Jihad

The assassins are Jihadists from the Middle East, which threatens to set off a series of responses from President Stone and her administration.  Those responses are loaded with unintended consequences.

debating

The candidates for president have already held nine debates before the Roberts assassination takes over the campaign agenda.  Three more debates on foreign policy, domestic politics and a final free-for-all session occur with the Fall events at the center of the controversy – how to do we keep America safe and what will that cost Americans.

election day

Despite events, Zack Greyson is elected the 47th president of the United States, the first election of an Independent in American history. The peaceful transition of democratic power is about to be ensured once again.

President-Elect Greyson does not have much time to prepare for the world he is about to inherit from President Stone.  He has a cabinet to form, an Administration to populate, and a potential World War to face down.

inaugurating 47

Because of extreme and extraordinary security issues and Jihadist threats, the United States Secret Service wants, naturally enough, to dramatically change the way the Presidential Inauguration will be held but Greyson will have not part of the plan.  The President-Elect is determined to honor precedent.

sleepless night

On the first evening of his presidency, Zack Greyson has a lot on his mind.  He seeks out the wisdom of quite a few startled subjects before conducting his first full day in the Oval office.

crafting alliances

President Greyson seeks out his Allies in the war on Jihad.  It is a journey that will take him around the globe in an unprecedented move to protect America and forge new, once unlikely alliances.

sinister convoy

Ten pairs of Jihadists prepare to attack our nation’s capital in an unexpected coordinated strike at American democracy and world freedom.

targeting america

The targets are hit and America is understandably rattled.

"The watchmen waketh"

American political, military and financial might is called into action by the young, untested president as he seeks to gain the upper hand and momentum in responding to the terrorists.

Camp david

The iconic retreat first used by World War II commanding general Ike Eisenhower when he was President is the site of an unparalleled gathering of American brainpower as the United States prepares to tackle its greatest foreign policy challenge since the Revolutionary War in 1776 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

proportional response

The President plans to deliver a “proportional response” against the Jihadist terrorists who want to bring American to her knees in the name of Sharia Law.

alarming intelligence

A startling discovery sets the Greyson Administration on its heels and forces a re-evaluation of why America was attacked.

CHief

President Greyson seeks out the opinion of Supreme Court of the United States in a move that is calculated to shore up shaky American public opinion in the face of several successful attacks against U.S. centers of power and influence.  But can he?

state of the union

Congress is consulted yet again in a State of the Union address unlike any delivered since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” speech in 1941.

long bridge park

As the President completes his first 100 days in office, and the war on Jihadist terror is taking a turn in our favor, a train is detected to have a nuclear bomb on board as it races from Richmond to Washington.  Is another attack imminent?

denied - Season 2 premiere

Questioning why there was no detonation at the 14th Street Bridge, the Jihadist leaders are themselves melting down over the failure to deliver another lethal blow to America.  Tarson Miles is the hero of the day who rendered CSX #855 harmless as Zack Greyson calls in the Grey Ghosts to combat the attacks on American soil. What would have happened to thAmerican government had the detonation triggered as planned and erased Washington corridors of power as we know them today? 

Comes the next augustus?

Liberty Crossing, home to the American intelligence community, is full of questions.  Is American privacy becoming a secondary right when it comes to protecting American safety, never mind what the U.S. Constitution has to say about the matter?  Should President Greyson deploy the Grey Ghosts here at home as well as abroad?  Can he?  Who would have been the government is a nuclear bomb did damage official Washington?  And if the President does deploy the Grey Ghosts, are we now facing the next Augustus?

Strategically surgical

The President’s war team selects a number of highly controversial targets to take out in their own war on terror.  The strikes are designed to be surgical but the ancillary damage they do appears incalculable.  The Greyson Administration looks deep inside themselves to determine how much damage is justifiable in a modern war akin to World War III.

