The day grew ever darker and more threatening. I knew the storm wasn’t going to miss San Clemente, as it sometimes did. Living right on the shore wasn’t the best place on the planet to make weather predictions about I’d learned over time. I had little time to get to...
FROM THE WILDERNESS The Obvious Sense Behind Alien Secrets and UFOs By James Strauss As an important field operations member of the Central Intelligence Agency for seventeen years I can honestly report that I never saw in real life something that could be termed a...
FROM THE WILDERNESS The Obvious Sense Behind Alien Secrets By James Strauss As an important field operations member of the Central Intelligence Agency for seventeen years I can honestly report that I never saw in real life something that could be termed a current...
Gularte, Richard and I gathered in the cabin of Richard’s luxury yacht. The interior was so well done in teak, stainless-steel and glass that it felt more like some exotic penthouse rather than the interior cabin of a medium-sized boat. Once again, I wondered where...
FROM THE WILDERNESS The Forgotten Soldiers By James Strauss The nation spends about $88,000 for each living veteran who qualifies for its services. Where does that money go? Almost all of it for administration, care givers of all kinds, and facilities. Direct...
FROM THE WILDERNESS The Forgotten Soldiers By James Strauss The nation spends about $88,000 for each living veteran who qualifies for its services. Where does that money go? Almost all of it for administration, care givers of all kinds, and facilities. Direct...
I didn’t have an answer for the Staff Sergeant, but then I didn’t think he was expecting one. His response might have indicated that he was ready to be a part of whatever action he thought was going to go down but I didn’t know him and if there was...
My first meeting with Paul, my shrink of questionable credentials and experience, had gone amazingly well. My first act of redemption, which he never truly defined, made me feel better about myself in spite of the fact that I wasn’t sure why. I’d bought in immediately...
FROM THE WILDERNESS Plight of Reality by James Strauss The door into reality gapes open, swinging wide and then slamming shut, as pain and frightened alienation leave anyone left alive and standing…staring in paralyzed wonder at a closed surface once again veneered...
FROM THE WILDERNESS Plight by James Strauss The door into reality gapes open, swinging wide and then slamming shut, as pain and frightened alienation leave anyone left alive and standing…staring in paralyzed wonder at a closed surface once again veneered over with...
FROM THE WILDERNESS Raider of the Lost Ark By J. Strauss Human beings have been trying to bore themselves to death all the way back in time. We know this from translating the oldest evidence of recorded pieces of history. What is it human’s, almost...
Richard and I spent an uncomfortable moment staring at one another. He probably wanted to ask me if I’d recognized his famous guest, but he didn’t. I wanted to ask where the U.S. Marshals that provide security and protection for the United States Secretary of State...
FROM THE WILDERNESS ‘Taco Supreme’ By James Strauss The Supreme Court of the United States moves and votes to support open prevarication. That’s correct, and everyone who reads this short article will understand that. From now on, those employees who...
Gularte and Manning walked into the restaurant, both laughing as they crossed the short distance to my table. I didn’t smile when they took the available chairs on both sides of me. Lorraine appeared with ‘bad tea’ for Manning and a cup of coffee for Gularte. Neither...
SOSUS I is the acronym of the formerly top-secret array of ocean bottom sound sensing placements the U.S. has maintained during and following the cold war. These centers, many of them were manned, were built to find and follow Soviet submarines no matter where there...
The ride on the freeway down toward and then through San Clemente was made in silence. I said nothing and neither of the women did either. I refused to look over at the Staff Sergeant as I felt that if I made the slightest wrong move the whole scene of which I had...
I walked on the cooling sand toward the Trestles railroad bridge, my mind clearing the web of fear the faux Claymore had brought down upon me. My thoughts were drawn back to a lesser fear. Richard. If Richard was the operative who had disposed of the troublesome...
The quiet stillness in the restaurant was broken only by the regular ‘at sea’ noise coming in through the thin wooden walls and cheap sheet glass serving as spume covered windows. I took command of the group, as going any further, with respect to Richard’s loyalties,...
FROM THE WILDERNESS WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD By James Strauss Our studies of the universe cause us to cower inward, as if pulling back from the cold harshness of a raging blizzard just outside. We retreat to the warmth of our fireplaces, radiating with warmth and...
