Real Characters episode 12 Republicans fight back

                A general in the United States Army has just received information from the Middle East.  He knows that he must inform the Commander of Chief so he makes the phone call.  The results of this phone call could lead America into a war against one of the largest standing armies in the Middle East, Iran.  The President picks up and says, “General”

                “Mr. President, we have just received word that a drone was shot down in international water near Iran”

                “Were there any American casualties?”

                “No Sir, it was an unmanned drone.”

                “Was Iran responsible?”

                “Yes Sir, they have already taken credit.”

                In a calm and collected manner, President Trump relayed, “Okay, we lost some money.  Obviously we’re going to have to send a response to let the Iranians know this is unacceptable.”

                “Should we hit them with a military strike?  Perhaps send missiles against their military bases?”

                “What kind of drone was it?”

                “The high altitude surveillance ones.”

                “How much does that lose us?”

                “Approximated $ 130 Million”

                “Sending a missile strike against them for costing us $ 130 Million and not harming American life is a little drastic don’t you think?”

                “I do, but respectfully sir, I don’t believe it should be ignored.”

                “We are in agreement about that.  In fact, I would like to leak that we were going to send a strike but I called it off at the last second because it wasn’t proportionate.”

                “That would send a message that they almost crossed the line.”

                “Yes, it would.”

                “It’s worth a shot but bluffing may not suffice.”

                “What else do you have in mind?”

                “We could send a cyber attack on their military computers.  Let them know that if we wanted to we can shut down all their military technology.  That way we do something to show our might rather than just a bluff.”

                “Let’s go with the bluff and see their reaction. That is certainly a good option if we don’t’ like their response.”

                “Yes Sir, I’ll see to it at once”

                “Just to be clear, we are not going with the cyber attack at this time but I do want you to prepare to execute if need be but, I repeat, do not execute just get it ready.”

                “Understood sir.  I will talk with our technology experts about specifically how we would do this.  I will also have someone leak that we were planning an attack but you called it off.”

                “Very good, let me know if anything changes”

                “Of course sir, thank you.”

                “Thank you sir, good bye”

                “Good day Mr. President.”

                The General spoke to a subordinate to leak the information to the press.  The subordinate waited until the next day to make the story more believable that the attack was about to go forward but then was called off.  He called a source he had in the media and after pleasantries said, “I wanted to inform you that we almost sent a missile strike on Tehran today.”

                The journalist replied, “Really?  Was this in response to Iran shooting the drone?”

                “Yes”

                “What happened?”

                “We were cocked and ready to go.  We had the target and we were T-minus 10 minutes to launch when the President called it off.”

                “Did the President authorize the attack?”

                “Of course, congress couldn’t move this quickly and he gets 90 days to respond unilaterally in military matters before addressing congress.”

                “Right, wow, this is like what we all feared before he got elected?”

                “What would that be?”

                “That he was a madman that had a quick trigger finger.”

                “I would like to emphasize that he called off the attack”

                “But the problem is he thought to do it.”

                “If he was a madman then he would have done it.  I also think the fears in the media during the campaign were that he would send nuclear weapons.”

                “I wouldn’t put it past him”

                “So, you’re trying to say that a man who authorized a missile strike on a military base and then called it off because it was an overreaction is the same thing as a man who sends a nuclear weapon in response to an expensive piece of equipment being destroyed?”

                “Well…you know what I mean”

                “No, I don’t know what you mean.  What I mean is that what the President did today was not the hallmark of a madman.”

                “Alright, that may have been hyperbole.”

                “I’m glad you agree”

                “Is there anything else you’d like to add for the story?”

                “No, that’s all I can really tell you.”

                “Alright thank you for the information.  Obviously I’ll keep your name out of it as my source.  I appreciate your help.”

                “You’re welcome sir.”

