Nouno the Vigilante Episode 8 Tough to Swallow

                John Stevens and Michelle Mishcon are a middle-aged couple in Martin County, Florida.  John is thinking about what to do for his 60^th birthday next year.  Although at his age, birthdays don’t mean much, he’d like to do something on this milestone.  He discusses it with his wife Michelle who still has a ways to go as she is six years his junior.  As they walk along the beach of the scenic Treasure Coast, they enjoy the sun and nice weather.  At this relaxing moment, they didn’t know that John’s thoughts about his sixtieth birthday were fruitless as he wasn’t going to make it.

                After a nice dinner, they come home to the Southeast Kokomo Lane.  They turn on the TV and watch a hearing in which John Dean is testifying before congress.  John and Michelle know a little about the news but it doesn’t consume their lives as it does most people.  Michelle hears Jerry Nadler accredit John Dean as being a highly dignified and reputable lawyer that represented Richard Nixon.  Michelle says, “Well, I’m not sure how good he is if Nixon had to resign.”

                John responds, “Well, he’s been going around criticizing Nixon and commenting on obstructing justice ever since, that’s why they’re bringing him on.”

                “Was he involved with President Trump in any way?”

                “Nope”

                “So, why should we listen to him?”

                “They’re making the argument that since he was involved in Watergate; he knows what obstruction looks like.  Really this is just a fake impeachment hearing since they don’t have the votes to actually impeach Donald Trump.”

                Ohio representative Jim Jordan is the first to speak and asks Dean, “Did you ever advise Michael Cohen or his lawyer Lanny Davis not to turn over his testimony to the Republicans for as long as possible?”

                “No, I never directly spoke with them.”

                “That’s not what you said publicly on a recent media appearance.  You said that you advised Lanny Davis to tell Michael Cohen not to turn over his testimony to the Republicans”

                “I’ve known Davis for decades so yes I talked to him.”

                John stated, “He just contradicted himself.”

                Michelle added, “Some witness” sarcastically

                Jordan drove the point home by saying that Dean advised Cohen and Davis to obstruct justice by not turning over subpoenaed documents.  Michelle and John couldn’t help but agree with Jordan. 

                As they continue to watch, Matt Gaetz has been recognized to question Dean.  John says, “Oh good, now we’ll get to see what our representative has to say.  Gaetz is a representative for Florida and he immediately interrogates Dean about how much money he’s made accusing presidents of being Nixon.  John opines, “Wow, he set him up perfectly.  He got Dean to brag that he wrote a book called, ‘Worse than Watergate” to describe the first President Bush and then transitions to how he just plays the Nixon card to make money through books and appearances on CNN.”

                Michelle pronounces, “Not to mention that he claims not to have any idea how much money he made.  That’s preposterous.  Just for good measure he played the card against the second Bush too.”

                It is now the representative from Texas, Louie Gomert’s turn.  He goes on a long rant comparing Nixon’s illegal spying campaign with Barak Obama, the DNC and Hillary Clinton.  As he goes back and forth between what Nixon did and what Obama or Hillary did, Michelle and John can just nod as it seems to be making a lot of sense.  John says, “Well between that and the fact that this ‘esteemed lawyer’ Nadler talked about has been disbarred, I’d say I’m not going to really believe anything he says.”

                “Yea, if this is the best the Democrats can come up with, they’re in trouble” Michelle stated. 

                A short while later, there is a scream at the door that leads to their garage. A younger looking man is screaming for help and knocking on the door.  John goes to investigate as he doesn’t like seeing people suffer. 

 

 

                Austin Harrouff is not a normal 19-year-old boy.  He has a long history of bipolar disorder and depression.  He often has delusions of grandeur and has been known to consider himself MLK and Jesus.  It all stems from believing he is super-human and that people are out to get him because society can’t handle superheroes.  Although he’s often medicated to control these urges, he turns to marijuana more than anything.  After smoking weed all day, his father forces him out of the house to go to dinner.  At dinner, Austin becomes frustrated with how slow the service is so he gets up and walks out of the restaurant.  It is not uncommon for manic episodes to cause someone to walk for miles and Austin is no exception.  He started thinking that people were trying to lure him somewhere to kill him.  As he tried to avoid these people, he noticed a light on in the neighborhood he was in.  He ran to the house and banged on the door screaming for help.