FROM THE WILDERNESS WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD By James Strauss Our studies of the universe cause us to cower inward, as if pulling back from the cold harshness of a raging blizzard just outside. We retreat to the warmth of our fireplaces, radiating with warmth and...
The staff sergeant and I made small talk all the way to El Toro. It was normally a half hour drive, but the sergeant took his time, staying in the slow lane. His background was embassy duty, so he talked on and on about the different embassies and consulates he’d been...
Marion Smoak was the head of protocol for the White House, or so the printed message delivered to my home by one of the compound Lincolns indicated. The time of the event, to be held at the San Clemente Inn, located not more than a mile from the Nixon residence...
From The Wilderness WE ARE LITERALLY STANDING ON THE THRESHOLD By James Strauss The study of physics is the study of the way things are. Those questions we occasionally tussle over when left to contemplate life and its meaning, such as “how did we come to be here?”...
My wife’s comment reverberated through me to the core. The last thing I wanted or needed was for her to be exposed in any way to what was developing regarding my work with the people at the compound or what had become the Seven, now Eight Dwarfs. Richard’s unexpected...
The Dwarfs, including Richard, had broken up the evening before, and I sat to consider what I was going to do about everything. Hoodoo had gone as far as he could in trying to find anything about the Cobb woman but had come to a dead end with one single minor...
The ride back into the harbor entrance at Dana Point went smoothly, the wind and waves were at our back and there was no traffic of boats or lines of fisherman along the sea walls to impede our progress. The sound of the dual MTU diesels, thrumming away underneath me,...
FROM THE WILDERNESS Selective Application By James Strauss The human condition of high civilization coupled with hugely successful population increases is based upon selection and application. Nature is responsible for some of this choosing, while beyond genetics...
The open sea beckoned us toward it, as I stared at the ever greater rise and fall of the bow. It seemed to be whispering “come my pretties,” as if somehow tied right into the wicked witch’s delivery from the Wizard of Oz. Gularte made it up from the main cabin, just...
The lifeguard boat ran with the wind after making the turn to round the end of the San Clemente Pier, the only thing standing between the fast moving craft and the harbor opening into Dana Point’s yacht basin. The helicopters, Coast Guard boats and the yacht itself,...
FROM THE WILDERNESS Modern Survey Stupidity By James Strauss How is this one for a blaring blinking and outrageous example of where polling and ‘surveying’ the public has gone? The Health Research Group KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) just released the...
FROM THE WILDERNESS My Country Tis of Thee by James Strauss We’ve come upon hard times. The perspective of almost every human being at any time through all of the species’ history indicates that this psychological position is the one most commonly held no...
FROM THE WILDERNESS My Country Tis of Thee by James Strauss We’ve come upon hard times. The perspective of almost every human being at any time through all of the species’ history indicates that this psychological position is the one most commonly held no...
Gularte and I struggled in attempting to do anything but hang on to the sturdy, but very slippery chrome railing. There was nothing else to hold onto as the boat was being continuously beaten all along the port side of its hull by the pounding surf. “Down,” I yelled...
I tried to sleep in the morning following my meeting with first Haldeman and Ehrlichman, and then Chief Cliff Murray. I was troubled, yet it was too early to get up because my getting up would awaken my wife, and then Julie, both of whom deserved to sleep in because...
FROM THE WILDERNESS Newsreel By James Strauss Ken Burns and Lynn Novick have made a ten part series about the Vietnam War, and it’s been making headlines for its truthful veracity. These two “Hollywood-style” historians present that war, as they have presented...
I left the Seven Dwarfs at the restaurant, wondering if a group having so much fun forming up to play private investigators, could possibly be at all effective. Gularte drove, while I prepared myself for the coming meeting. I had little doubt that Haldeman was going...
FROM THE WILDERNESS Ukraine War Newsreel The war moves slowly on toward its coming conclusion. China meets with Putin, not to confirm that they support one another, as that’s already a given and has been so for some time. China meets with Putin to figure out what...
