Real Characters Episode 18 Triple Threat for the country

                An NBC executive has just watched the CNN Democratic debates.  He is a little perplexed at the success of a little known named candidate named Tulsi Gabbard who absolutely destroyed Kamala Harris and exposed her for the fraud that she is.  During an executive meeting, the NBC executive, whom we will call ‘Max’, is doing damage control.  Max starts out the meeting by saying, “We need to maintain our reputation as the most liberal network of the mainstream media.  We haven’t officially backed a candidate yet but right now it’s looking like Elizabeth Warren is our nominee but we still need to help the other far left candidates such as Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris.  Harris was doing well but I believe Gabbard did some damage.  How can we turn this around?”

                One staffer posed,  “We could say that there’s rumors that Biden is going to make her VP if he wins”

                “That’s a thought but I don’t think that really hurts her too much.  Deals like that are made all the time.  It does hurt her credibility but I’m not quite sure that it’s devastating enough.  Remember, when we hit, we hit hard with the most aggressive forms of attack with the strongest language.  A deal to be Vice President isn’t juicy enough.”

                After brainstorming a little bit, a female staffer raises, “Well, if she’s the enemy, why not just treat her the way we treat Republicans?”

                “Making fun of her appearance may not be good enough.”

                “No, not that, just say that she’s a Russian agent.”

                Max ponders this.  He shakes his head in frustration and exclaims, “Why didn’t I think of this?  It’s so simple.  We did it against Bob Dole, Mike Flynn, John McCain and Trump.  We found out with Trump that even if they somehow manage to win, it’s still is an albatross on their neck throughout their term.  We don’t even need evidence because people believe what they want to believe.  We had no evidence for Trump and three years later, people are still talking about it.  Yes, that’s the answer.  Let’s start small and build the accusations.  Write a presser that experts say that Russia is rooting for Gabbard.  She’s not going to win anyway so it won’t hurt in the general but it will hurt Biden, which gives Warren or Harris an opportunity to take over the nomination.  Good thinking.”

                “Thank you, which expert should we get?”

                “New Knowledge is always good for a sound (jargon for quote).”

                The staffer that brought up the VP deal with Biden counters, “New Knowledge has already been thoroughly discredited since it was discovered that they themselves set up fake Russian social media accounts to perpetuate their narrative.”

                “First of all, we just say ‘experts’ we wait for them to ask ‘who.’  As you know, few people ever really ask.  Secondly, nobody really knows that story about New Knowledge so we can get away with it.  Remember we make the accusations, it circles the world and then the rebuttal doesn’t make it as far.  Most people don’t hear the counter and still believe our story.  We control dissemination, so our lie will reach more people than the truth.”

                “Understood sir.”

                “Ok, next item on the agenda.  The economy keeps roaring.  We need to do something to put a damper on it.”

                The finance staffer says, “Well, it’s pretty easy.  Last month we added 164,000 jobs but the expectation was 165,000”

                “That’s pretty close”

                “Doesn’t matter.  We frame it that it’s not close.  I mean when companies have earnings, they miss by a couple cents and the stock plummets.”

                “Earnings and job creation numbers are very different.”

                “Most people don’t know that.”

                “That is true.  Alright, I’ll allow that.  What about the wage growth, has that stagnated yet?”

                “Unfortunately not sir, the hourly wage rage increased eight cents last month.”

                “Is that more than inflation?”

                “It is sir.”

                “Hmmm, I guess we could lie about that but hourly employees tend to be blue collar workers.  They don’t really care about inflation, they only care that their hourly rate went up.  Just ignore that story, don’t even mention it.  We can’t win with that.”

                “Will do sir.”

                Max blurted out, “Why is this even happening?  I thought that with the people that left the job market so that they could benefit from Obama’s entitlement program would have technology pass them by.  Re-entering the labor force is supposed to bring down wages because you need to train them.  Also, with the amount of undocumented workers we’re bringing in, how come that hasn’t brought down wage growth?”

                “It is, just the economy is doing so well that it can handle that weight bringing it down.”

                “I bet you that smug orange man is gloating in the White House right now.  He can’t get the better of us.  We need to keep the pressure on; no mercy.”

                Meanwhile in the White House the ‘orange man’ as Max from NBC called him is meeting with his advisors.  He starts out, “How is China going?  Did the deal for all the soybeans and other plant based food go through?”

                “No sir, the Chinese never sent the money.  They reneged on it. “

                “That’s not going to make our farmers happy.  I don’t like liars.  Is something holding it back?”

                “No, they just pulled out.”

                “Why?”

                “Frankly Mr. President, I think they’re calling your bluff. You threatened tariffs with Mexico, they conceded before you enacted it and moved to 0 tariffs.  You threatened tariffs with Europe, they caved before you could enact them.  China wants to see if you’re going to follow through.  They are emboldened by things like pulling back on declassification so many times and delaying the ICE raids.  With your reputation in real estate, this is a common practice.  You start high and work your way down.  The Chinese are in a unique situation where they can call your bluff.  Especially since the tariffs aren’t doing exactly what you intended.  American companies aren’t leaving China and going to America, they’re going to Vietnam.”

