Chapter 12: For the times they are a’ changin’

Come gather ‘round people where ever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone,
For the times they are a’ changin’!

Come writers and critics who prophesy with your pen
And keep your eyes wide the chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon for the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a’ changin’!

Come senators, congressmen please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it’s ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a’ changin’!

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
And don’t criticize what you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a’ changin’!

The line it is drawn the curse it is cast
The slow one now will later be fast
As the present now will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a’ changin’!

Bob Dylan

10 April

Dallas police began investigating shots fired at ultraconservative Major General (retired) Edwin Walker. There were no clues besides the physical evidence of a damaged 6.5×52mm bullet.

24 April

This morning, when I woke up. Shelley next to me, my legs were very sore. It felt as if they had been stretched -- and then I realized that was exactly what accelerated growth was doing. “Shelley, since you’ve been part of the Clan, do you think you’ve gotten taller? I’m guessing the answer is yes.”

“I think I have, but I haven’t actually measured. You remember the way that Lois had to teach me to match hosiery types and skirt lengths?” I smiled, fondly. “Well, I’m finding again that if I wear conventional stockings, I have to use longer skirts unless I want the tops to show.” Cheerfully and ostentatiously, she batted her eyelashes. “Sometimes, that’s exactly what I want, if I want to go with the happy slut image.”

“Have you been finding that your legs hurt? That bothers me a lot. I think it’s growth.”

“I do some. Not to suggest anything about you, but I’m wondering if my athletic conditioning helps. Still, now that you mention it, I am kind of achy this morning.”

“Maybe it does. How about a nice hot shower, and then, before getting dressed, some mutual massage?”

“Sounds great. Maybe get the hanky-panky out of the way before the shower?” She twisted to take me into her mouth.

“69, dear. I’m close already.” Indeed, we both climaxed quickly, kissed deeply, and moved to the luxury of the many-headed shower. I paused and looked at its plumbing, and announced “I shall, henceforth, call you the Good Hydra.”

“Excellent, Harold. Rather than a shower cap that really doesn’t fit the length of my hair, I’ll use some aluminum foil, which I shall, henceforth, call hydrofoil.”

At breakfast, I asked Marcyne and Dorothy to chat over breakfast, describing our leg aches, and wondering if others were having the problem.

Hew-mons sometimes are slow. James Bong looked up. Cream cheese, please.

Marcyne thought about it. “That makes perfectly good sense. I’ve felt myself growing, but more in muscle. Remember, I’m biologically a couple of years older, so my bones are closer to final length. I might want to check with some of my kinesiology professors, but I suspect we can improve things with massage and stretching. Did I mention that if things ever permit, I want to get certified as an athletic trainer as well as other things?”

Dorothy agreed. “I remember mention of growth-spurt pain in some of my adolescent physiology work. Let me do some checking. I wonder if Dennis O’Flaherty, our retired Athletic Director, would have ideas? I trust him a lot. Don’t know if you remember it, but especially in his last year, he fought the phys ed teachers that only thought about the varsity.”

Marcyne touched my arm. “Could we talk a bit?”

“Sure. My office? Bedroom?”

“Either. Probably bedroom -- more informal.”

We sat on the couch. “Harold, my sorta brother, I’d like to try extending the incest.” I grinned. “When we last played, and you came on my legs, I tasted it when you weren’t looking, and it was weird but nice. Would you be willing to go to bed with me and a more bi woman, cum in her, and have me eat her out as the next step? That won’t necessarily be the last step.”

In our earlier explorations, Marcyne had penetrated me with a finger, rather nicely, and then given me a deep, soulful kiss.

“Sounds like fun. Did you have someone in mind?”

“Probably Frankie, matching me as an athlete. Otherwise, Vivian.”

“Both are bi. Maybe both, so if you need a playmate, there’s one right there?”

“Thanks, bro. Um. Would you like to masturbate together?”

“Sounds like fun.”

“Let’s do it on the bed, side by side but so we can see each other do it up close. Talk dirty to me about how I seem an attractive woman.”

