Excerpts from The Act, 1980, Nonfiction,
by Sir Robert Pinpoint.
(Reprinted here by permission of the author)
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Dick Cavett is on record stating repeatedly that he has no idea why JFK chose him for that first interview, ten years ago (as well as each subsequent one) when he revealed the true nature of the KCW Act.
“You know how it is with famous people,” he quipped, when I asked him that question once again in researching this book. “He probably asked for a list of interviewers, it was in alphabetical order, and he chose one near the top that was easy to pronounce.”
Well, that would be the first time, to my knowledge, JFK left anything to chance.
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Why did JFK choose National Public Radio as the broadcast 247
medium for that first interview, and all since? That one’s easier. I believe JFK just wanted to put NPR on the map.
NPR was new, only incorporated three months earlier. Most of its 90 stations were small, local stations on the low end of the dial.
The low listenership of the new network was one reason for the slow response to the things JFK said. Then too, the interview aired at noon on April 1. Those who heard the broadcast were obliged to consider the possibility it was an outrageous prank. The same possibility occurred to those who learned of the interview as hearsay.
Thus, it was only slowly, a Senator here, a staffer there, that anyone took a serious look at official copies of The Act.
When they did, they could hardly believe what they saw. When the act was still a bill, when their mindset revolved around stopping the silly phone idea, the language of the bill, the parts they had read anyway, supported their goal. Now, however, the very same words stated in specific terms exactly what Kennedy had described in the interview.
Interestingly, Ralph Nader has consistently declined to answer questions about the group he supposedly headed, the one that had advocated for the “silly phone idea.” I say supposedly because I, and others who have investigated, could not find any other persons who will admit to having been in that group, or any evidence it existed. Mr. Nader also declined to comment for this book.
The Act is peppered with wording in one part that references other parts. The key to understanding it is to follow those references religiously. The numerous references refer to certain paragraphs and sub paragraphs repeatedly, instead of reprinting each referenced block of text. One could site brevity as the reason for the unusual construct, as it does make the massive tome twenty to twenty-five percent smaller than it would otherwise have been.
What legal scholars would only learn gradually, over time, was that the tedious cross-referencing exploits evolving definitions of certain words, giving the document the flexibility Kennedy spoke of in the first Cavett interview.
It’s a trick, one might argue. Perhaps, but so masterfully crafted 248
that scholars repeatedly have opined that The Act would more than likely survive a court challenge, if ever one were launched. That is unlikely, however, as each new application of The Act has resulted in a rule, law or convention that is so practical, reasonable and down-to-earth that it is immediately and enormously popular with the voters.
I should note that in the hectic weeks after that first Cavett interview, a small but prominent group of senators and congressmen attempted to repeal The Act. Those efforts met with such a groundswell of angry protests by well-organized and outspoken constituents from each Legislator’s home state or district that they abandoned the attempt. I only mention this because it is so often forgotten, as most of that small group did not survive their next reelection bid.
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It came to be known simply as The Act. It laid dormant for three years, waiting for JFK to announce the first of its mandates in the first Cavett interview. Before The Act, Congress continually ignored certain issues or problems facing the nation because those issues were volatile. Legislators feared even to voice an opinion because it might offend a powerful lobby, special interest group, or the voters at large. The Act had a hand in breaking that cycle, by addressing each issue before it reached critical mass. The Act itself became the untouchable third rail of politics.
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It’s not commonly known, but after the first interview, about two dozen Congressional staffers did read The Act, start to finish, as they should have read it three years earlier. They took notes, conferred with each other, and over two months they compiled a long list of additional issues The Act would address, in time. The List, as proxy for The Act, holds a peculiar level of esteem around Washington. No one likes it, but then no one really dislikes it either. No legislator could admit to being surprised, after all, because each had voted for it so willingly.
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Furthermore, The Act addressed those orphan issues no one wanted to take on, but which everyone agreed should be. Most legislators were relieved to learn they would never be asked to vote on issues contained in The List.
