The New American Digest

Came to me I suggested a book about redemption a few weeks ago which a few of you mentioned you had ordered.

So – what did you think?

Suggested by Joe via email

A few days back the topic of Chem-Trails was “discussed” with some denying such. This should put the proverbial nail in the coffin as to whether or not the U.S. has conducted such shenanigans.

Operation Popeye / Sober Popeye was a military cloud-seeding project carried out by the U.S. Air Force  during the Vietnam War in 1967–1972. The highly classified program attempted to extend the monsoon season over specific areas of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, to disrupt North Vietnamese military supplies by softening road surfaces and causing landslides.

The chemical weather modification program was conducted from Thailand over Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam and allegedly sponsored by Secretary of State Kissinger and the CIA without the authorization of then Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird , who had categorically denied to Congress that a program for modification of the weather for use as a tactical weapon even existed.

Objectives

Operation Popeye’s goal was to increase rainfall in carefully selected areas to deny the Vietnamese enemy, namely military supply trucks, the use of roads by:

1. Softening road surfaces
2. Causing landslides along roadways
3. Washing out river crossings
4. Maintaining saturated soil conditions beyond the normal time span.

The goal of the operation was to extend days of rainfall by about 30 to 45 days each monsoon season.

Public revelation

Reporter Jack Anderson published a story in March 1971 concerning Operation Popeye (though in his column, it was called Intermediary-Compatriot). The name Operation Popeye (Pop Eye) entered the public space through a brief mention in the Pentagon Papers and a 3 July 1972, article in the New York Times. 

[Ed: I’m going to chicken out and not take a stance one way or the other on this topic. I do not deny the “government of the people, by the people, for the people” (depending on which people) will perform nefarious actions. Whether or not those actions are successful or not is a different matter. For example, I believe the wuflu fiasco was a failure in terms of its intended purpose.

Existence and success do not necessarily go together.

On the other hand, if at first you don’t succeed … apply more funding.

There’s a whole lot of constantly renewing-itself atmosphere … and most of it exists over massive bodies of water and uninhabited land.

The earth is a very resilient mechanism and while “we” might succeed in offing ourselves unto the hands of whatever gods may or may not exist, the planet will continue on its merry way and soon wipe all evidence of those crazy monkeys from its face.]

The USS Wisconsin (BB64) was commissioned in 1944, decommissioned in 1948, re-commissioned in 1951, re-decommissioned in1958, re-re-commissioned in 1988, re-re-decommissioned in 1991, finally discharged from the navy in 2006.

Served in WWII, Korea, and the first Gulf War. It is now a museum ship in Norfolk, VA where I took this photo. Her keel was laid after the Missouri’s but was commissioned before. The Wisconsin was the highest numbered battleship to see service, and along with the Iowa, were the last battleships in active service.

The ship collided with a destroyer in heavy fog at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay in 1956. Her bow was heavily damaged and in order to get her seaworthy, the bow from the under-construction USS Kentucky (BB66 – ever completed, never commissioned) replaced that of the Wisconsin, resulting in the nickname “Wisky”.

The Kentucky was to be the last battleship built but was never completed, was used for parts, and finally scrapped in 1958.

originally posted by Jean November 27, 2009

Sometimes, I am asked “Where do your poems come from?
How do you do that?”
It can be difficult to explain and often I simply shrug
my shoulders and reply “I dunno. Just happens.”

The process can be different each time but, one constant
is that I keep a notebook and pen with me, always.
I never know when the urge to write will appear. Often,
it may only be a word or phrase that catches my attention.
I never know when they might come together in one piece.

It isn’t uncommon for something noted days or even
months ago turns out to be a needed title, last line or the
inspiration seed that grows into a complete idea.

For example, the poem I’m posting here…
the title was written as two lines, out of the blue, several
days ago. Last night I was flipping through my notebook,
saw those lines, and started thinking thoughts with words
in them. They were insistent, demanding to be written.
This is what the muse was dictating :

You remind me of someone else…

too much time feeling
bound to do, be, say
aroused rebellion
resulting in not much good
for another batch
of too much time.
lost then found
now is when
not then.
savor self
and spend self
being true
to you.
love always honest
and much
now.