Fresh Yankee in North Carolina

Joey is in Lumberton, North Carolina. This is not a part of town that you want to be in. He's not even sure why he came; the girl he knows there he doesn't know well. It's merely the daughter of a woman he works with. When she was in high school, she worked in the office doing busy work. She was nice enough, her name was Athena and she wanted to be a doctor. Now, she has graduated medical school and is doing her residency in Lumberton. Given that she is small framed with long black hair and olive skin standing barely over 5 feet tall, she seems like a target in one of the most dangerous parts of North Carolina. She is working here because due to her success in medical school, they put her in a hospital where she can be exposed to the gore and trauma treatment that she loves so much. There are plenty of gunshot and stab wounds in Lumberton so she'll have plenty of practice. Since she's from New York, she's been inundated with the false information that guns are bad. Joey is going to put an end to that. He knows it's not right, but he bought her a gun knowing that she'll be responsible with it. As he gets something to eat, he remembers his conversation on the plane.

Joey used his phone to watch Senator Lindsey Graham's press conference. He's a Senator from South Carolina that Joey likes after his rant on the Democratic senators during the Kavanaugh campaign. He asks a question, "Why did nobody warn Trump that some of his associates were in cahoots with the Russians" Joey smiles. The guy next to him is also listening. He says to Joey, "Do you support Graham?"

"I do"

"Are you willing to discuss the press conference after he's done?"

"Sure"

Joey normally hates talking to people on the plane. He'd rather just watch movies or play Suduku but he feels that now that he's leaving New York he can actually have a civilized debate with someone rather than New York where people get upset and run away accusing you of being too angry. There was a lot in the speech and the passenger says, "Why do we care if the FBI told Trump that some of his associates may be Russian agents?"

"Don't you think he should know if he's going to be president?"

"Not if he's guilty too"

"But that can help the investigation, how he reacts to that news."

"I guess there's no real precedent so we don't know how it normally works."

"Actually we do, eight years ago when McCain was running against Obama, they did the same thing to him with the same guys Manafort, Kisliyak and Deripaska. The FBI warned McCain and McCain got rid of them and nobody was the wiser."

"Does Graham know that?"

"Yup, he and McCain were close"

"So why not do the same thing for Trump?"

"Because they wanted Russians to infiltrate the campaign so they had a motive to investigate Trump."

"That's a little conspiratorial"

"Do you have a better explanation?"

"No, it's just hard to believe. Alright, the second thing he said this stuff about Comey and the e-mails and Loretta Lynch. I mean, Comey looked at the evidence and didn't think he had enough so what?"

"Well why did Loretta Lynch recuse herself"

"Who is Loretta Lynch?"

"She was the Attorney General under Obama. The reason she gave to recusing herself was she was caught meeting with Bill Clinton on the tarmac of the DC airport"

"Alright, there's your answer"

"Well, Graham has more information than we do. I don't think he's just asking if it was something besides the tarmac"

"Let's not speculate"

"Okay, the FBI's job is not to prosecute, they gather information and the DOJ prosecutes. So, why is Comey saying not to prosecute when that's not his job?"

"Yea, like Law and Order, the cops find the crime but the District Attorneys charge and prosecutes the criminals"

"Precisely, so what is Comey trying to hide?"

"Do you have an answer?"

"Yes, it goes to what Graham was saying. There was an e-mail chain saying that Lynch was corrupted by Clinton and Clinton paid Lynch to make it all go away. Now, people say the Russians leaked that e-mail chain and it never happened. Did Comey fall for a disinformation campaign by the Russians?"

"This is like Homeland"

"I agree, but the Homeland writers did consult with the intelligence community and law enforcement so maybe that's why things on that show happened in real life at pretty much the same time it aired."

"That's crazy, but it actually makes sense. What about this Anthony Weiner's computer."

"Well, they had thousands of e-mails. They really read through them in two days and made a conclusion? The Mueller probe took over 600 days. Can you really read thousands of e-mails in that time?"

"I'm sure they got some cool toys to help with that"

"They claimed the same thing but when they asked them to show it to them, they couldn't"

"Yea, besides something this important, they probably should do their due diligence"

"Agreed"

The plane landed and they went their separate ways. Now Joey was meeting with Athena. They greeted each other and Athena's face told how drained she was. Joey had no idea how many hours her shift just was but he knew it was grueling. He took her out for dinner but felt Athena was just being polite in accepting. Athena said, "Man, you'd think that the south would be Trump country but all my patients love Obama."