“Seem? You are. Vox can help you present yourself better, but you’ve got a lot to work with right now. Wonderful hair, huge eyes, long strong legs, great ass. Most women do better with makeup, except maybe the blondes and the very dark ones.

“You know that there are forces that are helping with things like accelerated growth and strength. I like that you’re faster than Frankie, and might just get as strong. Anyway, once you get a makeup style, those forces might make them kind of permanent.”

We lay on the bed. She had neatly trimmed her pubic hair, exposing rather lickable labia.

“Oh, Harold. Someday, I’m going to use my mouth on you like I’d do to a giant clit.” Weirdly phrased, but a compliment and turn-on.

The President asked National Security Adviser Bundy to set up a secure conference call with the Ambassador to South Vietnam, Fritz Nolting, a career Foreign Service Officer who was coming to the end of his assignment. On the call would be JFK, Bundy, and Secretary of State Dean Rusk, each of whom had their own secure telephones.

“I’m delighted with the new secure voice system. I can actually talk to people, and recognize their voices, rather than feeling like I’m negotiating with Donald Duck. What do the communications people call it?”

“KY-3 or TROILUS. I wish we had more of them, but the factory is rolling them out as fast as they can. I know that the earlier KY-9 was awful.”

“Why is the KY-3 later than the KY-9?”

“Um, sir, you’d have to ask NSA. They aren’t in the habit of being obvious. Security and all that.” Both men chuckled.

“Mr. Nolting, you have served with honor. Please don’t take what I am about to say with negativity. You have represented the United States to the Government of South Vietnam, but you also represent that government to Washington. Is it not fair to say that you believe that government, with proper South Vietnamese and American military help, can prevail?”

“Yes, Mr. President. Believe me, I know of its many imperfections, but President Diem is a patriot, and personally incorruptible. Sadly, I cannot say that for his brothers or sister-in-law.”

“You and I do not agree on all policies, but I believe you are committed to the interests of the United States. When you return to your country, I would like it to be in what will be a promotion, where you will advance our policies but provide an internal voice of -- dissent may be too strong, but alternative perspective? At this point, I have lost confidence in President Diem. Can you work with me?”

“I think so, sir. Diem is distinct from my belief that South Viet Nam is important to us. Have you seen the report of my meeting with him on 5 April?”

“No, I have not. What is the gist?”

“I tried to impress upon him that the U.S. expected civil, financial, and military reform if we were to fund his government’s counterinsurgency program. Sadly, he was “courteous but immovable” in his opposition to US proposals and Nolting’s personal advice.

“I reported to State that I was “Gravely concerned and perplexed,” Saigon’s obstinacy would result in a “downward spiral of Vietnam-American confidence” and a “curtailment of U.S. aid,” and might well force “a change in the policy of the U.S. Government towards Vietnam.”

“Ambassador, you made a valiant attempt to balance both American and Vietnamese interests, which I appreciate.

“Will you, then, allow me to name you as the Interim Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs? By making it interim, you remain part of the Foreign Service. You and I will get to know one another better before a full advancement.”

“Yes, Mr. President. I will. Until I return to Washington in June, perhaps we can work together with President Diem.

“Mr. Ambassador, in the long run, is it possible that we may need to end support to Diem himself?”

“Frankly, sir, I don’t know, but I have to admit that is possible. He steadily grows more resistant to US advice, more autocratic in his governance, more obsessed with conserving his regular army from combat to ward off coup attempts, more callous in sacrificing ill-trained rural militiamen against increasingly widespread Communist attacks, and more coercive in his suppression of all dissent. His brother Nhu, his chief adviser, listens to almost no one, although Chief of Station Richardson has had some rapport. Nhu’s flamboyant wife, who serves as First Lady for the bachelor Diem, is a public relations nightmare.

“I have to tell you, sir, that CIA Chief of Station Richardson and I have differed on a good deal. It might be very useful for you to have both of us talk to a wise counselor, perhaps with some other people such as GEN Harkins, and come up with a synthesis. Not surprisingly, CIA has better contacts with opposition forces than the accredited diplomats.

“My impression is that there are usually one or more potential coups brewing among the government and military. Diem’s view that preservation of his regime is more important than fighting the Communists may be logical from his standpoint, although if his government were more responsive to the people, it probably would not be so threatened.”

