Red Storm Rising (1986) - Tom Clancy
(from internet transcript)
Chapter 22 – Ripostes
"Weather forecaster," snorted another. "We must get some professionals in there. How quickly can we whistle some up?"
"Perhaps by tomorrow. The Navy wants to put them in by submarine, though, and I agree. A bit dicey for a parachute infiltration, you know. Iceland's covered with rocks, the place is made to break ankles and legs. Then there's the Soviet fighters. No hurry on putting troops there, is it? We've got to reduce their air assets first and generally make life as difficult for them as we can."
"That starts tonight," the major said. "Nordic Hammer Phase Two will hit around the local sunset time."
"Hope it works better than Phase One did, old boy."
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/new-york-new-york-remarks-the-allred-e-smith-memorial-dinner
The American Presidency Project
JIMMY CARTER
39th President of the United States: 1977 ‐ 1981
New York, New York Remarks at the Allred E. Smith Memorial Dinner.
October 16, 1980
Archbishop Maguire, Mrs. Morrison, Governor and Mrs. Reagan, distinguished leaders in politics and government and public affairs, the At Smith family members, and my good and old friend, Judge Mulligan:
You may not realize where we first met— [laughter] —but I hate to reveal a secret. It was at a Sinn Fein breakfast in Savannah— [laughter] —a few years ago. I'm sure he didn't mention it to you. [Laughter] It was one of those strange and exciting and very exuberant typical mornings, March the 17th in Savannah, Georgia. I was eating green grits, and Judge Mulligan was drinking green-well, I won't tell on you what you were drinking. [Laughter] We became good friends then, and since then I've been wanting to get together with him again.
I had understood when I was first invited and accepted the invitation that this dinner was in his honor. [Laughter] I was quite startled when I saw the program and saw that it was in the honor of Al Smith. I understand that Cardinal Cooke and Mr. Silver also made this same discovery, and that's why they didn't show up tonight. [Laughter]
I'm glad to be back at this distinguished gathering. I was here 4 years ago as a candidate for office of President of the United States of America. And I'm happy to report to you tonight that that campaign was a success. [Laughter] It's my fervent hope that I can stand here 2 or 3 years from now and make for you a similar report on the 1980 campaign. [Laughter]
For the last 3 1/2 years I have faced the awesome pressures known only to those who occupy the Oval Office. This is a confidential assessment for Governor Reagan. Not one minute of a single one of those days, Governor Reagan, has passed without my feeling the full weight and the terrible burden and the crushing responsibility that's ever present as a companion in that office. It's a terrible experience. [Laughter] And for the rest of you, let me say, equally confidentially, how time flies when you're having fun.
I had some good help in 1976. Professor Lawrence Klein of the Wharton Economic School was the chairman of my economic advisory board. I just recently called to congratulate him, because he won the Nobel Prize in economics for his excellent advice to me on how to reduce inflation and interest rates. [Laughter]
And I would also like to congratulate his Eminence on the singular accomplishment this evening, although in absentia, by convincing Governor Reagan to share this platform with me. He's demonstrated a power even greater than that of the League of Women Voters. [Laughter] And I must confess I have listened very closely and I've observed very closely Governor Reagan and his remarks tonight. Frankly, I find him an extremely engaging, charming, and gracious man. It's hard to believe he keeps saying all those mean things about me. [Laughter] The fact is, I'm very proud to know and very happy to know that he is with us this evening, otherwise he might be out campaigning in some close State. [Laughter]
Incidentally, I gave my good friend, Mayor Koch, some advice earlier today. I told him not to get too close to Governor Reagan. It has nothing to do with politics, but on the Governor's "I love New York" button, the paint is still wet. [Laughter]
I would like to take advantage of this moment of good fellowship to put Governor Reagan at ease on one point. I will state publicly and for the record that I am not planning any October surprise. I can predict, however, that one of us is in for a very severe November shock. [Laughter]
As you all know, Governor Al Smith enjoyed the rough and tumble of politics, but he revered the art of governing fairly. His social conscience was awakened on the Lower East Side and sharpened by the unforgiving taskmasters of his alma mater, the Fulton Fish Market. Gathering his natural gifts, he doggedly pursued a career that led to four terms as Governor of the most powerful State of the Union.
In those days the Federal Government was not overly responsive to human suffering. There was no social security. There was no unemployment compensation. There was no minimum wage. There was no Medicare for the elderly. There was no protection against the paralyzing effects of legalized discrimination. As Governor, Al Smith began the hammer blows of social reforms, whose reverberations echo even today.
