dcstoryteller

[dcstoryteller]

Nuclear Bombs, Assasinations, and Secret Airplanes

This is the first post of my new series of Substack essays. For background, I am a retired 30 year resident of the Washington DC area, but now living in the Panhandle of Florida. Over the years, I have written blogs and essays about whatever comes to my mind. Sometimes politics (I am a Republican), sometimes books, sometimes religion, sometimes part of my life, sometimes about someone I have met. Whatever strikes me as something that is on my mind and may be interesting to others out there is what I will write about. Here is my first post. If you like it, you can subscribe and you will get more of them.

Nuclear Bombs, Secret Airplanes, and Assassinations

In a previous life, I worked at a senior level in the US Department of Energy. The Department is misnamed, because almost all its budget goes toward the building, storage, and disposal of nuclear weapons and to the environmental cleanup of the facilities which first manufactured the plutonium and associated materials. Only a small part of the budget goes to research on nuclear, fossil, and alternative kinds of energy. The Department does not manage the energy business in the US.

One of the facilities we owned and operated was the Nevada Test Site, located outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. That is the place where 928 atomic bombs were tested, both in the atmosphere and underground. On an official trip there, we were to witness an underground explosion of one of these “devices” as they were called. We toured the tunnel and explosion room with all its measuring computers and wires and were supposed to watch the explosion from a bunker, but it was postponed. It was later exploded, but I think it turned out to be the last underground test before the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty took effect.

Since I was a high official with a top-secret security clearance, I requested a tour also of Area 51, which is located nearby. I told them I wanted to see the remnants of the Roswell flying saucer crash and the other things going on there. Evidently my clearance was not nearly high enough, because I was just laughed at.

Area 51 has an incredible history of supersecret research and development of airplanes and other items. For instance, they, along with Lockheed, created an airplane in 1960 that could fly at 90,000 ft. and go over 3 times the speed of sound. It was created to spy on the Soviet Union after Gary Powers’ U2 was shot down. It was the precursor to the SR-71. You can see that airplane on display at the Air Force Armament Museum just outside of Eglin AFB today.

If you are interested in finding out more information on Area 51, I highly recommend reading “Area 51. Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base” by Annie Jacobsen. I also read and recommend her book “Operation Paperclip” about how we brought Nazi scientists to America to create our rocket and missile programs. Her book, “ DARPA, America’s Top Secret Military Research” was chosen as a Pulitzer Prize finalist. I also just finished reading her well- researched book about the CIA and other spy agencies. It is called “Surprise, Kill, Vanish”. It goes into the history of assassinations all over the world. Jacobsen’s most recent book, published in March 2024:” Nuclear War; A Scenario” is being adapted into a screenplay. She has documented her books with first person interviews, declassified papers, and other histories. She is an incredible researcher and writer. You just can’t make this stuff up.

[dcstoryteller]

Washington Secrets and Stories turned 12 today!

[dcstoryteller]

How Democrats want to manipulate the Presidential succession system

July 25, 2022

For many months now, it has been apparent to me and just about everyone else that Joe Biden will never finish his presidential term, much less run again in 2024.  Anyone who says different is lying to you or is really stupid.  We all know that his dementia and his crazy policy actions have destroyed his approval rating and are leading to a Democratic disaster in the polls.  This will show itself in the mid term elections in November.

So, what do the insiders in the Democratic party plan to do about it?  Did you see Governor Gavin Newsom come to the WH while Joe was in the Middle East?  Who was he meeting with and why?  That was no accident.  Here is what is going on.

To get rid of Joe, the Democrats first have to get rid of Kamala because no one in their right mind wants her to be President.  They are scheming now about how to do it.  Some prosecutor may drum up some financial or ethical charges against her and her choice may be to resign or go to jail.  When the government wants to get you, it can, even if you are VP.  Just ask Spiro Agnew.  Or, some mega rich Democrat offers her a job in his company for a guaranteed $25 million a year for 10 years.  She won’t turn that down,

Agnew was charged with embezzlement or bribery or kickbacks and was forced to resign.  Gerald Ford was named in his place.  Then, when Nixon had to resign, Ford became President.  The same thing could happen if Kamala is forced out, Newsom appointed VP and Joe step down because of bad health.  Then Newsom gets to be President without ever running for it. As an incumbent in 2024, he would be a tough opponent for any Republican.