Eyes on

A JSOC team has eyes on their target and is awaiting approval from the President to take the Jihadist leader out.  Zack Greyson’s decision is chocked full of political problems.  The team is deep inside Saudi Arabia, an ally of our supposedly, on another country’s sovereign soil.  Will this strike be considered another act of war?  Will the war against extremist Jihadists escalate further out of control?  

sunday morning

Congress is out of town on a district work period but Zack Greyson’s administration has to inform the leader of the United States Senate that the President today eliminated a political leader on another country’s soil.  How do you deliver that Congressionally-mandated message when no member of Congress is available personally? The Sunday morning talk shows in Washington will see their scripts change in an instant.

trench warfare

Leaders from both parties in Congress attack the President’s signature healthcare initiative as more pay back for his effort to elect more Independents to Congress.  Trench warfare has broken out in committee and the President’s team will have to use all of its best political talent to prevail.  The opposition is not to be underestimated.  The role of the media is held sacrosanct.

media's hot glare

As leaders of the House, the Senate and the White House battle a three-front domestic war at home, the media becomes the hill to take if the American public is to be won over come November.  The strategies differ, the opportunities proliferate and the fog of war comes to screens across America.

ides of march?

The political surprises in the halls of Congress pile up as America’s domestic priorities take center stage.  Legislative intrigue lurks behind every marble column it seems from the Cannon House Office Building to the Russell Senate Office Building and beyond.  A political coup de grâce shocks the nation and appears to have had its roots back in March of 2032.

Peanut island

While on Labor Day break in Palm Beach, the President is forced to take shelter in an old war bunker on Peanut Island that was constructed for John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis days of old.  Is another terrorist attack imminent?  Have the domestic battles in Washington just been preempted again by more perilous events on the world stage?

mrs. McKenzie

It was Mrs. Bailey who first encouraged young Zack Greyson to seek political office.  The President reminisces about his first exposure to politics as he sits in the bunker at Peanut Island awaiting a potential nuclear winter outside.

Promising indications

The surprising self-policing action of the Jihadists offers the western capitals of the world several promising indications for eventual political peace – or at a truce of sorts, if you will.  The negotiations are niggling.  The compromises are disturbing.

zulu

The nuclear detonation deadline comes again.  Is the prime meridian as we know it changing forever?  What are the consequences for our planet when more than one nuclear device is sparked?

not a pax americana

President Greyson realizes that even though America has been forced due to circumstances to take the dominant lead in the war against extreme Jihad, the United States does not and cannot maintain a Pax Americana forever.

Sage & honey

Political medicine is certainly a lot easier to take when offered with a little honey.  The President and his team recognize that a change in tactics is required at home and abroad if they are to succeed in the halls of power, wherever they may be.

decision's shadows

The President’s Grey Ghosts network is prevailing.  Small political wins in the shadows are beginning to pay dividends to the Greyson Administration.  But can it last?  And if so, how?  The American public has long had a mixed type of love affair with spying.

doubled down

The President sees evidence that the American electorate is ready for a dramatic change when it comes to Congress and the statehouses across the land.  47 agrees to pull the trigger on an end of election season strategy that will be long-term disrupting to say the least.

granite revolution

The President is already setting the ground for his 2032 re-election and it begins with a furious effort to elect several more Independents to Congress from the Granite State, New Hampshire.  Incumbents from both parties are vowing political revenge, which presents huge political consequences to the President’s domestic and foreign policy agendas on Capitol Hill.

reversing the field

The President announces his preferred slate of Independent candidates he will be supporting two years from now as he works to build a more formal Independent party.  The polls show how controversial his decision has been up to now but Zack Greyson knows from his soccer days that reversing the field is often a winning strategy.

corolla

The President and his trusted advisors huddle in Corolla, North Carolina, to assess the finals days of the 2032 presidential campaign, plot and plan the 2034 campaign for Congress, and his successor’s early campaign for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2026.  Isolated, but just north of Nags Head, the venue is considered apropos by the Greyson team because it is where America first took flight in the early 20th century, and they want to innovate yet again.