                “Vietnam doesn’t steal our technologies like the Chinese do.  That’s an acceptable result; not ideal but acceptable.  China doesn’t want Vietnam getting better to compete with them.” 

                The pure economist advisor raised, “Mr. President, I know I’ve told you this before but trade wars are never good from an economic standpoint”

                “Only in the short run.  The long term, they can be beneficial.  We are in a long game here.”

                “There’s only a little over a year before the election.  It is the short term we have to worry about.  That’s what China is counting on that you won’t do this with an election year coming up.”

                “It’s a scorched Earth policy.  China will not take advantage of our great American companies anymore by stealing our technology.  Yes it will hurt us but it hurts them more.  They already are devaluing their currency to counteract the tariffs.  This effectively gives everyone in China a pay cut.  The oligarchs for the first time aren’t united.  It’s working.  If we impose more tariffs, the effect will be even greater.  We can win.”

                “May I remind you that the Macro-economic level growth is calculated by Consumption + Investment + Government Spending + Net Exports.  This policy hurts two of the four of those so it will hurt growth.”

                “The most important one of those is ‘consumption.’  Wages are increasing so people have more disposable income.  Sure, Investment and Net Exports will go down but remember China is devaluing their currency to counteract the tariffs.  That helps our consumption because people can still buy from them so our growth won’t be affected as much.”

                “It’s just something to consider sir.”

                “Duly noted, thank you.  I want feedback like this.”

                “It’s a big risk, that’s all I’m going to say sir.”

                “Of course it’s a big risk but the biggest risk is not taking one.  We need to win.  We can’t have a defeatist attitude that we might lose the election next year.  We need to act like we’ve won and that we have time.”

                As the meeting adjourned, President Trump wanted to call Attorney General Barr to see how the investigation into the Spygate investigation was going.  He was still very disappointed that Comey wasn’t prosecuted for his criminal leaks.  He knew that if he put pressure, it would look bad and the optics would hurt him.  He had to just trust that he delegated the right people for the job.   Christopher Wray ended up being a mistake in nominee.  Radcliffe chickened out of the fight at the incessant attacks by the media and Democrats.  He needed fighters like him and he thought that Barr was one but this refusal to prosecute Comey gave him doubts.  He took a deep breath and moved on to other things.

                The AG and IG investigation was carrying along.  Jeff Durham is talking with Attorney General Barr.  He states, “With regard to Comey.  It seems that he was constantly warned about Steele’s information being wrong.”

                “Alright so we have the Kavalec memo, is there any corroborating evidence?”

                “Yes, we have Bruce Ohr’s 302.”

                “Right, I have requested that to be declassified so that should happen shortly.  Our indication is that Ohr told Comey that Steele’s motivations were politically motivated rather than counter-intelligence motivated.”

                “And the Kavalec memo has Kavalec letting Comey know that there’s a bunch of holes in Steele’s testimony.  The payments to the Russians couldn’t have been done through the Russian embassy in Miami because there is no Russian embassy in Miami and Cohen didn’t meet with them in Prague because Cohen has never been to Prague.”

                “Yes, and not to mention that the sources that Steele mentioned are known Russian disinformation specialists.  Trubnikov and Surkovl. 

“Yea unlike the Russian collusion story with the president, we actually have the names of the Russians that Steele colluded with.  I don’t know what the American public is missing.”

                “They don’t know because the mainstream media leave it out.”

                “They wouldn’t be able to leave it out if we prosecuted.”

                “We still might, just not on leaking.  We need to see what this FBI summary of the interview with Ohr says.”

                “Right, the 302”

                “Correct, that is what a 302 is.  Anyway, do you have anything on the origins of this whole thing;  the Papadopoulos meeting with Mifsud?”

                “Yes, I have a tape of Mifsud talking about who told him to meet with Papadopoulos.  He also mentioned what the goal of the conversation was supposed to be.  I’m in the process of verifying all the information to try to make it air tight but it looks like I can prove that western assets told Mifsud to meet with Papadopoulos with the goal to entrap him.”

                “That would be a huge victory for us.”

                “I know, that’s why I’m being very careful with it.”

                Inspector General Horowitz has joined in on the meeting.  After pleasantries he exchanged the information he’s had with Durham.  Barr senses tension so says, “Inspector General, is there something you’d like to get off your chest?”

                “Yes.  Respectfully sir, I’m not sure you made the correct decision not taking my recommendation to prosecute Comey.”

                “I understand your frustration.  We didn’t move forward because Comey did not leak some classified information so he did show discretion and was selective.  Also, some of the leaked information was classified later so he technically didn’t violate the law.”

                “The charge isn’t that he leaked all classified information he knew.  It was that some of things he leaked were classified before the leak.  That’s what you should charge him on; not the stuff he didn’t leak and was classified later.  Just because you didn’t have the whole package, doesn’t mean you can’t prosecute with what you do have.”