Here is the only fly in that ointment...When a VP is appointed, the House and the Senate must confirm that choice by a majority vote of both houses according to the Constitution 25th Amendment, Section 2.  With the VP office vacant upon a Kamala resignation, there would be no one to break a tie vote which there would be if all 50 Republican Senators stayed together.  In this case, Mitch McConnell would have the upper hand in deciding who the VP would be.  If the Republicans win the House in November, they will not confirm another crazy liberal to be VP. You can bet it would not be Gavin Newsom.  Of course the Democrats know this, so are scheming to get one Republican vote, maybe the same way they get rid of Kamala and to make it happen before November.

In any case, you can bet that the normal presidential succession will not be taking place over the next two years. 

[dcstoryteller]

Random thoughts on abortion, guns, and other stuff

June 25, 2022

I guess because I am a man, I have a difficult time understanding why women are so upset that states are putting restrictions on abortions and that the Supreme Court says there is no constitutional right to have an abortion. 

When I was single, people worried about becoming pregnant and took precautions...the pill, condoms, and timing.  Getting an abortion seemed like an extreme measure that was not necessary if you followed some pretty easy guidelines and took care of yourself and your partner.  Why do men and women not understand how to do this so that you don’t have an abortion?

I recognize that there are mistakes, miscalculations, and unforeseen circumstances like rape and incest, but an abortion should be the last alternative, not the first.  Churches and non-profits should work on providing these alternatives, like adoption services, housing and education for pregnant mothers, and medical service.  Really, an abortion just kills a defenseless child and that just seems so unnecessary and barbaric.  Let’s be honest, most abortions are done on minorities, mainly black women.  Why is that?

I don’t have the statistics, but we all know that huge numbers of  black women have children out of wedlock and there is no husband or father present to assist in raising the child.  I personally know of black men who have fathered several children by different women and who assume no responsibility.  Probably there are white guys that do this as well, but we should have some methods to stop this.  The failure of our culture to have stable homes with a mother, a father, and jobs seems to be the primary problem here.

This sounds extreme and I guess it is, but maybe we should require all women who get pregnant out of wedlock to give birth and then to give up their babies to adoption agencies.  There will be no government handouts for the mothers. Instead, the money goes to the agencies and the people who adopt. Then, all men who impregnate them should be forced to work in child care and adoption agencies for six months. Let them to see how precious kids are and understand why they should use birth control if they can’t use self control.  Right now, we just subsidize both parents and they just keep having unwanted babies.

On guns...it you talk to any police officer, they know which small number of criminals in their midst are causing all the problems.  They should concentrate on arresting those and when they find guns, they should confiscate them and the prosecutors take them off the street and put them in a secure facility for a long time.  It won’t take long before gangs and criminals figure out that carrying a gun or using one in a crime will put them away for a long time and maybe they will quit.  Having an unregistered gun in your possession will send you to jail immediately. Why is that so hard to do?  I know defense lawyers and social justice warriors will object, but so what?  Most people will cheer to see this happen.

[dcstoryteller]

CRUISING WITH COVID

January 26, 2022

My wife and I are regular “cruisers”.  We have been on 15 ocean cruises and 4 river cruises.  We usually go on Oceania ships, but the last two cruises have been on the Regent Splendor.  It is by far the finest ship we have been on.  Regent is owned by the same company that owns Oceania.

We took the first cruise on the Splendor last September 2021 around the UK, starting and finishing in London, England.  Although Covid was an issue, it was no problem, as we tested twice prior to leaving and then again before we came back to the US.  All were negative and as far as we know, no one got Covid aboard ship and we were able to go to every port except Dublin, Ireland, which is part of the EU, so they had stronger restrictions than the UK.

We almost always take a trip during January somewhere warm, like the Caribbean.  Since we liked the Splendor so much, we signed up for another cruise leaving on January 13 to 7 Caribbean ports, 5 of which we had never been.  I was calculating back in October when I made the reservations that Covid was almost over, but I didn’t count on Omicron.

Again, we both tested before we left home for a day in Miami, and then another test was required by the ship before we or anyone else could board.  Negative again.  The crew was the same crew we had seen in September and they had not been off the boat since then.  They also were tested every week.  So, it was about as safe as you could make it, especially since they required masks everywhere except outside and when you were drinking or eating.  Again, no covid among anyone that I heard of during the 12 day trip.

The problems came once we were underway and our first stop, Puerto Rico, decided they didn’t want a ship stopping there, so we added an extra day at sea and skipped San Juan.  We had been there, so it was not a big loss to us.  However, as the days went by, more and more islands put themselves off limits to cruise ships, so they cancelled stops in St.Kitts, Dominique, St. Lucia, Antigua, and St. Bart’s.  Instead,we stopped at St. Marteen, Tortola, and Barbados,all of which we had been to before.  The rest of the time was at sea.

