The New American Digest

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.

Out along the old 1840s Emigrant Trail along the Truckee River Route – just west of the Humboldt Sink – was the most difficult terrain of the journey. Hot, dry, and sandy, covered with vast alkali flats, there was no water between the Humboldt Sink and the Truckee River some 40 miles distant. A rough wagon road was constructed by the late 1840s but travel was so difficult that by 1850 most chose to tackle the equally dreaded but easier travel of the Carson River Route through the 40-Mile Desert between the Humboldt Sink and the Carson Sink to follow the Carson River to the Sierra. The route split near what is/was Toulon, Nevada along I-80, just east of the following maps.

In today’s terms, travellers chose to follow US 95 from just west of Lovelock south to Fallon and US50 over the Sierra south of Lake Tahoe to Placerville rather than follow I-80 west to Fernley and beyond over Donner Pass north of Lake Tahoe to Sacramento. Both routes pretty much follow the original wagon trails of the 1840s. That’s long ago out this way.

Mrs DT laughs about that.

But the Truckee Route was not totally abandoned. Just a few miles west of where US95 cuts off from I-80 were deposits of almost pure salt. By 1864, the area was a significant source of commercial salt, annually producing several hundred tons of salt used in silver ore reduction. When the Central Pacific built past here in 1868, the White Plains station was built here, greatly reducing transportation costs. Prospectors in the area found deposits of silver – the nearby Desert Queen Mine is considered the oldest lode mine in northern Nevada. By 1879, the White Plains settlement had a post office. Salt production started to decrease, the railroad was re-routed to the south, and by 1909, the town of White Plains essentially ceased to exist.

However, not far north of White Plains, a significant gold deposit was discovered in 1908, causing a new mining boom town of Jessup to be established. For a short while, Jessup was home to around 300 people with saloons and grocery stores serving those that worked the 8 mines in the area. The boom was short-lived and by 1909, the mines had played out and by 1912, Jessup had faded away.

Well, one of those days very long ago when I was too ignorant to know how unprepared I was for being out so far that even the boonies were a long way away, I was wandering around some of the back corners of the Trinity Range west of the Jessup site. What’s missing from the picture is my wreck of a 1964 Chevy ¾ ton pickup that I was driving at random through the sage. At some point, I came across some old mine workings … and nearby was this old cabin. This cabin was so remote, blue-enameled pans were still hanging on pegs on the walls, an old stove nearby, and remnants of furniture were laying around inside the cabin.

I may have cut a trail others would follow. Didn’t think of that at the time. I left the pans hanging there but even though that was almost 50 years ago; who knows, maybe the cabin and pans are still there.

I put together a little video sequence overlaying the 1890, 1908, and “now” maps to show changes … and no changes. This region shows the region of the split in the California Trail between the Truckee River Route and the Carson River Route; the Truckee Route heading SW (I-80), the Carson Route heading S (US95).

One can still follow the wagon ruts through 40-Mile a mile or so off US95; old busted oxen shoes and other such metallic trash still lies buried in the sand; any graves though being long ago obliterated.

ghostsniper’s comment reminded me – I should have added these two views:

Looking up road to Jessup – other side of those hills on the left

Looking south at the north end of 40-Mile desert. US95 along base of hills to left

Sometimes black and white says more than color. Up around 12,500 ft in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.