"Yea well, keep in mind the town you're in."

"Don't be racist"

"I'm not, this is a bad part of town, it is a barrio that the Democrats keep bad to convince them that they are the benevolent ones for giving them free shit but it really keeps them down"

"Yea, well they're more educated than you think."

"Enlighten me, what did they talk about?"

"These new texts between the FBI"

"Lisa Page and Andrew Mecabe. One lawyer for the FBI, the other a high ranking official. What did they say?"

"I don't know something about a guy named Stu"

"Stu Evans, he was the Deputy Attorney General. The text said that Page understood someone at the DOJ was worried that a confidential source, which is probably Christopher Steele the source of the dossier, was biased against Trump."

"So why did they go through with it if they knew he was biased?"

"Evan's boss John Carlin was Mueller's chief of staff. He told him to go through with it anyway probably. Carlin was also on Mueller's probe"

"Alright, that sounds kind of sketchy but I can't really think right now."

"The Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates came up too."

"Your patients really talked about this?"

Athena smiled, "Well no, the doctors were"

"Ah, that makes more sense"

"Well that text was talking about how Yates wanted to meet with Obama. This is in October 2016. Then a guy named David Cohen who was the Deputy Counter-intelligence general for the CIA was also in the meeting. Page was saying that the CIA and FBI needed to speak in one voice to describe information only mentioned in the Dossier."

"I feel like you're setting something up."

"John Brennan, head of the CIA said he didn't know about the Dossier till December 2016 but his subordinate is briefing the president on it in October 2016, two months before he says he saw it."

"Well, also you're saying that Obama knew. His little speech in the Rose Garden about how it's not possible for Russia to interfere with our election seems ridiculous now."

"Even more ridiculous now that we have these texts about how he was briefed."

"Right, anyway, what's in the bag? Did you go shopping?"

"I bought you a gun. I also got an I-target pro system and a G-force holster so you can wrap it around your thigh."

"You didn't have to do that. I have no time to go to a gun range."

"That's what the I-target pro system is for. Dry fire, no bullets, a laser comes out and shows you where it would've gone. Now it's like a video game except you become proficient with a firearm"

"My boyfriend has been trying to teach me how to shoot, he'll be happy about this."

"Right but he lives in upstate New York. You need to protect yourself and the gun is small enough to conceal on your thigh, even with legs as short as yours."

"Thanks" she said sarcastically.

"Your welcome."

"Alright so I want to sound knowledgeable at work. What was in this dossier anyway?."

"First, Trump had extensive collusion conspiracy with Russians. Nobody was charged with collusion so we know it's false. Second, Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen secretly went to Prague to be paid off by the Russians that hacked Hillary or the DNC servers. Cohen has never been to Prague"

"Cohen turned on Trump and started working against him"

"And, he still maintains he's never been to Prague. His lawyer Lenny Davis who has attacked Trump at every turn and was close with Hillary Clinton says Cohen has never been to Prague. At this point, why lie? Get immunity for whatever you did, say you were following orders and get Trump"

"He accused Trump of telling him to do other shit so why not one more thing?"

"There you go."

"Third, Carter Page took a huge bribe by Roseneft, Russian oil company, to remove sanctions against Russia and them. No evidence they met, Page never charged with any crime whatsoever, despite him being the result of the FISA we know about"

"Alright let's go, I want to go home and shower. Thanks for the presents, I don't think I'll use it but I do appreciate you trying to help me be safe even though I barely know you"

Joey was born in Raleigh, which is near Lumberton. He went to Duke's campus as he was an avid fan to watch the sweet 16 with Duke students. It didn't disappoint. After the weekend, he returned to New York.

Despite Athena downplaying the gun, she did keep it on her. When the hospital let her out, she practiced with the firearm. She looked it up online and found out that it was known as the "prostitute gun" because prostitutes used to wear them in case Johns got overly rough. It negated the need for a pimp. She didn't like the history but it was small and easily concealed so she knew the value for what it was used for. She was outspoken at work and thought that she was charming enough to not have people hold it against her personally. On the way home she stopped at a gas station. While pumping gas, a black man came running at her with a gun. Her hand was at her waist so she easily grabbed her own gun from her thigh holster. The gun was pointing at her and she panicked and fired. The bullet punctured the man's knee and he collapsed in pain. Athena called 911 on her phone and then crouched down and said, "Give me your shirt, I'm a doctor, I can help."