JFK turned to Bundy. “I don’t know. My instincts tell me that there’s too much optimism from MACV and the South Vietnamese, and that Bob McNamara is so focused on quantitative analysis that he ignores any indicators that the statistics aren’t fighting. I can see that the Strategic Hamlet Program appeals to him because it’s far easier to know number of villages than percentage of loyalty.

“Set up, before the 1st, some discussion time with Roger Hilsman and yourself. In the slightly longer term, Nolting has a great idea about getting an independent review. Roger might be just the man to do that.

Before the press conference this afternoon, Reedy met with JFK, LBJ, and RFK. Bobby brought the highly respected Burke Marshall, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. JFK welcomed him. “Burke, maybe you should have been participating earlier. George, at the same time, we have to keep these meetings small. The thought of anyone representing Hoover is appalling.

“A few days ago, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission put out a suggestion that’s needed some analysis. They suggested that you cut off all federal funds from Mississippi until they ended what the report called “subversion of the Constitution”. I ran that idea by the Office of Legal Counsel, and their initial opinion was that you don’t have the authority to do that across the board. You certainly can freeze programs one-by-one, except for some with explicit legislative authorization.

What they asked you to do is

“consider seriously whether legislation is appropriate and desirable to assure that federal funds contributed by citizens of all states not be made available to any state which continues to refuse to abide by the Constitution and laws of the United States; and, further, that the President explore the legal authority he possesses as Chief Executive to withhold federal funds from the state of Mississippi, until ... Mississippi demonstrates its compliance [with the U.S. Constitution and laws]...

[ Mississippi is guilty of] “open and flagrant violation of constitutional guarantees... “nine years after the Supreme Court unanimously decided that segregation in public elementary and secondary schools violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution, Mississippi has taken no step to comply with the law of the land.” The question to be decided it said, concerned “the moral and legal considerations arising out of a situation where, in large measure, the lawless conduct and defiance of the Constitution by certain elements in one state are being subsidized by other states.

“Last week, I told a reporter that I don’t have the power to cut off the aid in a general way as was proposed by the Civil Rights Commission, and I would think it would probably be unwise to give the President of the U.S. that kind of power ... I don’t think we should extend federal programs in a way which encourages or really permits discrimination. That is very clear. But what was suggested ... was a general wholesale cutoff of federal expenditures, regardless of the purpose for which they were being spent, as a disciplinary action on the state of Mississippi.”

LBJ observed “a good note of balance. You can’t completely ignore the state’s rights people, even when they are bigots.”

“Lyndon, I trust your judgment on the extent to which Southern politicians can be pushed. Persuasion, or the Johnson Treatment, is better than having to take it to the courts. Would you, Bobby, and Burke set up a small team to give guidance on both economic pressures and opportunities for persuasion?

[The Treatment] was supplication, accusation, cajolery, exuberance, scorn, tears, complaint, the hint of threat. It was all these together. It ran the gamut of human emotions. Its velocity was breathtaking, and it was all in one direction. Interjections from the target were rare. Johnson anticipated them before they could be spoken. He moved in close, his face a scant millimeter from his target, his eyes widening and narrowing, his eyebrows rising and falling. From his pockets poured clippings, memos, statistics. Mimicry, humor, and the genius of analogy made The Treatment an almost hypnotic experience and rendered the target stunned and helpless...

Rowland Evans and Robert Novak

“In the press conference today, I’m going to say, “We are attempting through the established procedures set out by the United States Constitution to give protection, through lawsuits, through decisions by the courts, and a good deal of action has been taken in all of these cases... , we have the outrageous crime, from all accounts, in the State of Alabama, the shooting of the postman who was attempting in a very traditional way to dramatize the plight of some of our citizens, being assassinated on the road. We have offered to the State of Alabama the services of the FBI in the solution of the crime.

“We do not have direct jurisdiction, but we are working with every legislative, legal tool at our command to insure protection for the rights of our citizens, and we shall continue to do so.”

