California Sunset

By Richard Theriault

The 2020 election is over and President Trump was re-elected and the west coast elites are unhappy. Very unhappy. They have decided to take their ball and go home. It is a repeat of the 1860 election and Abraham Lincoln. Only this time it is not the south, but California.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Theriault
• Release date: May 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781087855837

Book preview

California Sunset

Richard Theriault

Copyright © 2020 Richard Theriault

Forward:

This is a novel. In other words, fiction. As the author, at the time of the writing, I am writing a historical novel about a future event. I am making absolutely no accusations about any person.

When I started writing this book over two years ago, many of the events that have occurred in the last few months were not even envisioned. There is a saying that goes 'You can't make this s**t up. No one would believe it.'

My minor in college was history. So, when I wrote this story, I used American and world history as the basis. In my real-world employment, I have literally worked all over the world. Including many of the sportier parts, like Angola (during their civil war), Nigeria, Sudan, Afghanistan, etc. I imagined myself in the place of the leadership of both sides and asked myself how would I fight this war? These are my goal, my advantages and my disadvantages. Then I went from there.

I added some in depth background on some of the key participants of the war. Not so much the top leaders. In the history of world, while the top leaders get the headlines and glory, in reality it is the little guys that make it happen. And those were the people I brought out. The Audie Murphy’s and Alvin York’s of the world that make it happen. The little unknowns that make the world turn and will continue to make the world turn even without all the ‘great ones’ involved.

The United States is unique in many ways. One of the ways is that unlike most countries on this planet, anyone can succeed. You can fail, not just once but many times and still succeed. This country’s history is full of success stories of people who have failed multiple times previously. But you have to pick yourself up and dust yourself off and learn from your mistakes. Like President Truman, who failed as a business man and farmer. But became a successful Senator and President. The world doesn’t owe you a darn thing and can be a cruel place at times. You have to be willing to work hard, work long hours and to sacrifice. Over the years I have met and worked with people who have made a successful life. One, Sol never finished grade school. He started washing windows with a cart. When I met him he was a successful business man.

What is success? It depends on what your goals are. For most people it is having a decent place to live, enough food on the table, a steady job, a loving family, being able to do things you like and have a little money in the bank.

There too much importance placed on being educated. I talked with a young man, he stated that if you didn’t graduate from college, you were not educated. I believe you will agree with me a lawyer is an educated person. I was the first member on my father’s side of the family to graduate college. However, my grandfather on my father’s side of the family was a lawyer. Over the years I have dealt with highly educated people who couldn’t pour wastewater out of a boot if the directions were written on the bottom of the heel. While this story talks about big people, it is really about all the average everyday people are the ones who really make this country work.

Since I do not have a crystal ball or a time machine, I have no personal knowledge of the persons' named thoughts, ambitions, or future deeds. The names have been changed to protect everybody. Because of the current events and the theme of this book some of the characters may appear to be real persons, there was no intention on my part to point the finger at anyone. Official position designations remain the same, after all they are actual public positions, and many have existed since the beginning of the Republic. I have taken events in recent history and had the participants make different decisions and results of those decisions. Much like Tom Clancy and Robert Conroy, I am taking a future pivotal event and taking the road (hopefully) not traveled.

This story uses the names of real places primarily because the story happens here in the United States. Business names for the most part have been changed. Large brand names have not, as they are basically generic in nature. No disrespect is intended. If names changes have resulted in an actual similar company name, it was unintentional on the author's part. I will admit I took some literary license. However, that is my privilege as the author.

I would like to thank the following:

California and its politicians for being so wacko and providing inspiration for this story.

The politicians whose statements and proposed laws that made this story plausible.

And world history that provided events and inspiration for this story.

The fine folks with US Air Force and Air National Guard for their assistance.

The fine folks with the US Coast Guard for their assistance.

And all the men and women of the US Armed Forces for their service, dedication and integrity. Along with the Coast Guard, Law Enforcement and Emergency Services for always being there when needed.