So, we were disappointed, but we did have beautiful weather, a wonderful ship and crew, great food and entertainment, and a lot of time to read, nap, sit by the pool, or watch movies.  So, it could have been much worse. 

We have cruised three times aboard the Crystal ships and they are luxurious as well and we loved them.  I am thankful we were not on their ship this time.  The ship Crystal Serenity was threatened with seizure for an unpaid 4 million dollar fuel bill in Miami, so they went to the island of Bimini instead and ferried all the passengers off from there to Miami.  I can just imagine the chaos that created.  So, we were thankful.  We will cruise again.

[dcstoryteller]

RIP Bob Dole

December 9, 2021

As I write this, former Senator Bob Dole is lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda being honored as one of America’s giants.  A badly wounded veteran of WWII, a Congressman, a Senator, a Presidential Candidate and a friend to everyone who met him, he will be missed and revered.

During my time in Washington, I had occasion to meet him several times, but none more memorable than one day when I pretty much spent the day with him. I don’t remember the year, but I suspect it was around 1990 or 1992.  I know it was campaign season because I was in New Orleans for some Republican event where Senator Dole was the speaker at a political luncheon. I was friends with some of his staff who accompanied him and I happened to mention in front of him that I was headed back to Washington, but had missed my commercial flight.

He immediately suggested that I fly back with him on his chartered private jet.  That sounded like a great idea, so I accepted.  Then he told me that he had to stop in Mississippi for a Senator Trent Lott event that afternoon.  No problem, I knew Trent and looked forward to seeing him again and participating in whatever even they were having.

So, we took off and withing an hour or so were in Jackson MS.  We proceeded in a motorcade to the event, which turned out to be a huge and well attended fundraiser for Trent Lott and the Mississippi Republican Party.  My friend, Haley Barbour, who later became Governor of Mississippi was there, along with several others, like Clarke Reed, the legendary Chairman of the MS Republican Party.  It was a great event and Dole made a wonderful speech.  Then we went back to the airport for the trip back to Washington.

Then, Senator Dole told me that we were going to stop off in someplace in Georgia for a few minutes for a Georgia Republican event.  It turned out that it was an annual barbecue fundraiser, where every Republican officeholder and activist was.  It was a huge event and Dole was a big hit as the speaker.  Little did I know that the trip back would include these two stops, but they were lots of fun and memorable.  I probably didn’t get back home till midnight that night, but it was well worth it.

The plane we flew on was relatively small and I ended up sitting across from the Senator the whole trip.  Unlike others I had flown with on small planes, like Secretary Bill Simon, and OMB director David Stockman, Dole was very animated and enjoyed discussing politics and telling stories.  He was a very funny guy who had quips about everyone and everything.  I became a huge fan of his after this trip and mourn his passing.

[dcstoryteller]

My trip to the UK (Part 3)

October 5, 2021

My recent trip (September 9-22) to the UK centered around a cruise on the Regent Splendor, a brand new ship on its maiden voyage since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. (www.rssc.com). We were worried every day before the trip that it would be cancelled for some reason, but it was not, just two ports eliminated...Dublin and Waterford in Ireland because they are part of the EU rather than the UK.  The EU has much more restrictive policies than the UK.

This ship is incredible, and I recommend it to anyone who likes cruising.  It only holds 750 passengers, but they had restricted it to 350 for this cruise.  They had a full staff who were delighted to be sailing again.  Before we got on the airplane to London, we had to have a PCR covid test, whose results were not available till the morning of our flight.  We had to show our passports and vaccination cards plus a “passenger locator form” before we could board.  That form also showed that we had signed up for another covid test before we got on the ship.  We had to get another test before we boarded the airplane back home.

We were negative on all of these tests.  The crew had been on board since July when they all had to do a 14 day quarantine and weekly tests.  They were not allowed to go onshore during the cruise.  In spite of that, the service was excellent and friendly.  The entertainment was the best I have ever seen, and I have done 18 cruises over the years.  The performers were veterans and very professional.  The scenery, lighting, and sound was top notch, and the choreography and singing were close to perfect.  The cruise director was the best I have ever had.

The ship itself was well designed and fitted out beautifully, with top grade materials and furnishings and artworks.  There was nothing cheap about this place. The rooms were oversized and the balconies were the largest I have ever seen. The food and service were incredible.  There was a main dining room, the Compass Rose, which would serve you any kind of meat or seafood you wanted, cooked how you wanted it and with whatever sauce suited your tastes.  it also included chef’s specials every night.

