Chapter 132

At 0700 I was eating breakfast while I was reading today’s security briefs. Today there was a brief from the UN Ambassador about yesterday’s freighter and weapons capture.

The brief contained a full listing of all the weapons captured and technical information about the crew and ship’s captain. There was also a complete description of the action including statements by the men of my coastal patrol ships and the four aircraft pilots.

Admiral West had requested all video from the go-pro cams the crews of the JBG ships were wearing. Andy had yet to make a decision - I was sure he was waiting on a legal advisement from the office.

I sent a text to Andy that I saw no reason to release the videos to the Navy unless he was getting video back in exchange; it was to be a two way exchange, not one way. There was no value for JBG in a one way unless there were compelling circumstances.

At 0800 the three from the Agriculture Department were scheduled to be here. Troy and Connie had put the information from their last meetings with President Thomas on my desk. I had already read it and highlighted items I wanted answered from that meeting

They were sent a list of documents they were ordered to bring five days ago.

It was 0830 when they showed - Strike Qne. I was President; be on time for my meetings.

I asked for the documents they were instructed to bring that gave the numbers on the food programs they supplied direct payments to.

‘‘There was not enough time to gather them,’’ Dirk Blake replied.

‘‘They were the same documents that you were to bring to the meeting with President Thomas last month. I see no reason the reports should not be ready by now.” Strike Two.

I started asking questions that were unanswered from the previous meeting.

Out of the first ten questions they answered none with a direct answer. Strike Three!

‘‘Today’s meeting with you was to write and put finishing touches on new rules for the aid programs you administer. I am changing guidelines and time lines for those programs. I want the changes posted in the federal register today to take effect in thirty days,’’ I said.

‘‘You seem to be stuck in a position that you will not cooperate with this administration as with the previous administration. You may have gotten away with that posture with President Thomas but you will not with me,’’ I said.

‘‘Connie, will you get me three each of both forms I asked you to type up on Friday?’’ I said.

The forms were simple - one was a resignation form, fill in the blanks and check boxes. ‘I resign because I want to spend more time with my family or personal reasons.’ Another was ‘I have secured employment elsewhere to improve my resume.’ With another ‘I wish to rejoin the private work force.’

The other was similar but termination and it had three copies with check-off boxes for reasons. The White House attorneys wrote the reasons so they would be legal.

‘‘I don’t think you are going to be a fit in my administration. I expect people to on time to my meetings. I expect them to bring all requested reports and be able to reasonably answer my questions. You have done none of those things,’’ I said.

‘‘Therefore I am left with two options, ones is to allow you to resign and the other is to fire you. One or the other is happening today as in now. The first one is preferable to most individuals,’’ I said as I passed the forms to each of them.

I wrote a note to Troy: ‘‘Have security pack up all their personal things in their offices. Have their computer access and all logins canceled immediately and deactivate their ID cards, collect them and all government issued computers and phones.”

“Notify the Ag committees in both houses they have been terminated and a name will be submitted to take over the agency in the next few days,’’ I added.

‘‘Have you decided?’’ I asked.

They filled out the resignation form and left.

Working with the rest of my staff, we wrote the new regulations for the Agriculture Department. It started by restricting the length of time for many federal aid programs to two years at full finance, one year at fifty percent and then ending. It was sent by courier to all the appropriate places to get in this week’s Federal Register.

All federal rules had to be published before taking effect. Depending on the rule, most were sixty days and some ninety days. The time could be shortened to thirty days by urgent circumstances. We had gone with thirty days on this rule.

I called the number two deputy directors to come to the White House immediately. Let’s see if they knew what immediately meant.

That was all the scheduled business meetings I had for today. My family was coming over in a couple hours. In the meantime I had one more run-through with Adam and the teleprompter. There were some words that were changed that I paid little attention to.