Characters:

United States

Donald Trump President of the United States

Kelly Allison Republican Presidential Candidate/Vice Presidential Candidate

Michael Pence Vice President of the United States 2017 - 2021

 John Binder Democratic Presidential Candidate and former Vice President

Nicole Patterson Congresswoman & House Speaker

Kama Harrelson Senator & Democratic Presidential Candidate

Terrance McAfee Democratic Presidential Candidate

Allyssa Bly Supreme Court Justice

Mills Peterson United States Secretary of State

Joseph Moore United States Secretary of Defense

Robert Sanchez United States Attorney General

William Niedermeyer US Secretary of Homeland Security

Wendy Hallen US Ambassador to the United Nations

Colonel Robert Pergola USMC; Commander 22nd MEU

Colonel John Keisler USMC; Commander VMM264

BGen. Robert Killebrew USMC; Commander Camp Pendleton

Colonel Paul Dockery USMC; Commander MCAS Miramar

BGen Wilhelm Herkenhoff USMC; Commander Marine

                                          Recruit Depot; San Diego

California

Gerald Green Former Governor of California

Gary Olds Current Governor of California

Greg Sorski Billionaire and ultra-left supporter.

Deborah Fetterman US Senator

Toni Astrom President Pro Tempore California Senate

Julian Renderos California Senator

Wang Pong Hua Chinese Consul General; San Francisco

Prologue

Since the election of President Trump in 2016, the falling apart of the national cohesion accelerated in the United States. First it was the 'Not my President', ANTIFA and OCCUPY movements. Then the impeach Trump movement. There had been nothing even close to this since Nixon and LBJ. There were discussions of California seceding from the United States and the referendum to split California into 3 separate states. The 2018 California referendum to split into three different states passed and was then moved to the California legislature. The bill was passed and was forwarded to Washington. President Trump stated categorically that he would not sign any law that split California into 3 parts. Both houses of Congress debated the bill. While the bill did get out of committee in both houses, the vote was very lopsided against it. Even New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts voted against it.

With California, New York and other states refusing to cooperate with Federal officials on illegal immigration. Governor Gerald Green of California acting like California was a sovereign country and conducting foreign policy that is considered within the authority of the Federal Government only and violation of the Logan Act, President Trump considered many different remedies for these. Many he ignored as the electorate normally has a short attention span. Others he considered included the arrest and prosecution of state and local officials for interfering with federal officials and violations of federal law. Most of these he was talked out of by cooler heads within the government. A proposal to restart the draft and call up those in California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey was also considered. The proposal was given more consideration in regard to California due to the increasing number of wildfires in the state each year and the ever-decreasing numbers of fire fighters available to combat them. The proposal actually got some traction as the proper name of the draft is Selective Service, which allows the government to call up men for duty in a national emergency. The program does not restrict the call up to the military services. Other national services can utilize Selective Service and have since the draft was originally stated back in the 1860’s.

Several events happened into the lead up to the elections. First, Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court was approved by the Senate. The attacks on Kavanaugh, the President and the Senators that voted for Kavanaugh made for a very toxic political climate. Just a few months after Justice Kavanaugh’s swearing in, Justice Ruth Ginsburg passed away from cancer. After a short search, President Trump appointed Allyssa Bly to fill the open position. The uproar was deafening. The Democrats in the Senate promised to hold up the nomination until after the election that was 2 years away. The Allyssa Bly nomination hearings made Justice Kavanaugh’s look like a day at the park. Accusers came out of the woodwork and the treetops. She was accused of just about every vile act imaginable. She was accused of witchcraft, sex with animals, owning male sex slaves, beating her children, making sexual propositions to young men, devil worship, etc. About the only thing they didn't accuse her of was being a lesbian. Senator Majority Leader McDonald again exercised the nuclear option and Justice Bly's nomination was passed. The toxic political climate just got more toxic. Just before the primary season started, Justice Sonia Sotomayor was involved in an auto accident which left her in a coma and on life support. Medical experts from around the country, including from UCLA Medical Center, John Hopkins, NYU Medical Center, the Mayo Clinic and Walter Reed, examined the Justice's condition. The conclusion was that the Justice was brain dead and would never recover. Only one expert thought that she might regain consciousness, but she would never be the same.

The problem was by law that unless a Justice retires, resigns or dies, there was no mechanism in place to replace them. There was nothing in the Constitution that required judges to be mentally competent. Which could explain some of the opinions issued by the court. The Court itself refused to discuss the issue and the Senate wouldn't hold hearings until after the election. Besides no President had ever had 4 appointments to the Supreme Court since FDR and he had 3 terms to do it in.