The specialty restaurants were Italian, French, Asian and American and all were first rate and easy to reserve.  Also, there was a fabulous coffee bar and a informal lunch place around the pool, not to mention a terrace restaurant with a buffet for breakfast and lunch that served all palettes. 

My favorite activity on the ship was not the spa (although that was great), not the casino (although I came out a $400 winner) or the pool (because it was too cool to swim).  My favorite activity is a French cooking class I took one afternoon.  A top chef, with several assistants, who cleaned and cleared as we cooked, walked us through cooking four items...a mushroom and apple crepe, a salad with vinaigrette dressing, a tenderloin with burgundy sauce, and a bread pudding.  We got to eat all of them after the class and they were yummy. I love cooking anyway, so to learn some new techniques (like cutting the mushroom in half and putting the flat side down to slice it) was very helpful.

The cruise was so good that when we returned home, we made another reservation for January on the same ship to go to the Caribbean. I can’t wait.

[dcstoryteller]

My trip to the UK (Part 2)

October 1, 2021

In my last blog, I detailed part of our trip to the UK during two weeks of September.  Today, I am going to describe a couple more highlights from the trip.

Before we even got on the cruise ship in London, we spent the night at the Royal Horseguards Hotel near Trafalgar Square. It is located next to Whitehall Street, so I found the Churchill War Rooms museum just a couple of blocks away.  This was where Churchill and his staff worked daily during WWII.  It was underground and cramped, but all of the rooms...conference, radio, kitchen, bedrooms, maps, etc.  were all still there just like they had walked off and left them the day the war ended.  If you saw the movie “The Darkest Hour”, most of it was filmed right here.  Worth going to.

Another highlight of the trip was our visit to Liverpool, England, the home of the Beatles.  We took as small group tour, led by a gentleman who grew up there and would go see the Beatles as a youngster.  He took us around to show us where each of them grew up..their house, their schools and the parks they played in.  All along he told us stories of their early years.  Lennon and McCartney were boyhood friends, Harrison was a great guitar player that they hooked up with whom they knew from other bands they had played in and Ringo (born Richard Starkey) was a poor kid who spent most of his young life in and out of hospitals with TB and other issues.  He became their drummer after the original drummer was fired.

We went down Penny Lane, a street where Paul and John walked to school, and visited Strawberry Fields, which was a home for wayward girls.  John and his friends used to go there to pick up girls. He told us about both of their mothers who died young.  Paul’s mother, Mary, was the inspiration behind his song “Let It Be”.  She used to say those words to him as a child when he was despondent.

We visited the street where the nightclub, The Cavern, was.  Street was lined with similar clubs, all of which tried to claim some attachment to the Beatles.  We then went to the Beatles Museum, which contained a lot of artifacts and stories about them. We learned about Brian Epstein and how he ended up managing their careers and changing their lives. Epstein’s family was well off, owning several furniture stores in Liverpool.  They converted one of them to a music store and gave it to Brian to run.  He was encouraged to walk down the street one day to a small club where the Beatles were playing.  He could see their potential, so bought out their contract from their manager for 40 British pounds.

I have more to tell, so I will write a part 3 in a few days.  Stay tuned and feel free to ask questions or make comments.

[dcstoryteller]

My trip to the UK

September 25, 2021

My wife and I just returned from a two week trip to England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.  We made it to all those places by a cruise ship, the Regent Splendor.  It was the first cruise made by this ship since the Covid pandemic began, over 18 months ago.  It was so special that the CEO of Regent came on the cruise.

It was almost a holiday atmosphere on board the ship.  Most of the passengers were experienced cruisers and most were Regent veterans.  The staff had not sailed for 18 months either, so they were excited to get rolling again.  They were all in a great mood and extremely attentive to our needs and wants. 

I am tempted to tell you all about the trip, but I kept a daily journal while on the cruise and it  reflects what all we saw and did.  I don’t intend to go into all those details.  I just wanted to share with you four highlights of the cruise that made all the long airplane flights, the endless lines to get vaccinated and tested, and the hassle of international travel well worth it.

Highlight number one, we spent a day in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  They are part of the UK as they are quick to tell you, and Ireland is part of the EU.  That meant that we were unable to go to Dublin or Waterford, Ireland as originally planned since the covid restrictions from the EU prevented that.  But, the trip to Belfast was very special.