As you may know, JFK has never granted interview time to anyone but Cavett. For this book, JFK graciously made key members of his staff available to me. Through them, he answered my questions, including a few direct quotes. Here is what he has to say on the “Congress didn’t read the bill” issue:
“I’ve heard those rumors. I’ve never believed them. Legislators read the bill. They knew exactly what they were voting for. By voting first, and then fabricating the myth that they hadn’t read the bill, they could vote for a solution to our greatest challenges without having to stick out their own political necks. I commend them for that vote. I can’t deny, it’s worked out quite well.”
Regardless of what you believe, scholars agree that between 1974 and 1980, along with a long list of minor changes, The Act accomplished five major transformations that were necessary to enable the great economic and social advances of the late twentieth century:
1. Demographers had long been warning that the U.S. Social Security system provided no built-in methods to respond to certain combinations of more retirees and fewer workers. Most experts agreed the problem would reach crisis levels as early as 2030. The Act addressed the problem, not by solving it, but by making it easier to solve. The Act mandated the phaseout of all pension systems for legislative and federal employees by 1974, transitioning everyone, including congressmen and senators, to the Social Security system.
After that, it took no time at all for Congress to decide that we should review the changing demographics of our population every second year, and adjustments made accordingly. SS is now so well-funded that Congress is discussing plans to reduce the full retirement age.
2. In 1975, a presidential line-item veto became law without fanfare, rendering pointless the practice of burdening a legislative 250
bill with the weight of unrelated gifts to special interest groups. That simple implement has made governing, and governing fairly, much, much easier.
3. Also in 1975, it became illegal for legislators ever to become lobbyists. The cautionary message from The Act is this: the greater good and special interests are too often diametrically opposed; you can’t pretend to work for one, if you later expect compensation from the other. It’s another example of a law every member of Congress will admit is right and proper, but for which no one advocated.
4. The Act mandated, in 1976, that banks and other financial institutions could not invest depositors’ funds, under any amount of risk, without each depositor’s consent. Also, terms of a legal contract cannot be changed without the consent of all parties. The average person, me included, would have thought those safeguards were already in place. According to JFK, “Our laws, structured by industry insiders, allowed financial institutions to gamble with depositor funds. They could sell mortgages and life insurance contracts to third parties without the knowledge or consent of the borrower or insured. The Act prohibits those shameful practices, and it will save our entire financial system, one day.”
5. Perhaps the most important element of The Act will be the move this year, 1980, to full public financing of federal elections.
Election spending has reached obscene levels, making it impossible for any but the wealthiest to seek public office. Beginning this year, candidates for federal office and their supporters will all use the same structured system to place their message before the voters.
Resource availability of print, radio, TV, electronic and all other forms of communication will be equal for all candidates. A nonpar-tisan panel will check the accuracy of every message before they place it before the voter. The panel will reject those found in violation, and it will accept no replacement message. For the first time in a long time, or perhaps ever, elections will become a level playing field for the wealthiest and the poorest. The nation will benefit more from that one element than I can even imagine.
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Chapter 33 The Heaven Project he Sagan Teams provided the model for the arrays, lasers, an-T odes and associated circuitry, but only 20% of the system was built by the CASE Foundation and carried aloft by NASA shuttles.
The other 80% was placed into orbit by dozens of space cargo systems, hundreds of different nations and corporations own it, and it is operated via contracts between various nations and corporations.
Some design, build, transport, assemble or operate, while others only contract for those services and capacities.
When they brought the last array on line in 2001, 15,000 photovoltaic arrays, one square mile each, orbited 3,392 miles above Earth’s surface. A thin layer of mirglas protects the surface of the PVAs. The arrays are equidistant apart in an orbit with a circumference of 46,193 miles, using 1/3rd of the orbital real estate, and leaving two miles between each of the arrays.