Then when the ‘Women’s Equality Bill’ was passed, President Trump vetoed it stating it didn’t go far enough. This bill which was passed on a very partisan basis, mandated pay and benefits equality for women. Also mandated was that corporate management and boards had to have diversity. It mandated that the Department of Labor monitor and audit companies for compliance. The corporate mandate would only be applied to male dominated groups. Groups like the National Organization of Women and Victoria Secrets would not have any diversity requirements enforced on them.

President Trump insisted that gender considerations be removed from divorce and from criminal sentencing. Bringing out examples of where a woman got a 10-year sentence while the man with her got a life sentence. Or the divorce case where the husband was a blue-collar worker and had helped his wife through medical school. During the divorce settlement, she got 30% of his earnings even though she was earning almost 5 times what he was. This set liberals right on fire. The President’s position was that equal rights was a double-edged sword. He had no problem with equal rights and equal opportunities however, they needed to be matched with equal duties and responsibilities and equal risks.

As part of the equal duties and risk, the President insisted that all 18-year-old women register for Selective Service. Both Liberals and Conservatives went right into orbit over this. This position literally tore some women’s organization apart. Some of their meetings actually degenerated into hair-pulling knock down dragged-out fights. Female mud wrestling grudge matches looked absolutely tame in comparison.

Senator Susan Smith of Maine introduced a bill that went with the President’s guidelines. It did however open all positions within the military to women, with the proviso that combat assignments for women would totally be voluntary. In the House of Representatives, Representative Paula Fanzio of Ohio introduced a bill that mirrored Senator Smith’s bill. Not surprising in that they both collaborated in the writing of the bills. During hearing on these bills, something almost unheard of happened, the far left and the far right both tried to filibuster the bill. It almost seemed like they were having a contest on who could filibuster the most. Amendments were proposed left and right to the point that if they were all added the bill would put women not into second class citizenship status, but third- or fourth-class citizenship. The representative from Wisconsin, a practicing Muslim, proposed an amendment requiring all women to wear a head scarf and have a male family member escort whenever they left their homes. That proposal got a resounding Bronx Cheer. The representative from Michigan, also a practicing Muslim, proposed that women not be allowed to drive and that wives were the property of their husbands. That proposal filled the late-night shows with a new round of women driver jokes. Both proposed amendments were interesting in that both Representatives were women. None of the proposed amendments gained any traction.

The bill passed both Houses with a marginal bipartisan vote and was sent to the President for signing. On any given day there are protesters around the White House, usually small vocal groups. The Secret Service and the Washington DC Police keep a strong presence in the area. But after the passage of this bill, the crowds of protesters reminded many of the days of the Viet Nam War. There were thousands of protesters. The Washington Police Department canceled days off and activated riot units. Secret Service coverage was tripled, and tours of the White House were canceled. There were both pro and anti bill demonstrators and the groups were composed of mostly women. Then they clashed. It made the Viet Nam riots look like a love-in. Kicking, scratching, biting, hair pulling were just of a few of the activities observed during the riot. Just days after President Trump signed the bill, the crowds thinned out and the plaza returned to its normal frantic pace.

About the same time, the House of Representatives, failed to pass an immigration bill that President Trump would sign. The House bill would have given all illegal immigrates full citizenship rights without requiring citizenship. The Senate bill would require all illegal immigrants to leave the country and apply for residency once they had left the country. Plus, they wouldn't be allowed to get welfare for at least 10 years after being granted resident status.

In the last half of 2018 and all through 2019, the number of illegal immigrants rose significantly. The President kept insisting that Congress help by increasing funding for Customs and Border Protection and pass immigration reform. The House of Representatives kept refusing to do either. Many Democratic members of Congress started to claim the government was running concentration camps. This claim was echoed by many liberals both inside and outside the country. The UN started to insist that the United States had to accept these immigrants under international law as refugees. The President insisted that where international law and US law conflicted, he would support national sovereignty and follow US law. This of course set off the globalists in the Democratic Party.