Sine die

The second session of Congress is rapidly nearing adjournment Sine Die.  Zack Greyson has had a few legislative successes his first term as President but much remains to be done.  Will Congress cooperate?  Can the President charm his way to even greater rewards for his vision for America?

pour les États Unis - season 3 premiere

The world rallies behind the United States and her lead role against extreme Jihadists who have attacked western and eastern nation states alike, without reservation.  An unlikely group of national chief executives respond, in kind, collaboratively, surprisingly, and unprecedently.

healy, walsh & o'brien

The three Georgetown University professors have had a profound impact on the 47th President of the United States and his political perspective on security issues at home and abroad.  They are not a law firm, although their name shingled together sounds impressive, but they are nonetheless pillars of the foreign affairs arena that influence the nation’s Commander-in-Chief.

queen anne hill

Looking back on the 2032 race, the Greyson Administration uses the Queen Anne Hill neighborhood of Seattle to showcase their innovation initiatives against Democratic opponent, Senator Paul Nelson Robinson of New York and Republican opponent Roberto Martinez, the Governor of New Mexico.  Race comes center stage in the campaign along with all of the sensitivities that keep politicians from being labeled racist in America today.

eine allianz

Senator Nelson of New York attacks the Greyson administration for its War on Terror alliances, particularly those from the Middle East like the United Arab Emirates.  Republican nominee Roberto Martinez counters that Greyson is not Hispanic-friendly enough, setting off a great national debate about where America stands in the global marketplace.

the third water break

The road to the White House is peppered with campaigns present and past.  The nominees are consolidating their partisans in a race to the wire that promises to define the 21st century for decades to come.  Will the Democrats prevail?  The Republicans?  Or is a new political reality about to dawn?

orion's promise

President Greyson, in a Kennedy-like challenge, nudges America into returning to the Moon and inhabiting Mars beyond.  The 47th President embraces the Orion project legacy and talks to a pioneering crew in a July 4th transmission wishing America a very happy 256th national birthday.

In The Last footsteps

The Orion project is put into perspective as Greyson recalls his days as Governor of Florida and the effort to commercialize space.  Man’s last footsteps before walking on the Moon came at Launchpad complex 39A.  And, now, Greyson endeavors to repeat history but this time with the last footsteps on Earth before humans walk on Mars, led by Mission Commander Sonia Rodriquez. 

empowering mediocrity?

Education was a big issue for Governor Greyson and a recurring challenge for the Greyson White House.  It could be better.  It should be better.  And education will be a critical component of the effort to make America a more productive nation as the 22nd century looms.  For Zack, education will be the standard by which his presidency will be judged.  Can’t we educate all of our young?

a generation inspired

Zack and Ryan Greyson profile educational achievements in communities around the nation.  They inspire.  They challenge.  They prod.  They nurture America’s best to be the best.  And the costs of not doing so are highlighted.

700 north adams

The Greysons in residence at Florida’s Governor’s mansion.  The mansion is situated across the park from where a bronze sculpture sits called, Florida's Finest, which was unveiled in April 1998 by then Governor “Walkin” Lawton Chiles dedicated to the children of Florida. The sculpture features five life-size children and a dog playing a game of "Follow the Leader" atop three logs of a fallen tree.  How they lived in Florida governed how the Greysons chose to live in Washington.

strap hanging at union station

Following in the footsteps of Woodrow Wilson, who empowered his own Secretary of War to authorize a secret mission to the commanding officer in Siberia to rescue the “late” Tsar of Russia, President Greyson meets with two of his leading officers before restoring democracy to Venezuela.  The President sees the step as being key to protecting the western hemisphere.  Will Congress agree, if they even know?