                When the door opened, Austin slapped the man in the face and tackled him to the ground barking like a dog.  Austin took out a small pocket knife and stabbed John repeatedly.  Michelle heard the screaming and came running.  Unfortunately, she still thought that the boy wanted help but instead she found herself being thrown to the ground of her garage.  Austin mounted her and slashed her with his knife with his right, and punched her with his left.  After John and Michelle were incapacitated, Austin alternated between the two biting and chewing their faces and chest pulling out bits of flesh.  The commotion caused a neighbor, Jeff Fisher to hurry over to the house. 

                When Fisher got to John and Michelle’s garage, he was shocked at what he was seeing.  Austin was straddling Michelle and chunks of her face and chest were missing.  Austin turned to Fisher and cried out, “You don’t want any of this.”

                Although Fisher would agree that he didn’t, he had to do something.  The cops were already called but he sat there stunned.  Austin swung his right hand at Fisher and slapped him in the face.  Fisher blocked with his arms and swung back defensively.  This blocking and defensive swinging went on for a while until Fisher grabbed a hold of the young adult who thinks he’s half dog, half man and threw him to the ground.  That’s when Fisher realized he was cut and bleeding.  He assumed that the boy had a knife but he just placed him in between him and the entrance to the garage.  He noticed that the house door was open so he opted to run inside the house.  The cops showed up a short time later and Fisher gave his statement and offered any help he could.  Unfortunately for John and Michelle, they wouldn’t get to press charges as they were both dead. 

                At court, Harrouff’s lawyer pled insanity to give him a lesser sentence.  An expert from Cleveland, Ohio came down and interviewed Harrouff.  At first he thought the teenager was lying about having a mental illness but at the end concluded that he did.  Having done his job, he flew back to Cleveland only to find out that Horrouff would do minimal time due to his mental illness.  The expert picked up the phone and made a phone call to someone that used to live in Cleveland. 

 

                Abby and Nouno were both raised in Cleveland.  Abby was born there but Nouno moved when he was three so although his earliest memories were in Cleveland, he technically wasn’t born there.  They now live in Arizona.  They are out for dinner when Abby overhears people from California talking.  Abby is much more outgoing and extroverted than Nouno is and he disliked how she engages in conversations with strangers when they’re out.  Abby knows this but she doesn’t care.  She knows that as much as Nouno says he dislikes it, he almost always participates in the conversation.  Abby asks, “You know lately there’s been a lot of people moving here from California.  Why is that?”

                A California girl says, “It’s too expensive to live there.   They keep raising taxes and gas is over five dollars a gallon.”

                Abby just nods and utters, “Yea, I’ve heard that.”

                “It just keeps getting worse.  Now that they want to give healthcare to illegal immigrants, it’s really going to bankrupt them.”

                Nouno articulates, “That’s basically offering healthcare to the whole world”

                The California girl shrugs her shoulders and she puts on a higher pitched voice.  She says, “I mean, I understand that they want a better life and healthcare is a right and everyone should be taken care of but….”

                Nouno fired back, “You have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, not healthcare or any of the millions and millions of things you liberal West Coast people call rights.  Rights incur an obligation on someone else and people should not be forced to do things.”

                Abby rolls her eyes and gently states, “I’m sorry for him, he gets pretty zealous with this stuff.”

                The California girl responds angrily, “Well, it’s worth a shot to see if Bernie Sander’s healthcare for all campaign will work.  I mean if it fails, then we can save the country from a horrible idea.”

                Nouno retorted, “It was already tried in Vermont by the same Bernie Sanders running for president.”

                “And what happened?”

                “Vermont’s total revenue is $1.7 Billion dollars.  That is how much they make through tax collections a year.”

