rlfj: Blog

It seems that not everybody enjoys a good cliffhanger. When I first published Chapter 153 a number of people made various comments concerning the marital state of my parents at the time of my birth, and a few others asked about my unnatural sexual interest in my mother. You have to love a good cliffhanger.

I had a few comments about the actual locations of some of the Marines and ships in 2003. My response? Since we didn’t have the massive interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the troop and ship deployments would have been very, very different. If I am sending in the Marines, why not let it be Charlie’s bunch? Several readers reported that they had been present in Monrovia shortly after the Marines went in for real, and my description was relatively accurate.

There were some comments that it was pretty obvious that once Charlie and the Fort McHenry turned up off Monrovia, he was bound to get into the action, regardless of Carl’s orders. That’s probably true, but I couldn’t find a conceivable way not to foreshadow things. Sorry if the surprise was ruined.

Everybody loves Stormy. Presidents and their dogs have a storied history in politics. There was FDR and Fala, Nixon and his Checkers speech, and LBJ picking up a beagle by the ears (not really, but the photo didn’t show that the dog was actually standing on the ground and he just lifted the ears.) Since then we’ve had a ‘controversy’ about the Obama’s dog having a handler and Biden’s dogs biting people. Stormy fits right in. To the best of my knowledge, only Trump has never had a dog, or any other pet.

My dates on the Liberian problem are relatively close to what really happened, and we can assume that enough of a butterfly effect occurred to match the story.

My wife and I had an amusing conversation this morning. The morning news had a segment on the Epstein files, and I commented to her that Carl Buckman would have been actively recruited by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislain Maxwell. My wife readily agreed, saying that Carl was rich and powerful, exactly who Epstein wanted around him. I told her Carl would have certainly been invited but he would have taken Marilyn to the island. She agreed with that, too, but then she said as soon as Marilyn saw what Epstein was up to, she would have hustled Carl out of there, and he would have never gone back. Carl was pussywhipped by his wife, which we both had a good laugh over.

Several people have asked when somebody was going to catch on to Carl’s broken nose. I had this planned all along.

150 has a bunch of different things going on. Some people like the political stuff, some like the speeches, some like the humor. I think there’s a little of everything in 150.

I had one reader comment on my ‘love affair’ with John Boehner. Personally, I have no love for the man. Carl, on the other hand, considers Boehner a personal friend. Carl can also distinguish between being a friend and being an effective leader. They are not the same thing.

Well, 146 proved pretty popular. A common comment was that it was too bad a real President couldn’t give an interview like that. Well, as I mentioned early on, the character traits necessary to become President are precisely the traits least useful in being President. By the time a politician actually gets to that point he and his entire family are highly trained professionals, portraying something quite bland and insipid, without any spontaneity or real feeling.

Then again, every once in a while, something different happens. Jerry Ford had never really intended to run for President, but Nixon plucked him out of Congress to replace Agnew. He and his family were surprisingly open to the public. Betty Ford admitted to being an alcoholic, and that she had gotten a mastectomy. They also admitted that when they moved into the White House they had moved out the separate beds that Richard and Pat Nixon had used, and they shared a bed. She had been a dancer and model prior to her first marriage, which ended in divorce. She also made comments on her children’s possible use of marijuana and pre-marital sex. In 1974 this was all rather scandalous!

I am sure there will be arguments about some of the programs Carl is killing or keeping. I think one thing which is sure is that GWB was much too impressed with the Pentagon and all the wonder weapons and didn’t have enough experience to know that most of the stuff wouldn’t work and would all come in for much more in price. Let’s see how that plays out.