In December 2019, 2 immigration detainees tested positive for the Ebola virus. These detainees were immediately sent to a CDC quarantine facility in Atlanta. The detention facility was locked down and quarantined. All persons were required to wear face masks and be tested for the virus. No one, with the exception of a few medical personnel were allowed in or out of the facility. And that included the staff. For the next 4 weeks everyone was tested on a daily basis. When a person tested positive, they were removed to the CDC quarantine facility. Those cases number less than 100. Due to the speed with which this virus spreads and acts, it was determined that after 2 weeks of no new cases, the quarantine was no longer required. However, additional healthcare staff would be added to the facility to monitor the situation.

Upon further investigation, it was determined that the 2 initial patients were found to come from the Democratic Republic of the Congo via ship to Panama and then walked north to the border. Due to the speed with which the disease affects humans, it was determined that these 2 patients were not Patient Zero. In medical science, Patient Zero refers to the index case or initial patient in the population of an epidemiological investigation. Agents of the CIA and FBI back tracked the trail of these immigrants with the assistance of the local governments. Along the way they did find several fairly fresh graves. These were dug up and examined by a CDC team in protective gear. Finally, in the port of Colon they found 2 shipping containers abandon just inside the port. These were found by the smell emanating from them. They had been placed there by the port authorities because of the smell. The CDC team opened these containers and found several bodies. Tested showed Ebola antibodies in each corpse. These bodies were burned in a local industrial incinerator. Taking no chances, the Panamanian government had the containers sent to a steel recycling facility for disposal.

After photographs were taken the containers were melted down at a local scrap steel facility ensuring that none of the virus escaped. Through international trade agencies, the container serial numbers were tracked down and found to have left the port of Matadi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on a Chinese Panamax container ship approximately 3 months prior to the Ebola outbreak in the United States.

Upon hearing of the outbreak, President Trump immediately shut down the border and called out the National Guard to support. All persons arriving at US airports from Mexico were subject to a health inspection. Freight crossing the border came to a standstill and shippers were forced to start using air freight to bring their shipments across. The Mexican government activated all their active duty and reserve military forces and sealed off their southern border with a 5-fold increase of troops at the border. They also started to round up foreign immigrants transiting Mexico and place them in detention camps. President Trump offered Mexico the assistance of the CDC to contain the possible epidemic.

California and Washington State sued the Federal Government in the Ninth Circuit Court to stop the border quarantine. New Mexico sued in the Tenth Circuit. Followed by the House of Representatives in the DC Circuit Court and New York in the Second District. These courts sided with the plaintiffs and ordered the President to stop the quarantine. The Federal Government appealed to the Supreme Court while refusing to stop the quarantine. The Supreme Court agreed with the Government’s arguments that it was the Federal Government’s duty to protect the country and its citizens and that quarantines have been a traditional and effective tool used when dealing with diseases for centuries. His duties and responsibilities required President Trump to ignore the rulings of the lower courts due to the very disruptive nature of this disease.

The President was hammered in the liberal media for shutting down the border and at the same time for not properly protecting the American public against this disease. Some conservative media also hammered the President over the fact that Ebola managed to get into the country. However, many national security and health experts on the news and talk shows stated it was past due to happen considering the speed of modern transportation. Plus, the lack of Congressional support for improved border security and a reasonable and realistic immigration policy.

President Trump took a page from European history and proposed forming an American Foreign Legion. Much like the French Foreign Legion of the 1830's. The French government had created the Foreign Legion as a way to deal with mass immigration into France. The enlistees served under French officers and NCO's. Once they completed their term of enlistment, they were granted French citizenship. The French found that these new citizens were in many ways better citizens. Not just because of their military training and discipline, but also because, they had a vested interest in the country and had earned the right to become citizens.

Surprisingly many citizens and immigrants liked the idea. The only groups with a majority against it were the far left and Congress.

The arrest and imprisonment of members of criminal gangs like MS-13, Mexican Mafia, Aryan Brotherhood, Crips, Bloods and Azteca created major problems for law enforcement. The gangs would terrorize prison staff and populations with their activities. Murders of staff and inmates increased exponentially. The states reacted by locking down members of these groups 24/7 and the Federal Bureau of Prisons had actually considered reopening Alcatraz.

