by Gene Skellig
These monsters were designed for only one use: to destroy and render uninhabitable enemy population centers in a retaliatory strike. While they could be used against hardened military targets; however, they could not be produced in large enough quantities to make a meaningful dent in America’s widely dispersed weapons silos and were therefore best used for all-out extermination of the enemy population. This was the cornerstone of the MAD doctrine.
The reactivation of these massive fission-fusion-fission devices was the embodiment of Dvorkin’s belief that through superior numbers and the ferocity of their attack, Russia could actually win a nuclear war. Whoever took on the Russian people, Dvorkin thought with satisfaction as he placed the OPUSTOSHENIYE files in the out-box on his enormous antique desk, would be in for a surprise or two; or four hundred.
In the first months of her administration, while the world began to recover from the dual shocks of the MENE and Indo-Pak wars, President Parker had taken office and taken the reigns of power. With the Indo-Pak war behind her by the end of February, she turned her attention to the economy. By the end of March, she had kept her campaign promise to restore the US Currency.
President Parker signed Executive Order 13971 and 13972 on 21 March, which created a bank holiday from 22 to 28 March. The week was intended to allow the US Treasury, US Post Office, US Military services and the various levels of government to execute the two ground-shaking Executive Orders.
The first Order was entitled “Abolition of the Federal Reserve Cartel”, which effectively seized all assets of the cartel of private banks which had operated the Federal Reserve System and supplied Federal Reserve Notes used as currency in the United States ever since 1913. The Order also transferred all assets and instruments of the Federal Reserve back to the US Treasury, ending 100 years of organized fraud.
The second Order was entitled “United States Treasury - Dollar Restoration”. In the preamble to the Order, President Parker reaffirmed the Constitution of the United States as the fundamental law of the land; stressing that under the constitution, only silver and gold could be used as money. Therefore, issuance of fiat money, constituting a promise to pay and fundamentally a fraudulent scheme, was illegal. The Federal Reserve Notes had never been legitimate legal tender in the United States, and were immediately outlawed. A newly minted US Treasury Dollar - Gold, “Dollar-G”, or “$G” currency would be issued, backed by the gold held in the vaults of the Treasury of the United States. Effective 30 April, the $G would be exchangeable for gold bullion or certified US Gold coins of the realm.
This time, importantly, there would be no attempt to confiscate gold. The $G notes would be printed and distributed in proportion to the actual reserves of gold held in the vaults.
The first independent audit of gold in over fifty years had been conducted in the first eight weeks of the Parker administration, under the watchful eye of the new Secretary of the Treasury, Mark Rogers. The audit revealed that the Federal Reserve had been using the gold reserves of the United States to manipulate the price of gold. The effort to support the value of Federal Reserve Notes had been a disaster as the Fed had “permanently leased” and “swapped” increasing quantities of gold over the last decade, eroding the reserves by over 2,000 tons in the process. So the US actually had 6,116 tons of gold rather than the 8,133 tons that had been reported for decades.
With 6,116 tons of gold at 32,152 Troy ounces per ton, the US treasury’s only real money was the 196,641,632 ounces of gold. That was less than two thirds of an ounce per citizen. There were $79 trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities, entitlement commitments, Federal Reserve notes in circulation, and Treasury Bills. This meant that for the United States to make good on its obligations, each ounce of gold would have to be worth $ 289,867.40 in Federal Reserve Notes. So the Federal Reserve currency was essentially worthless. It had lost its intrinsic value in 1971, when President Nixon closed the gold window, and abandoned any pretence of a gold standard. This conversion of the US dollar into a fiat currency would take forty years to reach its forgone conclusion. With the US dollar entrenched as the world’s reserve currency, and the dollar finally becoming recognized as worthless, the economic engine of the world was sputtering and about to quit. President Parker’s elegant solution was to pull out the spark plug.
Rather than issue the $G at an exchange rate of $290,000 per ounce gold, President Parker and her team had come up with a revolutionary concept: Let it happen - let the banks fail. Let the businesses and large corporations evolve or die, let the government spending programs come to an end, and let the US default on its debt obligations, but don’t let the American people suffer a corrupt banking system or the tyranny of credit and debt for one day longer.
The $G was issued through the Post Office, not the banks. Every American resident was given a US Postal Money Order valued at $G 5,950. It was exchangeable for gold at the permanently fixed exchange rate of $G 10,000 per ounce, and silver at $G 500 per ounce. The newly minted gold and silver coins ranged from one ounce down to 1/100 ounce. The coins contained alloys to make them durable, making their weights slightly heavier.
Alternatively, the money order could be exchanged for $G 5,950 in paper US Treasury Dollar – Gold banknotes that had been secretly printed in the weeks prior to the announcement. The new paper money had an unusual appearance, a plastic feel, complex anti-forgery features and the guarantee: “Backed by the gold of the United States Treasury”. The various denominations sported nostalgic images of the founding fathers on one side, and iconic American imagery on the other. Each banknote bore the signature of the Secretary of the Treasury, Mark Rogers.