It was special because we spend half the day on the “Titanic Trail”.  Since the Titanic was built and fitted out in Belfast, there is great history there and they have preserved it.  We were able to see the exact spot where it was constructed, along with its sister ship, the Olympic. We walked along the graving docks and dry docks where it all started.  We also were able to view the two large rooms where the drawings were made for the construction.  Those rooms are now part of a hotel, but the rooms have been preserved and made into a restaurant/bar and a meeting room area. 

We then spent a couple of hours in the Titanic Museum, an extremely well done museum which told the complete history of the ship in pictures, dialogue, and even a ride through a simulated construction site.  It even documented its hitting of the iceberg and the subsequent radio calls and the efforts to save passengers.  If you get to Belfast, you have to go to this museum.

After the Titanic trail, we boarded a “hop on hop off” bus that took us around Belfast and showed us its historic buildings and modern museum on the river.  This museum was filled with antique automobiles and boats and even a couple of large locomotives. It was well done and I wished I had more time there.

Part II of this trip will be written later. Stay tuned to read about Churchill’s War Offices,  the Beatles and Liverpool and how I learned to be a French chef.

[dcstoryteller]

Getting rid of Stuff

July 11, 2021

My home in Florida has two levels, with the master bedroom and my “man cave and office” on the second level.  As we are getting older now, we decided to turn one of the lower level bedrooms and small bath into a master suite.  It took some doing, but between me and the contractor, we figured out a way to do it.

Now, we have turned the upstairs into a big guest bedroom and bath along with a twin bedroom to hold our grandkids and hopefully their grandkids.  Not only does that give our visitors and family more privacy, but also a lot more room.  So, we have been remodeling for 4 months and it is finished.  Our new master bedroom on the first floor is bigger than the small one that was downstairs, and the master bath turned into a spectacular success. 

In addition, we moved my man cave and office down to the first floor, where the previous twin bedroom was.  So now, we don’t have to go up and down the stairs twenty times a day, if at all.  As we are getting up in age, that is a definite plus.  Of course, my wife has insisted on getting rid of or replacing a lot of things that were twenty years old or older, so we have been going through all our closets and chests and storage bins because we took a lot of our storage away to enlarge the rooms.

In the process, every day, I have to make decisions about “stuff” we find that we forgot we had or really hadn’t seen or used it in years.  I have divided the “stuff” into three categories (and that isn’t always easy to do).  Category one are things that can be thrown away....worn out clothes, broken things, and things that are useless and of no value.  That goes to the dump.

Category two are things that can go to charity or offered for free on a neighborhood internet site.  It is amazing what things people will come pick up that are of no more use to us.  Examples of that are ceiling fans, mirrors, framed pictures (not of family), some furniture, etc.  One person’s junk is another’s treasure.  The charity things are only good serviceable items, like drapes, bed covers, and lots of decorating accessories that seemed so necessary when we bought them.  They go to a local thrift store that supports a women’s program to assist them in getting their life back together.

And finally, Category Three, which are things that are too valuable to give away, and of no more use to us, so we are selling them on Ebay or Facebook, or a Neighborhood website. This has brought us joy because we find someone who really wants or needs our valuable things and can appreciate them.  For example, I have sold a bass guitar amplifier to a guy who is working on becoming a base player.  That day is long gone for me but I know his dream.

We sold a set of twin beds and headboards to a man with lots of kids and he was so happy to have them.  They were expensive when we bought them, but I just put a price on them so people would know they were of some value.  I had over 25 inquiries about them in 24 hours.

My wife has been holding on to a desk from her deceased mother that had great sentimental value, but did not fit our new surroundings or decor.  It was was a special piece that was made back in the 30′s.  We found someone who was a collector of this kind of furniture and he was delighted to have it and can appreciate it, so we know it found a good home.

During my years in Washington, I collected lots of pictures and autographs.  A few of these I knew were valuable.  I don’t really need them anymore, so I found collectors who could appreciate them and pay for them.  This made me feel good as well, knowing I made someone happy. 

We didn’t make much money on all of this, but it is very satisfying to rid yourself of “stuff” and make someone else happy.  You should try it.

[dcstoryteller]

Remembering Buddy Roemer

May 23, 2021

Former Governor Buddy Roemer from Louisiana passed away this weekend at the age of 77.  I didn’t know him well, but our paths crossed several times and I have a couple of stories about him you may find entertaining.

In 1978, a Republican, State Representative Jimmy Wilson, was running for Congress in the 4th District of Louisiana.  It was a tight race between him and two Democrats, Buddy Leach and Buddy Roemer.  It was Buddy Roemer’s first try that I know of for elective office.  Jimmy Wilson’s campaign was not going well even though he was the favorite, so I was recruited to go down there from our Congressional office and see if I could assist the campaign.