Burke Marshall interrupted “Sir, you do have the authority, although a court might need to examine it, to intervene not on the state-level crime, but on the Federal offense of violation of civil rights.”

“That’s interesting, Burke, and worth keeping in reserve. Remember, I’m not a lawyer and don’t think like one.

“Let me continue my proposed statement:

“We shall also continue not to spend Federal funds in such a way as to encourage discrimination. What they were suggesting was something different. That was a blanket withdrawal of Federal expenditures from a State. I said I didn’t have the power to do so, and I do not think the President should be given that power, because it could be used in other ways differently. But I can just say to you that the Federal Government has been extremely active in the State of Mississippi, from before Oxford and since, in an attempt to provide for constitutional guarantees. We hope the State of Mississippi will do it, and we hope the local police will do it, and we hope the mayors will do it. Where they don’t do it, the Federal Government will do it within the limits of our authority.”

25 April

I needed to get an update on the way that we were interacting with White House leadership at a personal level. It would give me more perspective on policy and organizational changes.

James Bong and Natasha seemed to agree, as they popped into view as I waited for Frankie, Edie, Arlene, and Terry. We have mentioned before that some of telempathy is amplified by what some humans have called sex magick. Sometimes, the more unusual the sex, the more powerful the magick. Frankie and Edie have surprised us with their intuition about this. Terry always knew it and is mentoring Arlene. Be proud of all four.

Remembering that Frankie and Edie had consented to let the Others help them look more like Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, I was impressed to see that it wasn’t a simple copy, but a hybrid of resemblance with personal uniquely. I had a flash-forward to my memories of alternate life, of flattering paparazzi photos of a Jackie Onassis, on a yacht and at a beach, in a very brief bikini. She had a much more exciting figure than anyone realized during the Kennedy Administration, but it was more trim than athletic.

Frankie, on the other hand, certainly had a facial resemblance, but several differences. Looking at her and then at others around her, she was considerably taller than Jackie. Her short skirt and sleeveless top revealed feminine but substantial muscles. She moved with power and confidence, reminding me of a big cat--not a female bodybuilder, but perhaps fitness model or even more competitive athlete. I knew she was a judoka, and smiled to myself that it probably was well that her growing telempathy caused the Secret Service to consider her a non-threat.

Edie also looked a good deal like Marilyn. While I understood that the private Marilyn was well-read and thoughtful, Edie had a little less of Marilyn’s mixture of party girl and vulnerability, giving an impression of a person with whom conversation would be most interesting.

The biggest myth is that she was dumb. The second is that she was fragile. The third is that she couldn’t act. She was far from dumb, although she was not formally educated, and she was very sensitive about that. But she was very smart indeed – and very tough. She had to be both to beat the Hollywood studio system in the 1950s. [... ] The dumb blonde was a role – she was an actress, for heaven’s sake! Such a good actress that no one now believes she was anything but what she portrayed on screen

Telempathy goes both ways, Harold. Frankie and Edie are aware of your strategy, and the questions that you aren’t explicitly asking.

“Harold, do you really think that I picked my clothing at random, or just to be attractive? Yes, I want you to see the strength of my legs. They tend to be the first part of my power to be visible.” Frankie did a deliberate pirouette. “This is very thin leather, which molds itself to my hips and buttocks. I wasn’t the first woman with whom Lyndon Johnson had anal sex. I wasn’t the first woman to flaunt my ass at him. I believe, however, that I was the first weapon to initiate and adore anal sex with him.”

Edie giggled. “I have a softer look than Frankie, but if she’s #1 on the ass parade, I’m #2.” She grew serious. “The fact that we actively encourage something rather forbidden gives us a more profound connection with him -- for suggestion and empathy, not control.”

Flashing through my mind was the thought of Frankie interacting with Greg, who was bigger and stronger, but probably more mild-mannered.

“Yes, Edie. He also stopped trying to shock and dominate. While he’s not in the slightest submissive, I suspect that we are some of the most equal and happy playmates whom he’s ever had. Now that I think about it, Harold, I think it’s important that you and I, and you and Edie, have some anal fun together, not just because it feels good but better to connect your empathy with LBJ’s.”