                “Alright”

                “To give healthcare to everyone, they found out that they would need to increase their revenue by $2.6 Billion”

                “So, they have to more than double their income”

                “Yup, tax people twice as much.  That, however, won’t work because if you double people’s taxes, they are less motivated to work and may leave the state. Or do you think that that’s ridiculous that people leave states because of high taxes” Nouno smiled condescendingly at this point daring her to contradict herself.

                Abby chimed in, “I’ve tried to work with him on his delivery.  Try to ignore the confrontational tone and go just with the information.”

                The California girl utters, “I don’t think I’ll be able to but fine, we can’t afford it.  California can’t deal with more taxes, we’re taxed enough as it is and it’s leading to a lot more poor people, which means a lot more crime.”

                Nouno adds, “And shitting in the street.”

                “Yes that too” admits the California girl.  “Anyway it was nice meeting you” she says to Abby and walks away. 

                Abby glares at Nouno and reprimands, “Why can’t you just be nice to people?”

                “I hate stupid people and I’ve given up on educating them.  They can’t be helped.”

                Abby thinks about it and realizes that if Nouno has to deal with her sparking conversations with random strangers, she has to deal with his aggressive first impression.  It is who they are and they wouldn’t want the other person to not be themselves regardless of how it may hurt them in a public social setting.  One of the other pet peeves Nouno has with Abby is about to come to fruition as she receives a phone call and answers it despite being at dinner.  The conversation is quick and Abby looks at Nouno and decries, “That was a doctor friend from back home.  We have a case.”

                “Where to?”

                “Palm Beach, Florida”

                “Nice! It’ll be nice to see the ocean. Maybe instead of the crematorium, we’ll rent a boat and just throw the body in the water.”

                “Do you know the tides in Palm Beach?  Where to drop the body so that they carry it to the middle of the ocean far far way from swimmers?”

                Nouno dropped his head and pronounced, “No”

                “Yea, stop thinking you’re Dexter”

                “I know, who is the target?”

                “Well it’s a white guy for a change.”

                “Alright”

                “19-year-old pothead that killed a couple in their 50s and chewed their faces.  He’s getting off for insanity.”

                “You know, I think if you just left it at he killed them and ate their faces, I could have figured out he was white.”

                Abby shot him a strange look and said, “Why?”

                “White people are crazy.  When they do shit, it’s always heinous and disgusting.  I mean Hispanics decapitate and kill you brutally but they’re not going to like take out your eyes and use them as click clacks or something.”

                Abby shakes her head and says nothing.  After a period of silence she declares, “Weed doesn’t make you violent though.”

                “It does now”

                “What does that mean?”

                “This isn’t the weed you smoked in high school.  Now that it’s legal, they lace it with more THQ.  It went from 8% to like 30% THQ”

                “So legalizing it made it dangerous?”

                “Yes, if the government is making money off it, they want to make it more addictive so you keep doing it.  People dying was bad for business for drug dealers and it was their only source of income.  A drug dealer has less incentive to kill their clients than the government does.”

                “Wow, the government really can’t do anything right.”

                “Right, or you could say that since pot dealers have to pay taxes, it’s an added cost they didn’t have before so now they have to increase the use by making their product more addictive.”

                “I get it, government bad, free market good, even for weed.”

                “There you go” Nouno articulated with a wide smile and caused Abby to smile as well. 

 

                They got on the plane and headed to Palm Beach, Florida.  While on the plane, Nouno found out that an Obama state department official, Jonathan Winer, organized meetings between Steele and various State department officials as far back as 2014.  He mentioned it to Abby and she stated, “Well, that’s why Nunez always talks about that none of the information came through official intelligence, it was all unofficial.”

                “Are you beginning to come over to the dark side?” Inquired Nouno since Abby was normally left of center.

                Abby gave him a charming look and spoke, “Don’t worry I still hate Trump”

                “This isn’t about Trump; this is about the Iran deal”

                “What do you mean?”