Viewed from space, the arrays appear as a faint, dashed ring around Earth. They reside in a special sun-synchronous orbit called a dusk/dawn orbit. Here, the PV stations ride the terminator line between night and day. Each of them continually faces fully and square to the sun. This requires an orbital effect called nodal precession. Without it, elements of the array ring would twist one degree away from the sun each day, as Earth makes its yearly journey around the sun. In three months, the array ring would show its edge to the sun, losing all its exposure to the sun. In six months, the ring would show its back to the sun, in nine months its other edge, and in twelve months it would have returned to its initial orientation.
Nodal precession, a feature shared by most planet-sized rotating bodies, makes use of the forty-two-mile bulge, and corresponding gravitational divergence, at Earth’s equator that compresses the diameter measured at the poles as it spreads at the equator. As each array passes over the equator, it rotates one degree per day, keeping 252
the arrays squared to the sun and producing maximum output.
The 32-foot diameter, flat-topped receiver anodes on Earth have a curved underside nestled into a mechanical tilt/rotate mechanism, allowing the receiver’s functional surface to remain perpen-dicular to the power beam as it tracks an array moving through its orbit. The 19-inch diameter laser beam leaves ample room to increase future capacity and margin for alignment error.
A few dozen relay satellites, at varying altitudes and in varying orbits, receive and re-transmit laser beams, completing a network able to deliver power anywhere on Earth a receiver anode is built.
Conventional power companies still exist. As in the past, they deliver electrical power to residential, commercial and industrial customers, using their high voltage transmission and distribution networks. Only the source of that electrical energy has changed.
The Hazards Division explored ill effects of the laser power beam: hazards to aviation, humans, animals, birds and insects; interference with communication, esthetics of the laser beam.
They found that the power beam produced no radio-frequency interference, so they easily laid the communication issue aside.
Coaxially surrounding the invisible beam with a colored beam keeps birds away. Most bird species seem to have an awareness of a power beam in their path, and they avoid it, colored or not.
Flying insects are active close to the ground, and the receiving anodes are sited on high ground. The functional surface is 20 feet above the base. Entomologists queried by the HD agreed to monitor the first anode sites to determine if insect kill became excessive.
Low power lasers could blind humans and animals, and exposure to high-powered beams could be deadly. However, receiving anodes would be in a secure, fenced area identical to conventional high voltage installations. Direct eye or bodily contact with the power beam would not be possible unless someone were foolhardy enough to scale the high fence, climb the high platform and throw themselves upon the anode, ignoring the large, prominently sited signs warning of the dangers of that very practice. While, every few years, one or two individuals do manage to pull off just such a stunt 253
at existing high voltage power stations, most experts consider their removal from the gene pool to be good for the species. No further safeguards were needed in that area.
The temperature on the outer skin of an aircraft passing through a power beam would increase between one and three degrees, depending on the size of the aircraft and the speed and angle of its penetration into the beam. Tests proved there would be no adverse effects on the aircraft. Engineers feared, however, that aircraft could produce adverse effects in the power system.
The modern-day power system abhors an interruption of even one second. In the first hundredth of the first second, automated switching schemes operate to provide a path from other power sources. The process reverses when the cause of the interruption is remedied. The automation works remarkably well. However, it places stress on the electrical equipment called into play, and the brief interruption is often noticeable to the consumer.
Sagan knew any pilot worth spit would rather boil in oil than fly his craft through a power beam, even if it is safe. But he accepted the recommendation of The Hazards Division that they perpetuate a small white lie on this subject. The HD’s report would state that the most important reason for the colored coaxial sleeve surrounding the invisible power beam is to warn pilots away from the power beams (1st lie), because an aircraft contacting a power beam could produce harmful, even fatal results (2nd lie). They would report the location of each power beam to aviation interests, and to Air Traffic Control centers near each beam. ATC centers would then include the location of the beams in their routine Notices to Airmen.
Dwelling, as it did, on negative effects of the power beams, it is perhaps forgivable that the Hazards Division overlooked one positive attribute of them. As the orbiting PV stations began producing energy, and as more colored power beams began piercing the night skies, the sight of those power beams became, on clear nights, navigational aids for pilots. On dark, stormy nights, with rain battering his ship and lightning jarring his nerves, the sight of one often became the answer to a pilot’s silent prayer.
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