FROM THE WILDERNESS Newsreel By James Strauss Neither American political party, not the republicans nor the democrats, can release themselves from the secure steely grasp of old people running almost everything. Biden is likely to be the candidate for president...
In the morning I got up early. My Marine green alpha uniform was all laid out in the other bedroom, the other bedroom that wasn’t Julie’s. All that was missing was the rows of ribbons I’d removed after being on the base over a month in the past. I went back into my...
FROM THE WILDERNESS Newsreel By James Strauss Where did meritorious service, talent and expression go to die? It didn’t’ go anywhere. It stayed right where it was, a giant target for the steamroller of advancing communication technology. Instead of advancing...
I waited patiently for Gularte, sitting in the afternoon sun, rubbing my useless government pen with the fingers of my left hand. The pen wasn’t totally useless I knew, as its presence where it was found was very likely a valuable clue. Was the person who lost it not...
The beach was abandoned, at the point where it preceded south from the state beach but not yet a part of the Trestles Beach portion. There the point stuck out into the ocean to create the conflicting broken sea environment that led to sometimes legendary surf, which...
SIMULTANEITY, SUPERPOSITION & ENTANGLEMENT From the Wilderness By James Strauss The advanced societies and cultures of the earth have been studying and using the results of those studied in physics to make great technological advances in almost every area of...
SIMULTANEITY, SUPERPOSITION & ENTANGLEMENT From the Wilderness By James Strauss The advanced societies and cultures of the earth have been studying and using the results of those studied in physics to make great technological advances in almost every area of...
Detective Hoodoo instructed Gularte and I to depart the beach scene, as he and the ‘team’ of lifeguards would handle the situation from then on. He’d already given that order but neither Gularte nor I had moved. Instead of re-issuing the earlier command he...
WE’LL TAKE ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING Newsreel By James Strauss I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the mass media and why the entirety of the near united but not tied and bound outlets is reporting what it has got to have as a motivational factor. Waiting for some...
I finished the shift with Herberich and Gularte. Nobody got shot, and they sort of bonded in that single time together. Not with me, but with each other. I understood, in the back seat, that I wasn’t really bondable material. I had my wife and daughter and that was...
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? Newsreel By James Strauss FREEDOM, that word used to describe a state of being that doesn’t exist but seems to exist in some future time or even the present if we can just get over to where the conditions are ripe for its appearance or...
From The Wilderness ELECTROCUTION Newsreel By James Strauss The Ford Motor Company, on this day, February 16, 2023, terminated the production of its highly funded, touted and unworkable EF150 pickup truck. What happened? Was it terminated because of the reasons...
From The Wilderness ELECTROCUTION Newsreel By James Strauss The Ford Motor Company, on this day, February 16, 2023, terminated the production of its highly funded, touted and unworkable EF150 pickup truck. What happened? Was it terminated because of the reasons...
GOOD VIBRATIONS Newsreel By James Strauss In the 1800’s physics had come far enough to determine just how the sensory system of humans, and most other animals on the planet, really worked. There has been little dispute about what was discovered. We have five...
I left Mardian at the pool, since I’d given him everything I had about whatever it was I was supposed to know, but really didn’t. The money was invisibly held into the middle of the clamshell holster meant to hold and conceal a Smith and Wesson .44 Magnum, 4 inch...
Gularte was waiting at the beach unit when I arrived at the city parking lot, my Volkswagen’s engine knocking a bit, which had me worried, but not unduly so. The thing was still under warranty, although I had no replacement if it might be in the dealership shop for...
IT’S DA BALLOON BOSS, DA BALLOON! Newsreel By James Strauss Just how accidentally dumb is the American public, and how deliberately dumb the mass media? Well, try the biggest balloon story occupying national attention since the ‘Balloon Boy’ story created back in...
I drove the Marauder to the pier in silence, neither Gularte nor I saying a word, even as the vehicle, much heavier than the Bronco built for the off-road job of patrolling the beach and incidental structures, made a smooth surface out of the rough wooden slat...
THE GAS, OIL, AND COAL WAR Newsreel By James Strauss They are lying, all of them. Natural gas cost one-sixth the price to burn by home and business owners across the land in stoves, heaters or any other way. That cost amount is not hard to figure out. Just...