                The story quickly got out to the media and it was relayed perfectly.  Obviously people who dislike the President would attack him either for indecisiveness or, like the journalist, for being too quick to violence but the military was happy that a measured and calculated person was the commander in chief of the army.  Some of them had been there long enough to remember when Bill Clinton bombed Baghdad to detract attention away from the Monica Lewinsky scandal.  That was a misuse of the missile power that is more like a sociopath than anything Donald Trump had done.

 

                The President is being briefed on media reports about the military strike that was never imminent but he strategically pretended it was as a warning to the Iranians. It had the desired effect, now they could only wait to see how Iran responded.  He hoped they didn’t take it as a sign of weakness because weakness it was not.  He spent a lot of time speaking with military experts for equivalent responses and had an idea what he would do if it emboldened Iran.  His secretary buzzes him and informs him that an aide wants to brief him on the Supreme Court.  President Trump takes the phone call and finds out that the Supreme Court has reached a verdict 7-2 that a large cross serving as a memorial for WWI can stay in Bladensburg, MD on public land.  It has been there for decades and President Trump gets the specifics how each justice explained their vote.  He opined, “Justice Gorsuch made a statement about how we shouldn’t destroy history and precedent because one person gets offended.  He was also the only one to challenge the Lemon v Kurtzman decision as they tried to rewrite the constitution.”

                “I’m not familiar with that case sir.”

               
                “It laid out three criteria for determining if government was establishing a religion.  That really isn’t their job to make up definitions.  It’s to interpret what the constitution says.  Anyway, I agree with Gorsuch that it should be challenged but that’s not something I’m going to involve myself in.  These justices were appointed and they are doing their job.  I don’t regret any of my appointments but I’m proud of Gorsuch on this one.”

                President Trump turns on NBC and sees Condoleezza Rice giving an interview.  He is a little intrigued as Rice is a moderate but she’s far enough on the right to be attacked by the left.  The interviewer asks her if race relations are worse today than ever before.

                President Trump speaks aloud to the TV and says, “That’s not what a recent poll said.  They said that the racial divide is smaller than it was under Obama.”

                Rice fires back, “It’s not worse than the Jim Crow Alabama where I grew up.  Do you really think we made no progress?  Seriously?”

                The interviewer tries to argue that it’s top down and asks the question several ways but Rice is having none of it.  She’s not only not going to intimate that the President is responsible for horrible race relations in America, she won’t even acknowledge the premise that racial division is worse than it has been in recent history.  She stays neutral that it’s pretty much the same from what it has been the last few years but much better than forty years ago.  President Trump nods his approval with the way Rice handled that and switches over to ABC.  They are reporting on Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, and his sketchy dealings with China and Ukraine.  They highlight how Joe Biden went to visit in 2014 and when he left, his son Hunter was named to the board of Burisma, the largest energy company in Ukraine.  ABC highlights that Hunter had no prior energy experience and had just gotten out of jail on cocaine possession.  As if that qualified you for a six figure job.  President Trump smiled.  An aide had observed what just happened and said, “Looks like the fake news has finally decided to do their job”

                “You don’t think the timing is suspicious?” Queried the President

                “How do you mean sir?”

                “Well, they’ve known about this for five years.  Joe Biden even bragged about how he withheld aide money to Ukraine until their investigator stopped investigated Hunter.  The fake news has turned on him.  I knew it was going to happen as they only support the candidate that is most left but it was accelerated when he talked about how his nostalgia in dealing with Democratic segregationilist Senators in the 70s.  Far left loon Corey Booker asked him to apologize and Biden said that Booker should apologize to him for insinuating he’s a racist.  The identity politics people don’t like that.  The Democrats try very hard to hide that they are the party of Jim Crow, segregation and racism and Biden is going on national TV and reminding people.  Because of that, he must be destroyed.”

                “That actually makes a lot of sense sir.”

                “It’s a simple formula, if you have two people running against each other, the one that is farther left will be oodled and deified by the media and the other one will be attacked”

                The aide contemplated this and said, “You know, I can honestly not think of a counter-example.  I mean the first Obama primary against Hillary but I’m not sure who’s further left.  But the tie-break goes to blacks over women for the left.”