President Trump leaned toward a plan to create an American version of Devil's Island. The plan was to designate Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands a restricted zone. It was almost a perfect place for a prison. It was very far from populated areas and no one ever went there voluntarily. With 344 square miles of land, the island had more than enough room to hold all the gangs. Surrounded by ice cold seawater it was pretty much escape proof. It didn't need walls, fences or staff. It already had buildings, though it would need more, but given the tools, the prisoners could build their own. A C130 drop of food once a month would be much cheaper than building and staffing a high security prison.

During the last year of his first term, President Trump froze most of the foreign aid funds. This came after his attempt to have the use of those funds audited. Most of the countries refused the audit. Many of those that 'allowed' it had the attitude of 'What took you so long?' Since he couldn't determine how the funds were being used, President Trump went the next step. One thing that many people keep ignoring is the President Trump is not a politician. He is a businessman and marketer. And he had been trying to run the White House as a business. Which is one of the reasons there had been so many staff changes in his White House. In the business world if something or someone doesn't work out, you make a change. It is also one of the reasons that President Trump sometimes comes across as a cold fish. At times he is the cold pragmatic businessman laying out the facts and how he is planning to deal with a problem. And at other times, he is pumping everyone up to keep everyone's' morale up. He also will think outside the box and put out ideas that can seem bit wild. Many excellent executives use this technique to stimulate thought and discussion among their staffs.

Saying that most of the money was a waste and provided little if any benefit to the people of the receiving countries or to the United States, he ordered the Secretary of State to freeze all foreign aid funds. The only funds he released were funds for some disaster aid and relief. Some of the famine aid and relief in Africa was withheld because the President was of the opinion that a great deal of the famine in those areas was directly caused by those governments' actions. Like the appropriation of large farms and parceling them out in small plots of 10 to 20 acres to the native farm workers. These farmers became subsistence farmers, growing only enough to feed themselves and their families and to provide enough money to buy what they couldn't grow. While this worked back before colonial times, the countries were now too urban and industrial for this to be an effective way to feed the country. Therefore, countries that had once been the breadbaskets of Africa were now depending on foreign aid to feed themselves.

The ACLU sued the President, not surprisingly in the Ninth Circuit. The House of Representatives sue him in the Fourth Circuit and the Senate after 9 crossover votes, voted to sue him in the Second Circuit. The premise of their arguments was that the President was violating the civil rights of all the citizens of the counties that had their foreign aid cutoff. It wasn't too surprising when the Ninth Circuit and Second Circuit decided against the President. The Fourth Circuit decided in the Presidents favor. Their position was that since the money was going to a foreign country not a person, they had no rights under United States law.

On appeal, the Supreme Court joined all the appeals into one case. Attorney General Robert Sanchez using several state government cases, argued that the President had the authority to restrict spending of government funds. While Congress had the authority to appropriate funds and restrict where and how these funds were used, they didn't have the authority under the Constitution to require the use of those appropriated funds. Furthermore, the countries were not persons that required protection of their civil rights as they as countries had the duty to protect their own rights. Since they were not citizens, residents or even present within the United States, they had no standing before the court. None of the parties initiating the suits were duly appointed representatives of those countries and had not registered as agents of a foreign government. Finally, the Constitution made no reference to foreign aid, it was a vehicle used by the government to assist countries after the Second World War and had gotten out of hand. It was within the President's authority to get this program under control.

With a 6 to 1 vote the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the President. The majority opinion agreed with the Attorney General's arguments that the President didn't have to spend appropriated funds. The court did limit the President in that he couldn't use those funds for any other purpose. The minority opinion by Justice Kagan, held that because these countries had become dependent on American assistance it was criminal and immoral for the President to cut these funds off.

The Russian collusion investigation by special prosecutor Richard Miller had concluded that there was no evidence of collusion. However, he stated while there was no evidence to show the President colluded with the Russians there was also no evidence to prove the President didn’t collude with the Russians. It’s kind of like saying there is no evidence that you cheated on your taxes but there is no evidence to show you didn’t cheat on your taxes either.

The House of Representatives held hearings into the matter and badgered Attorney General Robert Sanchez about his redacted report. The Attorney General’s position was that by law he must redact any report by a special prosecutor to protect any national security interest and any possible grand jury investigation.

