or agent of any agency that had been determined to violate the rights or civil rights of a citizen or citizens to be punished by termination of the individual or in the case of an agency, they lose fifty percent of their finding for a two- year period,’’ I said.

‘’Currently they get to shrug their shoulders and say “Oh well’ and walk away with no punishment to do it again. And they will push the envelope, knowing that it would take years for another court case to make it through the system while ending with the same results. These actions are unacceptable,’’ I said.

‘’The final piece of the Judiciary changes will be a Jurist review board at the executive level. This board will be a fast track to impeachment. All judicial decisions by all federal judges will be reviewed by the board for constitutional compliance,’’ I said.

‘’Any judge that had five of their decisions overturned or is deemed to be legislating from the bench, rendering biased decisions by the review board shall be considered to be impeached. Congress can overturn the decision of the review board by a two-thirds vote,’’ I said.

‘’The makeup of the review board shall consist of two members from the Senate Judiciary Committee, one from each party. Two -members from the House Judiciary Committee, again one from each party and four appointees from the executive branch and one retired Supreme Court justice,’’ I said.

‘’The bills necessary to bring about these changes shall be entered in both Houses today. A couple of the changes have been deemed to need changes to the Constitution through amendments. All fifty states will have the proposed amendments sent to the governor and their legislators today,’’ I said.

‘’I do not and will not support a Constitutional Convention to make these or other changes,” I said.

‘’The next issue is the rolling blackouts from the Hawaii volcano. I have been informed by the emergency taskforce that is overseeing utility restoration that they expect enough emergency generation to be on line by the end of the week to end the blackouts,’’ I said.

‘’I know the duration and geographical size of the blackouts has been steadily reduced almost weekly. I’m sure everyone will be glad to see them gone permanently,’’ I said.

‘’There is still more emergency generation being installed and to be online before winter as a safety factor,’’ I said.

‘’Sadly, I have learned that the promises of recycling have not panned out. An estimated two-hundred and fifty million tons of solar panels are going to end up in landfills, ‘’ I said.            

‘’The news about the damaged wind generators is not any better. There were high hopes that many of the gearboxes and generators could quickly be rebuilt or repaired. So far inspections are only showing that one in ten are candidates for repair,’’ I said.

‘’That said, the temporary generation may have to be used for a much longer time. The utilities in the affected area are requesting permit approval for additional coal, gas and oil power plants to get the generation reserve back to comfortable levels. I expect construction to begin immediately on that series of projects,’’ I said.

‘’The utilities have been pushing the envelope with existing generation and transmission lines for months. Maintenance of those systems was cancelled or postponed and now is in a critical state. The western generation is coming on line in the nick of time so the work can be done so without additional outages and blackouts,’’ I said.

‘’In other news, the USS Missouri has been at the Newport News shipyard and is in drydock for cleaning, repairs and repainting from the ash damage. I also understand the dredging and other things necessary for permanent berth at the Navel Academy are nearly complete,’’ I said. ‘’I plan to be one of the first visitors to the ship when it officially opens to visitors,’’ I said.

‘’While I am talking about the Navy and Navy ships, there is another concern with the ship building program. They are simply too far behind on construction of new ships. They are twenty ships behind and at least fifteen years or more before those ships will join the fleet – with no end in sight. This doesn’t even begin to address the huge repair backlog,’’ I said.

‘’I had hoped that the lesson learned by the Navy and shipyards from the war would be carried over to correct the deficiencies, but it has not. Therefore, I have ordered the Navy not to award any more new construction contracts to any ship builder that cannot guarantee delivery in four years,” I said.

‘’I ordered the Navy several months ago to begin the process of engineering and investigating locations for a new ship yard and drydocks that would be under Navy control. That work is done and the final evaluations are on my desk for the Sectary of the Navy and Joint Chiefs to review tomorrow,’’ I said.

‘’I also ordered an investigation into foreign shipyards that had the capabilities to build some of our smaller Navy ships. Several of our allies that have shipyards have responded with attractive proposals that are being seriously considered,’’ I said.

‘’I know this is going to cause serious discussions within our defense community. To have to even be looking at foreign shipyards to build our ships gives me horrible indigestion. But when the latest destroyer to be funded has a keel laying date of twelve years out with a four year completion date after, something has to be done differently,’’ I said.

‘’There have been a couple of mergers with foreign ship builders constructing US Navy ships in our local shipyards. The change in the rules will allow the destroyers to be built at their foreign yards with the top-secret equipment installed after they make their wat to the US,’’ I said.

‘’The next item on the list is our educational system. It has gone from being the world’s best to being the worlds worst in some areas. Our college education is no better off,’’ I said.

‘’In order to get a real picture instead the white washed stuff the boards of education are pushing (with an abundance of sugar coating), national standardized testing has been ordered by the Department of Education. This new testing is mandatory,’’ I said.

‘’The tests will be delivered to all states in early May. Students from the sixth to twelfth are required to complete the test before May fifteenth,’’ I said.

‘’The department took testing from five countries with the highest rated education systems in the world. A team of experts compiled all the test questions for each grade level and developed the test we are going to use,’’ I said.

‘’This testing will help set a base line of what is needed to being our schools to top again. Our education system is failing our citizens of tomorrow,’’ I said.

‘’Let’s take a ten minute break and I will come back to take questions. I have some phone calls to respond to,’’ I said.

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