in the rayburn room

President Greyson meets with the Speaker of the House, Jane Quill, and the Majority Leader of the Senate as he considers his legislative agenda moving forward.  Ethics tug at each leader as they seek to clarify their political postures for the upcoming campaign.  It is a frank discussion that will either ensure success or derail the Greyson presidency.

quibbles

Political issues get silly and the quibbles serious as President Greyson’s Chief Speechwriter, Tom McOlson, makes a very serious and uncharacteristic misstep that comes back to haunt the White House.  Is he out?  Will he be protected?  Can the President’s campaign team do sufficient damage control on this one? 

ryan

The First Lady proves to be a very popular draw on the campaign trail.  Her popularity rises dramatically in the polls, and her influence on the President is undeniable.  Everyone loves here but the media and the talking heads experts on TV.  Wait until Dr. Greyson gets her equal time.

the bear & cathay

Russia and China each present President Greyson with unique challenges during a particularly turbulent period in the Administration.  Key staff are leaving for new jobs.  Congressional opponents are jockeying for plum positions.  And The Washington Post believes that it has a scandal of first proportions to report on the aging Administration.

stem cells

President Greyson takes on a young, aggressive Republican Senator from Pennsylvania, Mike Lochran, over stem cell research, the cornerstone of the President’s signature healthcare initiative.  Lochran thinks stem cell research is anti-God and must be stopped at all costs.  Lochran also wants to run for president against Vice President Fowler.  Is it all about political posturing?

gunny

Chief Master Sergeant Diane McNeal has been gassed in Syria on a secret mission for the Pentagon.  Mustard Gas.  And her treatment at a local VA hospital leaves Diane’s health in an even more precarious position when she is misdiagnosed causing an incensed President to get personally involved in her treatment protocol.

t-lazy-7

The Greysons spent their honeymoon in the shadows of Colorado’s famed Maroon Bells.  The President remembers the T-Lazy-7 and what it means to be Ryan’s husband.

"The" lecture

Zack Greyson remembers a favorite professor from Georgetown who showed him the value to lecturing percipiently.  It was a seminar he will remember forever.  The professor was a leader America will embrace forever as well.

hat trick

The President is re-elected to a second term in the White House.  His coattails prove very interesting to the political junky class who is already now looking at the 2036 election wondering who will be the next American Commander-in-Chief?

the christmas tree - season 4 premiere

The White House is bathed in the Christmas season and the President and his team is struggling to remember the Yuletide cheer the holiday demands.  Everything that can go wrong does go wrong.  Is it true that second administrations are jinxed?

cybered

The President retaliates against a host of continuing cyber-attacks on the United States that he and his Administration argue are a step too far.  Personal data is being stolen from ordinary Americans who are finding that their credit records are being destroyed.  More distressingly, so are the reputations of a number of key White House personnel who now find themselves embroiled in controversy.

Khalid's inquisition

The Potomac River terrorist who has been convicted of murdering presidential candidate John Allen Roberts, Jr., and his precious young family is “interrogated” by American intelligence agents at the behest of President Greyson.  The fine line between inquisition and persecution is explored as Khalid Kaldoon gives up his secrets.

reed's dilemma

How do you ethically advise the President of the United States when events are unprecedented and circumstances are unparalleled?  Georgetown University's Tom Reed struggles with the choices he must make between being a professor and being a patriot.

Dear god, i promise ...

The President’s youngest son, John William Greyson, becomes gravely ill.  A deeply concerned President and his physician-wife, re-visit their lives together and introspectively examine what they might have done better for their God.  And promises follow . . . .

the separation of church & state

The Greysons struggle to come to term with the question:  How do you be a faithful servant of the people and a faithful servant of God when it comes to the United States Constitution.  As Jack Greyson’s health falters, the President and the First Lady consider changes to the way they live life.

havana nights

In the midst of her credibility struggles with White House correspondents, L3 learns that White House Chief of Staff Sherry Creswell has been secretly negotiating with Cuban officials to bring more democracy to that embattled island just 90 miles off the coast of Florida.

the dinner

President Greyson invites Democratic Senator Robert David Hutchinson for a private dinner in Thomas Jefferson’s East Room to dissuade him from running for President against Corrine Marie Fowler in the upcoming election.  Enemies foreign and domestic inspire the ante to be upped by both candidates as history intervenes.

vancouver accord

Leaders of the free world as well as the managed world sign the Vancouver Peace Accords.  Extreme Jihad has accomplished something no one in educated politics could ever have imagined:  Enemy and ally alike come together to end the war on terror, or at least they think they have.