All that inhabitants of the United States had to do in order to claim their share of the US Treasury was to present themselves to the Postal Official; swear the Oath of Allegiance to the Constitution of the United States; fill out a card with their legal name, place and country of birth, marital status, and list their immediate family. Then, with the firm and helpful assistance of the many soldiers and police personnel augmenting the Postal officials, affix all ten finger prints onto the back of the form as a record of their having taken the Oath, and then receive two items. The first was a permanent, deep scar and tattoo on the right index finger, a visible sign of their having been welcomed back into the United States. The second was the Postal Money Order which the “renewed citizen” of the USA was entitled to spend in any manner they saw fit.
The 100 million or so landed immigrants and other visitors were now just as entitled to swear their allegiance to the Constitution and flag, and become American citizens, as were the original 237 million citizens of the United States before the Second American Revolution..
President Parker’s team knew that this process would create mayhem. The entire banking and economic system was built on debt and credit; it was not geared to putting real money into the hands of the people. The public and service sectors, moreover, suddenly had no guarantee that their services would be needed the next day. With no credit cards, bank loans and other instruments having any validity, all banks were at risk of failing as they suddenly had no claim on the real property that had once been collateralized.
So the coming days and weeks were expected to be very chaotic, as those banks and other institutions that could rapidly adapt to the restoration of a sound money economy would create new products and enticements to get people to deposit some of their $G or physical gold into their vaults. Others, who could not convince citizens that their money would be secure, or who did not have the ingenuity or creativity to offer the newly empowered citizens anything of real value, were doomed to fail.
Local, State and Federal Governments, and the myriad Government agencies, were suddenly without the deep pockets of the deficit spending - dollar printing machine of the past. The new order would be Government of the People, for the People, and by the People. This, along with the financial emancipation of the population from the tyranny of credit and debt, meant that citizen engagement in decision making
was going to become intense. Without popular support, the vast majority of public programs, entitlements and basic political pork would become extinct.
While these events would play out over the coming months, all the Parker Administration could do was call out large numbers of Militia, National Guard, and Military to protect public infrastructure and to assist the police in keeping the streets safe as the citizens remade their country into a Constitutional Democracy, as it had been from 1776 until 1913.
These months, from Inauguration in January through to the restoration of the US Treasury Dollar-Gold standard in April, had been truly revolutionary. Now, heading into the second week of May, Robert Beck and the rest of the Parker Administration were seeing the world come around to the wisdom and efficiency of a true gold standard. Austrian economic thought had replaced the Keynesian economics of the Welfare State. The economic system of the world now had a single world reserve currency that was redeemable anywhere, was not a liability to anyone, was immune to inflation, and would permit the worldwide economy to begin to function once again. The world had gold.
From this perspective, it was essential to the Parker Administration that US Citizens, and the rest of the world, believed that the new US “$G” would be convertible to gold from the outset and that the US would be constrained by the gold standard. There could be no deficit spending. All Government spending programs would have to be funded entirely by Government income, from flat rate income tax and from the Government share in the bounties that a healthy economy and the riches of the American territory could generate. Not one $G more.
And President Parker knew that in defaulting on its international debts, and cutting out a large number of powerful people in Washington, she had created a great many enemies.
17
LETTERS
15 March: 9 Weeks Before NEW
Casey had been prepared to act quickly if a game-changing event occurred. When the new President had thrown American support behind the Indian invasion of Pakistan in February, Casey thought that such a moment may have arrived. While he was assessing the impact of the pre-emptive strike against the new Pakistani regime, and watching the consequence of the Indian invasion of the failed state, he prepared to act. But when the American president initiated yet another sudden and unexpected move in mid-March, by essentially admitting that the United States was bankrupt and would default on its debts, Casey was certain that the long dreaded moment had come.
Philosophically, Casey agreed that the Federal Reserve system was an illegal cartel and he certainly welcomed the idea of an international gold standard being initiated by the United States, however he also knew that such a dramatic change in world affairs would not come without major upheavals and violence. Whether it would be reprisals from those who had lost billions in the default of the massive US Debts, or simply as a consequence of the death of the old order, the world was going to fly apart at the seams. So it was time, Casey decided, to pull the trigger and send out the invitations.
It took five days for them to reach their destinations. Casey had mailed them out individually as each personalized package was completed. Some were sent to friends and associates whom Casey Callaghan sincerely hoped would eventually make their way to the HOTH, if disaster should come. Others were sent to men Casey had no particular bond with but who had skills and knowledge that could be useful in a disaster context.