                President Trump smiled, “You are a fast learner.  You’re great, good job”

                “Thank you sir” the aide said as he beamed. 

 

                Meanwhile in Salem, Oregon, the Democratic governor was about to pass a climate change bill that would decimate the energy industry in Oregon.  With all the liberals living in Oregon, especially Portland, and the Democrats controlling the law making, there wasn’t much the Republicans could do to stop it.  The Republican lawmakers are meeting and they are discussing what to do.  An older lawmaker says, “We will do our duty.  We will vote”

                A younger one says, “But we’ll lose and the people of Oregon will suffer.”

                “You win some, you lose some, but order must be restored”

                “Well, when Scott Walker in Wisconsin tried to push through legislation the Democrat lawmakers in Wisconsin fled the state to avoid a vote on it.”

                “We don’t resort to underhanded, immature tactics such as that.  We are above that.  That’s what separates us from Democrats”

                “That’s why we’re losing.  We play by the rules and they don’t.  I say we give them a taste of their own medicine.  It’s not illegal.”

                “It’s unethical and childish”

                “But effective”

                The debate continued and then they disbursed.  Some time later, Governor Kate Brown of Oregon is at the capital ready to pass her bill on climate change.  She looks around a relatively empty room and says, “Where is everyone?”

                “Ma’ame the Republicans aren’t here.”

                “Where are they?”

                “Not sure Ma’ame, we’ve had people call them.  We’ve gone by their houses to check on them nobody has seen them.”

                “Well, I guess we’ll give them a few minutes to see if they’re just late.”

                A few hours pass and Governor Brown calls the chief of police and says, “I need you to send officers to search for the Republican lawmakers, we need to pass this bill and unfortunately we can’t do it without them.” 

                With that the Oregon police scour Salem and then the state looking for the Republican lawmakers.  Governor Brown has no choice but to delay the bill until she can get everyone to meet at the Capital.  Governor Brown goes to get some comfort food and has people bring her McDonalds.  She opens her meal and says, “This will make me feel better.  Do you want a burger?” she asks of a staffer

                The staffer says, “I don’t eat McDonalds”

                “Why not?”

                “It’s not right how they treat their animals.   A lot of people don’t eat McDonalds for health and moral reasons Ma’ame”

                “McDonalds wouldn’t be the largest fast food chain if nobody ate it.”

                “People protest popular things”

                “Well clearly they’re not effective.  It’s not like Chic Fil-A which made a huge mistake upholding their Christian values.”

                “Ma’ame Chic Fil-a is the third largest restaurant chain in the country”

                “What?  Even though they’re not open on Sundays?”

                “Yes Ma’Ame”

                Governor Brown shrugged her shoulders and declared, “Wow, that’s kind of surprising.”

                Governor Brown takes her McDonalds into another room.  The aide says to a security guard, “I hope it wasn’t something I said.  I mean I was just stating the facts”

                “You didn’t say anything bad.  I’m sure she didn’t leave on your account.  You merely just said a fact.  You didn’t abstract it”

                “What do you mean?”

                “That the best thing for business is a liberal boycott”

                “I wouldn’t go that far.”

                “I know but when they tried to boycott in and Out burger for giving money to the Republicans, they had a spike in business.  That diner outside of Arlington, Virginia that refused to cower to the liberal mob that attacked them for serving members of a pro-2^nd amendment rally had increased patrons.  It always happens.”

                “Let’s change topics.  What do you think about Trump meeting with President Xi in China?”

                “I don’t think much of it” as he shrugged his shoulders and continued, “I hope he can find a way to stop the meddling with Americans without creating an international incident”

                “How do they meddle with Americans?”

                “You have to understand that China is the largest surveillance country in the world.  They monitor people’s dating habits, how often they go to bars, if they’re married, who they’re talking to.  Various facial recognition software constantly monitoring their day to day activity.”