So, I went down a week or so before the first primary (where all parties ran together and the top two had a run-off is no one received a majority.  I got there in time to watch a live debate between the two well known politicians and Buddy Roemer, the newcomer.  As a political consultant, I was so impressed with Roemer’s persona and verbal skills, that I said I would not shocked it he made it into the runoff.  Thankfully for my candidate, Roemer finished third, only about one percentage point behind second, thus he was out of the race.

I went back to Washington and told my boss, the Republican congressman from Louisiana, “That guy is good!  You never want to run against him because he is a great campaigner”.  My prediction was right on, and Roemer got elected the next cycle and stayed there three terms.

Romer later got elected Governor as a Democrat.  My boss by that time was a Bush appointee as Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Energy.  He had run for the Senate in 1986 and lost, but had always had a vision of being Governor of Louisiana.  When Roemer was about to run again for Governor, I knew he would not win because he was up against the former Governor, Edwin Edward (who was also wounded) and had lost much of his popularity.

It was a perfect situation for the boss to announce and run.  However, Roemer, at the urging of some White House politicos, decided to switch to Republican and run.  My boss and I had long discussions about whether he should run.  I urged to do it, in spite of WH pressure not to.  I remember a good friend of his high up in the Administration calling him and urging him not to run because they felt Roemer had the best chance.  I felt strongly otherwise.

My boss decided not to run, Roemer did and Roemer lost.  I’ve always felt it was a mistake for the boss not to run, but he was comfortable with the decision and says he didn’t regret it. 

As they say, that is life in the fast lane.

[dcstoryteller]

More random thoughts...

Rather than join the babble going on every day about how Biden and his troops are screwing up the nation, I am just going to list a few random thoughts I have for your enjoyment.

UFO’s... Have you ever wondered why the UFOs that people see at night always have their lights on?  They surely don’t need them to land and why would they want to advertise their presence?  If they are from an advanced civilization, they don’t need them for guidance or to avoid collisions.  I really believe people are seeing explainable things at night.

Electric cars...If we are going to turn this country into a place for electric cars only, where will we get the electricity to run them? If we do away with fossil fuels and nuclear power, we are left with solar and wind energy and a few other things to generate electricity.  There is not enough land in the country to put all the solar panels and transmission wires required. We also know that windmills are very unpopular in populated areas because of the noise they make and the birds they kill.  Solar and wind do not operate in bad conditions...just ask Texas.

Infrastructure...The same people who want to do away with cars now want to build highways and airports.  You can’t fly an airplane on solar or wind, so why build any more airports?  If we go to all electric cars and shared rides and automated cars, it will create LESS demand, so no need for more highways and bridges.

[dcstoryteller]

Campaigning at Christmas

November 28, 2020

I haven’t posted here since the election. I had predicted Trump would win, and I still think he did. The “mail-in” ballots were way too easy to fake and count in several states, like Wisconsin, Michigan, and especially Pennsylvania.  Just think about it ...do you really believe that over a million votes came in after midnight on election day for Biden in those states?  For all of those votes to be legitimate, a million people in the poorest sections of the biggest Democratic cities would have had to obtain a ballot or request one, fill it in and sign it and then mail it back to the election officials.

I just can’t believe that happened.  Instead, Democrat operatives somehow obtained these ballots and then filled in enough of them to overcome the big Trump leads in those states.  Since no one was allowed to compare the signatures with voter registrations, there is probably no way to prove that, but trust me, that is what happened.  I have seen it before in elections I ran as far back as 1974 and 1978.

In any case the vaunted “Blue Wave” didn’t happen and Republicans won all over the board, which is another reason I think Trump won as well.  To retain control of the Senate, Republcans must win at least one of the two Georgia Senate run-off elections on January 5.  If somehow the Democrats win, there will be no check on the left wing policies that Biden and the Squad will likely put into place.  These are too numerous to list here, but they include 1. No restrictions on illegal immigrations 2. Raising your taxes 3. Erasing the US energy independence by destroying the fossil fuel industry 4.  Causing massive unemployment by demanding more and more regulations on businesses. 5. Eliminating any restrictions on abortions, anywhere and anytime and many many more.

So, this Georgia campaign will take place over the Christmas holidays.  That is very difficult because voters’ minds will be on other things rather than politics.  I remember one special election over Christmas where we tried to have the candidate wish everyone and their families a Merry Christmas on a 30 TV commercial.  Unfortunately, the young kids of the candidate couldn’t keep still for 30 seconds and ruined every take to the point where we just gave up.  They were moving, looking around, poking each other, laughing, etc.  I wish we had saved the outtakes so that we could have shown them many years later to the kids...who are all grown adults now with their own kids.