A few would come from the Canadian Air Force. Casey was optimistic that at least a few of the guys like Ken, Dave, Bruce, Geoff, Pat, and Coops would find their way to the HOTH. He sent the more personalized letters to these military men. On something of a whim, however, Casey sent letters to some military men who were not his friends at all.
Major Stradins opened his own Callaghan letter after he had taken off his uniform and settled into his favorite chair. Rodney Stradins had no particular fondness for Callaghan. Casey had worked with him at Wing Operations and on more than one occasion they had respectfully agreed to disagree. They had nothing in common, moreover, as Stradins’s one and only hobby was bow hunting, while Callaghan was into what, construction? Stradins remembered how Callaghan had always been involved in some kind of renovation or new house project.
The letter from Callaghan was very short, simply saying hello and letting Stradins know that he had built his retirement house in Qualicum Beach, with “all the features from his past houses, and more!” Casey had also included some crazy kind of map, with blast radius circles around some cities and all the bases in Western Canada, with symbols and a legend explaining the location of various amateur radio operators. Rod put it down to Casey being like some of those guys at the Wing who thought that the wars in Iran and Pakistan meant that the world was headed towards a big war.
The letter concluded with an open invitation.
Why would I ever want to visit Casey? thought Rod . He attributed it to some kind of mid-life crisis and tossed the package onto a shelf above his desk. Rod intended to throw it out, but decided to give it a few days. Something strange was going on with that man, to be sure, but he also had a begrudging respect for Casey.
He recalled how Casey had been given a difficult task, to organize an exercise to validate the “OPERATION ABICUS” contingency plans for 17 Wing, in preparation for the expected disruptions associated with the Y2K event.
Casey had only been with the unit for a few weeks, but he came up with an intensive, four day long exercise. Every conceivable contingency was exercised, ranging from a hostage taking at the Wing Comptroller’s office to failures of the phone lines, power lines, sewer system and water lines. On top of these breakdowns, a variety of very complex military missions were also thrown at the Wing. There had even been a simulation of extreme cold temperatures making operations much more difficult. The Wing had to react to simulated water line failures, mechanical breakdowns, aircraft servicing difficulties and exposure injuries in the simulated -40 C weather. The exercise had been the largest multi-agency exercise ever held in Manitoba, with participation from police, fire, ambulance as well as provincial and federal emergency response organizations.
The exercise was a success and had proven to be a much harder workout than the actual Y2K non-event had later proven to be. The one thing he had taken away from observing how Casey Callaghan had performed during that time was that he was an extraordinarily careful contingency planner. Rod thought of Casey as having some undiagnosed form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, OCD, because of the level of detail Casey put into his planning assignments. He challenged the troops by throwing difficult problems at them, and the Wing’s personnel rose to the occasion. Casey always said: “The troops never fail! It’s we officers in the chain of command who are always the weakest link.” And that was how it had gone. The troops demonstrated their readiness to do their jobs; the cluster-fucks were in Ops.
When he thought about the carefully prepared map that Casey had sent him, Major Rod Stradins began to think that maybe there was a good reason for it. Only weeks later did he fully understand what the package had represented; he regretted his lack of insight for the remainder of his life.
18
STOCKING UP - HARD
30 April: 3 Weeks Before NEW
Tanya was the first one up. She looked forward to the last day of the month. It was when she and Casey usually went over their finances and really discussed their many projects.
There had been a flurry of expenditures after they had first moved in, with a big up-tick when the economy got really haywire. At that time, Casey took advantage of the latest economic crisis and bought a fleet of cars and a variety of small machines.
Casey had explained that if the supply chains fail, labor saving machines, vehicles, spare parts and gasoline would become very scarce.
Diesel, on the other hand, could be produced from a variety of sources during a crisis, as the Germans had proven in the Second World War. On a modest scale, Bio-diesel can be made from vegetable oil, a variety of household waste products, algae and
even fungus collected in the forest.
Casey had hired a student at British Columbia Institute of Technology to determine the most idiot-proof method to make bio-diesel from resources widely available on Vancouver Island. Algal bio-fuel turned out to be the best option.
Casey had the student negotiate a price for a complete small-scale bio-fuel operation. Then he purchased two complete systems and all the spare parts and other hard-to find items so he would have the capability to fuel his next purchase. The Ford dealership in Nanaimo could not believe their luck when Casey snapped up five vehicles, all Fords and all diesels.
In the end they bought two new Super Duty F-250 Long Box King Cabs, a G-Series full sized van outfitted to carry up to 12 passengers, and two identical Ford Invaders – the biggest SUV on the market. As part of the deal, the excited dealer threw together a crate of spare parts, including some essential electronic components. Casey explained that the fleet would be used at a remote logging camp so he wanted everything his mechanic might need to keep the vehicles going for years without interruption. The dealer’s lead mechanic kept throwing in more and more spares as the salesman tried to keep up with the tab.