                “We have a lot of very powerful enemies on this one including the mainstream media that is going to look for anything to win in the court of public opinion.  It needs to be air tight.”

                “You don’t get air tight cases in our line of work.  Once people are officially prosecuted, previously uncooperative witnesses get very cooperative.  Comey has already turned against Brennan in the media.  If we charged him, he might start singing about the big stuff.”

                “The criminal leaking is the least serious crime we have against him.”

                “I get that, but Giuliani’s broken window policy.  You get people for the small stuff and the big stuff gets exposed or stopped.”

                “Comey is a seasoned agent.  He knows all the tricks”

                “it’s not just Comey sir.  If Comey gets arrested, lower level people get nervous and become more cooperative.  It’s like ‘if they can charge a former FBI director, what are they going to do to me?’  That’s why celebrities and professional athletes get the book thrown at them to send a message to the lay people.  In this case, these lower level people can sing about the big stuff we’re still investigating and aid us.”
                “I understand your concern but I didn’t believe it was the right course of action.  It’s over, can we please move on?”

                “Yea, so I was thinking about this MIfsud situation”

                “Excellent, Jeff and I were just talking about that.”

                “Great, so if Halper and Mifsud were used to spy on an American abroad, then it couldn’t be a close knit group of people.”

                “You are correct, a bunch of people needed to sign off on it.  Various station chiefs and executives in the CIA and FBI”

                “So this isn’t a conspiracy of a couple bad apples, this is a systematic elaborate web of multiple people in the intelligence community conspiring against the President.”

                “Which is why we need to be careful about how we proceed.  This is really rattling a hornet’s nest with some dangerous well connected people.”

                “Well, hopefully in the end, I will tell you that you were right and I was wrong.  I confess I don’t see it now but who knows what will happen down the road.”

                “That works for me.”

                Back at NBC headquarters, a financial journalist comes into Max’s office.  He seems excited and declares, “Sir, I think I have something to attack the Trump economy?”

                “Great, let’s hear it.”

                “Proctor and Gamble lost eight billion dollars from their Gillette products”

                “That was because of the anti-men ad they put out.  If we run with that, it hurts the Me Too movement and our toxic masculinity narrative.  We can’t bring that up.”

                “Well, we can just blame Harry’s and Dollar Shave Club”

                “That wouldn’t explain all the other razors that didn’t do as badly.  We need to ignore this story. it will only backfire on us.”

                Dejected the journalist walks away.  Max calls one of his staffers in who has been investigating Baltimore.  He asks, “Did you find anything we can use?”

                “No, Baltimore is really bad.”

                “What do you mean?”

                “Well, I tried to compare it to dangerous countries to paint the narrative that Trump says Baltimore is so bad but look at the countries that the asylum seekers are leaving.  Why does he feel bad for Baltimore but not them?”

                “Just on face value, the President can refute that with he cares more about America than other countries.”

                “Right, then we call him xenophobic and racist”

                “Oh right, ok that’s not bad.”

                “The problem is it didn’t work.  If Baltimore were a country, it would be the third most dangerous country in the world per area.”

                “Well, countries have a lot of barren open space that would bring that number down.  Baltimore is a city. You need to compare cities to cities.”

                “Yea, I thought of that.  When put through that lens, Baltimore is the 21^st most dangerous city in the world.”

                “21^st doesn’t seem bad on face values but I think people can figure out that there are an obscene amount of cities in the world.  Yea, we can’t run with that.  We need to spin this a different way.”

                “Well inner cities are going down because management doesn’t back up the cops so cops are hesitant for aggressive police tactics because they know the politicians won’t back them up.”

                “That story line helps Trump’s argument”

                “Not if we phrase it that the cops are doing a bad job and leave out the ‘why’”

                “Trump has been very vocal about the why.  I’ll take it under advisement but it is a little risky.  Keep looking.”

                “Alright, we can do a hero piece on California because one district is refusing to put Donald Trump’s name on the primary ballot.  We can elevate that person to being a patriot fighting for America.”

                “We have been accusing the Republicans of voter fraud and election meddling and you want to run a story about suppressing a Republican candidate from the ballot to rig it for someone else?”

                “It’s consistent with 14 states abandoning the Electoral College and telling delegates to not vote with the popular vote of their state.”

                “None of the delegates actually carried through with that.  They needed to have the Electoral College rule in place before they tried that stunt. It doesn’t even do any good because all 14 states went to Hillary anyway so the result of the election would have been the exact same with the new rules.”

                “It sends a message.”

                “Not a very good one.  You can run your hero piece but be prepared that Donald Trump’s name will be on that ballot.  They’re not going to get away with it.”

                “Will do sir.”

                Max looked at the calendar as it turned to August.  14 months to take down the President of the United States.  The ratings on his network were abysmal but he couldn’t give up in being a propaganda arm for the Democratic Party.  Meanwhile Horowitz, Durham and Barr diligently worked on making a case air tight to get some sort of prosecution on any of the conspirators in Spygate.  It was a long and arduous road but nothing good comes easy.  All people could do was stay tuned to find out how all the pieces would land.