Corinne's time

The President and his Vice President have been on the same page politically for nearly eight years now and it is time for Zachary Hughes Greyson to return his loyalty to the next person he hopes will be the 48th President of the United States.  She returns the President’s faith by opting to run as an Independent herself.

the state dinner

The President leaks his support of the Vice President to an astonished group of highly influential dinner guests assembled to honor the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, perhaps America’s greatest political ally during the Greyson Administration.

the conventions

The Democrats, the Independents and the Republicans all hold their political nominating conventions in San Francisco, Orlando, and Salt Lake City, respectively.  President Greyson receives a send-off that rattles the electoral community who realize that the political landscape is about to change forever.

It's all about the message

The campaigns fight to stay on message and the political winds buffet their proposed ships of state during the closing days of the 2036 presidential campaign.  The best political ads are remembered as America prepares to elect a successor to Zack Greyson, their very popular outgoing President of the United States.

labor day

All three political parties have upstaged the traditional start of the presidential election season as they jockey for dominance on the campaign ballot.  Each campaign makes its best case for why the American public should elect their candidate, and the surprises mount.

The great undecided

Is it time for a viable third party in America?  The American electorate struggles with that question.  Have the Democrats and the Republicans earned their trust, or their animosity?  The great undecided weighs in on a political campaign season that has been vigorously contested and vehemently challenged.

48

The President’s Vice-President stands before the American public, an Independent candidate for President herself.  Will she succeed?  Will she succumb?  Will a third party finally become viable in the United States?

the late, great minister

Zack loses perhaps his greatest political friend when the British Prime Minister is brutally assassinated in a Jihadist revenge attack on St. Patrick’s Day.  Realizing that his Presidency is winding down, Greyson settles on a new strategy that will keep him in the game long after he turns in his keys to the White House front door.

st. peregrine

Wanting to cement his own legacy, Zack Greyson endeavors to establish a healing ministry at a new basilica he wants to fund and build that he calls, St. Peregrine’s Basilica.  An advocate of healing faith, the President wants to construct the church dedicated to healing on his iconic campus along the Potomac.  Greyson sees it as a way to honor, too, his fallen opponent, John Allen Roberts, Jr.

cambridge & caius

The President commits to teach on the American Presidency and U.S. Foreign Policy at the University of Cambridge’s famed Caius College.  Zack sees the position as one that might mask his new secret role on behalf of the American Government and the 48th President of the United States.

final approach - season 5 premiere

The former President of the United States, Zack Greyson, approaches London’s Heathrow International Airport as what was Air Force One prepares to land America’s once great Commander-in-Chief as he embarks on a new life at Caius College after a remarkable career in global politics.  Assassination attempts loom.

retribution

Rogue extremist Jihadists attempt retribution for Zack Greyson’s role in combatting their troops.  MI6 foils the plot and a grateful United States Secret Service endeavor to never allow such an attempt again.

the 23rd psalm

“The Lord is my Shepard,” Zack Greyson recalls from Prep Class.  “I shall not want.  He leadeth me beside still waters .…”  A former President with a conscious attempt to wrap his arms around the need for violence in the face of continuing terror.  Is it just?  Is it righteous?

eighteen nobels

Caius College has 18 Nobel Prize-winning scientists to its credit.   Zack Greyson enlists three of them to help him mitigate the threat of terror from extremist Jihadists who insist on bringing down the United States despite the Vancouver Peace Accord.