                “On December 11, 2014, Winer pressured his colleagues to get Steele’s reports to Victoria Nuland and Paul Jones so they could influence the president.  Trump wasn’t even thinking of running in 2014.”

                “I know that, he ran in 2016, I’m a pretty smart cookie.  That’s why you love me remember?”

                “Well, you were 21 when this happened so who knows what you were doing in college.”

                “And you were 30”

                “You’re still not”

                “Fine, whatever” she countered as she rolled her eyes. 

                “Do you understand what this means?  As far back as 2014, Winer was acting like a liaison between Christopher Steele and the State Department.”

                “Yes, the Democrats were colluding with the English way before Trump.  Winer was the predecessor of Bruce Ohr.”

                “That’s a very good comparison.  Yes, but how long was the pipeline between Steele and the State Department going on?”

                “I don’t know, how do we have all these e-mails?”

                “Judicial Watch got it through the Freedom of Information Act”

                “How can Judicial Watch get this shit but Republican congressman and the President of the United States can’t get it when they subpoena and order it to be declassified?”

                “What do you think I’m going to answer” Nouno responded with an intense stare

                Abby shook her head slowly back and forth in a mocking manner, which matched her tone as she articulated, “The private sector is always going to be better than the government”

                Nouno was undeterred and pronounced, “That’s right!”

                Abby smiled and continued, “I guess that’s why Victoria Nuland was saying there were many dossiers like Steele writing a dossier wasn’t a big deal”

                “Yea, he’d been giving dossiers to bypass the intelligence community to influence policy for years before the Trump surveillance and Carter Page FISA”

                “Well, Steele wasn’t the only one who wrote a dossier.  Cody Shearer did too and he gave it to Sydney Blumenthal to influence policy”

                “You do realize that Cody Shearer is Jonathan Winer’s brother-in-law right?”

                Abby put her head down and quietly mumbled, “No, I didn’t”

                “I think that Winer is the key to all of this.  He linked Halper and Dearlove to the state department to tell them about Mike Flynn and Svetlana Lokhova, which was a made up story because there was nothing to them.  They just happened to be sitting at the same table at a Cambridge dinner.  There was no romantic interest.”

                “Okay, I’m not as obsessed with this as you are.  You say how the state department is giving information to the FBI and the FBI is running with it.  You state that as if it’s a bad thing.  I believe you it is but you never really explained how it’s supposed to work.  If you explain that, then the contrast will help your point.  This is what I mean by your delivery being shitty.”

                “My tone has nothing to do with it?”

                “Oh that’s the main problem but baby steps”

                Nouno gives a wry smile and starts, “It’s supposed to work that the intelligence community gathers information.  Once they vet it and make sure it’s verified, then they tell the State department.  The State department then decides how they’re going to legislate said information.  Non-intelligence agents should not be briefing the State department nor is the state department supposed to be telling the intelligence agencies anything.  It’s one way traffic.  Intelligence tells state, state acts on information.”

                “So, state department should never ask intelligence to verify or help them.”

                “I mean, they can and it’s the intelligence’s job to vet it and verify.  They didn’t in this case but honestly no, they shouldn’t.  It influences them too much and the intelligence communities shouldn’t be bothered with gossip from powerful people because they may be pressured into pleasing them.”

                “Alright, wait, so that’s probably how Steele ended up talking to Kavalec.  Winer set up the meeting since he wanted Steele to meet with as many state officials as possible so the FBI had the same information from multiple sources.  Also, Steele talked to the media outlets too.”

                Nouno’s eyes darted up as if he had an epiphany, “Yes, that’s correct” he cried out 

                Nouno and Abby landed and they scoped out the area.  The next day, Nouno went to the beach and went swimming.  Abby met him later and they spent a day relaxing before doing what they came to do.  Abby had located Austin and was telling Nouno her plan.  Nouno was hardly listening as he wanted a day of relaxation on the beach.  That night, they went over it again.  It was time to act. 