From 10/16/1980 ( Jimmy Carter, 39th President of USA: New York, New York Remarks at the Allred E. Smith Memorial Dinner ) To 4/25/2022 ( TODAY, Monday ) is 15166 days
15166 = 7583 + 7583
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 8/7/1986 ( "Red Storm Rising" by Tom Clancy ) is 7583 days
From 5/25/1977 ( premiere US film "Star Wars" ) To 4/25/2022 ( ) is 16406 days
16406 = 8203 + 8203
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 4/18/1988 ( as me, Kerry Burgess, while enlisted paygrade E-5, designated Petty Officer Second Class Fire Controlman (FC2), from my official enlisted United States Navy records: during USA Armed Forces Expeditionary Operation Earnest Will with my personal participation and commendation - CF-division, Missile Plot - guided-missiles Fire Control Computer Complex (UNIVAC digital-computers Mk152 Terrier System for, primarily, SM2-ER {Extended Range} Standard Missiles ordnance) - aboard the USS Wainwright CG-28 US Navy the United States Operation Praying Mantis ) is 8203 days
From 5/25/1977 ( premiere USA television "Roosevelt and Truman" ) To 4/25/2022 ( ) is 16406 days
16406 = 8203 + 8203
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 4/18/1988 ( as me, Kerry Burgess, while enlisted paygrade E-5, designated Petty Officer Second Class Fire Controlman (FC2), from my official enlisted United States Navy records: during USA Armed Forces Expeditionary Operation Earnest Will with my personal participation and commendation - CF-division, Missile Plot - guided-missiles Fire Control Computer Complex (UNIVAC digital-computers Mk152 Terrier System for, primarily, SM2-ER {Extended Range} Standard Missiles ordnance) - aboard the USS Wainwright CG-28 US Navy the United States Operation Praying Mantis ) is 8203 days
From 9/27/2013 ( for me personally as Kerry Burgess ) To 4/25/2022 ( ) is 3132 days
3132 = 1566 + 1566
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 2/15/1970 ( premiere US TV series episode "Bonanza"::"The Law and Billy Burgess" ) is 1566 days
https://www.yahoo.com/news/explosions-heard-then-fires-break-111400211.html
Yahoo! News
Explosions heard, then fires break out at two oil depots in Russia's Bryansk
Mon, April 25, 2022, 4:14 AM
Read also: Russia relocates entire factory from near Kharkiv, sets up concentration camp in its place
It is noted that the oil depot is located on Moscow Avenue.
"Top-rank fire and rescue crews have left for the scene. Upon arrival, it was established that there is a fire on the territory of the oil depot," the ministry said, without disclosing the cause of the fire.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
Oil tanks exploded at the depot, Russia's state-owned news agency TASS quoted the local regional government's press service as saying.
Residents of houses located near the oil depot have been evacuated.
Read also: Russia assaults Popasna and bombs Azovstal, says General Staff
At least two fires broke out in the town, as reported on social networks. Locals said they had allegedly heard "loud claps."
Russian media reported that the Druzhba oil depot, which is part of the Druzhba pipeline complex, which transports Russian oil to Europe, is on fire.
https://nextcity.org/features/where-no-one-thought-gentrification-would-go
Where No One Thought Gentrification Would Go
It’s the End of the Bloomberg Era and Luxury Towers Are Rising in the Projects
STORY BY Ben Adler
PHOTOGRAPHY BY Alan Chin
PUBLISHED ON Sep 3, 2013
The Alfred E. Smith Houses on Manhattan’s Lower East Side are not the squalid, frightening badlands you probably think of when you hear the phrase “housing project.” Sure, they follow the ungainly Corbusian model of towers-in-a-park. And if you venture onto the stairway in one of the apartment buildings, the stench of urine is overpowering. But the image you might have — of isolated high-rises surrounded by vast, empty swaths of concrete, with no one but menacing drug dealers sitting on broken benches — is not how the area feels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E._Smith_Houses
Alfred E. Smith Houses
From Wikipedia
Governor Alfred E. Smith Houses, or the Alfred E. Smith Houses. is a public housing development built by the New York City Housing Authority in the Two Bridges neighborhood of the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
The razing of buildings for the construction of the complex began in 1950, and the buildings were completed on April 1, 1953.