I hope all of you had a Happy Thanksgiving.  Stay safe.

[dcstoryteller]

Trump will win!

On the Monday before election day in 2016, in this column, I predicted that Trump would win, “maybe big”.  Very few people predicted that.  I based my opinion not on polls but two items...1.  No one really liked Hillary.  Bernie Sanders beat her among Democrats in 22 states. She also played “prevent defense” and didn’t campaign very hard.  Biden has barely campaigned at all because when he does, no one shows up and he always says something he shouldn’t. 2.  In 2008, I thought the big crowds for Obama were no factor, but they were.  Trump has had incredible crowds in the last 2 weeks, and I think that means he will win.  Watch this video, which you will never see on the mainstream media and see what they have been hiding from you.  Of course, Tumblr will probably delete it, but it shows the tens of thousands of people who come to his rallies and all of the parades and boat parades that go on.

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1321670203445567494/pu/vid/1280x720/IkGNMrjr4nyP4EKV.mp4?tag=10

[dcstoryteller]

ANWR Part IV

August 28, 2020

So, after leaving Barrow, we were in an Interior Department prop plane that held about 10-12 people.  I sat up on the front seat right behind the pilot, headed back to Anchorage.  The cockpit didn’t have a door, so I could see out their window.  After two or three hours of flying over nothing but snow covered mountains, I could see a big mountain in front of us. 

I went up to the cockpit to get a better view and the pilot told me the big mountain was Mt. Denali, or Mt. McKinley, which is over 20,000 ft. high.  It sits all by itself and was snow covered from about halfway up.  I asked the pilot if we could circle it so everyone would get a view.  He agreed, and we flew completely around it.  The weather was beautiful and it was an awesome sight.  Only two other mountains in the world sit alone and this high.

After spending the night in Anchorage, we drove the next day down to the Kenai Peninsula where we went salmon fishing in the Kenai River.  Since this was off the official trip, we all paid our own way for the trip, including the boats and the guides.  It was a great trip with all of us catching our limit of 2 silver salmon a day except for the Deputy Secretary who only caught one.  He was not a happy camper, but we thought it was funny.

The next morning we took a commercial flight that left just before dawn headed to Valdez. It was by far the most beautiful flight I have ever taken.  We watched the sun come up over the glaciers between the mountains and turned them pink.  The glaciers looked like huge rivers that wound their way down to the sea.  Just awesome.

We landed in Valdez, a small city on the Gulf of Alaska.  The city was completely destroyed by an earthquake back in the 70′s, so they had moved the entire town a few miles away and rebuilt it. It was a port city and the terminus for the Alaska Pipeline.  We saw the facility where the oil we had seen a few days earlier in Prudhoe Bay finished its journey at mile marker 800.  There the oil would be treated to take out water and impurities and loaded on huge tankers which would deliver it to refineries on the West Coast.    Years later, one of these tankers, the Exxon Valdez, went aground about 300 miles south of Valdez and caused a catastrophic oil spill.

Next we boarded helicopters and flew a few miles away to a spot where a new gas terminal was planned to receive natural gas from northern Alaska.  Unfortunately, it never got built.  While we were there on the ground, we experienced the Alaska state bird...the mosquito.  They were everywhere and attacked us with a vengeance.  One of the security guys accompanying us was carrying a high powered rifle.  The Deputy Secretary came over to me and asked why he had that.  I told him to protect us from bears.  He didn’t believe me and asked the man himself (which I had already done).  The man told him that a female brown bear lived near there with her two cubs and he was concerned that they could become agitated at our presence.

This was the end of our Alaskan adventure, as we flew back to Anchorage and then commercial back to Washington DC.  There is a postscript, however.  A year later, I was accompanying the Secretary of Energy on a special trip to Tokyo.  We were flying first class on a All Nippon 747.  The only other passenger in first class was the ABC anchor, Ted Koppel.  As we flew over the middle of Alaska that afternoon in clear skies, I called Ted over to the window and asked him what he saw.  He said all the saw were mountains and snow everywhere.  I said, yes, no towns, no highways, no civilization.  I told him that ANWR was 300 miles north of where we were, so never let anyone tell him how ANWR was a pristine Serengeti  and that we wanted to destroy it with a 1000 acre oil field.

I hope you enjoyed this trip with me, and maybe learned something as well.