There were credible rumors that the reason the House wanted to have full disclosure was to taint any possible evidence of Hilda Clayton’s questionable actions during the 2016 election. The House subpoenaed President Trump’s personal and business tax records for 10 years. This the President refused to allow and ordered the Treasury Department to refuse the subpoena. The New York Times printed that they had gotten copies of the President’s tax returns and that he had paid no taxes in 3 of the last ten years. These years included 2001 and 2009 when a whole lot of businesses lost money. Most people that had any knowledge of tax law where it concerns businesses knew that it was just a ploy to make the President look like a poor businessman and tax cheat. Especially when Greg Sorski, the owners of Facebook, Amazon and several other liberal billionaires had paid no taxes in several years and that a great many middle-income taxpayers had paid more taxes than several of Forbes Fortune 500 companies.

In a kind of funny note. Many of these same liberal billionaires held a press conference in the run-up to the primaries to state that the rich and upper middle class need to pay more taxes to bring the national debt down. What they really wanted was a return to the previous tax system that gave them more loopholes to shelter their income.

Several states enacted laws that keep any candidate off the ballot if they didn’t release their tax returns to the public. The Justice Department took New York, California and Washington state to court over these state laws. Stating that the Constitution did not require this, it could not be required for any federal election. Candidates releasing their tax returns had been strictly a voluntary act on the part of candidates. The position of the Justice Department was that the laws were a political act by Democratic controlled legislatures to keep President Trump off the 2020 ballot and was a violation of the Constitution. Federal District Court was bypassed by the Department of Justice Attorneys and the case was filed in the Fifth Circuit. Which decided in favor of the Justice Department. When California, Washington and New York filed writs of certiorari with the Supreme Court with a request for immediate action, the court refused to hear the case stating the matter had already had a sufficient hearing upholding the Fifth Circuit.

Also brought up in the Fifth Circuit was that California was allowing non-citizens to vote. As evidence of this was the LA Times article stating that in 2017 over 449,000 persons called for jury duty were released for not being citizens. The primary list used to select persons for jury duty is the voter registration records. The court ruled that while California could allow non-citizens to vote in local and state elections as long as it was in keeping with the particular state’s constitution, that because of the constitutional limitations on voters, they could not vote in Federal elections including not only Presidential but also for the House and Senate. Furthermore, California was ordered to develop and implement procedures to ensure that non-citizens were not allowed to vote in Federal elections prior to the next election and that the Justice Department was to oversee these procedures and monitor the election. This too was refused a hearing in the Supreme court.

Needless to say, there were protests in California. The far-left liberals blocked the streets around several Federal buildings. What the mainstream media did not show were interviews with several self-proclaimed non-citizens who indicated that they were not upset that they would not be allowed to vote as they understood that was a right of citizenship. One self-proclaimed non-citizen claimed that he had been given a voter registration card with the citizenship question already marked ‘citizen’.

At one-point House Speaker Patterson claimed that she was going to have the President Trump’s wife, Melania and their son Barron deported. Because of an alleged overstay on a visa. Which was a non-starter as Melania was a naturalized citizen. At another point, Speaker Patterson made the claim that the only ‘I’ word they would impose on President Trump was imprisonment. This was a political ploy that backfired on the Democrats and Patterson big-time. The group ‘Democrats for Trump’ had enjoyed a 19% growth in membership in the week following that claim by Patterson.

Then came the impeachment hearings. The newest Democratic members of the House pushed the House Speaker Nicole Patterson to call for a vote on impeaching the President. The House Intelligence Committee under the chairmanship of Adrian Schmitt, a California Democrat started hearing on claims that President Trump withheld aid from Ukraine for a quid pro quo investigation of a former Vice President’s family involvement with a Ukrainian oil company. Impeachment of President Trump had been discussed by the Democrats since before President Trump took office. Chairman Schmitt held closed door hearings on President Trump’s conduct and tightly controlled the witnesses. So much so that the Republican members of the hearing were not allowed to question witnesses or call their own witnesses. Chairman Schmitt didn’t even allow the Republican members to read the transcripts of the depositions taken from witnesses. It reached a point where Republican members of the House raided the hearing room demanding that they be allowed to read the transcripts.

Finally, Chairman Schmitt held public hearings into the matter. Holding onto the reins of the committee in a firm hand, he limited the witnesses