emissary

President Fowler has given a top-secret mission to Zack Greyson.  He is her emissary in a raging war on terror that publicly people assume has been long ago settled.  The intrigue continues.  The clandestine strategies endure.  Peace is not at hand.  It is the mission of the Grey Ghosts to secure America.

exactitude

Former President Greyson and his team of Grey Ghosts execute their plan, approved by the 48th President of the United States, without Congress’ knowledge or approval.  Will they be discovered?  Or can they prowl in the shadows successfully; dismantling terror cells one startled Jihadist at a time.

the house of fowler

The history that brought Corinne Marie Fowler to the White House.  Her family heritage dating back to Colonial Jamestown.  The Civil War ancestors.  The Treasury Secretary relatives, now buried in Old Town Alexandria.  The Commander-in-Chief.

minding elizabeth

President Fowler and President Greyson attend a memorial service at Great Britain’s famed Westminster Cathedral in the gaze of the tomb of the fabled Elizabeth I who died 434 years before this day.  The Tudor Dynasty ended under her reign but she forged a sense of national identity that survives to this day.  America could only wish.

vicars of state

America’s chief diplomat is challenged beyond reason and contextualized in comparison to her predecessors – the iconic Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, William Jennings Bryan, Cordell Hull, George C. Marshall, John Foster Dulles, Dean Rusk, Henry Kissinger, George P. Shultz, James Baker, Colin Powell, and Hillary Clinton.

Holland Park

The return to Chelsea is not as satisfying as it might have been for Zack Greyson.  The threat factor for America is daunting, as that for the United Kingdom and the former president must use all of his political and military skills to ward off terror’s latest effort.

Ynys Môn

Greyson returns to the ancestral home of Anglesey and faces yet another assassination attempt.  American and British intelligence operate at their best, yet again an extreme Jihadist finds that retribution is not so glorious.

bridging borders

In secret negotiations, former President Greyson works to bridge borders between disparate nations as the war on terror continues behind closed curtains.  The public believes events are quiet but intelligent Washington knows otherwise.  Does the public have the right to know?

MBO2

An American crew land on Mars fulfilling President Greyson’s challenge to go back to the Moon and beyond.  They will stay for a year, embarking on one of the most promising expeditions U.S. explorers have ever undertaken, with the possible exception of Lewis & Clark in the days of Thomas Jefferson.

here today, gone tomorrow

President Fowler’s press secretary is less than forthcoming with the White House press corps and pays the price.  Fired by a furious President for covering for the Secretary of Treasury who is positioning for a possible run against the incumbent.  ‘Tis the season.

the supremes

In the midst of the Press Secretary’s travails, two new Supreme Court justices must be appointed with the untimely deaths of two icons – one on the right and one on the left.  Will the President appoint one each to make it a smooth sail to Senate confirmation, or will she try to stack the court in favor of her political philosophy?

according to polls

The Fowler Administration skirmishes over what the polls say.  Is the data accurate?  Are the conclusions sound?  Is it too early to throw in the towel?

the devil's candy

If “money is the mother’s milk of politics” then PAC money is the Devil’s candy, so says Zack Greyson.  The question is, will President Fowler agree?  Will politics ever have a level playing field again?  Or do the special interests win every time?

splash one

Air Force One is attacked over the Mediterranean Sea by rogue officers of the Extremist Jihadists.  Several enemy aircraft are annihilated by space-based weaponry responding on behalf of the United States but not enough to save a former President and her party.  America responds.

canons of congress

President Greyson counsels President Fowler on the perils of ignoring Congress.  He reminds the President of the cannons that dictate how Congress acts, and how Congress behaves under certain circumstances.  He tells her the story of Uncle Joe Cannon and the lessons of his time, when the Speaker was all powerful and the President of the United States not so.  They talk legacy.

resilient - series finale

Greyson's America endures and resilience is the name of the game.