[dcstoryteller]

ANWR PART III

August 26, 2

While we were staying at Prudhoe Bay, we took a helicopter ride to the coastal zone in ANWR to see what it looked like.  The environmentalists and the news media like to call it the Serengeti of Alaska.  Trust me, it is not. It is a big desolate tundra where nothing but small scrub plants grow one month out of the year.  The southern part of ANWR, about 100 miles away is covered in snow covered mountains, called the Brooks Range. 

The caribou and musk ox do exist on this land, but not anywhere near where they want to drill.  We looked all over for them, but never saw any.  The question has always been, “Is there enough oil and gas here to warrant drilling for it, since development up here is very expensive.  To give you an indication, the helicopter landed on the tundra near a small stream, really just a ditch that only holds water during a couple of summer months.  The rest of the time it is frozen.  We climbed down into the ditch and could observe oil seeping along the sides of the ditch, so you can figure that yes, oil does exist here and it is probably not too deep.

So, we flew on to the tiny village of Kaktovik.  I would guess there were 50 or so houses there near a tiny airstrip.  It is located right on the Arctic Ocean and we could see the “beach”.  All up and down the beach were the bones of whales.  Evidently the natives go out the the ocean once a year, kill a whale and drag it to the beach, where they cut it up for food and oil to sustain them.  It is a pretty primitive place. The potential drilling places are a few miles away.  The only other thing up there is an old DEW site, a radar installation used to track Soviet missles in case they ever are launched.

After leaving Kaktovik and Prudhoe Bay, we flew to Barrow Alaska, the most northern settlement in the US.  It is the place where Will Rogers and his pilot, Wiley Post crashed and were killed.  There is a monument there to commemorate it.  Another staffer and I walked to the center of Barrow to a Mexican restaurant there.  We were planning on having the most northern margarita in the US.  But, alas, selling liquor is forbidden there so we had to settle for soft drinks with our tacos.  Meanwhile, the Deputy Secretary wanted to fish on the most northern point of the US.  He was driven up there and cast a few times, with no luck, but decided to leave after a couple of natives drove up, obviously drunk, and started shooting at every bird that flew by.

Part IV about flying past Denali, and going to Valdez and the Kenai Peninsula next.

[dcstoryteller]

Arctic National Wildlife Reserve Part II

August 24, 2020

In last week’s blog, I described to you what the ANWR is and how it got there.  I have a couple of stories to tell about it from my trip there and will attempt to do it here in an abbreviated way.

As the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of Energy, one of our portfolios was fossil energy.  So, we flew to Anchorage, AK, to hold a National Energy Strategy Public Hearing to hear that state’s ideas on what our strategy should be.  We spent a couple of days there meeting with important people.  At night, however, with another staffer or two, we ventured into Anchorage night life to see what it was like. 

We went to the best bar I have ever been to in my life...Chilcoot Charlie’s.  It had four big rooms...a long bar room, a room with a country band, a room with a rock and roll band, and a room with a “grunge” band,.  Each was packed with revelers and was very loud.  All the bands were good and we had a great time.

After an overnight stop at Denali National Park, where we made a quick tour of the park, looking for wild animals...we didn’t see any and we almost got stranded on a washed out road high on the mountain. But the two women on our trip swooned over the leather clad cowboys who accompanied us.

Then it was on to Prudhoe Bay to see the oil development there.  We landed our Interior Department airplane at Deadhorse, the original settlement up there which has an air strip. Almost all the supplies for that area are brought up by airplanes or in trucks during the winter on ice roads. We were taken by an old school bus up to the present day site.

It was like landing on the moon.  It was a featureless plateau area with no vegetation, even in August, with sleet coming down.  There was one large building which looked like something out of  science fiction movie of a Mars encampment.  The building housed not only the oil rigs and equipment, but also the living quarters of the workers.  I think it was about 5 or 6 stories tall and was multicolored.  We spent one night there.  It was equipped with a cafeteria, offices and recreation rooms.

After touring the industrial part of it, we realized that it was a transfer place where oil was coming in from several rigs near there and then pumped into the Alaskan Pipeline.  The oil was hot coming out of the ground, about 140F if I remember correctly.  In order not to damage the permafrost, the pipeline, about four feet in diameter, was covered in another two feet of insulation and raised above the ground on a built up levee. This enabled the caribou and other animals to continue their migrations without interruptions.  In fact, the caribou loved the pipeline because it was warmer than the surrounding air and it was above the teeming flies and mosquitoes which tormented the animals.

We stood at the beginning of the pipeline and had our pictures taken there by mile marker “0″.  We would see mile marker “800″ later in our trip.  That and other stories of our trip to ANWR on my next post.