Nouno had a friend that was bipolar.  He had witnessed one of these psychotic breaks and it almost landed him in jail as the girl who had asked him to pick her up in his neighborhood ended up accusing him of stalking her.  Before that, they walked over 10 miles around New York City until he finally gave up and went to his apartment thinking she’d come back eventually.  Instead, she went to the wrong building and when he got the address from a doorman. He hurried over only to find she already called the police and set him up.  That ended a friendship that lasted about a decade.  Due to this, he knew how to trigger these breaks.  He found Austin and walked up to him and said, “The Earth’s vibes are off balance”

Austin’s body tensed and he muttered under his breath, “You’re right, I’m dizzy.”

                Nouno suggested, “You think that witch you killed may have put a spell on you before you killed her?”

                “I don’t know maybe”

                “If you’re dizzy and can’t handle the Earth shifts and the negative vibes, come back to my hotel, you’ll be safe there.”

                “No, I won’t.  You’re trying to kill me.”

                Nouno shook his head back and forth and said, “Yea, I am” as he stuck him with a syringe knocking him unconscious as Austin gaped at him in shock that he admitted it. 

                Austin woke up tied down to a bed with plastic.  He demanded, “Let me go?  Do you know how important I am?  I’m not going to sacrifice myself like MLK and Jesus did.”

                “No, you won’t because your death will mean nothing.  Nobody is going to make a religion off of you.  School will be open on your birthday.”

                “Why are you doing this?”

                “You killed two people.  They weren’t witches or evil beings.  They were innocent people and you killed them.”

                “I had to, I’m half dog, half man”

                “Well, dogs don’t normally attack humans.  They’re normally man’s best friend. Also, if a dog does act up and attacks a human, humans react by putting the dog down so you’re saying we should kill you.”

                Abby liked toying with Nouno so she raised, “What do you think of Russia-gate?”

                Nouno chuckled because he knew what she was doing.  Like Abby, though, he was curious what he would say.  He got involved with the other girl because psychology interested him and the psychotic mind was intriguing to view.  What would they come up with?  It definitely ended the monotony of the day and normal conversations.  He was surprised when Austin offered, “It’s not Trump-Gate or Russia-gate, it’s Spygate”

                Abby replied “What do you mean?”

                “Trump was just the most recent manifestation.  Obama did this in his first term.  It all started with Iran.  Obama used the United Kingdom to go after all opponents of the Iran deal.  That’s how Mike Flynn was targeted at a dinner in Cambridge with CIA spy Stefan Halper.  They lied that he was fucking a Russian student, Svetlana Lokhova.  That’s how Russia started but it was only because Flynn was vocally against the Iran deal.  He resigned and kept talking so Obama tried to shut him up with a Russian collusion myth.  Just like he did to McCain and just like he did with Trump.  He used British intelligence because they aren’t held down by our laws so they are free to invasively spy on us.”

                Nouno couldn’t believe he was taking this seriously.  A lot of what he said checked out with what he knew but the best lies have an element of truth to them.  He curiously posed, “Well, you’re talking about Russia again.  You said it wasn’t Russia-Gate, it was Spygate, so any other countries.”

                “With all the turmoil going on in Libya when Kaddafi was ousted, a lot of money could be made in that chaos”

                “Kind of like how Manafort, Hillary, Biden and George Soros made money off the turmoil in Ukraine?”

                “Right, before Ukraine there was Libya.  Sidney Blumenthal was close with Obama and he wanted Libyan Government contracts”

                “And Winer at the time was the special envoy to Libya”

Austin gave an appreciative nod and said, “You are well informed.”

“I am, I’m just surprised you are?”

“What you don’t think bipolar people pay attention to the world and the news?”

“I just think they’re susceptible to being brainwashed by the fake news of mainstream media.  You know the real story.  The stuff the news doesn’t tell you.”

“You can’t be brainwashed when you’re a super human” 

“And your back”

                “Maybe this is easier for you to swallow.  When you’re psychotic, you are more skeptical of shit.  You don’t believe everything you see on TV because everyone is full of shit so you research it more.”

                “That makes sense.  Back to the story though.  So Blumenthal wants government contracts and Winer is in a position to provide them to him.”