The development was named after four-time New York Governor Al Smith (1873–1944), the first Catholic [ superstition ] to win a Presidential nomination by a major political party, and a social reformer who made progress in the areas of better living and working conditions. Smith served as governor from 1919–1920 and 1923–1929
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/09/nyregion/michael-che-comedy-show-nycha.html
The New York Times
Michael Che Grew Up in New York City’s Projects. Now He’s Trying to Help Them.
The “Saturday Night Live” star has recruited a few friends to raise money for a group that assists public housing residents.
By Luis Ferré-Sadurní
Jan. 9, 2019
Michael Che, the comedian who co-hosts “Weekend Update” on “Saturday Night Live,” often jokes about poverty in New York City — and the gags are personal.
Since Mr. Che, 35, grew up in a housing project on Allen Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side (and spent countless summers hanging out in the neighborhood’s Alfred E. Smith Houses), he is no stranger to the crumbling conditions in the city’s 176,000 public housing apartments.
Now he’s betting that making people laugh can help fix the country’s largest housing system, which houses more than 400,000 New Yorkers and urgently needs about $32 billion to repair a multitude of issues, like leaky roofs, faulty boilers and pest infestations.
On Friday, Mr. Che will headline a comedy event in Manhattan to raise money for a nonprofit associated with the New York City Housing Authority, known as Nycha, which is facing a possible takeover by the federal government. He also started a separate fund-raiser for those who cannot make it to the show, titled “A Night for Nycha.”
“This city is so rich and so vast and so powerful and so important to the fabric of the country that you would imagine that our public housing would be a lot more habitable,” said Mr. Che, who is the youngest of seven children and has family members who live in public housing.
Jeff Ross, Michelle Wolf and other surprise performers will take the stage at Irving Plaza near Union Square Park, not far from Mr. Che’s former stomping grounds.
We spoke with Mr. Che this week about his show and how his time in public housing shaped his comedy.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Q. The New York City Housing Authority has been in the headlines for being plagued by problems. When did you first realize the magnitude of the issues, and how did the comedy event come together?
A. Embarrassingly, this show wasn’t my idea.
Red Storm Rising (1986) - Tom Clancy
(from internet transcript)
Chapter 1 – The Slow Fuse
He was done. Ibrahim saw that his massive friend had been mortally hit in the chest by grenade fragments. He was wobbling, struggling to stay erect at the door, guarding his Comrades to the last.
" 'I take refuge in the Lord of the worlds,' " Tolkaze called out defiantly to the security troops, who spoke not a word of Arabic. " 'The King of men, the God of men, from the evil of the whispering devil "
The KGB sergeant leaped around the lower landing and his first burst tore the rifle from Rasul's bloodless hands. Two hand grenades arched through the air as the sergeant disappeared back around the comer.
There was no place-and no reason-to run. Mohammet and Ibrahim stood immobile in the doorway as the grenades bounced and skittered across the tiled floor. Around them the whole world seemed to be catching fire, and because of them, the whole world really would.
"Allahu akhbar!"
SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA
"God almighty!" the chief master sergeant breathed. The fire which had begun in the gasoline/diesel section of the refinery had been sufficient to alert a strategic early-warning satellite in geosynchronous orbit twenty-four thousand miles above the Indian Ocean. The signal was down linked to a top-security U.S. Air Force post.
The senior watch officer in the Satellite Control Facility was an Air Force colonel. He turned to his senior technician: "Map it."
"Yes, sir." The sergeant typed a command into his console, which told the satellite cameras to alter their sensitivity. With the flaring on the screen reduced, the satellite rapidly pinpointed the source of the thermal energy. A computer-controlled map on the screen adjacent to the visual display gave them an exact location reference. "Sir, that's an oil refinery fire. Jeez, and it looks like a real pisser! Colonel, we got a Big Bird pass in twenty minutes and the course track is within a hundred twenty kilometers."
"Uh-huh," the colonel nodded. He watched the screen closely to make sure that the heat source was not moving, his right hand lifting the Gold Phone to NORAD headquarters, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado.
"This is Argus Control. I have Flash Traffic for CINC-NORAD.
"Wait one," said the first voice.
"This is CINC-NORAD," said the second, Commander-in-Chief of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
"Sir, this is Colonel Burnette at Argus Control. We show a massive thermal energy reading at coordinates sixty degrees fifty minutes north, seventy-six degrees forty minutes east. The site is listed as a POL refinery. The thermal source is not, repeat not moving. We have a KH-11 pass close to the source in two-zero minutes. My preliminary evaluation, General, is that we have a major oil-field fire here."
- posted by me, Kerry Burgess 3:57 PM Pacific-time USA Monday 04/25/2022