The man just nodded and Athena removed his shirt and wrapped his knee tightly. She contemplated a tourniquet but there wasn't much bleeding as puncture wounds don't bleed too much. She was hoping that idle phone to 911 would make them send a car to her location. She went into her car and took out a first aid kit and put antiseptic on the wound. When the guy didn't make a sound she said, "You'll need stitches, your nerves are shot but the bullet went clean through. You should be fine."

"Thank You"

"Your welcome but please don't go around threatening petite white girls at gun point."

"Yea, they got teeth."

Athena just smiled. When the cops showed up, Athena gave an innocent look and the gunmen glared at her as if she betrayed him. Athena answered questions and filled a report out then went home. She called Joey and he was shocked to get her phone call"

"Joey, I know it's weird that I'm calling but I need something boring to keep my mind off what just happened. I had to shoot someone today for trying to rob me while pumping gas."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I am. He's not because you armed me"

"Do you regret it?"

"Nope, I'm happy you did"

"Alright good."

"So, talk politics. That will get my mind off things as I don't really care"

"You want me to attack the CIA?"

"Sure"

"So, former CIA director John Brennan is in big trouble."

"Why's that?"

"Well on March 8, he told the media there were going to be more indictments because Mueller hadn't gotten to the criminal conspiracy with Russians. He said he had evidence even when he left the CIA. Came up with some BS that Mueller didn't want to do it during the Ides of March"

"Well Mueller just said there was no collusion, Mueller finished like two weeks later so if he didn't have it on March 8, he didn't have it March 22 either. I remember this, didn't he say like Jared and Ivanka were going to be indicted?"

'I don't think Ivanka but his son Donald Trump Jr."

"Yea, well that didn't happen. Mueller said no more indictments"

"So, the only place the extensive conspiracy thing was referenced is in the dossier"

"Here we go about the Dossier again"

"That was all they had"

"Yea, it seems like it"

"But on May 23, 2017 Congressman Gawdy asked him who commissioned the dossier and Brennan said he didn't know"

"I'm guessing you think he lied"

"Yup, GCHQ, the British NSA, Bob Hanigan met with Brennan and gave him information. Hanigan resigned 10 days after Trump was elected. Chris Steele worked for Hanigan. I wonder why Hanigan resigned"

"In August 2016, Brennan went to Capitol Hill and briefed the gang of 8 That's when Harry Reid writes a letter to FBI to investigate Trump."

"So, obviously, he knew about the Dossier before December."

"You want to hear about Clapper"

"Awesome" Athena said sarcastically

"On Anderson Cooper, Clapper says that if it weren't for Obama, they wouldn't have done the investigations based on the intelligence Community Assessment. That Assessment put in motion a series of events that led to the Mueller probe."

"Wow, so Clapper just threw Obama under the bus"

"Yup"

"What did the assessment say?"

"Russians interfered with the election and they wanted to help Trump"

"But you say no"

"Not me;, Mueller said that Trump turned down the Russian offers."

"Who is Jim Clapper by the way?"

"Director of National Intelligence under Obama. Comey said Clapper told him to tell President-Elect Trump that they wanted a meeting in a small group, or one-on-one if possible about Dossier."

"Alright, so they did tell Trump"

"No, Clapper said he never talked to the media and then he admitted he did. He talked to CNN's Jake Tapper in January 2017 about the briefing. That's because the media wasn't talking about the dossier which they had. But now that Trump was being briefed about it, it gave it legitimacy and that's what started this whole mess. Media reports it, public outcry, we get Mueller probe."

"Holy shit, why keep Rosenstein though, only thing I don't understand"

"The humiliation that the guy who signed the memo that fired James Comey, the scope memo giving Mueller power to investigate more things, the final FISA, and now the memo exoneration Trump. The optics are beautiful."

"I'd like to say Trump isn't that vindictive but I don't believe that. He is"

"When the media, the FBI, CIA, DOJ, Democrats, Liberals, Swamp-Rat Republicans, Never-Trumpers, and now Coulter Conservatives are against you and you still win, you earned the right to be vindictive."

"I guess you’re right. Kind of impressive if you think about it"

"Oh I have"

"Yea, alright thanks for distracting me and for indirectly saving me today."

"You saved yourself and I'm always willing to lay down some truth"

"Alright, good night"

"Good night"