The night proved interesting; I spent time with all my mates talking, holding and making more decisions as to where JBG and we were going. I knew where I was going to be for the next year, at least.

Breakfast was really interesting with the kids, Mom, Dad, Jason and Lisa. The boys ate everything they ordered. I was impressed and surprised. The helicopters were going to carry them back to the island in an hour. I delayed my routine until they left.

At the security meeting the Iranians were up to their normal tricks of threatening their neighbors. They were going to start war games in the Arabian Sea to show the world their new weapons.
That’s fine I thought, we will have planes and ships watching closely – give us all your secrets as it will save lives, ships and planes later.

There were other skirmishes that were noteworthy today, Pakistan and India were saber rattling near ‘Gurdaspur’, a stone’s throw from the Chinese border. Tanks and artillery were moving in that direction, the Chinese were also moving troops and equipment into the same area.

In the African country of Mali the village of Goundham was overrun by Boko-haram. All the elders – both men and women – were brutally tortured then murdered before being dismembered. Over two hundred bodies had been recovered.

Young children were murdered, the rest were evidently taken hostage and gone, the village burned to the ground. It was the tenth village eliminated this year. I wondered if there was a pattern to the destruction – a direction they were going.

I ordered the General to begin an analysis of the raids and to begin a close-in surveillance with satellites to see if the rebels could be found.

The US military was not in the area but former Black Bear had a contract with Mali and several other countries in the area for training. We continued the contract. It would give training a whole new meaning if they were given an enemy to use for training.

After the security meeting there was a staff meeting where I would find out how well I did with the speech to the public. All the media ratings reports were in.

The first order of domestic business was California. The governor – instead of applying state pressure to end the riots – was saying things to encourage them like the true communist he was suspected to be. He was not alone; the legislature was copying his lead.

The homeless riots had expanded territory – now there were sixty city blocks of San Francisco involved. Homeless from other cities – Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego – had started making demands and areas of unrest and rioting.

I called Attorney General Dunne, ”You and your top lawyers to the Oval Office in one hour, please.”
Then I called General Ingram, ”Have the chiefs available this afternoon, I may have a need for an emergency meeting.”

I called my legal department and told them that I wanted the constitutional experts for the meeting.

In the meantime I did a VCATS with Andy about the Boko-haram and told him what I was doing on this end but that he needed to step up security and increase the size or our groups there. I didn’t want our people to become causalities there as Black Bear men had been. You may want to think air support if it is feasible.

I finally went to the staff meeting that was just beginning. The ratings for the State of the Union were the highest in a decade. I guess people just wanted to hear what the first woman President had to say. They stayed to the end of the speech and that was unusual, according to the people that studied such things.

There were several outfits that did the survey thing. Overall the speech was well received with a seventy percent favorable rating. I wondered if they did points for style and form like they did for figure skating.

”I guess it will be safe to do the fund raiser Saturday night, I won’t have to worry about the tar and feathers,” I said.

Saturday night was the resumption of the fund raisers. This one was at the Las Vegas Convention Center. This one was for the middle class with hot dogs, hamburgers and the like. It was twenty five dollar admittance with music and show girls to open the show. There was a raffle for ten Browning shotguns and I was to draw the winning numbers. The anti-gun people were going to scream bloody murder.

Then Troy hit me with one I didn’t expect would be asked.

”Would you vote for President Jones if she were to run?”

”Seventy five percent said – yes,” Troy said.

”Only place to is go down if you believe in polls. I currently have no intention. It won’t be that high after I tackle California.”

The hour was up and everyone was waiting on me in the larger meeting room.

For four hours there was an aggressive debate about the mess in California from a legal and ethical standpoint. The homeless riots were spreading; Colorado had the first one today. The Denver mayor had it under control quickly, however activists were already headed there to stir the flames.

Activist were planning marches in other cities with large homeless populations but California was by far the biggest in terms of numbers.

I asked the lawyers what the legal routes were that I could take. It took us four hours to go through all the possibilities available to me. When they were finally finished I had an outline to follow. It allowed no room for any missteps.

I called the Generals in and began the search for enough room on a nearby military base or other federal property nearby and give them the orders I had legal blessings to do. There was no time to waste and lots of things had to happen fast.

Homeland Security with the FBI had their work cut out for them in the terrorism court getting dozens of warrants.

I called FEMA and told them to prepare a response for a national emergency and at this point all of activities were to be classified as secret.

FEMA could find all the things necessary to care for the homeless we were going to remove from the city. The only thing is, it was going to be much different – more controlled and a lot more.

The day was nearly over, all the people that were in the series of afternoon meetings were to be here at 1000 with real solution and answers.

The firing of the agriculture people had hit the Washington gossip circle among the agencies. There was no doubt that I wanted answers to the questions I asked. I expected results to my instructions and orders – not excuses – or else.

With Connie, Troy and the chairman of the party we planned the next sixty days of fund raisers. I was sharing the days on the calendar with the girls. They were still pumped about last night’s State of the Union speech, its energy, its media results and ratings this morning.

I was going to do three a week; one of them on Saturdays – either Saturday during the day or Saturday night.
The donations had picked up considerably in the last few weeks, well ahead of the election cycle four years ago.

Thursday morning I did an MTAC with the girls at the office; Marcy, Vicky and Ching Lee. Jenny, the boys, Lorrie and Sara were with me, Lisa was here too for the home schooling.

Then I reviewed the daily security briefs. I was waiting for the group from yesterday with the things I had asked. Thirty minutes later we were seated and the door closed once again.

I listened to reports from everyone and their thoughts. First was the riots in San Francisco; they were still spreading and getting worse. Still there was no action from the governor. It was time to act.

There were decisions to be made and only I could make them. We had covered all the topics yesterday, everyone knew what they had to do.

General Ingram and Mike Summers – the FEMA director – had read my mind; they had put major parts of the plan into effect yesterday without being told.

Four C17s were on the tarmac of the San Joaquin Depot – a joint operations depot. Two were from Florida and two were from Louisiana. The FEMA warehouses had been raided. The material and personnel were being transferred to dozens of Army trucks waiting for orders on where to go.

They were ordered to carry the supplies to Camp Parks. Camp Parks was on six thousand acres with several hundred blacktop and sand. Its primary mission was reserve training. The base also housed a federal prison and the Santa Rita jail.

The training facilities there could house eleven thousand soldiers. There were soldiers and badly needed trucks scattered all over California with its thirty two military bases. Ten thousand Army troops with a total five thousand trucks were ordered to report to Camp Parks tomorrow.

Another five thousand troops and Army trucks were coming from Fort Riley, Kansas. This group was bringing their support units. They had driven all last night and today.

Two thousand Air Force were going to take control of Sacramento’s problem along with several hundred FBI and DHS agents.

Another five thousand Marines with equipment and support were coming from Camp Pendleton in south western California to Los Angles, more than likely setting up tents in the many stadiums and surrounding parking lots.

Troy asked for another fifteen minute slot on the major TV for tomorrow at 1115.

The soldiers at Camp Parks Reserve training center were going to be putting up tents there the rest of the day and evening with help from FEMA. The General’s staff had drawn up how the camp was to be built yesterday, complete with razor wire.

Orders were sent to Major General Jonathan Wainwright Jr., General Richard Donner, Marine Brigadier General Louis B ‘Chesty’ Puller the Third, General Harold Moore and General Simon Scott to report to Camp Parks immediately. Each were to bring five of their staff and notify the joint chiefs of their arrival.

The evening with my family was a welcome change, although it was interrupted often with updates and requests for the many authorizations.

Edit by Alfmeister
Proof read by Bob W.