                “Okay”

                “In 2015, they stole a mass amount of American’s medical records from Anthem.  It’s all part of a ploy to use that same surveillance on us.”

                The aide had a confused look on her face and retorted, “Well, they are the Chinese government.  They can’t really do anything if they don’t like the information.”

                “We just had the President of the United States spied on.  They outsourced the spying to foreign countries that don’t have the privacy laws we do.  So, people could use the Chinese in the same way for oppositional research.”

                “Yea but it’s with the American government permission.  They are powerless unless an American politician wants to use them against other Americans.”

                “That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

                “Well, you’re security; it’s your job to be paranoid.”

                “Let me pose it to you this way.  What if there’s a high ranking person in any branch of our government.  The Chinese have been monitoring him and knows of things he may not want to make public.  Maybe he had a stroke so they feel he’s not fit for office.  Maybe he cheated on his wife so they don’t want a scandal.  The Chinese then can blackmail that person and undermine our system.”

                “I didn’t think of that” the aide said with a dire look on her face. 

                “Everyone always says they have nothing to hide but, truth be told, everyone has something to hide.”

                “I don’t know.  I see your point but I don’t think it’s prudent to always being paranoid and looking over your shoulder.”

                They ended the conversation and the aide called a contact they had in New York politics.  She asked how it was going over there and the NY staffer came back with, “It’s a little hectic ever since President Trump made those SALT deductions, people have been fleeing the state like crazy”

                “Where are they going?”

                “Mostly Florida but some go to Texas and Nevada”

                “To avoid the high taxes?”

                “Yea, California and New York are the only states losing population right now.”

                “That means when the census comes out, they’ll have fewer electoral votes.”

                “Yup, especially if Trump gets that citizenship question to stay on the Census questionnaire.”

                “Well, this may be a good thing.  Hillary won the popular vote.  There’s more liberals than conservatives in America.  The problem is we’re all concentrated in California, New York and Illinois, mainly Chicago.  If we migrate elsewhere we can turn red or grey states blue and take back the White House.”

                “Well, that does make sense but it’s not something we intended.  The more representatives we have the stronger we are.”

                “I agree but there may be a silver lining is all I’m saying.”

                “Yea, unless the people who leave realize that taxes suck and they don’t want it where they’re going or else they’re just advocating for what they fled.”

                “If that were true, they wouldn’t have voted for it in New York and California.  They’ve always been high tax states, now they’re just higher.  Besides it was Trump that forced the higher taxes on them not the Democrats, so yea, they’re still going to be on our side.”

                “All we would have to do is lower our property taxes so nobody is paying over $10,000 and then Trump’s SALT deductions would be irrelevant”

                “They don’t think like that.  They’re stupid”

                “I hope you’re right.”

                “I am.  Look how many times climate change predictions have been wrong and yet everyone in our state still believes it’s an existential crisis.  Now, if you put a can in a trash bin instead of a recycling bin, a mob of people surround you and attack you.”

                “Yea, you ignore the failed history of climate change by re-branding it.  It’s like ‘no no no all those failed predictions were for global warming, this is different, it’s climate change’”

                “Yea well people we’re beginning to get suspicious how global warming could make things so cold too.”

                “That’s the problem with hoaxes, they just don’t make sense.”

                “Yea but they keep people in line and enhances your power.”

                “That is true.  You know, when the Republicans don’t flee the state to avoid getting it passed”

                “Ha Ha, very funny.  Minor setback.  We’ll get it through.”

                “I know, I’m just messing with you.”

                The aide laughed, “Yea I know, I’ll talk to you later.”

                “Talk to you later.”

                The battle for America has started.  There’s a little more than year before the election.  For the first time, conservatives are fighting back and are not above using underhanded liberal tactics to fight fire with fire against the ruthless unscrupulous liberals.  Who will prevail?  Based on the rallies, Donald Trump has the momentum now but momentum can be halted and reversed in an instant.  It’s going to be a long ride and the stakes couldn’t be higher.