                “And Winer does.  See, he worked for APCO Worldwide, which is a lobbying firm.  They are longtime associates with John Kerry, who was a familiar character in the Iran deals by talking to the Iranians representing the United States.  A clear violation of the Logan Act that they charged Flynn with a couple years later.”

                “Since Winer worked there and he likes setting up meetings.  He probably set up a meeting between state department officials and APCO so they could better influence policy on behalf of their clients.”

                “And what clients they had.  APCO gave hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of pro-bono services to the Clinton Foundation.  Rosatom gave APCO three million dollars in 2010.”

                Abby asked, “Who is Rosatom?”

                Nouno answered, “They are one of the largest Russian energy companies.  They bought the Iranian company Tenex, which gave them access to United States Uranium that we had sold to the Iranians as part of the Iran deal brokered by Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.”

                “Right the Uranium One Scandal.  To be fair though, lobbying firms such as ABCO do have multiple clients.  You can’t assume all their clients are connected” Abby offered

                “Yes, that is true but the optics suck” Nouno turned to Austin and stated, “There was a recent article about Iran being linked to stockpiles of explosives they found in northwest London.”

                “Did you catch when they were stockpiling it” inquired Austin with a smile

                “Autumn 2015”

                “Which was a couple months after Britain agreed to the Iran Deal”

                “So, the British covered it up so that they don’t have a Lebanese Hezbollah organization holding Iranian ammonium Nitrate, which is used to make household bombs, stockpiling Uranium right after they just gave Iran access to buy Uranium from them and the Americans”

                “That would be quite embarrassing”

                “Why now though?” Asked Abby

                Nouno opined, “Because of the declassification.  Last year, Britain was most against declassification.  I thought it was because of their involvement in the Trump collusion story but it’s also this.  All the spying they did for Barak Obama is going to come out with the declassification so they’re trying to get ahead of the story and spin it how they want to.”

                Austin remarked, “Well, Britain wasn’t doing it out of the generousness of their hearts.  The Iran deal was a disaster for them too.  That stockpile in northwest London was just the tip of the iceberg.  They needed to keep all opponents of the deal from being proven right.  That’s why they helped Obama silence Flynn and anyone else that opposed the Iran deal.  It was a stupid idea that Britain and Obama fell for.  They were tricked by the Russians through the Iranians”

                “You’d think the Iranians running around screaming ‘death to America’ was a clue.”

                “You would”

                “I truly enjoyed our conversation”

                “We can take down the Democrats together.  We can go after all those involved in Spygate.”

                “John Durham and Bill Barr are already doing that.  That’s why Durham expanded the scope of the investigation.”

                “No, they’re part of the conspiracy; you and I can do it together.”

                Nouno slit Austin’s throat and said, “No, you were right originally, I was going to kill you.”

                Abby looked quizzically at Austin.  She said, “Nouno, you normally kill them quickly with a stab in the main artery in the chest.  Why slit his throat?”

                “He reminds me of that bitch that falsely accused me of assault and stalking her.”

                “Luckily the cops knew she was full of shit.”

                “Yea but if I was in her neighborhood, it may have been different.  I had been to her apartment several times before so it wasn’t out of the ordinary.”

                “You weren’t. Stick to what happened not what could of happened.”

                “I guess you’re right.”

                They cleaned up the room and drove the body to a boat they rented.  Abby checked the tides and the ideal place to drop the body and they did.  They then made love on the boat before heading back to shore.  The next day, they flew back to Arizona.  When they got back, Abby said, “That’s the last time we get sloppy and not just go to a crematorium”

                “Are you worried we’re going to get caught?  It’s already been a day. The salt water will destroy all evidence. They’ll never link it to us all the way over here.”

                “Yea, but it’s not our specialty”

                Nouno put his arm around her and spoke consolingly, “Remember, you’re a smart cookie, you did it right.”
                Abby leaned against his chest and smiled.  She tilted her head up and Nouno kissed her affectionately on the lips.  They went about their lives awaiting their next mission.